Part 17 (1/2)

Often the Pharaoh was obliged to stop and await the rest of his are of his chariot, staround his teeth He bent towards the horizon, seeking to perceive, behind the sand whirled by the wind, the fleeing tribes of the Hebrews, and raged at the thought that every hour increased the interval which separated them Had not his officers held hiht before hiainst a whole people

They were no longer traversing the green valley of Egypt, but plains varied withhills and barred with undulations like the surface of the sea; the fraed rocks, broken into all sorts of shapes, as if giant animals had trampled them under foot when the earth was still in a condition of ed from chaos, broke the stretches here and there, and relieved from time to tied into that of the sky in a zone of reddishtheir dusty leaves near so, frequently dried up, and in the ed their bloodshot nostrils

But the Pharaoh, insensible to the rain of fire which fell fronal for departure, and horseain on theon either side, with spirals of vultures sweeping around above thery King fro their track

A swift ar people which drags with it woe, and tents; so the distance was rapidly diyptian troops and the Israelite tribes

It was near Pi-ha'hiroth that the Egyptians came up with the Hebrews

The tribes were ca in the sun the golden chariot of the Pharaoh, followed by his war chariots and his aran to curse Mosche, who had led them to destruction

In point of fact their situation was desperate: in front of the Hebreas the line of battle, behind the their clothes, pulling at their hair, beating their breasts

”Why did you not leave us in Egypt? Slavery is better than death, and you have led us into the desert to die Were you afraid that we should not have sepulchres enough?”

Thus yelled the multitudes, furious with Mosche, who remained impassible The bolder took up their arms and prepared to defend thehtful, and the war chariots, when they charged through that cohter

Mosche stretched out his hand over the sea, after having called upon the naician could have repeated; there arose an east wind of startling violence which blew through the waters of the Sea of Weeds like the share of a giant plough, throwing to right and left briny mountains croith crests of foam

Divided by the impetuosity of that irresistible wind, which would have swept away the pyrarains of dust, the waters rose like liquid walls and left free between theh their translucency, as behind thick glass, were seensurprised by daylight in the mysterious depths of the abyss

The Hebrew tribes rushed through thisa hureen waters An innumerable race marked with two ulf, and impressed its feet upon mud which the belly of the leviathans alone had rayed; and the terrible wind still blew, passing over the heads of the Hebreho back by its breath the heap of roaring waters

It was the breath of the Lord which was dividing the sea

Terrified at the wonder, the Egyptians hesitated to pursue the Hebrews, but the Pharaoh, with that high courage which nothing could daunt, urged on his horses, which reared and plunged, lashi+ng theed whip, his eyes bloodshot, foa like a lion whose prey is escaping He at last coely opened road The six hundred cars followed The Israelites of the rear guard, a ere Poeri, Ra'hel, and Tha the sayptians were fairly within the gulf, Mosche n, the wheels of the cars fell off, and there was a horrible confusion of horses and warriors falling against each other

Then the mountains of water, miraculously sustained, suddenly fell, and the sea closed in, whirling in its foaht by the eddies in the current of a river

Alone the Pharaoh, standing within his chariot, which had coer, the last arrows of his quiver against the Hebreere now reaching the other shore Having exhausted his arrows, he took up his javelin, and although already nearly half engulfed, with his arainst the unknown God whohty billohich rolled two or three tiulfed the last relory and of the army of the Pharaoh

On the other bank Miria as she played on the tier-skins Twothe hymn of deliverance

XVIII

Tahoser in vain awaited Pharaoh, and then reigned over Egypt Then she also died after a short tinificent to, whose body was never found; and her story, written upon papyrus, with the headings of the pages in red characters, by Kakevou, a scribe of the double chaht and keeper of the books, was placed by her side under the network of bands

Was it the Pharaoh or Poeri she regretted? Kakevou the scribe does not tell us, and Dr Rurammat, did not venture to settle the question