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 struck the youth had hurled the foremost chariots into
the sea.

Ephraim began to fear for his people and, while running forward to join
them again, a brilliant flash of lightning illumined the bay, Mount
Baal-zephon, and every surrounding object. The thunder was somewhat long
in following, but the storm soon came nearer, and at last the lightning
no longer flashed through the darkness in zigzag lines