sworn."
With these words he waved his hand to Miriam and turned toward the camp,
where his horse had been fed and watered; but she called after him: "Only
one last word:  Moses left a message for you in the hollow trunk of the
tree."

Joshua turned back to the sycamore and read what the man of God had
written for him.  "Be strong and steadfast" were the brief contents, and
raising his head he joyfully exclaimed: "Those words are balm to my soul.
We meet here for the last time, wife of Hur, and, if I go to my death, be
sure that I shall know how to die strong and steadfast; but show my old
father what kindness you can."

He swung himself upon his horse and while trotting toward Tanis, faithful
to his oath, his soul was free from fear, though he did not conceal from
himself that he was going to meet great perils.  His fairest hopes were
destroyed, yet deep grief struggled with glad exaltation.  A new and
lofty emotion, which pervaded his whole being, had waked within him and
was but slightly dimmed, though he had experienced a sorrow bitter enough
to darken the light of any other man's existence.  Naught could surpass
the noble objects to which he intended to devote his blood and life--his
God and his people.  He perceived with amazement this new feeling which
had power to thrust far into the background every other emotion of his
breast--even love.

True, his head often drooped sorrowfully when he thought of his old
father; but he had done right in repressing the eager yearning to clasp
him to his heart.  The old man would scarcely have understood his
motives, and it was better for both to part without seeing each other
rather than in open strife.

Often it seemed as though his experiences had been but a dream, and while
he felt bewildered by the excitements of the last few hours, his strong
frame was little wearied by the fatigues he had undergone.

At a well-known hostelry on the road, where he met many soldiers and
among them several military commanders with whom he was well acquainted,
he at last allowed his horse and himself a little rest and food; and as
he rode on refreshed active life asserted its claims; for as far as the
gate of the city of Rameses he passed bands of soldiers, and learned that
they were ordered to join the cohorts he had himself brought from Libya.

At last he rode into the capital and as he passed the temple of Amon he
heard loud lamentations, though he had learned on the way that the plague
had ceased.  What many a sign told him was confirmed at last by some
passing guards--the first prophet and high-priest of Amon, the grey-
haired Rui, had died in the ninety-eighth year of his life.  Bai, the
second prophet, who had so warmly protested his friendship and gratitude
to Hosea, had now become Rui's successor and was high-priest and judge,
keeper of the seals and treasurer, in short, the most powerful man in the
realm.




CHAPTER XVII.

"Help of Jehovah!"  murmured a state-prisoner, laden with heavy chains,
five days later, smiling bitterly as, with forty companions in
misfortune, he was led through the gate of victory in Tanis toward the
east.

The mines in the Sinai peninsula, where more convict labor was needed,
were the goal of these unfortunate men.

The prisoner's smile lingered a short time, then drawing up his muscular
frame, his bearded lips murmured: "Strong and steadfast!"  and as if he
desired to transmit the support he had himself found he whispered to the
youth marching at his side: "Courage, Ephraim, courage!  Don't gaze down
at the dust, but upward, whatever may come."

"Silence in the ranks!"  shouted one of the armed Libyan guards, who
accompanied the convicts, to the older prisoner, raising his whip with a
significant gesture.  The man thus threatened was Joshua, and his
companion in suffering Ephraim, who had been sentenced to share his fate.

What this was every child in Egypt knew, for "May I be sent to the
mines!"  was one of the most terrible oaths of the common people, and no
prisoner's lot was half so hard as that of the convicted state-criminals.

A series of the most terrible humiliations and tortures awaited them.
The vigor of the robust was broken by unmitigated toil; the exhausted
were forced to execute tasks so far beyond their strength that they soon
found the eternal rest for which their tortured souls longed.  To be sent
to the mines meant to be doomed to a slow, torturing death; yet life is
so dear to men that it was considered a milder punishment to be dragged
to forced labor in the mines than to be delivered up to the executioner.

