THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Carleton Shay GEORGE EBERS. JOSHUA, A BIBLICAL PICTURE. By GEORGE EBERS, Author of "Uarda," "An Egyptian Princess," "Bride of the Nile" "Burgomaster's Wife," "Emperor," "Homo Mum," "Only a Word." KEW YORK: A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER. TT PREFACE. WHEN in the course of last winter I made up my mind to finish this book and occupied myself in giving it the form in which it is now offered to the public, I constantly bore in mind the dear friend to whom I always intended to dedicate it. Now, it is my sad privilege to inscribe it only to the Manes of Gustav Baur, for, but a few months since, death snatched him away. Every one who had ever come into close commun- ion with him felt his death as an unspeakably bitter loss, not only because his bright and cheerful nature and happy wit brought light to the soul of his friends ; not only because he was ready from the brimming stores of his abundant knowledge to give freely to all who came into intellectual contact with him ; but, above all, because the warm heart, which beamed through his eyes, made him feel the joy and sorrow of others as his own, and throw himself into their thoughts and feelings. Till my latest day I can never forget how, in these latter years, infirm in body and overwhelmed with the work of a professor and a member of the Consistory, he would still con- 3 4 PREFACE. stantly find his way to see me, his yet more crippled friend. The hours it was then my good fortune to spend in eager conversation with him, were such as we a write down good," to quote old Horace, Avhom he knew and loved so well. I have done so ; as I gratefully recall them my friend's voice sounds in my ear asking : " And what about the tale of the Exodus ? " When I first told him that it was in the midst of the desert, while following up the traces of the fugitive Hebrews, that the idea had occurred to me of treating their wanderings in a work of im- agination, he expressed his approval with the cap- tivating eagerness which was characteristic of the man. When, then, I developed the idea which I had first sketched riding on a camel, he never was weary of encouraging me, although he quite under- stood my hesitation and fully recognized the diffi- culties which surrounded the execution of my task. This book then, in a certain sense, is his, and the fact that it can no longer be offered to him living, can never be the subject of his subtle judgment, is one of the sorrows which make it hard to accept with a good grace the advancing years, which other- wise have brought so much that is sweet. He, who was one of the most famous, clear-sighted and learned students of the Bible and its exegesis of our day, was familiar with all the critical labors which have been published within the last feAv lustra in the field of Old Testament criticism. He took up a determined attitude against the views of a younger school who endeavor to expunge the Exodus of the PREFACE. 5 Israelites from the page of history, and regard it as a later outcome of the myth-forming spirit of the people ; a theory which he, like myself, regarded as untenable. One of his sentences on this question dwells in my memory, to this effect : " If the events recorded in the Second Book of Moses really never occurred a hypothesis I entirely reject then no historical event entailing equally important results need have happened anywhere or at any time. The story of the Exodus has, for thousands of years, survived in the minds of numberless human beings as a real event, and has influenced them as such. Hence it is no less certainly a part of history, than the French Ke volution and its results." But in spite of such encouragement, for many years I lacked courage to bring my tale of the Exo- dus to a conclusion, till, last winter, an unexpected request from abroad prompted me to take it up again. I then carried it through without interruption and with fresh spirit, and I may say with rejuvenated delight in the perilous and yet fascinating theme. The locality of the narrative, the scenery in which it moves, I have described as exactly as possible from that which I saw in Goshen and the Sinaitic peninsula, and it will answer to the preconceptions of many a reader of " Joshua." With regard to those parts of the story which I have introduced on the ground of ancient Egyptian lore it will be different. They will surprise the novice, for few perhaps have ever reflected as to how the events related in the Bible from the Jewish point of view, 6 PREFACE. may have affected the Egyptians ; or what the polit- ical condition of the land of the Pharaohs may have been when they bid the Israelites depart. I have endeavored to depict these thing as truly as possible from the monumental records. For the portraits of the Hebrews mentioned in Scripture the Bible is the best authority, and the character of the Pharaoh of the Exodus is also pain ted from the Bible narrative ; it agrees very remarkably with the remain- ing pictures of the weak King Menephtah. From the history of a somewhat later period I have borrowed and introduced the conspiracy of Sipath ; the accession of Seti II. and the person of Aarsu the Syrian, who, according to the Harris Papyrus, No. I. (London) seized the reins of government after Siptah had been proclaimed king. Monsieur Naville's excavations have left no doubts as to the position of Pithom, or Succoth. They brought to light the fortified Storehouse of Pithom mentioned in the Bible ; and as the narrative tells us that the Israelites rested there, and then set forth again, it must be assumed that they conquered the garrison of the building and took possession of the contents of the vast granaries which may be seen at this day. In my work, published so long ago as 1868,* I already pointed out that the Etham of the Bible was identical with the Egyptian Khetam, that is to say, the line of fortresses which protected the isthmus of *Egypten und die Biicher Hose's. Leipzig, W. Engel- mann. PREFACE. 7 Suez from the attacks of the peoples of the East, and my opinion has long since been generally accept- ed. It fully explains the return of the wanderers from Etham. The mount of the Lawgiving is, to me, the majes- tic peak of Serbal, not the Sinai of the monks ; my reasons are fully explained in my work on Sinai. * I have also endeavored in the same book to show that the resting-place called in the Bible Dophkah, is identical with the abandoned mines now called "Wadi Maghara. The writer has endeavored by means of the actors in his tale, their adventures and reflections in part the invention of his own fancy to make the mighty destinies of the people he has attempted to describe more humanly real to the sympathetic reader. If he has succeeded in this, without seeming to dwarf the splendid narrative of the Bible, he has attained his end ; if he has failed, he must rest content with the pleasure and personal exaltation he has enjoyed while composing the work. TUTZING am Starnberger See. September 1889. GEORG EBEKS. * Durch Gosen nach Sinai. Leipzig, W. Engelmann. 