rank of these gentlemen, the more bloody and strange are their requests!
How many have come to me with similar ones.  He releases the poor
wretches' feet, and wants me to burden my soul with a shameful murder.
Siptah has tried the wrong man!  Here, Heter, bring the bag of tools and
open the moles' chains."

While the files were grating on the sand-hill by the road and the
prisoners were being released from the fetters on their ancles,--though
for the sake of security each man's arms were bound together,--Pharaoh's
host marched by.

Kasana had commanded Prince Siptah to release from their iron burden
the unfortunates who were being dragged to a life of misery, openly
confessing that she could not bear to see a chief who had so often been
a guest of her house so cruelly humiliated.  Bai's wife had supported
her wish, and the prince was obliged to yield.

Joshua knew to whom he and Ephraim owed this favor, and received it with
grateful joy.

Walking had been made easier for him, but his mind was more and more
sorely oppressed with anxious cares.

The army passing yonder would have been enough to destroy down to the
last man a force ten times greater than the number of his people.  His
people, and with them his father and Miriam,--who had caused him such
keen suffering, yet to whom he was indebted for having found the way
which, even in prison, he had recognized as the only right one--seemed to
him marked out for a bloody doom; for, however powerful might be the God
whose greatness the prophetess had praised in such glowing words, and to
whom he himself had learned to look up with devout admiration,--untrained
and unarmed bands of shepherds must surely and hopelessly succumb to the
assault of this army.  This certainty, strengthened by each advancing
division, pierced his very soul.  Never before had he felt such burning
anguish, which was terribly sharpened when he beheld the familiar faces
of his own troops, which he had so lately commanded, pass before him
under the leadership of another.  This time they were taking the field
to hew down men of his own blood.  This was pain indeed, and Ephraim's
conduct gave him cause for fresh anxiety; since Kasana's appearance and
interference in behalf of him and his companions in suffering, the youth
had again lapsed into silence and gazed with wandering eyes at the army
or into vacancy.

Now he, too, was freed from the chain, and Joshua asked in a whisper if
he did not long to return to his people to help them resist so powerful a
force, but Ephraim merely answered:

"When confronted with those hosts, they can do nothing but yield.  What
did we lack before the exodus?  You were a Hebrew, and yet became a
mighty chief among the Egyptians ere you obeyed Miriam's summons.  In
your place, I would have pursued a different course."

"What  would you  have done?"  asked Joshua sternly.

"What?"  replied the youth, the fire of his young soul blazing.  "What?
Only this, I would have remained where there is honor and fame and
everything beautiful.  You might have been the greatest of the great,
the happiest of the happy--this I have learned, but you made a different
choice."

"Because duty commanded it," Joshua answered gravely, "because I will no
longer serve any one save the people among whom I was born."

"The people?"  exclaimed Ephraim, contemptuously.  "I know them, and you
met them at Succoth.  The poor are miserable wretches who cringe under
the lash; the rich value their cattle above all else and, if they are the
heads of the tribes, quarrel with one another.  No one knows aught of
what pleases the eye and the heart.  They call me one of the richest of
the race and yet I shudder when I think of the house I inherited, one of
the best and largest.  One who has seen more beautiful ones ceases to
long for such an abode."

The vein on Joshua's brow swelled, and he wrathfully rebuked the youth
for denying his own blood, and being a traitor to his people.

The guard commanded silence, for Joshua had raised his reproving voice
louder, and this order seemed welcome to the defiant youth.  When, during
their march, his uncle looked sternly into his face or asked whether he
had thought of his words, he turned angrily away, and remained mute and
sullen until the first star had risen, the night camp had been made under
the open sky, and the scanty prison rations had been served.

Joshua dug with his hands a resting place in the sand, and with care and
skill helped the youth to prepare a similar one.

Ephraim silently accepted this help; but as they lay side by side, and
the uncle began to speak to his nephew of the God of his people on whose
aid they must rely, if they were not to fall victims to despair in the
mines, the youth interrupted him, exclaiming in low tones, but with
fierce resolution:

"They will not take me to the mines alive!  I would rather die, while
making my escape, than pine away in such wretchedness."