Joshua's encouraging words had little effect upon Ephraim; but when, a
few minutes later, a chariot shaded by an umbrella, passed the prisoners,
a chariot in which a slender woman of aristocratic bearing stood beside a
matron behind the driver, he turned with a hasty movement and gazed after
the equipage with sparkling eyes till it vanished in the dust of the
road.

The younger woman had been closely veiled, but Ephraim thought he
recognized her for whose sake he had gone to his ruin, and whose lightest
sign he would still have obeyed.

And he was right; the lady in the chariot was Kasana, the daughter of
Hornecht, captain of the archers, and the matron was her nurse.

At a little temple by the road-side, where, in the midst of a grove of
Nile acacias, a well was maintained for travellers, she bade the matron
wait for her and, springing lightly from the chariot which had left the
prisoners some distance behind, she began to pace up and down with
drooping head in the shadow of the trees, until the whirling clouds of
dust announced the approach of the convicts.

Taking from her robe the gold rings she had ready for this purpose, she
went to the man who was riding at its head on an ass and who led the
mournful procession.  While she was talking with him and pointing to
Joshua, the guard cast a sly glance at the rings which had been slipped
into his hand, and seeing a welcome yellow glitter when his modesty had
expected only silver, his features instantly assumed an expression of
obliging good-will.

True, his face darkened at Kasana's request, but another promise from
the young widow brightened it again, and he now turned eagerly to his
subordinates, exclaiming:  "To the well with the moles, men!  Let them
drink.  They must be fresh and healthy under the ground!"

Then riding up to the prisoners, he shouted to Joshua:

"You once commanded many soldiers, and look more stiff-necked now than
beseems you and me.  Watch the others, guards, I have a word or two to
say to this man alone."

He clapped his hands as if he were driving hens out of a garden, and
while the prisoners took pails and with the guards, enjoyed the
refreshing drink, their leader drew Joshua and Ephraim away from the road
--they could not be separated on account of the chain which bound their
ancles together.

The little temple soon hid them from the eyes of the others, and the
warder sat down on a step some distance off, first showing the two
Hebrews, with a gesture whose meaning was easily understood, the heavy
spear he carried in his hand and the hounds which lay at his feet.

He kept his eyes open, too, during the conversation that followed.  They
could say whatever they chose; he knew the duties of his office and
though, for the sake of good money he could wink at a farewell, for
twenty years, though there had been many attempts to escape, not one
of his moles--a name he was fond of giving to the future miners--had
succeeded in eluding his watchfulness.

Yonder fair lady doubtless loved the stately man who, he had been told,
was formerly a chief in the army.  But he had already numbered among his
"moles," personages even more distinguished, and if the veiled woman
managed to slip files or gold into the prisoner's hands, he would not
object, for that very evening the persons of both would be thoroughly
searched, even the youth's black locks, which would not have remained
unshorn, had not everything been in confusion prior to the departure of
the convicts, which took place just before the march of Pharaoh's army.

The watcher could not hear the whispered words exchanged between the
degraded chief and the lady, but her humble manner and bearing led him to
suppose that it was she who had brought the proud warrior to his ruin.
Ah, these women!  And the fettered youth!  The looks he fixed upon the
slender figure were ardent enough to scorch her veil.  But patience!
Mighty Father Amon!  His moles were going to a school where people
learned modesty!

Now the lady had removed her veil.  She was a beautiful woman!  It must
be hard to part from such a sweetheart.  And now she was weeping.

The rude warder's heart grew as soft as his office permitted; but he
would fain have raised his scourge against the older prisoner; for was
it not a shame to have such a sweetheart and stand there like a stone?

At first the wretch did not even hold out his hand to the woman who
evidently loved him, while he, the watcher, would gladly have witnessed
both a kiss and an embrace.

Or was this beauty the prisoner's wife who had betrayed him?  No, no!
How kindly he was now gazing at her.  That was the manner of a father
speaking to his child; but his mole was probably too young to have such a
daughter.  A mystery!  But he felt no anxiety concerning its solution;
during the march he had the power to make the most reserved convict an
open book.