2. Auflage 1882. JOSHUA. CHAPTEE I. " Go down, grandfather. I will keep watch." But the old man to whom the words were spoken shook his shaven head. " But up here you will get no rest." " And the stars ? Or even below ; rest, in such times as these ? Throw my cloak over me. Rest, in such a fearful night ! " " You are so cold ; and your hand and the instru ment shake." " Then steady my arm." The lad willingly obeyed the request ; but after a short space he exclaimed : " It is all in vain. Star after star is swallowed up in black clouds. Ah, and the bitter cry of the city comes up. Nay, it comes from our own house. I am sick at heart, grandfather ; only feel how hot my head is. Come down, per- chance they need help." " That is in the hands of the gods, and my place is here. But there, there ! Eternal gods ! Look to 9 10 JOSHUA. the north across the lake ! No, more to the west- ward. They come from the city of the dead ! " " Oh, grandfather, father, there ! " cried the youth, a priestly neophyte, who was lending his aid to an elder, his grandfather, the chief astrologer of Amon- Ea. They were standing on the watch tower of the temple of the god of Tanis, the capital of the Pha- raohs, in the north of the land of Goshen. As he spoke he drew away his shoulder on which the old man was leaning. " There, there ! Is the sea swal- lowing up the land ? Have the clouds fallen on the earth to surge to and fro ! Oh, grandfather, may the immortals have mercy ! the nether world is yawning ! The great serpent Apep is come forth from the city of the dead ! It comes rolling past the temple. I see it, I hear it ! The great Hebrew's threat is being fulfilled ! Our race will be cut off from the earth. The serpent ! Its head is set to ward the south-east. It will surely swallow up the young sun when it rises in the morning ! " The old man's eye followed the direction of the youth's finger, and he, too, could discern that a vast, black mass, whose outline was lost in the darkness, came rolling through the gloom, and he, too, heard with a shudder the creature's low roar. Both stood with eye and ear alert, staring into the night ; but the star-gazer's eye was fixed not up- ward, but down, across the city to the distant sea and level plain. Overhead all was silent, and yet not all at rest, for the wind swept the dark clouds JOSHUA. II into shapeless masses in one place, while in another it rent the gray shroud and scattered them far and wide. The moon was not visible to mortal ken, but the clouds played hide and seek with the bright South- ern stars, now covering them, and now giving their rays free passage. And as in the firmament, so on earth there was a constant change from pallid light to blackest darkness. Now the glitter of the heavenly bodies flashed brightly down on the sea and estuary, on the polished granite sides of the obelisks in the temple precincts, and the gilt copper roof of the King's airy palace ; and again, lake and river, the sails in the harbor, the sanctuaries and streets of the city, and the palm-strewn plain sur- rounding it, were all lost in gloom. Objects which the eye tried to rest on vanished in an instant, and it was the same with the sounds that met the ear. For a while the silence would be as deep as though all life, far and near, were hushed or dead, and then a piercing shriek of woe rent the stillness of the night, And then, broken by longer or shorter pauses, that roar was heard which the youthful priest had taken for the voice of the ser- pent of the nether world ; and to that the grand- father and grandson listened with growing excite- ment. The dusky shape, whose ceaseless movements could be clearly made out whenever the stars shot their beams between the striving clouds, had its be- ginning out by the city of the dead and the strangers' 12 JOSHUA. quarter. A sudden panic had fallen on the old man as on the young one ; but he was quicker to re- cover himself, and his keen and practised eye soon discerned that it was not a single gigantic form which was rising from the necropolis to cross the plain, but a multitude of moving creatures who seemed to be surging or swaying to and fro on the meadow-land. Nor did the hollow hum and wail- ing come up from one particular spot, but was audi- ble now nearer and now more remote. Anon he fancied that it was rising from the bosom of the earth, and then again that it fell from some airy height. Fresh terror came upon the old astrologer. He seized his grandson's wrist in his right hand, and pointing with his left to the city of the dead, he cried in a trembling voice : " The dead are too many in number. The nether world overflows, as the river does when its bed is too narrow for the waters of the south. Plow they swarm and sway and surge on ! How they part, hither and thither. These are the ghosts of the thousands whom black death hath snatched away, blasted by the Hebrew's curse, and sent unburied, unprotected from corruption, to de- scend the rungs of the ladder which leads to the world without end." " Yea, it is they ! " cried the other, in full belief. He snatched his hand from the old man's grasp and struck his fevered and burning brow, exclaiming, though hardly able to speak for terror : " They the damned ! The wind has blown them to the sea, JOSHUA. 13 and its waters spew them out and cast them on the land again, and the blessed earth rejects them and drives them into the air. The pure ether of Shoo flings them back to the ground, and now look, listen ! They are groaning as they seek the way to the desert." " To the fire ! " cried the elder. " Flame purify them ; water cleanse them ! " The youth joined in the old priest's form of ex- orcism, and while they chanted it in unison the trap door was lifted Avhich led to this observatory on the top of the highest gate of the temple, and a priest of humble grade cried to the old man : " Cease thy labors. Who cares now for the stars of heaven when all that has life is being darkened on earth ? " The old priest listened speechless till the messen- ger went on to say that it was the astrologer's wife who had sent for him, and then he gasped out : " Hora ? Is my son then likewise stricken ? " The priest bent his head, and both his hearers wept bitterly, for the old man was bereft of his first- born son, and the lad of a tender father. But when the boy, trembling with fever, fell sick and sorrowing on his grandfather's breast, the elder hastily freed himself from his embrace and went to the trap door ; for although the priest had an- nounced himself as the messenger of death, it needs more than the bare word of another to persuade a father to give up all hope of life for his child. The old man went quickly down the stone stairs, through 14 JOSHUA. the lofty halls and wide courts of the temple, and the lad followed him, although his shaking knees could scarcely carry his fevered frame. The blow which had fallen within his own little circle had made the old man forget the fearful portent which threatened the whole world perhaps with ruin ;-but the boy could not get rid of the vision, so when he had passed the first court and was in sight of the outermost pylons, to his terrified and anxious soul it seemed as though the shadows of the obelisks were spinning round, while the two stone statues of King Kameses on the corner piers of the great gate beat time with the crook in his hand. At this the lad dropped fever-stricken on the ground. A convulsion distorted his features and tossed his slender frame to and fro in frantic spasms ; and the old man, falling on his knees, while he guarded the curly head from striking the hard stone flags, moaned in a low voice : " Now it has fallen on him ! " Suddenly he collected himself and shouted aloud for help, but in vain, and again in vain. At last his voice fell ; he sought consolation in prayer. Then he heard a sound of voices from the avenue of sphinxes leading to the great gate, and new hope revived in his heart. Who could it be who was arriving at so late an hour ? Mingled with cries of grief, the chanting of priests fell on his ear, the tinkle and clatter of the metal sistrum shaken by holy women in honor of the god, JOSHUA. 