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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Joshua, by Georg Ebers, Volume 3.
+#31 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: Joshua, Volume 3.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5469]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 15, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 3 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+JOSHUA
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+For a long time nothing was heard beneath the sycamore save Miriam's low
+moans and the impatient footsteps of the warrior who, while struggling
+for composure, did not venture to disturb her.
+
+He could not yet understand what had suddenly towered like a mountain
+between him and the object of his love.
+
+He had learned from Hur's words that his father and Moses rejected all
+mediation, yet the promises he was bearing to the people seemed to him a
+merciful gift from the Most High.  None of his race yet knew it and, if
+Moses was the man whom he believed him to be, the Lord must open his eyes
+and show him that he had chosen him, Hosea, to lead the people through
+his mediation to a fairer future; nor did he doubt that He could easily
+win his father over to his side.  He would even have declared a second
+time, with the firmest faith, that it was the Most High who had pointed
+out his path, and after reflecting upon all this he approached Miriam,
+who had at last risen, with fresh confidence.  His loving heart prompted
+him to clasp her in his arms, but she thrust him back and her voice,
+usually so pure and clear, sounded harsh and muffled as she asked why
+he had lingered so long and what he intended to confide to her.
+
+While cowering under the sycamore, she had not only struggled and prayed
+for composure, but also gazed into her own soul.  She loved Hosea, but
+she suspected that he came with proposals similar to those of Uri, and
+the wrathful words of hoary Nun rang in her ears more loudly than ever.
+The fear that the man she loved was walking in mistaken paths, and the
+startling act of Hur had made the towering waves of her passion subside
+and her mind, now capable of calmer reflection, desired first of all to
+know what had so long detained him whom she had summoned in the name of
+her God, and why he came alone, without Ephraim.
+
+The clear sky was full of stars, and these heavenly bodies, which seem to
+have been appointed to look down upon the bliss of united human lovers,
+now witnessed the anxious questions of a tortured girl and the impatient
+answers of a fiery, bitterly disappointed man.
+
+He began with the assurance of his love and that he had come to make her
+his wife; but, though she permitted him to hold her hand in his clasp,
+she entreated him to cease pleading his suit and first tell her what she
+desired to know.
+
+On his way he had received various reports concerning Ephraim through a
+brother-in-arms from Tanis, so he could tell her that the lad had been
+disobedient and, probably from foolish curiosity, had gone, ill and
+wounded, to the city, where he had found shelter and care in the house of
+a friend.  But this troubled Miriam, who seemed to regard it as a
+reproach to know that the orphaned, inexperienced lad, who had grown up
+under her own eyes and whom she herself had sent forth among strangers,
+was beneath an Egyptian roof.
+
+But Hosea declared that he would undertake the task of bringing him back
+to his people and as, nevertheless she continued to show her anxiety,
+asked whether he had forfeited her confidence and love.  Instead of
+giving him a consoling answer, she began to put more questions, desiring
+to know what had delayed his coming, and so, with a sorely troubled and
+wounded heart, he was forced to make his report and, in truth, begin at
+the end of his story.
+
+While she listened, leaning against the trunk of the sycamore, he paced
+to and fro, urged by longing and impatience, sometimes pausing directly
+in front of her.  Naught in this hour seemed to him worthy of being
+clothed in words, save the hope and passion which filled his heart.  Had
+he been sure that hers was estranged he would have dashed away again,
+after having revealed his whole soul to his father, and risked the ride
+into unknown regions to seek Moses.  To win Miriam and save himself from
+perjury were his only desires, and momentous as had been his experiences
+and expectations, during the last few days, he answered her questions
+hastily, as if they concerned the most trivial things.
+
+He began his narrative in hurried words, and the more frequently she
+interrupted him, the more impatiently he bore it, the deeper grew the
+lines in his forehead.
+
+Hosea, accompanied by his attendant, had ridden southward several hours
+full of gladsome courage and rich in budding hopes, when just before dusk
+he saw a vast multitude moving in advance of him.  At first he supposed
+he had encountered the rear-guard of the migrating Hebrews, and had urged
+his horse to greater speed.  But, ere he overtook the wayfarers, some
+peasants and carters who had abandoned their wains and beasts of burden
+rushed past him with loud outcries and shouts of warning which told him
+that the people moving in front were lepers.  And the fugitives' warning
+had been but too well founded; for the first, who turned with the heart-
+rending cry: "Unclean! Unclean!"  bore the signs of those attacked by the
+fell disease, and from their distorted faces covered with white dust and
+scurf, lustreless eyes, destitute of brows, gazed at him.
+
+Hosea soon recognized individuals, here Egyptian priests with shaven
+heads, yonder Hebrew men and women.  With the stern composure of a
+soldier, he questioned both and learned that they were marching from the
+stone quarries opposite Memphis to their place of isolation on the
+eastern shore of the Nile.  Several of the Hebrews among them had heard
+from their relatives that their people had left Egypt and gone to seek a
+land which the Lord had promised them.  Many had therefore resolved to
+put their trust also in the mighty God of their fathers and follow the
+wanderers; the Egyptian priests, bound to the Hebrews by the tie of a
+common misfortune, had accompanied them, and fixed upon Succoth as the
+goal of their journey, knowing that Moses intended to lead his people
+there first.  But every one who could have directed them on their way had
+fled before them, so they had kept too far northward and wandered near
+the fortress of Thabne.  Hosea had met them a mile from this spot and
+advised them to turn back, that they might not bring their misfortune
+upon their fugitive brethren.
+
+During this conversation, a body of Egyptian soldiers had marched from
+the fortress toward the lepers to drive them from the road; but their
+commander, who knew Hosea, used no violence, and both men persuaded the
+leaders of the lepers to accept the proposal to be guided to the
+peninsula of Sinai, where in the midst of the mountains, not far from the
+mines, a colony of lepers had settled.  They had agreed to this plan
+because Hosea promised them that, if the tribes went eastward, they would
+meet them and receive everyone who was healed; but if the Hebrews
+remained in Egypt, nevertheless the pure air of the desert would bring
+health to many a sufferer, and every one who recovered would be free to
+return home.
+
+These negotiations had consumed much time, and the first delay was
+followed by many others; for as Hosea had been in such close contact with
+the lepers, he was obliged to ride to Thabne, there with the commander of
+the garrison, who had stood by his side, to be sprinkled with bird's
+blood, put on new garments, and submit to certain ceremonies which he
+himself considered necessary and which could be performed only in the
+bright sunlight.  His servant had been kept in the fortress because the
+kind-hearted man had shaken hands with a relative whom he met among the
+hapless wretches.
+
+The cause of the delay had been both sorrowful and repulsive, and not
+until after Hosea had left Thabne in the afternoon and proceeded on his
+way to Succoth, did hope and joy again revive at the thought of seeing
+Miriam once more and bringing to his people a message that promised so
+much good.
+
+His heart had never throbbed faster or with more joyous anticipation than
+on the nocturnal ride which led him to his father and the woman he loved,
+and on reaching his goal, instead of the utmost happiness, he now found
+only bitter disappointment.
+
+He had reluctantly described in brief, disconnected sentences his meeting
+with the lepers, though he believed he had done his best for the welfare
+of these unfortunates.  All of his warrior comrades had uttered a word of
+praise; but when he paused she whose approval he valued above aught else,
+pointed to a portion of the camp and said sadly:  "They are of our blood,
+and our God is theirs.  The lepers in Zoan, Pha-kos and Phibeseth
+followed the others at a certain distance, and their tents are pitched
+outside the camp.  Those in Succoth--there are not many--will also be
+permitted to go forth with us; for when the Lord promised the people the
+Land for which they long, He meant lofty and lowly, poor and humble, and
+surely also the hapless ones who must now remain in the hands of the foe.
+Would you not have done better to separate the Hebrews from the
+Egyptians, and guide those of our own blood to us?"
+
+The warrior's manly pride rebelled and his answer sounded grave and
+stern: "In war we must resolve to sacrifice hundreds in order to save
+thousands.  The shepherds separate the scabby sheep to protect the
+flock."
+
+"True," replied Miriam eagerly; "for the shepherd is a feeble man, who
+knows no remedy against contagion; but the Lord, who calls all His
+people, will suffer no harm to arise from rigid obedience."
+
+"That is a woman's mode of thought," replied Hosea; "but what pity
+dictates to her must not weigh too heavily in the balance in the councils
+of men.  You willingly obey the voice of the heart, which is most proper,
+but you should not forget what befits you and your sex."
+
+A deep flush crimsoned Miriam's cheeks; for she felt the sting contained
+in this speech with two-fold pain because it was Hosea who dealt the
+thrust.  How many pangs she had been compelled to endure that day on
+account of her sex, and now he, too, made her feel that she was not his
+peer because she was a woman.  In the presence of the stones Hur had
+gathered, and on which her hand now rested, he had appealed to her
+verdict, as though she were one of the leaders of the people, and now he
+abruptly thrust her, who felt herself inferior to no man in intellect and
+talent, back into a woman's narrow sphere.
+
+But he, too, felt his dignity wounded, and her bearing showed him that
+this hour would decide whether he or she would have the mastery in their
+future union.  He stood proudly before her, his mien stern in its
+majesty--never before had he seemed so manly, so worthy of admiration.
+Yet the desire to battle for her insulted womanly dignity gained
+supremacy over every other feeling, and it was she who at last broke the
+brief, painful silence that had followed his last words, and with a
+composure won only by the exertion of all her strength of will, she
+began:
+
+"We have both forgotten what detains us here so late at night.  You
+wished to confide to me what brings you to your people and to hear, not
+what Miriam, the weak woman, but the confidante of the Lord decides."
+
+"I hoped also to hear the voice of the maiden on whose love I rely," he
+answered gloomily.
+
+"You shall hear it," she replied quickly, taking her hand from the
+stones.  "Yet it may be that I cannot agree with the opinion of the man
+whose strength and wisdom are so far superior to mine, yet you have just
+shown that you cannot tolerate the opposition of a woman, not even mine."
+
+"Miriam," he interrupted reproachfully, but she continued still more
+eagerly: "I have felt it, and because it would be the greatest grief of
+my life to lose your heart, you must learn to understand me, ere you call
+upon me to express my opinion."
+
+"First hear my message."
+
+"No, no!"  she answered quickly.  "The reply would die upon my lips.
+Let me first tell you of the woman who has a loving heart, and yet knows
+something else that stands higher than love.  Do you smile?  You have a
+right to do so, you have so long been a stranger to the secret I mean to
+confide.  .  .  ."
+
+"Speak then!"  he interrupted, in a tone which betrayed how difficult it
+was for him to control his impatience.
+
+"I thank you," she answered warmly.  Then leaning against the trunk of
+the ancient tree, while he sank down on the bench, gazing alternately at
+the ground and into her face, she began:
+
+"Childhood already lies behind me, and youth will soon follow.  When I
+was a little girl, there was not much to distinguish me from others.  I
+played like them and, though my mother had taught me to pray to the God
+of our fathers, I was well pleased to listen to the other children's
+tales of the goddess Isis.  Nay, I stole into her temple, bought spices,
+plundered our little garden for her, anointed her altar, and brought
+flowers for offerings.  I was taller and stronger than many of my
+companions, and was also the daughter of Amram, so they followed me and
+readily did what I suggested.  When I was eight years old, we moved
+hither from Zoan.  Ere I again found a girl-playfellow, you came to
+Gamaliel, your sister's husband, to be cured of the wound dealt by a
+Libyan's lance.  Do you remember that time when you, a youth, made the
+little girl a companion?  I brought you what you needed and prattled to
+you of the things I knew, but you told me of bloody battles and
+victories, of flashing armor, and the steeds and chariots of the warrior,
+You showed me the ring your daring had won, and when the wound in your
+breast was cured, we roved over the pastures.  Isis, whom you also loved,
+had a temple here, and how often I secretly slipped into the forecourt to
+pray for you and offer her my holiday-cakes.  I had heard so much from
+you of Pharaoh and his splendor, of the Egyptians, and their wisdom,
+their art, and luxurious life, that my little heart longed to live among
+them in the capital; besides, it had reached my ears that my brother
+Moses had received great favors in Pharaoh's palace and risen to
+distinction in the priesthood.  I no longer cared for our own people;
+they seemed to me inferior to the Egyptians in all respects.
