The Pharaoh did not answer Tahoser; he gazed with a sombre eye upon the
body of his first-born son; his untamed pride rebelled, even as he
yielded. In his heart he did not believe in the Lord, and he explained
away the scourges which had smitten Egypt by attributing them to the
magic power of Mosche and Aharon, which was greater than that of his
magicians. The thought of yielding exasperated his violent, fierce soul.
But even had he wished to retain the Israelites, his terrified people
would not have allowed it. The Egyptians, dreading to die, would all
have driven out the foreigners who were the cause of their ills and
suffering. They kept away from them with superstitious terror, and when
the great Hebrew passed, followed by Aharon, the bravest fled, fearing
some new prodigy, and they said, "Is not the rod of his companion about
to turn into a serpent again and coil itself around us?"
Had Tahoser then forgotten Poeri when she threw her arms around the
Pharaoh's neck? In no wise; but she felt, springing up within the
King's obstinate soul, projects of vengeance and of extermination; she
feared massacres in which would have fallen the young Hebrew and the
gentle Ra'hel,--a general destruction, which this time would have
changed the waters of the Nile into real blood; and she strove to turn
away the King's wrath by her caresses and gentle words.
The funeral procession came for the body of the young prince, to carry
it to the Memnonia quarter, where it was to undergo the preparation for
embalming, which lasts seventy days. The Pharaoh saw the body depart
with a gloomy look, and he said, as if filled with a melancholy
presentiment,--
"Now have I no longer a son, O Tahoser. If I die, you will be Queen of
Egypt."
"Why speak of death?" said the priest's daughter; "years will follow
years without leaving a trace of their passage upon your robust body,
and generations will fall around you like the leaves around a tree which
remains standing."
"Have I not been vanquished,--I who am invincible?" replied the Pharaoh.
"Of what use are the _bassi-relievi_ of the temples and the palaces
which represent me armed with a scourge and a sceptre, driving my war
chariot over bodies, and dragging by their hair subject nations, if I am
obliged to yield to the spells of a foreign magician,--if the gods to
whom I have raised so many vast temples, built for eternity, do not
defend me against the unknown god of that low race? The prestige of my
power is forever gone; my wise men, reduced to silence, abandon me; my
people murmur against me. I am only a mighty simulacrum. I willed, and I
could not perform. You were right when you said just now, Tahoser, that
I am a man. I have come down to the level of men. But since you love me
now, I shall try to forget; I shall wed you when the funeral ceremonies
are over."
Fearing lest the Pharaoh should recall his word, the Hebrews were
getting ready for departure, and soon their cohorts started, led by a
cloud of smoke during the day and a pillar of fire by night. They took
their way through the sandy wastes that lie between the Nile and the Sea
of Weeds, avoiding the tribes which might have opposed their passage.
One after another, the Hebrew tribes defiled in front of the copper
statue made by the magicians, which possessed the property of stopping
escaping slaves, but this time the spell, which had been invincible for
centuries, failed to work; the Lord had destroyed it. The vast
multitude advanced slowly, covering the land with its flocks, its beasts
of burden laden with the riches borrowed from the Egyptians, dragging
the enormous baggage of a nation which is suddenly migrating. The human
eye could see neither the head nor the tail of the column, which
disappeared on either horizon in a cloud of dust. If any one had sat
down by the roadside to see pass the whole procession, he would have
seen the sun rise and set more than once. Men came and came and came
always. The sacrifice to the Lord was a vain pretext; Israel was leaving
the land of Egypt forever, and the mummy of Yusouf, in its painted and
gilded case, was carried along on the shoulders of bearers who were
relieved at regular intervals.
So the Pharaoh became very wroth indeed, and resolved to pursue the
fleeing Hebrews. He ordered six hundred war chariots to be prepared,
called together his commanders, bound around his body his broad
crocodile-leather belt, filled the two quivers in his car with arrows
and javelins, drew on his wrist his brazen bracelet which deadens the
vibration of the cord, and started, followed by a nation of soldiers.
