AT night the sentries gave notice that a throng of Libyans imploring mercy had entered the valley. Indeed the light of their fires was visible on the desert.
At sunrise the trumpets were sounded, and all the Egyptian forces were drawn up under arms on the widest part of the valley. According to command of the prince, who wished to increase the fright of the Libyans the carriers were arranged between the ranks of the army, and men on asses were disposed among the cavalry. So it happened that the Egyptians seemed as numerous as sands in the desert, and the Libyans were as timid as doves, over which a falcon is soaring.
At nine in the morning his gilded war chariot stood before the tent of the viceroy. The horses bearing ostrich plumes reared so that two men had to hold each of them.
Ramses came out of his tent, took his place in the chariot, and seized the reins himself, while the place of the charioteer was occupied by the priest Pentuer, who held now the position of counselor. One of the commanders carried a large green parasol over the prince; behind, and on both sides of the chariot, marched Greek officers in gilded armor. At a certain distance behind the prince's retinue came a small division of the guard, in the midst of it Tehenna, son of the Libyan chief Musawasa.
A few hundred paces from the Egyptians, at the entrance of the ravine, stood the gloomy crowd of Libyans imploring the conqueror's favor.
When Ramses came with his suite to the eminence where he was to receive the envoys of the enemy, the army raised such a shout in his honor that the cunning Musawasa was still more mortified, and whispered to the Libyan elders,
"I say to you, that is the cry of an army which loves its commander."
Then one of the most restless of the Libyan chiefs, a great robber, said to Musawasa,
"Dost Thou not think that in a moment like this we should be wiser to trust to the swiftness of our horses than to the kindness of the pharaoh's son? He must be a raging lion, which tears the skin even when stroking it, while we are like lambs snatched away from our mothers."
"Do as may please thee," replied Musawasa, "Thou hast the whole desert before thee. But the people sent me to redeem their faults, and above all I have a son, Tehenna, on whom the prince will pour out his wrath unless I win favor."