15 and the measured footfall of men, praying as they marched on. A solemn procession was approaching. The as- trologer raised his eyes, and after glancing at the double line of granite columns, colossal statues and obelisks in the great court, looked up, in obedience to the habits of a lifetime, at the starry heavens above, and in the midst of his woe a bitter smile parted his sunken lips, for the gods this night lacked the honors that were their due. For on this night the first after the new moon in the month of Pharmutee the sanctuary in for- mer years was wont to be gay with garlands of flowers. At the dawn of day after this moonless night the high festival of the spring equinox should begin, and with it the harvest thanksgiving. At this time a grand procession marched through the city to the river and harbor, as prescribed by the Book of the Divine Birth of the Sun, in honor of the great goddess Neith, of Rennout, who bestows the gifts of the field, and of Horus, at whose bidding the desert blooms ; but to-day the silence of death reigned in the sanctuary, whose courtyard should have been crowded at this hour Avith men, women and children, bringing offerings to lay on the very spot where his grandson lay under the hand of death. A broad beam of light suddenly fell into the vast court, which till now had been but dimly lighted by a few lamps. Could they be so mad as to think that the glad festival might be held in spite of the name- less horrors of the past night ? l6 JOSHUA. Only the evening before, the priests in council had determined that during this pitiless pestilence the temples were to be left unadorned and processions to be prohibited. By noon yesterday many had failed to attend, because the plague had fallen on their households, and the terror had now come into this very sanctuary, while he, who could read the stars, had been watching them in their courses. "Why else should it have been deserted by the watch- men and other astrologers, who had been with him at sunset, and whose duty it was to keep vigil here all night ? He turned once more to the suffering boy with tender anxiety, but instantly started to his feet, for the gates were open wide and the light of torches and lanterns poured into the temple court. A glance at the sky showed him that it was not long past midnight, and yet his fears were surely well grounded these must be the priests crowding into the tem- ple to prepare for the harvest festival. Not so. For when had they come to the sanctuary for this purpose chanting and in procession ? Nor were these all servants of the divinity. The populace had joined them. In that solemn litany he could hear the shrill wailing of women mingled with wild cries of despair such as he had never before, in the course of a long life, heard within these consecrated walls. Or did his senses deceive him ? "Was it the groan- ing horde of unresting souls which he had seen from JOSHUA. I/ the observatory who were crowding into the sanct- uary of the god ? Fresh horror fell upon him ; he threw up his arms in prohibition and for a few moments repeated the formula against the malice of evil spirits ; but he presently dropped his hands, for he marked among the throng some friends who yesterday, at any rate, had been in the land of the living. Foremost, the tall figure of the second prophet of the god, then the women devoted to the service of Amon-Ra, the sing- ers and the holy fathers, and when at last, behind the astrologers and pastophoroi, he saw his son-in- law, whose home had till yesterday been spared by the plague, he took heart and spoke to him. But his voice was drowned by the song and cries of the coming multitude. The courtyard was now fully lighted ; but every one was so absorbed in his own sorrow that no one heeded the old astrologer. He snatched the cloak off his own shivering body to make a better pillow for the boy's tossing head, and while he did so with fatherly care, he could hear among the chanting and wailing of the approaching crowd, first, frantic curses on the Hebrews, through whom these woes had fallen on Pharaoh and his people, and then, again and again, the name of the heir to the crown, Prince Rameses, and the tone in which it was spoken, and the formulas of mourning which were added, announced to all who had ears to hear that the eyes of the first-born of the King on his throne were also sealed in death. 2 1 8 JOSHUA. As he gazed with growing anguish in his grand- son's pale face the lamentations for the prince rang out afresh and louder than ever, and a faint sense of satisfaction crept into his soul at the im- partiality of death, who spared not the sovereign on his throne any more than the beggar by the wayside. He knew now what had brought this noisy throng to the sanctuary. He went forward with such haste as his old limbs would allow to meet the column of mourners, but before he could join them he saw the gatekeeper and his wife come out of the gatehouse, bearing be- tween them on a mat the corpse of a boy. The hus- band held one end, his frail, tiny wife held the other, and the stalwart man had to stoop low to keep their stiff burden in a horizontal position that it might not slip down toward the woman. Three children closed the melancholy party, and a little girl holding a lantern led the way. Ko one, perhaps, would have observed them but that the gatekeeper's wife shrieked forth her griefs so loudly and shrilly that it was impossible not to hear her cries. Then at length the second prophet of Amon and his companions turned about ; the pro- cession came to a standstill, and, as some of the priests went nearer to the body, the father cried in a loud voice : " Away, away from the plague- stricken ! Our first-born is dead ! " The mother, meanwhile, had snatched the lantern from her little daughter, and holding it so as to JOSHUA. 19 throw a light on the rigid face of the dead boy, she shrieked out : " The god hath suffered it to come to pass. Yea, even under our own roof. But it is not his will, but the curse of the stranger in the land that has come over us and our Jives. Behold, this was our first- born ; and two temple servants have likewise been taken. One is dead already ; he is lying in our little room yonder; and there see, there lies young Ramus, the grandson of Rameri, the star-reader. We heard the old man calling, and saw what was happening, but who can hold another man's house up when his own is falling about his ears ? Beware while it is yet time, for the gods have opened even the temple gates to the abomination, and if the whole world should perish I should not be surprised and never complain certainly not. My lords and priests, I am but a poor and humble woman, but am I not in the right, when I ask : Are our gods asleep, that a magic spell has bound them? Or what are they doing, and where are they, that they leave us and our children in the power of the vile Hebrew race ? " " Down with them ! Down with the strangers ! They are magicians ; into the sea with Mesu,* the sorcerer ! " As an echo follows a cry, so did these impreca- tions follow the woman's curse, and Hornecht, the old astrologer's son-in-law, captain of the archers, whose blood boiled over at the sight of his dying, * Mesu is the Egyptian form of Moses. 