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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Joshua, by Georg Ebers, Volume 4.
+#32 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+
+Title: Joshua, Volume 4.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5470]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 15, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 4 ***
+
+
+
+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 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The storm which had risen as night closed in swept over the isthmus.  The
+waves in its lakes dashed high, and the Red Sea, which thrust a bay
+shaped like the horn of a snail into it from the south, was lashed to the
+wildest fury.
+
+Farther northward, where Pharaoh's army, protected by the Migdol of the
+South, the strongest fort of the Etham line, had encamped a short time
+before, the sand lashed by the storm whirled through the air and, in the
+quarter occupied by the king and his great officials, hammers were
+constantly busy driving the tent-pins deeper into the earth; for the
+brocades, cloths, and linen materials which formed the portable houses of
+Pharaoh and his court, struck by the gale, threatened to break from the
+poles by which they were supported.
+
+Black clouds hung in the north, but the moon and stars were often
+visible, and flashes of distant lightning frequently brightened the
+horizon.  Even now the moisture of heaven seemed to avoid this rainless
+region and in all directions fires were burning, which the soldiers
+surrounded in double rows, like a living shield, to keep the storm from
+scattering the fuel.
+
+The sentries had a hard duty; for the atmosphere was sultry, in spite of
+the north wind, which still blew violently, driving fresh clouds of sand
+into their faces.
+
+Only two sentinels were pacing watchfully to and fro at the most northern
+gate of the camp, but they were enough; for, on account of the storm, no
+one had appeared for a long time to demand entrance or egress.  At last,
+three hours after sunset, a slender figure, scarcely beyond boyhood,
+approached the guards with a firm step and, showing a messenger's pass,
+asked the way to Prince Siptah's tent.
+
+He seemed to have had a toilsome journey; for his thick black locks were
+tangled and his feet were covered with dust and dried clay.  Yet he
+excited no suspicion; for his bearing was that of a self-reliant freeman,
+his messenger's pass was perfectly correct, and the letter he produced
+was really directed to Prince Siptah; a scribe of the corn storehouses,
+who was sitting at the nearest fire with other officials and subordinate
+officers, examined it.
+
+As the youth's appearance pleased most of those present, and he came from
+Tanis and perhaps brought news, a seat at the fire and a share in the
+meal were offered; but he was in haste.
+
+Declining the invitation with thanks, he answered the questions curtly
+and hurriedly and begged the resting soldiers for a guide.  One was
+placed at his disposal without delay.  But he was soon to learn that it
+would not be an easy matter to reach a member of the royal family; for
+the tents of Pharaoh, his relatives, and dignitaries stood in a special
+spot in the heart of the camp, hedged in by the shields of the heavily-
+armed troops.
+
+When he entered he was challenged again and again, and his messenger's
+pass and the prince's letter were frequently inspected.  The guide, too,
+was sent back, and his place was filled by an aristocratic lord, called I
+the 'eye and ear of the king,' who busied himself with the seal of the
+letter.  But the messenger resolutely demanded it, and as soon as it was
+again in his hand, and two tents standing side by side rocking in the
+tempest had been pointed out to him, one as Prince Siptah's, the other as
+the shelter of Masana, the daughter of Hornecht, for whom he asked, he
+turned to the chamberlain who came out of the former one, showed him the
+letter, and asked to be taken to the prince; but the former offered to
+deliver the letter to his master--whose steward he was--and Ephraim--for
+he was the messenger--agreed, if he would obtain him immediate admission
+to the young widow.
+
+The steward seemed to lay much stress upon getting possession of the
+letter and, after scanning Ephraim from top to toe, he asked if Kasana
+knew him, and when the other assented, adding that he brought her a
+verbal message, the Egyptian said smiling:
+
+"Well then; but we must protect our carpets from such feet, and you seem
+weary and in need of refreshment.  Follow me."
+
+With these words he took him to a small tent, before which an old slave
+and one scarcely beyond childhood were sitting by the fire, finishing
+their late meal with a bunch of garlic.
+
+They started up as they saw their master; but he ordered the old man to
+wash the messenger's feet, and bade the younger ask the prince's cook in
+his name for meat, bread, and wine.  Then he led Ephraim to his tent,
+which was lighted by a lantern, and asked how he, who from his appearance
+was neither a slave nor a person of mean degree, had come into such a
+pitiable plight.  The messenger replied that on his way he had bandaged
+the wounds of a severely injured man with the upper part of his apron,
+and the chamberlain instantly went to his baggage and gave him a piece of
+finely plaited linen.
+
+Ephraim's reply, which was really very near the truth, had cost him so
+little thought and sounded so sincere, that it won credence, and the
+steward's kindness seemed to him so worthy of gratitude that he made no
+objection when the courtier, without injuring the seal, pressed the roll
+of papyrus with a skilful hand, separating the layers and peering into
+the openings to decipher the contents.  While thus engaged, the corpulent
+courtier's round eyes sparkled brightly and it seemed to the youth as if
+the countenance of the man, whose comfortable plumpness and smooth
+rotundity at first appeared like a mirror of the utmost kindness of
+heart, now had the semblance of a cat's.
+
+As soon as the steward had completed his task, he begged the youth to
+refresh himself in all comfort, and did not return until Ephraim had
+bathed, wrapped a fresh linen upper-garment around his hips, perfumed and
+anointed his hair, and, glancing into the mirror, was in the act of
+slipping a broad gold circlet upon his arm.
+
+He had hesitated some time ere doing this; for he was aware that he would
+encounter great perils; but this circlet was his one costly possession
+and, during his captivity, it had been very difficult for him to hide it
+under his apron.  It might be of much service to him but, if he put it
+on, it would attract attention and increase the danger of being
+recognized.
+
+Yet the reflection he beheld in the mirror, vanity, and the desire
+to appear well in Kasana's eyes, conquered caution and prudent
+consideration, and the broad costly ornament soon glittered on his arm.
+
+The steward stood in astonishment before the handsome, aristocratic
+youth, so haughty in his bearing, who had taken the place of the
+unassuming messenger.  The question whether he was a relative of Kasana
+sprang to his lips, and receiving an answer in the negative, he asked to
+what family he belonged.
+
+Ephraim bent his eyes on the ground for some time in embarrassment, and
+then requested the Egyptian to spare him an answer until he had talked
+with Hornecht's daughter.
+
+The other, shaking his head, looked at him again, but pressed him no
+farther; for what he had read in the letter was a secret which might
+bring death to whoever was privy to it, and the aristocratic young
+messenger was doubtless the son of a dignitary who belonged to the circle
+of the fellow-conspirators of Prince Siptah, his master.
+
+A chill ran through the courtier's strong, corpulent body, and he gazed
+with mingled sympathy and dread at the blooming human flower associated
+thus early in plans fraught with danger.
+
+His master had hitherto only hinted at the secret, and it would still be
+possible for him to keep his own fate separate from his.  Should he do
+so, an old age free from care lay before him; but, if he joined the
+prince and his plan succeeded, how high he might rise!  Terribly
+momentous was the choice confronting him, the father of many children,
+and beads of perspiration stood on his brow as, incapable of any coherent
+thought, he led Ephraim to Kasana's tent, and then hastened to his
+master.
+
+Silence reigned within the light structure, which was composed of poles
+and gay heavy stuffs, tenanted by the beautiful widow.
+
+With a throbbing heart Ephraim approached the entrance, and when he at
+last summoned courage and drew aside the curtain fastened firmly to the
+earth, which the wind puffed out like a sail, he beheld a dark room, from
+which a similar one opened on the right and left.  The one on the left
+was as dark as the central one; but a flickering light stole through
+numerous chinks of the one on the right.  The tent was one of those with
+a flat roof, divided into three apartments, which he had often seen, and
+the woman who irresistibly attracted him was doubtless in the lighted
+one.
+
+To avoid exposing himself to fresh suspicion, he must conquer his timid
+delay, and he had already stooped and loosed the loop which fastened the
+curtain to the hook in the floor, when the door of the lighted room
+opened and a woman's figure entered the dark central chamber.
+
+Was it she?
+
+Should he venture to speak to her?  Yes, it must be done.
+
+Panting for breath and clenching his hands, he summoned up his courage as
+if he were about to steal unbidden into the most sacred sanctuary of a
+temple.  Then he pushed the curtain aside, and the woman whom he had just
+noticed greeted him with a low cry.
+
+But he speedily regained his composure, for a ray of light had fallen on
+her face, revealing that the person who stood before him was not Kasana,
+but her nurse, who had accompanied her to the prisoners and then to the
+camp.  She, too, recognized him and stared at him as though he had risen
+from the grave.
+
+They were old acquaintances; for when he was first brought to the
+archer's house she had prepared his bath and moistened his wound with
+balsam, and during his second stay beneath the same roof, she had joined
+her mistress in nursing him.  They had chatted away many an hour
+together, and he knew that she was kindly disposed toward him; for when
+midway between waking and sleeping, in his burning fever, her hand had
+stroked him with maternal tenderness, and afterwards she had never
+wearied of questioning him about his people and at last had acknowledged
+that she was descended from the Syrians, who were allied to the Hebrews.
+Nay, even his language was not wholly strange to her; for she had been a
+woman of twenty when dragged to Egypt with other prisoners of Rameses the
+Great.  Ephraim, she was fond of saying, reminded her of her own son when
+he was still younger.
+
+The youth had no ill to fear from her, so grasping her hand, he whispered
+that he had escaped from his guards and come to ask counsel from her
+mistress and herself.
+
+The word "escaped" was sufficient to satisfy the old woman; for her idea
+of ghosts was that they put others to flight, but did not fly themselves.
+Relieved, she stroked the youth's curls and, ere his whispered
+explanation was ended, turned her back upon him and hurried into the
+lighted room to tell her mistress whom she had found outside.
+
+A few minutes after Ephraim was standing before the woman who had become
+the guiding star of his life.  With glowing cheeks he gazed into the
+beautiful face, still flushed by weeping, and though it gave his heart a
+pang when, before vouchsafing him a greeting, she enquired whether Hosea
+had accompanied him, he forgot the foolish pain when he saw her gaze
+warmly at him.  Yet when the nurse asked whether she did not think he
+looked well and vigorous, and withal more manly in appearance, it seemed
+as though he had really grown taller, and his heart beat faster and
+faster.
+
+Kasana desired to learn the minutest details of his uncle's experiences;
+but after he had done her bidding and finally yielded to the wish to
+speak of his own fate, she interrupted him to consult the nurse
+concerning the means of saving him from unbidden looks and fresh
+dangers--and the right expedient was soon found.
+
+First, with Ephraim's help, the old woman closed the main entrance of the
+tent as firmly as possible, and then pointed to the dark room into which
+he must speedily and softly retire as soon as she beckoned to him.
+
+Meanwhile Kasana had poured some wine into a goblet, and when he came
+back with the nurse she made him sit down on the giraffe skin at her feet
+and asked how he had succeeded in evading the guards, and what he
+expected from the future.  She would tell him in advance that her father
+had remained in Tanis, so he need not fear recognition and betrayal.
+
+Her pleasure in this meeting was evident to both eyes and ears; nay,
+when Ephraim commenced his story by saying that Prince Siptah's command
+to remove the prisoners' chains, for which they were indebted solely to
+her, had rendered his escape possible, she clapped her hands like a
+child.  Then her face clouded and, with a deep sigh, she added that ere
+his arrival her heart had almost broken with grief and tears; but Hosea
+should learn what a woman would sacrifice for the most ardent desire of
+her heart.
+
+She repaid with grateful words Ephraim's assurance that, before his
+flight, he had offered to release his uncle from his bonds and, when she
+learned that Joshua had refused to accept his nephew's aid, lest it might
+endanger the success of the plan he had cleverly devised for him, she
+cried out to her nurse, with tearful eyes, that Hosea alone would have
+been capable of such a deed.
+
+To the remainder of the fugitive's tale she listened intently, often
+interrupting him with sympathizing questions.
+
+The torturing days and nights of the past, which had reached such a happy
+termination, seemed now like a blissful dream, a bewildering fairy-tale,
+and the goblet she constantly replenished was not needed to lend fire to
+his narrative.
+
+Never before had he been so eloquent as while describing how, in the
+ravine, he had stepped on some loose stones and rolled head foremost down
+into the chasm with them.  On reaching the bottom he had believed that
+all was lost; for soon after extricating himself from the rubbish that
+had buried him, in order to hurry to the pool, he had heard the whistle
+of the guards.
+
+Yet he had been a good runner from his childhood, had learned in his
+native pastures to guide himself by the light of the stars, so without
+glancing to the right or to the left, he had hastened southward as fast
+as his feet would carry him.  Often in the darkness he had fallen over
+stones or tripped in the hollows of the desert sand, but only to rise
+again quickly and dash onward, onward toward the south, where he knew he
+should find her, Kasana, her for whose sake he recklessly flung to the
+winds what wiser-heads had counselled, her for whom he was ready to
+sacrifice liberty and life.