Joshua whispered words of warning, and again reminded him of his duties
to his people.  But Ephraim begged to be let alone; yet soon after he
touched his uncle and asked softly:

"What are they planning with Prince Siptah?"

"I don't know; nothing good, that is certain."

"And where is Aarsu, the Syrian, your foe, who commands the Asiatic
mercenaries, and who was to watch us with such fierce zeal?  I did not
see him with the others."

"He remained in Tanis with his troops."

"To guard the palace?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Then he commands many soldiers, and Pharaoh has confidence in him?"

"The utmost, though he ill deserves it."

"And he is a Syrian, and therefore of our blood."

"And more closely allied to us than to the Egyptians, at least so far as
language and appearance are concerned."

"I should have taken him for a man of our race, yet he is, as you were,
one of the leaders in the army."

"Other Syrians and Libyans command large troops of mercenaries, and the
herald Ben Mazana, one of the highest dignitaries of the court--the
Egyptians call him Rameses in the sanctuary of Ra--has a Hebrew father."

"And neither he nor the others are scorned on account of their birth?"

"This is not quite so.  But why do you ask these questions?"

"I could not sleep."

"And so such thoughts came to you.  But you have some definite idea in
your mind and, if my inference is correct, it would cause me pain.  You
wished to enter Pharaoh's service!"

Both were silent a long time, then Ephraim spoke again and, though he
addressed Joshua, it seemed as if he were talking to himself:

"They will destroy our people; bondage and shame await those who survive.
My house is now left to ruin, not a head of my splendid herds of cattle
remains, and the gold and silver I inherited, of which there was said to
be a goodly store, they are carrying with them, for your father has
charge of my wealth, and it will soon fall as booty into the hands of the
Egyptians.  Shall I, if I obtain my liberty, return to my people and make
bricks?  Shall I bow my back and suffer blows and abuse?"

Joshua eagerly whispered:

"You must appeal to the God of your fathers, that he may protect and
defend His people.  Yet, if the Most High has willed the destruction of
our race, be a man and learn to hate with all the might of your young
soul those who trample your people under their feet.  Fly to the Syrians,
offer them your strong young arm, and take no rest till you have avenged
yourself on those who have shed the blood of your people and load you,
though innocent, with chains."

Again silence reigned for some time, nothing was heard from Ephraim's
rude couch save a dull, low moan from his oppressed breast; but at last
he answered softly:

"The chains no longer weigh upon us, and how could I hate her who
released us from them?"

"Remain grateful to Kasana," was the whispered reply, "but hate her
nation."

Hosea heard the youth toss restlessly, and again sigh heavily and moan.

It was past midnight, the waxing moon rode high in the heavens, and the
sleepless man did not cease to listen for sounds from the youth; but the
latter remained silent, though slumber had evidently fled from him also;
for a noise as if he were grinding his teeth came from his place of rest.
Or had mice wandered to this barren place, where hard brown blades of
grass grew between the crusts of salt and the bare spots, and were
gnawing the prisoners' hard bread?

Such gnawing and grinding disturb the sleep of one who longs for slumber;
but Joshua desired to keep awake to continue to open the eyes of the
blinded youth, yet he waited in vain for any sign of life from his
nephew.

At last he was about to lay his hand on the lad's shoulder, but paused as
by the moonlight he saw Ephraim raise one arm though, before he lay down,
both hands were tied more firmly than before.

Joshua now knew that it was the youth's sharp teeth gnawing the rope
which had caused the noise that had just surprised him, and he
immediately stood up and looked first upward and then around him.

Holding his breath, the older man watched every movement, and his heart
began to throb anxiously.  Ephraim meant to fly, and the first step
toward escape had already succeeded!  Would that the others might prosper
too!  But he feared that the liberated youth might enter the wrong path.
He was the only son of his beloved sister, a fatherless and motherless
lad, so he had never enjoyed the uninterrupted succession of precepts and
lessons which only a mother can give and a defiant young spirit will
accept from her alone.  The hands of strangers had bound the sapling to a
stake and it had shot straight upward, but a mother's love would have
ennobled it with carefully chosen grafts.  He had grown up beside another
hearth than his parents', yet the latter is the only true home for youth.
What marvel if he felt himself a stranger among his people.