+
+"Then came the parting from you and, as my little heart was devout and
+expected all good gifts from the divine power, no matter what name it
+bore, I prayed for Pharaoh and his army, in whose ranks you were
+fighting.
+
+"My mother sometimes spoke of the God of our fathers as a mighty
+protector, to whom the people in former days owed much gratitude, and
+told me many beautiful tales of Him; but she herself often offered
+sacrifices in the temple of Seth, or carried clover blossoms to the
+sacred bull of the sun-god.  She, too, was kindly disposed toward the
+Egyptians, among whom her pride and joy, our Moses, had attained such
+high honors.
+
+"So in happy intercourse with the others I reached my fifteenth year.
+In the evening, when the shepherds returned home, I sat with the young
+people around the fire, and was pleased when the sons of the shepherd
+princes preferred me to my companions and sought my love; but I refused
+them all, even the Egyptian captain who commanded the garrison of the
+storehouse; for I remembered you, the companion of my youth.  My best
+possession would not have seemed too dear a price to pay for some magic
+spell that would have brought you to us when, at the festal games, I
+danced and sang to the tambourine while the loudest shouts of applause
+greeted me.  Whenever many were listening I thought of you--then I poured
+forth like the lark the feelings that filled my heart, then my song was
+inspired by you and not by the fame of the Most High, to whom it was
+consecrated."
+
+Here passion, with renewed power, seized the man, to whom the woman he
+loved was confessing so many blissful memories.  Suddenly starting up, he
+extended his arms toward her; but she sternly repulsed him, that she
+might control the yearning which threatened to overpower her also.
+
+Yet her deep voice had gained a new, strange tone as, at first rapidly
+and softly, then in louder and firmer accents, she continued:
+
+"So I attained my eighteenth year and was no longer satisfied to dwell in
+Succoth.  An indescribable longing, and not for you only, had taken
+possession of my soul.  What had formerly afforded me pleasure now seemed
+shallow, and the monotony of life here in the remote frontier city amid
+shepherds and flocks, appeared dull and pitiful.
+
+"Eleasar, Aaron's son, had taught me to read and brought me books, full
+of tales which could never have happened, yet which stirred the heart.
+Many also contained hymns and fervent songs such as one lover sings to
+another.  These made a deep impression on my soul and, whenever I was
+alone in the evening, or at noon-day when the shepherds and flocks were
+far away in the fields, I repeated these songs or composed new ones, most
+of which were hymns in praise of the deity.  Sometimes they extolled Amon
+with the ram's head, sometimes cow-headed Isis, and often, too, the great
+and omnipotent God who revealed Himself to Abraham, and of whom my mother
+spoke more and more frequently as she advanced in years.  To compose such
+hymns in quiet hours, wait for visions revealing God's grandeur and
+splendor, or beautiful angels and horrible demons, became my favorite
+occupation.  The merry child had grown a dreamy maiden, who let household
+affairs go as they would.  And there was no one who could have warned me,
+for my mother had followed my father to the grave; and I now lived alone
+with my old aunt Rachel, unhappy myself, and a source of joy to no one.
+Aaron, the oldest of our family, had removed to the dwelling of his
+father-in-law Amminadab: the house of Amram, his heritage, had become too
+small and plain for him and he left it to me.  My companions avoided me;
+for my mirthfulness had departed and I patronized them with wretched
+arrogance because I could compose songs and beheld more in my visions
+than all the other maidens.
+
+"Nineteen years passed and, on the evening of my birthday, which no one
+remembered save Milcah, Eleasar's daughter, the Most High for the first
+time sent me a messenger.  He came in the guise of an angel, and bade me
+set the house in order; for a guest, the person dearest to me on earth,
+was on the way.
+
+"It was early and under this very tree; but I went home and, with old
+Rachel's help, set the house in order, and provided food, wine, and all
+else we offer to an honored guest.  Noon came, the afternoon passed away,
+evening deepened into night, and morning returned, yet I still waited for
+the guest.  But when the sum of that day was nearing the western horizon,
+the dogs began to bark loudly, and when I went to the door a powerful
+man, with tangled grey hair and beard, clad in the tattered white robes
+of a priest, hurried toward me.  The dogs shrank back whining; but I
+recognized my brother.
+
+"Our meeting after so long a separation at first brought me more fear
+than pleasure; for Moses was flying from the officers of the law because
+he had slain the overseer.  You know the story.
+
+"Wrath still glowed in his flashing eyes.  He seemed to me like the god
+Seth in his fury, and each one of his slow words was graven upon my soul
+as by a hammer and chisel.  Thrice seven days and nights he remained
+under my roof, and as I was alone with him and deaf Rachel, and he was
+compelled to remain concealed, no one came between us, and he taught me
+to know Him who is the God of our fathers.
+
+"Trembling and despairing, I listened to his powerful words, which
+seemed to fall like rocks upon my breast, when he admonished me of God's
+requirements, or described the grandeur and wrath of Him whom no mind can
+comprehend, and no name can describe.  Ah, when he spoke of Him and of
+the Egyptian gods, it seemed as if the God of my people stood before me
+like a giant, whose head touched the sky, and the other gods were
+creeping in the dust at his feet like whining curs.
+
+"He taught me also that we alone were the people whom the Lord had
+chosen, we and no other.  Then for the first time I was filled with pride
+at being a descendant of Abraham, and every Hebrew seemed a brother,
+every daughter of Israel a sister.  Now, too, I perceived how cruelly my
+people had been enslaved and tortured.  I had been blind to their
+suffering, but Moses opened my eyes and sowed in my heart hate, intense
+hate of their oppressors, and from this hate sprang love for the victims.
+I vowed to follow my brother and await the summons of my God.  And lo, he
+did not tarry and Jehovah's voice spoke to me as with tongues.
+
+"Old Rachel died.  At Moses' bidding I gave up my solitary life and
+accepted the invitation of Aaron and Amminadab.
+
+"So I became a guest in their household, yet led a separate life among
+them all.  They did not interfere with me, and the sycamore here on their
+land became my special property.  Beneath its shadow God commanded me to
+summon you and bestow on you the name "Help of Jehovah"--and you,  no
+longer Hosea, but Joshua, will obey the mandate of God and His
+prophetess."
+
+Here the warrior interrupted the maiden's words, to which he had listened
+earnestly, yet with increasing disappointment:
+
+"Ay, I have obeyed you and the Most High.  But what it cost me you
+disdain to ask.  Your story has reached the present time, yet you have
+made no mention of the days following my mother's death, during which you
+were our guest in Tanis.  Have you forgotten what first your eyes and
+then your lips confessed?  Have the day of your departure and the evening
+on the sea, when you bade me hope for and remember you, quite vanished
+from your memory?  Did the hatred Moses implanted in your heart kill love
+as well as every other feeling?"
+
+"Love?"  asked  Miriam, raising  her large eyes mournfully to his.
+"Oh no.  How could I forget that time, the happiest of my life!  Yet from
+the day Moses returned from the wilderness by God's command to release
+the people from bondage--three months after my separation from you--I
+have taken no note of years and months, days and nights."
+
+"Then you have forgotten those also?"  Hosea asked harshly.
+
+"Not so," Miriam answered, gazing beseechingly into his face.  "The love
+that grew up in the child and did not wither in the maiden's heart,
+cannot be killed; but whoever consecrates one's life to the Lord....."
+
+Here she suddenly paused, raised her hands and eyes rapturously, as if
+borne out of herself, and cried imploringly:  "Thou art near me,
+Omnipotent One, and seest my heart!  Thou knowest why Miriam took no note
+of days and years, and asked nothing save to be Thy instrument until her
+people, who are, also, this man's people, received what Thou didst
+promise."
+
+During this appeal, which rose from the inmost depths of the maiden's
+heart, the light wind which precedes the coming of dawn had risen, and
+the foliage in the thick crown of the sycamore above Miriam's head
+rustled; but Hosea fairly devoured with his eyes the tall majestic
+figure, half illumined, half veiled by the faint glimmering light.  What
+he heard and saw seemed like a miracle.  The lofty future she anticipated
+for her people, and which must be realized ere she would permit herself
+to yield to the desire of her own heart, he believed that he was hearing
+to them as a messenger of the Lord.  As if rapt by the noble enthusiasm
+of her soul, he rushed toward her, seized her hand, and cried in glad
+emotion: "Then the hour has come which will again permit you to
+distinguish months from days and listen to the wishes of your own soul.
+For to I, Joshua, no longer Hosea, but Joshua, come as the envoy of the
+Lord, and my message promises to the people whom I will learn to love as
+you do, new prosperity, and thus fulfils the promise of a new and better
+home, bestowed by the Most High."
+
+Miriam's eyes sparkled brightly and, overwhelmed with grateful joy, she
+exclaimed:
+
+"Thou hast come to lead us into the land which Jehovah promised to His
+people?  Oh Lord, how measureless is thy goodness!  He, he comes as Thy
+messenger."
+
+"He comes, he is here!"  Joshua enthusiastically replied, and she did not
+resist when he clasped her to his breast and, thrilling with joy, she
+returned his kiss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Fear of her own weakness soon made Miriam release herself from her
+lover's embrace, but she listened with eager happiness, seeking some new
+sign from the Most High in Joshua's brief account of everything he had
+felt and experienced since her summons.
+
+He first described the terrible conflict he endured, then how he regained
+entire faith and, obedient to the God of his people and his father's
+summons, went to the palace expecting imprisonment or death, to obtain
+release from his oath.
+
+He told her how graciously the sorrowing royal pair had received him, and
+how he had at last taken upon himself the office of urging the leaders of
+his nation to guide them into the wilderness for a short time only, and
+then take them home to Egypt, where a new and beautiful region on the
+western bank of the river should be allotted to them.  There no foreign
+overseer should henceforward oppress the workmen, but the affairs of the
+Hebrews should be directed by their own elders, and a man chosen by
+themselves appointed their head.
+
+Lastly he said that he, Joshua, would be placed in command of the Hebrew
+forces and, as regent, mediate and settle disputes between them and the
+Egyptians whenever it seemed necessary.
+
+United to her, a happy husband, he would care in the new land for even
+the lowliest of his race.  On the ride hither he had felt as men do after
+a bloody battle, when the blast of trumpets proclaim victory.  He had
+indeed a right to regard himself as the envoy of the Most High.
+
+Here, however, he interrupted himself; for Miriam, who at first had
+listened with open ears and sparkling eyes, now showed a more and more
+anxious and troubled mien.  When he at last spoke of making the people
+happy as her husband, she withdrew her hand, gazed timidly at his manly
+features, glowing with joyful excitement, and then as if striving to
+maintain her calmness, fixed her eyes upon the ground.
+
+Without suspecting what was passing in her mind, Hosea drew nearer.  He
+supposed that her tongue was paralyzed by maidenly shame at the first
+token of favor she had bestowed upon a man.  But when at his last words,
+designating himself as the true messenger of God, she shook her head
+disapprovingly, he burst forth again, almost incapable of self-control in
+his sore disappointment:
+
+"So you believe that the Lord has protected me by a miracle from the
+wrath of the mightiest sovereign, and permitted me to obtain from his
+powerful hand favors for my people, such as the stronger never grant to
+the weaker, simply to trifle with the joyous confidence of a man whom he
+Himself summoned to serve Him."
+
+Miriam, struggling to force back her tears, answered in a hollow tone:
+"The stronger to the weaker!  If that is your opinion, you compel me to
+ask, in the words of your own father: 'Who is the more powerful, the Lord
+our God or the weakling on the throne, whose first-born son withered like
+grass at a sign from the Most High.  Oh, Hosea!  Hosea!'"
+
+"Joshua!"  he interrupted fiercely.  "Do you grudge me even the name your
+God bestowed?  I relied upon His help when I entered the palace of the
+mighty king.  I sought under God's guidance rescue and salvation for the
+people, and I found them.  But you, you .  .  .  ."
