JOSHUA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 276, 22 November 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

JOSHUA.

A STOIIY OF Egyptian - Israeiitish Life. By GEORGE EBERS. Author of " " An Egyptian Princess," tbc. Now First Published. (Copyright 1839 by S. S. McCluro). CHAPTER XXll.—(Continued.) Epliraim need no more appeal to the Most High ; this was in the hands of His great and sublime servant. But his own losaer duty of urging on one and another to the goal he still must fulfil. Back he flaw to the lepers and the incensebearers, and to each division he shouted aloud, ' Saved, saved ! Hasten forward ! The rod of Mosea holds the waters back ! Many have reached the shore ! Praise the Lord ! Forward, forward, and you too may join the song ! Fix your eyes on those two red fires ! They were kindled by those who are delivered ; betweera them stands the servant of the Lord uplifting his staff. 1 Then he again laid his ear to the ground, kneeling on the wet sand, and he heard quite near the rattle of wheels and the heavy tramp of horses. But even while be listened the sound gradually ceased, and he heard nothing but the howling of the storm and the ominous beating of the wild waves, or a cry now and then borne down on the east wind. The chariots had reached the shore of the dry bed of the gulf, and paused some little while, hesitating before they started on so perilous a passage; then suddenly the Egyptian war cry rang out, and again he heard the rolling wheels. It came on, more slowly than before, but yet faster than the Israelites could march. For the Egyptians, too, the way lay open ; bub, though his people had bub a small start, he need no longer fear for them ; all was not lost; thoso who had reached the shore could scatter themselves during the nighb among tiio ... -untain solitudes, and ensconce themselves in spots where no chariot nor horse could pursue them. Moses knew the land, in which he had loner dwelt as a fugitive: the only thing now was to warn him of the approach of the foe. So he charged a comrade of the tribe of Benjamin with the message, and tho distance was no longer very great, while he himself still staid behind, to watch the coming of the host. Without stooping to listen, and in spite of the gale which blew the aound from him, he could already hear the clatter of the chariots and neighing of the horses. The lepers, however, who likewise heard the noise, bewailed and wept, fancying themselves already trodden under foot, or swallowed in the cold, dark waters j for the way was faeb shrink-

ing, and the sea was greedy to recover the ground it had abandoned. Maa and beast were forced to march in a narrow file, anc while the hurrying troops packed closer and closer they also stretched longer, and precious moments were loeb. Those who walked on the righb-hand side were wading through the encroaching waves, in haste and terror, for already behind them they could hear in the distance the Egyptian words of command. But the enemy was evidently delayed, and Ephraim easily understood what caused their diminished speed. The ground grew softer ab every step, and the narrow wheels of the war chariot must sink deep in ife, even to the axles. Under cover of the darkness • he crept back as near as ho dared to the pursuing host, and he could hear now an oath and now an angry order to use the lash more freely ; and at last one driver saying to his neighbour: ' What cursed folly ! If they had suffered us to set out before noon instead of waiting till the omens had been read and Amoa solemnly installed in the place of Baie. it would have been an easy matter onoagh, and wo should have trapped them like a covey of quails. The high priest has shown his valor on the field bafore this, and now he gives up the leadership because a dying woman has touched his heart!' ' Sipfcah's mother!' another pub in. 'Still you are right; twonty princesses ought not to have turned him from his duty to us. If he had staid by us wo should not have had to flay our jades alive, and at an hour, too, when "any prudent captaiti loaves his inon to rest by the camp-fires over their supper and their game of draughts. Go to the horse's head.3, man. we are stuck in the sand again !' Thereupon a loud outcry arose behind the foremost chariot, and Ephraim could hoar another voice exclaiming: 'Get on there, if tho horses die for it!' ' If retreat wero possible,' said the chief captain of the war chariots, a relative of Pharaoh's, 'even now 1 would turn about, But as it is wo should all tumble over each Other. So forward, cost what it; may ! We are close on their heols. Halt! Halt! Uuraee on that pungent smoke. Ah : wait, only wait, you dogs ! As soon as the road opens out a little we will get round you, and may tho gods shorten my life by a day for every soul I leave alive. Another torch out. I cannot see my hand before my face. A beggar's stick would be more to the purpose than a