+
+Whence he derived the courage to confess this, he knew not, and neither
+the blow from her fan, nor the warning exclamation of the nurse: "Just
+look at the boy!" sobered him.  Nay, his sparkling eyes sought hers still
+mote frequently as he continued his story.
+
+One of the hounds which attacked him he had flung against a rock, and the
+other he pelted with stones till it fled howling into a thicket.  He had
+seen no other pursuers, either that night, or during the whole of the
+next day.  At last he again reached a travelled road and found country
+people who told him which way Pharaoh's army had marched.  At noon,
+overwhelmed by fatigue, he had fallen asleep under the shade of a
+sycamore, and when he awoke the sun was near its setting.  He was very
+hungry, so he took a few turnips from a neighboring field.  But their
+owner suddenly sprang from a ditch near by, and he barely escaped his
+pursuit.
+
+He had wandered along during a part of the night, and then rested beside
+a well on the roadside, for he knew that wild beasts shun such frequented
+places.
+
+After sunrise he continued his march, following the road taken by the
+army.  Everywhere he found traces of it, and when, shortly before noon,
+exhausted and faint from hunger, he reached a village in the cornlands
+watered by the Seti-canal, he debated whether to sell his gold armlet,
+obtain more strengthening food, and receive some silver and copper in
+change.  But he was afraid of being taken for a thief and again
+imprisoned, for his apron had been tattered by the thorns, and his
+sandals had long since dropped from his feet.  He had believed that even
+the hardest hearts could not fail to pity his misery so, hard as it was
+for him, he had knocked at a peasant's door and begged.  But the man gave
+him nothing save the jeering counsel that a strong young fellow like him
+ought to use his arms and leave begging to the old and weak.  A second
+peasant had even threatened to beat him; but as he walked on with
+drooping bead, a young woman whom he had noticed in front of the
+barbarian's house followed him, thrust some bread and dates into his
+hand, and whispered hastily that heavy taxes had been levied on the
+village when Pharaoh marched through, or she would have given him
+something better.
+
+This unexpected donation, which he had eaten at the next well, had not
+tasted exactly like a festal banquet, but he did not tell Kasana that it
+had been embittered by the doubt whether to fulfil Joshua's commission
+and return to his people or yield to the longing that drew him to her.
+
+He moved forward irresolutely, but fate seemed to have undertaken to
+point out his way; for after walking a short half hour, the latter
+portion of the time through barren land, he had found by the wayside a
+youth of about his own age who, moaning with pain, held his foot clasped
+between both hands.  Pity led him to go to him and, to his astonishment,
+he recognized the runner and messenger of Kasana's father, with whom he
+had often talked.
+
+"Apu, our nimble Nubian runner?"  cried the young widow, and Ephraim
+assented and then added that the messenger had been despatched to convey
+a letter to Prince Siptah as quickly as possible, and the swift-footed
+lad, who was wont to outstrip his master's noble steeds, had shot over
+the road like an arrow and would have reached his destination in two
+hours more, had he not stepped on the sharp edge of a bottle that had
+been shattered by a wagon-wheel--and made a deep and terrible wound.
+
+"And you helped him?"  asked Kasana.
+
+"How could I do otherwise?"  replied Ephraim.  "He had already lost a
+great deal of blood and was pale as death.  So I carried him to the
+nearest ditch, washed the gaping wound, and anointed it with his balsam."
+
+"I put the little box in his pouch myself a year ago," said the nurse who
+was easily moved, wiping her eyes.  Ephraim confirmed the statement, for
+Apu had gratefully told him of it.  Then he went on.
+
+"I tore my upper garment into strips and bandaged the wound as well as I
+could.  Meanwhile he constantly urged haste, held out the pass and letter
+his master had given him and, knowing nothing of the misfortune which had
+befallen me, charged me to deliver the roll to the prince in his place.
+Oh, how willingly I undertook the task and, soon after the second hour
+had passed, I reached the camp.  The letter is in the prince's hands, and
+here am I--and I can see that you are glad!  But no one was ever so happy
+as I to sit here at your feet, and look up to you, so grateful as I am
+that you have listened to me so kindly, and if they load me with chains
+again I will bear it calmly, if you will but care for me.  Ah, my
+misfortune has been so great!  I have neither father nor mother, no one
+who loves me.  You, you alone are dear, and you will not repulse me, will
+you?"
+
+He had fairly shouted the last words, as if beside himself, and carried
+away by the might of passion and rendered incapable by the terrible
+experiences of the past few hours of controlling the emotions that
+assailed him, the youth, still scarcely beyond childhood, who saw himself
+torn away from and bereft of all that had usually sustained and supported
+him, sobbed aloud, and like a frightened birdling seeking protection
+under its mother's wings, hid his head, amid floods of tears, in Kasana's
+lap.
+
+Warm compassion seized upon the tender-hearted young widow, and her own
+eyes grew dim.  She laid her hands kindly upon his head, and feeling the
+tremor that shook the frame of the weeping lad, she raised his head with
+both hands, kissed his brow and cheeks, looked smilingly into his eyes
+with tears in her own, and exclaimed:
+
+"You poor, foolish fellow!  Why should  I not care for you, why should I
+repel you?  Your uncle is the most beloved of men to me, and you are like
+his son.  For your sakes I have already accepted what I should otherwise
+have thrust far, far from me!  But now I must go on, and must not care
+what others may think or say of me, if only I can accomplish the one
+thing for which I am risking person, life, all that I once prized!  Wait,
+you poor, impulsive fellow!"--and here she again kissed him on the
+cheeks--"I shall succeed in smoothing the path for you also.  That is
+enough now!"
+
+This command sounded graver, and was intended to curb the increasing
+impetuosity of the ardent youth.  But she suddenly started up, exclaiming
+with anxious haste: "Go, go, at once!"
+
+The footsteps of men approaching the tent, and a warning word from the
+nurse had brought this stern order to the young widow's lips, and
+Ephraim's quick ear made him understand her anxiety and urged him to join
+the old nurse in the dark room.  There he perceived that a few moments'
+delay would have betrayed him; for the curtain of the tent was drawn
+aside and a man passed through the central space straight to the lighted
+apartment, where Kasana--the youth heard it distinctly--welcomed the new
+guest only too cordially, as though his late arrival surprised her.
+
+Meanwhile the nurse had seized her own cloak, flung it over the
+fugitive's bare shoulders, and whispered:
+
+"Be near the tent just before sunrise, but do not enter it until I call
+you, if you value your life.  You have neither mother nor father, and my
+child Kasana ah, what a dear, loving heart she has!--she is the best
+of all good women; but whether she is fit to be the guide of an
+inexperienced young blusterer, whose heart is blazing like dry straw with
+love for her, is another question.  I considered many things, while
+listening to your story, and on account of my liking for you I will tell
+you this.  You have an uncle who--my child is right there--is the best of
+men, and I know mankind.  Whatever he advised, do; for it will surely
+benefit you.  Obey him!  If his bidding leads you far away from here and
+Kasana, so much the better for you.  We are walking in dangerous paths,
+and had it not been done for Hosea's sake, I would have tried to hold her
+back with all my might.  But for him--I am an old woman; but I would go
+through fire myself for that man.  I am more grieved than I can tell,
+both for the pure, sweet child and for yourself, whom my own son was once
+so much like, so I repeat: Obey your uncle, boy!  Do that, or you will go
+to ruin, and that would be a pity!"
+
+With these words, without waiting for an answer, she drew the curtain of
+the tent aside, and waited until Ephraim had slipped through.  Then,
+wiping her eyes, she entered, as if by chance, the lighted chamber;
+but Kasana and her late guest had matters to discuss that brooked no
+witnesses, and her "dear child" only permitted her to light her little
+lamp at the three-armed candelabra, and then sent her to rest.
+
+She promptly obeyed and, in the dark room, where her couch stood beside
+that of her mistress, she sank down, hid her face in her hands, and wept.
+
+She felt as though the world was upside down.  She no longer understood
+her darling Kasana; for she was sacrificing purity and honor for the sake
+of a man whom--she knew it--her soul abhorred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Ephriam cowered in the shadow of the tent, from which he had slipped,
+and pressed his ear close to the wall.  He had cautiously ripped a small
+opening in a seam of the cloth, so he could see and hear what was passing
+in the lighted room of the woman he loved.  The storm kept every one
+within the tents whom duty did not summon into the open air, and Ephraim
+had less reason to fear discovery on account of the deep shadow that
+rested on the spot where he lay.  The nurse's cloak covered him and,
+though shiver after shiver shook his young limbs, it was due to the
+bitter anguish that pierced his soul.
+
+The man on whose breast he saw Kasana lay her head was a prince, a person
+of high rank and great power, and the capricious beauty did not always
+repel the bold man, when his lips sought those for whose kiss Ephraim so
+ardently longed.
+
+She owed him nothing, it is true, yet her heart belonged to his uncle,
+whom she had preferred to all others.  She had declared herself ready to
+endure the most terrible things for his liberation; and now his own eyes
+told him that she was false and faithless, that she granted to another
+what belonged to one alone.  She had bestowed caresses on him, too, but
+these were only the crumbs that fell from Hosea's table, a robbery--he
+confessed it with a blush--he had perpetrated on his uncle, yet he felt
+offended, insulted, deceived, and consumed to his inmost soul with fierce
+jealousy on behalf of his uncle, whom he honored, nay, loved, though he
+had opposed his wishes.
+
+And Hosea?  Why, he too, like himself, this princely suitor, and all
+other men, must love her, spite of his strange conduct at the well by the
+roadside--it was impossible for him to do otherwise--and now, safe from
+the poor prisoner's resentment, she was basely, treacherously enjoying
+another's tender caresses.
+
+Siptah, he had heard at their last meeting, was his uncle's foe, and it
+was to him that she betrayed the man she loved!
+
+The chink in the tent was ready to show him everything that occurred
+within, but he often closed his eyes that he might not behold it.  Often,
+it is true, the hateful scene held him in thrall by a mysterious spell
+and he would fain have torn the walls of the tent asunder, struck the
+detested Egyptian to the ground, and shouted into the faithless woman's
+face the name of Hosea, coupled with the harshest reproaches.
+
+The fervent passion which had taken possession of him was suddenly
+transformed to hate and scorn.  He had believed himself to be the
+happiest of mortals, and he had suddenly become the most miserable; no
+one, he believed, had ever experienced such a fall from the loftiest
+heights to the lowest depths.
+
+The nurse had been right.  Naught save misery and despair could come to
+him from so faithless a woman.
+
+Once he started up to fly, but he again heard the bewitching tones of her
+musical laugh, and mysterious powers detained him, forcing him to listen.
+
+At first the seething blood had throbbed so violently in his ears that he
+felt unable to follow the dialogue in the lighted tent.  But, by degrees,
+he grasped the purport of whole sentences, and now he understood all that
+they said, not a word of their further conversation escaped him, and it
+was absorbing enough, though it revealed a gulf from which he shrank
+shuddering.
+
+Kasana refused the bold suitor many favors for which he pleaded, but this
+only impelled him to beseech her more fervently to give herself to him,
+and the prize he offered in return was the highest gift of earth, the
+place by his side as queen on the throne of Egypt, to which he aspired.
+He said this distinctly, but what followed was harder to understand; for
+the passionate suitor was in great haste and often interrupted his hasty
+sentences to assure Kasana, to whose hands in this hour he was committing
+his life and liberty, of his changeless love, or to soothe her when the
+boldness of his advances awakened fear and aversion.  But he soon began
+to speak of the letter whose bearer Ephraim had been and, after reading
+it aloud and explaining it, the youth realized with a slight shudder that
+he had become an accomplice in the most criminal of all plots, and for a
+moment the longing stole over him to betray the traitors and deliver them
+into the hand of the mighty sovereign whose destruction they were
+plotting.  But he repelled the thought and merely sunned himself in the
+pleasurable consciousness--the first during this cruel hour-of holding
+Kasana and her royal lover in his hand as one holds a beetle by a string.
+This had a favorable effect on him and restored the confidence and
+courage he had lost.  The baser the things he continued to hear, the more
+clearly he learned to appreciate the value of the goodness and truth
+which he had lost.  His uncle's words, too, came back to his memory.
+
+"Give no man, from the loftiest to the lowliest, a right to regard you
+save with respect, and you can hold your head as high as the proudest
+warrior who ever wore purple robe and golden armor."