Amid such thoughts a great sense of compassion stole over Joshua and,
with it, the consciousness that he was deeply accountable for this youth
who, for his sake, while on the way to bring him a message, had fallen
into such sore misfortune.  But much as he longed to warn him once more
against treason and perjury, he refrained, fearing to imperil his
success.  Any noise might attract the attention of the guards, and he
took as keen an interest in the attempt at liberation, as if Ephraim had
made it at his suggestion.

So instead of annoying the youth with fruitless warnings, he kept watch
for him; life had taught him that good advice is more frequently unheeded
than followed, and only personal experiences possess resistless power of
instruction.

The chief's practiced eye soon showed him the way by which Ephraim, if
fortune favored him, could escape.

He called softly, and directly after his nephew whispered:

"I'll loose your ropes, if you will hold up your hands to me.  Mine are
free!"

Joshua's tense features brightened.

The defiant lad was a noble fellow, after all, and risked his own chance
in behalf of one who, if he escaped with him, threatened to bar the way
in which, in youthful blindness, he hoped to find happiness.




CHAPTER XIX.

Joshua gazed intently around him.  The sky was still bright, but if the
north wind continued to blow, the clouds which seemed to be rising from
the sea must soon cover it.

The air had grown sultry, but the guards kept awake and regularly
relieved one another.  It was difficult to elude their attention; yet
close by Ephraim's couch, which his uncle, for greater comfort, had
helped him make on the side of a gently sloping hill, a narrow ravine ran
down to the valley.  White veins of gypsum and glittering mica sparkled
in the moonlight along its bare edges.  If the agile youth could reach
this cleft unseen, and crawl through as far as the pool of saltwater,
overgrown with tall grass and tangled desert shrubs, at which it ended,
he might, aided by the clouds, succeed.

After arriving at this conviction Joshua considered, as deliberately as
if the matter concerned directing one of his soldiers on his way, whether
he himself, in case he regained the use of his hands, could succeed in
following Ephraim without endangering his project.  And he was forced to
answer this question in the negative; for the guard who sometimes sat,
sometimes paced to and fro on a higher part of the crest of the hill a
few paces away, could but too easily perceive, by the moonlight, the
youth's efforts to loose the firmly-knotted bonds.  The cloud approaching
the moon might perhaps darken it, ere the work was completed.  Thus
Ephraim might, on his account, incur the peril of losing the one
fortunate moment which promised escape.  Would it not be the basest
of crimes, merely for the sake of the uncertain chance of flight, to bar
the path to liberty of the youth whose natural protector he was?  So he
whispered to Ephraim:

"I cannot go with you.  Creep through the chasm at your right to the
salt-pool.  I will watch the guards.  As soon as the cloud passes over
the moon and I clear my throat, start off.  If you escape, join our
people.  Greet my old father, assure him of my love and fidelity, and
tell him where I am being taken.  Listen to his advice and Miriam's;
theirs is the best counsel.  The cloud is approaching the moon,--not
another word now!"

As Ephraim still continued to urge him in a whisper to hold up his
pinioned arms, he ordered him to keep silence and, as soon as the moon
was obscured and the guard, who was pacing to and fro above their heads
began a conversation with the man who came to relieve him, Joshua cleared
his throat and, holding his breath, listened with a throbbing heart for
some sound in the direction of the chasm.

He first heard a faint scraping and, by the light of the fire which the
guards kept on the hill-top as a protection against wild beasts, he saw
Ephraim's empty couch.

He uttered a sigh of relief; for the youth must have entered the ravine.
But though he strained his ears to follow the crawling or sliding of the
fugitive he heard nothing save the footsteps and voices of the warders.

Yet he caught only the sound, not the meaning of their words, so intently
did he fix his powers of hearing upon the course taken by the fugitive.
How nimbly and cautiously the agile fellow must move!  He was still in
the chasm, yet meanwhile the moon struggled victoriously with the clouds
and suddenly her silver disk pierced the heavy black curtain that
concealed her from the gaze of men, and her light was reflected like a
slender, glittering pillar from the motionless pool of salt-water,
enabling the watching Joshua to see what was passing below; but he
perceived nothing that resembled a human form.

