This is from the 1908 edition and the sections are linkable - eg http://kart-hadasht.co.uk/anc/kadesh-brested.html#297
301. Day after day Ramses' officers had reported to him their inability to find any trace of the enemy, and had added their impression that he was
still far in the north. At this juncture two Beduin of the region appeared and stated that they had deserted from the Hittite ranks, and that the Hittite king had
retreated northward to the district of Aleppo, north of Tunip. In view of the failure of his scouting parties to find the enemy,
Ramses readily believed this story, broke camp early, crossed the river with the division of Amon and pushed rapidly on to Kadesh, which he reached by noon,
while the divisions of Re, Ptah and Sutekh, marching in the order named, straggled far behind. Meantime the crafty Metella, seeing that the story of his two Beduin,
whom he has sent out for the very purpose of deceiving Ramses, has been implicitly accepted, quickly transfers his entire army from the northwest ot the city
to the east side of the river, and while Ramses passes northward along the west side of Kadesh, Metella deftly dodges him, moving southward along the east side of
the city, always keeping it between him and the Egyptians to prevent his troops from being seen. As he draws in on the east and southeast of the city he has secured
a position on Ramses' flank. from which he can completely isolate the Pharaoh from his southern divisions, threatening the destruction of Ramses and his army.
The Egyptian forces were now roughly divided into two groups: near Kadesh were the two divisions of Amon and Re, while far southward the divisions
of Ptah and Sutekh have not yet crossed at the ford of Shabtuna. The division_ of Sutekh was so far away that nothing more was heard of it and it took no part in the day's action. Ramses halted on the northwest of the city, not far from and perhaps on the very ground occupied by the Asiatic army a short time before.
302.Here he camped in the early afternoon, and the division of Amon, coming up shortly afterward, bivouacked around his tent. The weary troops were relaxing,
feeding their horses and preparing their own meal, when two Asiatic spies were brought in by Ramses' scouts and taken to the royal tent.
Brought before Ramses after a merciless beating, they confessed that Metella and his entire army were concealed behind the city. Thoroughly alarmed, the young Pharaoh hastily summoned his commanders and officials, chided them bitterly, and commanded the vizier to bring up the division of Ptah with all speed, supposing that Re was almost within call. He therefore at this juncture little dreamed of the desperate situation into which he had been betrayed, nor of the catastrophe which at that very moment was overtaking the unfortunate division of Re. Already Metella's chariotry had issued from the south side of Kadesh and quickly crossing the river struck the unsuspecting division of Re while on the march, cut it in two and scattered the two portions far and wide. Some fled northward toward Ramses' camp in a wild rout, and the first intimation received by the Pharaoh of the appalling disaster which now faced him was the headlong flight of these fugitives of the annihilated division, among whom were two of his own sons. As they burst over the barricade into the astonished camp, with the Hittite chariotry in hot pursuit close upon their heels, they inevitably swept along with them northward the surprised and defenseless division of Amon. The bulk of Ramses' available force was thus in flight, his southern divisions were miles away and separated from him by the whole mass of twenty-five hundred of the enemy's chariotry, whose wings now rapidly swelled out on either hand and enfolded the camp. The disaster was complete.
303. Taken with but short
shrift for preparation, the
young Pharaoh hesitated not
a moment in attempting to
cut his way out and to
reach his southern columns.
With only his household troops, his immediate followers
and the officers, who happened to be at his side, he
mounted his waiting chariot and boldly charged into
the advance of the Hittite pursuit as it poured into his
camp on the west side; but perceiving how heavily the enemy was massed before him, immediately understood
that further onset in that direction was hopeless.
Retiring into the camp again, he must have noted how thin was the eastern wing of the surrounding chariots
along the river where there had not yet been time for
the enemy to strengthen their line. As a forlorn hope he charged this line with an impetuosity that hurled
the Asiatics in his immediate front pell-mell into the
river. Again and again Ramses renewed the charge,
finally producing serious discomfiture in the enemy's
line at this point. Had the mass of the Hittite chariotry
now swept in upon his rear from the west and south he
must certainly have been lost. But to his great good
fortune his camp had fallen into the hands of these
troops and, dismounting from their chariots, they had
thrown disciple to the winds as they gave themselves
up to the rich plunder. Thus engaged, they were suddenly fallen upon by a body of Ramses' "recruits" who
may possibly have marched in from the coast to join his
army at Kadesh. At any rate, they did not belong to
either of the southern divisions. They completely surprised the plundering Asitics in the camp and slew
them to a man.
304. The sudden offensive of, Ramses along the river
and the unexpected onslaught of the "recruits" must
have considerably dampened the ardour of the Hittite
attack giving the Pharaoh an opportunity to recover
himself. These newly arrived "recruits," together
with the returning fugitives from the, unharmed but
scattered division of Amon, so augmented his power,
that even though Metella now sent in his reserves of a
thousand chariots, the Pharaoh, by prodigies. of personal
valour, still kept his scanty forces together, till the belated division of Ptah arrived on the field as evening
drew on. Caught between the opposing lines, the
Hittite chariotry was driven into the city, probably with
considerable loss, and Ramses was saved. What made
the issue a success for Ramses was his salvation from
utter destruction, and that he eventually held possession
of the field added little practical advantage. His losses
were doubtless much heavier than those of the enemy,
and he was glad enough to lead his shattered forces
back to Egypt. None of his records makes any claim that he captured Kadesh, as is so frequently stated in the current histories (BAR, III, 298-351; BK).