+
+On the couch in Kasana's house, while shaking with fever, he had
+constantly repeated this sentence; but in the misery of captivity, and on
+his flight it had again vanished from his memory.  In the courtier's tent
+when, after he had bathed and perfumed himself, the old slave held a
+mirror before him, he had given it a passing thought; but now it mastered
+his whole soul.  And strange to say, the worthless traitor within wore a
+purple coat and golden mail, and looked like a military hero, but he
+could not hold his head erect, for the work he sought to accomplish could
+only succeed in the sccresy that shuns the light, and was like the labor
+of the hideous mole which undermines the ground in the darkness.
+
+His tool was the repulsive cloven-footed trio, falsehood, fraud, and
+faithlessness, and she whom he had chosen for his help-mate was the
+woman--it shamed him to his inmost soul-for whom he had been in the act
+of sacrificing all that was honorable, precious, and dear to him.
+
+The worst infamies which he had been taught to shun were the rounds of
+the ladder on which this evil man intended to mount.
+
+The roll the youth had brought to the camp contained two letters.  The
+first was from the conspirators in Tanis, the second from Siptah's
+mother.
+
+The former desired his speedy return and told him that the Syrian Aarsu,
+the commander of the foreign mercenaries, who guarded the palace, as well
+as the women's house, was ready to do him homage.  If the high-priest of
+Amon, who was at once chief-judge, viceroy and keeper of the seal,
+proclaimed him king, he was sovereign and could enter the palace which
+stood open to him and ascend the throne without resistance.  If Pharaoh
+returned, the body-guards would take him prisoner and remove him as
+Siptah, who liked no halfway measures, had secretly directed, while the
+chief-priest insisted upon keeping him in mild imprisonment.
+
+Nothing was to be feared save the premature return from Thebes of Seti,
+the second son of Menephtah; for the former, after his older brother's
+death, had become heir to the throne, and carrier doves had brought news
+yesterday that he was now on his way.  Therefore Siptah and the powerful
+priest who was to proclaim him king were urged to the utmost haste.
+
+The necessary measures had been adopted in case of possible resistance
+from the army; for as soon as the Hebrews had been destroyed, the larger
+portion of the troops, without any suspicion of the impending
+dethronement of their commander-in-chief, would be sent to their former
+stations.  The body-guards were devoted to Siptah, and the others who
+entered the capital, should worst come to worst, could be easily
+overpowered by Aarsu and his mercenaries.
+
+"There is nothing farther for me to do," said the prince, "stretching
+himself comfortably, like a man who has successfully accomplished a
+toilsome task," except to rush back to Tanis in a few hours with Bai,
+have myself crowned and proclaimed king in the temple of Amon, and
+finally received in the palace as Pharaoh.  The rest will take care of
+itself.  Seti, whom they call the heir to the throne, is just such
+another weakling as his father, and must submit to a fixed fact, or if
+necessary, be forced to do so.  The captain of the body-guards will see
+that Menephtah does not again enter the palace in the city of Rameses.
+
+The second letter which was addressed to the Pharaoh, had been written by
+the mother of the prince in order to recall her son and the chief-priest
+Bai to the capital as quickly as possible, without exposing the former to
+the reproach of cowardice for having quitted the army so shortly before
+the battle.  Though she had never been better, she protested with
+hypocritical complaints and entreaties, that the hours of her life were
+numbered, and besought the king to send her son and the chief-priest Bai
+to her without delay, that she might be permitted to bless her only child
+before her death.
+
+She was conscious of many a sin, and no one, save the high-priest,
+possessed the power of winning the favor of the gods for her, a dying
+woman.  Without his intercession she would perish in despair.
+
+This letter, too, the base robber of a crown read aloud, called it a
+clever bit of feminine strategy, and rubbed his hands gleefully.
+
+Treason, murder, hypocrisy, fraud, shameful abuse of the most sacred
+feelings, nay all that was evil must serve Siptah to steal the throne,
+and though Kasana had wrung her hands and shed tears when she heard
+that he meant to remove Pharaoh from his path, she grew calmer after
+the prince had represented that her own father had approved of his
+arrangements for the deliverance of Egypt from the hand of the king, her
+destroyer.
+
+The letter from the prince's mother to Pharaoh, the mother who urged her
+own son to the most atrocious crimes, was the last thing Ephraim heard;
+for it roused in the young Hebrew, who was wont to consider nothing purer
+and more sacred than the bonds which united parents and children, such
+fierce indignation, that he raised his fist threateningly and, springing
+up, opened his lips in muttered invective.
+
+He did not hear that Kasana made the prince swear that, if he attained
+the sovereign power, he would grant her first request.  It should cost
+him neither money nor lands, and only give her the right to exercise
+mercy where her heart demanded it; for things were in store which must
+challenge the wrath of the gods and he must leave her to soothe it.
+
+Ephraim could not endure to see or hear more of these abominable things.
+
+For the first time he felt how great a danger he ran of being dragged
+into this marsh and becoming a lost, evil man; but never, he thought,
+would he have been so corrupt, so worthless, as this prince.  His uncle's
+words again returned to his mind, and he now raised his head proudly and
+arched his chest as if to assure himself of his own unbroken vigor,
+saying meanwhile, with a long breath, that he was of too much worth to
+ruin himself for the sake of a wicked woman, even though, like Kasana,
+she was the fairest and most bewitching under the sun.
+
+Away, away from the neighborhood of this net, which threatened to
+entangle him in murder and every deed of infamy.
+
+Resolved to seek his people, he turned toward the gate of the camp, but
+after a few hasty steps paused, and a glance at the sky showed him that
+it was the second hour past midnight.  Every surrounding object was
+buried in silence save that from the neighboring Dens of the royal
+steeds, came the sound of the rattle of a chain, or of the stamp of a
+stallion's hoof.
+
+If he risked escaping from the camp now, he could not fail to be seen and
+stopped.  Prudence commanded him to curb his impatience and, as he
+glanced around, his eyes rested on the chamberlain's tent from which the
+old slave had just emerged to look for his master, who was still waiting
+in the prince's tent for his lord's return.
+
+The old man had treated Ephraim kindly, and now asked him with good-
+natured urgency to come in and rest; for the youth needed sleep.
+
+And Ephraim accepted the well-meant invitation.  He felt for the first
+time how weary his feet were, and he had scarcely stretched himself upon
+the mat which the old slave--it was his own--spread on the floor of the
+tent for him, ere the feeling came over him that his limbs were relaxing;
+and yet he had expected to find here time and rest for calm deliberation.
+
+He began, too, to think of the future and his uncle's commission.
+
+That he must join his people without delay was decided.  If they escaped
+Pharaoh's army, the others could do what they pleased, his duty was to
+summon his shepherds, servants, and the youths of his own age, and with
+them hurry to the mines to break Joshua's chains and bring him back to
+his old father and the people who needed him.  He already saw himself
+with a sling in his girdle and a battle-axe in his hand, rushing on in
+advance of the others, when sleep overpowered him and bound the sorely
+wearied youth so firmly and sweetly that even dreams remained aloof from
+his couch and when morning came the old slave was obliged to shake him to
+rouse him.
+
+The camp was already pervaded with bustling life.  Tents were struck,
+asses and ox-carts laden, steeds curried and newly-shod, chariots washed,
+weapons and harnesses cleaned, breakfast was distributed and eaten.
+
+At intervals the blare of trumpets was heard in one direction, loudly
+shouted commands in another, and from the eastern portion of the camp
+echoed the chanting of the priests, who devoutly greeted the new-born
+sun-god.
+
+A gilded chariot, followed by a similar one, drove up to the costly
+purple tent beside Kasana's, which active servants were beginning to take
+down.
+
+Prince Siptah and the chief-priest Bai had received Pharaoh's permission
+to set off for Tanis, to fulfil the wish of a "dying woman."
+
+Soon after Ephraim took leave of the old slave and bade him give Kasana's
+nurse the cloak and tell her that the messenger had followed her advice
+and his uncle's.
+
+Then he set off on his walk.
+
+He escaped unchallenged from the Egyptian camp and, as he entered the
+wilderness, he heard the shout with which he called his shepherds in the
+pastures.  The cry, resounding far over the plain, startled a sparrow-
+hawk which was gazing into the distance from a rock and, as the bird
+soared upward, the youth fancied that if he stretched out his arms, wings
+must unfold strong enough to bear him also through the air.  Never had he
+felt so light and active, so strong and free, nay had the priest at this
+hour asked him the question whether he would accept the office of a
+captain of thousands in the Egyptian army, he would undoubtedly have
+answered, as he did before the ruined house of Nun, that his sole desire
+was to remain a shepherd and rule his flocks and servants.
+
+He was an orphan, but he had a nation, and where his people were was his
+home.
+
+Like a wanderer, who, after a long journey, sees his home in the
+distance, he quickened his pace.
+
+He had reached Tanis on the night of the new moon and the round silver
+shield which was paling in the morning light was the same which had then
+risen before his eyes.  Yet it seemed as though years lay between his
+farewell of Miriam and the present hour, and the experiences of a life
+had been compressed into these few days.
+
+He had left his tribe a boy; he returned a man; yet, thanks to this one
+terrible night, he had remained unchanged, he could look those whom he
+loved and reverenced fearlessly in the face.
+
+Nay, more!
+
+He would show the man whom he most esteemed that he, too, Ephraim, could
+hold his head high.  He would repay Joshua for what he had done, when he
+remained in chains and captivity that he, his nephew, might go forth as
+free as a bird.
+
+After hurrying onward an hour, he reached a ruined watch-tower, climbed
+to its summit, and saw, at a short distance beyond the mount of Baal-
+zephon, which had long towered majestically on the horizon, the
+glittering northern point of the Red Sea.
+
+The storm, it is true, had subsided, but he perceived by the surging of
+its emerald surface that the sea was by no means calm, and single black
+clouds in the sky, elsewhere perfectly clear, seemed to indicate an
+approaching tempest.
+
+He gazed around him asking himself what the leader of the people probably
+intended, if--as the prince had told Kasana--they had encamped between
+Pihahiroth--whose huts and tents rose before him on the narrow gulf the
+northwestern arm of the Red Sea thrust into the land--and the mount of
+Baal-zephon.
+
+Had Siptah lied in this too?
+
+No.  This time the malicious traitor had departed from his usual custom;
+for between the sea and the village, where the wind was blowing slender
+columns of smoke asunder, his falcon-eye discovered many light spots
+resembling a distant flock of sheep, and among and beside them a singular
+movement to and fro upon the sands.
+
+It was the camp of his people.
+
+How short seemed the distance that separated him from them!
+
+Yet the nearer it was, the greater became his anxiety lest the great
+multitude, with the women and children, herds and tents, could not escape
+the vast army which must overtake them in a few hours.
+
+His heart shrank as he gazed around him; for neither to the east, where a
+deeper estuary was surging, nor southward, where the Red Sea tossed its
+angry waves, nor even toward the north, whence Pharaoh's army was
+marching, was escape possible.  To the west lay the wilderness of Aean,
+and if the wanderers escaped in that direction, and were pressed farther,
+they would again enter Egyptian soil and the exodus would be utterly
+defeated.
+
+So there was nothing left save to risk a battle, and at the thought a
+chill ran through the youth's veins; for he knew how badly armed,
+untrained, savage, unmanageable, and cowardly were the men of his race,
+and had witnessed the march of the powerful, well-equipped Egyptian army,
+with its numerous foot-soldiers and superb war-chariots.
+
+To him now, as to his uncle a short time before, his people seemed doomed
+to certain destruction, unless succored by the God of his fathers.  In
+former years, and just before his departure, Miriam, with sparkling eyes
+and enthusiastic words, had praised the power and majesty of this
+omnipotent Lord, who preferred his people above all other nations; but
+the lofty words of the prophetess had filled his childish heart with a
+slight fear of the unapproachable greatness and terrible wrath of this
+God.
+
+It had been easier for him to uplift his soul to the sun-god, when his
+teacher, a kind and merry-hearted Egyptian priest, led him to the temple
+of Pithom.  In later years he had felt no necessity of appealing to any
+god; for he lacked nothing, and while other boys obeyed their parents'
+commands, the shepherds, who well knew that the flocks they tended
+belonged to him, called him their young master, and first in jest, then
+in earnest, paid him all the honor due a ruler, which prematurely
+increased his self-importance and made him an obstinate fellow.
+
+He whom stalwart, strong men obeyed, was sufficient unto himself, and
+felt that others needed him and, as nothing was more difficult for him
+than to ask a favor, great or small, from any one, he rebelled against
+praying to a God so far off and high above him.
+
+But now, when his heart was oppressed by the terrible destiny that
+threatened his people, he was overwhelmed by the feeling that only the
+Greatest and Mightiest could deliver them from this terrible, unspeakable
+peril, as if no one could withstand this powerful army, save He whose
+might could destroy heaven and earth.