Had the fugitive encountered any obstacle in the chasm?  Did some
precipice or abyss hold him in its gloomy depths?  Had--and at the
thought he fancied that his heart had stopped beating--Had some gulf
swallowed the lad when he was groping his way through the night?

How he longed for some noise, even the faintest, from the ravine!  The
silence was terrible.  But now!  Oh, would that it had continued!  Now
the sound of falling stones and the crash of earth sliding after echoed
loudly through the still night air.  Again the moonlight burst through
the cloud-curtain, and Joshua perceived near the pool a living creature
which resembled an animal more than a human being, for it seemed to be
crawling on four feet.  Now the water sent up a shower of glittering
spray.  The figure below had leaped into the pool.  Then the clouds again
swallowed the lamp of night, and darkness covered everything.

With a sigh of relief Joshua told himself that he had seen the flying
Ephraim and that, come what might, the escaping youth had gained a
considerable start of his pursuers.

But the latter neither remained inert nor allowed themselves to be
deceived; for though, to mislead them, he had shouted loudly: "A jackal!"
they uttered a long, shrill whistle, which roused their sleeping
comrades.  A few seconds later the chief warder stood before him with a
burning torch, threw its light on his face, and sighed with relief when
he saw him.  Not in vain had he bound him with double ropes; for he would
have been called to a severe reckoning at home had this particular man
escaped.

But while he was feeling the ropes on the prisoner's arms, the glare of
the burning torch, which lighted him, fell on the fugitive's rude,
deserted couch.  There, as if in mockery, lay the gnawed rope.  Taking it
up, he flung it at Joshua's feet, blew his whistle again and again, and
shouted: "Escaped!  The Hebrew!  Young Curly-head!"

Paying no farther heed to Joshua, he began the pursuit.  Hoarse with
fury, he issued order after order, each one sensible and eagerly obeyed.

While some of the guards dragged the prisoners together, counted them,
and tied them with ropes, their commander, with the others and his dogs,
set off on the track of the fugitive.

Joshua saw him make the intelligent animals smell Ephraim's gnawed bonds
and resting-place, and beheld them instantly rush to the ravine.  Gasping
for breath, he also noted that they remained in it quite a long time, and
at last--the moon meanwhile scattered the clouds more and more--darted
out of the ravine, and dashed to the water.  He felt that it was
fortunate Ephraim had waded through instead of passing round it; for at
its edge the dogs lost the scent, and minute after minute elapsed while
the commander of the guards walked along the shore with the eager
animals, which fairly thrust their noses into the fugitive's steps,
in order to again get on the right trail.  Their loud, joyous barking at
last announced that they had found it.  Yet, even if they persisted in
following the runaway, the captive warrior no longer feared the worst,
for Ephraim had gained a long advance of his pursuers.  Still, his heart
beat loudly enough and time seemed to stand still until the chief-warder
returned exhausted and unsuccessful.

The older man, it is true, could never have overtaken the swift-footed
youth, but the youngest and most active guards had been sent after the
fugitive.  This statement the captain of the guards himself made with
an angry jeer.

The kindly-natured man seemed completely transformed,--for he felt what
had occurred as a disgrace which could scarcely be overcome, nay, a
positive misfortune.

The prisoner who had tried to deceive him by the shout of 'jackal!' was
doubtless the fugitive's accomplice.  Prince Siptah, too, who had
interfered with the duties of his office, he loudly cursed.  But nothing
of the sort should happen again; and he would make the whole band feel
what had fallen to his lot through Ephraim.  Therefore he ordered the
prisoners to be again loaded with chains, the ex-chief fastened to a
coughing old man, and all made to stand in rank and file before the fire
till morning dawned.

Joshua gave no answer to the questions his new companion-in-chains
addressed to him; he was waiting with an anxious heart for the return of
the pursuers.  At times he strove to collect his thoughts to pray, and
commended to the God who had promised His aid, his own destiny and that
of the fugitive boy.  True, he was often rudely interrupted by the
captain of the guards, who vented his rage upon him.