+
+"Your father and  Moses, nay, all the believing heads of the tribes,
+see no salvation for us among the Egyptians," she answered, panting for
+breath.  "What they promise the Hebrews will be their ruin.  The grass
+sowed by us withers where their feet touch it!  And you, whose honest
+heart they deceive, are the whistler whom the bird-catcher uses to decoy
+his feathered victims into the snare.  They put the hammer into your hand
+to rivet more firmly than before the chains which, with God's aid, we
+have sundered.  Before my mind's eye I perceive .  .  .  ."
+
+"Too much!"  replied the warrior, grinding his teeth with rage.  "Hate
+dims your clear intellect.  If the bird-catcher really--what was your
+comparison--if the bird-catcher really made me his whistler, deceived
+and misled me, he might learn from you, ay, from you!  Encouraged by you,
+I relied upon your love and faith.  From you I hoped all things--and
+where is this love?  As you spared me nothing that could cause me pain,
+I will, pitiless to myself, confess the whole truth to you.  It was not
+alone because the God of my fathers called me, but because His summons
+reached me through you and my father that I came.  You yearn for a land
+in the far uncertain distance, which the Lord has promised you; but I
+opened to the people the door of a new and sure home.  Not for their
+sakes--what hitherto have they been to me?--but first of all to live
+there in happiness with you whom I loved, and my old father.  Yet you,
+whose cold heart knows naught of love, with my kiss still on your lips,
+disdain what I offer, from hatred of the hand to which I owe it.  Your
+life, your conflicts have made you masculine.  What other women would
+trample the highest blessings under foot?"
+
+Miriam could bear no more and, sobbing aloud, covered her convulsed face
+with her hands.
+
+At the grey light of dawn the sleepers in the camp began to stir, and men
+and maid servants came out of the dwellings of Amminadab and Naashon.
+All whom the morning had roused were moving toward the wells and watering
+places, but she did not see them.
+
+How her heart had expanded and rejoiced when her lover exclaimed that he
+had come to lead them to the land which the Lord had promised to his
+people.  Gladly had she rested on his breast to enjoy one brief moment of
+the greatest bliss; but how quickly had bitter disappointment expelled
+joy!  While the morning breeze had stirred the crown of the sycamore and
+Joshua had told her what Pharaoh would grant to the Hebrews, the rustling
+among the branches had seemed to her like the voice of God's wrath and
+she fancied she again heard the angry words of hoary-headed Nun.  The
+latter's reproaches had dismayed Uri like the flash of lightning, the
+roll of thunder, yet how did Joshua's proposition differ from Uri's?
+
+The people--she had heard it also from the lips of Moses--were lost if,
+faithless  to their God, they yielded to the temptations of Pharaoh.
+To wed a man who came to destroy all for which she, her brothers, and his
+own father lived and labored, was base treachery.  Yet she loved Joshua
+and, instead of harshly repulsing him, she would have again nestled ah,
+how gladly, to the heart which she knew loved her so ardently.
+
+But the leaves in the top of the tree continued to rustle and it seemed
+as if they reminded her of Aaron's warning, so she forced herself to
+remain firm.
+
+The whispering above came from God, who had chosen her for His
+prophetess, and when Joshua, in passionate excitement, owned that the
+longing for her was his principal motive for toiling for the people,
+who were as unknown to him as they were dear to her, her heart suddenly
+seemed to stop beating and, in her mortal agony, she could not help
+sobbing aloud.
+
+Unheeding Joshua, or the stir in the camp, she again flung herself down
+with uplifted arms under the sycamore, gazing upward with dilated,
+tearful eyes, as if expecting a new revelation.  But the morning breeze
+continued to rustle in the summit of the tree, and suddenly everything
+seemed as bright as sunshine, not only within but around her, as always
+happened when she, the prophetess, was to behold a vision.  And in this
+light she saw a figure whose face startled her, not Joshua, but another
+to whom her heart did not incline.  Yet there he stood before the eyes of
+her soul in all his stately height, surrounded by radiance, and with a
+solemn gesture he laid his hand on the stones he had piled up.
+
+With quickened breath, she gazed upward to the face, yet she would gladly
+have closed her eyes and lost her hearing, that she might neither see it
+nor catch the voices from the tree.  But suddenly the figure vanished,
+the voices died away, and she appeared to behold in a bright, fiery glow,
+the first man her virgin lips had kissed, as with uplifted sword, leading
+the shepherds of her people, he dashed toward an invisible foe.
+
+Swiftly as the going and coming of a flash of lightning, the vision
+appeared and vanished, yet ere it had wholly disappeared she knew its
+meaning.
+
+The man whom she called "Joshua" and who seemed fitted in every respect
+to be the shield and leader of his people, must not be turned aside by
+love from the lofty duty to which the Most High had summoned him.  None
+of the people must learn the message he brought, lest it should tempt
+them to turn aside from the dangerous path they had entered.
+
+Her course was as plain as the vision which had just vanished.  And, as
+if the Most High desired to show her that she had rightly understood its
+meaning, Hur's voice was heard near the sycamore--ere she had risen to
+prepare her lover for the sorrow to which she must condemn herself and
+him--commanding the multitude flocking from all directions to prepare for
+the departure.
+
+The way to save him from himself lay before her; but Joshua had not yet
+ventured to disturb her devotions.
+
+He had been wounded and angered to the inmost depths of his soul by her
+denial.  But as he gazed down at her and saw her tall figure shaken by a
+sudden chill, and her eyes and hands raised heavenward as though, spell-
+bound, he had felt that something grand and sacred dwelt within her
+breast which it would be sacrilege to disturb; nay, he had been unable to
+resist the feeling that it would be presumptuous to seek to wed a woman
+united to the Lord by so close a tie.  It must be bliss indeed to call
+this exalted creature his own, yet it would be hard to see her place
+another, even though it were the Almighty Himself, so far above her lover
+and husband.
+
+Men and cattle had already passed close by the sycamore and just as he
+was in the act of calling Miriam and pointing to the approaching throng,
+she rose, turned toward him, and forced from her troubled breast the
+words:
+
+"I have communed with the Lord, Joshua, and now know His will.  Do you
+remember the words by which God called you?"
+
+He bent his head in assent; but she went on:
+
+"Well then, you must also know what the Most High confided to your
+father, to Moses, and to me.  He desires to lead us out of the land of
+Egypt, to a distant country where neither Pharaoh nor his viceroy shall
+rule over us, and He alone shall be our king.  That is His will, and if
+He requires you to serve Him, you must follow us and, in case of war,
+command the men of our people."
+
+Joshua struck his broad breast, exclaiming in violent agitation: "An oath
+binds me to return to Tanis to inform Pharaoh how the leaders of the
+people received the message with which I was sent forth.  Though my heart
+should break, I cannot perjure myself."
+
+"And mine shall break," gasped Miriam, "ere I will be disloyal to the
+Lord our God.  We have both chosen, so let what once united us be
+sundered before these stones."
+
+He rushed frantically toward her to seize her hand; but with an imperious
+gesture she waved him back, turned away, and went toward the multitude
+which, with sheep and cattle, were pressing around the wells.
+
+Old and young respectfully made way for her as, with haughty bearing, she
+approached Hur, who was giving orders to the shepherds; but he came
+forward to meet her and, after hearing the promise she whispered, he laid
+his hand upon her head and said with solemn earnestness:
+
+"Then may the Lord bless our alliance."
+
+Hand in hand with the grey-haired man to whom she had given herself,
+Miriam approached Joshua.  Nothing betrayed the deep emotion of her soul,
+save the rapid rise and fall of her bosom, for though her cheeks were
+pale, her eyes were tearless and her bearing was as erect as ever.
+
+She left to Hur to explain to the lover whom she had forever resigned
+what she had granted him, and when Joshua heard it, he started back as
+though a gulf yawned at his feet.
+
+His lips were bloodless as he stared at the unequally matched pair.  A
+jeering laugh seemed the only fitting answer to such a surprise, but
+Miriam's grave face helped him to repress it and conceal the tumult of
+his soul by trivial words.
+
+But he felt that he could not long succeed in maintaining a successful
+display of indifference, so he took leave of Miriam.  He must greet his
+father, he said hastily, and induce him to summon the elders.
+
+Ere he finished several shepherds hurried up, disputing wrathfully and
+appealed to Hur to decide what place in the procession belonged to each
+tribe.  He followed them, and as soon as Miriam found herself alone with
+Joshua, she said softly, yet earnestly, with beseeching eyes:
+
+"A hasty deed was needful to sever the tie that bound us, but a loftier
+hope unites us.  As I sacrificed what was dearest to my heart to remain
+faithful to my God and people, do you, too, renounce everything to which
+your soul clings.  Obey the Most High, who called you Joshua!  This hour
+transformed the sweetest joy to bitter grief; may it be the salvation of
+our people!  Remain a son of the race which gave you your father and
+mother!  Be what the Lord called you to become, a leader of your race!
+If you insist on fulfilling your oath to Pharaoh, and tell the elders the
+promises with which you came, you will win them over, I know.  Few will
+resist you, but of those few the first will surely be your own father.
+I can hear him raise his voice loudly and angrily against his own dear
+son; but if you close your ears even to his warning, the people will
+follow your summons instead of God's, and you will rule the Hebrews as a
+mighty man.  But when the time comes that the Egyptian casts his promises
+to the winds, when you see your people in still worse bondage than before
+and behold them turn from the God of their fathers to again worship
+animal-headed idols, your father's curse will overtake you, the wrath of
+the Most High will strike the blinded man, and despair will be the lot of
+him who led to ruin the weak masses for whose shield the Most High chose
+him.  So I, a feeble woman, yet the servant of the Most High and the
+maiden who was dearer to you than life, cry in tones of warning: Fear
+your father's curse and the punishment of the Lord!  Beware of tempting
+the people."
+
+Here she was interrupted by a female slave, who summoned her to her
+house--and she added in low, hurried accents: "Only this one thing more.
+If you do not desire to be weaker than the woman whose opposition roused
+your wrath, sacrifice your own wishes for the welfare of yonder
+thousands, who are of the same blood!  With your hand on these stones you
+must swear .  .  .  ."
+
+But here her voice failed.  Her hands groped vainly for some support, and
+with a loud cry she sank on her knees beside Hur's token.
+
+Joshua's strong arms saved her from falling prostrate, and several women
+who hurried up at his shout soon recalled the fainting maiden to life.
+
+Her eyes wandered restlessly from one to another, and not until her
+glance rested on Joshua's anxious face did she become conscious where
+she was and what she had done.  Then she hurriedly drank the water a
+shepherd's wife handed to her, wiped the tears from her eyes, sighed
+painfully, and with a faint smile whispered to Joshua: "I am but a weak
+woman after all."
+
+Then she walked toward the house, but after the first few steps turned,
+beckoned to the warrior, and said softly:
+
+"You see how they are forming into ranks.  They will soon begin to move.
+Is your resolution still unshaken?  There is still time to call the
+elders."
+
+He shook his head, and as he met her tearful, grateful glance, answered
+gently:
+
+"I shall remember these stones and this hour, wife of Hur.  Greet my
+father for me and tell him that I love him.  Repeat to him also the
+name by which his son, according to the command of the Most High, will
+henceforth be called, that its promise of Jehovah's aid may give him
+confidence when he hears whither I am going to keep the oath I have
+sworn."
+
+With these words he waved his hand to Miriam and turned toward the camp,
+where his horse had been fed and watered; but she called after him: "Only
+one last word:  Moses left a message for you in the hollow trunk of the
+tree."
+
+Joshua turned back to the sycamore and read what the man of God had
+written for him.  "Be strong and steadfast" were the brief contents, and
+raising his head he joyfully exclaimed: "Those words are balm to my soul.
+We meet here for the last time, wife of Hur, and, if I go to my death, be
+sure that I shall know how to die strong and steadfast; but show my old
+father what kindness you can."