coinmandor's stafL' ' And a gallows' rope about our necks instead of a gold chain,'cried another. ' If only tho moon would come out! It was because fcho horoscope promised that it would shine full from evening till dawn that I voted tor tho late march, turning into day. If only it wero not so dark j » But tho sentence remained unfinished, for a blast, rushing down from the southeastern gorges of Baal-Zephon like a roaring beast of prey, swept over tho speakers, and a loaping wave wotted Ephraim through and through. Ho shook back his hair and dried his eyes as he recovered his breath ; bub behind a loud cry of terror went up from the Egyptians, for tho surge that had but drenched him had swept the foremost chariot into the sea. At this the lad began to bo alarmed for his people, and he flew forward ; but ns he startod a flash of lightning showed him tho gulf, the mountain, and tho shore. The thunder did nob immediately follow, but tho storm now came nearer; the lightnings, instead of cutting zigzag across the sky, flared in broad sheets through the darkness, and bofore thoy died' out the deafening crack of the thunder echoed among the baro crags of the mountaineliffs, and rolled in deep, angry waves of sound to the shoro and the head of the bay. Sea and land, man and beast, all was flooded with the dazzling glare each time tho destroying clouds discharged thoir bolts; tho surging waves and the air about them gleamed in sulphurous yellow, through which the lightning blazed us through an olive-tinted glass wall. Now, too, Ephraim thought he diseorned that the heaviest clouds wore coming up from the south and not from the north ; and presently, by the lightning's gleam be saw that behind him, here a refractory team were plunging into the waves, there one chariot was overturning another to the destruction of the drivers and men at arms, while they checked the progress of those which followed. Still, on tho whole, the enemy was advancing, and the space dividing the fugitives from the pursuers grew no wider. However, the confusion which prevailed among the Egyptians was by thi3 time 80 great that the cries of terror of the fighting men and the encouraging shouts of the drivers waxed louder and louder, hi the intervals between the maddening roar of the thunder. But, black as wero the storm clouds to the south, fiercely as the wind raged, the darkened heavens shed no water, and, though the pilgrims were wet, it was not with rain, but with the sparkling waves which darted higher and higher every moment, washing up further and further over tho dry sand in tho bay. The path was narrowing, tho passing of the multitude was at an end. The blaze of the beacons still guided the frightened rear to the hoped-for goal, reminding them bhat thero stood Moses with the staff lent him by God. Every step brought them nearer. "Presently a ehoub of triumph proclaimed that the tribe of Benjamin had reached the shore, though they waded through the foaming fringe of waters for some little distance. It had cost them unheard-of efforts to save the cattle from tho rising tide, to drag on the loaded carts, and keep the flocks togebher ; bub now they all stood in safety on dry land. Only the strangers and lepers remained to be rescued. The lepers, indeed, had not flocks nor herds, bub the strangers had many, and the storm so terrified the people, as well as the cattle, thab they dared nob plunge into the water, which was now ankle deep. Ephraim, however, reached the land, and called to the herdsmen from the shore to follow where he had passed, and under his guidance they drove the herds forward. This was successful; the last man, and the lasb head of cabbie, reached bhe land of safety under the raging storm, and amid loud shouts of joy. The lepers were forced to wade through waves up to their knees and even to their girdles, and bofore they had landed the gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell in torrents. Bub they, too, were safe, and though many a mother, who had been carrying her little one in her arms or on her shoulder, fell on her knees on the shore ; though many a hapless wretch who had been helping his sturdier fellow-sufferers to drag a cart~through the yielding sands, or wade through the surf with a litter on his back, fole his head throb with fever ; still, they, too, had escaped desbrucbion. They wero to awsib further orders beyond a grove of palms which stood on some rising ground about a group of wells not far from the shore. The tribes had gone further inland, to proceed on their way at a giyen signal; this was to take them in a southeasterly direction into the mountain, where inhospitable rocks prohibited any pursuit by a regular army or war chariots. Hur had gathered hia men abaub him, and bhey stood armed with spears, sliugs, and short swords, ready to fall on the foe \vho might venture to seb foob on land. Men and horses should be cut down and the chariots piled into a high barrier, so as to erect a difficult obstacle in the way of their pursuers. The beacons on the shore were so diligently fed and screened, that neither the rain nor the blasb would extinguish them. They were to light the herdsman who were prepared to attack the chariots, and old Nun, Hur and Ephraim stood at their head. Bub it was in vain bhab they waited for the pursuers, and when the youth was the first bo see, by the glare of the beacon fires, thab the way by which the fugitives ba.d come was now one With the

