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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Joshua, by Georg Ebers, Volume 5.
+#33 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: Joshua, Volume 5.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5471]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 15, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 5 ***
+
+
+
+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 5.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+The prisoners of state who were being transported to the mines made slow
+progress.  Even the experienced captain of the guards had never had a
+more toilsome trip or one more full of annoyances, obstacles, and
+mishaps.
+
+One of his moles, Ephraim, had escaped; he had lost his faithful hounds,
+and after his troop had been terrified and drenched by a storm such as
+scarcely occurred in these desert regions once in five years, a second
+had burst the next evening--the one which brought destruction on
+Pharaoh's army--and this had been still more violent and lasting.
+
+The storm had delayed the march and, after the last cloud-burst, several
+convicts and guards had been attacked by fever owing to their wet night-
+quarters in the open air.  The Egyptian asses, too, who were unused to
+rain, had suffered and some of the best had been left on the road.
+
+Finally they had been obliged to bury two dead prisoners, and place three
+who were dangerously ill on the remaining asses; and the other prisoners
+were laden with the stores hitherto carried by the beasts of burden.
+This was the first time such a thing had happened during the leader's
+service of five and twenty years, and he expected severe reproofs.
+
+All these things exerted a baneful influence on the disposition of the
+man, who was usually reputed one of the kindest-hearted of his companions
+in office; and Joshua, the accomplice of the bold lad whose flight was
+associated with the other vexations, suffered most sorely from his ill-
+humor.
+
+Perhaps the irritated man would have dealt more gently with him, had he
+complained like the man behind him, or burst into fierce oaths like his
+yoke-mate, who made threatening allusions to the future when his sister-
+in-law would be in high favor with Pharaoh and know how to repay those
+who ill-treated her dear relative.
+
+But Hosea had resolved to bear whatever the rude fellow and his mates
+chose to inflict with the same equanimity that he endured the scorching
+sun which, ever since he had served in the army, had tortured him during
+many a march through the desert, and his steadfast, manly character
+helped him keep this determination.
+
+If the captain of the gang loaded him with extra heavy burdens, he
+summoned all the strength of his muscles and tottered forward without a
+word of complaint until his knees trembled under him; then the captain
+would rush to him, throw several packages from his shoulders, and exclaim
+that he understood his spite; he was only trying to be left on the road,
+to get him into fresh difficulties; but he would not allow himself to be
+robbed of the lives of the men who were needed in the mines.
+
+Once the captain inflicted a wound that bled severely; but he instantly
+made every effort to cure it, gave him wine to restore his strength, and
+delayed the march half a day to permit him to rest.
+
+He had not forgotten Prince Siptah's promise of a rich reward to any one
+who brought him tidings of Hosea's death, but this was the very reason
+that induced the honest-hearted man to watch carefully over his
+prisoner's life; for the consciousness of having violated his duty for
+the sake of reaping any advantage would have robbed him of all pleasure
+in food and drink, as well as of the sound sleep which were his greatest
+blessings.
+
+So though the Hebrew prisoner was tortured, it was never beyond the
+limits of the endurable, and he had the pleasure of rendering, by his own
+great strength, many a service to his weaker companions.
+
+He had commended his fate to the God who had summoned him to His service;
+but he was well aware that he must not rest content with mere pious
+confidence, and therefore thought by day and night of escape.  But the
+chain that bound him to his companions in suffering was too firmly
+forged, and was so carefully examined and hammered every morning and
+evening, that the attempt to escape would only have plunged him into
+greater misery.
+
+The prisoners had at first marched through a hilly region, then climbed
+upward, with a long mountain chain in view, and finally reached a desert
+country from which truncated sandstone cones rose singly from the rocky
+ground.
+
+On the fifth evening they encamped near a large mountain which Nature
+seemed to have piled up from flat layers of stone and, as the sun of the
+sixth day rose, they turned into a side valley leading to the mines in
+the province of Bech.
+
+During the first few days they had been overtaken by a messenger from the
+king's silver-house; but on the other hand they had met several little
+bands bearing to Egypt malachite, turquoise, and copper, as well as the
+green glass made at the mines.
+
+Among those whom they met at the entrance of the cross-valley into which
+they turned on the last morning was a married couple on their way
+homeward, after having received a pardon from the king.  The captain of
+the guards pointed them out to encourage his exhausted moles, but the
+spectacle produced the opposite effect; for the tangled locks of the man,
+who had scarcely passed his thirtieth year, were grey, his tall figure
+was bowed and emaciated, and his naked back was covered with scars and
+bleeding wales; the wife, who had shared his misery, was blind.  She sat
+cowering on an ass, in the dull torpor of insanity, and though the
+passing of the convicts made a startling interruption to the silence of
+the wilderness, and her hearing had remained keen, she paid no heed, but
+continued to stare indifferently into vacancy.
+
+The sight of the hapless pair placed Hosea's own terrible future before
+him as if in a mirror, and for the first time he groaned aloud and
+covered his face with his hands.
+
+The captain of the guards perceived this and, touched by the horror of
+the man whose resolution had hitherto seemed peerless, called to him:
+
+"They don't all come home like that, no indeed!"
+
+"Because they are even worse off," he thought.  "But the poor wights
+needn't know it beforehand.  The next time I come this way I'll ask for
+Hosea; I shall want to know what has become of this bull of a man.  The
+strongest and the most resolute succumb the most quickly."
+
+Then, like a driver urging an unharnessed team forward, he swung the lash
+over the prisoners, but without touching them, and pointing to a column
+of smoke which rose behind a cliff at the right of the road, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"There are the smelting furnaces!  We shall reach our destination at
+noon.  There will be no lack of fire to cook lentils, and doubtless you
+may have a bit of mutton, too; for we celebrate to-day the birth of the
+good god, the son of the sun; may life, health, and prosperity be his!"
+
+For the next half-hour their road led between lofty cliffs through the
+dry bed of a river, down which, after the last rains, a deep mountain
+torrent had poured to the valley; but now only a few pools still
+remained.
+
+After the melancholy procession had passed around a steep mountain whose
+summit was crowned with a small Egyptian temple of Hathor and a number of
+monuments, it approached a bend in the valley which led to the ravine
+where the mines were located.
+
+Flags, hoisted in honor of Pharaoh's birth-day, were waving from tall
+masts before the gates of the little temple on the mountain; and when
+loud shouts, uproar, and clashing greeted the travellers in the valley of
+the mines, which was wont to be so silent, the captain of the guards
+thought that the prisoners' greatest festival was being celebrated in an
+unusually noisy way and communicated this conjecture to the other guards
+who had paused to listen.
+
+Then the party pressed forward without delay, but no one raised his head;
+the noon-day sun blazed so fiercely, and the dazzling walls of the ravine
+sent forth a reflected glow as fierce as if they were striving to surpass
+the heat of the neighboring smelting furnaces.
+
+Spite of the nearness of the goal the prisoners tottered forward as if
+asleep, only one held his breath in the intensity of suspense.
+
+As the battle-charger in the plough arches his neck, and expands his
+nostrils, while his eyes flash fire, so Joshua's bowed figure, spite of
+the sack that burdened his shoulders, straightened itself, and his
+sparkling eyes were turned toward the spot whence came the sounds the
+captain of the guards had mistaken for the loud tumult of festal mirth.
+
+He, Joshua, knew better.  Never could he mistake the roar echoing there;
+it was the war-cry of Egyptian soldiers, the blast of the trumpet
+summoning the warriors, the clank of weapons, and the battle-shouts of
+hostile hordes.
+
+Ready for prompt action, he bent toward his yokemate, and whispered
+imperiously:
+
+"The hour of deliverance is at hand.  Take heed, and obey me blindly."
+
+Strong excitement overpowered his companion also, and Hosea had scarcely
+glanced into the side-valley ere he bade him hold himself in readiness.
+
+The first look into the ravine had showed him, on the summit of a cliff,
+a venerable face framed in snowy locks--his father's.  He would have
+recognized him among thousands and at a far greater distance!  But from
+the beloved grey head he turned a swift glance at the guide, who had
+stopped in speechless horror, and supposing that a mutiny had broken out
+among the prisoners, with swift presence of mind shouted hoarsely to the
+other guards:
+
+"Keep behind the convicts and cut down every one who attempts to escape!"
+
+But scarcely had his subordinates hurried to the end of the train, ere
+Joshua whispered to his companion:
+
+"At him!"
+
+As he spoke the Hebrew, who, with his yoke-mate, headed the procession,
+attacked the astonished leader, and ere he was aware of it, Joshua seized
+his right arm, the other his left.
+
+The strong man, whose powers were doubled by his rage, struggled
+furiously to escape, but Joshua and his companion held him in an iron
+grasp.
+
+A single rapid glance had showed the chief the path he must take to join
+his people True, it led past a small band of Egyptian bow-men, who were
+discharging their arrows at the Hebrews on the opposite cliff, but the
+enemy would not venture to fire at him and his companion; for the
+powerful figure of the captain of the guards, clearly recognizable by his
+dress and weapons, shielded them both.
+
+"Lift the chain with your right hand," whispered Joshua, "I will hold our
+living buckler.  We must ascend the cliff crab-fashion."
+
+His companion obeyed, and as they advanced within bow-shot of the enemy
+--moving sometimes backward, sometimes sideways--they held the Egyptian
+before them and with the ringing shout: "The son of Nun is returning to
+his father and to his people!"  Joshua step by step drew nearer to the
+Hebrew combatants.
+
+Not one of the Egyptians who knew the captain of the prisoners' guard had
+ventured to send an arrow at the escaping prisoners.  While the fettered
+pair were ascending the cliff backward, Joshua heard his name shouted in
+joyous accents, and directly after Ephraim, with a band of youthful
+warriors, came rushing down the height toward him.
+
+To his astonishment Joshua saw the huge shield, sword, or battle-axe of
+an Egyptian heavily-armed soldier in the hands of each of these sons of
+his people, but the shepherd's sling and the bag of round stones also
+hung from many girdles.
+
+Ephraim led his companions and, before greeting his uncle, formed them
+into two ranks like a double wall between Joshua and the hostile bow-men.
+
+Then he gave himself up to the delight of meeting, and a second glad
+greeting soon followed; for old Nun, protected by the tall Egyptian
+shields which the sea had washed ashore, had been guided to the
+projecting rock in whose shelter strong hands were filing the fetters
+from Joshua and his companion, while Ephraim, with several others, bound
+the captain.
+
+The unfortunate man had given up all attempt at resistance and submitted
+to everything as if utterly crushed.  He only asked permission to wipe
+his eyes ere his arms were bound behind his back; for tear after tear was
+falling on the grey beard of the warder who, outwitted and overpowered,
+no longer felt capable of discharging the duties of his office.
+
+Nun clasped to his heart with passionate fervor the rescued son whom he
+had already mourned as lost.  Then, releasing him, he stepped back and
+never wearied of feasting his eyes on him and hearing him repeat that,
+faithful to his God, he had consecrated himself to the service of his
+people.
+
+But it was for a brief period only that they gave themselves up to the
+bliss of this happy meeting; the battle asserted its rights, and its
+direction fell, as a matter of course, to Joshua.
+
+He had learned with grateful joy, yet not wholly untinged with
+melancholy, of the fate which had overtaken the brave army among whose
+leaders he had long proudly numbered himself, and also heard that another
+body of armed shepherds, under the command of Hur, Miriam's husband, had
+attacked the turquoise mines of Dophkah, which situated a little farther
+toward the south, could be reached in a few hours.  If they conquered,
+they were to join the young followers of Ephraim before sunset.
+
+The latter was burning with eagerness to rush upon the Egyptians, but the
+more prudent Joshua, who had scanned the foe, though he did not doubt
+that they must succumb to the fiery shepherds, who were far superior to
+them in numbers, was anxious to shed as little blood as possible in this
+conflict, which was waged on his account, so he bade Ephraim cut a palm
+from the nearest tree, ordered a shield to be handed to him and then,
+waving the branch as an omen of peace, yet cautiously protecting himself,
+advanced alone to meet the foe.
+
+The main body were drawn up in front of the mines and, familiar with the
+signal which requested negotiations, asked their commander for an
+interview.
+
+The latter was ready to grant it, but first desired to know the contents
+of a letter which had just been handed to him and must contain evil
+tidings.  This was evident from the messenger's looks and the few words
+which, though broken, were pregnant with meaning, that he had whispered
+to his countryman.
+
+While some of Pharaoh's warriors offered refreshments to the exhausted,
+dust-covered runner, and listened with every token of horror to the
+tidings he hoarsely gasped, the commander of the troops read the letter.
+
+His features darkened and, when he had finished, he clenched the papyrus
+fiercely; for it had announced tidings no less momentous than the
+destruction of the army, the death of Pharaoh Menephtah, and the
+coronation of his oldest surviving son as Seti II., after the attempt of
+Prince Siptah to seize the throne had been frustrated.  The latter had
+fled to the marshy region of the Delta, and Aarsu, the Syrian, after
+abandoning him and supporting the new king, had been raised to the chief
+command of all the mercenaries.  Bai, the high-priest and chief-judge,
+had been deprived of his rank and banished by Seti II.  Siptah's
+confederates had been taken to the Ethiopian gold mines instead of to the
+copper mines.  It was also stated that many women belonging to the House
+of the Separated had been strangled; and Siptah's mother had undoubtedly
+met the same fate.  Every soldier who could be spared from the mines was
+to set off at once for Tanis, where veterans were needed for the new
+legions.
+
+This news exerted a powerful influence; for after Joshua had told the
+commander that he was aware of the destruction of the Egyptian army and
+expected reinforcements which had been sent to capture Dophkah to arrive
+within a few hours, the Egyptian changed his imperious tone and
+endeavored merely to obtain favorable conditions for retreat.  He was but
+too well aware of the weakness of the garrison of the turquoise mines and
+knew that he could expect no aid from home.  Besides, the mediator
+inspired him with confidence; therefore, after many evasions and threats,
+he expressed himself satisfied with the assurance that the garrison,
+accompanied by the beasts of burden and necessary provisions, should be
+allowed to depart unharmed.  This, however, was not to be done until
+after they had laid down their arms and showed the Hebrews all the
+galleries where the prisoners were at work.
+
+The young Hebrews, who twice outnumbered the Egyptians, at once set about
+disarming them; and many an old warrior's eyes grew dim, many a man broke
+his lance or snapped his arrows amid execrations and curses, while some
+grey-beards who had formerly served under Joshua and recognized him,
+raised their clenched fists and upbraided him as a traitor.
+
+The dregs of the army were sent for this duty in the wilderness and most
+of the men bore in their faces the impress of corruption and brutality.
+Those in authority on the Nile knew how to choose soldiers whose duty it
+was to exercise pitiless severity against the defenceless.
+
+At last the mines were opened and Joshua himself seized a lamp and
+pressed forward into the hot galleries where the naked prisoners of
+state, loaded with fetters, were hewing the copper ore from the walls.
+
+Already he could hear in the distance the picks, whose heads were shaped
+like a swallow's tail, bite the hard rock.  Then he distinguished the
+piteous wails of tortured men and women; for cruel overseers had followed
+them into the mine and were urging the slow to greater haste.