2O JOSHUA. fair young nephew, brandished his short sword, and cried in a frenzy of rage : " Follow me, every man who has a heart ! At them ! Life for Life ! Ten Hebrews for each Egyptian whom their sorcerer has killed ! " As a flock will rush into the fire if only the ram leads the way, the crowd flocked to follow the noble warrior. The women pushed in front of the men, thronging the doorway, and as the servants of the sanctuary hesitated till they should know the opinion of the prophet of Amon, their leader threw up his majestic figure, and said deliberately : " All who wear priests' robes remain to pray with me. The people are the instrument of heaven, and it is theirs to repay. We stay here to pray for success to their vengeance." JOSHUA. 21 CHAPTER II. BAIE, the second prophet of Amon, who acted as deputy for the now infirm old head-prophet and high-priest Ruie, withdrew into the holy of holies, and while the multitude of the inferior ministers of the god proceeded to their various duties, the in- furiated crowd hurried through the streets of the town to the strangers' quarter. As a swollen torrent raging through a valley carries down with it everything in its way, so the throng, as they rushed to their revenge, compelled every one on their way to join them. Every Egyp- tian from whom death had snatched his nearest and dearest was ready to join the swelling tide, and it grew till it numbered hundreds of thousands. Men, women and children, slaves and free, borne on the wings of their desire to wreak ruin and death on the detested Hebrews, flew to the distant quarter where they dwelt. How this artisan had laid hold of a chopper or that housewife had clutched an axe they themselves scarcely knew. They rushed on to kill and destroy, and they had not sought the weapons they needed ; they had found them ready to their hand. The first they hoped to fall upon in their mad 22 JOSHUA. fury was Nun, a venerable Hebrew, respected and beloved by many a man rich in herds, who had done much kindness to the Egyptians ; but where hatred and revenge make themselves heard gratitude stands shy and speechless in the background. His large estates lay, like the houses and huts of the men of his race, to the west of Tanis, the strangers' quarter, and were the nearest of them all to the streets inhabited by the Egyptians them- selves. At this morning hour Nun's flocks and herds were wont to be taken, first to water, and then to the pasture; so the large yard in front of his house would be full of cattle, farm men and women, carts and field implements. The owner himself commonly ordered the going of his beasts, and he and his were to be the first victims of the popular rage. The swiftest runners had already reached his spacious farm, and among them Hornecht, the cap- tain of the archers. There lay the house and build- ings in the first bright beams of the morning sun, and a brawny smith kicked violently at the closed door ; but there was no bolt, and it flew open so readily that he had to clutch at the door post to save himself from falling. Others pushed by him into the courtyard, among them the archer chief. But what was the meaning of this ? Had some new charm been wrought to show the power of Mesu, who had brought such terrible plagues already on the land, and to display the might of his god ? JOSHUA. 23 The yard was empty, absolutely empty ; only in their stalls lay a few cattle and sheep, slain because they had suffered some injury, while a lame lamb hobbled away at the sight of the intruders. Even the carts and barrows had vanished. The groaning and bleating crowd, which the star-gazer had taken to be the spirits of the damned, was the host of the Hebrews, who had fled by night with all their herds, under the guidance of Moses. The leader dropped his sword, and it might have been thought that the scene before him was to him an agreeable surprise, but his companion, a scribe from the King's treasury, looked round the deserted courtyard with the disappointed air of a man who has been cheated. The tide of passions and schemes which had risen high during the night ebbed under the broad light of day ! Even the soldier's easily -stirred ire had subsided to comparative calm. The mob might have done their worst to the other Hebrews, but not to Nun, whose son Hosea had been his comrade in battle, one of the most esteemed captains in the field, and a private friend of his own. If Hornecht had foreseen that his father's farmstead would be the first spot to be attacked, he would never have led the mob to their revenge, and once more in his life he bitterly rued that he had been carried away by sudden wrath to forget the calm demeanor which beseemed his years. And now, while some of the crowd proceeded to rifle and pull down Nun's de- serted dwellings, men and women came running in 24 JOSHUA. to say that no living soul was to be found in any of the other houses near. Some had to tell of yelling cats squatting on vacant hearths, of beasts past ser- vice found slaughtered, and broken household gear ; till at last the angry crowd dragged forward a Pie- brew with his family, and a gray-haired, half-witted woman whom they had hunted out among some straw. The old woman laughed foolishly and said that her people had called her till they were hoarse, but Mehela knew better ; and as for walking, walk- ing forever, as her people meant to do, that she could not; her feet were too tender, and she had not even a pair of sandals. The man, a hideous Jew, whom few even of his own race would have regarded with pity, declared, first with humility bordering on servility, and then with the insolent daring that was natural to him, that he had nothing to do with the god of lies in whose name the impostor Moses had tempted away his people, but that he and his wife and child had always been friends with the Egyptians. As a matter of fact lie was known to many, being an usurer, and when the rest of his tribe had taken up their staves he had hidden himself, hoping to pursue his dishonest deal- ings and come to no loss. But some of his debtors were among the furious mob ; and even without them he had not a chance for his life, for he was the first object on which the excited multitude could prove that they were in ear- nest in their revenge. They rushed on him with yells of rage, and in a few minutes the bodies of the hap- JOSHUA. 