broad level of the sea, and thab the smoke was driving to the nprth instead of the south-west; —ib was about the hour of the lirsb morning watch — a ehoub of triumph burst from breasts overflowing with thankfulness and joy : 'Look at the flames ! The wind has changed ; the sea is being carried northwards! The waters have swallowed up Pharaoh's host !' At this there was silence for a while in the multitude and then, suddenly, Nun's loud voice was heard: 'Ho is right, my children ? Vaia is the strength of man ! O Lord God ! How terrible and fearful are Thy judgments on Thy foes !' Here he was interrupted by a loud outcry. But by tho wells, where Moses, greatly exhausted, was leaning against a palm-tree with Aaron and many others about him, the fact which Ephraim had first discerned was now observed by the reat; the glad, and terrible tidings, incredible bub true, flew from mouth bo mouth, and each minute confirmed their certainty. Every eye glanced skywards ; the black clouds were Hailing away to the northward. The rain was ceasing; instead of the angry flashes and roar of thunder, a few pale gleams lighted up the isthmus and tho northern lakes, and to the south the sky was clearing , . At last the low moon looked out bot'.veen the banks of cloud ; its peace- i ful ray silvered the tall flanks of BaalZephon and the shores of the (julf, now bathed once more in dashing waves. The roaring and shrieking blast sank to a murmuring breeze from tho south, and tho waters, which had been a? a raging monster, besieging the rocks, now lay quivering with broken .strength at the stony base of tbe mountain. The eca spread a shroud, dark for a time, over those hundreds of corpses ; but the pale moon, ere it set, took care that the watery grave of a king and so many great personages should not lack a splendid pall. His radiance poured down on the waves that hid them, decking them with a glorious embroidery of diamonds in silver setting. Whilst the east grew bright and the sky was red with dawn the tents were pitched : yet there was little time for a hasty morsel. Shortly after sunrise the chief called the wandering people together, and as soon as they had assembled at the springs Miriam swung the tambourine, shook the circle of bells, and struck the calf-skin till they sounded far and wide, and as she paced fortli with a light step, the women and maidens followed her, keeping rhythmical time with the dance ; and she sang : 'I will eing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. ' The Lord is my.strength and song, and he is become my salvation : ho is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation ; my father's God, and I will exalt him, ' Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea : his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. ' The depths have covered them : they sank into the bottom as a stono* ' Thy right band, O Lord, is become srlorioub in power ; thy right; hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. ' And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up asrainsb thee : thou senteet forth thy wrath which consumed them as stubble. ' And with the blast of thy nostril* tho waters were gathering together, the floods stood upright as an heap, arid the depths were congealed in tho heart of the sea. ' The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied with them ; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. ' Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them ; they sank as lead in the mighty waters, ' Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods ? ' Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? ' Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou has redeemed ; Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.' Men and women alike joined in when she repeated tho cry:—' I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into ; the sea ' This song and this solemn hour were never forgotten by the Israelites ; and each one was full of his God and of glad, thankful hope for happier days.