Furious and formidable, he urged his horses to their topmost speed, and
behind him the six hundred chariots sounded with the noise of brass like
earthly thunder. The foot-soldiers hastened on, but they were unable to
keep up with his impetuous speed.
Often the Pharaoh was obliged to stop and await the rest of his army.
During these halts he struck with his fist the edge of his chariot,
stamped with impatience, and ground 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
him back, he would have driven straight before him at the risk of
finding himself single-handed against a whole people.
They were no longer traversing the green valley of Egypt, but plains
varied with many changing hills and barred with undulations like the
surface of the sea; the framework of the land was visible through the
thin soil. Jagged 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 mud, on the day when it emerged from chaos, broke the
stretches here and there, and relieved from time to time by their
abrupt breaks the flat horizon-line which merged into that of the sky in
a zone of reddish mist. At vast distances grew palm trees, outspreading
their dusty leaves near some spring, frequently dried up, and in the mud
of which the thirsty horses plunged their bloodshot nostrils.
But the Pharaoh, insensible to the rain of fire which fell from the
white-hot heavens, at once gave the signal for departure, and horsemen
and footmen started again on the march. Bodies of oxen or beasts of
burden lying on either side, with spirals of vultures sweeping around
above them, marked the passage of the Hebrews, and prevented the angry
King from losing their track.
A swift army, practised to marching, goes faster than a migrating people
which drags with it women, children, old men, baggage, and tents; so the
distance was rapidly diminishing between the Egyptian troops and the
Israelite tribes.
It was near Pi-ha'hiroth that the Egyptians came up with the Hebrews.
The tribes were camped on the shore, but when the people saw shining in
the sun the golden chariot of the Pharaoh, followed by his war chariots
and his army, they uttered a mighty shout of terror, and began to curse
Mosche, who had led them to destruction.
In point of fact their situation was desperate: in front of the Hebrews
was the line of battle, behind them the deep sea. The women rolled on
the ground, tearing 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
themselves, but the confusion was frightful, and the war chariots, when
they charged through that compact mass, would certainly make an awful
slaughter.
Mosche stretched out his hand over the sea, after having called upon the
name of the Lord, and then took place a wonder which no magician 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 crowned with crests of foam.
Divided by the impetuosity of that irresistible wind, which would have
swept away the pyramids like grains of dust, the waters rose like liquid
walls and left free between them a broad way which could be traversed
dry shod. Through their translucency, as behind thick glass, were seen
marine monsters twisting and squirming, terrified at being surprised by
daylight in the mysterious depths of the abyss.
The Hebrew tribes rushed through this miraculous issue, forming a human
torrent that flowed between two steep banks of green waters. An
innumerable race marked with two millions of black dots the livid bottom
of the gulf, 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 Hebrews, whom it would have thrown to the ground
like grain, and keeping 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, lashing them in turn with his
terrible thonged whip, his eyes bloodshot, foaming at the lips, and
roaring like a lion whose prey is escaping. He at last compelled them to
enter that strangely opened road. The six hundred cars followed. The
Israelites of the rear guard, among whom were Poeri, Ra'hel, and Thamar,
believed themselves lost when they saw the enemy taking the same road
that they had traversed. But when the Egyptians were fairly within the
gulf, Mosche made a sign, 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 foam men and animals and chariots
like straw caught by the eddies in the current of a river.
Alone the Pharaoh, standing within his chariot, which had come to the
surface, shot, drunk with pride and anger, the last arrows of his quiver
against the Hebrews, who were now reaching the other shore. Having
exhausted his arrows, he took up his javelin, and although already
nearly half engulfed, with his arm alone above the water, he hurled it,
a powerless weapon, against the unknown God whom he still braved from
the depths of the abyss. A mighty billow, which rolled two or three
times over the edge of the sea, engulfed the last remains.
Nothing was left of the glory and of the army of the Pharaoh.
On the other bank Miriam, the sister of Aharon, exulted and sang as she
played on the timbrel, and all the women of Israel beat time upon
onager-skins. Two millions of voices were singing the hymn of
deliverance.