+
+What were they that the Most High, whom Miriam and Hosea described as so
+pre-eminently great, should care for them?  Yet his people numbered many
+thousands, and God had not disdained to make them His, and promise great
+things for them in the future.  Now they were on the verge of
+destruction, and he, Ephraim, who came from the camp of the enemy, was
+perhaps the sole person who saw the full extent of the danger.
+
+Suddenly he was filled with the conviction that it was incumbent upon
+him, above all others, to tell the God of his fathers,--who perhaps in
+caring for earth and heaven, sun and stars, had forgotten the fate of His
+people--of the terrible danger impending, and beseech Him to save them.
+He was still standing on the top of the ruined tower, and raised his arms
+and face toward heaven.
+
+In the north he saw the black clouds which he had noticed in the blue sky
+swiftly massing and rolling hither and thither.  The wind, which had
+subsided after sunrise, was increasing in strength and power, and rapidly
+becoming a storm.  It swept across the isthmus in gusts, which followed
+one another more and more swiftly, driving before them dense clouds of
+yellow sand.
+
+He must lift up his voice loudly, that the God to whom he prayed might
+hear him in His lofty heaven, so, with all the strength of his young
+lungs, he shouted into the storm:
+
+"Adonai, Adonai!  Thou, whom they call Jehovah, mighty God of my fathers,
+hear me, Ephraim, a young inexperienced lad, of whom, in his
+insignificance, Thou hast probably never thought.  I ask nothing for
+myself.  But the people, whom Thou dost call Thine, are in sore peril.
+They have left durable houses and good pastures because Thou didst
+promise them a better and more beautiful land, and they trusted in Thee
+and Thy promises.  But now the army of Pharaoh is approaching, so great a
+host that our people will never be able to resist it.  Thou must believe
+this, Eli, my Lord.  I have seen it and been in its midst.  So surely as
+I stand here, I know that it is too mighty for Thy people.  Pharaoh's
+power will crush them as the hoofs of the cattle trample the grain on the
+threshing-floor.  And my people, who are also Thine, are encamped in a
+spot where Pharaoh's warriors can cut them down from all directions, so
+that there is no way for them to fly, not one.  I saw it distinctly from
+this very spot.  Hear me now, Adonai.  But canst Thou hear my words, oh
+Lord, in such a tempest?  Surely Thou canst; for they call Thee
+omnipotent and, if Thou dost hear me and dost understand the meaning of
+my words, Thou wilt see with Thy mighty eyes, if such is Thy will, that I
+speak the truth.  Then Thou wilt surely remember the vow Thou didst make
+to the people through Thy servant Moses.
+
+"Among the Egyptians, I have witnessed treachery and murder and shameful
+wiles; their deeds have filled me, who am myself but a sinful,
+inexperienced youth, with horror and indignation.  How couldst Thou, from
+whom all good is said to proceed, and whom Miriam calls truth itself, act
+like those abominable men and break faith with those who trusted in Thee?
+I know, Thou great and mighty One, that this is far from Thee, nay,
+perhaps it is a sin even to cherish such a thought.  Hear me, Adonai!
+Look northward at the troops of the Egyptians, who will surely soon leave
+their camp and march forward, and southward to the peril of Thy people,
+for whom escape is no longer possible, and Thou wilt rescue them by Thy
+omnipotence and great wisdom; for Thou hast promised them a new country,
+and if they are destroyed, how can they reach it?"
+
+With these words he finished his prayer, which, though boyish and
+incoherent, gushed from the inmost depths of his heart.  Then he sprang
+with long leaps from the ruined tower to the barren plain at his feet,
+and ran southward as fleetly as if he were escaping from captivity a
+second time.  He felt how the wind rushing from the north-east urged him
+forward, and told himself that it would also hasten the march of
+Pharaoh's soldiers.  Perhaps the leaders of his people did not yet know
+how vast was the military power that threatened them, and undervalued the
+danger in which their position placed them.  But he saw it, and could
+give them every information.  Haste was necessary, and he felt as though
+he had gained wings in this race with the storm.
+
+The village of Pihahiroth was soon gained, and while dashing by it
+without pausing, he noticed that its huts and tents were deserted by men
+and cattle.  Perhaps its inhabitants had fled with their property to a
+place of safety before the advancing Egyptian troops or the hosts of his
+own people.
+
+The farther he went, the more cloudy became the sky,--which here so
+rarely failed to show a sunny vault of blue at noonday,--the more
+fiercely howled the tempest.  His thick locks fluttered wildly around his
+burning head, he panted for breath, yet flew on, on, while his sandals
+seemed to him to scarcely touch the ground.
+
+The nearer he came to the sea, the louder grew the howling and whistling
+of the storm, the more furious the roar of the waves dashing against the
+rocks of Baal-zephon.  Now--a short hour after he had left the tower--he
+reached the first tents of the camp, and the familiar cry: "Unclean!"  as
+well as the mourning-robes of those whose scaly, disfigured faces looked
+forth from the ruins of the tents which the storm had overthrown,
+informed him that he had reached the lepers, whom Moses had commanded to
+remain outside the camp.
+
+Yet so great was his haste that, instead of making a circuit around their
+quarter, he dashed straight through it at his utmost speed.  Nor did he
+pause even when a lofty palm, uprooted by the tempest, fell to the ground
+so close beside him that the fan-shaped leaves in its crown brushed his
+face.
+
+At last he gained the tents and pinfolds of his people, not a few of
+which had also been overthrown, and asked the first acquaintances he met
+for Nun, the father of his dead mother and of Joshua.
+
+He had gone down to the shore with Moses and other elders of the people.
+Ephraim followed him there, and the damp, salt sea-air refreshed him and
+cooled his brow.
+
+Yet he could not instantly get speech with him, so he collected his
+thoughts, and recovered his breath, while watching the men whom he sought
+talking eagerly with some gaily-clad Phoenician sailors.  A youth like
+Ephraim might not venture to interrupt the grey-haired heads of the
+people in the discussion, which evidently referred to the sea; for the
+Hebrews constantly pointed to the end of the bay, and the Phoenicians
+sometimes thither, sometimes to the mountain and the sky, sometimes to
+the north, the center of the still increasing tempest.
+
+A projecting wall sheltered the old men from the hurricane, yet they
+found it difficult to stand erect, even while supported by their staves
+and clinging to the stones of the masonry.
+
+At last the conversation ended and while the youth saw the gigantic
+figure of Moses go with slow, yet firm steps among the leaders of the
+Hebrews down to the shore of the sea, Nun, supported by one of his
+shepherds, was working his way with difficulty, but as rapidly as
+possible toward the camp.  He wore a mourning-robe, and while the others
+looked joyous and hopeful when they parted, his handsome face, framed by
+its snow-white beard and hair, had the expression of one whose mind and
+body were burdened by grief.
+
+Not until Ephraim called him did he raise his drooping leonine head, and
+when he saw him he started back in surprise and terror, and clung more
+firmly to the strong arm of the shepherd who supported him.
+
+Tidings of the cruel fate of his son and grandson had reached him through
+the freed slaves he had left in Tanis; and the old man had torn his
+garments, strewed ashes on his head, donned mourning robes, and grieved
+bitterly for his beloved, noble, only son and promising grandson.
+
+Now Ephraim was standing before him; and after Nun had laid his hand on
+his shoulders, and kissed him again and again, he asked if his son was
+still alive and remembered him and his people.
+
+As soon as the youth had joyfully assured him that such was the case, Nun
+threw his arms around the boy's shoulders, that henceforth his own blood,
+instead of a stranger, should protect him from the violence of the storm.
+
+He had grave and urgent duties to fulfil, from which nothing might
+withhold him.  Yet as the fiery youth shouted into his ear, through the
+roar of the hurricane, on their way through the camp, that he would
+summon his shepherds and the companions of his own age to release Hosea,
+who now called himself Joshua, old Nun's impetuous spirit awoke and,
+clasping Ephraim closer to his heart, he cried out that though an old man
+he was not yet too aged to swing an axe and go with Ephraim's youthful
+band to liberate his son.  His eyes sparkled through his tears, and
+waving his free arm aloft, he cried:
+
+"The God of my fathers, on whom I learned to rely, watches over His
+faithful people.  Do you see the sand, sea-weed, and shells yonder at the
+end of the estuary?  An hour ago the place was covered with water, and
+roaring waves were dashing their white spray upward.  That is the way,
+boy, which promises escape; if the wind holds, the water--so the
+experienced Phoenicians assure us--will recede still farther toward the
+sea.  Their god of the north wind, they say, is favorable to us, and
+their boys are already lighting a fire to him on the summit of Baal-
+zephon yonder, but we know that it is Another, Who is opening to us a
+path to the desert.  We were in evil case, my boy!"
+
+"Yes, grandfather!"  cried the youth.  "You were trapped like lions in
+the snare, and the Egyptian host--it passed me from the first man to the
+last--is mighty and unconquerable.  I hurried as fast as my feet could
+carry me to tell you how many heavily-armed troops, bowmen, steeds, and
+chariots...."
+
+"We know, we know," the old man interrupted, "but here we are."
+
+He pointed to an overturned tent which his servants were trying to prop,
+and beside which an aged Hebrew, his father Elishama, wrapped in cloth,
+sat in the chair in which he was carried by bearers.
+
+Nun hastily shouted a few words and led Ephraim toward him.  But while
+the youth was embracing his great-grandfather, who hugged and caressed
+him, Nun, with youthful vivacity, was issuing orders to the shepherds and
+servants:
+
+"Let the tent fall, men!  The storm has begun the work for you!  Wrap the
+covering round the poles, load the carts and beasts of burden.  Move
+briskly, You, Gaddi, Shamma, and Jacob, join the others!  The hour for
+departure has come!  Everybody must hasten to harness the animals, put
+them in the wagons, and prepare all things as fast as possible.  The
+Almighty shows us the way, and every one must hasten, in His name and by
+the command of Moses.  Keep strictly to the old order.  We head the
+procession, then come the other tribes, lastly the strangers and leprous
+men and women.  Rejoice, oh, ye people; for our God is working a great
+miracle and making the sea dry land for us, His chosen people.  Let
+everyone thank Him while working, and pray from the depths of the heart
+that He will continue to protect us.  Let all who do not desire to be
+slain by the sword and crushed by the weight of Pharaoh's chariots put
+forth their best strength and forget rest!  That will await us as soon as
+we have escaped the present peril.  Down with the tent-cover yonder; I'll
+roll it up myself.  Lay hold, boy!  Look across at the children of
+Manasseh, they are already packing and loading.  That's right, Ephraim,
+you know how to use your hands!
+
+"What more have we to do!  My head, my forgetful old head!  So much has
+come upon me at once!  You have nimble feet, Raphu;--I undertook to warn
+the strangers to prepare for a speedy departure.  Run quickly and hurry
+them, that they may not linger too far behind the people.  Time is
+precious!  Lord, Lord, my God, extend Thy protecting hand over Thy
+people, and roll the waves still farther back with the tempest, Thy
+mighty breath!  Let every one pray silently while working, the
+Omnipresent One, Who sees the heart, will hear it.  That load is too
+heavy for you, Ephraim, you are lifting beyond your strength.  No.  The
+youth has mastered it.  Follow his example, men, and ye of Succoth,
+rejoice in your master's strength."
+
+The last words were addressed to Ephraim's shepherds, men and maid
+servants, most of whom shouted a greeting to him in the midst of their
+work, kissed his arm or hand, and rejoiced at his return.  They were
+engaged in packing and wrapping their goods, and in gathering,
+harnessing, and loading the animals, which could only be kept together
+by blows and shouts.
+
+The people from Succoth wished to vie with their young master, those from
+Tanis with their lord's grandson, and the other owners of flocks and
+lesser men of the tribe of Ephraim, whose tents surrounded that of their
+chief Nun, did the same, in order not to be surpassed by others; yet
+several hours elapsed ere all the tents, household utensils, and
+provisions for man and beast were again in their places on the animals
+and in the carts, and the aged, feeble and sick had been laid on litters
+or in wagons.
+
+Sometimes the gale bore from the distance to the spot where the
+Ephraimites were busily working the sound of Moses' deep voice or the
+higher tones of Aaron.  But neither they nor the men of the tribe of
+Judah heeded the monition; for the latter were ruled by Hur and Naashon,
+and beside the former stood his newly-wedded wife Miriam.  It was
+different with the other tribes and the strangers, to the obstinacy and
+cowardice of whose chiefs was due the present critical position of the
+people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+To break through the center of the Etham line of fortifications and march
+toward the north-east along the nearest road leading to Palestine had
+proved impossible; but Moses' second plan of leading the people around
+the Migdol of the South had also been baffled; for spies had reported
+that the garrison of the latter had been greatly strengthened.  Then the
+multitude had pressed around the man of God, declaring that they would
+rather return home with their families and appeal to Pharaoh's mercy than
+to let themselves, their wives, and their families be slaughtered.