+
+To-day, Pharaoh's birthday, they had been driven to the temple of Hathor
+on the summit of the neighboring height, to pray for the king who had
+plunged them into the deepest misery, and they would have been released
+from labor until the next morning, had not the unexpected attack induced
+the commander to force them back into the mines.  Therefore to-day the
+women, who were usually obliged merely to crush and sift the ores needed
+to make glass and dyes, were compelled to labor in the galleries.
+
+When the convicts heard Joshua's shouts and footsteps, which echoed from
+the bare cliffs, they were afraid that some fresh misfortune was
+impending, and wailing and lamentations arose in all directions.  But the
+deliverer soon reached the first convicts, and the glad tidings that he
+had come to save them from their misery speedily extended to the inmost
+depths of the mines.
+
+Wild exultation filled the galleries which were wont to witness only
+sorrowful moans and burning tears; yet loud cries for help, piteous
+wailings, groans, and the death-rattle reached Joshua's ear; for a hot-
+blooded man had rushed upon the overseer most hated and felled him with
+his pick-axe.  His example quickly inflamed the others' thirst for
+vengeance and, ere it could be prevented, the same fate overtook the
+other officials.  But they had defended themselves and the corpse of many
+a prisoner strewed the ground beside their tormentors.
+
+Obeying Joshua's call, the liberated multitude at last emerged into the
+light of day.  Savage and fierce were the outcries which blended in
+sinister discord with the rattling of the chains they dragged after them.
+Even the most fearless among the Hebrews shrank in horror as they beheld
+the throng of hapless sufferers in the full radiance of the sunlight; for
+the dazzled, reddened eyes of the unfortunate sufferers,--many of whom
+had formerly enjoyed in their own homes or at the king's court every
+earthly blessing; who had been tender mothers and fathers, rejoiced in
+doing good, and shared all the blessings of the civilization of a richly
+gifted people,--these dazzled eyes which at first glittered through tears
+caused by the swift transition from the darkness of the mines to the
+glare of the noon-day sun, soon sparkled as fiercely and greedily as
+those of starving owls.
+
+At first, overwhelmed by the singular change in their destiny, they
+struggled for composure and did not resist the Hebrews, who, at Joshua's
+signal, began to file the fetters from their ankles; but when they
+perceived the disarmed soldiers and overseers who, guarded by Ephraim and
+his companions, were ranged at the base of a cliff, a strange excitement
+overpowered them.  Amid shrieks and yells which no name can designate, no
+words describe, they broke from those who were trying to remove their
+fetters and, though no glance or word had been exchanged between them,
+obeyed the same terrible impulse, and unheeding the chains that burdened
+them, rushed upon the defenceless Egyptians.  Before the Hebrews could
+prevent it, each threw himself upon the one who had inflicted the worst
+suffering upon him; and here might be seen an emaciated man clutching the
+throat of his stronger foe, yonder a band of nude women horribly
+disfigured by want and neglect, rush upon the man who had most rudely
+insulted, beaten, and abused them, and with teeth and nails wreak upon
+him their long repressed fury.
+
+It seemed as though the flood-tide of hate had burst its dam and,
+unfettered, was demanding its victims.
+
+There was a horrible scene of attack and defence, a ferocious, bloody
+conflict on foot and amid the red sand of the desert, shrieks, yells, and
+howls pierced the ear; nay, it was difficult to distinguish individuals
+in this motley confusion of men and women, animated on the one side by
+the wildest passion, a yearning for vengeance amounting to blood-
+thirstiness, and on the other by the dread of death and the necessity
+for self-defence.
+
+Only a few of the prisoners had succeeded in controlling themselves; but
+they, too, shouted irritating words to their fellows, reviled the
+Egyptians in violent excitement, and shook their clenched fists at the
+disarmed foe.
+
+The fury with which the liberated serfs rushed upon their tormentors was
+as unprecedented as the cruelties they had suffered.
+
+But Joshua had deprived the Egyptians of their weapons, and they were
+therefore under his protection.
+
+So he commanded his men to separate the combatants, if possible without
+bloodshed; but the task was no easy one, and many new and horrible deeds
+were committed.  At last, however, it was accomplished, and they now
+perceived how terribly rage had increased the strength of the exhausted
+and feeble sufferers; for though no weapons had been used in the conflict
+a number of corpses strewed the spot, and most of the guards were
+bleeding from terrible wounds.
+
+After quiet had been restored, Joshua asked the wounded commander for the
+list of prisoners, but he pointed to the clerk of the mines, whom none of
+the convicts had assailed.  He had been their physician and treated them
+kindly-an elderly man, he had himself undergone sore trials and, knowing
+the pain of suffering, was ready to alleviate the pangs of others.
+
+He willingly read aloud the names of the prisoners, among which were
+several Hebrew ones, and after each individual had responded, many
+declared themselves ready to join the wandering tribes.
+
+When the disarmed soldiers and guards at last set out on their way home,
+the captain of the band that had escorted Joshua and his companions left
+the other Egyptians, and with drooping head and embarrassed mien
+approached old Nun and his son, and begged permission to go with them;
+for he could expect no favor at home and there was no God in Egypt so
+mighty as theirs.  It had not escaped his notice that Hosea, who had once
+been a chief in the Egyptian service, had raised his hands in the sorest
+straits to this God, and never had he witnessed the same degree of
+resolution that he possessed.  Now he also knew that this same mighty God
+had buried Pharaoh's powerful army in the sea to save His people.  Such a
+God was acceptable to his heart, and he desired nothing better than to
+remain henceforward with those who served Him.
+
+Joshua willingly allowed him to join the Hebrews.  Then it appeared that
+there were fifteen of the latter among the liberated prisoners and, to
+Ephraim's special delight, Reuben, the husband of poor melancholy Milcah,
+who clung so closely to Miriam.  His reserved, laconic disposition had
+stood him in good stead, and the arduous forced labor seemed to have
+inflicted little injury on his robust frame.
+
+The exultation of victory, the joy of success, had taken full possession
+of Ephraim and his youthful band; but when the sun set and there was
+still no sign of Hur and his band, Nun and his followers were seized with
+anxiety.
+
+Ephraim had already proposed to go with some of his companions in quest
+of tidings, when a messenger announced that Hur's men had lost courage at
+the sight of the well-fortified Egyptian citadel.  Their leader, it is
+true, had urged them to the assault, but his band had shrunk from the
+peril and, unless Nun and his men brought aid, they would return with
+their mission unfulfilled.
+
+It was therefore resolved to go to the assistance of the timorous.  With
+joyous confidence they marched forward and, during the journey through
+the cool night, Ephraim and Nun described to Joshua how they had found
+Kasana and how she had died.  What she had desired to communicate to the
+man she loved was now made known to him, and the warrior listened with
+deep emotion and remained silent and thoughtful until they reached
+Dophkah, the valley of the turquoise mines, from whose center rose the
+fortress which contained the prisoners.
+
+Hur and his men had remained concealed in a side-valley, and after Joshua
+had divided the Hebrew force into several bodies and assigned to each a
+certain task, he gave at dawn the signal for the assault.
+
+After a brief struggle the little garrison was overpowered and the
+fortress taken.  The disarmed Egyptians, like their companions at the
+copper mines, were sent home.  The prisoners were released and the
+lepers, whose quarters were in a side-valley beyond the mines--among them
+were those who at Joshua's bidding had been brought here--were allowed to
+follow the conquerors at a certain distance.
+
+What Hur, Miriam's husband, could not accomplish, Joshua had done, and
+ere the young soldiers departed with Ephraim, old Nun assembled them to
+offer thanks to the Lord.  The men under Hur's command also joined in the
+prayer and wherever Joshua appeared Ephraim's companions greeted him with
+cheers.
+
+"Hail to our chief !"  often rang on the air, as they marched forward:
+"Hail to him whom the Most High Himself has chosen for His sword!  We
+will gladly follow him; for through him God leads us to victory."
+
+Hur's men also joined in these shouts, and he did not forbid them; nay,
+after the storming of the fortress, he had thanked Joshua and expressed
+his pleasure in his liberation.
+
+At the departure, the younger man had stepped back to let the older one
+precede him; but Hur had entreated grey-haired Nun, who was greatly his
+senior, to take the head of the procession, though after the deliverance
+of the people on the shore of the Red Sea he had himself been appointed
+by Moses and the elders to the chief command of the Hebrew soldiers.
+
+The road led first through a level mountain valley, then it crossed the
+pass known as the "Sword-point ", which was the only means of
+communication between the mines and the Red Sea.
+
+The rocky landscape was wild and desolate, and the path to be climbed
+steep.  Joshua's old father, who had grown up on the flat plains of
+Goshen and was unaccustomed to climbing mountains, was borne amid the
+joyous acclamations of the others, in the arms of his son and grandson,
+to the summit of the pass; but Miriam's husband who, at the head of his
+men, followed the division of Ephraim's companions, heard the shouts of
+the youths yet moved with drooping head and eyes bent on the ground.
+
+At the summit they were to rest and wait for the people who were to be
+led through the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah.
+
+The victors gazed from the top of the pass in search of the travellers;
+but as yet no sign of them appeared.  But when they looked back along the
+mountain path whence they had come a different spectacle presented
+itself, a scene so grand, so marvellous, that it attracted every eye as
+though by a magic spell; for at their feet lay a circular valley,
+surrounded by lofty cliffs, mountain ridges, peaks, and summits, which
+here white as chalk, yonder raven-black, here grey and brown, yonder red
+and green, appeared to grow upward from the sand toward the azure sky of
+the wilderness, steeped in dazzling light, and unshadowed by the tiniest
+cloudlet.
+
+All that the eye beheld was naked and bare, silent and lifeless.  On the
+slopes of the many-colored rocks, which surrounded the sandy valley, grew
+no blade of grass nor smallest plant.  Neither bird, worm, nor beetle
+stirred in these silent tracts, hostile to all life.  Here the eye
+discerned no cultivation,--nothing that recalled human existence.  God
+seemed to have created for Himself alone these vast tracts which were of
+service to no living creature.  Whoever penetrated into this wilderness
+entered a spot which the Most High had perchance chosen for a place of
+rest and retreat, like the silent, inaccessible Holy of Holies of the
+temple.
+
+The young men had gazed mutely at the wonderful scene at their feet.
+Now they prepared to encamp and showed themselves diligent in serving
+old Nun, whom they sincerely loved.  Resting among them under a hastily
+erected canopy he related, with sparkling eyes, the deeds his son had
+performed.
+
+Meanwhile Joshua and Hur were still standing at the top of the pass,
+the former gazing silently down into the dreary, rocky valley, which
+overarched by the blue dome of the sky, surrounded by the mountain
+pillars and columns from God's own workshop, opened before him as the
+mightiest of temples.
+
+The old man had long gazed gloomily at the ground, but he suddenly
+interrupted the silence and said:
+
+"In Succoth I erected a heap of stones and called upon the Lord to be a
+witness between us.  But in this spot, amid this silence, it seems to me
+that without memorial or sign we are sure of His presence."  Here he drew
+his figure to a greater height and continued: "And I now raise mine eyes
+to Thee, Adonai, and address my humble words to Thee, Jehovah, Thou God
+of Abraham and of our fathers, that Thou mayst a second time be a witness
+between me and this man whom Thou Thyself didst summon to Thy service,
+that he might be Thy sword."
+
+He had uttered these words with eyes and hands uplifted, then turning to
+the other, he said with solemn earnestness:
+
+"So I ask thee Hosea, son of Nun, dost thou remember the vow which thou
+and I made before the stones in Succoth?"
+
+"I do," was the reply.  "And in sore disaster and great peril I perceived
+what the Most High desired of me, and am resolved to devote to Him all
+the strength of body and soul with which He has endowed me, to Him alone,
+and to His people, who are also mine.  Henceforward I will be called
+Joshua....  nor will I seek service with the Egyptians or any foreign
+king; for the Lord our God through the lips of thy wife bestowed this
+name upon me."
+
+Then Hur, with solemn earnestness, broke in: "That is what I expected to
+hear and as, in this place also, the Most High is a witness between me
+and thee and hears this conversation, let the vow I made in His presence
+be here fulfilled.  The heads of the tribes and Moses, the servant of the
+Lord, appointed me to the command of the fighting-men of our people.  But
+now thou dost call thyself Joshua, and hast vowed to serve no other than
+the Lord our God.  I am well aware thou canst accomplish far greater
+things as commander of an army than I, who have grown grey in driving
+herds, or than any other Hebrew, by whatever name he is known, so I will
+fulfil the vow sworn at Succoth.  I will ask Moses, the servant of the
+Lord, and the elders to confide to thee the office of commander.  In
+their hands will I place the decision and, because I feel that the Most
+High beholds my heart, let me confess that I have thought of thee with
+secret rancor.  Yet, for the welfare of the people, I will forget what
+lies between us and offer thee my hand."
+
+With these words he held out his hand to Joshua and the latter, grasping
+it, replied with generous candor:
+
+"Thy words are manly and mine shall be also.  For the sake of the people
+and the cause we both serve, I will accept thy offer.  Yet since thou
+hast summoned the Most High as a witness and He hears me, I, too, will
+not withhold one iota of the truth.  The Lord Himself has summoned me to
+the office of commander of the fighting-men which thou dost desire to
+commit to me.  It was done through Miriam, thy wife, and is my due.  Yet
+I recognize thy willingness to yield thy dignity to me as a praiseworthy
+deed, since I know how hard it is for a man to resign power, especially
+in favor of a younger one whom he does not love.  Thou hast done this,
+and I am grateful.  I, too, have thought of thee with secret rancor; for
+through thee I lost another possession harder for a man to renounce than
+office: the love of woman."
+
+The hot blood mounted into Hur's cheeks, as he exclaimed:
+
+"Miriam!  I did not force her into marriage; nay I did not even purchase
+her, according to the custom of our fathers, with the bridal dowry--she
+became my wife of her own free will."
+
+"I know it," replied Joshua quietly, "yet there was one man who had
+yearned to make her his longer and more ardently than thou, and the fire
+of jealousy burned fiercely in his heart.  But have no anxiety; for wert
+thou now to give her a letter of divorce and lead her to me that I might
+open my arms and tent to receive her, I would exclaim:
+
+"Why hast thou done this thing to thyself and to me?  For a short time
+ago I learned what woman's love is, and that I was mistaken when I
+believed Miriam shared the ardor of my heart.  Besides, during the march
+with fetters on my feet, in the heaviest misfortune, I vowed to devote
+all the strength and energy of soul and body to the welfare of our
+people.  Nor shall the love of woman turn me from the great duty I have
+taken upon myself.  As for thy wife, I shall treat her as a stranger
+unless, as a prophetess, she summons me to announce a new message from
+the Lord."
+
+With these words he held out his hand to his companion and, as Hur
+grasped it, loud voices were heard from the fighting-men, for messengers
+were climbing the mountain, who, shouting and beckoning, pointed to the
+vast cloud of dust that preceded the march of the tribes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The Hebrews came nearer and nearer, and many of the young combatants
+hastened to meet them.  These were not the joyous bands, who had joined
+triumphantly in Miriam's song of praise, no, they tottered toward the
+mountain slowly, with drooping heads.  They were obliged to scale the
+pass from the steeper side, and how the bearers sighed; how piteously the
+women and children wailed, how fiercely the drivers swore as they urged
+the beasts of burden up the narrow, rugged path; how hoarsely sounded the
+voices of the half fainting men as they braced their shoulders against
+the carts to aid the beasts of burden.