+
+He swung himself upon his horse and while trotting toward Tanis, faithful
+to his oath, his soul was free from fear, though he did not conceal from
+himself that he was going to meet great perils.  His fairest hopes were
+destroyed, yet deep grief struggled with glad exaltation.  A new and
+lofty emotion, which pervaded his whole being, had waked within him and
+was but slightly dimmed, though he had experienced a sorrow bitter enough
+to darken the light of any other man's existence.  Naught could surpass
+the noble objects to which he intended to devote his blood and life--his
+God and his people.  He perceived with amazement this new feeling which
+had power to thrust far into the background every other emotion of his
+breast--even love.
+
+True, his head often drooped sorrowfully when he thought of his old
+father; but he had done right in repressing the eager yearning to clasp
+him to his heart.  The old man would scarcely have understood his
+motives, and it was better for both to part without seeing each other
+rather than in open strife.
+
+Often it seemed as though his experiences had been but a dream, and while
+he felt bewildered by the excitements of the last few hours, his strong
+frame was little wearied by the fatigues he had undergone.
+
+At a well-known hostelry on the road, where he met many soldiers and
+among them several military commanders with whom he was well acquainted,
+he at last allowed his horse and himself a little rest and food; and as
+he rode on refreshed active life asserted its claims; for as far as the
+gate of the city of Rameses he passed bands of soldiers, and learned that
+they were ordered to join the cohorts he had himself brought from Libya.
+
+At last he rode into the capital and as he passed the temple of Amon he
+heard loud lamentations, though he had learned on the way that the plague
+had ceased.  What many a sign told him was confirmed at last by some
+passing guards--the first prophet and high-priest of Amon, the grey-
+haired Rui, had died in the ninety-eighth year of his life.  Bai, the
+second prophet, who had so warmly protested his friendship and gratitude
+to Hosea, had now become Rui's successor and was high-priest and judge,
+keeper of the seals and treasurer, in short, the most powerful man in the
+realm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"Help of Jehovah!"  murmured a state-prisoner, laden with heavy chains,
+five days later, smiling bitterly as, with forty companions in
+misfortune, he was led through the gate of victory in Tanis toward the
+east.
+
+The mines in the Sinai peninsula, where more convict labor was needed,
+were the goal of these unfortunate men.
+
+The prisoner's smile lingered a short time, then drawing up his muscular
+frame, his bearded lips murmured: "Strong and steadfast!"  and as if he
+desired to transmit the support he had himself found he whispered to the
+youth marching at his side: "Courage, Ephraim, courage!  Don't gaze down
+at the dust, but upward, whatever may come."
+
+"Silence in the ranks!"  shouted one of the armed Libyan guards, who
+accompanied the convicts, to the older prisoner, raising his whip with a
+significant gesture.  The man thus threatened was Joshua, and his
+companion in suffering Ephraim, who had been sentenced to share his fate.
+
+What this was every child in Egypt knew, for "May I be sent to the
+mines!"  was one of the most terrible oaths of the common people, and no
+prisoner's lot was half so hard as that of the convicted state-criminals.
+
+A series of the most terrible humiliations and tortures awaited them.
+The vigor of the robust was broken by unmitigated toil; the exhausted
+were forced to execute tasks so far beyond their strength that they soon
+found the eternal rest for which their tortured souls longed.  To be sent
+to the mines meant to be doomed to a slow, torturing death; yet life is
+so dear to men that it was considered a milder punishment to be dragged
+to forced labor in the mines than to be delivered up to the executioner.
+
+Joshua's encouraging words had little effect upon Ephraim; but when, a
+few minutes later, a chariot shaded by an umbrella, passed the prisoners,
+a chariot in which a slender woman of aristocratic bearing stood beside a
+matron behind the driver, he turned with a hasty movement and gazed after
+the equipage with sparkling eyes till it vanished in the dust of the
+road.
+
+The younger woman had been closely veiled, but Ephraim thought he
+recognized her for whose sake he had gone to his ruin, and whose lightest
+sign he would still have obeyed.
+
+And he was right; the lady in the chariot was Kasana, the daughter of
+Hornecht, captain of the archers, and the matron was her nurse.
+
+At a little temple by the road-side, where, in the midst of a grove of
+Nile acacias, a well was maintained for travellers, she bade the matron
+wait for her and, springing lightly from the chariot which had left the
+prisoners some distance behind, she began to pace up and down with
+drooping head in the shadow of the trees, until the whirling clouds of
+dust announced the approach of the convicts.
+
+Taking from her robe the gold rings she had ready for this purpose, she
+went to the man who was riding at its head on an ass and who led the
+mournful procession.  While she was talking with him and pointing to
+Joshua, the guard cast a sly glance at the rings which had been slipped
+into his hand, and seeing a welcome yellow glitter when his modesty had
+expected only silver, his features instantly assumed an expression of
+obliging good-will.
+
+True, his face darkened at Kasana's request, but another promise from
+the young widow brightened it again, and he now turned eagerly to his
+subordinates, exclaiming:  "To the well with the moles, men!  Let them
+drink.  They must be fresh and healthy under the ground!"
+
+Then riding up to the prisoners, he shouted to Joshua:
+
+"You once commanded many soldiers, and look more stiff-necked now than
+beseems you and me.  Watch the others, guards, I have a word or two to
+say to this man alone."
+
+He clapped his hands as if he were driving hens out of a garden, and
+while the prisoners took pails and with the guards, enjoyed the
+refreshing drink, their leader drew Joshua and Ephraim away from the road
+--they could not be separated on account of the chain which bound their
+ancles together.
+
+The little temple soon hid them from the eyes of the others, and the
+warder sat down on a step some distance off, first showing the two
+Hebrews, with a gesture whose meaning was easily understood, the heavy
+spear he carried in his hand and the hounds which lay at his feet.
+
+He kept his eyes open, too, during the conversation that followed.  They
+could say whatever they chose; he knew the duties of his office and
+though, for the sake of good money he could wink at a farewell, for
+twenty years, though there had been many attempts to escape, not one
+of his moles--a name he was fond of giving to the future miners--had
+succeeded in eluding his watchfulness.
+
+Yonder fair lady doubtless loved the stately man who, he had been told,
+was formerly a chief in the army.  But he had already numbered among his
+"moles," personages even more distinguished, and if the veiled woman
+managed to slip files or gold into the prisoner's hands, he would not
+object, for that very evening the persons of both would be thoroughly
+searched, even the youth's black locks, which would not have remained
+unshorn, had not everything been in confusion prior to the departure of
+the convicts, which took place just before the march of Pharaoh's army.
+
+The watcher could not hear the whispered words exchanged between the
+degraded chief and the lady, but her humble manner and bearing led him to
+suppose that it was she who had brought the proud warrior to his ruin.
+Ah, these women!  And the fettered youth!  The looks he fixed upon the
+slender figure were ardent enough to scorch her veil.  But patience!
+Mighty Father Amon!  His moles were going to a school where people
+learned modesty!
+
+Now the lady had removed her veil.  She was a beautiful woman!  It must
+be hard to part from such a sweetheart.  And now she was weeping.
+
+The rude warder's heart grew as soft as his office permitted; but he
+would fain have raised his scourge against the older prisoner; for was
+it not a shame to have such a sweetheart and stand there like a stone?
+
+At first the wretch did not even hold out his hand to the woman who
+evidently loved him, while he, the watcher, would gladly have witnessed
+both a kiss and an embrace.
+
+Or was this beauty the prisoner's wife who had betrayed him?  No, no!
+How kindly he was now gazing at her.  That was the manner of a father
+speaking to his child; but his mole was probably too young to have such a
+daughter.  A mystery!  But he felt no anxiety concerning its solution;
+during the march he had the power to make the most reserved convict an
+open book.
+
+Yet not only the rude gaoler, but anyone would have marvelled what had
+brought this beautiful, aristocratic woman, in the grey light of dawn,
+out on the highway to meet the hapless man loaded with chains.
+
+In sooth, nothing would have induced Kasana to take this step save the
+torturing dread of being scorned and execrated as a base traitress by the
+man whom she loved.  A terrible destiny awaited him, and her vivid
+imagination had shown her Joshua in the mines, languishing, disheartened,
+drooping, dying, always with a curse upon her on his lips.
+
+On the evening of, the day Ephraim bad been brought to the house,
+shivering with the chill caused by burning fever, and half stifled with
+the dust of the road, her father lead told her that in the youthful
+Hebrew they possessed a hostage to compel Hosea to return to Tanis and
+submit to the wishes of the prophet Bai, with whom she knew her father
+was leagued in a secret conspiracy.  He also confided to her that not
+only great distinction and high offices, but a marriage with herself had
+been arrranged to bind Hosea to the Egyptians and to a cause from which
+the chief of the archers expected the greatest blessings for himself, his
+house, and his whole country.
+
+These tidings had filled her heart with joyous hope of a long desired
+happiness, and she confessed it to the prisoner with drooping head amid
+floods of tears, by the little wayside temple; for he was now forever
+lost to her, and though he did not return the love she had lavished on
+him from his childhood, he must not hate and condemn her without having
+heard her story.
+
+Joshua listened willingly and assured her that nothing would lighten his
+heart more than to have her clear herself from the charge of having
+consigned him and the youth at his side to their most terrible fate.
+
+Kasana sobbed aloud and was forced to struggle hard for composure ere she
+succeeded in telling her tale with some degree of calmness.
+
+Shortly after Hosea's departure the chief-priest died and, on the same
+day Bai, the second prophet, became his successor.  Many changes now took
+place, and the most powerful man in the kingdom filled Pharaoh with
+hatred of the Hebrews and their leader, Mesu, whom he and the queen had
+hitherto protected and feared.  He had even persuaded the monarch to
+pursue the fugitives, and an army had been instantly summoned to compel
+their return.  Kasana had feared that Hosea could not be induced to fight
+against the men of his own blood, and that he must feel incensed at being
+sent to make treaties which the Egyptians began to violate even before
+they knew whether their offers had been accepted.
+
+When he returned--as he knew only too well--Pharaoh had had him watched
+like a prisoner and would not suffer him to leave his presence until he
+had sworn to again lead his troops and be a faithful servant to the king.
+Bai, the new chief priest, however, had not forgotten that Hosea had
+saved his life and showed himself well disposed and grateful to him; she
+knew also that he hoped to involve him in a secret enterprise, with which
+her father, too, was associated.  It was Bai who had prevailed upon
+Pharaoh, if Hosea would renew his oath of fealty, to absolve him from
+fighting against his own race, put him in command of the foreign
+mercenaries and raise him to the rank of a "friend of the king."  All
+these events, of course, were familiar to him; for the new chief priest
+had himself set before him the tempting dishes which, with such strong,
+manly defiance, he had thrust aside.
+
+Her father had also sided with him, and for the first time ceased to
+reproach him with his origin.
+
+But, on the third day after Hosea's return, Hornecht had gone to talk
+with him and since then everything had changed for the worse.  He must be
+best aware what had caused the man of whom she, his daughter, must think
+no evil, to be changed from a friend to a mortal foe.
+
+She had looked enquiringly at him as she spoke, and he did not refuse to
+answer--Hornecht had told him that he would be a welcome son-in-law.
+
+"And you?"  asked Kasana, gazing anxiously into his face.
+
+"I," replied the prisoner, "was forced to say that though you had been
+dear and precious to me from your childhood, many causes forbade me to
+unite a woman's fate to mine."
+
+Kasana's eyes flashed, and she exclaimed:
+
+"Because you love another, a woman of your own people, the one who sent
+Ephraim to you!"
+
+But Joshua shook his head and answered pleasantly:
+
+"You are wrong, Kasana!  She of whom you speak is the wife of another."
+
+"Then," cried the young widow with fresh animation, gazing at him with
+loving entreaty, "why were you compelled to rebuff my father so harshly?"
+
+"That was far from my intention, dear child," he replied warmly, laying
+his hand on her head.  "I thought of you with all the tenderness of which
+my nature is capable.  If I could not fulfil his wish, it was because
+grave necessity forbids me to yearn for the peaceful happiness by my own
+hearth-stone for which others strive.  Had they given me my liberty, my
+life would have been one of restlessness and conflict."
+
+"Yet how many bear sword and shield," replied Kasana, "and still, on
+their return, rejoice in the love of their wives and the dear ones
+sheltered beneath their roof."