305. Once safely extricated from the perilous position
into which his rashness had betrayed him, Ramses was
very proud of his exploit at Kadesh. On the temple
walls at Abu Simbel, at the Ramesseum, his mortuary
temple at Thebes, at Luxor, Karnak, Abydos and probably on other buildings now perished, his artists executed a vast series of vivacious reliefs depicting Ramses'
camp, the flight of his sons, the Pharaoh's furious charge
down to the river, and the arrival of the recruits who
rescued the camp, all accompanied by numerous explanatory inscriptions. These sculptures are better
known to modern travellers in Egypt than any other like
monuments in the country. They are twice accompanied by a report on the battle which reads like an
official document. There early arose a poem on the
battle, of which we shall later have more to say. These
sources have enabled us to trace with certainty the
manoeuvres which led up to the battle of Kadesh, the
first battle in history which can be so studied. We
see that already in the thirteenth century B.C. the commanders of the time understood the value of placing
troops advantageously before battle. The immense superiority to be gained by clever manoeuvres masked,
from the enemy, was clearly comprehended by the Hittite.
king when he executed the first flank movement of
which we hear in the early orient; and the plains of
Syria, already at that remote epoch, witnessed notable
examples of that supposedly modern science, which
was brought to such perfection by Napoleon,-the
science of winning the victory before the battle (BAR, III, 298-351; BK)
306. Arrived in Thebes, Ramses enjoyed the usual
triumph in the state temple, but the moral effect of his
return to Egypt immediately after the battle without.
even laying siege to Kadesh, was immediately evident,
among the dynasts of Syria and Palestine, who now
revolted. The rising spread southward to the very
gates of Ramses' frontier forts in the northeastern
Delta. We see him, therefore, obliged to begin again
at the very bottom to rebuild the Egyptian empire in
Asia and recover by weary campaigns even the territory
which his father had won. It was not until his eighth
year, after three years spent in recovering Palestine, that,
Ramses was again pushing down the valley of the
Orontes, where he must have finally succeeded in dislodging the Hittites. In Naharin he conquered the
country as far as Tunip, which he also reduced and
placed a statue of himself there. But the Hittites soon
stirred the region to further revolt, and Ramses again,
found them in Tunip, which he retook by storm. His
lists credit him with having subdued Naharin, lower
Retenu (North Syria), Arvad, the Keftyew, and Ketne
in the Orontes valley. It is thus evident that Ramses' ability and tenacity as a soldier had now really
endangered the Hittite empire in Syria, although
it is very uncertain whether he succeeded in holding
these northern conquests (BAR, III, 355-360; 364-366).
307.When he had been thus campaigning probably
some fifteen years, Metella, the Hittite king, either died
in battle or at the hands of a rival, and his brother,
Khetasar (cuneiform Hattusil), who succeeded him,
proposed to the Pharaoh a permanent peace and a
treaty of alliance. In Ramses' twenty-first year (1272
B. C.) Khetasar's messengers bearing the treaty reached
the Egyptian court, now in the Delta. Having been
drafted in advance and accepted by representatives of
the two countries, it was now in its final form, in eighteen paragraphs inscribed on a silver tablet. It then
proceeded to review the former relations between the
two countries, passed then to a general definition of the
present pact, and thus to its special stipulations. Of
these the most important were: the renunciation by
both rulers of all projects of conquest against the other,
the reaffirmation of the former treaties existing between
the two countries, a defensive alliance involving the assistance of each against the other's foes; co-operation
in the chastisement of delinquent subjects, probably in
Syria; and the extradition of political fugitives and
immigrants. A codicil provides for the humane treatment of these last. Two transcripts of the treaty have
been found at Thebes, engraved upon temple walls,
and last summer (1906) the Hittite copy in Babylonian
cuneiform on a clay tablet, was found at Boghaz-Koi
in Asia Minor (Note X; BAR, III, 375, 1. 10; 373;
367-391).
308. It will be noticed that the treaty nowhere refers
to the boundary recognized by both countries in Syria.
It is difficult to form any idea of the location of this
boundary. It is not safe to affirm that Ramses had permanently advanced the boundary of his father's
kingdom in Asia, save probably on the coast, where he
carved two more stelae on the rocks near Berut, beside
that of his fourth year (p. 303). Thirteen years later
(1259 B. C.) the Hittite king himself visited Egypt to
consummate the marriage of his eldest daughter as the
wife of Ramses. His visit was depicted before Ramses'
temple at Abu Simbel, with accompanying narrative inscriptions, while the Hittite princess was given a prominent position at court and a statue beside her royal
husband in Tanis. Court poets celebrated the event
and pictured the Hittite king as sending to the king of
Kode and summoning him to join in the journey to
Egypt that they might do honour to the Pharaoh. The
occurrence made a popular impression also, and a tale,
which was not put into writing, so far as we know, until
Greek times, began with the marriage and told how
afterward, at the request of her father, an image of the
Theban Khonsu was sent to the land of the princess,
that the god's power might drive forth the evil spirits'
from her afflicted sister. The friendly relations between
the two kingdoms prospered, and it is even probable that
Ramses received a second daughter of Khetasar in
marriage. Throughout Ramses' long reign the treaty
remained unbroken and the peace continued at least
into the reign of his successor, Merneptah (BAR, III,
392; 394-424; 416 f.; 425 ; 427 f.; 429-447).
309. From the day of the peace compact with Khetasar, Ramses was never called upon to enter the field
again. Unimportant revolts in Nubia, and a Libyan
campaign, often vaguely referred to on his monuments,
did not require the Pharaoh's personal leadership.
310. With the Asiatic campaigns of Ramses II the
military aggressiveness of Egypt which had been awakened under Ahmose I in the expulsion of the Hyksos
was completely exhausted. Nor did it ever revive,
Henceforward for a long time the Pharaoh's army is
but a weapon of defense against foreign aggression;
a Weapon, however, which he was himself unable to
control,-and before which the venerable line of Re
Was finally to disappear (BAR, III, 448-491).