+
+These thousands who, but a few short days before, had so gratefully felt
+the saving mercy of the Lord, seemed to Joshua, who stood watching their
+approach, like a defeated army.
+
+But the path they had followed from their last encampment, the harbor by
+the Red Sea, was rugged, arid, and to them, who had grown up among the
+fruitful plains of Lower Egypt, toilsome and full of terror.
+
+It had led through the midst of the bare rocky landscape, and their eyes,
+accustomed to distant horizons and luxuriant green foliage, met narrow
+boundaries and a barren wilderness.
+
+Since passing through the Gate of Baba, they had beheld on their way
+through the valley of the same name and their subsequent pilgrimage
+through the wilderness of Sin, nothing save valleys with steep precipices
+on either side.  A lofty mountain of the hue of death had towered, black
+and terrible, above the reddish-brown slopes, which seemed to the
+wanderers like the work of human hands, for the strata of stones rose at
+regular intervals.  One might have supposed that the giant builders whose
+hands had toiled here in the service of the Sculptor of the world had
+been summoned away ere they had completed the task, which in this
+wilderness had no searching eye to fear and seemed destined for the
+service of no living creature.  Grey and brown granite cliffs and ridges
+rose on both sides of the path, and in the sand which covered it lay
+heaps of small bits of red porphyry and coal-black stones that seemed as
+if they had been broken by the blows of a hammer and resembled the dross
+from which metal had been melted.  Greenish masses of rock, most peculiar
+in form, surrounded  the narrow, cliff circled mountain valleys, which
+opened into one another.  The ascending path pierced them; and often the
+Hebrews, as they entered, feared that the lofty cliffs in the distance
+would compel them to return.  Then murmurs and lamentations arose, but
+the mode of egress soon appeared and led to another rock-valley.
+
+On departing from the harbor at the Red Sea they had often found thorny
+gum acacias and an aromatic desert plant, which the animals relished; but
+the farther they entered the rocky wilderness, the more scorching and
+arid the sand became, and at last the eye sought in vain for herbs and
+trees.
+
+At Elim fresh springs and shade-giving palms were found, and at the Red
+Sea there were well-filled cisterns; but here at the camp in the
+wilderness of Sin nothing had been discovered to quench the thirst, and
+at noon it seemed as though an army of spiteful demons had banished every
+inch of shade cast by the cliffs; for every part of the valleys and
+ravines blazed and glowed, and nowhere was there the slightest protection
+from the scorching sun.
+
+The last water brought with them had been distributed among the human
+beings and animals, and when the procession started in the morning not a
+drop could be found to quench their increasing thirst.
+
+Then the old doubting rancor and rebelliousness took possession of the
+multitude.  Curses directed against Moses and the elders, who had led
+them from the comfort of well-watered Egypt to this misery, never ceased;
+but when they climbed the pass of the "Swordpoint" their parched throats
+had become too dry for oaths and invectives.
+
+Messengers from old Nun, Ephraim, and Hur had already informed the
+approaching throngs that the young men had gained a victory and liberated
+Joshua and the other captives; but their discouragement had become so
+great that even this good news made little change, and only a flitting
+smile on the bearded lips of the men, or a sudden flash of the old light
+in the dark eyes of the women appeared.
+
+Miriam, accompanied by melancholy Milcah, had remained with her
+companions instead of, as usual, calling upon the women to thank the Most
+High.
+
+Reuben, the husband of her sorrowful ward whom fear of disappointment
+still deterred from yielding to his newly-awakened hopes, was a quiet,
+reticent man, so the first messenger did not know whether he was among
+the liberated prisoners.  But great excitement overpowered Milcah and,
+when Miriam bade her be patient, she hurried from one playmate to another
+assailing them with urgent questions.  When even the last could give her
+no information concerning the husband she had loved and lost, she burst
+into loud sobs and fled back to the prophetess.  But she received little
+consolation, for the woman who was expecting to greet her own husband as
+a conqueror and see the rescued friend of her childhood, was absent-
+minded and troubled, as if some heavy burden oppressed her soul.
+
+Moses had left the tribes as soon as he learned that the attack upon the
+mines had succeeded and Joshua was rescued; for it had been reported that
+the warlike Amalekites, who dwelt in the oasis at the foot of Mt. Sinai,
+were preparing to resist the Hebrews' passage through their well-watered
+tract in the wilderness with its wealth of palms.  Accompanied by a few
+picked men he set off across the mountains in quest of tidings, expecting
+to join his people between Alush and Rephidim in the valley before the
+oasis.
+
+Abidan, the head of the tribe of Benjamin, with Hur and Nun, the princes
+of Judah and Ephraim after their return from the mines--were to represent
+him and his companions.
+
+As the people approached the steep pass Hur, with more of the rescued
+prisoners, came to meet them, and hurrying in advance of all the rest was
+young Reuben, Milcah's lost husband.  She had recognized him in the
+distance as he rushed down the mountain and, spite of Miriam's protest,
+darted into the midst of the tribe of Simeon which marched in front of
+hers.
+
+The sight of their meeting cheered many a troubled spirit and when at
+last, clinging closely to each other, they hurried to Miriam and the
+latter beheld the face of her charge, it seemed as though a miracle had
+been wrought; for the pale lily had become in the hue of her cheeks a
+blooming rose.  Her lips, too, which she had but rarely and timidly
+opened for a question or an answer, were in constant motion; for how much
+she desired to know, how many questions she had to ask the silent husband
+who had endured such terrible suffering.
+
+They were a handsome, happy pair, and it seemed to them as if, instead of
+passing naked rocks over barren desert paths, they were journeying
+through a vernal landscape where springs were gushing and birds carolling
+their songs.
+
+Miriam, who had done everything in her power to sustain the grieving
+wife, was also cheered by the sight of her happiness.  But every trace
+of joyous sympathy soon vanished from her features; for while Reuben and
+Milcah, as if borne on wings, seemed scarcely to touch the soil of the
+wilderness, she moved forward with drooping head, oppressed by the
+thought that it was her own fault that no like happiness could bloom
+for her in this hour.
+
+She told herself that she had made a sore sacrifice, worthy of the
+highest reward and pleasing in the sight of God, when she refused to obey
+the voice of her heart, yet she could not banish from her memory the
+dying Egyptian who had denied her right to be numbered among those who
+loved Hosea, the woman who for his sake had met so early a death.
+
+She, Miriam, lived, yet she had killed the most fervent desire of her
+soul; duty forbade her thinking with ardent longing of him who lingered
+up yonder, devoted to the cause of his people and the God of his fathers,
+a free, noble man, perhaps the future leader of the warriors of her race,
+and if Moses so appointed, next to him the first and greatest of all the
+Hebrews, but lost, forever lost to her.
+
+Had she on that fateful night obeyed the yearning of her woman's heart
+and not the demands of the vocation which placed her far above all other
+women, he would long since have clasped her in his arms, as quiet Reuben
+embraced his poor, feeble Milcah, now so joyous as she walked stoutly at
+his side.
+
+What thoughts were these?
+
+She must drive them back to the inmost recesses of her heart, seek to
+crush them; for it was a sin for her to long so ardently to meet another.
+She wished for her husband's presence, as a saviour from herself and the
+forbidden desires of this terrible hour.
+
+Hur, the prince of the tribe of Judah, was her husband, not the former
+Egyptian, the liberated captive.  What had she to ask from the
+Ephraimite, whom she had forever refused?
+
+Why should it hurt her that the liberated prisoner did not seek her; why
+did she secretly cherish the foolish hope that momentous duties detained
+him?
+
+She scarcely saw or heard what was passing around her, and Milcah's
+grateful greeting to her husband first informed her that Hur was
+approaching.
+
+He had waved his hand to her while still afar, but he came alone, without
+Hosea or Joshua, she cared not what the rescued man called himself; and
+it angered her to feel that this hurt her, nay, pierced her to the heart.
+Yet she esteemed her elderly husband and it was not difficult for her to
+give him a cordial welcome.
+
+He answered her greeting joyously and tenderly; but when she pointed to
+the re-united pair and extolled him as victor and deliverer of Reuben and
+so many hapless men, he frankly owned that he had no right to this
+praise, it was the due of "Joshua," whom she herself had summoned in the
+name of the Most High to command the warriors of the people.
+
+Miriam turned pale and, in spite of the steepness of the road, pressed
+her husband with questions.  When she heard that Joshua was resting on
+the heights with his father and the young men and refreshing themselves
+with wine, and that Hur had promised to resign voluntarily, if Moses
+desired to entrust the command to him, her heavy eye-brows contracted in
+a gloomy frown beneath her broad forehead and, with curt severity, she
+exclaimed:
+
+"You are my lord, and it is not seemly for me to oppose you, not even if
+you forget your own wife so far that you give place to the man who once
+ventured to raise his eyes to her."
+
+"He no longer cares for you," Hur eagerly interrupted; "nay, were I to
+give you a letter of divorce, he would no longer desire to possess you."
+
+"Would he not?"  asked Miriam with a forced smile.  "Do you owe this
+information to him?"
+
+"He has devoted himself, body and soul, to the welfare of the people and
+renounces the love of woman," replied Hur.  But his wife exclaimed:
+
+"Renunciation is easy, where desire would bring nothing save fresh
+rejection and shame.  Not to him who, in the hour of the utmost peril,
+sought aid from the Egyptians is the honor of the chief command of the
+warriors due, but rather to you, who led the tribes to the first victory
+at the store-house in Succoth and to whom the Lord Himself, through Moses
+His servant, confided the command."
+
+Hur looked anxiously at the woman for whom a late, fervent love had fired
+his heart, and seeing her glowing cheeks and hurried breathing, knew not
+whether to attribute these symptoms to the steep ascent or to the
+passionate ambition of her aspiring soul, which she now transferred to
+him, her husband.
+
+That she held him in so much higher esteem than the younger hero, whose
+return he had dreaded, pleased him, but he had grown grey in the strict
+fulfilment of duty, and would not deviate from what he considered right.
+His mere hints had been commands to the wife of his youth whom he had
+borne to the grave a few years before, and as yet he had encountered no
+opposition from Miriam.  That Joshua was best fitted to command the
+fighting-men of the people was unquestionable, so he answered, with
+panting breath, for the ascent taxed his strength also:
+
+"Your good opinion is an honor and a pleasure to me; but even should
+Moses and the elders confer the chief command upon me, remember the heap
+of stones at Succoth and my vow.  I have ever been mindful of and shall
+keep it."
+
+Miriam looked angrily aside, and said nothing more till they had reached
+the summit of the pass.
+
+The victorious youths were greeting their approaching kindred with loud
+shouts.
+
+The joy of meeting, the provisions captured, and the drink which, though
+sparingly distributed, was divided among the greatest sufferers, raised
+the drooping courage of the exhausted wayfarers; and the thirsting
+Hebrews shortened the rest at the summit of the pass in order to reach
+Dophkah more quickly.  They had heard from Joshua that they would find
+there not only ruined cisterns, but also a hidden spring whose existence
+had been revealed to him by the ex-captain of the prisoners' guards.
+
+The way led down the mountain.  "Haste" was the watchword of the fainting
+Hebrews on their way to a well; and thus, soon after sunset, they reached
+the valley of the turquoise mines, where they encamped around the hill
+crowned by the ruined fortress and burned store-houses of Dophkah.
+
+The spring in an acacia grove dedicated to the goddess Hathor was
+speedily found, and fire after fire was quickly lighted.  The wavering
+hearts which, in the desert of Sin, had been on the verge of despair were
+again filled with the anticipation of life, hope, and grateful faith.
+The beautiful acacias, it is true, had been felled to afford easier
+access to the spring whose refreshing waters had effected this wonderful
+change.
+
+At the summit of the pass Joshua and Miriam had met again, but found time
+only for a hasty greeting.  In the camp they were brought into closer
+relations.
+
+Joshua had appeared among the people with his father.  The heir of the
+princely old man who was held in such high esteem received joyous
+greetings from all sides, and his counsel to form a vanguard of the
+youthful warriors, a rear-guard of the older ones, and send out chosen
+bands of the former on reconnoitering expeditions was readily adopted.
+
+He had a right to say that he was familiar with everything pertaining to
+the guidance and defence of a large army.  God Himself had entrusted him
+with the chief command, and Moses, by sending him the monition to be
+strong and steadfast, had confirmed the office.  Hur, too, who now
+possessed it, was willing to transfer it to him, and this man's promise
+was inviolable, though he had omitted to repeat it in the presence of the
+elders.  Joshua was treated as if he held the chief command, and he
+himself felt his own authority supreme.
+
+After the assembly dispersed, Hur had invited him, spite of the late
+hour, to go to his tent and the warrior accompanied him, for he desired
+to talk with Miriam.  He would show her, in her husband's presence, that
+he had found the path which she had so zealously pointed out to him.
+
+In the presence of another's wife the tender emotions of a Hebrew were
+silent.  Hur's consort must be made aware that he, Joshua, no longer
+cherished any love for her.  Even in his solitary hours, he had wholly
+ceased to think of her.
+
+He confessed that she was a noble, a majestic woman, but the very memory
+of this grandeur now sent a chill through his veins.
+
+Her actions, too, appeared in a new light.  Nay, when at the summit of
+the pass she had greeted him with a cold smile, he felt convinced that
+they were utterly estranged from one another, and this feeling grew
+stronger and stronger beside the blazing fire in the stately tent of the
+chief, where they met a second time.
+
+The rescued Reuben and his wife Milcah had deserted Miriam long before
+and, during her lonely waiting, many thoughts had passed through her mind
+which she meant to impress upon the man to whom she had granted so much
+that its memory now weighed on her heart like a crime.
+
+We are most ready to be angry with those to whom we have been unjust,
+and this woman regarded the gift of her love as something so great,
+so precious, that it behooved even the man whom she had rejected never
+to cease to remember it with gratitude.  But Joshua had boasted that he
+no longer desired, even were she offered to him, the woman whom he had
+once so fervently loved and clasped in his embrace.  Nay, he had
+confirmed this assertion by leisurely waiting, without seeking her.
+
+At last he came, and in company with her husband, who was ready to cede
+his place to him.
+
+But she was present, ready to watch with open eyes for the welfare of the
+too generous Hur.
+
+The elderly man, to whose fate she had linked her own, and whose faithful
+devotion touched her, should be defrauded by no rival of the position
+which was his due, and which he must retain, if only because she rebelled
+against being the wife of a man who could no longer claim next to her
+brothers the highest rank in the tribes.
+
+Never before had the much-courted woman, who had full faith in her gift
+of prophesy, felt so bitter, sore, and irritated.  She did not admit it
+even to herself, yet it seemed as if the hatred of the Egyptians with
+which Moses had inspired her, and which was now futile, had found a new
+purpose and was directed against the only man whom she had ever loved.
+
+But a true woman can always show kindness to everyone whom she does not
+scorn, so though she blushed deeply at the sight of the man whose kiss
+she had returned, she received him cordially, and with sympathetic
+questions.
+
+Meanwhile, however, she addressed him by his former name Hosea, and when
+he perceived it was intentional, he asked if she had forgotten that it
+was she herself who, as the confidante of the Most High, had commanded
+him henceforward to call himself "Joshua."