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The song of praiae had died away and the storm had long since ceased; yet the morning sky, which had been red at dawn, was again covered with grey clouds, and a strong wind still blew from the south-west disturbing the lake, and shaking and rocking the crowns of palms which stood by the wel!s. The rescued people had extolled the Moat High, and even the coldest and most perverse had joined in Miriam's hymn of praise, but, as the proceseion of dancer s approached the sea, many would have gladly left the ranks and have hastened to the strand where many things attracted [ them. Hundreds had now betaken themselves to the shore, where the waves like generous robbers disgorged and washed up on to the sand that which they had engulfed during the night. Nor did the women even allow the wind to hinder them, for covetousness and revenge, the most powerful instincts in the human breast, drew them to the shore, Some new object appeared every moment to excite their greed;. for here lay the corpse of a warrior, and there his overthrown chariot in fehe sand. From this, if it had been the possession of a great man, they tore the .silver or golden ornaments; from the owner they took his short sword or battle-axe, out ot his girdle, and men and women of the common class, slaves and slave women of the Hebrews, and the strangers, robbed the bodice of their clasps and bracelets, which were of precious metal, or tore the rings from the swollon fingers' of the drowned. The ravens which had followed the wanderers, and which had disappeared during the storm, now returned, ancl were striving, screeching againsb the wind, at least to maintain a place on the booty, the scenti of which had attracted them. . But far greedier than they, were the dregs of the wandering host, and when the seathrew a costly article on shore a wild cry was raised, and hard blows exchanged. The leaders themselves kept back, for they considered that the Hebrews had a righb to the spoil; and if one of them tried to prevent gross covetousness the people refused to obey him. What the Egyptians bad so lately brought upon thorn was so dreadful that it never entered the minds of the best of them to restrain their thirat for revenge. Moreover, grej'-bearded men of high position, and womon and mothers, whose appearance bespoke a kindly disposition, drove back the few unfortunates who had succeeded in reaching the strand on the wreckage of the war-chariots and baggage-waggons. With shepherds' crooks and travellers' staves knives and axes, or by throwing stones and spiteful words, they forced them to release their hold on the floating wood; and the few who were still on laud were driven by the furious mob back into the sea which had spared them in vain. Their wrath was so great, and revenge such » sacred duty, that none dreamed of the respect, compassion and consideration due to misfortune ; not a word that conld hint of magnanimity or pity, or even of the profit that might be gained by saving the rescued to bo slaves, or as prisoners of war to be ransomed.

* Death to the arch-enemy !'—• Destruction fall OD them !'—' Away with thorn !'— ' Give them as food to the fishes !'—' You drove us and our children into the sea; away with you into the salt waves,'

i These were fclse cries thafc were raised on' i every side and which no one checked, noV even Miriam and Ephraim, who likewise; had gone down to the shore to witness the tragedy that was being enacted there. Though the maiden was now the wife of, Hur, her demeanour and character had been very little altered by her marriage. The j fate of the people and her relations with her God, whose prophetess she felt she was, were still her highest thought; and now that all she had hoped and prayed for was being fulfilled, now that she had given expression to the feelings of the faithful in song, marching in front of the thankful multitude, she considered she attained the summit of her existence. Ephraim had first reminded her of Joshua, and while she spoke with him of the prisoner she walked proudly along like a' queen, and answering the greetings of the people with majestic dignity. Her eyes sparkled with happiness, and her face wore only for a fow minutes an expression of pity when tho youth told her of the hardships he had endured with his uncle. Of course she still remembered the man she had loved, but he was no longer essential to the high aim of her life. Ephraim had just mentioned the lovely Egyptian woman who loved his uncle, and at whose petition the chains had been taken off the prisoners, when a loud cry waa raised on a part of the shore where a great crowd had collected. Howls of rage and cries of joy went up together, obviously caused by the facb thab the sea had thrown up something particularly valuable on land. Curiosity attracted them both to the spot, and as Miriam' 3 proud dignity caused tno people to stand aside, she soon caught eight of the body of a travelling chariot which had lost its wheels, and of its pitiable contents. The linen canopy which had screened it was torn away, and lying on its floor were two elderly Egyptian women ; a third, much younger, lay against the back seat of this singular vehicle, which had thus become a boat. The first two lay dead in the water that covered tho bottom of the