+
+Several days had been spent in detaining them; but when other messengers
+brought tidings that Pharaoh was approaching with a powerful army the
+time seemed to have come when the wanderers, in the utmost peril, might
+be forced to break through the forts, and Moses exerted the full might of
+his commanding personality, Aaron the whole power of his seductive
+eloquence, while old Nun and Hur essayed to kindle the others with their
+own bold spirit.
+
+But the terrible news had robbed the majority of the last vestige of self
+reliance and trust in God, and they had already resolved to assure
+Pharaoh of their repentance when the messengers whom, without their
+leader's knowledge, they had sent forth, returned, announcing that the
+approaching army had been commanded to spare no Hebrew, and to show by
+the sharp edge of the sword, even to those who sued for mercy, how
+Pharaoh punished the men by whose shameful sorcery misery and woe had
+come upon so many Egyptians.
+
+Then, too late, they became aware that to return would ensure more speedy
+destruction than to boldly press forward.  But when the men capable of
+bearing arms followed Hur and Nun to the Migdol of the South, they turned
+to fly at the defiant blare of the Egyptian war trumpets.  When they came
+back to the camp with weary limbs, depressed and disheartened, new and
+exaggerated reports of Pharaoh's military force had reached the people,
+and now terror and despair had taken possession of the bolder men.  Every
+admonition was vain, every threat derided, and the rebellious people had
+forced their leaders to go with them till, after a short march, they
+reached the Red Sea, whose deep green waves had forced them to pause in
+their southward flight.
+
+So they had encamped between Pihahiroth and Baal-zephon, and here the
+leaders again succeeded in turning the attention of the despairing people
+to the God of their fathers.
+
+In the presence of sure destruction, from which no human power could save
+them, they had again learned to raise their eyes to Heaven; but Moses'
+soul had once more been thrilled with anxiety and compassion for the
+poor, sorely afflicted bands who had followed his summons.  During the
+night preceding, he had climbed one of the lower peaks of Baal-zephon
+and, amid the raging of the tempest and the roar of the hissing surges,
+sought the Lord his God, and felt his presence near him.  He, too, had
+not wearied of pleading the need of his people and adjuring him to save
+them.
+
+At the same hour Miriam, the wife of Hur, had gone to the sea-shore
+where, under a solitary palmtree, she addressed the same petition to her
+God, whose trusted servant she still felt herself.  Here she besought Him
+to remember the women and children who, trusting in Him, had wandered
+forth into distant lands.  She had also knelt to pray for the friend of
+her youth, languishing in terrible captivity; but had only cried in low,
+timid accents: "Oh, Lord, do not forget the hapless Hosea, whom at Thy
+bidding I called Joshua, though he showed himself less obedient to Thy
+will than Moses, my brother, and Hur, my husband.  Remember also the
+youthful Ephraim, the grandson of Nun, Thy faithful servant."
+
+Then she returned to the tent of the chief, her husband, while many a
+lowly man and poor anxious woman, before their rude tents or on their
+thin, tear-drenched mats, uplifted their terrified souls to the God of
+their fathers and besought His care for those who were dearest to their
+hearts.
+
+So, in this night of utmost need, the camp had become a temple in which
+high and low, the heads of families and the housewives, masters and
+slaves, nay, even the afflicted lepers sought and found their God.
+
+At last the morning came on which Ephraim had shouted his childish prayer
+amid the roaring of the storm, and the waters of the sea had begun to
+recede.
+
+When the Hebrews beheld with their own eyes the miracle that the Most
+High was working for His chosen people, even the discouraged and
+despairing became believing and hopeful.
+
+Not only the Ephraimites, but the other tribes, the foreigners, and
+lepers felt the influence of the newly-awakened joyous confidence, which
+urged each individual to put forth all his powers to prepare for the
+journey and, for the first time, the multitude gathered and formed into
+ranks without strife, bickering, deeds of violence, curses, and tears.
+
+After sunset Moses, holding his staff uplifted, and Aaron, singing and
+praying, entered at the head of the procession the end of the bay.
+
+The storm, which continued to rage with the same violence, had swept the
+water out of it and blew the flame and smoke of the torches carried by
+the tribes toward the south-west.
+
+The chief leaders, on whom all eyes rested with trusting eagerness, were
+followed by old Nun and the Ephraimites.  The bottom of the sea on which
+they trod was firm, moist sand, on which even the herds could walk as if
+it were a smooth road, sloping gently toward the sea.
+
+Ephraim, in whom the elders now saw the future chief, had been entrusted,
+at his grandfather's suggestion, with the duty of seeing that the
+procession did not stop and, for this purpose, had been given a leader's
+staff; for the fishermen whose huts stood at the foot of Baal-zephon,
+like the Phoenicians, believed that when the moon reached her zenith the
+sea would return to its old bed, and therefore all delay was to be
+avoided.
+
+The youth enjoyed the storm, and when his locks fluttered and he battled
+victoriously against the gale in rushing hither and thither, as his
+office required, it seemed to him a foretaste of the venture he had in
+view.
+
+So the procession moved on through the darkness which had speedily
+followed the dusk of evening.  The acrid odor of the sea-weed and fishes
+which had been left stranded pleased the boy,--who felt that he had
+matured into manhood,--better than the sweet fragrance of spikenard in
+Kasana's tent.  Once the memory of it flashed through his brain, but with
+that exception there was not a moment during these hours which gave him
+time to think of her.
+
+He had his hands full of work; sometimes a heap of sea-weed flung on the
+path by a wave must be removed; sometimes a ram, the leader of a flock,
+refused to step on the wet sand and must be dragged forward by the horns,
+or cattle and beasts of burden must be driven through a pool of water
+from which they shrank.
+
+Often, too, he was obliged to brace his shoulder against a heavily-laden
+cart, whose wheels had sunk too deeply into the soft sand; and when, even
+during this strange, momentous march, two bands of shepherds began to
+dispute about precedence close to the Egyptian shore, he quickly settled
+the dispute by making them draw lots to decide which party should go
+first.
+
+Two little girls who, crying bitterly, refused to wade through a pool of
+water, while their mother was busy with the infant in her arms, he
+carried with prompt decision through the shallow puddle, and the cart
+with a broken wheel he had moved aside by the light of the torches and
+commanded some stalwart bondmen, who were carrying only small bundles, to
+load themselves with the sacks and bales, nay, even the fragments of the
+vehicle.  He uttered a word of cheer to weeping women and children and,
+when the light of a torch fell upon the face of a companion of his own
+age, whose aid he hoped to obtain for the release of Joshua, he briefly
+told him that there was a bold adventure in prospect which he meant to
+dare in concert with him.
+
+The torch-bearers who usually headed the procession this time were
+obliged to close its ranks, for the storm raging from the northeast would
+have blown the smoke into the people's faces.  They stood on the Egyptian
+shore, and already the whole train had passed them except the lepers who,
+following the strangers, were the last of the whole multitude.
+
+These "strangers" were a motley crew, comprising Asiatics of Semitic
+blood, who had escaped from the bondage or severe punishments which the
+Egyptian law imposed, traders who expected to find among the wanderers
+purchasers of their wares, or Shasu shepherds, whose return was
+prohibited by the officials on the frontier.  Ephraim had much trouble
+with them, for they refused to leave the firm land until the lepers had
+been forced to keep farther away from them; yet the youth, with the aid
+of the elders of the tribe of Benjamin, who preceded them, brought them
+also to obedience by threatening them with the prediction of the
+Phoenicians and the fishermen that the moon, when it had passed its
+zenith, would draw the sea back to its old bed.
+
+Finally he persuaded the leader of the lepers, who had once been an
+Egyptian priest, to keep at least half the distance demanded.
+
+Meanwhile the tempest had continued to blow with increased violence, and
+its howling and whistling, blended with the roar of the dashing waves and
+the menacing thunder of the surf, drowned the elders' shouts of command,
+the terrified shrieks of the children, the lowing and bleating of the
+trembling herds, and the whining of the dogs.  Ephraim's voice could be
+heard only by those nearest and, moreover, many of the torches were
+extinguished, while others were kept burning with the utmost difficulty.
+Seeking to recover his wind and get a little rest, he walked slowly for a
+time over the damp sand behind the last lepers, when he heard some one
+call his name and, turning, he saw one of his former playmates, who was
+returning from a reconnoitring expedition and who, with the sweat pouring
+from his brow and panting breath, shouted into the ear of the youth, in
+whose hand he saw the staff of a leader, that Pharaoh's chariots were
+approaching at the head of his army.  He had left them at Pihahiroth and,
+if they did not stop there to give the other troops time to join them,
+they might overtake the fugitives at any moment.  With these words he
+darted past the lepers to join the leaders; but Ephraim stopped in the
+middle of the road, pressing his hand upon his brow, while a new burden
+of care weighed heavily upon his soul.
+
+He knew that the approaching army would crush the men, women, and
+children whose touching fear and helplessness he had just beheld, as a
+man's foot tramples on an ant-bill, and again every instinct of his being
+urged him to pray, while from his oppressed heart the imploring cry rose
+through the darkness:
+
+"Eli, Eli, great God most high!  Thou knowest--for I have told Thee, and
+Thine all-seeing eye must perceive it, spite of the darkness of this
+night--the strait of Thy people, whom Thou hast promised to lead into a
+new country.  Remember Thy vow, Jehovah!  Be merciful unto us, Thou great
+and mighty one!  Our foe is approaching with resistless power!  Stay him!
+Save us!  Protect the poor women and children!  Save us, be merciful to
+us!"
+
+During this prayer he had raised his eyes heavenward and saw on the
+summit of Baal-zephon the red blaze of a fire.  It had been lighted by
+the Phoenicians to make the Baal of the north-wind favorable to the men
+of kindred race and hostile to the hated Egyptians.  This was a kindly
+deed; but he put his trust in another God and, as his eye glanced over
+the vault of heaven and noted the grey and black storm-clouds scurrying,
+gathering, parting, and then rushing in new directions, he perceived
+between two dispersing masses of clouds the silvery light of the full
+moon, which had now attained her zenith.
+
+Fresh anxiety assailed him; for he remembered the prediction of men
+skilled in the changes of winds and waves.  If the sea should now return
+to its ancient bed, his people would be lost; for there was no escape,
+even toward the north, where deep pools of water were standing amid the
+mire and cliffs.  Should the waves flow back within the next hour, the
+seed of Abraham would be effaced from the earth, as writing inscribed on
+wax disappears from the tablet under the pressure of a warm hand.
+
+Yet was not this people thus marked for destruction, the nation which the
+Lord had chosen for His own?  Could He deliver it into the hand of those
+who were also His own foes?
+
+No, no, a thousand times no!
+
+And the moon, which was to cause this destruction, had but a short time
+before been the ally of his flight and favored him.  Only let him keep up
+his hope and faith and not lose confidence.
+
+Nothing, nothing was lost as yet.
+
+Come what might, the whole nation need not perish, and his own tribe,
+which marched at the head of the procession, certainly would not; for
+many must have reached the opposite shore, nay, perhaps more than he
+supposed; for the bay was not wide, and even the lepers, the last of the
+train, had already advanced some distance across the wet sand.
+
+Ephraim now remained alone behind them all to listen to the approach of
+the hostile chariots.  He laid his ear to the ground on the shore of the
+bay, and he could trust to the sharpness of his hearing; how often, in
+this attitude, he had caught the distant tramp of stray cattle or, while
+hunting, the approach of a herd of antelopes or gazelles.
+
+As the last, he was in the greatest danger; but what cared he for that?
+
+How gladly he would have sacrificed his young life to save the others.
+
+Since he had held in his hand the leader's staff, it seemed to him as if
+he had assumed the duty of watching over his people, so he listened and
+listened till he could hear a slight trembling of the ground and finally
+a low rumble.  That was the foe, that must be Pharaoh's chariots, and how
+swiftly the proud steeds whirled them forward.
+
+Springing up as if a lash had struck him, he dashed on to urge the others
+to hasten.
+
+How oppressively sultry the air had grown, spite of the raging storm
+which extinguished so many torches!  The moon was concealed by clouds,
+but the flickering fire on the summit of the lofty height of Baal-zephon
+blazed brighter and brighter.  The sparks that rose from the midst of the
+flames glittered as they swept westward; for the wind now came more from
+the east.
+
+Scarcely had he noticed this, when he hurried back to the boys bearing
+pans of pitch who closed the procession, to command them in the utmost
+haste to fill the copper vessels afresh and see that the smoke rose in
+dense, heavy clouds; for, he said to himself, the storm will drive the
+smoke into the faces of the stallions who draw the chariots and frighten
+or stop them.
