Leipsic through just the same
reluctance to do thoroughly and without self-deception what he found it
necessary to consent to do. "Napoleon," says his apologist, Thiers, "at
length determined to retreat--a resolution humbling to his pride.
Unfortunately, instead of a retreat frankly admitted ... he determined
on one which from its imposing character should not be a real retreat at
all, and should be accomplished in open day." And this perversity, which
ruined him, is traced back to "the illusions of pride."

Well, it was quite as hard for the Pharaoh to surrender at discretion,
as for the Corsican to stoop to a nocturnal retreat. Accordingly, he
asks, "Who are ye that shall go?" and when Moses very explicitly and
resolutely declares that they will all go, with all their property, his
passion overcomes him, he feels that to consent is to lose them for
ever, and he exclaims, "So be Jehovah with you as I will let you go and
your little ones: look to it, for evil is before you"--that is to say,
Your intentions are bad. "Go ye that are men, and serve the Lord, for
that is what ye desire,"--no more than that is implied in your demand,
unless it is a mere pretence, under which more lurks than it avows.

But he and they have long been in a state of war: menaces, submissions,
and treacheries have followed each other fast, and he has no reason to
complain if their demands are raised. Moreover, his own nation
celebrated religious festivals in company with their wives and children,
so that his rejoinder is an empty outburst of rage. And of a Jewish
feast it was said, a little later, "Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord
thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy
maidservant ... and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow"
(Deut. xvi. 11). There was no insincerity in the demand; and although
the suspicions of the king were naturally excited by the exultant and
ever-rising hopes of the Hebrews, and the defiant attitude of Moses, yet
even now there is as little reason to suspect bad faith as to suppose
that Israel, once released, could ever have resumed the same abject
attitude toward Egypt as before. They would have come back victorious,
and therefore ready to formulate new demands; already half emancipated,
and therefore prepared for the perfecting of the work.

And now, at a second command as explicit as that which bade him utter
the warning, Moses, anxiously watched by many, stretched out his ha