+
+Her features grew sharper with anxiety as she replied that her memory was
+good but he reminded her of a time which she would prefer to forget.  He
+had himself forfeited the name the Lord had given him by preferring the
+favor of the Egyptians to the help which God had promised.  Faithful to
+the old custom, she would continue to call him "Hosea."
+
+The honest-hearted soldier had not expected such hostility, but he
+maintained a tolerable degree of composure and answered quietly that he
+would rarely afford her an opportunity to address him by this or any
+other name.  Those who were his friends readily adopted that of Joshua.
+
+Miriam replied that she, too, would be ready to do so if her husband
+approved and he himself insisted upon it; for the name was only a
+garment.  Of course offices and honors were another matter.
+
+When Joshua then declared that he still believed God Himself had summoned
+him, through the lips of His prophetess, to command the Hebrew soldiers
+and that he would admit the right of no one save Moses to deprive him of
+his claim to this office, Hur assented and held out his hand to him.
+
+Then Miriam dropped the restraint she had hitherto imposed on herself
+and, with defiant eagerness, continued:
+
+"There I am of a different opinion.  You did not obey the summons of the
+Most High.  Can you deny this?  And when the Omnipresent One found you at
+the feet of Pharaoh, instead of at the head of His people, He deprived
+you of the office with which He had entrusted you.  He, the mightiest of
+generals, summoned the tempest and the waves, and they swallowed up the
+foe.  So perished those who were your friends till their heavy fetters
+made you realize their true disposition toward you and your race.  But I,
+meanwhile, was extolling the mercy of the Most High, and the people
+joined in my hymn of praise.  On that very day the Lord summoned another
+to command the fighting-men in your stead, and that other, as you know,
+is my husband.  If Hur has never learned the art of war, God will surely
+guide his arm, and it is He and none other who bestows victory.
+
+"My husband--hear it again--is the sole commander of the hosts and if,
+in the abundance of his generosity, he has forgotten it, he will retain
+his office when he remembers whose hand chose him, and when I, his wife,
+raise my voice and recall it to his memory."
+
+Joshua turned to go, in order to end the painful discussion, but Hur
+detained him, protesting that he was deeply incensed by his wife's
+unseemly interference in the affairs of men, and that he insisted on his
+promise.  "A woman's disapproving words were blown away by the wind.  It
+would be Moses' duty to declare whom Jehovah had chosen to be commander."
+
+While making this reply Hur had gazed at his wife with stern dignity, as
+if admonishing discretion, and the look seemed to have effected its
+purpose; for Miriam had alternately flushed and paled as she listened;
+nay, she even detained the guest by beckoning him with a trembling hand
+to approach, as though she desired to soothe him.
+
+"Let me say one thing more," she began, drawing a long breath, "that you
+may not misunderstand my meaning.  I call everyone our friend who devotes
+himself to the cause of the people, and how self-sacrificingly you intend
+to do this, Hur has informed me.  It was your confidence in Pharaoh's
+favor that parted us--therefore I know how to prize your firm and
+decisive breach with the Egyptians, but I did not correctly estimate the
+full grandeur of this deed until I learned that not only long custom, but
+other bonds, united you to the foe."
+
+"What is the meaning of these words?"  replied Joshua, convinced that she
+had just fitted to the bowstring another shaft intended to wound him.
+But Miriam, unheeding the question, calmly continued with a defiant
+keenness of glance that contradicted her measured speech:
+
+"After the Lord's guidance had delivered us from the enemy, the Red Sea
+washed ashore the most beautiful woman we have seen for a long time.  I
+bandaged the wound a Hebrew woman dealt her and she acknowledged that her
+heart was filled with love for you, and that on her dying bed she
+regarded you as the idol of her soul."
+
+Joshua, thoroughly incensed, exclaimed: "If this is the whole truth, wife
+of Hur, my father has given me a false report; for according to what I
+heard from him, the hapless woman made her last confession only in the
+presence of those who love me; not in yours.  And she was right to shun
+you--you would never have understood her."
+
+Here he saw a smile of superiority hover around Miriam's lips; but he
+repelled it, as he went on:
+
+"Ah, your intellect is tenfold  keener than  poor Kasana's ever was.  But
+your heart, which was open to the Most High, had no room for love.  It
+will grow old and cease to beat without having learned the feeling.  And,
+spite of your flashing eyes, I will tell you you are more than a woman,
+you are a prophetess.  I cannot boast of gifts so lofty.  I am merely a
+plain man, who understands the art of fighting better than that of
+foretelling the future.  Yet I can see what is to come.  You will foster
+the hatred of me that glows in your breast, and will also implant it in
+your husband's heart and zealously strive to fan it there.  And I know
+why.  The fiery ambition which consumes you will not suffer you to be the
+wife of a man who is second to any other.  You refuse to call me by the
+name I owe to you.  But if hatred and arrogance do not stifle in your
+breast the one feeling that still unites us--love for our people, the day
+will come when you will voluntarily approach and, unasked, by the free
+impulse of your heart, call me 'Joshua.'"
+
+With these words he took leave of Miriam and her husband by a short wave
+of the hand, and vanished in the darkness of the night.
+
+Hur gazed gloomily after him in silence until the footsteps of the
+belated guest had died away in the sleeping camp; then the ill-repressed
+wrath of the grave man, who had hitherto regarded his young wife with
+tender admiration, knew no bounds.
+
+With two long strides he stood directly before her as she gazed with a
+troubled look into the fire, her face even paler than his own.  His voice
+had lost its metallic harmony, and sounded shrill and sharp as he
+exclaimed:
+
+"I had the courage to woo a maiden who supposed herself to be nearer to
+God than other women, and now that she has become my wife she makes me
+atone for such presumption."
+
+"Atone?"  escaped Miriam's livid lips, and a defiant glance blazed at him
+from her black eyes.  But, undismayed, he continued, grasping her hand
+with so firm a pressure that it hurt her:
+
+"Aye, you make me atone for it!--Shame on me, if I permit this
+disgraceful hour to be followed by similar ones."
+
+Miriam strove to wrest her hand from his clasp, but he would not release
+it, and went on:
+
+"I sought you, that you might be the pride of my house.  I expected to
+sow honor, and I reap disgrace; for what could be more humiliating to
+a man than to have a wife who rules him, who presumes to wound with
+hostile words the heart of the friend who is protected by the laws of
+hospitality?  A woman of different mould, a simple-hearted, upright wife,
+who looked at her husband's past life, instead of planning how to
+increase his greatness, that she might share it with him, need not have
+had me shout into her ears that Hur has garnered honors and dignities
+enough, during his long existence, to be able to spare a portion of them
+without any loss of esteem.  It is not the man who holds the chief
+command, but the one who shows the most self-sacrificing love for the
+people that is greatest in the eyes of Jehovah.  You desire a high place,
+you seek to be honored by the multitude as one who is summoned by the
+Lord.  I shall not forbid it, so long as you do not forget what the duty
+of a wife commands.  You owe me love also; for you vowed to give it on
+your marriage day; but the human heart can bestow only what it possesses,
+and Hosea is right when he says that love, which is warm itself and warms
+others, is a feeling alien to your cold nature."
+
+With these words he turned his back upon her and went to the dark portion
+of the tent, while Miriam remained standing by the fire, whose flickering
+light illumined her beautiful, pallid face.
+
+With clenched teeth and hands pressed on her heaving bosom, she stood
+gazing at the spot where he had disappeared.
+
+Her grey-haired husband had confronted her in the full consciousness of
+his dignity, a noble man worthy of reverence, a true, princely chief of
+his tribe, and infinitely her superior.  His every word had pierced her
+bosom like the thrust of a lance.  The power of truth had given each its
+full emphasis and held up to Miriam a mirror that showed her an image
+from which she shrank.
+
+Now she longed to rush after him and beg him to restore the love with
+which he had hitherto surrounded her--and which the lonely woman had
+gratefully felt.
+
+She knew that she could reciprocate his costly gift; for how ardently she
+longed to have one kind, forgiving word from his lips.
+
+Her soul seemed withered, parched, torpid, like a corn-field on which a
+poisonous mildew has fallen; yet it had once been green and blooming.
+
+She thought of the tilled fields in Goshen which, after having borne an
+abundant harvest, remained arid and bare till the moisture of the river
+came to soften the soil and quicken the seed which it had received.  So
+it had been with her soul, only she had flung the ripening grain into the
+fire and, with blasphemous hand, erected a dam between the fructifying
+moisture and the dry earth.
+
+But there was still time!
+
+She knew that he erred in one respect; she knew she was like all other
+women, capable of yearning with ardent passion for the man she loved.
+It depended solely on herself to make him feel this in her arms.
+
+Now, it is true, he was justified in thinking her harsh and unfeeling,
+for where love had once blossomed in her soul, a spring of bitterness
+now gushed forth poisoning all it touched.
+
+Was this the vengeance of the heart whose ardent wishes she had
+heroically slain?
+
+God had disdained her sorest sacrifice; this it was impossible to doubt;
+for His majesty was no longer revealed to her in visions that exalted the
+heart, and she was scarcely entitled to call herself His prophetess.
+This sacrifice had led her, the truth-loving woman, into falsehood and
+plunged her who, in the consciousness of seeking the right path lived at
+peace with herself, into torturing unrest.  Since that great and
+difficult deed she, who had once been full of hope, had obtained nothing
+for which she longed.  She, who recognized no woman as her superior, had
+been obliged to yield in shame her place to a poor dying Egyptian.  She
+had been kindly disposed toward all who were of her blood, and were
+devoted to the sacred cause of her people, and now her hostile bitterness
+had wounded one of the best and noblest.  The poorest bondman's wife
+rejoiced to bind more and more closely the husband who had once loved
+her--she had wickedly estranged hers.
+
+Seeking protection she had approached his hearthstone shivering, but she
+had found it warmer than she had hoped, and his generosity and love fell
+upon her wounded soul like balm.  True, he could not restore what she had
+lost, but he could give a welcome compensation.
+
+Ah, he no longer believed her capable of a tender emotion, yet she needed
+love in order to live, and no sacrifice seemed to her too hard to regain
+his.  But pride was also a condition of her very existence, and whenever
+she prepared to humbly open her heart to her husband, the fear of
+humiliating herself overpowered her, and she stood as though spell-bound
+till the blazing wood at her feet fell into smoking embers and darkness
+surrounded her.
+
+Then a strange anxiety stole over her.
+
+Two bats, which had come from the mines and circled round the fire darted
+past her like ghosts.  Everything urged her back to the tent, to her
+husband, and with hasty resolution she entered the spacious room lighted
+by a lamp.  But it was empty, and the female slave who received her said
+that Hur would spend the time until the departure of the people with his
+son and grandson.
+
+A keen pang pierced her heart, and she lay down to rest with a sense of
+helplessness and shame which she had not felt since her childhood.
+
+A few hours after the camp was astir and when her husband, in the grey
+dawn of morning, entered the tent with a curt greeting, pride again
+raised its head and her reply sounded cold and formal.
+
+He did not come alone; his son Uri was with him.
+
+But he looked graver than was his wont; for the men of Judah had
+assembled early and adjured him not to give up the chief command to any
+man who belonged to another tribe.
+
+This had been unexpected.  He had referred them to Moses' decision, and
+his desire that it might be adverse to him was intensified, as his young
+wife's self-reliant glance stirred fresh wrath in his soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Early the following morning the people resumed their march with fresh
+vigor and renewed courage; but the little spring which, by digging, had
+at last been forced to flow was completely exhausted.
+
+However, its refusal to bestow a supply of water to take with them was of
+no consequence; they expected to find another well at Alush.
+
+The sun had risen in radiant majesty in a cloudless sky.  The light
+showed its awakening power on the hearts of men, and the rocks and the
+yellow sand of the road sparkled like the blue vault above.  The pure,
+light, spicy air of the desert, cooled by the freshness of the night,
+expanded the breasts of the wayfarers, and walking became a pleasure.
+
+The men showed greater confidence, and the eyes of the women sparkled
+more brightly than they had done for a long time; for the Lord had again
+showed the people that He remembered them in their need; and fathers and
+mothers gazed proudly at the sons who had conquered the foe.  Most of the
+tribes had greeted in the band of prisoners some one who had long been
+given up as lost, and it was a welcome duty to make amends for the
+injuries the terrible forced labor had inflicted.  There was special
+rejoicing, not only among the Ephraimites, but everywhere, over the
+return of Joshua, as all, save the men of the tribe of Judah, now called
+him, remembering the cheering promise the name conveyed.
+
+The youths who under his command had put the Egyptians to rout, told
+their relatives what manner of man the son of Nun was, how he thought of
+everything and assigned to each one the place for which he was best
+suited.  His eye kindled the battle spirit in every one on whom it fell,
+and the foe retreated at his mere war-cry.
+
+Those who spoke of old Nun and his grandson also did so with sparkling
+eyes.  The tribe of Ephraim, whose lofty pretensions had been a source of
+much vexation, was willingly allowed precedence on this march, and only
+the men of Judah were heard to grumble.  Doubtless there was reason for
+dissatisfaction; for Hur, the prince of their tribe, and his young wife
+walked as if oppressed by a heavy burden; whoever asked them anything
+would have been wiser to have chosen another hour.
+
+So long as the sun's rays were oblique, there was still a little shade at
+the edge of the sandstone rocks which bordered the road on both sides or
+towered aloft in the center; and as the sons of Korah began a song of
+praise, young and old joined in, and most gladly and gratefully of all
+Milcah, now no longer pale, and Reuben, her happy, liberated husband.
+
+The children picked up golden-yellow bitter apples, which having fallen
+from the withered vines, lay by the wayside as if they had dropped from
+the sky, and brought them to their parents.  But they were bitter as gall
+and a morose old man of the tribe of Zebulun, who nevertheless kept their
+firm shells to hold ointment, said:
+
+"These are a symbol of to-day.  It looks pleasant now; but when the sun
+mounts higher and we find no water, we shall taste the bitterness."
+
+His prediction was verified only too soon; for as the road which, after
+leaving the sandstone region, began to lead upward through a rocky
+landscape which resembled walls of red brick and grey stone, grew
+steeper, the sun rose higher and higher and the heat of the day hourly
+increased.
+
+Never had the sun sent sharper arrows upon the travellers, and pitiless
+was their fall upon bare heads and shoulders.
+
+Here an old man, yonder a younger one, sank prostrate under its scorching
+blaze or, supported by his friends, staggered on raving with his hand
+pressed to his brow like a drunken man.  The blistered skin peeled from
+the hands and faces of men and women, and there was not one whose palate
+and tongue were not parched by the heat, or whose vigorous strength and
+newly-awakened courage it did not impair.
+
+The cattle moved forward with drooping heads and dragging feet or rolled
+on the ground till the shepherds' lash compelled them to summon their
+failing powers.
+
+At noon the people were permitted to rest, but there was not a hand's
+breadth of shade where they sought repose.  Whoever lay down in the
+noonday heat found fresh tortures instead of relief.  The sufferers
+themselves urged a fresh start for the spring at Alush.
