Page 217 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

"I”'" llm dimiulKlmd estates of the southern temples, to payfor
the orriipul ion; the copper mines had been manned by forced
labor mid by political prisoners; and many had been enslaved

without rmisc and been sold down the river, to disappear for ever
Bui I he government in exile beyond the cataracts had never
given up I he struggle. It had maintained itself precariously in

existence, with the good will of the Sudanese kings of Nubia
mid had kept up clandestine contact with such of the old nobility

mid priesthood as had escaped the Hyksos proscription. Gold
had secretly been collected, and men had slipped away to join
the growing army of liberation. And finally, ten years ago,

Sekenenre, a scion of the royal house of Thebes, had raised an
internal revolt, aided by the patriot forces abroad and by the
famous mercenaries of the Sudan.

The many veterans of the revolt present in the crowd re­
called how the first shock had thrown the Hyksos garrisons out

of Thebes and all the principal cities, and how feverishly con­
structed defenses and hastily armed militia had held off the

counterattack that followed. The god Amon, with his temple
lands restored, had declared Sekenenre his royal son, and his
wife Ahotep his royal daughter, and the new king and queen had

for nearly ten years held Thebes and the lands to the south
against yearly attacks by the Hyksos armies of the delta. But

just over a year ago Sekenenre had fallen in battle, and his
body, with the skull cloven by a northern battle-ax, had only
been saved for the embalmers by the courage of his two stepsons,

Kamose and Amose, experienced warriors who had led an im­
mediate counterattack and saved the day for the southern

forces.
Kamose and Amose were sons of Queen Ahotep by a previ­
ous marriage, and so, though Ahotep was the divine queen, not

strictly in the line of succession (though on this day no one ex­
pressed that thought openly). But they were both renowned

captains of armies, whereas Sekenenre’s own sons by Ahotep were
too young to take command in these desperate times. And Ahotep
was herself a heroine of the liberation, in addition to being di­

vine—and a determined woman. It was not unreasonable,