+
+No means seemed to him too insignificant, every moment that could be
+gained was precious; and as soon as he had convinced himself that the
+smoke-clouds were pouring densely from the vessels and making it
+difficult to breathe the air of the path over which the people had
+passed, he hurried forward, shouting to the elders whom he overtook that
+Pharaoh's chariots were close at hand and the march must be hastened.
+At once pedestrians, bearers, drivers, and shepherds exerted all their
+strength to advance faster; and though the wind, which blew more and more
+from the east, impeded their progress, all struggled stoutly against it,
+and dread of their approaching pursuers doubled their strength.
+
+The youth seemed to the heads of the tribes, who nodded approval wherever
+he appeared, like a shepherd dog guarding and urging the flock; and when
+he had slipped through the moving bands and battled his way forward
+against the storm, the east wind bore to his ears as if in reward a
+strange shout; for the nearer he came to its source, the louder it rang,
+and the more surely he perceived that it was a cry of joy and exultation,
+the first that had burst from a Hebrew's breast for many a long day.
+
+It refreshed Ephraim like a cool drink after long thirsting, and he could
+not refrain from shouting aloud and crying joyously to the others:
+"Saved, saved!"  Two tribes had already reached the eastern shore of the
+bay and were raising the glad shouts which, with the fires blazing in
+huge pans on the shore, kindled the courage of the approaching fugitives
+and braced their failing strength.  Ephraim saw by their light the
+majestic figure of Moses on a hill by the sea, extending his staff over
+the waters, and the spectacle impressed him, like all the other
+fugitives, from the highest to the lowest, more deeply than aught else
+and strongly increased the courage of his heart.  This man was indeed the
+trusted servant of the Most High, and so long as he held his staff
+uplifted, the waves seemed spell-bound, and through him God forbade their
+return.
+
+He, Ephraim, need no longer appeal to the Omnipotent One--that was the
+appointed task of this great and exalted personage; but he must continue
+to fulfil his little duty of watching the progress of individuals.
+
+Back against the stream of fugitives to the lepers and torch-bearers he
+hastened, shouting to each division, "Saved!  Saved!  They have gained
+the goal.  Moses' staff is staying the waves.  Many have already reached
+the shore.  Thank the Lord!  Forward, that you, too, may join in the
+rejoicing!  Fix your eyes on the two red beacons!  The rescued ones
+lighted them!  The servant of the Lord is standing between them with
+uplifted staff."
+
+Then, kneeling on the wet sand, he again pressed his ear to the ground,
+and now heard distinctly, close at hand, the rattle of wheels and the
+swift beat of horses' hoofs.
+
+But while still listening, the noise gradually ceased, and he heard
+nothing save the howling of the furious storm and the threatening dash of
+the surging waves, or a single cry borne by the east wind.
+
+The chariots had reached the dry portion of the bay and lingered some
+time ere they continued their way along this dangerous path; but suddenly
+the Egyptian war-cry rang out, and the rattle of wheels was again heard.
+They advanced more slowly than before but faster than the people could
+walk.
+
+For the Egyptians also the road remained dry; but if his people only kept
+a short distance in advance he need feel no anxiety; during the night the
+rescued tribes could disperse among the mountains and hide in places
+where no chariots nor horses could follow.  Moses knew this region where
+he had lived so long as a fugitive; it was only necessary to inform him
+of the close vicinity of the foe.  So he trusted one of his play-fellows
+of the tribe of Benjamin with the message, and the latter had not far to
+go to reach the shore.  He himself remained behind to watch the
+approaching army; for already, without stooping or listening, spite of
+the storm raging around him, he heard the rattle of wheels and the
+neighing of the horses.  But the lepers, whose ears also caught the
+sound, wailed and lamented, feeling themselves in imagination flung to
+the ground, crushed by the chariots, or crowded into a watery grave, for
+the pathway had grown narrower and the sea seemed to be trying in earnest
+to regain the land it had lost.
+
+The men and cattle could no longer advance in ranks as wide as before,
+and while the files of the hurrying bodies narrowed they lengthened, and
+precious time was lost.  Those on the right were already wading through
+the rising water in haste and terror; for already the commands of the
+Egyptian leaders were heard in the distance.
+
+But the enemy was evidently delayed, and Ephraim easily perceived the
+cause of their diminished speed; for the road constantly grew softer and
+the narrow wheels of the chariots cut deeply into it and perhaps sank to
+the axles.
+
+Protected by the darkness, he glided forward toward the pursuers, as far
+as he could, and heard here a curse, yonder a fierce command to ply the
+lash more vigorously; at last he distinctly heard one leader exclaim to
+the man next him:
+
+"Accursed folly!  If they had only let us start before noon, and not
+waited until the omen had been consulted and Anna had been installed with
+all due solemnity in Bai's place, it would have been easy work, and we
+should have caught them like a flock of quail!  The chief-priest was wont
+to bear himself stoutly in the field, and now he gives up the command
+because a dying woman touches his heart."
+
+"Siptah's mother!"  said another soothingly.  "Yet, after all, twenty
+princesses ought not to have turned him from his duty to us.  Had he
+remained, there would have been no need of scourging our steeds to death,
+and that at an hour when every sensible leader lets his men gather round
+the camp-fires to eat their suppers and play draughts.  Look to the
+horses, Heter!  We are fast in the sand again!"
+
+A loud out-cry rose behind the first chariot, and Ephraim heard another
+voice shout:
+
+"Forward, if it costs the horses their lives!"
+
+"If return were possible," said the commander of the chariot-soldiers, a
+relative of the king, "I would go back now.  But as matters are, one
+would tumble over the other.  So forward, whatever it may cost.  We are
+close on their heels.  Halt!  Halt!  That accursed stinging smoke!  Wait,
+you dogs!  As soon as the pathway widens, we'll run you down with scant
+ceremony, and may the gods deprive me of a day of life for each one I
+spare!  Another torch out!  One can't see one's hand before one's face!
+At a time like this a beggar's crutch would be better than a leader's
+staff"
+
+"And an executioner's noose round the neck rather than a gold chain!"
+said another with a fierce oath.
+
+"If the moon would only appear again!  Because the astrologers predicted
+that it would shine in full splendor from evening till morning, I myself
+advised the late departure, turning night into day.  If it were only
+lighter!  .  .  .  ."
+
+But this sentence remained unfinished, for a gust of wind, bursting like
+a wild beast from the south-eastern ravine of Mount Baal-zephon, rushed
+upon the fugitives, and a high wave drenched Ephraim from head to foot.
+
+Gasping for breath, he flung back his hair and wiped his eyes; but loud
+cries of terror rang from the lips of the Egyptians behind him; for the
+same wave that struck the youth had hurled the foremost chariots into the
+sea.
+
+Ephraim began to fear for his people and, while running forward to join
+them again, a brilliant flash of lightning illumined the bay, Mount Baal-
+zephon, and every surrounding object.  The thunder was somewhat long in
+following, but the storm soon came nearer, and at last the lightning no
+longer flashed through the darkness in zigzag lines, but in shapeless
+sheets of flame, and ere they faded the deafening crash of the thunder
+pealed forth, reverberating in wild uproar amid the hard, rocky
+precipices of the rugged mountain, and dying away in deep, muttering
+echoes along the end of the bay and the shore.
+
+Whenever the clouds, menacing destruction, discharged their lightnings,
+sea and land, human beings and animals, far and near, were illumined by
+the brilliant glare, while the waters and the sky above were tinged with
+a sulphurous yellow hue through which the vivid lightning shone and
+flamed as through a wall of yellow glass.
+
+Ephraim now thought he perceived that the blackest thunder-clouds came
+from the south and not from the north, but the glare of the lightning
+showed behind him a span of frightened horses rushing into the sea, one
+chariot shattered against another, and farther on several jammed firmly
+together to the destruction of their occupants, while they barred the
+progress of others.
+
+Yet the foe still advanced, and the space which separated pursued and
+pursuers did not increase.  But the confusion among the latter had become
+so great that the warriors' cries of terror and their leaders' shouts of
+encouragement and menace were distinctly heard whenever the fierce
+crashing of the thunder died away.
+
+Yet, black as were the clouds on the southern horizon, fiercely as the
+tempest raged, the gloomy sky still withheld its floods and the fugitives
+were wet, not with the water from the clouds but by the waves of the sea,
+whose surges constantly dashed higher and more and more frequently washed
+the dry bed of the bay.
+
+Narrower and narrower grew the pathway, and with it the end of the
+procession.
+
+Meanwhile the flames blazing in the pitch pans continued to show the
+terrified fugitives the goal of escape and remind them of Moses and the
+staff God had given him.  Every step brought them nearer to it.  Now a
+loud shout of joy announced that the tribe of Benjamin had also reached
+the shore; but they had at last been obliged to wade, and were drenched
+by the foaming surf.  It had cost unspeakable effort to save the oxen
+from the surging waves, get the loaded carts forward, and keep the cattle
+together; but now man and beast stood safe on shore.  Only the strangers
+and the lepers were still to be rescued.  The latter possessed no herds
+of their own, but the former had many and both sheep and cattle were so
+terrified by the storm that they struggled against passing through the
+water, now a foot deep over the road.  Ephraim hurried to the shore,
+called on the shepherds to follow him and, under his direction, they
+helped drive the herds forward.
+
+The attempt was successful and, amid the thunder and lightning, greeted
+with loud cheers, the last man and the last head of cattle reached the
+land.
+
+The lepers were obliged to wade through water rising to their knees and
+at last to their waists and, ere they had gained the shore, the sluices
+of heaven opened and the rain poured in torrents.  Yet they, too, arrived
+at the goal and though many a mother who had carried her child a long
+time in her arms or on her shoulder, fell upon her knees exhausted on the
+land, and many a hapless sufferer who, aided by a stronger companion in
+misery, had dragged the carts through the yielding sand or wading in the
+water carried a litter, felt his disfigured head burn with fever, they,
+too, escaped destruction.
+
+They were to wait beyond the palm-trees, whose green foliage appeared on
+the hilly ground at the edge of some springs near the shore; the others
+were to be led farther into the country to begin, at a given signal, the
+journey toward the southeast into the mountains, through whose
+inhospitable stony fastnesses a regular army and the war-chariots could
+advance only with the utmost difficulty.
+
+Hur had assembled his shepherds and they stood armed with lances, slings,
+and short swords, ready to attack the enemy who ventured to step on
+shore.  Horses and men were to be cut down and a high wall was to be made
+of the fragments of the chariots to bar the way of the pursuing
+Egyptians.
+
+The pans of burning pitch on the shore were shielded and fed so
+industriously that neither the pouring rain nor the wind extinguished
+them.  They were to light the shepherds who had undertaken to attack the
+chariot-soldiers, and were commanded by old Nun, Hur, and Ephraim.
+
+But they waited in vain for the pursuers, and when the youth, first of
+all, perceived by the light of the torches that the way by which the
+rescued fugitives had come was now a wide sea, and the smoke was blown
+toward the north instead of toward the southwest--it was at the time of
+the first morning watch--his heart, surcharged with joy and gratitude,
+sent forth the jubilant shout: "Look at the pans.  The wind has shifted!
+It is driving the sea northward.  Pharaoh's army has been swallowed by
+the waves!"
+
+The group of rescued Hebrews remained silent for a short time; but
+suddenly Nun's loud voice exclaimed:
+
+"He has  seen aright, children!  What are we mortals!  Lord, Lord!  Stern
+and terrible art Thou in judgment upon Thy foes!"
+
+Here loud cries interrupted him; for at the springs where Moses leaned
+exhausted against a palm-tree, and Aaron was resting with many others,
+the people had also perceived what Ephraim had noticed--and from lip to
+lip ran the glad, terrible, incredible, yet true tidings, which each
+passing moment more surely confirmed.
+
+Many an eye was raised toward the sky, across which the black clouds were
+rushing farther and farther northward.
+
+The rain was ceasing; instead of the lightning and thunder only a few
+pale flashes were seen over the isthmus and the distant sea at the north,
+while in the south the sky was brightening.
+
+At last the setting moon emerged from the grey clouds, and her peaceful
+light silvered the heights of Baal-zephon and the shore of the bay, whose
+bottom was once more covered with tossing waves.
+
+The raging, howling storm had passed into the low sighing of the morning
+breeze, and the sea, which had dashed against the rocks like a roaring
+wild-beast, now lay quivering with broken strength at the stone base of
+the mountain.
+
+For a short time the sea still spread a dark pall over the many Egyptian
+corpses, but the paling moon, ere her setting, splendidly embellished the
+briny resting-place of a king and his nobles; for her rays illumined and
+bordered their coverlet, the sea, with a rich array of sparkling diamonds
+in a silver setting.