+
+Hitherto each day, after the sun had begun its course toward the west
+through the cloudless sky of the desert, the heat had diminished, and ere
+the approach of twilight a fresher breeze had fanned the brow; but to-day
+the rocks retained the glow of noonday for many hours, until a light cool
+breeze blew from sea at the west.  At the same time the vanguard which,
+by Joshua's orders, preceded the travellers, halted, and the whole train
+stopped.
+
+Men, women, and children fixed their eyes and waved hands, staves, and
+crutches toward the same spot, where the gaze was spell-bound by a
+wondrous spectacle never beheld before.
+
+A cry of astonishment and admiration echoed from the parched weary lips,
+which had long since ceased to utter question or answer; and it soon rang
+from rank to rank, from tribe to tribe, to the very lepers at the end of
+the procession and the rear-guard which followed it.  One touched
+another, and whispered a name familiar to every one, that of the sacred
+mountain where the Lord had promised Moses to "bring them unto a good
+land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."
+
+No one had told the weary travellers, yet all knew that for the first
+time they beheld Horeb and the peak of Sinai, the most sacred summit of
+this granite range.
+
+Though a mountain, it was also the throne of the omnipotent God of their
+fathers.
+
+The holy mountain itself seemed at this hour to be on fire like the bush
+whence He had spoken to His chosen servant.  Its summit, divided into
+seven peaks, towered majestically aloft in the distance, dominating the
+heights and valleys far and near, glowing before the people like a giant
+ruby, irradiated by the light of a conflagration which was consuming the
+world.
+
+No eye had ever beheld a similar spectacle.  Then the sun sank lower and
+lower, till it set in the sea concealed behind the mountains.  The
+glowing ruby was transformed into a dark amethyst, and at last assumed
+the deep hue of a violet; but the eyes of the people continued to dwell
+on the sacred scenes as though spell-bound.  Nay, when the day-star had
+completely disappeared, and its reflection gilded a long cloud with
+shining edges, their eyes dilated still more, for a man of the tribe of
+Benjamin, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the spectacle, beheld in it the
+floating gold-bordered mantle of Jehovah, and the neighbors to whom he
+showed it, believed him, and shared his pious excitement.
+
+This inspiring sight had made the Hebrews for a short time forget thirst
+and weariness.  But the highest exaltation was soon to be transformed
+into the deepest discouragement; for when night closed in and Alush was
+reached after a short march it appeared that the desert tribe which dwelt
+there, ere striking their tents the day before, had filled the brackish
+spring with pebbles and rubbish.
+
+Everything fit to drink which had been brought with them had been
+consumed at Dophkah, and the exhausted spring at the mines had afforded
+no water to fill the skins.  Thirst not only parched their palates but
+began to fever their bowels.  Their dry throats refused to receive the
+solid food of which there was no lack.  Scenes that could not fail to
+rouse both ruth and anger were seen and heard on all sides.
+
+Here men and women raved and swore, wailed and moaned, yonder they gave
+themselves up to dull despair.  Others, whose crying children shrieked
+for water, had gone to the choked spring and were quarrelling around a
+little spot on the ground, whence they hoped to collect a few drops of
+the precious fluid in a shallow dish.  The cattle, too, lowed so
+mournfully and beseechingly that it pierced the shepherds' hearts like a
+reproach.
+
+Few took the trouble to pitch a tent.  The night was so warm, and the
+sooner they pressed forward the better, for Moses had promised to join
+them a few leagues hence.  He alone could aid, it was his duty to protect
+man and beast from perishing.
+
+If the God who had promised them such splendid gifts left them to die in
+the wilderness with their cattle, the man to whose guidance they had
+committed themselves was a cheat; and the God whose might and mercy he
+never ceased extolling was more false and powerless than the idols with
+heads of human beings and animals, to whom they had prayed in Egypt.
+
+Threats, too, were loudly uttered amid curses and blasphemies.  Wherever
+Aaron, who had returned to the people, appeared and addressed them,
+clenched fists were stretched toward him.
+
+Miriam, too, by her husband's bidding, was compelled to desist from
+comforting the women with soothing words, after a mother whose infant was
+expiring at her dry breast, picked up a stone and others followed her
+example.
+
+Old Nun and his son found more attentive hearers.  Both agreed that
+Joshua must fight, no matter in what position Moses placed him; but Hur
+himself led him to the warriors, who joyously greeted him.
+
+Both the old man and the younger one understood how to infuse confidence.
+They told them of the well-watered oasis of the Amalekites, which was not
+far distant, and pointed to the weapons in their hands, with which the
+Lord Himself had furnished them.  Joshua assured them that they greatly
+outnumbered the warriors of the desert tribe.  If the young men bore
+themselves as bravely as they had done at the copper mines and at
+Dophkah, with God's aid the victory would be theirs.
+
+After midnight Joshua, having taken counsel with the elders, ordered the
+trumpets which summoned the fighting-men to be sounded.  Under the bright
+starry sky he reviewed them, divided them into bands, gave to each a
+fitting leader, and impressed upon them the importance of the orders they
+were to obey.
+
+They had assembled torpidly, half dead with thirst, but the new
+occupation to which their sturdy commander urged them, the hope of
+victory, and the great value of the prize: a piece of land at the foot of
+the sacred mountain, rich in springs and palm-trees, wonderfully
+strengthened their lost energy.
+
+Ephraim was among them animating others by his tireless vigor.  But when
+the ex-chief of the Egyptians--whom the Lord had already convinced that
+He considered him worthy of the aid his name promised--adjured them to
+rely on God's omnipotence, his words produced a very different effect
+from those uttered by Aaron whose monitions they had heard daily since
+their departure.
+
+When Joshua had spoken, many youthful lips, though parched with thirst,
+shouted enthusiastically:
+
+"Hail to the chief!  You are our captain; we will obey no other."
+
+But he now explained gravely and resolutely that the obedience he exacted
+from them he intended to practise rigidly himself.  He would willingly
+take the last place in the ranks, if such was the command of Moses.
+
+The stars were still shining brightly in a cloudless sky when the sound
+of the horns warned the people to set out on their march.  Meanwhile the
+vanguard had been sent forward to inform Moses of the condition of the
+tribes, and after the review was over, Ephraim followed them.
+
+During the march Joshua kept the warriors together as closely as though
+an attack might be expected; profiting meanwhile by every moment to give
+the men and their captains instructions for the coming battle, to inspect
+them, and range their ranks in closer order.  Thus he kept them and their
+attention on the alert till the stars paled.
+
+Opposition or complaint was rare among the warriors, but the murmurs,
+curses, and threats grew all the louder among those who bore no weapons.
+Even before the grey dawn of morning the thirsting men, whose knees
+trembled with weakness, and who beheld close before their eyes the
+suffering of their wives and children, shouted more and more frequently:
+
+"On to Moses!  We'll stone him when we find him!"
+
+Many, with loud imprecations and flashing eyes, picked up bits of rock
+along the road, and the fury of the multitude at last expressed itself so
+fiercely and passionately that Hur took counsel with the well-disposed
+among the elders, and then hurried forward with the fighting-men of Judah
+to protect Moses, in case of extremity, from the rebels by force of arms.
+
+Joshua was commissioned to detain the bands of rioters who, amid threats
+and curses, were striving to force their way past the warriors.
+
+When the sun at last rose with dazzling splendor, the march had become a
+pitiful creeping and tottering onward.  Even the soldiers moved as though
+they were paralysed.  Only when the rebels tried to press onward, they
+did their duty and forced them back with swords and lances.
+
+On both sides of the valley through which the Hebrews were passing
+towered lofty cliffs of grey granite, which glittered and flashed
+marvellously when the slanting sunbeams struck the bits of quartz thickly
+imbedded in the primeval rock.
+
+At noon the heat could not fail to be scorching again between the bare
+precipices which in many places jutted very near one another; but the
+coolness of the morning still lingered.  The cattle at least found some
+refreshment; for many a bush of the juicy, fragrant betharan--[Cantolina
+fragrantissima]--afforded them food, and the shepherd-lads lifted their
+short frocks, filled the aprons thus made with them and, spite of their
+own exhaustion, held them up to the hungry mouths of the animals.
+
+They had passed an hour in this way, when a loud shout of joy suddenly
+rang out, passing from the vanguard through rank after rank till it
+reached the last roan in the rear.
+
+No one had heard in words to what event it was due, yet every one knew
+that it meant nothing else than the discovery of fresh water.
+
+Ephraim now returned to confirm the glad tidings, and what an effect it
+produced upon the discouraged hearts!
+
+They straightened their bent figures and struggled onward with redoubled
+speed, as if they had already drained the water jar in long draughts.
+The bands of fighting-men put no farther obstacles in their way, and
+joyously greeted those who crowded past them.
+
+But the swiftly flowing throng was soon dammed; for the spot which
+afforded refreshment detained the front ranks, which blocked the whole
+procession as thoroughly as a wall or moat.
+
+The multitude became a mighty mob that filled the valley.  At last men
+and women, with joyous faces, appeared bearing full jars and pails in
+their hands and on their heads, beckoning gaily to their friends,
+shouting words of cheer, and trying to force their way through the crowd
+to their relatives; but many had the precious liquid torn from them by
+force ere they reached their destination.
+
+Joshua and his band had forced their way to the vicinity of the spring,
+to maintain order among the greedy drawers of water.  But they were
+obliged to have patience for a time, for the strong men of the tribe of
+Judah, with whom Hur had led the way in advance of all the rest, were
+still swinging their axes and straining at the levers hastily prepared
+from the trunks of the thorny acacias to move huge blocks out of the way
+and widen the passage to the flow of water that was gushing from several
+clefts in the rock.
+
+At first the spring had lost itself in a heap of moss-covered granite
+blocks and afterwards in the earth; but now the overflow and trickling
+away of the precious fluid had been stopped and a reservoir formed whence
+the cattle also could drink.
+
+Whoever had already succeeded in filling a jar had obtained the water
+from the overflow which had escaped through the quickly-made dam.  Now
+the men appointed to guard the camp were keeping every one back to give
+the water in the large new reservoir into which it flowed in surprising
+abundance, time to grow clear.
+
+In the presence of the gift of God for which they had so passionately
+shouted, it was easy to be patient.  They had discovered the treasure and
+only needed to preserve it.  No word of discontent, murmuring, or
+reviling was heard; nay, many looked with shame and humiliation at the
+new gift of the Most High.
+
+Loud, gladsome shouts and words echoed from the distance; but the man of
+God, who knew better than any one else, the valleys and rocks, pastures
+and springs of the Horeb region and had again obtained so great a
+blessing for the people, had retired into a neighboring ravine; he was
+seeking refuge from the thanks and greetings which rose with increasing
+enthusiasm from ever widening circles, and above all peace and calmness
+for his own deeply agitated soul.
+
+Soon fervent hymns of praise to the Lord sounded from the midst of the
+refreshed, reinvigorated bands overflowing with ardent gratitude, who had
+never encamped richer in hope and joyous confidence.
+
+Songs, merry laughter, jests, and glad shouts accompanied the pitching of
+every tent, and the camp sprung up as quickly as if it had been conjured
+from the earth by some magic spell.
+
+The eyes of the young men sparkled with eagerness for the fray, and many
+a head of cattle was slaughtered to make the meal a festal banquet.
+Mothers who had done their duty in the camp, leading their children by
+the hand went to the spring and showed them the spot where Moses' staff
+had pointed out to his people the water gushing from the clefts in the
+granite.  Many men also stood with hands and eyes uplifted around the
+place where Jehovah had shown Himself so merciful to His people; among
+them many a rebel who had stooped for the bit of rock with which he meant
+to stone the trusted servant of God.  No one doubted that a new and great
+miracle had been performed.
+
+Old people enjoined the young never to forget this day and this drink,
+and a grandmother sprinkled her grandchildren's brows at the edge of the
+spring with water to secure for them divine protection throughout their
+future lives.
+
+Hope, gratitude, and warm confidence reigned wherever the gaze was
+turned, even fear of the warlike sons of Amalek had vanished; for what
+evil could befall those who trusted to the favor of such an Omnipotent
+Defender.
+
+One tent alone, the stateliest of all, that of the prince of the tribe
+of Judah, did not share the joy of the others.
+
+Miriam sat alone among her women, after having silently served the meal
+to the men who were overflowing with grateful enthusiasm; she had learned
+from Reuben, Milcah's husband, that Moses had given to Joshua in the
+presence of all the elders, the office of commander-in-chief.  Hur, her
+husband, she had heard farther, had joyfully yielded the guidance of the
+warriors to the son of Nun.
+
+This time the prophetess had held aloof from the people's hymns of
+praise.  When Milcah and her women had urged her to accompany them to the
+spring, she had commanded the petitioners to go alone.  She was expecting
+her husband and wished to greet him alone; she must show him that she
+desired his forgiveness.  But he did not return home; for after the
+council of the elders had separated, he helped the new commander to
+marshal the soldiers and did so as an assistant, subordinate to Hosea,
+who owed to her his summons and the name of Joshua.
+
+Her servants, who had returned, were now drawing threads from the
+distaff: but this humble toil was distasteful to her, and while she let
+her hands rest and gazed idly into vacancy, the hours dragged slowly
+along, while she felt her resolution of meekly approaching her husband
+become weaker and weaker.  She longed to pray for strength to bow before
+the man who was her lord and master; but the prophetess, who was
+accustomed to fervent pleading, could not find inspiration.  Whenever she
+succeeded in collecting her thoughts and uplifting her heart, she was
+disturbed.  Each fresh report that reached her from the camp increased
+her displeasure.  When evening at last closed in, a messenger arrived and
+told her not to prepare the supper which, however, had long stood ready.
+Hur, his son, and grandson had accepted the invitation of Nun and Joshua.
+
+It was a hard task for her to restrain her tears.  But had she permitted
+them to flow uncontrolled, they would have been those of wrath and
+insulted womanly dignity, not of grief and longing.
+
+During the hours of the evening watch soldiers marched past, and from
+troop after troop cheers for Joshua reached her.
+
+Even when the words "strong and steadfast!"  were heard, they recalled
+the man who had once been dear to her, and whom now--she freely admitted
+it--she hated.  The men of his own tribe only had honored her husband
+with a cheer.  Was this fitting gratitude for the generosity with which
+he had divested himself, for the sake of the younger man, of a dignity
+that belonged to him alone?  To see her husband thus slighted pierced her
+to the heart and caused her more pain than Hur's leaving her, his newly-
+wedded wife, to solitude.
+
+The supper before the tent of the Ephraimites lasted a long time.
+Miriam sent her women to rest before midnight, and lay down to await
+Hur's return and to confess to him all that had wounded and angered her,
+everything for which she longed.
+
+She thought it would be an easy matter to keep awake while suffering such
+mental anguish.  But the great fatigues and excitements of the last few
+days asserted their rights, and in the midst of a prayer for humility and
+her husband's love sleep overpowered her.  At last, at the time of the
+first morning watch, just as day was dawning, the sound of trumpets
+announcing peril close at hand, startled her from sleep.
+
+She rose hurriedly and glancing at her husband's couch found it empty.
+But it had been used, and on the sandy soil--for mats had been spread
+only in the living room of the tent--she saw close beside her own bed
+the prints of Hur's footsteps.
+
+So he had stood close by it and perhaps, while she was sleeping, gazed
+yearningly into her face.
