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.