Yet not only the rude gaoler, but anyone would have marvelled what had
brought this beautiful, aristocratic woman, in the grey light of dawn,
out on the highway to meet the hapless man loaded with chains.

In sooth, nothing would have induced Kasana to take this step save the
torturing dread of being scorned and execrated as a base traitress by the
man whom she loved.  A terrible destiny awaited him, and her vivid
imagination had shown her Joshua in the mines, languishing, disheartened,
drooping, dying, always with a curse upon her on his lips.

On the evening of, the day Ephraim bad been brought to the house,
shivering with the chill caused by burning fever, and half stifled with
the dust of the road, her father lead told her that in the youthful
Hebrew they possessed a hostage to compel Hosea to return to Tanis and
submit to the wishes of the prophet Bai, with whom she knew her father
was leagued in a secret conspiracy.  He also confided to her that not
only great distinction and high offices, but a marriage with herself had
been arrranged to bind Hosea to the Egyptians and to a cause from which
the chief of the archers expected the greatest blessings for himself, his
house, and his whole country.

These tidings had filled her heart with joyous hope of a long desired
happiness, and she confessed it to the prisoner with drooping head amid
floods of tears, by the little wayside temple; for he was now forever
lost to her, and though he did not return the love she had lavished on
him from his childhood, he must not hate and condemn her without having
heard her story.

Joshua listened willingly and assured her that nothing would lighten his
heart more than to have her clear herself from the charge of having
consigned him and the youth at his side to their most terrible fate.

Kasana sobbed aloud and was forced to struggle hard for composure ere she
succeeded in telling her tale with some degree of calmness.

Shortly after Hosea's departure the chief-priest died and, on the same
day Bai, the second prophet, became his successor.  Many changes now took
place, and the most powerful man in the kingdom filled Pharaoh with
hatred of the Hebrews and their leader, Mesu, whom he and the queen had
hitherto protected and feared.  He had even persuaded the monarch to
pursue the fugitives, and an army had been instantly summoned to compel
their return.  Kasana had feared that Hosea could not be induced to fight
against the men of his own blood, and that he must feel incensed at being
sent to make treaties which the Egyptians began to violate even before
they knew whether their offers had been accepted.

When he returned--as he knew only too well--Pharaoh had had him watched
like a prisoner and would not suffer him to leave his presence until he
had sworn to again lead his troops and be a faithful servant to the king.
Bai, the new chief priest, however, had not forgotten that Hosea had
saved his life and showed himself well disposed and grateful to him; she
knew also that he hoped to involve him in a secret enterprise, with which
her father, too, was associated.  It was Bai who had prevailed upon
Pharaoh, if Hosea would renew his oath of fealty, to absolve him from
fighting against his own race, put him in command of the foreign
mercenaries and raise him to the rank of a "friend of the king."  All
these events, of course, were familiar to him; for the new chief priest
had himself set before him the tempting dishes which, with such strong,
manly defiance, he had thrust aside.

Her father had also sided with him, and for the first time ceased to
reproach him with his origin.

But, on the third day after Hosea's return, Hornecht had gone to talk
with him and since then everything had changed for the worse.  He must be
best aware what had caused the man of whom she, his daughter, must think
no evil, to be changed from a friend to a mortal foe.

She had looked enquiringly at him as she spoke, and he did not refuse to
answer--Hornecht had told him that he would be a welcome son-in-law.

"And you?"  asked Kasana, gazing anxiously into his face.

"I," replied the prisoner, "was forced to say that though you had been
dear and precious to me from your childhood, many causes forbade me to
unite a woman's fate to mine."

Kasana's eyes flashed, and she exclaimed:

"Because you love another, a woman of your own people, the one who sent
Ephraim to you!"

But Joshua shook his head and answered pleasantly:

"You are wrong, Kasana!  She of whom you speak is the wife of another."