+
+While the east was brightening and the sky had clothed itself in the
+glowing hues of dawn, the camp had been pitched; but little time remained
+for a hasty meal for, shortly after sunrise, the gong had summoned the
+people and, as soon as they gathered near the springs, Miriam swung her
+timbrel, shaking the bells and striking the calf-skin till it resounded
+again.  As she moved lightly forward, the women and maidens followed her
+in the rhythmic step of the dance; but she sang:
+
+"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
+and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
+
+"The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is
+my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will
+exalt him.
+
+"The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.  "Pharaoh's chariots and
+his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned
+in the Red Sea.
+
+"The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
+
+"Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O
+Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
+
+"And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that
+rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them
+as stubble.
+
+"And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,
+the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the
+heart of the sea.
+
+"The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
+my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall
+destroy them.
+
+"Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead
+in the mighty waters.
+
+"Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?  Who is like thee,
+glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
+
+"Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
+
+"Thou, in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed:
+thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation."
+
+Men and women joined in the song, when she repeated the words:
+
+"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
+and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."
+
+This song and this hour of rejoicing were never forgotten by the Hebrews,
+and each heart was filled with the glory of God and the glad and grateful
+anticipation of better, happier days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The hymn of praise had died away, but though the storm had long since
+raged itself into calmness, the morning sky, which had been beautiful in
+the rosy flush of dawn, was again veiled by grey mists, and a strong wind
+still blew from the southwest, lashing the sea and shaking and swaying
+the tops of the palm-trees beside the springs.
+
+The rescued people had paid due honor to the Most High, even the most
+indifferent and rebellious had joined in Miriam's song of praise; yet,
+when the ranks of the dancers approached the sea, many left the
+procession to hurry to the shore, which presented many attractions.
+
+Hundreds had now gathered on the strand, where the waves, like generous
+robbers, washed ashore the booty they had seized during the night.
+
+Even the women did not allow the wind to keep them back; for the two
+strongest impulses of the human heart, avarice and the longing for
+vengeance, drew them to the beach.
+
+Some new object of desire appeared every moment; here lay the corpse of a
+warrior, yonder his shattered chariot.  If the latter had belonged to a
+man of rank, its gold or silver ornaments were torn off, while the short
+sword or battle-axe was drawn from the girdle of the lifeless owner, and
+men and women of low degree, male and female slaves belonging to the
+Hebrews and foreigners, robbed the corpses of the clasps and circlets of
+the precious metal, or twisted the rings from the swollen fingers of the
+drowned.
+
+The ravens which had followed the wandering tribes and vanished during
+the storm, again appeared and, croaking, struggled against the wind to
+maintain their places above the prey whose scent had attracted them.
+
+But the dregs of the fugitive hordes were still more greedy than they,
+and wherever the sea washed a costly ornament ashore, there were fierce
+outcries and angry quarrelling.  The leaders kept aloof; the people, they
+thought, had a right to this booty, and whenever one of them undertook to
+control their rude greed, he received no obedience.
+
+The pass to which the Egyptians had brought them within the last few
+hours had been so terrible, that even the better natures among the
+Hebrews did not think of curbing the thirst for vengeance.  Even grey-
+bearded men of dignified bearing, and wives and mothers whose looks
+augured gentle hearts thrust back the few hapless foes who had succeeded
+in reaching the land on the ruins of the war-chariots or baggage-wagons.
+With shepherds' crooks and travelling staves, knives and axes, stones and
+insults they forced their hands from the floating wood, and the few who
+nevertheless reached the land were flung by the furious mob into the sea
+which had taken pity on them in vain.
+
+Their wrath was so great, and vengeance so sacred a duty, that no one
+thought of the respect, the pity, the consideration, which are
+misfortune's due, and not a word was uttered to appeal to generosity or
+compassion or even to remind the people of the profit which might be
+derived from holding the rescued soldiers as prisoners of war.
+
+"Death to our mortal foes!  Destruction to them!  Down with them!  Feed
+the fishes with them!  You drove us into the sea with our children, now
+try the salt waves yourselves!"
+
+Such were the shouts that rose everywhere, and which no one opposed, not
+even Miriam and Ephraim, who had also gone down to the shore to witness
+the scene it presented.
+
+The maiden had become the wife of Hur, but her new condition had made
+little change in her nature and conduct.  The fate of her people and the
+intercourse with God, whose prophetess she felt herself to be, were still
+her highest aims.  Now that all for which she had hoped and prayed was
+fulfilled; now that at the first great triumph of her efforts she had
+expressed the feelings of the faithful in her song, she felt as if she
+were the leader of the grateful multitude at whose head she had marched
+singing and as if she had attained the goal of her life.
+
+Ephraim had reminded her of Hosea and, while talking with him about the
+prisoner, she moved on as proudly as a queen, answering the greetings of
+the throng with majestic dignity.  Her eyes sparkled with joy, and her
+features wore an expression of compassion only at brief intervals, when
+the youth spoke of the greatest sufferings which he had borne with his
+uncle.  She doubtless still remembered the man she had loved, but he was
+no longer necessary to the lofty goal of her aspirations.
+
+Ephraim had just spoken of the beautiful Egyptian, who had loved Hosea
+and at whose intercession the prisoner's chains had been removed, when
+loud outcries were heard at a part of the strand where many of the people
+had gathered.  Shouts of joy mingled with yells of fury; and awakened the
+conjecture that the sea had washed some specially valuable prize ashore.
+
+Curiosity drew both to the spot, and as Miriam's stately bearing made the
+throng move respectfully aside, they soon saw the mournful contents of a
+large travelling-chariot, which had lost its wheels.  The linen canopy
+which had protected it was torn away, and on the floor lay two elderly
+Egyptian women; a third, who was much younger, leaned against the back of
+the vehicle thus strangely transformed into a boat.  Her companions lay
+dead in the water which had covered its floor, and several Hebrew women
+were in the act of tearing the costly gold ornaments from the neck and
+arms of one of the corpses.  Some chance had preserved this young woman's
+life, and she was now giving her rich jewels to the Israelites.  Her pale
+lips and slender, half-frozen hands trembled as she did so, and in low,
+musical tones she promised the robbers to yield them all she possessed
+and pay a large ransom, if they would spare her.  She was so young, and
+she had shown kindness to a Hebrew surely they might listen to her.
+
+It was a touching entreaty, but so often interrupted by threats and
+curses that only a few could hear it.  Just as Ephraim and Miriam reached
+the shore she shrieked aloud--a rude hand had torn the gold serpent from
+her ear.
+
+The cry pierced the youth's heart like a dagger-thrust and his cheeks
+paled, for he recognized Kasana.  The bodies beside her were those of her
+nurse and the wife of the chief priest Bai.
+
+Scarcely able to control himself, Ephraim thrust aside the men who
+separated him from the object of the moment's assault, sprang on the
+sand-hill at whose foot the chariot had rested, and shouted with glowing
+cheeks in wild excitement:
+
+"Back!  Woe to any one who touches her!"
+
+But a Hebrew woman, the wife of a brickmaker whose child had died in
+terrible convulsions during the passage through the sea, had already
+snatched the dagger from her girdle, and with the jeering cry "This for
+my little Ruth, you jade!"  dealt her a blow in the back.  Then she
+raised the tiny blood-stained weapon for a second stroke; but ere she
+could give her enemy another thrust, Ephraim flung himself between her
+and her victim and wrenched the dagger from her grasp.  Then planting
+himself before the wounded girl, he swung the blade aloft exclaiming in
+loud, threatening tones:
+
+"Whoever touches her, you robbers and murderers, shall mingle his blood
+with this woman's."  Then he flung himself beside Kasana's bleeding form,
+and finding that she had lost consciousness, raised her in his arms and
+carried her to Miriam.
+
+The astonished plunderers speechlessly made way for a few minutes, but
+ere he reached the prophetess shouts of: "Vengeance!  Vengeance!"  were
+heard in all directions.  "We found the woman: the booty belongs to us
+alone!--How dares the insolent Ephraimite call us robbers and murderers?
+--Wherever Egyptian blood can be spilled, it must flow!--At him!--Snatch
+the girl from him!"
+
+The youth paid no heed to these outbursts of wrath until he had laid
+Kasana's head in the lap of Miriam, who had seated herself on the nearest
+sand-hill, and as the angry throng, the women in front of the men,
+pressed upon him, he again waved his dagger, crying: "Back--I command
+you.  Let all of the blood of Ephraim and Judah rally around me and
+Miriam, the wife of their chief!  That's right, brothers, and woe betide
+any hand that touches her.  Do you shriek for vengeance?  Has it not been
+yours through yonder monster who murdered the poor defenceless one?  Do
+you want your victim's jewels?  Well, well; they belong to you, and I
+will give you mine to boot, if you will leave the wife of Hur to care for
+this dying girl!"
+
+With these words he bent over Kasana, took off the clasps and rings she
+still wore, and gave them to the greedy hands outstretched to seize them.
+Lastly he stripped the broad gold circlet from his arm, and holding it
+aloft exclaimed:
+
+"Here is the promised payment.  If you will depart quietly and leave this
+woman to Miriam, I will give you the gold, and you can divide it among
+you.  If you thirst for more blood, come on; but I will keep the armlet."
+
+These words did not fail to produce their effect.  The furious women
+looked at the heavy broad gold armlet, then at the handsome youth, and
+the men of Judah and Ephraim who had gathered around him, and finally
+glanced enquiringly into one another's faces.  At last the wife of a
+foreign trader cried:
+
+"Let him give us the gold, and we'll leave the handsome young chief his
+bleeding sweetheart."
+
+To this decision the others agreed, and though the brickmaker's
+infuriated wife, who thought as the avenger of her child she had done
+an act pleasing in the sight of God, and was upbraided for it as a
+murderess, reviled the youth with frantic gestures, she was dragged
+away by the crowd to the shore where they hoped to find more booty.
+
+During this threatening transaction, Miriam had fearlessly examined
+Kasana's wound and bound it up with skilful hands,  The dagger which
+Prince Siptah had jestingly given the beautiful lady of his love, that
+she might not go to war defenceless, had inflicted a deep wound under the
+shoulder, and the blood had flowed so abundantly that the feeble spark of
+life threatened to die out at any moment.
+
+But she still lived, and in this condition was borne to the tent of Nun,
+which was the nearest within reach.
+
+The old chief had just been supplying weapons to the shepherds and youths
+whom Ephraim had summoned to go to the relief of the imprisoned Hosea,
+and had promised to join them, when the mournful procession approached.
+
+As Kasana loved the handsome old man, the latter had for many years kept
+a place in his heart for Captain Homecht's pretty daughter.
+
+She had never met him without gladdening him by a greeting which he
+always returned with kind words, such as: "The Lord bless you, child!"
+or: "It is a delightful hour when an old man meets so fair a creature."
+Many years before--she had then worn the curls of childhood--he had even
+sent her a lamb, whose snowy fleece was specially silky, after having
+bartered the corn from her father's lands for cattle of his most famous
+breed--and what his son had told him of Kasana had been well fitted to
+increase his regard for her.
+
+He beheld in the archer's daughter the most charming young girl in Tanis
+and, had she been the child of Hebrew parents, he would have rejoiced to
+wed her to his son.
+
+To find his darling in such a state caused the old man grief so profound
+that bright tears ran down upon his snowy beard and his voice trembled
+as, while greeting her, he saw the blood-stained bandage on her shoulder.
+
+After she had been laid on his couch, and Nun had placed his own chest of
+medicines at the disposal of the skilful prophetess, Miriam asked the men
+to leave her alone with the suffering Egyptian, and when she again called
+them into the tent she had revived the strength of the severely-wounded
+girl with cordials, and bandaged the hurt more carefully than had been
+possible before.
+
+Kasana, cleansed from the blood-stains and with her hair neatly arranged,
+lay beneath the fresh linen coverings like a sleeping child just on the
+verge of maidenhood.
+
+She was still breathing, but the color had not returned to cheeks or
+lips, and she did not open her eyes until she had drunk the cordial
+Miriam mixed for her a second time.
+
+The old man and his grandson stood at the foot of her couch, and each
+would fain have asked the other why he could not restrain his tears
+whenever he looked at this stranger's face.
+
+The certainty that Kasana was wicked and faithless, which had so
+unexpectedly forced itself upon Ephraim, had suddenly turned his heart
+from her and startled him back into the right path which he had
+abandoned.  Yet what he had heard in her tent had remained a profound
+secret, and as he told his grandfather and Miriam that she had
+compassionately interceded for the prisoners, and both had desired to
+hear more of her, he had felt like a father who had witnessed the crime
+of a beloved son, and no word of the abominable things he had heard had
+escaped his lips.