+
+"True, true," he answered gravely; "but special duties, unknown to the
+Egyptians, summon me.  I am a son of my people."
+
+"And you intend to serve them?"  asked Kasana.  "Oh, I understand you.
+Yet....  why then did you return to Tanis?  Why did you put yourself into
+Pharaoh's power?"
+
+"Because a sacred oath compelled me, poor child," he answered kindly.
+
+"An oath," she cried, "which places death and imprisonment between you
+and those whom you love and still desire to serve.  Oh, would that you
+had never returned to this abode of injustice, treachery, and
+ingratitude!  To how many hearts this vow will bring grief and tears!
+But what do you men care for the suffering you inflict on others?  You
+have spoiled all the pleasure of life for my hapless self, and among your
+own people dwells a noble father whose only son you are.  How often I
+have seen the dear old man, the stately figure with sparkling eyes and
+snow-white hair.  So would you look when you, too, had reached a ripe old
+age, as I said to myself, when I met him at the harbor, or in the fore-
+court of the palace, directing the shepherds who were driving the cattle
+and fleecy sheep to the tax-receiver's table.  And now his son's
+obstinacy must embitter every day of his old age."
+
+"Now," replied Joshua, "he has a son who is going, laden with chains, to
+endure a life of misery, but who can hold his head higher than those who
+betrayed him.  They, and Pharaoh at their head, have forgotten that he
+has shed his heart's blood for them on many a battlefield, and kept faith
+with the king at every peril.  Menephtah, his vice-roy and chief, whose
+life I saved, and many who formerly called me friend, have abandoned and
+hurled me and this guiltless boy into wretchedness, but those who have
+done this, woman, who have committed this crime, may they all.  .  .  ."
+
+"Do not curse them!"  interrupted Kasana with glowing cheeks.
+
+But Joshua, unheeding her entreaty, exclaimed "Should I be a man, if I
+forgot vengeance?"
+
+The young widow clung anxiously to his arm, gasping in beseeching
+accents:
+
+"How could you forgive him?  Only you must not curse him; for my father
+became your foe through love for me.  You know his hot blood, which so
+easily carries him to extremes, despite his years.  He concealed from me
+what he regarded as an insult; for he saw many woo me, and I am his
+greatest treasure.  Pharaoh can pardon rebels more easily than my father
+can forgive the man who disdained his jewel.  He behaved like one
+possessed when he returned.  Every word he uttered was an invective.
+He could not endure to stay at home and raged just as furiously
+elsewhere.  But no doubt he would have calmed himself at last, as he so
+often did before, had not some one who desired to pour oil on the flames
+met him in the fore-court of the palace.  I learned all this from Bai's
+wife; for she, too, repents what she did to injure you; her husband used
+every effort to save you.  She, who is as brave as any man, was ready to
+aid him and open the door of your prison; for she has not forgotten that
+you saved her husband's life in Libya.  Ephraim's chains were to fall
+with yours, and everything was ready to aid your flight."
+
+"I know it," Hosea interrupted gloomily, "and I will thank the God of my
+fathers if those were wrong from whom I heard that you are to blame,
+Kasana, for having our dungeon door locked more firmly."
+
+"Should I be here, if that were so!"  cried the beautiful, grieving woman
+with impassioned eagerness.  True, resentment did stir within me as it
+does in every woman whose lover scorns her; but the misfortune that
+befell you speedily transformed resentment into compassion, and fanned
+the old flames anew.  So surely as I hope for a mild judgment before the
+tribunal of the dead, I am innocent and have not ceased to hope for your
+liberation.  Not until yesterday evening, when all was too late, did I
+learn that Bai's proposal had been futile.  The chief priest can do much,
+but he will not oppose the man who made himself my father's ally."
+
+"You mean Prince Siptah, Pharaoh's nephew!"  cried Joshua in excited
+tones.  "They intimated to me the scheme they were weaving in his
+interest; they wished to put me in the place of the Syrian Aarsu, the
+commander of the mercenaries, if I would consent to let them have their
+way with my people and desert those of my own blood.  But I would rather
+die twenty deaths than sully myself with such treachery.  Aarsu is better
+suited to carry out their dark plans, but he will finally betray them
+all.  So far as I am concerned, the prince has good reason to hate me."
+
+Kasana laid her hand upon his lips, pointed anxiously to Ephraim and the
+guide, and said gently:
+
+"Spare my father!  The prince--what roused his enmity......"
+
+"The profligate seeks to lure you into his snare and has learned that you
+favor me," the warrior broke in.  She bent her head with a gesture of
+assent, and added blushing:
+
+"That is why Aarsu, whom he has won over to his cause, watches you so
+strictly."
+
+"And the Syrian will keep his eyes sufficiently wide open," cried Joshua.
+"Now let us talk no more of this.  I believe you and thank you warmly for
+following us hapless mortals.  How fondly I used to think, while serving
+in the field, of the pretty child, whom I saw blooming into maidenhood."
+
+"And you will think of her still with neither wrath nor rancor?"
+
+"Gladly, most gladly."
+
+The young widow, with passionate emotion, seized the prisoner's hand to
+raise it to her lips, but he withdrew it; and, gazing at him with tears
+in her eyes, she said mournfully:
+
+"You deny me the favor a benefactor does not refuse even to a beggar."
+Then, suddenly drawing herself up to her full height, she exclaimed so
+loudly that the warder started and glanced at the sun: "But I tell you
+the time will come when you will sue for the favor of kissing this hand
+in gratitude.  For when the messenger arrives bringing to you and to this
+youth the liberty for which you have longed, it will be Kasana to whom
+you owe it."
+
+Rapt by the fervor of the wish that animated her, her beautiful face
+glowed with a crimson flush.  Joshua seized her right hand, exclaiming:
+
+"Ah, if you could attain what your loyal soul desires!  How could I
+dissuade you from mitigating the great misfortune which overtook this
+youth in your house?  Yet, as an honest man, I must tell you that I shall
+never return to the service of the Egyptians; for, come what may, I shall
+in future cleave, body and soul, to those you persecute and despise, and
+to whom belonged the mother who bore me."
+
+Kasana's graceful head drooped; but directly after she raised it again,
+saying:
+
+"No other man is so noble, so truthful, that I have known from my
+childhood.  If I can find no one among my own nation whom I can honor,
+I will remember you, whose every thought is true and lofty, whose nature
+is faultless.  Put if poor Kasana succeeds in liberating you, do not
+scorn her, if you find her worse than when you left her, for however she
+may humiliate herself, whatever shame may come upon her .  .  .  ."
+
+"What do you intend?"  Hosea anxiously interrupted; but she had no time
+to answer; for the captain of the guard had risen and, clapping his
+hands, shouted: "Forward, you moles!" and "Step briskly."
+
+The warrior's stout heart was overwhelmed with tender sadness and,
+obeying a hasty impulse, he kissed the beautiful unhappy woman on the
+brow and hair, whispering:
+
+"Leave me in my misery, if our freedom will cost your humiliation.  We
+shall probably never meet again; for, whatever may happen, my life will
+henceforth be nothing but battle and sacrifice.  Darkness will shroud us
+in deeper and deeper gloom, but however black the night may be, one star
+will still shine for this boy and for me--the remembrance of you, my
+faithful, beloved child."
+
+He pointed to Ephraim as he spoke and the youth, as if out of his senses,
+pressed his lips on the hand and arm of the sobbing woman.
+
+"Forward!"  shouted the leader again, and with a grateful smile helped
+the generous lady into the chariot, marvelling at the happy, radiant gaze
+with which her tearful eyes followed the convicts.
+
+The horses started, fresh shouts arose, blows from the whips fell on bare
+shoulders, now and then a cry of pain rang on the morning air, and the
+train of prisoners again moved eastward.  The chain on the ancles of the
+companions in suffering stirred the dust, which shrouded the little band
+like the grief, hate, and fear darkening the soul of each.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A long hour's walk beyond the little temple where the prisoners had
+rested the road, leading to Succoth and the western arm of the Red Sea,
+branched off from the one that ran in a southeasterly direction past the
+fortifications on the isthmus to the mines.
+
+Shortly after the departure of the prisoners, the army which had been
+gathered to pursue the Hebrews left the city of Rameses, and as the
+convicts had rested some time at the well, the troops almost overtook
+them.  They had not proceeded far when several runners came hurrying up
+to clear the road for the advancing army.  They ordered the prisoners to
+move aside and defer their march until the swifter baggage train, bearing
+Pharaoh's tents and travelling equipments, whose chariot wheels could
+already be heard, had passed them.
+
+The prisoners' guards were glad to stop, they were in no hurry.  The day
+was hot, and if they reached their destination later, it would be the
+fault of the army.
+
+The interruption was welcome to Joshua, too; for his young companion had
+been gazing into vacancy as if bewildered, and either made no answer to
+his questions or gave such incoherent ones that the older man grew
+anxious; he knew how many of those sentenced to forced labor went mad or
+fell into melancholy.  Now a portion of the army would pass them, and the
+spectacle was new to Ephraim and promised to put an end to his dull
+brooding.
+
+A sand-hill overgrown with tamarisk bushes rose beside the road, and
+thither the leader guided the party of convicts.  He was a stern man,
+but not a cruel one, so he permitted his "moles" to lie down on the sand,
+for the troops would doubtless be a long time in passing.  As soon as the
+convicts had thrown themselves on the ground the rattle of wheels, the
+neighing of fiery steeds, shouts of command, and sometimes the
+disagreeable braying of an ass were heard.
+
+When the first chariots appeared Ephraim asked if Pharaoh was coming; but
+Joshua, smiling, informed him that when the king accompanied the troops
+to the field, the camp equipage followed directly behind the vanguard,
+for Pharaoh and his dignitaries wished to find the tents pitched and the
+tables laid, when the day's march was over and the soldiers and officers
+expected a night's repose.
+
+Joshua had not finished speaking when a number of empty carts and unladen
+asses appeared.  They were to carry the contributions of bread and meal,
+animals and poultry, wine and beer, levied on every village the sovereign
+passed on the march, and which had been delivered to the tax-gatherers
+the day before.
+
+Soon after a division of chariot warriors followed.  Every pair of horses
+drew a small, two-wheeled chariot, cased in bronze, and in each stood a
+warrior and the driver of the team.  Huge quivers were fastened to the
+front of the chariots, and the soldiers leaned on their lances or on
+gigantic bows.  Shirts covered with brazen scales, or padded coats of
+mail with gay overmantle, a helmet, and the front of the chariot
+protected the warrior from the missiles of the foe.  This troop, which
+Joshua said was the van, went by at a slow trot and was followed by a
+great number of carts and wagons, drawn by horses, mules, or oxen, as
+well as whole troops of heavily-laden asses.
+
+The uncle now pointed out to his nephew the long masts, poles, and heavy
+rolls of costly stuffs intended for the royal tent, and borne by numerous
+beasts of burden, as well as the asses and carts with the kitchen
+utensils and field forges.  Among the baggage heaped on the asses, which
+were followed by nimble drivers, rode the physicians, tailors, salve-
+makers, cooks, weavers of garlands, attendants, and slaves belonging to
+the camp.  Their departure had been so recent that they were still fresh
+and inclined to jest, and whoever caught sight of the convicts, flung
+them, in the Egyptian fashion, a caustic quip which many sought to
+palliate by the gift of alms.  Others, who said nothing, also sent by the
+ass-drivers fruit and trifling gifts; for those who were free to-day
+might share the fate of these hapless men to-morrow.  The captain
+permitted it, and when a passing slave, whom Joshua had sold for
+thieving, shouted the name of Hosea, pointing to him with a malicious
+gesture, the rough but kind-hearted officer offered his insulted prisoner
+a sip of wine from his own flask.
+
+Ephraim, who had walked from Succoth to Tanis with a staff in his hand,
+and a small bundle containing bread, dried lamb, radishes, and dates,
+expressed his amazement at the countless people and things a single man
+needed for his comfort, and then relapsed into his former melancholy
+until his uncle roused him with farther explanations.