"Then," cried the young widow with fresh animation, gazing at him with
loving entreaty, "why were you compelled to rebuff my father so harshly?"

"That was far from my intention, dear child," he replied warmly, laying
his hand on her head.  "I thought of you with all the tenderness of which
my nature is capable.  If I could not fulfil his wish, it was because
grave necessity forbids me to yearn for the peaceful happiness by my own
hearth-stone for which others strive.  Had they given me my liberty, my
life would have been one of restlessness and conflict."

"Yet how many bear sword and shield," replied Kasana, "and still, on
their return, rejoice in the love of their wives and the dear ones
sheltered beneath their roof."

"True, true," he answered gravely; "but special duties, unknown to the
Egyptians, summon me.  I am a son of my people."

"And you intend to serve them?"  asked Kasana.  "Oh, I understand you.
Yet....  why then did you return to Tanis?  Why did you put yourself into
Pharaoh's power?"

"Because a sacred oath compelled me, poor child," he answered kindly.

"An oath," she cried, "which places death and imprisonment between you
and those whom you love and still desire to serve.  Oh, would that you
had never returned to this abode of injustice, treachery, and
ingratitude!  To how many hearts this vow will bring grief and tears!
But what do you men care for the suffering you inflict on others?  You
have spoiled all the pleasure of life for my hapless self, and among your
own people dwells a noble father whose only son you are.  How often I
have seen the dear old man, the stately figure with sparkling eyes and
snow-white hair.  So would you look when you, too, had reached a ripe old
age, as I said to myself, when I met him at the harbor, or in the fore-
court of the palace, directing the shepherds who were driving the cattle
and fleecy sheep to the tax-receiver's table.  And now his son's
obstinacy must embitter every day of his old age."

"Now," replied Joshua, "he has a son who is going, laden with chains, to
endure a life of misery, but who can hold his head higher than those who
betrayed him.  They, and Pharaoh at their head, have forgotten that he
has shed his heart's blood for them on many a battlefield, and kept faith
with the king at every peril.  Menephtah, his vice-roy and chief, whose
life I saved, and many who formerly called me friend, have abandoned and
hurled me and this guiltless boy into wretchedness, but those who have
done this, woman, who have committed this crime, may they all.  .  .  ."

"Do not curse them!"  interrupted Kasana with glowing cheeks.

But Joshua, unheeding her entreaty, exclaimed "Should I be a man, if I
forgot vengeance?"

The young widow clung anxiously to his arm, gasping in beseeching
accents:

"How could you forgive him?  Only you must not curse him; for my father
became your foe through love for me.  You know his hot blood, which so
easily carries him to extremes, despite his years.  He concealed from me
what he regarded as an insult; for he saw many woo me, and I am his
greatest treasure.  Pharaoh can pardon rebels more easily than my father
can forgive the man who disdained his jewel.  He behaved like one
possessed when he returned.  Every word he uttered was an invective.
He could not endure to stay at home and raged just as furiously
elsewhere.  But no doubt he would have calmed himself at last, as he so
often did before, had not some one who desired to pour oil on the flames
met him in the fore-court of the palace.  I learned all this from Bai's
wife; for she, too, repents what she did to injure you; her husband used
every effort to save you.  She, who is as brave as any man, was ready to
aid him and open the door of your prison; for she has not forgotten that
you saved her husband's life in Libya.  Ephraim's chains were to fall
with yours, and everything was ready to aid your flight."

"I know it," Hosea interrupted gloomily, "and I will thank the God of my
fathers if those were wrong from whom I heard that you are to blame,
Kasana, for having our dungeon door locked more firmly."