+
+Now he rejoiced that he had kept silence; for whatever he might have seen
+and heard, this fair creature certainly was capable of no base deed.
+
+To the old man she had never ceased to be the lovely child whom he had
+known, the apple of his eye and the joy of his heart.  So he gazed with
+tender anxiety at the features convulsed by pain and, when she at last
+opened her eyes, smiled at her with paternal affection.  Her glance
+showed that she instantly recognized both him and Ephraim, but weakness
+baffled her attempt to nod to them.  Yet her expressive face revealed
+surprise and joy, and when Miriam had given her the cordial a third time
+and bathed her brow with a powerful essence, her large eyes wandered from
+face to face and, noticing the troubled looks of the men, she managed to
+whisper:
+
+"The wound aches--and death--must I die?"  One looked enquiringly at
+another, and the men would gladly have concealed the terrible truth; but
+she went on:
+
+"Oh, let me know.  Ah, I pray you, tell me the truth!"
+
+Miriam, who was kneeling beside her, found courage to answer:
+
+"Yes, you poor young creature, the wound is deep, but whatever my skill
+can accomplish shall be done to preserve your life as long as possible."
+
+The words sounded kind and full of compassion, yet the deep voice of the
+prophetess seemed to hurt Kasana; for her lips quivered painfully while
+Miriam was speaking, and when she ceased, her eyes closed and one large
+tear after another ran down her cheeks.  Deep, anxious silence reigned
+around her until she again raised her lashes and, fixing her eyes wearily
+on Miriam, asked softly, as if perplexed by some strange spectacle:
+
+"You are a woman, and yet practise the art of the leech."
+
+"My God has commanded me to care for the suffering ones of our people,"
+replied the other.
+
+The dying girl's eyes began to glitter with a restless light, and she
+gasped in louder tones, nay with a firmness that surprised the others:
+
+"You are Miriam, the woman who sent for Hosea."  And when the other
+answered promptly and proudly: "It is as you say!"  Kasana continued:
+
+"And you possess striking, imperious beauty, and much influence.  He
+obeyed your summons, and you--you consented to wed another?"
+
+Again the prophetess answered, this time with gloomy earnestness:  "It is
+as you say."
+
+The dying girl closed her eyes once more, and a strange proud smile
+hovered around her lips.  But it soon vanished and a great and painful
+restlessness seized upon her.  The fingers of her little hands, her lips,
+nay, even her eyelids moved perpetually, and her smooth, narrow forehead
+contracted as if some great thought occupied her mind.
+
+At last the ideas that troubled her found utterance and, as if roused
+from her repose, she exclaimed in terrified accents:
+
+"You are Ephraim, who seemed like his son, and the old man is Nun, his
+dear father.  There you stand and will live on....  But I--I ....  Oh, it
+is so hard to leave the light....  Anubis will lead me before the
+judgment seat of Osiris.  My heart will be weighed, and then...."
+
+Here she shuddered and opened and closed her trembling hands; but she
+soon regained her composure and began to speak again.  Miriam, however,
+sternly forbade this, because it would hasten her death.
+
+Then the sufferer, summoning all her strength, exclaimed hastily, as
+loudly as her voice would permit, after measuring the prophetess' tall
+figure with a long glance: "You wish to prevent me from doing my duty--
+you?"
+
+There had been a slight touch of mockery in the question; but Kasana
+doubtless felt that it was necessary to spare her strength; for she
+continued far more quietly, as though talking to herself:
+
+"I cannot die so, I cannot!  How it happened; why I sacrificed all,
+all....  I must atone for it; I will not complain, if he only learns how
+it came to pass.  Oh, Nun, dear old Nun, who gave me the lamb when I was
+a little thing--I loved it so dearly--and you, Ephraim, my dear boy, I
+will tell you everything."
+
+Here a painful fit of coughing interrupted her; but as soon as she
+recovered her breath, she turned to Miriam, and called in a tone which
+so plainly expressed bitter dislike, that it would have surprised any
+one who knew her kindly nature:
+
+"But you, yonder,--you tall woman with the deep voice who are a
+physician, you lured him from Tanis, from his soldiers and from me.  He,
+he obeyed your summons.  And you .  .  .  .  you became another's wife;
+probably after his arrival ....  yes!  For when Ephraim summoned him, he
+called you a maiden .  .  .  I don't know whether this caused him, Hosea,
+pain ....  But there is one thing I do know, and that is that I want to
+confess something and must do so, ere it is too late....  And no one must
+hear it save those who love him, and I--do you hear--I love him, love him
+better than aught else on earth!  But you?  You have a husband, and a God
+whose commands you eagerly obey--you say so yourself.  What can Hosea be
+to you?  So I beseech you to leave us.  I have met few who repelled me,
+but you--your voice, your eyes--they pierce me to the heart--and if you
+were near I could not speak as I must....  and oh, talking hurts me so!
+But before you go--you are a leech--let me know this one thing--I have
+many messages to leave for him ere I die....  Will it kill me to talk?"
+
+Again the prophetess found no other words in answer except the brief:
+"It is as you say," and this time they sounded harsh and ominous.
+
+While wavering between the duty which, as a physician, she owed the
+sufferer and the impulse not to refuse the request of a dying woman, she
+read in old Nun's eyes an entreaty to obey Kasana's wish, and with
+drooping head left the tent.  But the bitter words of the hapless girl
+pursued her and spoiled the day which had begun so gloriously and also
+many a later hour; nay, to her life's end she could not understand why,
+in the presence of this poor, dying woman, she had been overpowered by
+the feeling that she was her inferior and must take a secondary place.
+
+As soon as Kasana was left alone with Nun and Ephraim, and the latter had
+flung himself on his knees beside her couch, while the old man kissed her
+brow, and bowed his white head to listen to her low words, she began:
+
+"I feel better now.  That tall woman....  those gloomy brows that meet in
+the middle....  those nightblack eyes....  they glow with so fierce a
+fire, yet are so cold....  That woman....  did Hosea love her, father?
+Tell me; I am not asking from idle curiosity!"
+
+"He honored her," replied the old  man in a troubled tone, "as did our
+whole nation; for she has a lofty spirit, and our God suffers her to hear
+His voice; but you, my darling, have been dear to him from childhood, I
+know."
+
+A slight tremor shook the dying girl.  She closed her eyes for a short
+time and a sunny smile hovered around her lips.
+
+She lay in this attitude so long that Nun feared death had claimed her
+and, holding the medicine in his hand, listened to hear her breathing.
+
+Kasana did not seem to notice it; but when she finally opened her eyes,
+she held out her hand for the cordial, drank it, and then began again:
+
+"It seemed just as if I had seen him, Hosea.  He wore the panoply of war
+just as he did the first time he took me into his arms.  I was a little
+thing and felt afraid of him, he looked so grave, and my nurse had told
+me that he had slain a great many of our foes.  Yet I was glad when he
+came and grieved when he went away.  So the years passed, and love grew
+with my growth.  My young heart was so full of him, so full....  Even
+when they forced me to wed another, and after I had become a widow."
+
+The last words had been scarcely audible, and she rested some time ere
+she continued:
+
+"Hosea knows all this, except how anxious I was when he was in the field,
+and how I longed for him ere he returned.  At last, at last he came home,
+and how I rejoiced!  But he, Hosea....?  That woman--Ephraim told me so--
+that tall, arrogant woman summoned him to Pithom.  But he returned, and
+then....  Oh, Nun, your son....  that was the hardest thing....!  He
+refused my hand, which my father offered....  And how that hurt me....!
+I can say no more....!  Give me the drink!"
+
+Her cheeks had flushed crimson during these painful confessions, and when
+the experienced old man perceived how rapidly the excitement under which
+she was laboring hastened the approach of death, he begged her to keep
+silence; but she insisted upon profiting by the time still allowed her,
+and though the sharp pain with which a short cough tortured her forced
+her to press her hand upon her breast, she continued:
+
+"Then hate came; but it did not last long--and never did I love him more
+ardently than when I drove after the poor convict--you remember, my boy.
+Then began the horrible, wicked, evil time....  of which I must tell him
+that he may not despise me, if he hears about it.  I never had a mother,
+and there was no one to warn me....  Where shall I begin?  Prince Siptah
+--you know him, father--that wicked man will soon rule over my country.
+My father is in a conspiracy with him....  merciful gods, I can say no
+more!"
+
+Terror and despair convulsed her features as she uttered these words; but
+Ephraim interrupted her and, with tearful eyes and faltering voice,
+confessed that he knew all.  Then he repeated what he had heard while
+listening outside of her tent, and her glance confirmed the tale.
+
+When he finally spoke of the wife of the viceroy and chief-priest Bai,
+whose body had been borne to the shore with her, Kasana interrupted him
+with the low exclamation:
+
+"She planned it all.  Her husband was to be the greatest man in the
+country and rule even Pharaoh; for Siptah is not the son of a king."
+
+"And," the old man interrupted, to quiet her and help her tell what she
+desired to say, "as Bai raised, he can overthrow him.  He will become,
+even more certainly than the dethroned monarch, the tool of the man who
+made him king.  But I know Aarsu the Syrian, and if I see aright, the
+time will come when he will himself strive, in distracted Egypt, rent by
+internal disturbances, for the power which, through his mercenaries, he
+aided others to grasp.  But child, what induced you to follow the army
+and this shameful profligate?"
+
+The dying girl's eyes sparkled, for the question brought her directly to
+what she desired to tell, and she answered as loudly and quickly as her
+weakness permitted:
+
+"I did it for your son's sake, for love of him, to liberate Hosea.  The
+evening before I had steadily and firmly refused the wife of Bai.  But
+when I saw your son at the well and he, Hosea....  Oh, at last he was so
+affectionate and kissed me so kindly....  and then--then....  My poor
+heart!  I saw him, the best of men, perishing amid contumely and disease.
+
+"And when he passed with chains one thought darted through my mind......"
+
+"You determined, you dear, foolish, misguided child," cried the old man,
+"to win the heart of the future king in order, through him, to release my
+son, your friend?"
+
+The dying girl again smiled assent and softly exclaimed:
+
+"Yes, yes, I did it for that, for that alone.  And the prince was so
+abhorrent to me.  And the shame, the disgrace--oh, how terrible it was!"
+
+"And you incurred it for my son's sake," the old man interrupted, raising
+her hand, wet with his tears, to his lips; but she fixed her eyes on
+Ephraim, sobbing softly:
+
+"I thought of him too.  He is so young, and it is so horrible in the
+mines."
+
+She shuddered again as she spoke; but the youth covered her burning hand
+with kisses, while she gazed affectionately at him and the old man,
+adding in faltering accents:
+
+"Oh, all is well now, and if the gods grant him freedom...."
+
+Here Ephraim interrupted her to exclaim in fiery tones:
+
+"We are going to the mines this very day.  I and my comrades, and my
+grandfather with us, will put his guards to flight."
+
+"And he shall hear from my lips," Nun added, "how faithfully Kasana loved
+him, and that his life will be too short to thank her for such a
+sacrifice."
+
+His voice failed him--but every trace of suffering had vanished from the
+countenance of the dying girl, and for a long time she gazed heavenward
+silently with a happy look.  By degrees, however, her smooth brow
+contracted in an anxious frown, and she gasped in low tones:
+
+"Well, all is well....  only one thing....  my body....  unembalmed....
+without the sacred amulets.  .  .  ."
+
+But the old man answered:
+
+"As soon as you have closed your eyes, I will give it, carefully wrapped,
+to the Phoenician captain now tarrying here, that he may deliver it to
+your father."
+
+Kasana tried to turn her head toward him to thank him with a loving
+glance, but she suddenly pressed both hands on her breast, crimson blood
+welled from her lips, her cheeks varied from livid white to fiery scarlet
+and, after a brief, painful convulsion, she sank back.  Death laid his
+hand on the loving heart, and her features gained the expression of a
+child whose mother has forgiven its fault and clasped it to her heart ere
+it fell asleep.
+
+The old man, weeping, closed the dead girl's eyes.  Ephraim, deeply
+moved, kissed the closed lids, and after a short silence Nun said:
+
+"I do not like to enquire about our fate beyond the grave, which Moses
+himself does not know; but whoever has lived so that his or her memory is
+tenderly cherished in the souls of loved ones, has, I think, done the
+utmost possible to secure a future existence.  We will remember this dead
+girl in our most sacred hours.  Let us do for her corpse what we
+promised, and then set forth to show the man for whom Kasana sacrificed
+what she most valued that we do not love him less than this Egyptian
+woman."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+I do not like to enquire about our fate beyond the grave
+Then hate came; but it did not last long
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 4 ***
+
+***********This file should be named 5470.txt or 5470.zip ***********
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