25 less wretch and his family lay dead on the ground. No one knew who had done the bloody deed ; too many had fallen on the victims at once. Others who had remained behind were dragged forth from houses or hovels, and they were not a few, though many had time to escape into the country. These all fell victims to the wrath of the populace ; and while their blood was flowing, axeswere heaved, and doors and Avails were battered down with beams and posts to destroy the dwellings of the detested race from the face of the earth. The glowing embers which some furious women had brought with them were extinguished and trod- den out, for the more prudent warned them of the danger which must threaten their own adjoining dwellings and the whole city of Tanis if the stran- gers' quarters were set in flames. Thus the homes of the Hebrews were spared from fire, but as the sun rose higher, the site of the dwell- ings they had deserted was wrapped in an impene- trable cloud of white dust from the ruins, and on the spot where but yesterday thousands of human beings had had a happy home, and where vast herds had slaked their thirst by fresh waters, nothing was now to be seen but heaps of rubbish and stone, while broken timber and splintered woodwork strewed the scorching soil. Dogs and cats, abandoned by the fugitives, prowled among the ruins, and were pres- ently joined by the women and children who herded in the beggars' hovels on the skirts of the neighbor- ing- necropolis, and who now, with their hands over 26 JOSHUA. their mouths, hunted among the choking dust and piles of lumber for any vessels or broken victuals which the Hebrews might have left behind and the plunderers have overlooked. In the course of the afternoon Baie was borne in his litter past the scene of devastation. He had not come hither to feast his eyes on the sight of the ruins, but because they lay in the nearest way from the city of the dead to his own home. Nevertheless, a smile of satisfaction curled his grave lips as he noted ho\v thoroughly the populace had done their work. What he himself had hoped to see had not indeed been carried out; the leaders of the fugitives had evaded their revenge, but hatred, though it is never satiated, can be easily gratified. Even the smaller woes of an enemy are joy, and the priest had just quitted the mourning Pharaoh, and though he had not yet succeeded in freeing him completely fronVthe bonds laid upon him by the Hebrew soothsayer, yet he had loosened them. Three words had the proud, ambitious man mur- mured to himself again and again a stiffnecked man, not wont to talk to himself as he sat alone in the sanctuary, meditating on what had happened and on what had to be done ; and those three words were : " Bless me also." It was Pharaoh who had spoken them, addressing the petition to another ; and that other not old Ruie the supreme judge and high priest, nor Baie himself, the only men living whose privilege it could be to bless the king : no ; but the worst of the accursed, the JOSHUA. 27 stranger the Hebrew Mesu, whom he hated as he hated none other on earth. " Bless me also ! " That pious entreaty, which springs so confidingly from the human soul in anguish had pierced his soul like a dagger-thrust. He felt as though such a prayer, addressed by such lips to such a man, had broken the staff in the hand of the whole priesthood of Egypt, had wrenched the panther skin from its shoulders, and cast a stain on all the nation he loved. He knew Mesu well for one of the wisest sages ever produced by the schools of Egypt ; he knew full well that Pharaoh was spell-bound by this man, who had grown up in his house, and had been the friend of the great Rameses, his father. He had seen the mon- arch pardon misdeeds in Mesu which any other man, were he the highest in the land, must have expiated with his life ; and how dear must this Hebrew have been to Pharaoh the sun-god on his earthly throne when he could compel the King, standing by the deathbed of his son, to uplift his hands to him and implore him : " Bless me also ! " All this he had told himself and weighed with due care, and still he, Baie, could not, would not yield to the powerful Hebrew. He had regarded it as his most urgent and sacred duty to bring destruction on him and his whole race. To fulfill that duty he would not have hesitated to lay hands on the throne ; indeed, in his eyes, by the utterance of that blas- phemous entreaty, "Bless me also," Pharaoh Menephtah had forfeited his right to the sovereignty. 28 JOSHUA. Moses was the murderer of Pharaoh's first-born, whereas he himself and the venerable high priest of Amon held the weal or woe of the deceased youth's soul in their hands. And this weapon was a keen and a strong one, for he knew how soft and irres- olute was the King's heart. If the high priest of Amon the only man who stood above him did not contravene him in some unaccountable fit of senile caprice, it would be a small matter to reduce Pharaoh to submission, but the vacillating monarch might repent to-morrow of what he resolved on to- day, if the Hebrew should again succeed in coming between him and his Egyptian counsellors. Only this very day, on hearing the name of Moses spoken in his presence, the degenerate son of Rameses the Great had covered his face and quaked like a frightened gazelle, and to-morrow he might curse him and pronounce sentence of death against him. He might perhaps indeed he moved to do this, but even then by the day after he would very surely re- call him and beseech his blessing once more. Away with such a monarch ! Down with the feeble reed who sat on the throne, down to the very dust ! Baie had found a fitting successor among the princes of the blood royal, and when the time should come when Euie, the high-priest of Amon, should cross the boundary of the time of life granted to man by the gods and close his eyes in death then he, Baie himself, would fill his place; a new life should begin for Egypt, and Moses and his tribes were doomed. JOSHUA. 29 As the prophet thus meditated, a pair of ravens fluttered around his head, and then, croaking loudly, alighted on the dusty ruins of one of the wrecked tenements. His eye involuntarily followed their flight and perceived that they had settled on the. body of a dead Hebrew, half buried in rubbish. And again a smile stole over his cunning, defiant features, a smile which the inferior priests who stood about his litter could by no means interpret. 30 JOSHUA, CHAPTER III. HOKNKCHT, captain of the bowmen, had by this time joined company with the prophet. He was in- deed in his confidence, for the warrior likewise was one of the men of high rank who had conspired to overthrow the reigning Pharaoh. As they approached the ruined dwelling of Nun, the priest pointed to the heap of destruction and said : " The man to whom this once belonged is the only Hebrew I fain would spare. He was a man of worth, and his son Hosea " He will be true to us," interrupted the captain. " Few better men serve in the ranks of Pharaoh's armies, and," he added, in a lower voice, " I count on him in the day of deliverance." " Of that we will speak before fewer witnesses," replied the other. " But I owe him a special debt of gratitude. During the Libyan war you know of it I was betrayed into the hand of the enemy, and Hosea, with his handful of men, cut me a way of escape from the wild robbers." Then, dropping his voice, he went on in his didactic manner, as though he were making excuse for the mischief be. fore them. " Such is life here below ! "When a whole race of men incurs punishment the evil falls JOSHUA. 