"Should I be here, if that were so!"  cried the beautiful, grieving woman
with impassioned eagerness.  True, resentment did stir within me as it
does in every woman whose lover scorns her; but the misfortune that
befell you speedily transformed resentment into compassion, and fanned
the old flames anew.  So surely as I hope for a mild judgment before the
tribunal of the dead, I am innocent and have not ceased to hope for your
liberation.  Not until yesterday evening, when all was too late, did I
learn that Bai's proposal had been futile.  The chief priest can do much,
but he will not oppose the man who made himself my father's ally."

"You mean Prince Siptah, Pharaoh's nephew!"  cried Joshua in excited
tones.  "They intimated to me the scheme they were weaving in his
interest; they wished to put me in the place of the Syrian Aarsu, the
commander of the mercenaries, if I would consent to let them have their
way with my people and desert those of my own blood.  But I would rather
die twenty deaths than sully myself with such treachery.  Aarsu is better
suited to carry out their dark plans, but he will finally betray them
all.  So far as I am concerned, the prince has good reason to hate me."

Kasana laid her hand upon his lips, pointed anxiously to Ephraim and the
guide, and said gently:

"Spare my father!  The prince--what roused his enmity......"

"The profligate seeks to lure you into his snare and has learned that you
favor me," the warrior broke in.  She bent her head with a gesture of
assent, and added blushing:

"That is why Aarsu, whom he has won over to his cause, watches you so
strictly."

"And the Syrian will keep his eyes sufficiently wide open," cried Joshua.
"Now let us talk no more of this.  I believe you and thank you warmly for
following us hapless mortals.  How fondly I used to think, while serving
in the field, of the pretty child, whom I saw blooming into maidenhood."

"And you will think of her still with neither wrath nor rancor?"

"Gladly, most gladly."

The young widow, with passionate emotion, seized the prisoner's hand to
raise it to her lips, but he withdrew it; and, gazing at him with tears
in her eyes, she said mournfully:

"You deny me the favor a benefactor does not refuse even to a beggar."
Then, suddenly drawing herself up to her full height, she exclaimed so
loudly that the warder started and glanced at the sun: "But I tell you
the time will come when you will sue for the favor of kissing this hand
in gratitude.  For when the messenger arrives bringing to you and to this
youth the liberty for which you have longed, it will be Kasana to whom
you owe it."

Rapt by the fervor of the wish that animated her, her beautiful face
glowed with a crimson flush.  Joshua seized her right hand, exclaiming:

"Ah, if you could attain what your loyal soul desires!  How could I
dissuade you from mitigating the great misfortune which overtook this
youth in your house?  Yet, as an honest man, I must tell you that I shall
never return to the service of the Egyptians; for, come what may, I shall
in future cleave, body and soul, to those you persecute and despise, and
to whom belonged the mother who bore me."

Kasana's graceful head drooped; but directly after she raised it again,
saying:

"No other man is so noble, so truthful, that I have known from my
childhood.  If I can find no one among my own nation whom I can honor,
I will remember you, whose every thought is true and lofty, whose nature
is faultless.  Put if poor Kasana succeeds in liberating you, do not
scorn her, if you find her worse than when you left her, for however she
may humiliate herself, whatever shame may come upon her .  .  .  ."

"What do you intend?"  Hosea anxiously interrupted; but she had no time
to answer; for the captain of the guard had risen and, clapping his
hands, shouted: "Forward, you moles!" and "Step briskly."

The warrior's stout heart was overwhelmed with tender sadness and,
obeying a hasty impulse, he kissed the beautiful unhappy woman on the
brow and hair, whispering:

"Leave me in my misery, if our freedom will cost your humiliation.  We
shall probably never meet again; for, whatever may happen, my life will
henceforth be nothing but battle and sacrifice.  Darkness will shroud us
in deeper and deeper gloom, but however black the night may be, one star
will still shine for this boy and for me--the remembrance of you, my
faithful, beloved child."

He pointed to Ephraim as he spoke and the youth, as if out of his senses,
pressed his lips on the hand and arm of the sobbing woman.

"Forward!"  shouted the leader again, and with a grateful smile helped
the generous lady into the chariot, marvelling at the happy, radiant gaze
with which her tearful eyes followed the convicts.

