hael, with their sons, who grudged the power of Moses and
Aaron, had even gone from one to another to try to persuade them, ere
departing, to summon the elders again and charge then to enter into
fresh negotiations with the Egyptians. While these malcontents were
successfully gathering adherents, and the traitor had sought the
commander of the Egyptian garrison, two more messengers arrived with
tidings that the fugitives would arrive in Succoth between midnight and
morning.

Breathless, speechless, dripping with perspiration, and with bleeding
lips, the elder messenger sank on the threshold of Amminadab's house,
now the home of Miriam also. Both the exhausted men were refreshed with
wine and food, ere the least wearied was fully capable of speech. Then,
in a hoarse voice, but from a heart overflowing with gratitude and
ardent enthusiasm, he reported the scenes which had occurred at the
exodus, and how the God of their fathers had filled every heart with His
spirit, and instilled new faith into the souls of the cowards.

Miriam had listened to this story with sparkling eyes; at its close she
flung her veil over her head and bade the servants of the household, who
had assembled around the messengers, to summon the whole Hebrew people
under the sycamore, whose broad summit, the growth of a thousand years,
protected a wide space of earth from the scorching sunbeams.

The desert wind was still blowing, but the glad news seemed to have
destroyed the baneful power it exerted on man, and when many hundreds
of people had flocked together under the sycamore, Miriam had given her
hand to Eleasar, the son of her brother Aaron, sprung upon the bench
which rested against the huge hollow trunk of the tree, raised her
hands and eyes toward heaven in an ecstasy, and began in a loud voice
to address a prayer to the Lord, as if she beheld him with her earthly
vision.

Then she permitted the messenger to speak, and when the latter again
described the events which had occurred in the city of Rameses, and then
announced that the fugitives from Tanis would arrive in a few hours,
loud shouts of joy burst from the throng. Eleasar, the son of Aaron,
proclaimed with glowing enthusiasm what the Lord had done for his people
and had promised to them, their children, and children's children.

Each word from the lips of the inspired speaker fell upon the hearts
of the Hebrews like the fresh dew of morning on the parched grass. The
trusting hearer