+
+As soon as the baggage train had passed, the commander of the band of
+prisoners wished to set off, but the "openers of the way," who preceded
+the archers, forbade him, because it was not seemly for convicts to
+mingle with soldiers.  So they remained on their hillock and continued to
+watch the troops.
+
+The archers were followed by heavily-armed troops, bearing shields
+covered with strong hide so large that they extended from the feet to
+above the middle of the tallest men, and Hosea now told the youth that in
+the evening they set them side by side, thus surrounding the royal tent
+like a fence.  Besides this weapon of defence they carried a lance, a
+short dagger-like sword, or a battle-sickle, and as these thousands were
+succeeded by a body of men armed with slings Ephraim for the first time
+spoke without being questioned and said that the slings the shepherds
+had taught him to make were far better than those of the soldiers and,
+encouraged by his uncle, he described in language so eager that the
+prisoners lying by his side listened, how he had succeeded in slaying not
+only jackals, wolves, and panthers, but even vultures, with stones hurled
+from a sling.  Meanwhile he interrupted himself to ask the meaning of the
+standards and the names of the separate divisions.
+
+Many thousands had already passed, when another troop of warriors in
+chariots appeared, and the chief warder of the prisoners exclaimed:
+
+"The good god! The lord of two worlds!  May life, happiness, and health
+be his!"  With these words he fell upon his knees in the attitude of
+worship, while the convicts prostrated themselves to kiss the earth and
+be ready to obey the captain's bidding and join at the right moment in
+the cry: "Life, happiness, and health!"
+
+But they had a long time to wait ere the expected sovereign appeared;
+for, after the warriors in the chariots had passed, the body-guard
+followed, foot-soldiers of foreign birth with singular ornaments on their
+helmets and huge swords, and then numerous images of the gods, a large
+band of priests and wearers of plumes.  They were followed by more body-
+guards, and then Pharaoh appeared with his attendants.  At their head
+rode the chief priest Bai in a gilded battle-chariot drawn by magnificent
+bay stallions.  He who had formerly led troops in the field, had assumed
+the command of this pursuing expedition ordered by the gods and, though
+clad in priestly robes, he also wore the helmet and battle-axe of a
+general.  At last, directly behind his equipage, came Pharaoh himself;
+but he did not go to battle like his warlike predecessors in a war-
+chariot, but preferred to be carried on a throne.  A magnificent canopy
+protected him above, and large, thick, round ostrich feather fans,
+carried by his fan-bearers, sheltered him on both sides from the
+scorching rays of the sun.
+
+After Menephtah had left the city and the gate of victory behind him, and
+the exulting acclamations of the multitude had ceased to amuse him, he
+had gone to sleep and the shading fans would have concealed his face and
+figure from the prisoners, had not their shouts been loud enough to rouse
+him and induce him to turn his head toward them.  The gracious wave of
+his right hand showed that he had expected to see different people from
+convicts and, ere the shouts of the hapless men had died away, his eyes
+again closed.
+
+Ephraim's silent brooding had now yielded to the deepest interest, and as
+the empty golden war-chariot of the king, before which pranced the most
+superb steeds he had ever seen, rolled by, he burst into loud
+exclamations of admiration.
+
+These noble animals, on whose intelligent heads large bunches of feathers
+nodded, and whose rich harness glittered with gold and gems, were indeed
+a splendid sight.  The large gold quivers set with emeralds, fastened on
+the sides of the chariot, were filled with arrows.
+
+The feeble man to whose weak hand the guidance of a great nation was
+entrusted, the weakling who shrunk from every exertion, regained his lost
+energy whenever hunting was in prospect; he considered this campaign a
+chase on the grandest scale and as it seemed royal pastime to discharge
+his arrows at the human beings he had so lately feared, instead of at
+game, he had obeyed the chief priest's summons and joined the expedition.
+It had been undertaken by the mandate of the great god Amon, so he had
+little to dread from Mesu's terrible power.
+
+When he captured him he would make him atone for having caused Pharaoh
+and his queen to tremble before him and shed so many tears on his
+account.
+
+While Joshua was still telling the youth from which Phoenician city the
+golden chariots came, he suddenly felt Ephraim's right hand clutch his
+wrist, and heard him exclaim: "She!  She!  Look yonder!  It is she!"  The
+youth had flushed crimson, and he was not mistaken; the beautiful Kasana
+was passing amid Pharaoh's train in the same chariot in which she had
+pursued the convicts, and with her came a considerable number of ladies
+who had joined what the commander of the foot-soldiers, a brave old
+warrior, who had served under the great Rameses, termed "a pleasure
+party."
+
+On campaigns through the desert and into Syria, Libya, or Ethiopia the
+sovereign was accompanied only by a chosen band of concubines in
+curtained chariots, guarded by eunuchs; but this time, though the
+queen had remained at home, the wife of the chief priest Bai and other
+aristocratic ladies had set the example of joining the troops, and it was
+doubtless tempting enough to many to enjoy the excitements of war without
+peril.
+
+Kasana had surprised her friend by her appearance an hour before; only
+yesterday the young widow could not be persuaded to accompany the troops.
+Obeying an inspiration, without consulting her father, so unprepared that
+she lacked the necessary traveling equipments, she had joined the
+expedition, and it seemed as if a man whom she had hitherto avoided,
+though he was no less a personage than Siptah, the king's nephew, had
+become a magnet to her.
+
+When she passed the prisoners, the prince was standing in the chariot
+beside the young beauty in her nurse's place, explaining in jesting tones
+the significance of the flowers in a bouquet, which Kasana declared could
+not possibly have been intended for her, because an hour and a quarter
+before she had not thought of going with the army.
+
+But Siptah protested that the Hathors had revealed at sunrise the
+happiness in store for him, and that the choice of each single blossom
+proved his assertion.
+
+Several young courtiers who were walking in front of their chariots,
+surrounded them and joined in the laughter and merry conversation, in
+which the vivacious wife of the chief priest shared, having left her
+large travelling-chariot to be carried in a litter.
+
+None of these things escaped Joshua's notice and, as he saw Kasana, who
+a short time before had thought of the prince with aversion, now saucily
+tap his hand with her fan, his brow darkened and he asked himself whether
+the young widow was not carelessly trifling with his misery.
+
+But the prisoners' chief warder had now noticed the locks on Siptah's
+temples, which marked him as a prince of the royal household and his loud
+"Hail!  Hall!" in which the other guards and the captives joined, was
+heard by Kasana and her companions.  They looked toward the tamarisk-
+bushes, whence the cry proceeded, and Joshua saw the young widow turn
+pale and then point with a hasty gesture to the convicts.  She must
+undoubtedly have given Siptah some command, for the latter at first
+shrugged his shoulders disapprovingly then, after a somewhat lengthy
+discussion, half grave, half jesting, he sprang from the chariot and
+beckoned to the chief gaoler.
+
+"Have these men," he called from the road so loudly that Kasana could not
+fail to hear, "seen the face of the good god, the lord of both worlds?"
+And when he received a reluctant answer, he went on arrogantly:
+
+"No matter!  At least they beheld mine and that of the fairest of women,
+and if they hope for favor on that account they are right.  You know who
+I am.  Let the chains that bind them together be removed."  Then,
+beckoning to the man, he whispered:
+
+"But keep your eyes open all the wider; I have no liking for the fellow
+beside the bush, the ex-chief Hosea.  After returning home, report to me
+and bring news of this man.  The quieter he has become, the deeper my
+hand will sink in my purse.  Do you understand?"
+
+The warder bowed, thinking: "I'll take care, my prince, and also see that
+no one attempts to take the life of any of my moles.  The greater the
+rank of these gentlemen, the more bloody and strange are their requests!
+How many have come to me with similar ones.  He releases the poor
+wretches' feet, and wants me to burden my soul with a shameful murder.
+Siptah has tried the wrong man!  Here, Heter, bring the bag of tools and
+open the moles' chains."
+
+While the files were grating on the sand-hill by the road and the
+prisoners were being released from the fetters on their ancles,--though
+for the sake of security each man's arms were bound together,--Pharaoh's
+host marched by.
+
+Kasana had commanded Prince Siptah to release from their iron burden
+the unfortunates who were being dragged to a life of misery, openly
+confessing that she could not bear to see a chief who had so often been
+a guest of her house so cruelly humiliated.  Bai's wife had supported
+her wish, and the prince was obliged to yield.
+
+Joshua knew to whom he and Ephraim owed this favor, and received it with
+grateful joy.
+
+Walking had been made easier for him, but his mind was more and more
+sorely oppressed with anxious cares.
+
+The army passing yonder would have been enough to destroy down to the
+last man a force ten times greater than the number of his people.  His
+people, and with them his father and Miriam,--who had caused him such
+keen suffering, yet to whom he was indebted for having found the way
+which, even in prison, he had recognized as the only right one--seemed to
+him marked out for a bloody doom; for, however powerful might be the God
+whose greatness the prophetess had praised in such glowing words, and to
+whom he himself had learned to look up with devout admiration,--untrained
+and unarmed bands of shepherds must surely and hopelessly succumb to the
+assault of this army.  This certainty, strengthened by each advancing
+division, pierced his very soul.  Never before had he felt such burning
+anguish, which was terribly sharpened when he beheld the familiar faces
+of his own troops, which he had so lately commanded, pass before him
+under the leadership of another.  This time they were taking the field
+to hew down men of his own blood.  This was pain indeed, and Ephraim's
+conduct gave him cause for fresh anxiety; since Kasana's appearance and
+interference in behalf of him and his companions in suffering, the youth
+had again lapsed into silence and gazed with wandering eyes at the army
+or into vacancy.
+
+Now he, too, was freed from the chain, and Joshua asked in a whisper if
+he did not long to return to his people to help them resist so powerful a
+force, but Ephraim merely answered:
+
+"When confronted with those hosts, they can do nothing but yield.  What
+did we lack before the exodus?  You were a Hebrew, and yet became a
+mighty chief among the Egyptians ere you obeyed Miriam's summons.  In
+your place, I would have pursued a different course."
+
+"What  would you  have done?"  asked Joshua sternly.
+
+"What?"  replied the youth, the fire of his young soul blazing.  "What?
+Only this, I would have remained where there is honor and fame and
+everything beautiful.  You might have been the greatest of the great,
+the happiest of the happy--this I have learned, but you made a different
+choice."
+
+"Because duty commanded it," Joshua answered gravely, "because I will no
+longer serve any one save the people among whom I was born."
+
+"The people?"  exclaimed Ephraim, contemptuously.  "I know them, and you
+met them at Succoth.  The poor are miserable wretches who cringe under
+the lash; the rich value their cattle above all else and, if they are the
+heads of the tribes, quarrel with one another.  No one knows aught of
+what pleases the eye and the heart.  They call me one of the richest of
+the race and yet I shudder when I think of the house I inherited, one of
+the best and largest.  One who has seen more beautiful ones ceases to
+long for such an abode."
+
+The vein on Joshua's brow swelled, and he wrathfully rebuked the youth
+for denying his own blood, and being a traitor to his people.
+
+The guard commanded silence, for Joshua had raised his reproving voice
+louder, and this order seemed welcome to the defiant youth.  When, during
+their march, his uncle looked sternly into his face or asked whether he
+had thought of his words, he turned angrily away, and remained mute and
+sullen until the first star had risen, the night camp had been made under
+the open sky, and the scanty prison rations had been served.
+
+Joshua dug with his hands a resting place in the sand, and with care and
+skill helped the youth to prepare a similar one.
+
+Ephraim silently accepted this help; but as they lay side by side, and
+the uncle began to speak to his nephew of the God of his people on whose
+aid they must rely, if they were not to fall victims to despair in the
+mines, the youth interrupted him, exclaiming in low tones, but with
+fierce resolution:
+
+"They will not take me to the mines alive!  I would rather die, while
+making my escape, than pine away in such wretchedness."
+
+Joshua whispered words of warning, and again reminded him of his duties
+to his people.  But Ephraim begged to be let alone; yet soon after he
+touched his uncle and asked softly:
+
+"What are they planning with Prince Siptah?"
+
+"I don't know; nothing good, that is certain."