The horses started, fresh shouts arose, blows from the whips fell on bare
shoulders, now and then a cry of pain rang on the morning air, and the
train of prisoners again moved eastward.  The chain on the ancles of the
companions in suffering stirred the dust, which shrouded the little band
like the grief, hate, and fear darkening the soul of each.




CHAPTER XVIII.

A long hour's walk beyond the little temple where the prisoners had
rested the road, leading to Succoth and the western arm of the Red Sea,
branched off from the one that ran in a southeasterly direction past the
fortifications on the isthmus to the mines.

Shortly after the departure of the prisoners, the army which had been
gathered to pursue the Hebrews left the city of Rameses, and as the
convicts had rested some time at the well, the troops almost overtook
them.  They had not proceeded far when several runners came hurrying up
to clear the road for the advancing army.  They ordered the prisoners to
move aside and defer their march until the swifter baggage train, bearing
Pharaoh's tents and travelling equipments, whose chariot wheels could
already be heard, had passed them.

The prisoners' guards were glad to stop, they were in no hurry.  The day
was hot, and if they reached their destination later, it would be the
fault of the army.

The interruption was welcome to Joshua, too; for his young companion had
been gazing into vacancy as if bewildered, and either made no answer to
his questions or gave such incoherent ones that the older man grew
anxious; he knew how many of those sentenced to forced labor went mad or
fell into melancholy.  Now a portion of the army would pass them, and the
spectacle was new to Ephraim and promised to put an end to his dull
brooding.

A sand-hill overgrown with tamarisk bushes rose beside the road, and
thither the leader guided the party of convicts.  He was a stern man,
but not a cruel one, so he permitted his "moles" to lie down on the sand,
for the troops would doubtless be a long time in passing.  As soon as the
convicts had thrown themselves on the ground the rattle of wheels, the
neighing of fiery steeds, shouts of command, and sometimes the
disagreeable braying of an ass were heard.

When the first chariots appeared Ephraim asked if Pharaoh was coming; but
Joshua, smiling, informed him that when the king accompanied the troops
to the field, the camp equipage followed directly behind the vanguard,
for Pharaoh and his dignitaries wished to find the tents pitched and the
tables laid, when the day's march was over and the soldiers and officers
expected a night's repose.

Joshua had not finished speaking when a number of empty carts and unladen
asses appeared.  They were to carry the contributions of bread and meal,
animals and poultry, wine and beer, levied on every village the sovereign
passed on the march, and which had been delivered to the tax-gatherers
the day before.

Soon after a division of chariot warriors followed.  Every pair of horses
drew a small, two-wheeled chariot, cased in bronze, and in each stood a
warrior and the driver of the team.  Huge quivers were fastened to the
front of the chariots, and the soldiers leaned on their lances or on
gigantic bows.  Shirts covered with brazen scales, or padded coats of
mail with gay overmantle, a helmet, and the front of the chariot
protected the warrior from the missiles of the foe.  This troop, which
Joshua said was the van, went by at a slow trot and was followed by a
great number of carts and wagons, drawn by horses, mules, or oxen, as
well as whole troops of heavily-laden asses.

The uncle now pointed out to his nephew the long masts, poles, and heavy
rolls of costly stuffs intended for the royal tent, and borne by numerous
beasts of burden, as well as the asses and carts with the kitchen
utensils and field forges.  Among the baggage heaped on the asses, which
were followed by nimble drivers, rode the physicians, tailors, salve-
makers, cooks, weavers of garlands, attendants, and slaves belonging to
the camp.  Their departure had been so recent that they were still fresh
and inclined to jest, and whoever caught sight of the convicts, flung
them, in the Egyptian fashion, a caustic quip which many sought to
palliate by the gift of alms.  Others, who said nothing, also sent by the
ass-drivers fruit and trifling gifts; for those who were free to-day
might share the fate of these hapless men to-morrow.  The captain
permitted it, and when a passing slave, whom Joshua had sold for
thieving, shouted the name of Hosea, pointing to him with a malicious
gesture, the rough but kind-hearted officer offered his insulted prisoner
a sip of wine from his own flask.

