Protected by the darkness, he glided forward toward the pursuers, as far
as he could, and heard here a curse, yonder a fierce command to ply the
lash more vigorously; at last he distinctly heard one leader exclaim to
the man next him:

"Accursed folly! If they had only let us start before noon, and not
waited until the omen had been consulted and Anna had been installed with
all due solemnity in Bai's place, it would have been easy work, and we
should have caught them like a flock of quail! The chief-priest was wont
to bear himself stoutly in the field, and now he gives up the command
because a dying woman touches his heart."

"Siptah's mother!" said another soothingly. "Yet, after all, twenty
princesses ought not to have turned him from his duty to us. Had he
remained, there would have been no need of scourging our steeds to death,
and that at an hour when every sensible leader lets his men gather round
the camp-fires to eat their suppers and play draughts. Look to the
horses, Heter! We are fast in the sand again!"

A loud out-cry rose behind the first chariot, and Ephraim heard another
voice shout:

"Forward, if it costs the horses their lives!"

"If return were possible," said the commander of the chariot-soldiers, a
relative of the king, "I would go back now. But as matters are, one would
tumble over the other. So forward, whatever it may cost. We are close on
their heels. Halt! Halt! That accursed stinging smoke! Wait, you dogs! As
soon as the pathway widens, we'll run you down with scant ceremony, and
may the gods deprive me of a day of life for each one I spare! Another
torch out! One can't see one's hand before one's face! At a time like
this a beggar's crutch would be better than a leader's staff"

"And an executioner's noose round the neck rather than a gold chain!"
said another with a fierce oath.

"If the moon would only appear again! Because the astrologers predicted
that it would shine in full splendor from evening till morning, I myself
advised the late departure, turning night into day. If it were only
lighter! . . . ."

But this sentence remained unfinished, for a gust of wind, bursting like
a wild beast from the south-eastern ravine of Mount Baal-zephon, rushed
upon the fugitives, and a high wave drenched Ephraim from head to foot.

Gasping for breath, he flung back his hair and wiped his eyes; but loud
cries of terror rang from the lips of the Egyptians behind him; for the
same wave that