+
+"And where is Aarsu, the Syrian, your foe, who commands the Asiatic
+mercenaries, and who was to watch us with such fierce zeal?  I did not
+see him with the others."
+
+"He remained in Tanis with his troops."
+
+"To guard the palace?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Then he commands many soldiers, and Pharaoh has confidence in him?"
+
+"The utmost, though he ill deserves it."
+
+"And he is a Syrian, and therefore of our blood."
+
+"And more closely allied to us than to the Egyptians, at least so far as
+language and appearance are concerned."
+
+"I should have taken him for a man of our race, yet he is, as you were,
+one of the leaders in the army."
+
+"Other Syrians and Libyans command large troops of mercenaries, and the
+herald Ben Mazana, one of the highest dignitaries of the court--the
+Egyptians call him Rameses in the sanctuary of Ra--has a Hebrew father."
+
+"And neither he nor the others are scorned on account of their birth?"
+
+"This is not quite so.  But why do you ask these questions?"
+
+"I could not sleep."
+
+"And so such thoughts came to you.  But you have some definite idea in
+your mind and, if my inference is correct, it would cause me pain.  You
+wished to enter Pharaoh's service!"
+
+Both were silent a long time, then Ephraim spoke again and, though he
+addressed Joshua, it seemed as if he were talking to himself:
+
+"They will destroy our people; bondage and shame await those who survive.
+My house is now left to ruin, not a head of my splendid herds of cattle
+remains, and the gold and silver I inherited, of which there was said to
+be a goodly store, they are carrying with them, for your father has
+charge of my wealth, and it will soon fall as booty into the hands of the
+Egyptians.  Shall I, if I obtain my liberty, return to my people and make
+bricks?  Shall I bow my back and suffer blows and abuse?"
+
+Joshua eagerly whispered:
+
+"You must appeal to the God of your fathers, that he may protect and
+defend His people.  Yet, if the Most High has willed the destruction of
+our race, be a man and learn to hate with all the might of your young
+soul those who trample your people under their feet.  Fly to the Syrians,
+offer them your strong young arm, and take no rest till you have avenged
+yourself on those who have shed the blood of your people and load you,
+though innocent, with chains."
+
+Again silence reigned for some time, nothing was heard from Ephraim's
+rude couch save a dull, low moan from his oppressed breast; but at last
+he answered softly:
+
+"The chains no longer weigh upon us, and how could I hate her who
+released us from them?"
+
+"Remain grateful to Kasana," was the whispered reply, "but hate her
+nation."
+
+Hosea heard the youth toss restlessly, and again sigh heavily and moan.
+
+It was past midnight, the waxing moon rode high in the heavens, and the
+sleepless man did not cease to listen for sounds from the youth; but the
+latter remained silent, though slumber had evidently fled from him also;
+for a noise as if he were grinding his teeth came from his place of rest.
+Or had mice wandered to this barren place, where hard brown blades of
+grass grew between the crusts of salt and the bare spots, and were
+gnawing the prisoners' hard bread?
+
+Such gnawing and grinding disturb the sleep of one who longs for slumber;
+but Joshua desired to keep awake to continue to open the eyes of the
+blinded youth, yet he waited in vain for any sign of life from his
+nephew.
+
+At last he was about to lay his hand on the lad's shoulder, but paused as
+by the moonlight he saw Ephraim raise one arm though, before he lay down,
+both hands were tied more firmly than before.
+
+Joshua now knew that it was the youth's sharp teeth gnawing the rope
+which had caused the noise that had just surprised him, and he
+immediately stood up and looked first upward and then around him.
+
+Holding his breath, the older man watched every movement, and his heart
+began to throb anxiously.  Ephraim meant to fly, and the first step
+toward escape had already succeeded!  Would that the others might prosper
+too!  But he feared that the liberated youth might enter the wrong path.
+He was the only son of his beloved sister, a fatherless and motherless
+lad, so he had never enjoyed the uninterrupted succession of precepts and
+lessons which only a mother can give and a defiant young spirit will
+accept from her alone.  The hands of strangers had bound the sapling to a
+stake and it had shot straight upward, but a mother's love would have
+ennobled it with carefully chosen grafts.  He had grown up beside another
+hearth than his parents', yet the latter is the only true home for youth.
+What marvel if he felt himself a stranger among his people.
+
+Amid such thoughts a great sense of compassion stole over Joshua and,
+with it, the consciousness that he was deeply accountable for this youth
+who, for his sake, while on the way to bring him a message, had fallen
+into such sore misfortune.  But much as he longed to warn him once more
+against treason and perjury, he refrained, fearing to imperil his
+success.  Any noise might attract the attention of the guards, and he
+took as keen an interest in the attempt at liberation, as if Ephraim had
+made it at his suggestion.
+
+So instead of annoying the youth with fruitless warnings, he kept watch
+for him; life had taught him that good advice is more frequently unheeded
+than followed, and only personal experiences possess resistless power of
+instruction.
+
+The chief's practiced eye soon showed him the way by which Ephraim, if
+fortune favored him, could escape.
+
+He called softly, and directly after his nephew whispered:
+
+"I'll loose your ropes, if you will hold up your hands to me.  Mine are
+free!"
+
+Joshua's tense features brightened.
+
+The defiant lad was a noble fellow, after all, and risked his own chance
+in behalf of one who, if he escaped with him, threatened to bar the way
+in which, in youthful blindness, he hoped to find happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Joshua gazed intently around him.  The sky was still bright, but if the
+north wind continued to blow, the clouds which seemed to be rising from
+the sea must soon cover it.
+
+The air had grown sultry, but the guards kept awake and regularly
+relieved one another.  It was difficult to elude their attention; yet
+close by Ephraim's couch, which his uncle, for greater comfort, had
+helped him make on the side of a gently sloping hill, a narrow ravine ran
+down to the valley.  White veins of gypsum and glittering mica sparkled
+in the moonlight along its bare edges.  If the agile youth could reach
+this cleft unseen, and crawl through as far as the pool of saltwater,
+overgrown with tall grass and tangled desert shrubs, at which it ended,
+he might, aided by the clouds, succeed.
+
+After arriving at this conviction Joshua considered, as deliberately as
+if the matter concerned directing one of his soldiers on his way, whether
+he himself, in case he regained the use of his hands, could succeed in
+following Ephraim without endangering his project.  And he was forced to
+answer this question in the negative; for the guard who sometimes sat,
+sometimes paced to and fro on a higher part of the crest of the hill a
+few paces away, could but too easily perceive, by the moonlight, the
+youth's efforts to loose the firmly-knotted bonds.  The cloud approaching
+the moon might perhaps darken it, ere the work was completed.  Thus
+Ephraim might, on his account, incur the peril of losing the one
+fortunate moment which promised escape.  Would it not be the basest
+of crimes, merely for the sake of the uncertain chance of flight, to bar
+the path to liberty of the youth whose natural protector he was?  So he
+whispered to Ephraim:
+
+"I cannot go with you.  Creep through the chasm at your right to the
+salt-pool.  I will watch the guards.  As soon as the cloud passes over
+the moon and I clear my throat, start off.  If you escape, join our
+people.  Greet my old father, assure him of my love and fidelity, and
+tell him where I am being taken.  Listen to his advice and Miriam's;
+theirs is the best counsel.  The cloud is approaching the moon,--not
+another word now!"
+
+As Ephraim still continued to urge him in a whisper to hold up his
+pinioned arms, he ordered him to keep silence and, as soon as the moon
+was obscured and the guard, who was pacing to and fro above their heads
+began a conversation with the man who came to relieve him, Joshua cleared
+his throat and, holding his breath, listened with a throbbing heart for
+some sound in the direction of the chasm.
+
+He first heard a faint scraping and, by the light of the fire which the
+guards kept on the hill-top as a protection against wild beasts, he saw
+Ephraim's empty couch.
+
+He uttered a sigh of relief; for the youth must have entered the ravine.
+But though he strained his ears to follow the crawling or sliding of the
+fugitive he heard nothing save the footsteps and voices of the warders.
+
+Yet he caught only the sound, not the meaning of their words, so intently
+did he fix his powers of hearing upon the course taken by the fugitive.
+How nimbly and cautiously the agile fellow must move!  He was still in
+the chasm, yet meanwhile the moon struggled victoriously with the clouds
+and suddenly her silver disk pierced the heavy black curtain that
+concealed her from the gaze of men, and her light was reflected like a
+slender, glittering pillar from the motionless pool of salt-water,
+enabling the watching Joshua to see what was passing below; but he
+perceived nothing that resembled a human form.
+
+Had the fugitive encountered any obstacle in the chasm?  Did some
+precipice or abyss hold him in its gloomy depths?  Had--and at the
+thought he fancied that his heart had stopped beating--Had some gulf
+swallowed the lad when he was groping his way through the night?
+
+How he longed for some noise, even the faintest, from the ravine!  The
+silence was terrible.  But now!  Oh, would that it had continued!  Now
+the sound of falling stones and the crash of earth sliding after echoed
+loudly through the still night air.  Again the moonlight burst through
+the cloud-curtain, and Joshua perceived near the pool a living creature
+which resembled an animal more than a human being, for it seemed to be
+crawling on four feet.  Now the water sent up a shower of glittering
+spray.  The figure below had leaped into the pool.  Then the clouds again
+swallowed the lamp of night, and darkness covered everything.
+
+With a sigh of relief Joshua told himself that he had seen the flying
+Ephraim and that, come what might, the escaping youth had gained a
+considerable start of his pursuers.
+
+But the latter neither remained inert nor allowed themselves to be
+deceived; for though, to mislead them, he had shouted loudly: "A jackal!"
+they uttered a long, shrill whistle, which roused their sleeping
+comrades.  A few seconds later the chief warder stood before him with a
+burning torch, threw its light on his face, and sighed with relief when
+he saw him.  Not in vain had he bound him with double ropes; for he would
+have been called to a severe reckoning at home had this particular man
+escaped.
+
+But while he was feeling the ropes on the prisoner's arms, the glare of
+the burning torch, which lighted him, fell on the fugitive's rude,
+deserted couch.  There, as if in mockery, lay the gnawed rope.  Taking it
+up, he flung it at Joshua's feet, blew his whistle again and again, and
+shouted: "Escaped!  The Hebrew!  Young Curly-head!"
+
+Paying no farther heed to Joshua, he began the pursuit.  Hoarse with
+fury, he issued order after order, each one sensible and eagerly obeyed.
+
+While some of the guards dragged the prisoners together, counted them,
+and tied them with ropes, their commander, with the others and his dogs,
+set off on the track of the fugitive.
+
+Joshua saw him make the intelligent animals smell Ephraim's gnawed bonds
+and resting-place, and beheld them instantly rush to the ravine.  Gasping
+for breath, he also noted that they remained in it quite a long time, and
+at last--the moon meanwhile scattered the clouds more and more--darted
+out of the ravine, and dashed to the water.  He felt that it was
+fortunate Ephraim had waded through instead of passing round it; for at
+its edge the dogs lost the scent, and minute after minute elapsed while
+the commander of the guards walked along the shore with the eager
+animals, which fairly thrust their noses into the fugitive's steps,
+in order to again get on the right trail.  Their loud, joyous barking at
+last announced that they had found it.  Yet, even if they persisted in
+following the runaway, the captive warrior no longer feared the worst,
+for Ephraim had gained a long advance of his pursuers.  Still, his heart
+beat loudly enough and time seemed to stand still until the chief-warder
+returned exhausted and unsuccessful.
+
+The older man, it is true, could never have overtaken the swift-footed
+youth, but the youngest and most active guards had been sent after the
+fugitive.  This statement the captain of the guards himself made with
+an angry jeer.
+
+The kindly-natured man seemed completely transformed,--for he felt what
+had occurred as a disgrace which could scarcely be overcome, nay, a
+positive misfortune.
+
+The prisoner who had tried to deceive him by the shout of 'jackal!' was
+doubtless the fugitive's accomplice.  Prince Siptah, too, who had
+interfered with the duties of his office, he loudly cursed.  But nothing
+of the sort should happen again; and he would make the whole band feel
+what had fallen to his lot through Ephraim.  Therefore he ordered the
+prisoners to be again loaded with chains, the ex-chief fastened to a
+coughing old man, and all made to stand in rank and file before the fire
+till morning dawned.