Ephraim, who had walked from Succoth to Tanis with a staff in his hand,
and a small bundle containing bread, dried lamb, radishes, and dates,
expressed his amazement at the countless people and things a single man
needed for his comfort, and then relapsed into his former melancholy
until his uncle roused him with farther explanations.

As soon as the baggage train had passed, the commander of the band of
prisoners wished to set off, but the "openers of the way," who preceded
the archers, forbade him, because it was not seemly for convicts to
mingle with soldiers.  So they remained on their hillock and continued to
watch the troops.

The archers were followed by heavily-armed troops, bearing shields
covered with strong hide so large that they extended from the feet to
above the middle of the tallest men, and Hosea now told the youth that in
the evening they set them side by side, thus surrounding the royal tent
like a fence.  Besides this weapon of defence they carried a lance, a
short dagger-like sword, or a battle-sickle, and as these thousands were
succeeded by a body of men armed with slings Ephraim for the first time
spoke without being questioned and said that the slings the shepherds
had taught him to make were far better than those of the soldiers and,
encouraged by his uncle, he described in language so eager that the
prisoners lying by his side listened, how he had succeeded in slaying not
only jackals, wolves, and panthers, but even vultures, with stones hurled
from a sling.  Meanwhile he interrupted himself to ask the meaning of the
standards and the names of the separate divisions.

Many thousands had already passed, when another troop of warriors in
chariots appeared, and the chief warder of the prisoners exclaimed:

"The good god! The lord of two worlds!  May life, happiness, and health
be his!"  With these words he fell upon his knees in the attitude of
worship, while the convicts prostrated themselves to kiss the earth and
be ready to obey the captain's bidding and join at the right moment in
the cry: "Life, happiness, and health!"

But they had a long time to wait ere the expected sovereign appeared;
for, after the warriors in the chariots had passed, the body-guard
followed, foot-soldiers of foreign birth with singular ornaments on their
helmets and huge swords, and then numerous images of the gods, a large
band of priests and wearers of plumes.  They were followed by more body-
guards, and then Pharaoh appeared with his attendants.  At their head
rode the chief priest Bai in a gilded battle-chariot drawn by magnificent
bay stallions.  He who had formerly led troops in the field, had assumed
the command of this pursuing expedition ordered by the gods and, though
clad in priestly robes, he also wore the helmet and battle-axe of a
general.  At last, directly behind his equipage, came Pharaoh himself;
but he did not go to battle like his warlike predecessors in a war-
chariot, but preferred to be carried on a throne.  A magnificent canopy
protected him above, and large, thick, round ostrich feather fans,
carried by his fan-bearers, sheltered him on both sides from the
scorching rays of the sun.

After Menephtah had left the city and the gate of victory behind him, and
the exulting acclamations of the multitude had ceased to amuse him, he
had gone to sleep and the shading fans would have concealed his face and
figure from the prisoners, had not their shouts been loud enough to rouse
him and induce him to turn his head toward them.  The gracious wave of
his right hand showed that he had expected to see different people from
convicts and, ere the shouts of the hapless men had died away, his eyes
again closed.

Ephraim's silent brooding had now yielded to the deepest interest, and as
the empty golden war-chariot of the king, before which pranced the most
superb steeds he had ever seen, rolled by, he burst into loud
exclamations of admiration.

These noble animals, on whose intelligent heads large bunches of feathers
nodded, and whose rich harness glittered with gold and gems, were indeed
a splendid sight.  The large gold quivers set with emeralds, fastened on
the sides of the chariot, were filled with arrows.

