The Libyans marched slowly from the town of Glaucus southward, and on the evening of the fourteenth day of Hator, they were at the entrance to the valley of the Soda Lakes, feeling sure that they would pass through in two days unmolested. That evening at sunset the Egyptian army moved toward the desert, passed over more than forty kilometres of sand in twelve hours, and next morning was on the hills between the huts and the fortress and hid in the many ravines of that region. If some man that night had told the Libyans that palm-trees and wheat were growing in the valley of the Soda Lakes they would have been astonished less than if he had declared that the Egyptians had barred the way to it. After a short rest, during which the priests had discovered and cleared out a few wells of water somewhat endurable for drinking, the Egyptian army began to occupy the hills extending along the northern side of the valley. The viceroy's plan was quite simple. He was to cut off the Libyans from their country, and push them southward into the desert, where heat and hunger would kill them. With this object he disposed his army on the northern side of the valley and divided it into three corps. The right wing, that which extended most toward Libya, was led by Patrokles, who was to cut off the invaders from their own town of Glaucus. The left wing, that nearest to Egypt, commanded by Mentezufis, was to stop the Libyans from advancing. Finally, the direction of the centre, at the glass huts, was taken by Rameses, who had Pentuer near his person. On the fifteenth of Hator about seven in the morning, some tens of Libyan horsemen moved at a brisk trot through the valley. They stopped a moment at the huts, looked around, and, seeing nothing suspicious, rode back again. At about ten in the forenoon in a heat which seemed to suck sweat and draw blood from men's bodies, Pentuer said to the viceroy,-- "The Libyans have entered the valley and passed Patrokles' division. They will be here in an hour from now." "Whence knowest thou this?" asked the astonished prince. "The priests know everything," replied Pentuer, smiling. Then he ascended one of the cliffs cautiously, took from a bag a very bright object and turning it in the direction of the holy Mentezufis began to give certain signs with his hand. "Mentezufis is informed already," said Pentuer. The prince could not recover from astonishment and answered,-- "My eyes are better than thine, and my hearing is not worse, I think; still I see nothing, I hear nothing. How, then, dost thou see the enemy and converse with Mentezufis?" Pentuer directed the prince to look at a distant hill, on the summit of which was a thornbush. Rameses looked at that point and shaded his eyes on a sudden. In the bush something flashed brightly. "What unendurable glitter is that?" cried he. "It might blind a man."