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!”

“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.