The feeble man to whose weak hand the guidance of a great nation was
entrusted, the weakling who shrunk from every exertion, regained his lost
energy whenever hunting was in prospect; he considered this campaign a
chase on the grandest scale and as it seemed royal pastime to discharge
his arrows at the human beings he had so lately feared, instead of at
game, he had obeyed the chief priest's summons and joined the expedition.
It had been undertaken by the mandate of the great god Amon, so he had
little to dread from Mesu's terrible power.

When he captured him he would make him atone for having caused Pharaoh
and his queen to tremble before him and shed so many tears on his
account.

While Joshua was still telling the youth from which Phoenician city the
golden chariots came, he suddenly felt Ephraim's right hand clutch his
wrist, and heard him exclaim: "She!  She!  Look yonder!  It is she!"  The
youth had flushed crimson, and he was not mistaken; the beautiful Kasana
was passing amid Pharaoh's train in the same chariot in which she had
pursued the convicts, and with her came a considerable number of ladies
who had joined what the commander of the foot-soldiers, a brave old
warrior, who had served under the great Rameses, termed "a pleasure
party."

On campaigns through the desert and into Syria, Libya, or Ethiopia the
sovereign was accompanied only by a chosen band of concubines in
curtained chariots, guarded by eunuchs; but this time, though the
queen had remained at home, the wife of the chief priest Bai and other
aristocratic ladies had set the example of joining the troops, and it was
doubtless tempting enough to many to enjoy the excitements of war without
peril.

Kasana had surprised her friend by her appearance an hour before; only
yesterday the young widow could not be persuaded to accompany the troops.
Obeying an inspiration, without consulting her father, so unprepared that
she lacked the necessary traveling equipments, she had joined the
expedition, and it seemed as if a man whom she had hitherto avoided,
though he was no less a personage than Siptah, the king's nephew, had
become a magnet to her.

When she passed the prisoners, the prince was standing in the chariot
beside the young beauty in her nurse's place, explaining in jesting tones
the significance of the flowers in a bouquet, which Kasana declared could
not possibly have been intended for her, because an hour and a quarter
before she had not thought of going with the army.

But Siptah protested that the Hathors had revealed at sunrise the
happiness in store for him, and that the choice of each single blossom
proved his assertion.

Several young courtiers who were walking in front of their chariots,
surrounded them and joined in the laughter and merry conversation, in
which the vivacious wife of the chief priest shared, having left her
large travelling-chariot to be carried in a litter.

None of these things escaped Joshua's notice and, as he saw Kasana, who
a short time before had thought of the prince with aversion, now saucily
tap his hand with her fan, his brow darkened and he asked himself whether
the young widow was not carelessly trifling with his misery.

But the prisoners' chief warder had now noticed the locks on Siptah's
temples, which marked him as a prince of the royal household and his loud
"Hail!  Hall!" in which the other guards and the captives joined, was
heard by Kasana and her companions.  They looked toward the tamarisk-
bushes, whence the cry proceeded, and Joshua saw the young widow turn
pale and then point with a hasty gesture to the convicts.  She must
undoubtedly have given Siptah some command, for the latter at first
shrugged his shoulders disapprovingly then, after a somewhat lengthy
discussion, half grave, half jesting, he sprang from the chariot and
beckoned to the chief gaoler.

"Have these men," he called from the road so loudly that Kasana could not
fail to hear, "seen the face of the good god, the lord of both worlds?"
And when he received a reluctant answer, he went on arrogantly:

"No matter!  At least they beheld mine and that of the fairest of women,
and if they hope for favor on that account they are right.  You know who
I am.  Let the chains that bind them together be removed."  Then,
beckoning to the man, he whispered:

"But keep your eyes open all the wider; I have no liking for the fellow
beside the bush, the ex-chief Hosea.  After returning home, report to me
and bring news of this man.  The quieter he has become, the deeper my
hand will sink in my purse.  Do you understand?"

The warder bowed, thinking: "I'll take care, my prince, and also see that
no one attempts to take the life of any of my moles.  The greater the