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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.
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