Yet the man who had once commanded thousands of soldiers quietly
submitted to everything, forcing himself to accept it like the
unavoidable discomfort of hail or rain; nay, it cost him an effort to
conceal his joyful emotion when, toward sunrise, the young warders sent
in pursuit returned with tangled hair, panting for breath, and bringing
nothing save one of the dogs with a broken skull.

The only thing left for the captain of the guards to do was to report
what had occurred at the first fortress on the Etham border, which the
prisoners were obliged in any case to pass, and toward this they were now
driven.

Since Ephraim's flight a new and more cruel spirit had taken possession
of the warders.  While yesterday they had permitted the unfortunate men
to move forward at an easy pace, they now forced them to the utmost
possible speed.  Besides, the atmosphere was sultry, and the scorching
sun struggled with the thunderclouds gathering in heavy masses at the
north.

Joshua's frame, inured to fatigues of every kind, resisted the tortures
of this hurried march; but his weaker companion, who had grown grey in a
scribe's duties, often gave way and at last lay prostrate beside him.

The captain was obliged to have the hapless man placed on an ass and
chain another prisoner to Joshua.  He was his former yoke-mate's brother,
an inspector of the king's stables, a stalwart Egyptian, condemned to the
mines solely on account of the unfortunate circumstance of being the
nearest blood relative of a state criminal.

It was easier to walk with this vigorous companion, and Joshua listened
with deep sympathy and tried to comfort him when, in a low voice, he made
him the confidant of his yearning, and lamented the heaviness of heart
with which he had left wife and child in want and suffering.  Two sons
had died of the pestilence, and it sorely oppressed his soul that he had
been unable to provide for their burial--now his darlings would be lost
to him in the other world also and forever.

At the second halt the troubled father became franker still.  An ardent
thirst for vengeance filled his soul, and he attributed the same feeling
to his stern-eyed companion, whom he saw had plunged into misfortune
from a high station in life.  The ex-inspector of the stables had a
sister-in-law, who was one of Pharaoh's concubines, and through her and
his wife, her sister, he had learned that a conspiracy was brewing
against the king in the House of the Separated.--[Harem].  He even knew
whom the women desired to place in Menephtah's place.

As Joshua looked at him, half questioning, half doubting, his companion
whispered.  "Siptah, the king's nephew, and his noble mother, are at the
head of the plot.  When I am once more free, I will remember you, for my
sister-in-law certainly will not forget me."  Then he asked what was
taking his companion to the mines, and Joshua frankly told his name.
But when the Egyptian learned that he was fettered to a Hebrew, he tore
wildly at his chain and cursed his fate.  His rage, however, soon
subsided in the presence of the strange composure with which his
companion in misfortune bore the rudest insults, and Joshua was glad to
have the other beset him less frequently with complaints and questions.

He now walked on for hours undisturbed, free to yield to his longing to
collect his thoughts, analyze the new and lofty emotions which had ruled
his soul during the past few days, and accommodate himself to his novel
and terrible position.

This quiet reflection and self-examination relieved him and, during the
following night, he was invigorated by a deep, refreshing sleep.

When he awoke the setting stars were still in the sky and reminded him of
the sycamore in Succoth, and the momentous morning when his lost love had
won him for his God and his people.  The glittering firmament arched over
his head, and he had never so distinctly felt the presence of the Most
High.  He believed in His limitless power and, for the first time, felt a
dawning hope that the Mighty Lord who had created heaven and earth would
find ways and means to save His chosen people from the thousands of the
Egyptian hosts.

After fervently imploring God to extend His protecting hand over the
feeble bands who, obedient to His command, had left so much behind them
and marched so confidently through an unknown and distant land, and
commended to His special charge the aged father whom he himself could not
defend, a wonderful sense of peace filled his soul.