+
+Ay, this had really happened; her old female slave told her so unasked.
+After she had roused Hur, she had seen him hold the light cautiously so
+that it illumined Miriam's face and then stoop over her a long time as
+if to kiss her.
+
+This was good news, and so rejoiced the solitary woman that she forgot
+the formality which was peculiar to her and pressed her lips to the
+wrinkled brow of the crooked little crone who had served her parents.
+Then she had her hair arranged, donned the light-blue festal robe Hur
+had given her, and hurried out to bid him farewell.
+
+Meanwhile the troops had formed in battle array.
+
+The tents were being struck and for a long time Miriam vainly sought
+her husband.  At last she found him; but he was engaged in earnest
+conversation with Joshua, and when she saw the latter a chill ran through
+the prophetess' blood, and she could not bring herself to approach the
+men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A severe struggle was impending; for as the spies reported, the
+Amalekites had been joined by other desert tribes.  Nevertheless the
+Hebrew troops were twice their number.  But how greatly inferior in
+warlike skill were Joshua's bands to the foes habituated to battle and
+attack.
+
+The enemy was advancing from the south, from the oasis at the foot
+of the sacred mountain, which was the ancient home of their race, their
+supporter, the fair object of their love, their all, well worthy that
+they should shed their last drop of blood in her defence.
+
+Joshua, now recognized by Moses and the whole Hebrew people as the
+commander of the fighting-men, led his new-formed troops to the widest
+portion of the valley, which permitted him to derive more advantage from
+the superior number of his force.
+
+He ordered the camp to be broken up and again pitched in a narrower spot
+on the plain of Rephidim at the northern end of the battle-field, where
+it would be easier to defend the tents.  The command of this camp and the
+soldiers left for its protection he confided to his cautious father.
+
+He had wished to leave Moses and the older princes of the tribes within
+the precincts of the well-guarded camp, but the great leader of the
+people had anticipated him and, with Hur and Aaron, had climbed a granite
+cliff from whose lofty summit the battle could be witnessed.  So the
+combatants saw Moses and his two companions on the peak dominating the
+valley, and knew that the trusted servant of the Most High would not
+cease to commend their cause to Him and pray for their success and
+deliverance.
+
+But every private soldier in the army, every woman and old man in the
+camp knew how to find the God of their fathers in this hour of peril, and
+the war-cry Joshua had chosen: "Jehovah our standard!"  bound the hearts
+of the warriors to the Ruler of Battles, and reminded the most despairing
+and untrained Hebrew that he could take no step and deal no blow which
+the Lord did not guide.
+
+The trumpets and horns of the Hebrews sounded louder and louder; for the
+Amalekites were pressing into the plain which was to be the scene of the
+battle.
+
+It was a strange place of conflict, which the experienced soldier would
+never have selected voluntarily; for it was enclosed on both sides by
+lofty, steep, grey granite cliffs.  If the enemy conquered, the camp
+would be lost, and the aids the art of war afforded must be used within
+the smallest conceivable space.
+
+To make a circuit round the foe or attack him unexpectedly in the flank
+seemed impossible; but the rocks themselves were made to serve Joshua;
+for he had commanded his skilful slingers and trained archers to climb
+the precipices to a moderate height and wait for the signal when they
+were to mingle in the battle.
+
+At the first glance Joshua perceived that he had not overestimated the
+foe; for those who began the fray were bearded men with bronzed, keen,
+manly features, whose black eyes blazed with the zest of battle and
+fierce hatred of the enemy.
+
+Like their grey-haired, scarred leader, all were slenderly formed and
+lithe of limb.  They swung, like trained warriors, the brazen sickle-
+shaped sword, the curved shield of heavy wood, or the lance decked below
+its point with a bunch of camel's hair.  The war-cry rang loud, fierce,
+and defiant, from the steadfast breasts of these sons of the desert, who
+must either conquer or lose their dearest possession.
+
+The first assault was met by Joshua at the head of men, whom he had armed
+with the heavy shields and lances of the Egyptians; incited by their
+brave leader they resisted a long time--while the narrow entrance to the
+battle field prevented the savage foe from using his full strength.
+
+But when the foe on foot retreated, and a band of warriors mounted on
+swift dromedaries dashed upon the Hebrews many were terrified by the
+strange aspect of the huge unwieldy beasts, known to them only by report.
+
+With loud outcries they flung down their shields and fled.  Wherever a
+gap appeared in the ranks the rider of a dromedary urged it in, striking
+downward with his long keen weapon at the foe.  The shepherds, unused to
+such assaults, thought only of securing their own safety, and many turned
+to fly; for sudden terror seized them as they beheld the flaming eyes or
+heard the shrill, fierce shriek of one of the infuriated Amalekite women,
+who had entered the battle to fire the courage of their husbands and
+terrify the foe.  Clinging with the left hand to leather thongs that hung
+from the saddles, they allowed themselves to be dragged along by the
+hump-backed beasts wherever they were guided.  Hatred seemed to have
+steeled the weak women's hearts against the fear of death, pity, and
+feminine dread; and the furious yells of these Megaerae destroyed the
+courage of many of the braver Hebrews.
+
+But scarcely did Joshua see his men yield than, profiting by the
+disaster, he commanded them to retreat still farther and give the foe
+admittance to the valley; for he told himself that he could turn the
+superior number of his forces to better account as soon as it was
+possible to press the enemy in front and on both sides at the same time,
+and allow the slingers and bowmen to take part in the fray.
+
+Ephraim and his bravest comrades, who surrounded him as messengers, were
+now despatched to the northern end of the valley to inform the captains
+of the troops stationed there of Joshua's intention and command them to
+advance.
+
+The swift-footed shepherd lads darted off as nimbly as gazelles, and it
+was soon evident that the commander had adopted the right course for, as
+soon as the Amalekites reached the center of the valley, they were
+attacked on all sides, and many who boldly rushed forward fell on the
+sand while still waving sword or lance, struck by the round stones or
+keen arrows discharged by the slingers and archers stationed on the
+cliffs.
+
+Meanwhile Moses, with Aaron and Hur, remained on the cliff overlooking
+the battle-field.
+
+Thence the former watched the conflict in which, grown grey in the arts
+of peace, he shared only with his heart and soul.
+
+No movement, no uplifted or lowered sword of friend or foe escaped his
+watchful gaze; but when the attack began and the commander, with wise
+purpose, left the way to the heart of his army open to the enemy, Hur
+exclaimed to the grey-haired man of God:
+
+"The lofty intellect of my wife and your sister perceived the right
+course.  The son of Nun is unworthy of the summons of the Most High.
+What strategy!  Our force is superior, yet the foe is pressing unimpeded
+into the midst of the army.  Our troops are dividing as the waters of the
+Red Sea parted at God's command, and apparently by their leader's order."
+
+"To swallow up the Amalekites as the waves of the sea engulfed the
+Egyptians," was Moses' answer.  Then, stretching his arms toward heaven,
+he cried: "Look down, Jehovah, upon Thy people who are in fresh need.
+Steel the arm and sharpen the eyes of him whom Thou didst choose for Thy
+sword!  Lend him the help Thou didst promise, when Thou didst name him
+Joshua!  And if it is no longer Thy will that he who shows himself strong
+and steadfast, as beseems Thy captain, should lead our forces to the
+battle, place Thyself, with the hosts of Heaven, at the head of Thy
+people, that they may crush their foes."
+
+Thus the man of God prayed with arms uplifted, never ceasing to beseech
+and appeal to God, whose lofty will guided his own, and soon Aaron
+whispered that their foes were sore beset and the Hebrews' courage was
+showing itself in magnificent guise.
+
+Joshua was now here, now there, and the ranks of the enemy were already
+thinning, while the numbers of the Hebrews seemed increasing.
+
+Hur confirmed these words, adding that the tireless zeal and heroic scorn
+of death displayed by the son of Nun could not be denied.  He had just
+felled one of the fiercest Amalekites with his battle-axe.
+
+Then Moses uttered a sigh of relief, let his arms fall, and eagerly
+watched the farther progress of the battle, which was surging, raging and
+roaring beneath him.
+
+Meanwhile the sun had reached its zenith and shone with scorching fire
+upon the combatants.  The grey granite walls of the valley exhaled
+fiercer and fiercer heat and drops of perspiration had long been pouring
+from the burning brows of the three men on the cliff.  How the noon-tide
+heat must burden those who were fighting and struggling below; how the
+bleeding wounds of those who had fallen in the dust must burn!
+
+Moses felt all this as if he were himself compelled to endure it; for his
+immovably steadfast soul was rich in compassion, and he had taken into
+his heart, as a father does his child, the people of his own blood for
+whom he lived and labored, prayed and planned.
+
+The wounds of the Hebrews pained him, yet his heart throbbed with
+joyous pride, when he beheld how those whose cowardly submission had so
+powerfully stirred his wrath a short time before, had learned to act on
+the defensive and offensive; and saw one youthful band after another
+shouting: "Jehovah our standard!"  rush upon the enemy.
+
+In Joshua's proud, heroic figure he beheld the descendants of his people
+as he had imagined and desired them, and now he no longer doubted that
+the Lord Himself had summoned the son of Nun to the chief command.  His
+eye had rarely beamed as brightly as in this hour.
+
+But what was that?
+
+A cry of alarm escaped the lips of Aaron, and Hur rose and gazed
+northward in anxious suspense for thence, where the tents of the people
+stood, fresh war-cries rose, blended with loud, piteous shrieks which
+seemed to be uttered, not only by men, but by women and children.
+
+The camp had been attacked.
+
+Long before the commencement of the battle a band of Amalekites had
+separated from the others and made their way to it through a path in the
+mountains with which they were familiar.
+
+Hur thought of his young wife, while before Aaron's mind rose Elisheba,
+his faithful spouse, his children and grandchildren; and both, with
+imploring eyes, mutely entreated Moses to dismiss them to hasten to aid
+their dear ones; but the stern leader refused and detained them.
+
+Then, drawing his figure to its full height, Moses again raised his hands
+and eyes to Heaven, appealing to the Most High with fervent warmth, and
+never ceasing in his prayers, which became more and more ardent as time
+passed on, for the vantage gained by the soldiers seemed lost.  Each new
+glance at the battle-field, everything his companions told him, while his
+soul, dwelling with the Lord, had rendered him blind to the scene at his
+feet, increased the burden of his anxieties.
+
+Joshua, at the head of a strong detachment, had retreated from the
+battle, accompanied by Bezaleel, Hur's grandson, Aholiab, his most
+beloved comrade, the youthful Ephraim, and Reuben, Milcah's husband.
+
+Hur's eyes had followed them, while his heart was full of blessings; for
+they had evidently quitted the battle to save the camp.  With straining
+ears he listened to the sounds from the north, as if suspecting how
+nearly he was affected by the broken cries and moans borne by the wind
+from the tents.
+
+Old Nun had defended himself against the Amalekite troop that assailed
+the camp, and fought valiantly; but when he perceived that the men whom
+Joshua had placed under his command could no longer hold out against the
+attack of the enemy, he sent to ask for aid; Joshua instantly entrusted
+the farther guidance of the battle to the second head of the tribe of
+Judah, Naashon, and Uri the son of Hur, who had distinguished himself by
+courage and discretion and hastened, with other picked men, to his
+father's relief.
+
+He had not lost a moment, yet the conflict was decided when he appeared
+on the scene of action; for when he approached the camp the Amalekites
+had already broken through his father's troops, cut it off from them, and
+rushed in.
+
+Joshua first saved the brave old man from the foe; then the next thing
+was to drive the sons of the desert from the tents and, in so doing,
+there was a fierce hand to hand struggle of man against man, and as he
+himself could be in only one place he was forced to leave the young men
+to shift for themselves.
+
+Here, too, he raised the  war-cry: "Jehovah our standard!"  and rushed
+upon the  tent  of  Hur,--which the enemy had seized first and where the
+battle raged most fiercely.
+
+Many, corpses already strewed the ground at its entrance, and furious
+Amalekites were still struggling with a band of Hebrews; but wild shrieks
+of terror rang from within its walls.
+
+Joshua dashed across the threshold as if his feet were winged and beheld
+a scene which filled even the fearless man with horror; for at the left
+of the spacious floor Hebrews and Amalekites rolled fighting on the
+blood-stained mats, while at the right he saw Miriam and several of her
+women whose hands had been bound by the foe.
+
+The men had desired to bear them away as a costly prize; but an Amalekite
+woman, frantic with rage and jealousy and thirsting for revenge, wished
+to devote the foreign women to a fiery death; fanning the embers upon the
+hearth she had brought them, with the help of the veil torn from Miriam's
+head, to a bright blaze.
+
+A terrible uproar filled the spacious enclosure, when Joshua sprang into
+the tent.
+
+Here furious men were fighting, yonder the female servants of the
+prophetess were shrieking loudly or, as they saw the approaching warrior,
+screaming for help and rescue.
+
+Their mistress, deadly pale, knelt before the hostile chief whose wife
+had threatened her with death by fire.  She gazed at her preserver as if
+she beheld a ghost that had just risen from the earth and what now
+happened remained imprinted on Miriam's memory as a series of bloody,
+horrible, disconnected, yet superb visions.
+
+In the first place the Amalekite chieftain who had bound her was a
+strangely heroic figure.
+
+The bronzed warrior, with his bold hooked nose, black beard, and fiery
+eyes, looked like an eagle of his own mountains.  But another was soon to
+cope with him, and that other the man who had been dear to her heart.
+
+She had often compared him to a lion, but never had he seemed more akin
+to the king of the wilderness.
+
+Both were mighty and terrible men.  No one could have predicted which
+would be the victor and which the vanquished; but she was permitted to
+watch their conflict, and already the hot-blooded son of the desert had
+raised his war-cry and rushed upon the more prudent Hebrew.
+
+Every child knows that life cannot continue if the heart ceases to throb
+for a minute; yet Miriam felt that her own stood still as if benumbed and
+turned to stone, when the lion was in danger of succumbing to the eagle,
+and when the latter's glittering knife flashed, and she saw the blood
+gushing from the other's shoulder.
+
+But the frozen heart had now begun to beat again, nay it pulsed faster
+than ever; for suddenly the leonine warrior, toward whom she had just
+felt such bitter hatred, had again become, as if by a miracle, the friend
+of her youth.  With blast of trumpets and clash of cymbals love had again
+set forth to enter, with triumphant joy, the soul which had of late been
+so desolate, so impoverished.  All that separated her from him was
+suddenly forgotten and buried, and never was a more fervent appeal
+addressed to the Most High than during the brief prayer for him which
+rose from her heart at that moment.  And the swiftness with which the
+petition was granted equalled its ardor; for the eagle had fallen and
+lowered its pinions beneath the superior might of the lion.
+
+Then darkness veiled Miriam's eyes and she felt as if in a dream Ephraim
+sever the ropes around her wrists.
+
+Soon after she regained her full consciousness, and now beheld at her
+feet the bleeding form of the conquered chieftain; while on the other
+side of the tent the floor was strewed with dead and wounded men, Hebrews
+and Amalekites, among them many of her husband's slaves.  But beside the
+fallen men stood erect, and exulting in victory, the stalwart warriors of
+her people, among them the venerable form of Nun, and Joshua, whose
+father was binding up his wounds.