31 on the guiltless with the guilty. Not even the gods can in such a case divide the individual from the mob ; the visitation falls even on the innocent beasts. Look at that flock of pigeons hovering over the ruins ; they seek the dovecote in vain. And that cat with her kittens ! Go, Bekie, and rescue them ; it is our duty to preserve the sacred animals from starving to death." And this man, who had contemplated the de- struction of so many of his fellow-creatures with barbarous joy, took the kindly care of the unreason- ing brutes so much to heart that he made the bearers stop, and looked on while his servants caught the cats. But this was not so quickly done as he had hoped, for the mother fled into the nearest cellar opening, and the gap was so narrow as to prevent the men from following her. However, the youngest of them all, a slim Nubian, undertook to fetch her out ; but he hardly looked down into the opening when he started back and cried to his lord : " A human being is lying there, and seems to be yet alive. Yes, he beckons with his hand. It is a boy or a youth, and certainly not a slave. His hair is long and curly, and on his arm for a sunbeam falls straight in I can see a broad gold band." " One of the family of Nun, perhaps, who has been forgotten," said the warrior, and Baie eagerly added : " It is the guidance of the gods ! The sacred beasts have led me to the spot where I may do a ser- vice to the man to whom I owe so much. Try and make your way in, Bekie, aud fetch the youth out." 32 JOSHUA. The Nubian, meanwhile, had moved away a stone, which, in its fall, had partly closed the entrance, and in a short while he held up to his comrades a motionless young form, which they lifted out into the open air and carried to a well. There they soon brought him back to life with the cool water. As he recovered consciousness he rubbed his eyes, looked about him in bewilderment as though he knew not where he was, and then his head fell on his breast as if overcome by grief and horror, and it could be seen that at the back of his head the hair was matted with dark patches of dried blood. By the prophet's care the wound, which was deep, from a stone which had fallen on the lad, was washed at the well ; and when it was bound up he bid him get into his own litter, which was screened from the sun. The youth had arrived before sunrise, after a long walk by night from Pithom, called by the Hebrews Succoth, to bring a message to his grandfather, Nun, but finding the place deserted he had lain down in one of the empty rooms to rest awhile. Awaking at the uproar of the infuriated Egyptians, and hearing the curses on his race, which rang out on every side, he had fled to the cellar, and the falling roof, although he had been hurt, had proved his salvation, for the clouds of dust, which had hid- den everything as it crashed down, had concealed him from the sight of the plunderers. The priest gazed at him attentively, and though the youth was unwashed and pale, with a blood- JOSHUA. 33 stained bandage round his head, he could see that the being he had restored to life was a handsome, well-grown lad, on the verge of manhood. Full of eager sympathy, he mollified the stern gravity of his eye, and questioned him kindly as to whence he came and what had brought him to Tanis, for it was impossible to tell from the youth's features even of what nation he might be. He might easily have passed himself off as an Egyptian, but he quite frankly owned that he was the grandson of Nun. He was eighteen years of age, his name was Ephraim, like his ancestor, the son of Joseph, and he had come to see his grandfather. And he spoke with an accent of steadfast self-respect and joy in his illustrious descent. When asked whether he had been the bearer of a message he did not forthwith reply, 'but after col- lecting his thoughts he looked fearlessly into the prophet's face and answered frankly: "Be you who you may, I have been taught to speak the truth. You shall know, then, that I have another kinsman dwelling in Tanis Hosea, the son of Nun, who is a captain in Pharaoh's army, and I have a message for him." " And you shall know," replied the priest, " that it was for the sake of that very Hosea that I lin- gered here and bid my servants rescue you alive from that ruined house. I owe him thanks, and al- though the greater number of your nation have done deeds worthy of the heaviest punishment, yet for his 34 JOSHUA. noble sake you shall dwell among us free and un- harmed." On this the boy looked up at the priest with a flash of eager pride ; but before he could speak Baie went on with encouraging friendliness : " I read in your eyes, my boy, if I am not mistaken, that you are come to seek service under your Uncle Hosea in Pharaoh's army. Your stature should make you skilful in handling weapons, and you cer- tainly cannot lack for daring." A smile of flattered vanity lighted up Ephraim's face, and turning the broad gold bangle on his arm, perhaps unconsciously, he eagerly replied : " I am brave, my lord, and have proved it often in the hunting-field. But at home there are cattle and sheep in abundance, which I already call my own, and it seems bo me a better lot to wander free and rule the shepherds than to do what others bid me." " So, so," replied the priest. " Well, Hosea per- haps will bring you to another and a better mind. To rule ! a noble goal indeed for a youth ! The pity is that we who have reached it are but servants, the more heavily-burdened in proportion to the greater number of those who obey us. You understand me, Captain ; and you. boy, will understand me later, when you have become such a palm tree as your sapling growth promises. But time presses. Who sent you hither to Hosea ? " The youth again looked down and hesitated ; but when the prophet had broken in on his silence by saying, "And that candor which you have been JOSHUA, 35 taught 2 " he replied, firmly and decidedly : " I came to do pleasure to a woman whom you know not. Let that suffice." " A woman ! " echoed the prophet, and he cast an inquiring glance at Hornecht. " When a valiant warrior and a fair woman seek each other the Hath- ors * are wont to intervene and use the binding cords, but it ill beseems a minister of the divinity to play spectator to such doings, so I inquire no further. Take this boy under your protection, Captain, and help him to carry his errand to Hosea. The only question is whether he is yet returned." " No," replied the soldier, " but this very day he and ten thousand men are expected at the armory." " Then mav the Hathors who favor love-messages */ O bring these two to a meeting no later than to-mor- row ! " cried the priest. But the youth broke in in- dignantly : " I bear no love message from one to the other!" And the priest, who was well pleased by his bold- ness, replied gayly : " I had forgotten that I am speaking to a shepherd-prince." Then he added more gravely : " When you shall have found Hosea give him greeting from me, and say to him that Baie, the second prophet of Amon, whom he saved from the hand of the Libyans, believes that he is paying some part of his debt by extending a pro- tecting hand over you, his nephew. You, bold youth, know not, perhaps, that you have escaped a twofold * The Hathors were the Egyptian love-goddesses. They are often depicted with cords in their hands. 