"What possessed them, my lord? Ah, well--I am but a poor lowly
slave-woman; yet, my lord, had you but seen it.... "

"Well, even then?" interrupted the warrior in harsh, impatient tones,
for this was the first time he had ever found himself compelled to act
against his desires and belief.

Eliab tried to come to the assistance of the terrified woman, saying
timidly,

"Ah, my lord, no tongue can relate, no human mind can picture it.
It came from the Almighty and, if I could describe how great was its
influence on the souls of the people...."

"Try," Hosea broke in, "but my time is brief. So they were compelled
to depart, and set forth reluctantly on their wanderings. Even the
Egyptians have long known that they obeyed the bidding of Moses and
Aaron as the sheep follow the shepherd. Have those who brought the
terrible pestilence on so many guiltless human beings also wrought the
miracle of blinding the minds of you and of your wife?"

The old man stretched out his hands to the soldier, and answered in a
troubled voice and a tone of the most humble entreaty:

"Oh, my lord, you are my master's first-born son, the greatest and
loftiest of your race, if it is your pleasure you can trample me into
the dust like a beetle, yet I must lift up my voice and say: 'You have
heard false tales!' You were away in foreign lands when mighty things
were done in our midst, and far from Zoan,--[The Hebrew name for
Tanis]--as I hear, when the exodus took place. Any son of our people
who witnessed it would rather his tongue should wither than mock at the
marvels the Lord permitted him to behold. Ah, if you had patience to
suffer me to tell the tale...."

"Speak on!" cried Hosea, astonished at the old man's solemn fervor.
Eliab thanked him with an ardent glance, exclaiming:

"Oh, would that Aaron, or Eleasar, or my lord your father were here in
my stead, or would that Jehovah would bestow on me the might of their
eloquence! But be it as it is! True, I imagine I can again see and hear
everything as though it were happening once more before my eyes, but how
am I to describe it? How can such things be given in words? Yet, with
God's assistance, I will try."

Here he paused and Hosea, noticing that the old man's hands and lips
were trembling, gave him the cup of wine, and Eliab gratefully quaffed
it to the dregs. Then, half-closing his eyes, he began his story and his
wrinkled features grew sharper as he went on:

"My wife has already