+
+To do this she felt was her duty and hers only, and a deep sense of
+shame, a burning grief took possession of her as she remembered how she
+had sinned against this man.
+
+She knew not how she who had caused him such deep suffering could atone
+for it, how she could repay what she owed him.
+
+Her whole heart was overflowing with longing for one kind word from his
+mouth, and she approached him on her knees across the blood-stained
+floor; but the lips of the prophetess, usually so eloquent, seemed
+paralyzed and could not find the right language till at last from her
+burdened breast the cry escaped in loud imploring accents:
+
+"Joshua, oh, Joshua!  I have sinned heavily against you and will atone
+for it all my life; but do not disdain my gratitude!  Do not cast it from
+you and, if you can, forgive me."
+
+She had been unable to say more; then--never would she forget it--burning
+tears had gushed from her eyes and he had raised her from the floor with
+irresistible strength, yet as gently as a mother touches her fallen
+child, and from his lips mild, gentle words, full of forgiveness, echoed
+in her ears.  The very touch of his right hand had assured her that he
+was no longer angry.
+
+She still felt the pressure of his hand, and heard his assurance that
+from no lips would he more gladly hear the name of Joshua than from hers.
+
+With the war-cry "Jehovah our standard!"  he at last turned his back upon
+her; for a long time its clear tones and the enthusiastic shouts of his
+soldiers echoed in her ears.
+
+Finally everything around her had lapsed into silence and she only knew
+that never had she shed such bitter, burning tears as in this hour.  And
+she made two solemn vows in the presence of the God who had summoned her
+to be His prophetess.  Meanwhile both the men whom they concerned were
+surrounded by the tumult of battle.
+
+One had again led his troops from the rescued camp against the foe; the
+other was watching with the leader of the people the surging to and fro
+of the ever-increasing fury of the conflict.
+
+Joshua found his people in sore stress.  Here they were yielding, yonder
+they were still feebly resisting the onslaught of the sons of the desert;
+but Hur gazed with increasing and redoubled anxiety at the progress of
+the battle; for in the camp he beheld wife and grandson, and below his
+son, in mortal peril.
+
+His paternal heart ached as he saw Uri retreat, then as he pressed
+forward again and repelled the foe by a well-directed assault, it
+throbbed joyously, and he would gladly have shouted words of praise.
+
+But whose ear would have been sharp enough to distinguish the voice of a
+single man amid the clash of arms and war-cries, the shrieks of women,
+the wails of the wounded, the discordant grunting of the camels, the
+blasts of horns and trumpets mingling below?
+
+Now the foremost band of the Amalekites had forced itself like a wedge
+into the rear ranks of the Hebrews.
+
+If the former succeeded in opening a way for those behind and joined the
+division which was attacking the camp, the battle was lost, and the
+destruction of the people sealed; for a body of Amalekites who had not
+mingled in the fray were still stationed at the southern entrance of the
+valley, apparently for the purpose of defending the oasis against the foe
+in case of need.
+
+A fresh surprise followed.
+
+The sons of the desert had fought their way forward so far that the
+missiles of the slingers and bowmen could scarcely reach them.  If these
+men were not to be idle, it was needful that they should be summoned to
+the battle-field.
+
+Hur had long since shouted to Uri to remember them and use their aid
+again; but now the figure of a youth suddenly appeared approaching from
+the direction of the camp as nimbly as a mountain goat, by climbing and
+leaping from one rock to another.
+
+As soon as he reached the first ones he spoke to them, and made signs to
+the next, who passed the message on, and at last they all climbed down
+into the valley, scaled the western cliff to the height of several men,
+and suddenly vanished as though the rock had swallowed them.
+
+The youth whom the slingers and archers had followed was Ephraim.
+
+A black shadow on the cliff where he had disappeared with the others must
+be the opening of a ravine, through which they were doubtless to be
+guided to the men who had followed Joshua to the succor of the camp.
+
+Such was the belief, not only of Hur but of Aaron, and the former again
+began to doubt Joshua's fitness for the Lord's call; for what benefited
+those in the tents weakened the army whose command devolved upon his son
+Uri and his associate in office Naashon.  The battle around the camp had
+already lasted for hours and Moses had not ceased to pray with hands
+uplifted toward heaven, when the Amalekites succeeded in gaining a
+considerable vantage.
+
+Then the leader of the Hebrews summoned his strength for a new and more
+earnest appeal to the Most High; but the exhausted man's knees tottered
+and his wearied arms fell.  But his soul had retained its energy, his
+heart the desire not to cease pleading to the Ruler of Battles.
+
+Moses was unwilling to remain inactive during this conflict and his
+weapon was prayer.
+
+Like a child who will not cease urging its mother until she grants what
+it unselfishly beseeches for its brothers and sisters, he clung imploring
+to the Omnipotent One, who had hitherto proved Himself a father to him
+and to his people and wonderfully preserved them from the greatest
+perils.
+
+But his physical strength was exhausted, so he summoned his companions
+who pushed forward a rock on which he seated himself, in order to assail
+the heart of the Most High with fresh prayers.
+
+There he sat and though his wearied limbs refused their service, his soul
+was obedient and rose with all its fire to the Ruler of the destinies of
+men.
+
+But his arms grew more and more paralysed, and at last fell as if
+weighted with lead; for years it had become a necessity to him to stretch
+them heavenward when he appealed with all his fervor to God on high.
+
+This his companions knew, and they fancied they perceived that whenever
+the great leader's hands fell the sons of Amalek gained a fresh
+advantage.
+
+Therefore they eagerly supported his arms, one at the right side, the
+other at the left, and though the mighty man could no longer lift his
+voice in intelligible words, though his giant frame reeled to and fro,
+and though more than once it seemed to him as if the stone which
+supported him, the valley and the whole earth rocked, still his hands and
+eyes remained uplifted.  Not a moment did he cease to call upon the Most
+High till suddenly loud shouts of victory, which echoed clearly from the
+rocky sides of the valley, rose from the direction of the camp.
+
+Joshua had again appeared on the battle-field and, at the head of his
+warriors, rushed with resistless energy upon the foe.
+
+The battle now assumed a new aspect.
+
+The result was still uncertain, and Moses could not cease uplifting his
+heart and arms to heaven, but at last, at last this long final struggle
+came to an end.  The ranks of the Amalekites wavered and finally,
+scattered and disheartened, dashed toward the southern entrance of the
+valley whence they had come.
+
+There also cries were heard and from a thousand lips rang the glad shout:
+"Jehovah our standard!  Victory!"  and again "Victory!"
+
+Then the man of God removed his arms from the supporting shoulders of his
+companions, swung them aloft freely and with renewed and wonderfully
+invigorated strength shouted:
+
+"I thank Thee, my God and my Lord!  Jehovah our standard!  The people are
+saved!"
+
+Then darkness veiled the eyes of the exhausted man.  But a little later
+he again opened them and saw Ephraim, with the slingers and bowmen,
+attack the body of Amalekites at the southern entrance of the valley,
+while Joshua drove the main army of the sons of the desert toward their
+retreating comrades.
+
+Joshua had heard through some captives of a ravine which enabled good
+climbers to reach a defile which led to the southern end of the battle-
+field; and Ephraim, obedient to his command, had gone with the slingers
+and bowmen along this difficult path to assail in the rear the last band
+of foemen who were still capable of offering resistance.
+
+Pressed, harassed from two sides, and disheartened, the sons of Amalek
+gave up the conflict and now the Hebrews beheld how these sons of the
+desert, who had grown up in this mountain region, understood how to use
+their feet; for at a sign from their leader they spurred the dromedaries
+and flew away like leaves blown by the wind.  Rough mountain heights
+which seemed inaccessible to human beings they scaled on their hands and
+feet like nimble lizards; many others escaped through the ravine which
+the captured slaves had betrayed to Joshua.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+The larger portion of the Amalekites had perished or lay wounded on the
+battle-field.  Joshua knew that the other desert tribes, according to
+their custom, would abandon their defeated companions and return to their
+own homes.
+
+Yet it seemed probable that despair would give the routed warriors
+courage not to let their oasis fall into the hands of the Hebrews without
+striking a blow.
+
+But Joshua's warriors were too much exhausted for it to be possible to
+lead them onward at once.
+
+He himself was bleeding from several slight wounds, and the exertions of
+the last few days were making themselves felt even on his hardened frame.
+
+Besides the sun, which when the battle began had just risen, was already
+sinking to rest and should it prove necessary to force an entrance into
+the oasis it was not advisable to fight in darkness.
+
+What he and still more his brave warriors needed was rest until the grey
+dawn of early morning.
+
+He saw around him only glad faces, radiant with proud self-reliance, and
+as he commanded the troops to disband, in order to celebrate the victory
+in the camp with their relatives, each body that filed slowly and wearily
+past him burst into cheers as fresh and resonant as though they had
+forgotten the exhaustion which so short a time before had bowed every
+head and burdened every foot.
+
+"Hail to Joshua!  Hail to the victor!"  still echoed from the cliffs
+after the last band had disappeared from his gaze.  But far more
+distinctly the words with which Moses had thanked him rang in his soul.
+They were:
+
+"Thou bast proved thyself a true sword of the Most High, strong and
+steadfast.  So long as the Lord is thy help and Jehovah is our standard,
+we need fear no foes."
+
+He fancied he still felt on his brow and hair the kiss of the mighty man
+of God who had clasped him to his breast in the presence of all the
+people, and it was no small thing to master the excitement which the
+close of this momentous day awakened in him.
+
+A strong desire to regain perfect self-possession ere he again mingled in
+the jubilant throng and met his father, who shared every lofty emotion
+that stirred his own soul, detained him on the battle-field.
+
+It was a scene where dread and horror reigned; for all save himself who
+lingered there were held by death or severe wounds.
+
+The ravens which had followed the wanderers hovered above the corpses and
+already ventured to swoop nearer to the richly-spread banquet.  The scent
+of blood had lured the beasts of prey from the mountains and dens in the
+rocks and their roaring and greedy growling were heard in all directions.
+
+As darkness followed dusk lights began to flit over the blood-soaked
+ground.  These were to aid the slaves and those who missed a relative to
+distinguish friend from foe, the wounded from the dead; and many a groan
+from the breast of some sorely-wounded man mingled with the croaking of
+the sable birds, and the howls of the hungry jackals and hyenas, foxes
+and panthers.
+
+But Joshua was familiar with the horrors of the battle-field and did not
+heed them.
+
+Leaning against a rock, he saw the same stars rise which had shone upon
+him before the tent in the camp at Tanis, when in the sorest conflict
+with himself he confronted the most difficult decision of his life.
+
+A month had passed since then, yet that brief span of time had witnessed
+an unprecedented transformation of his whole inner and outward life.
+
+What had seemed to him grand, lofty, and worthy of the exertion of all
+his strength on that night when he sat before the tent where lay the
+delirious Ephraim, to-day lay far behind him as idle and worthless.
+
+He no longer cared for the honors, dignities and riches which the will of
+the whimsical, weak king of a foreign people could bestow upon him.  What
+to him was the well-ordered and disciplined army, among whose leaders be
+had numbered himself with such joyous pride?
+
+He could scarcely realize that there had been a time when he aspired to
+nothing higher than to command more and still more thousands of
+Egyptians, when his heart had swelled at the bestowal of a new title or
+glittering badge of honor by those whom he held most unworthy of his
+esteem.
+
+From the Egyptians he had expected everything, from his own people
+nothing.
+
+That very night before his tent the great mass of the men of his own
+blood had been repulsive to him as pitiful slaves languishing in
+dishonorable, servile toil.  Even the better classes he had arrogantly
+patronized; for they were but shepherds and as such contemptible to the
+Egyptians, whose opinions he shared.
+
+His own father was also the owner of herds and, though he held him in
+high esteem, it was in spite of his position and only because his whole
+character commanded reverence; because the superb old man's fiery vigor
+won love from every one, and above all from him, his grateful son.
+
+He had never ceased to gladly acknowledge his kinship to him, but in
+other respects he had striven to so bear himself among his brothers-in-
+arms that they should forget his origin and regard him in everything as
+one of themselves.  His ancestress Asenath, the wife of Joseph, had been
+an Egyptian and he had boasted of the fact.
+
+And now,--to-day?
+
+He would have made any one feel the weight of his wrath who reproached
+him with being an Egyptian; and what at the last new moon he would only
+too willingly have cast aside and concealed, as though it were a
+disgrace, made him on the night of the next new moon whose stars were
+just beginning to shine, raise his head with joyous pride.
+
+What a lofty emotion it was to feel himself with just complacency the man
+he really was!
+
+His life and deeds as an Egyptian chief now seemed like a perpetual lie,
+a constant desertion of his ideal.
+
+His truthful nature exulted in the consciousness that the base denial and
+concealment of his birth was at an end.
+
+With joyous gratitude he felt that he was one of the people whom the Most
+High preferred to all others, that he belonged to a community, whose
+humblest members, nay even the children, could raise their hands in
+prayer to the God whom the loftiest minds among the Egyptians surrounded
+with the barriers of secrecy, because they considered their people too
+feeble and dull of intellect to stand before His mighty grandeur and
+comprehend it.
+
+And this one sole God, before whom all the whole motley world of Egyptian
+divinities sank into insignificance, had chosen him, the son of Nun, from
+among the thousands of his race to be the champion and defender of His
+chosen people and bestowed on him a name that assured him of His aid.
+
+No man, he thought, had ever had a loftier aim than, obedient to his God
+and under His protection, to devote his blood and life to the service of
+his own people.  His black eyes sparkled more brightly and joyously as he
+thought of it.  His heart seemed too small to contain all the love with
+which he wished to make amends to his brothers for his sins against them
+in former years.
+
+True, he had lost to another a grand and noble woman whom he had hoped to
+make his own; but this did not in the least sadden the joyous enthusiasm
+of his soul; for he had long ceased to desire her as his wife, high as
+her image still stood in his mind.  He now thought of her with quiet
+gratitude only; for he willingly admitted that his new life had begun on
+the decisive night when Miriam set him the example of sacrificing
+everything, even the dearest object of love, to God and the people.
+
+Miriam's sins against him were effaced from his memory; for he was wont
+to forget what he had forgiven.  Now he felt only the grandeur of what he
+owed her.  Like a magnificent tree, towering skyward on the frontier of
+two hostile countries, she stood between his past and his present life.
+Though love was buried, he and Miriam could never cease to walk hand in
+hand over the same road toward the same destination.
+
+As he again surveyed the events of the past, he could truly say that
+under his leadership pitiful bondmen had speedily become brave warriors
+In the field they had been willing and obedient and, after the victory,
+behaved with manliness.  And they could not fail to improve with each
+fresh success.  To-day it seemed to him not only desirable, but quite
+possible, to win in battle at their head a land which they could love and
+where, in freedom and prosperity, they could become the able men he
+desired to make them.
+
+Amid the horrors of the battle-field in the moonless night joy as bright
+as day entered his heart and with the low exclamation: "God and my
+people!" and a grateful glance upward to the starry firmament he left the
+corpse-strewn valley of death like a conqueror walking over palms and
+flowers scattered by a grateful people on the path of victory.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+There was an active stir in the camp.
+
+Fires surrounded by groups of happy human beings were burning in front of
+the tents, and many a beast was slain, here as a thank-offering, yonder
+for the festal supper.