The shouts of the guards, the rattling of the chain, his wretched
companions in misfortune, nay, all that surrounded him, could not fail
to recall the fate awaiting him.  He was to grow grey in slavish toil
within a close, hot pit, whose atmosphere choked the lungs, deprived of
the bliss of breathing the fresh air and beholding the sunlight; loaded
with chains, beaten and insulted, starving and thirsting, spending days
and nights in a monotony destructive alike to soul and body,--yet not for
one moment did he lose the confident belief that this horrible lot might
befall any one rather than himself, and something must interpose to save
him.

On the march farther eastward, which began with the first grey dawn of
morning, he called this resolute confidence folly, yet strove to retain
it and succeeded.

The road led through the desert, and at the end of a few hours' rapid
march they reached the first fort, called the Fortress of Seti.  Long
before, they had seen it through the clear desert air, apparently within
a bowshot.

Unrelieved by the green foliage of bush or palmtree, it rose from the
bare, stony, sandy soil, with its wooden palisades, its rampart, its
escarped walls, and its lookout, with broad, flat roof, swarming with
armed warriors.  The latter had heard from Pithom that the Hebrews were
preparing to break through the chain of fortresses on the isthmus and had
at first mistaken the approaching band of prisoners for the vanguard of
the wandering Israelites.

From the summits of the strong projections, which jutted like galleries
from every direction along the entire height of the escarped walls to
prevent the planting of scaling-ladders, soldiers looked through the
embrasures at the advancing convicts; yet the archers had replaced their
arrows in the quivers, for the watchmen in the towers perceived how few
were the numbers of the approaching troop, and a messenger had already
delivered to the commander of the garrison an order from his superior
authorizing him to permit the passage of the prisoners.

The gate of the palisade was now opened, and the captain of the guards
allowed the prisoners to lie down on the glowing pavement within.

No one could escape hence, even if the guards withdrew; for the high
fence was almost insurmountable, and from the battlements on the top of
the jutting walls darts could easily reach a fugitive.

The ex-chief did not fail to note that everything was ready, as if in the
midst of war, for defence against a foe.  Every man was at his post, and
beside the huge brazen disk on the tower stood sentinels, each holding in
his hand a heavy club to deal a blow at the approach of the expected
enemy; for though as far as the eye could reach, neither tree nor house
was visible, the sound of the metal plate would be heard at the next
fortress in the Etham line, and warn or summon its garrison.

To be stationed in the solitude of this wilderness was not a punishment,
but a misfortune; and the commander of the army therefore provided that
the same troops should never remain long in the desert.

Joshua himself, in former days, had been in command of the most southerly
of these fortresses, called the Migdol of the South; for each one of the
fortifications bore the name of Migdol, which in the Semitic tongue means
the tower of a fortress.

His people were evidently expected here; and it was not to be supposed
that Moses had led the tribes back to Egypt.  So they must have remained
in Succoth or have turned southward.  But in that direction rolled the
waters of the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea, and how could the Hebrew
hosts pass through the deep waters?

Hosea's heart throbbed anxiously at this thought, and all his fears were
to find speedy confirmation; for he heard the commander of the fortress
tell the captain of the prisoners' guards, that the Hebrews had
approached the line of fortifications several days before, but soon
after, without assaulting the garrison, had turned southward.  Since then
they seemed to have been wandering in the desert between Pithom and the
Red Sea.

All this had been instantly reported at Tanis, but the king was forced to
delay the departure of the army for several days until the week of
general mourning for the heir to the throne had expired.  The fugitives
might have turned this to account, but news had come by a carrier dove
that the blinded multitude had encamped at Pihahiroth, not far from the
Red Sea.  So it would be easy for the army to drive them into the water
like a herd of cattle; there was no escape for them in any other
direction.

The captain listened to these tidings with satisfaction; then he
whispered a few words to the commander of the fortress and pointed with
his finger to Joshua, who had long recognized him as a brother-in-arms
who had commanded a hundred men in his own cohorts and to whom he had
done many a kindness.  He was reluctant to reveal his identity in this
wretched plight to his former subordinate, who was also his debtor; but
the commander flushed as he saw him, shrugged his shoulders as though he
desired to express to Joshua regret for his fate and the impossibility of
doing anything for him, and then exclaimed so loudly that he could not
fail to hear:

"The regulations forbid any conversation with prisoners of state, but I
knew this man in better days, and will send you some wine which I beg you
to share with him."