carriage, and several Hebrew women were in the act) of tearing off the costly ornaments from tho throat and arms of one of them. The younger woman had escaped death by a wonderful chance, and now she was offering her very precious jewels to the Hebrew women. At the same time, with pale, quivering lips, and slender, half-benumbed hands, she was promising the robbers, in a soft, harmonious voice, to give them all she had, and a handsome reward in money a3 W. 311, if they would spare her life. She was still so young, and she had been kind, very kind, to a Hebrew. If they ;vould bub hear her. This petition sounded affecting, though it wa3 interrupted so frequently with cursea and groans that little of it was audible. Just as Miriam and Ephraim reached the shore sho screamed aloud, for a brutal woman .tore the gold snake from her ear. The Egyptian girl's cry of anguieh struck the youth like a sword thrust, and the colour left his face as he recognised Kasana's voice. The corpses by her were those of her nurse and of Baie'e wife. Ephraim, almost beside himself, thrust aside the men who separated him from the victim on one side and hastened towards the remains of tho chariot; sprang into the sand bank afc the foot of which the vehicle was stranded, and cried, with burning cheeks and impetuous passion : ' Back! Woo to those who touch her !' But a Hebrew woman, the wife of a brickmaker, whose child had died in frightful convulsions on the journey through the sea, had already snatched the dagger from Kasana's girdle and had stabbed her in the back, with the cry : ' That's for my little Iluth ! Wretch !' She raised the bloody poignard for a second blow ; but before she could fitrike her enemy again, Ephraim rushed, between them and wrenched away the knife. Then, standing in front of the hapless creature, he shouted in loud menace: ' Murderers and thieves ! If one of you dares to touch her, his blood shall mingle with thab of this woman !' With these words he fell on his knees by the side of the bleeding victim, and, finding thab she had lost consciousness, he lifbed her in his arms, and carried her to Miriam. The startled plunderers for a few minutes suffered him to do as he would, bub before he had gained his end, a cry of: 'Vengeance, vengeance ! Wβ found the woman, and the body is ours alone. , 'How dare the haughty Ephraimite call us robbers and murderers V ' When there is a. chance of shedding Egyptian blood, ib shall flow !' • The Lord our God epares not, nor do we.' ' Seize him !' ♦ Seize the girl!' But the lad paid no heed to this outbreak of rage till Kasana's head was resting on Miriam's bosom, where she was sitting on a eandhill near at hand, and then, as the angry crowd rushed upon him, the woman outstripping the men, he once n»ore flourished his dagger, crying: ' Back! Hold off! I tell you once more. If there are any men here of Ephraim or Judab, leb them come to my side, or to Miriam's, tho wife of their chief. Well done, my brethren, and woe to him who lays a hand on me ! Vengeance, do you say ? Are you nob avenged by that hytena which has murdered this poor, defenceless creature? Your victim's jewels ? Well| well ; they are yours, and I will give you my own into the bargain, so long as .you leave the wife of Hur free to care for the dying woman.' He bent over Kasana, took from her person all she had about her of pins or rings, and placed them in the greedy hands stretched out to receive them. Then he took the broad gold band from his own arm, held it up, and cried s ' This is the promised ransom. Go back quietly and leave this woman to Miriam, and you shall have it to share among you. If you insist on blood come on, but then, I keep the bracelet.' These words did not fail in their effect. The angry women looked first at the heavy, broad gold band, and then at the splendid youth, and the men of Judah and Ephraim who had rallied round them; and then gazed inquiringly at each other. At last the wife of a foreign trader cried out: 'Give ua the gold, and we will leave the. wounded darling to the chief's son !' The rest agreed to this decision, although the furious brickmaker's wife, who meant to have done a deed pleasing in the eyes of her god by avenging her child, and had, in consequence, been accused as a murderess, still threatened Ephraim with: frenzied gestures till she was dragged away to the shore by tha crowd who hoped to find fresh booty there. Through all the tumulb Miriam, without . a qualm of fear, had examined and bound up Kasana's wounds with a skillful hand. The dagger,a gift in jestfrom Prince Siptah, thab his fair one might not go forth to batclo unarmed, had inflicted a deep stab under one shoulder, and she had lost so much blood that the feeble flicker of life eeemed to die out at every breath. Bub she still lived, and she was carried into Nun's tenfc, as being the nearest at hand. . (To be Uontinited.)

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