+
+Wherever Joshua appeared glad cheers greeted him; but he did not find his
+father, for the latter had accepted an invitation from Hur, so it was
+before the prince of Judah's tent that the son embraced the old man, who
+was radiant with grateful joy.
+
+Ere Joshua sat down Hur beckoned him aside, ordered a slave who had just
+killed a calf to divide it into two pieces and pointing to it, said:
+
+"You have accomplished great deeds for the people and for me, son of Nun,
+and my life is too short for the gratitude which is your due from my wife
+and myself.  If you can forget the bitter words which clouded our peace
+at Dophkah--and you say you have done so--let us in future keep together
+like brothers and stand by each other in joy and grief, in need and
+peril.  The chief command henceforth belongs to you alone, Joshua, and to
+no other, and this is a source of joy to the whole people, above all to
+my wife and to me.  So if you share my wish to form a brotherhood, walk
+with me, according to the custom of our fathers, between the halves of
+this slaughtered animal."
+
+Joshua willingly accepted this invitation, and Miriam was the first to
+join in the loud acclamations of approval commenced by the grey-haired
+Nun.  She did so with eager zeal; for it was she who had inspired her
+husband, before whom she had humbled herself, and whose love she now once
+more possessed, with the idea of inviting Joshua to the alliance both had
+now concluded.
+
+This had not been difficult for her; for the two vows she had made after
+the son of Nun, whom she now gladly called "Joshua," had saved her from
+the hand of the foe were already approaching fulfilment, and she felt
+that she had resolved upon them in a happy hour.
+
+The new and pleasant sensation of being a woman, like any other woman,
+lent her whole nature a gentleness hitherto foreign to it, and this
+retained the love of the husband whose full value she had learned to know
+during the sad time in which he had shut his heart against her.
+
+In the self-same hour which made Hur and Joshua brothers, a pair of
+faithful lovers who had been sundered by sacred duties were once more
+united; for while the friends were still feasting before the tent of Hur,
+three of the people asked permission to speak to Nun, their master.
+These were the old freedwoman, who had remained in Tanis, her
+granddaughter Hogla and Assir, the latter's betrothed husband, from whom
+the girl had parted to nurse her grandparents.
+
+Hoary Eliab had soon died, and the grandmother and Hogla--the former on
+the old man's ass--had followed the Hebrews amid unspeakable
+difficulties.
+
+Nun welcomed the faithful couple with joy and gave Hogla to Assir for his
+wife.
+
+So this blood-stained day had brought blessings to many, yet it was to
+end with a shrill discord.
+
+While the fires in the camp were burning, loud voices were heard, and
+during the whole journey not an evening had passed without strife and
+sanguinary quarrels.
+
+Wounds and fatal blows had often been given when an offended man revenged
+himself on his enemy, or a dishonest one seized the property of others or
+denied the obligations he had sworn to fulfil.
+
+In such cases it had been difficult to restore peace and call the
+criminals to account; for the refractory refused to recognize any one as
+judge.  Whoever felt himself injured banded with others, and strove to
+obtain justice by force.
+
+On that festal evening Hur and his guests at first failed to notice the
+uproar to which every one was accustomed.  But when close at hand, amid
+the fiercest yells, a bright glare of light arose, the chiefs began to
+fear for the safety of the camp, and rising to put an end to the
+disturbance, they became witnesses of a scene which filled some with
+wrath and horror, and the others with grief.
+
+The rapture of victory had intoxicated the multitude.
+
+They longed to express their gratitude to the deity, and in vivid
+remembrance of the cruel worship of their home, a band of Phoenicians
+among the strangers had kindled a huge fire to their Moloch and were in
+the act of hurling into the flames several Amalekite captives as the most
+welcome sacrifice to their god.
+
+Close beside it the Israelites had erected on a tall wooden pillar a clay
+image of the Egyptian god Seth, which one of his Hebrew worshippers had
+brought with him to protect himself and his family.
+
+Directly after their return to the camp Aaron had assembled the people to
+sing hymns of praise and offer prayers of thanksgiving; but to many the
+necessity of beholding, in the old-fashioned way, an image of the god to
+whom they were to uplift their souls, had been so strong that the mere
+sight of the clay idol had sufficed to bring them to their knees, and
+turn them from the true God.
+
+At the sight of the servants of Moloch, who were already binding the
+human victims to hurl them into the flames, Joshua was seized with wrath
+and, when the deluded men resisted, he ordered the trumpets to be sounded
+and with his young men who blindly obeyed him and were by no means
+friendly to the strangers, drove them back, without bloodshed, to their
+quarters in the camp.
+
+The impressive warnings of old Nun, Hur, and Naashon diverted the Hebrews
+from the crime which ingratitude made doubly culpable.  Yet many of the
+latter found it hard to control themselves when the fiery old man
+shattered the idol which was dear to them, and had it not been for the
+love cherished for him, his son, and his grandson, and the respect due
+his snow-white hair, many a hand would doubtless have been raised against
+him.
+
+Moses had retired to a solitary place, as was his wont after every great
+danger from which the mercy of the Most High brought deliverance, and
+tears filled Miriam's eyes as she thought of the grief which the tidings
+of such apostasy and ingratitude would cause her noble brother.
+
+A gloomy shadow had also darkened Joshua's joyous confidence.  He lay
+sleepless on the mat in his father's tent, reviewing the past.
+
+His warrior-soul was elevated by the thought that a single, omnipotent,
+never-erring Power guided the universe and the lives of men and exacted
+implicit obedience from the whole creation.  Every glance at nature and
+life showed him that everything depended upon One infinitely great and
+powerful Being, at whose sign all creatures rose, moved, or sank to rest.
+
+To him, the chief of a little army, his God was the highest and most far-
+sighted of rulers, the only One, who was always certain of victory.
+
+What a crime it was to offend such a Lord and repay His benefits with
+apostasy!
+
+Yet the people had committed before his eyes this heinous sin and, as he
+recalled to mind the events which had compelled him to interpose, the
+question arose how they were to be protected from the wrath of the Most
+High, how the eyes of the dull multitude could be opened to His wonderful
+grandeur, which expanded the heart and the soul.
+
+But he found no answer, saw no expedient, when he reflected upon the
+lawlessness and rebellion in the camp, which threatened to be fatal to
+his people.
+
+He had succeeded in making his soldiers obedient.  As soon as the
+trumpets summoned them, and he himself in full armor appeared at the head
+of his men, they yielded their own obstinate wills to his.  Was there
+then nothing that could keep them, during peaceful daily life, within the
+bounds which in Egypt secured the existence of the meanest and weakest
+human beings and protected them from the attacks of those who were bolder
+and stronger?
+
+Amid such reflections he remained awake until early morning; when the
+stars set, he started up, ordered the trumpets to be sounded, and as on
+the preceding days, the new-made troops assembled without opposition and
+in full force.
+
+He was soon marching at their head through the narrow, rocky valley, and
+after moving silently an hour through the gloom the warriors enjoyed the
+refreshing coolness which precedes the young day.
+
+Then the grey light of early dawn glimmered in the east, the sky began to
+brighten, and in the glowing splendor of the blushing morning rose
+solemnly in giant majesty the form of the sacred mountain.
+
+Close at hand and distinctly visible it towered before the Hebrews with
+its brown masses of rock, cliffs, and chasms, while above the seven peaks
+of its summit hovered a pair of eagles on whose broad pinions the young
+day cast a shimmering golden glow.
+
+A thrill of pious awe made the whole band halt as they had before Alush,
+and every man, from the first rank to the last, in mute devotion raised
+his hands to pray.
+
+Then they moved on with hearts uplifted, and one shouted joyously to
+another as some pretty dark birds flew twittering toward them, a sign of
+the neighborhood of fresh water.
+
+They had scarcely marched half an hour longer when they beheld the
+bluish-green foliage of tamarisk bushes and the towering palm-trees; at
+last, the most welcome of all sounds in the wilderness fell on their
+listening ears--the ripple of flowing water.
+
+
+This cheered their hearts, and the majestic spectacle of Mount Sinai,
+whose heaven-touching summit was now concealed by a veil of blue mist,
+filled with devout amazement the souls of the men who had grown up on the
+flat plains of Goshen.
+
+     [The mountain known at the present day as Serbal, not the Sinai of
+     the monks which in our opinion was first declared in the reign of
+     Justinian to be the mount whence the laws were given.  The detailed
+     reasons for our opinion that Serbal is the Sinai of the Scriptures,
+     which Lepsius expressed before its and others share with us may be
+     found in our works: "Durch Gosen zum Sinai, aus dem Wanderbuch and
+     der Bibliothek."  2 Aufl.  Leipzig.  1882.  Wilh. Engelmann.]
+
+They pressed cautiously forward; for the remainder of the defeated
+Amalekites might be lying in ambush.  But no foe was seen or heard, and
+the Hebrews found some tokens of the thirst for vengeance of the sons of
+the wilderness in their ruined houses, the superb palm-trees felled, and
+little gardens destroyed.  It was necessary now to remove from the road
+the slender trunks with their huge leafy crowns, that they might not
+impede the progress of the people; and, when this work was done, Joshua
+ascended through a ravine which led to the brook in the valley, up to the
+first terrace of the mountain, that he might gaze around him far and near
+for a view of the enemy.
+
+The steep pathway led past masses of red granite, intersected by veins of
+greenish diorite, until he reached a level plateau high above the oasis,
+where, beside a clear spring, green bushes and delicate mountain flowers
+adorned the barren wilderness.
+
+Here he intended to rest and, as he gazed around him, he perceived in the
+shadow of an overhanging cliff a man's tall figure.
+
+It was Moses.
+
+The flight of his thoughts had rapt him so far away from the present and
+his surroundings, that he did not perceive Joshua's approach, and the
+latter was restrained by respectful awe from approaching the man of God.
+
+He waited patiently till the latter raised his bearded face and greeted
+him with friendly dignity.
+
+Then they gazed together at the oasis and the desolate stony valleys of
+the mountain region at their feet.  The emerald waters of a small portion
+of the Red Sea, which washed the western slope of the mountain, also
+glittered beneath them.
+
+Meanwhile they talked of the people and the greatness and omnipotence of
+the God who had so wonderfully guided them, and as they looked northward,
+they beheld the endlessly long stream of Hebrews, which, following the
+curves of the rocky valley, was surging slowly toward the oasis.
+
+Then Joshua opened his heart to the man of God and told him the questions
+he had asked himself during the past sleepless night, and to which he had
+found no answer.  The latter listened quietly, and in deep, faltering
+tones answered in broken sentences:
+
+"The lawlessness in the camp--ay, it is ruining the people!  But the Lord
+placed the power to destroy it in our hands.  Woe betide him who resists.
+They must feel this power, which is as sublime as yonder mountain, as
+immovable as its solid rock."
+
+Then Moses' wrathful words ceased.
+
+After both had gazed silently into vacancy a long time, Joshua broke the
+silence by asking:
+
+"And what is the name of this power?"
+
+Loudly and firmly from the bearded lips of the man of God rang the words;
+
+"THE LAW!"
+
+He pointed with his staff to the summit of the mountain.
+
+Then, waving his hand to his companion, he left him.  Joshua completed
+his search for the foe and saw on the yellow sands of the valley dark
+figures moving to and fro.
+
+They were the remnants of the defeated Amalekite bands seeking new
+abodes.
+
+He watched them a short time and, after convincing himself that they were
+quitting the oasis, he thoughtfully returned to the valley.
+
+"The law!"  he repeated again and again.
+
+Ay, that was what the wandering tribes lacked.  It was doubtless reserved
+for its severity to transform the hordes which had escaped bondage into a
+people worthy of the God who preferred them above the other nations of
+the earth.
+
+Here the chief's reflections were interrupted; for human voices, the
+lowing and bleating of herds, the barking of dogs, and the heavy blows of
+hammers rose to his ears from the oasis.
+
+They were pitching the tents, a work of peace, for which no one needed
+him.
+
+Lying down in the shadow of a thick tamarisk bush, above which a tall
+palm towered proudly, he stretched his limbs comfortably to rest in the
+assurance that the people were now provided for, in war by his good
+sword, in peace by the Law.  This was much, it renewed his hopes; yet,
+no, no--it was not all, could not be the final goal.  The longer he
+reflected, the more profoundly he felt that this was not enough to
+satisfy him concerning those below, whom he cherished in his heart as if
+they were brothers and sisters.  His broad brow again clouded, and roused
+from his repose by fresh doubts, he gently shook his head.
+
+No, again no!  The Law could not afford to those who were so dear to him
+everything that he desired for them.  Something else was needed to make
+their future as dignified and beautiful as he had beheld it before his
+mind's eye on his journey to the mines.
+
+But what was it, what name did this other need bear?
+
+He began to rack his brain to discover it, and while, with closed lids,
+he permitted his thoughts to rove to the other nations whom he had known
+in war and peace, in order to seek among them the one thing his own
+people lacked, sleep overpowered him and a dream showed him Miriam and a
+lovely girl, who looked like Kasana as she had so often rushed to meet
+him when a sweet, innocent child, followed by the white lamb which Nun
+had given to his favorite many years before.
+
+Both figures offered him a gift and asked him to choose one or the other.
+Miriam's hand held a heavy gold tablet, at whose top was written in
+flaming letters:  "The Law!"  and which she offered with stern severity.
+The child extended one of the beautifully-curved palm-leaves which he had
+often waved as a messenger of peace.
+
+The sight of the tablet filled him with pious awe, the palm-branch waved
+a friendly greeting and he quickly grasped it.  But scarcely was it in
+his hand ere the figure of the prophetess melted into the air like mist,
+which the morning breeze blows away.  In painful astonishment he now
+gazed at the spot where she had stood, and surprised and troubled by his
+strange choice, though he felt that he had made the right one, he asked
+the child what her gift imported to him and to the people.
+
+She waved her hand to him, pointed into the distance, and uttered three
+words whose gentle musical sound sank deep into his heart.  Yet hard as
+he strove to catch their purport, he did not succeed, and when he asked
+the child to explain them the sound of his own voice roused him and he
+returned to the camp, disappointed and thoughtful.
+
+Afterwards he often tried to remember these words, but always in vain.
+All his great powers, both mental and physical, he continued to devote to
+the people; but his nephew Ephraim, as a powerful prince of his tribe,
+who well deserved the high honors he enjoyed in after years, founded a
+home of his own, where old Nun watched the growth of great-grand-
+children, who promised a long perpetuation of his noble race.
+
+Everyone is familiar with Joshua's later life, so rich in action, and how
+he won in battle a new home for his people.
+
+There in the Promised Land many centuries later was born, in Bethlehem,
+another Jehoshua who bestowed on all mankind what the son of Nun had
+vainly sought for the Hebrew nation.
+
+The three words uttered by the child's lips which the chief had been
+unable to comprehend were:
+
+"Love, Mercy, Redemption!"
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Asenath, the wife of Joseph, had been an Egyptian
+Most ready to be angry with those to whom we have been unjust
+Pleasant sensation of being a woman, like any other woman
+Woman's disapproving words were blown away by the wind
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA, BY GEORG EBERS, VOLUME 5 ***
+
+***********This file should be named 5471.txt or 5471.zip ***********
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