36 JOSHUA. danger as by a miracle. The furious Egyptians would no more have spared your life than would the choking dust of falling houses. Bear that in mind, and tell Hosea, moreover, from me, Baie, that I am sure that as soon as he sees with his own eyes the misery wrought on the house of . Pharaoh to whom he has sworn allegiance, and with it, on this city and on the whole land, by the magic arts of one of your race, he will cut himself off in horror from those cowards. For they have basely fled, after slay- ing the best and dearest of those among whom they have dwelt in peace, whose protection they have enjoyed, and who for long years have given them work and fed them abundantly. If I know him at all, as an honest man he will turn his back on those who have sinned thus. And you may tell him like- wise that the Hebrew officers and fighting men under the captainship of Aarsu, the Syrian, have already done so of their own free will. This day and Hosea Avill have heard the tidings from others they offered sacrifice, not only to their own gods, Baal and Set whom you, too, many of you, were wont to serve before the vile magician Mesu led you astray but also to Father Amon and the sacred nine of our eternal gods. And if he will do likewise, he and I, hand in hand, will rise to great power of that he may be assured and he is worthy of it. The rest of the debt of gratitude I still owe him I will find other means of paying, which as yet must re- main undiscovered. But you may promise your uncle from me that I will take care of Nun, his JOSHUA. 37 worthy father, when the vengeance of the gods and of Pharaoh overtakes the other men of your nation. Already tell him this likewise is the sword set, and judgment without mercy shall be done on them. Tell him to ask himself what can fugitive shep- herds do against the might of that army of which he himself is one of the captains ? Is your father yet alive, my son ? " "No; he was borne out long since," replied Ephraim in a broken voice. Was it that the fever of his wound was too much for him ? That the disgrace of belonging to a race who could do such shameful deeds overpowered his young soul ? Or was the youth true to his people, and was it wrath and indignation that made his cheek turn pale, then red, and stirred up such turmoil in his soul that he could hardly speak ? No matter. But it was clear that he was no fit bearer of the prophet's message to his uncle, and the priest signed to the Captain to come with him under the shade of a broad sycamore tree. The Hebrew must at any cost be retained with the army ; he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder, saying : " You know that it was my wife who won you over to our great scheme. She serves it better and with greater zeal than many a man, and while I admire your daughter's beauty she is full of praises of her winning charm." " And Kasana is to join the conspiracy ? " ex-- claimed the soldier in displeasure. " Not as an active partner, like my wife of course not." 38 JOSHUA. " She would hardly serve that end," replied the other in a calmer tone, " for she is like a child." " And yet she may win over to our cause a man whose good-will appears to me to be inestimable." " You mean Hosea ? " asked Hornecht, and again his brow grew black, while the prophet went on : " And if I do ? Is he indeed a thorough Hebrew, and can you think it unworthy of the daughter of a warrior of valor to give her hand to the man who, if our undertaking prospers, will act as chief captain over all the troops of the land ? " " No, my lord," cried the archer. " But one of the causes of my wrath against Pharaoh, and of my taking part with Siptah, is that his mother was not of our nation, while Egyptian blood flows in Siptah's veins. Now, the mother determines a man's race, and Hosea's mother was a Hebrew woman. I call him my friend ; I know how to value his merits ; Kasana is well inclined to him " And yet you desire a greater son-in-law ? " inter- rupted Baie. " How can our difficult enterprise prosper if those who risk their lives in it think the very first sacrifice too great ? And your daughter, you say, is well inclined to Hosea ? " " She was ; yes, truly," the soldier put in. " Yes, her heart longed after him. But I brought her to obedience ; she became the wife of another ; and now that she is a widow shall I be the one to offer her to him whom I compelled her to give up the gods alone knoAv how hardly ? When was the like ever heard of in Egypt ? " JOSHUA. 39 "Whenever the men and women by the Mle have so far mastered themselves as to submit to necessity in opposition to their own wishes, for the sake of a great cause," replied the priest. " Think of these things. Remember, too, that Hosea's ancestress was an Egyptian he has boasted of it in your presence the daughter of a priest like myself." " But since then how many generations have passed to the grave ! " " That matters not. It brings him nearer to us and that must suffice. We shall meet again this evening. Meanwhile will you give hospitality to Hosea's nephew and bespeak your fair daughter's care, for he seems to need it sorely ? " 40 JOSHUA. CHAPTEK IY. THERE was mourning in the house of Hornecht as in every house in the city. The men had shaved their heads and the women had strewn dust on their foreheads. The captain's wife was long since dead, but his daughter and her women met him with waving veil and loud wailing, for their lord's brother-in-law was bereft both of his first-born son and of his grandson ; and in how many houses of their circle of friends had the plague claimed its victims ! However, the fainting youth demanded all the women's care ; he was washed, and the deep wound in his head was freshly bound up ; strong wine and food were set before him, and then, refreshed and strengthened, he followed at the bidding of his host's daughter. The dust-stained and exhausted lad now stood re- vealed as a handsome young fellow. His scented hair flowed in long, waving locks from beneath the clean, white bandage, and his elastic, sunburnt limbs were covered by Egyptian garments embroidered with gold, out of the wardrobe of the captain's de- ceased son-in-law. He seemed pleased to see him- self in the handsome raiment, from which there pro- ceeded a fragrance of spikenard new to his ex- JOSHUA. 41 perience, for his black eyes brightly lighted up his well-cut features. It was long since the captain's daughter had seen a better favored youth, and she herself was full of great and lovely charm. After a brief married life Avith a man she had never loved, Kasana within a year had come back a widow to her father's house, where there was now no mistress ; and the great wealth of which she had become possessed by her husband's death enabled her to bring into the war- x rior's modest home the splendor and luxury which to her had become a necessity. Her father, who in many a contest had proved himself a man of violent temper, now yielded to her will in all things. In past time he had ruthless- ly asserted his own, and had forced her at the age of fifteen into a marriage with a man much older than herself. This he had done because he had ob- served that Kasana's young heart was set on Hosea, the man of war, and he deemed it beneath him to accept the Hebrew, who at that time held no place of honor in the army, as a son-in-law. An Egyptian maiden could but obey her father without demur when he chose her a husband, and so Kasana had submitted, though during the period of her be- trothal she shed so many bitter tears that the archer-captain was glad indeed when she