As he walked with the other to the gate, and the latter remarked that
Hosea deserved such favor less than the meanest of the band, because he
had connived at the escape of the fugitive of whom he had just spoken,
the commander ran his hand through his hair, and answered:

"I would gladly have shown him some kindness, though he is much indebted
to me; but if that is the case, we will omit the wine; you have rested
long enough at any rate."

The captain angrily gave the order for departure, and drove the hapless
band deeper into the desert toward the mines.

This time Joshua walked with drooping head.  Every fibre of his being
rebelled against the misfortune of being dragged through the wilderness
at this decisive hour, far from his people and the father whom he knew to
be in such imminent danger.  Under his guidance the wanderers might
perchance have found some means of escape.  His fist clenched when he
thought of the fettered limbs which forbade him to utilize the plans his
brain devised for the welfare of his people; yet he would not lose
courage, and whenever he said to himself that the Hebrews were lost and
must succumb in this struggle, he heard the new name God Himself had
bestowed upon him ring in his ears and at the same moment the flames of
hate and vengeance on all Egyptians, which had been fanned anew by the
fortress commander's base conduct, blazed up still more brightly.  His
whole nature was in the most violent tumult and as the captain noted his
flushed cheeks and the gloomy light in his eyes he thought that this
strong man, too, had been seized by the fever to which so many convicts
fell victims on the march.

When, at the approach of darkness, the wretched band sought a night's
rest in the midst of the wilderness, a terrible conflict of emotions was
seething in Joshua's soul, and the scene around him fitly harmonized with
his mood; for black clouds had again risen in the north from the sea and,
before the thunder and lightning burst forth and the rain poured in
torrents, howling, whistling winds swept masses of scorching sand upon
the recumbent prisoners.

After these dense clouds had been their coverlet, pools and ponds were
their beds.  The guards had bound them together hand and foot and,
dripping and shivering, held the ends of the ropes in their hands; for
the night was as black as the embers of their fire which the rain had
extinguished, and who could have pursued a fugitive through such darkness
and tempest.

But Joshua had no thought of secret flight.  While the Egyptians were
trembling and moaning, when they fancied they heard the wrathful voice of
Seth, and the blinding sheets of fire flamed from the clouds, he only
felt the approach of the angry God, whose fury he shared, whose hatred
was also his own.  He felt himself a witness of His all-destroying
omnipotence, and his breast swelled more proudly as he told himself that
he was summoned to wield the sword in the service of this Mightiest of
the Mighty.




ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

A school where people learned modesty
But what do you men care for the suffering you inflict on others
Childhood already lies behind me, and youth will soon follow
Good advice is more frequently unheeded than followed
Precepts and lessons which only a mother can give
Should I be a man, if I forgot vengeance?
To the mines meant to be doomed to a slow, torturing death
What had formerly afforded me pleasure now seemed shallow






JOSHUA

By Georg Ebers

Volume 4.



CHAPTER XX.

The storm which had risen as night closed in swept over the isthmus.  The
waves in its lakes dashed high, and the Red Sea, which thrust a bay
shaped like the horn of a snail into it from the south, was lashed to the
wildest fury.

Farther northward, where Pharaoh's army, protected by the Migdol of the
South, the strongest fort of the Etham line, had encamped a short time
before, the sand lashed by the storm whirled through the air and, in the
quarter occupied by the king and his great officials, hammers were
constantly busy driving the tent-pins deeper into the earth; for the
brocades, cloths, and linen materials which formed the portable houses of
Pharaoh and his court, struck by the gale, threatened to break from the
poles by which they were supported.

Black clouds hung in the north, but the moon and stars were often
visible, and flashes of distant lightning frequently brightened the
horizon.  Even now the moisture of heaven seemed to avoid this rainless
region and in all directions fires were burning, which the soldiers
surrounded in double rows, like a living shield, to keep the storm from
scattering the fuel.

The sentries had a hard duty; for the atmosphere was sultry, in spite of
the north wind, which still blew violently, driving fresh clouds of sand
into their faces.

Only two sentinels were pacing watchfully to and fro at the most northern