+
+Joshua gave no answer to the questions his new companion-in-chains
+addressed to him; he was waiting with an anxious heart for the return of
+the pursuers.  At times he strove to collect his thoughts to pray, and
+commended to the God who had promised His aid, his own destiny and that
+of the fugitive boy.  True, he was often rudely interrupted by the
+captain of the guards, who vented his rage upon him.
+
+Yet the man who had once commanded thousands of soldiers quietly
+submitted to everything, forcing himself to accept it like the
+unavoidable discomfort of hail or rain; nay, it cost him an effort to
+conceal his joyful emotion when, toward sunrise, the young warders sent
+in pursuit returned with tangled hair, panting for breath, and bringing
+nothing save one of the dogs with a broken skull.
+
+The only thing left for the captain of the guards to do was to report
+what had occurred at the first fortress on the Etham border, which the
+prisoners were obliged in any case to pass, and toward this they were now
+driven.
+
+Since Ephraim's flight a new and more cruel spirit had taken possession
+of the warders.  While yesterday they had permitted the unfortunate men
+to move forward at an easy pace, they now forced them to the utmost
+possible speed.  Besides, the atmosphere was sultry, and the scorching
+sun struggled with the thunderclouds gathering in heavy masses at the
+north.
+
+Joshua's frame, inured to fatigues of every kind, resisted the tortures
+of this hurried march; but his weaker companion, who had grown grey in a
+scribe's duties, often gave way and at last lay prostrate beside him.
+
+The captain was obliged to have the hapless man placed on an ass and
+chain another prisoner to Joshua.  He was his former yoke-mate's brother,
+an inspector of the king's stables, a stalwart Egyptian, condemned to the
+mines solely on account of the unfortunate circumstance of being the
+nearest blood relative of a state criminal.
+
+It was easier to walk with this vigorous companion, and Joshua listened
+with deep sympathy and tried to comfort him when, in a low voice, he made
+him the confidant of his yearning, and lamented the heaviness of heart
+with which he had left wife and child in want and suffering.  Two sons
+had died of the pestilence, and it sorely oppressed his soul that he had
+been unable to provide for their burial--now his darlings would be lost
+to him in the other world also and forever.
+
+At the second halt the troubled father became franker still.  An ardent
+thirst for vengeance filled his soul, and he attributed the same feeling
+to his stern-eyed companion, whom he saw had plunged into misfortune
+from a high station in life.  The ex-inspector of the stables had a
+sister-in-law, who was one of Pharaoh's concubines, and through her and
+his wife, her sister, he had learned that a conspiracy was brewing
+against the king in the House of the Separated.--[Harem].  He even knew
+whom the women desired to place in Menephtah's place.
+
+As Joshua looked at him, half questioning, half doubting, his companion
+whispered.  "Siptah, the king's nephew, and his noble mother, are at the
+head of the plot.  When I am once more free, I will remember you, for my
+sister-in-law certainly will not forget me."  Then he asked what was
+taking his companion to the mines, and Joshua frankly told his name.
+But when the Egyptian learned that he was fettered to a Hebrew, he tore
+wildly at his chain and cursed his fate.  His rage, however, soon
+subsided in the presence of the strange composure with which his
+companion in misfortune bore the rudest insults, and Joshua was glad to
+have the other beset him less frequently with complaints and questions.
+
+He now walked on for hours undisturbed, free to yield to his longing to
+collect his thoughts, analyze the new and lofty emotions which had ruled
+his soul during the past few days, and accommodate himself to his novel
+and terrible position.
+
+This quiet reflection and self-examination relieved him and, during the
+following night, he was invigorated by a deep, refreshing sleep.
+
+When he awoke the setting stars were still in the sky and reminded him of
+the sycamore in Succoth, and the momentous morning when his lost love had
+won him for his God and his people.  The glittering firmament arched over
+his head, and he had never so distinctly felt the presence of the Most
+High.  He believed in His limitless power and, for the first time, felt a
+dawning hope that the Mighty Lord who had created heaven and earth would
+find ways and means to save His chosen people from the thousands of the
+Egyptian hosts.
+
+After fervently imploring God to extend His protecting hand over the
+feeble bands who, obedient to His command, had left so much behind them
+and marched so confidently through an unknown and distant land, and
+commended to His special charge the aged father whom he himself could not
+defend, a wonderful sense of peace filled his soul.
+
+The shouts of the guards, the rattling of the chain, his wretched
+companions in misfortune, nay, all that surrounded him, could not fail
+to recall the fate awaiting him.  He was to grow grey in slavish toil
+within a close, hot pit, whose atmosphere choked the lungs, deprived of
+the bliss of breathing the fresh air and beholding the sunlight; loaded
+with chains, beaten and insulted, starving and thirsting, spending days
+and nights in a monotony destructive alike to soul and body,--yet not for
+one moment did he lose the confident belief that this horrible lot might
+befall any one rather than himself, and something must interpose to save
+him.
+
+On the march farther eastward, which began with the first grey dawn of
+morning, he called this resolute confidence folly, yet strove to retain
+it and succeeded.
+
+The road led through the desert, and at the end of a few hours' rapid
+march they reached the first fort, called the Fortress of Seti.  Long
+before, they had seen it through the clear desert air, apparently within
+a bowshot.
+
+Unrelieved by the green foliage of bush or palmtree, it rose from the
+bare, stony, sandy soil, with its wooden palisades, its rampart, its
+escarped walls, and its lookout, with broad, flat roof, swarming with
+armed warriors.  The latter had heard from Pithom that the Hebrews were
+preparing to break through the chain of fortresses on the isthmus and had
+at first mistaken the approaching band of prisoners for the vanguard of
+the wandering Israelites.
+
+From the summits of the strong projections, which jutted like galleries
+from every direction along the entire height of the escarped walls to
+prevent the planting of scaling-ladders, soldiers looked through the
+embrasures at the advancing convicts; yet the archers had replaced their
+arrows in the quivers, for the watchmen in the towers perceived how few
+were the numbers of the approaching troop, and a messenger had already
+delivered to the commander of the garrison an order from his superior
+authorizing him to permit the passage of the prisoners.
+
+The gate of the palisade was now opened, and the captain of the guards
+allowed the prisoners to lie down on the glowing pavement within.
+
+No one could escape hence, even if the guards withdrew; for the high
+fence was almost insurmountable, and from the battlements on the top of
+the jutting walls darts could easily reach a fugitive.
+
+The ex-chief did not fail to note that everything was ready, as if in the
+midst of war, for defence against a foe.  Every man was at his post, and
+beside the huge brazen disk on the tower stood sentinels, each holding in
+his hand a heavy club to deal a blow at the approach of the expected
+enemy; for though as far as the eye could reach, neither tree nor house
+was visible, the sound of the metal plate would be heard at the next
+fortress in the Etham line, and warn or summon its garrison.
+
+To be stationed in the solitude of this wilderness was not a punishment,
+but a misfortune; and the commander of the army therefore provided that
+the same troops should never remain long in the desert.
+
+Joshua himself, in former days, had been in command of the most southerly
+of these fortresses, called the Migdol of the South; for each one of the
+fortifications bore the name of Migdol, which in the Semitic tongue means
+the tower of a fortress.
+
+His people were evidently expected here; and it was not to be supposed
+that Moses had led the tribes back to Egypt.  So they must have remained
+in Succoth or have turned southward.  But in that direction rolled the
+waters of the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea, and how could the Hebrew
+hosts pass through the deep waters?
+
+Hosea's heart throbbed anxiously at this thought, and all his fears were
+to find speedy confirmation; for he heard the commander of the fortress
+tell the captain of the prisoners' guards, that the Hebrews had
+approached the line of fortifications several days before, but soon
+after, without assaulting the garrison, had turned southward.  Since then
+they seemed to have been wandering in the desert between Pithom and the
+Red Sea.
+
+All this had been instantly reported at Tanis, but the king was forced to
+delay the departure of the army for several days until the week of
+general mourning for the heir to the throne had expired.  The fugitives
+might have turned this to account, but news had come by a carrier dove
+that the blinded multitude had encamped at Pihahiroth, not far from the
+Red Sea.  So it would be easy for the army to drive them into the water
+like a herd of cattle; there was no escape for them in any other
+direction.
+
+The captain listened to these tidings with satisfaction; then he
+whispered a few words to the commander of the fortress and pointed with
+his finger to Joshua, who had long recognized him as a brother-in-arms
+who had commanded a hundred men in his own cohorts and to whom he had
+done many a kindness.  He was reluctant to reveal his identity in this
+wretched plight to his former subordinate, who was also his debtor; but
+the commander flushed as he saw him, shrugged his shoulders as though he
+desired to express to Joshua regret for his fate and the impossibility of
+doing anything for him, and then exclaimed so loudly that he could not
+fail to hear:
+
+"The regulations forbid any conversation with prisoners of state, but I
+knew this man in better days, and will send you some wine which I beg you
+to share with him."
+
+As he walked with the other to the gate, and the latter remarked that
+Hosea deserved such favor less than the meanest of the band, because he
+had connived at the escape of the fugitive of whom he had just spoken,
+the commander ran his hand through his hair, and answered:
+
+"I would gladly have shown him some kindness, though he is much indebted
+to me; but if that is the case, we will omit the wine; you have rested
+long enough at any rate."
+
+The captain angrily gave the order for departure, and drove the hapless
+band deeper into the desert toward the mines.
+
+This time Joshua walked with drooping head.  Every fibre of his being
+rebelled against the misfortune of being dragged through the wilderness
+at this decisive hour, far from his people and the father whom he knew to
+be in such imminent danger.  Under his guidance the wanderers might
+perchance have found some means of escape.  His fist clenched when he
+thought of the fettered limbs which forbade him to utilize the plans his
+brain devised for the welfare of his people; yet he would not lose
+courage, and whenever he said to himself that the Hebrews were lost and
+must succumb in this struggle, he heard the new name God Himself had
+bestowed upon him ring in his ears and at the same moment the flames of
+hate and vengeance on all Egyptians, which had been fanned anew by the
+fortress commander's base conduct, blazed up still more brightly.  His
+whole nature was in the most violent tumult and as the captain noted his
+flushed cheeks and the gloomy light in his eyes he thought that this
+strong man, too, had been seized by the fever to which so many convicts
+fell victims on the march.
+
+When, at the approach of darkness, the wretched band sought a night's
+rest in the midst of the wilderness, a terrible conflict of emotions was
+seething in Joshua's soul, and the scene around him fitly harmonized with
+his mood; for black clouds had again risen in the north from the sea and,
+before the thunder and lightning burst forth and the rain poured in
+torrents, howling, whistling winds swept masses of scorching sand upon
+the recumbent prisoners.
+
+After these dense clouds had been their coverlet, pools and ponds were
+their beds.  The guards had bound them together hand and foot and,
+dripping and shivering, held the ends of the ropes in their hands; for
+the night was as black as the embers of their fire which the rain had
+extinguished, and who could have pursued a fugitive through such darkness
+and tempest.
+
+But Joshua had no thought of secret flight.  While the Egyptians were
+trembling and moaning, when they fancied they heard the wrathful voice of
+Seth, and the blinding sheets of fire flamed from the clouds, he only
+felt the approach of the angry God, whose fury he shared, whose hatred
+was also his own.  He felt himself a witness of His all-destroying
+omnipotence, and his breast swelled more proudly as he told himself that
+he was summoned to wield the sword in the service of this Mightiest of
+the Mighty.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A school where people learned modesty
+But what do you men care for the suffering you inflict on others
+Childhood already lies behind me, and youth will soon follow
+Good advice is more frequently unheeded than followed
+Precepts and lessons which only a mother can give
+Should I be a man, if I forgot vengeance?
+To the mines meant to be doomed to a slow, torturing death
+What had formerly afforded me pleasure now seemed shallow
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 3 ***
+
+***********This file should be named 5469.txt or 5469.zip ***********
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