“What avails the best leader, if there is no army to obey him?” Naashon, Amminadab’s son, had exclaimed, and the others shared his opinion.

When the council finally broke up, Moses took leave of his sister with fraternal affection.  She knew that he was in the act of plunging into fresh dangers and—­in the modest manner in which she was always wont to accost the brother who so far surpassed all others in every gift of mind and body,—­expressed her anxiety.  He looked into her eyes with friendly reproach and raised his right hand toward heaven; but she understood his meaning, and kissing his hand with grateful warmth, replied: 

“You stand under the protection of the Most High, and I fear no longer.”

Pressing his lips upon her brow, he bade her give him a tablet, wrote a few words on it, flung it into the hollow trunk of the sycamore, and said: 

“For Hosea, no, for Joshua, the son of Nun, if he comes while I am absent.  The Lord has great deeds for him to accomplish, when he learns to expect loftier things from the Most High than from the mighty ones of earth.”

With these words he left her; but Aaron who, as the oldest, was the head of her tribe, lingered and told her that a man of worth sought her hand.  Miriam, with blanching face, replied: 

“I know it. . . . "

He looked at her in surprise and with earnest monition, added: 

“As you choose; yet it will be wise to consider this.  Your heart belongs to your God and to your people, and the man whom you wed must be ready, like yourself, to serve both; for two must be one in marriage, and if the highest aim of one is not also that of the other, they will remain two till the end.  The voice of the senses, which drew them together, will soon be mute and nothing will be left to them save discord.”

Having said this, he went away, and she, too, was preparing to leave the others; for on the eve of departure she might be needed in the house whose hospitality she enjoyed.  But a new incident detained her, as though bound with fetters, under the sycamore.

What cared she for the packing of perishable wares and providing for bodily needs, when affairs which occupied her whole soul were under discussion!  Elisheba, Naashon’s wife, any housekeeper and faithful slave could attend to the former wants.  Higher things were to be determined here—­the weal or woe of her people.

Several men of distinction in the tribes had joined the elders under the sycamore; but Hur had already departed with Moses.

Uri, the son of the former, now appeared beneath the ancient tree.  The worker in metals, who had just come from Egypt, had talked in Memphis with persons who were near to the king and learned that Pharaoh was ready to remove great burdens from the Hebrews and grant them new favors, if Moses would render the God whom he served propitious to him and induce the people to return after they had offered sacrifices in the wilderness.  Therefore it would be advisable to send envoys to Tanis and enter into negotiations with the Sublime Porte.