For the Egyptians also the road remained dry; but if his people only kept a short distance in advance he need feel no anxiety; during the night the rescued tribes could disperse among the mountains and hide in places where no chariots nor horses could follow.  Moses knew this region where he had lived so long as a fugitive; it was only necessary to inform him of the close vicinity of the foe.  So he trusted one of his play-fellows of the tribe of Benjamin with the message, and the latter had not far to go to reach the shore.  He himself remained behind to watch the approaching army; for already, without stooping or listening, spite of the storm raging around him, he heard the rattle of wheels and the neighing of the horses.  But the lepers, whose ears also caught the sound, wailed and lamented, feeling themselves in imagination flung to the ground, crushed by the chariots, or crowded into a watery grave, for the pathway had grown narrower and the sea seemed to be trying in earnest to regain the land it had lost.

The men and cattle could no longer advance in ranks as wide as before, and while the files of the hurrying bodies narrowed they lengthened, and precious time was lost.  Those on the right were already wading through the rising water in haste and terror; for already the commands of the Egyptian leaders were heard in the distance.

But the enemy was evidently delayed, and Ephraim easily perceived the cause of their diminished speed; for the road constantly grew softer and the narrow wheels of the chariots cut deeply into it and perhaps sank to the axles.

Protected by the darkness, he glided forward toward the pursuers, as far as he could, and heard here a curse, yonder a fierce command to ply the lash more vigorously; at last he distinctly heard one leader exclaim to the man next him: 

“Accursed folly!  If they had only let us start before noon, and not waited until the omen had been consulted and Anna had been installed with all due solemnity in 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!”