had done his bidding and given her hand to the husband of his choice. But even in her widowhood his daughter's heart clung to the Hebrew ; for when the army was in 42 JOSHUA. the field she never ceased to be anxious, and spent her days and nights in troubled unrest. When tidings come from the front she asked only concern- ing Hosea, and it was to her love for him that Hornecht, with deep vexation, ascribed her re- peated rejection of suitor after suitor. As a widow she had the right to dispose of her hand, and this gentle, yielding young creature would amaze her father by the abrupt decisiveness with which she made her independence felt, not alone to him and her suitors, but likewise to Prince Siptah, whose cause her father had made his own. This day Kasana expressed her satisfaction at Hosea's home-coming so frankly and unreservedly that the hot-tempered man- hastened out of the house lest he should be led into some ill-considered act or speech. He left the care of their young guest to his daughter and her faithful nurse ; and how delightful to the lad's sensitive soul was the effect of the warrior's home, with its lofty, airy rooms, open colonnades and bright and richly- colored paintings ; its artistic vessels and ornaments, soft couches and all-pervading fragrance. All this was new and strange to the son of a pastoral land- owner, accustomed to live within the bare, gray walls of a spacious but perfectly graceless farm- dwelling ; or, for months at a time, in canvas tents amid flocks and shepherds, and more often in the open air than under a roof or shelter. He felt as though by enchantment he had been transported to some higher and more desirable world, and as though JOSHUA. 43 he became it well in his splendid garb, with his oiled and perfumed curls and freshly -bathed limbs. Life, indeed, was everywhere fair, even out in the fields among the herds or in the cool of the even- ing round the fire in front of the tent, where the shepherds sang songs, and the hunters told tales of adventure, while the stars shone brightly over- head. But hard and hated labor had first to be done. Here it was a joy merely to gaze and breathe ; and when presently the curtain was lifted and the young widow greeted him kindly and made him sit down by her, now questioning him and now lis- tening sympathetically to his replies, he almost fancied that he had lost his senses, as he had done under the ruins in the cellar, and that the sweetest of dreams was cheating him. The feeling which now seemed to choke him, and again and again hindered his utterance, was surely the excess of bliss poured down upon him by great Astarte, the partner of Baal, of whom he had heard many tales from the Phoenician traders who sup- plied the shepherd settlers with various good things, and of whom he was forbidden by stern Miriam ever to speak at home. His people had implanted in his young soul a hatred of the Egyptians as the oppressors of his race ; but could they be so evil, could he abhor a nation among whom there were such beings to be found as the fair and gentle lady who looked so softly and yet so warmly into his eyes ; whose speech bewitched his ear like sweet music, whose gaze set 44 JOSHUA. his blood in such swift motion that he could hardly bear it, and pressed his hand to his heart to still its wild throbbing ? There she sat opposite him on a stool covered with a panther skin, and drew the wool from the distaff. He had taken her fancy, and she had welcomed him warmly because he was kin to the man she had loved from her childhood. She believed she could trace a likeness in him to Ilosea, although the boy still lacked the gravity of the man to whom she had given her young heart, when and how she herself could not tell, for he had never sued for her love. A lotos-flower was fastened into her well-arranged waving black hair, and its stem lay in a graceful curve on her bent neck, round which hung a mass of beautiful curls. When she raised her eyes to look into his it was as though two deep wells opened before him to pour streams of bliss into his young breast, and that slender hand Avhich spun the yarn he had already touched in greeting and held in his own. Presently she inquired of him concerning Hosea and the woman who had sent him a message whether she were young and fair, and whether there were any tie of love between her and his uncle. At this Ephraim laughed aloud. For she who had sent him was so grave and stern that the mere idea of her being capable of a tender emotion roused his mirth. As to whether she were fair, he had never given it a thought. The young widow took this laughter as the most JOSHUA. 45 welcome reply she could hear, and with a sigh of relief she laid aside the spindle she held and desired Ephraim to come with her into the garden. How sweet it was with scent and bloom, how well trimmed were the beds, the paths, the arbors and the pool. The only pleasaunce of his simple home was a broad courtyard devoid of ornament, full of pens for cattle and sheep ; yet he knew that some day he would be ruler over great possessions, for he was the only son and heir of a rich father, and his mother was a daughter of the wealthy Nun. The serving-men had told him all this many a time, and it vexed his soul to see that his own home was little better than the quarters for the Captain's slaves, which Kasana pointed out to him. As they rambled through the garden she bid Ephraim help her to pluck some flowers, and when the basket which he carried for her was full, she invited him to sit with her in an arbor and lend a hand in twining garlands. These were offerings to the beloved dead. Her uncle and a favorite cousin somewhat like Ephraim himself had been snatched away during the past night by the pesti- lence, which his people had brought upon Tanis. And from the street which ran along the garden - wall the wailing of women was incessantly heard, as they mourned over the dead or bore a corpse to its burying ; and when suddenly it rose louder and more woeful than before, she gently reproached him for all that the people of Tanis had suffered for the sake of the Hebrews, and asked him if he could 46 JOSHUA. deny that her nation had good reason to hate a race that had brought such plagues upon it. To this he found it difficult to answer discreetly, for he had been told that it was the God of his peo- ple who had stricken the Egyptians, to release his own from oppression and slavery, and he dared not deny or contemn his own flesh and blood. So he was silent, that he might neither lie nor blaspheme, but she gave him no peace, and at last he made an- swer that all which brought sorrow on her was re- pugnant to him, but that his people had no power over health and life, for that Avhen a Hebrew was sick he very commonly applied to an Egyptian leech. What had now come to pass was no doubt the act of the great God of his fathers, who was of more might than all other gods. He, at any rate, was a Hebrew, and she might believe him when he assured her that he was guiltless of the pestilence, and that he would gladly call her uncle and cousin back to life again if he had it in his power. For her sake he was ready to do anything, even the hardest task. She smiled on him sweetly, and said : " Poor boy ! If I find a fault in you, it is only that you belong to a race to whom forbearance and pity are alik