d come by a carrier dove
that the blinded multitude had encamped at Pihahiroth, not far from the
Red Sea. So it would be easy for the army to drive them into the
water like a herd of cattle; there was no escape for them in any other
direction.

The captain listened to these tidings with satisfaction; then he
whispered a few words to the commander of the fortress and pointed with
his finger to Joshua, who had long recognized him as a brother-in-arms
who had commanded a hundred men in his own cohorts and to whom he had
done many a kindness. He was reluctant to reveal his identity in this
wretched plight to his former subordinate, who was also his debtor; but
the commander flushed as he saw him, shrugged his shoulders as though he
desired to express to Joshua regret for his fate and the impossibility
of doing anything for him, and then exclaimed so loudly that he could
not fail to hear:

"The regulations forbid any conversation with prisoners of state, but
I knew this man in better days, and will send you some wine which I beg
you to share with him."

As he walked with the other to the gate, and the latter remarked that
Hosea deserved such favor less than the meanest of the band, because he
had connived at the escape of the fugitive of whom he had just spoken,
the commander ran his hand through his hair, and answered:

"I would gladly have shown him some kindness, though he is much indebted
to me; but if that is the case, we will omit the wine; you have rested
long enough at any rate."

The captain angrily gave the order for departure, and drove the hapless
band deeper into the desert toward the mines.

This time Joshua walked with drooping head. Every fibre of his being
rebelled against the misfortune of being dragged through the wilderness
at this decisive hour, far from his people and the father whom he knew
to be in such imminent danger. Under his guidance the wanderers might
perchance have found some means of escape. His fist clenched when he
thought of the fettered limbs which forbade him to utilize the plans
his brain devised for the welfare of his people; yet he would not lose
courage, and whenever he said to himself that the Hebrews were lost and
must succumb in this struggle, he heard the new name God Himself had
bestowed upon him ring in his ears and at the same moment the flames of
hate and vengeance on all Egyptians, which had been fanned anew by the
fortress commander's base conduct, blazed up still mo