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Di EIN COMMANDMENTS AGNOV ET ._ /BY HENRY MACMAHON FROM JEANIE MACPHERSON’S STORY PRODUCED BY CECIL B. DE MILLE As the Celebrated Paramount Picture *“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS” ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM THE PHOTOPLAY NEW YORK GROSS EVbs SoD UN) ASE PUBLISHERS Made in tne United States of America Copyrrianat, 1924. ny GROSSET & DUNLAP FOREWORD THosrE who have attended the picture pres- entation or followed the remarkable vogue of Mr. Cecil B. De Mille’s photodramatic spectacle of ‘‘The Ten Commandments,’’ will find their pleasure redoubled by reading this book. Many others, in anticipation of viewing the produc- tion, will get here the full length of plot and character detail and background to heighten their enjoyment. The work novelized by Mr. MacMahon is offered as a complete romance, equally enter- taining to all classes, nationalities or creeds. The story beginnings start somewhat earlier than Miss Maepherson’s continuity, but are in harmony with it. The kindness of the scenar- ist and producer in giving access to their basic researches and historical and technical ma- terial is greatly appreciated. It has been truly said that the Bible is the world’s greatest treasure house of dramatic and romantic themes. Here the co-laborers first wrought and evolved the tremendous Vv v1 FOREWORD power that makes the modern theme of ‘‘The Ten Commandments”’ so vital and enthralling. A story as powerful and unusual as ‘‘The Ten Commandments’’ interests every home and every civilized being, for inherent in it is the foundation of our life, the mainspring of our being. So this is a book you will not willingly lay down. Moses and Miriam and Dathan— Martha and Mary and John and Dan and Sally —speak to you with tremendous force, because a Power greater than mere mortal agency works in them and through them or despite them! THe PUBLISHERS. CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGE PROLOGUE: THE LAND OF GOSHEN . 1 THE HEBREW PRINCE . ; ‘ : iG Sixty YEARS AFTER—. . SRL f A PETITION TO THE KING . Be oes yh taaee ts" THE NINE PLAGUES . : Stat RU tbe A TRAGEDY BEFORE THE SPHINX ‘ 41 TWILIGHT OF THE OLD Gops . . 49 THE ESCAPE . oH | PA a i AR RANE Ge DELIVERANCE OF THE SEA . : SUE OE GHHOVAH) SPEAKSH OP ila UMe anita mtg iin Ged Tay COABAT Ate Cn) ; UM ee een Ate 1 Tae Bou Gop7s) VoTARES Vi i 95 DISASTER s : " : Le hee Os Is Ir tHE BuNnK? : Pee ots UN ES} Mary L&IGcH . : : : : el) AE Mary Finps A Home . . ae MartTHA’S RAGE AND DAN’S Cone 135 INTERLUDE: East oF SUEZ pian pone a Keb THe Suick Contractor . . . 14d END) OF SALUY’s: QuEsT ina 155 DIscovERY! . i : ‘ i TOO LOY, vil Vill CHAPTER XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVIT XXVIII XXIX XXK CONTENTS AT THE CHURCH, AND AFTER WHEN THE APSE FELL— . STRAIT Is THE GATE, NARROW THE Way JOHN AND DAN Dan GoEs TO SAuuy! . THe WAGES OF SIN Mary! , Toe Law INEXORABLE LIGHT OF THE WORLD . PAGD 173 LT 183 193 201 209 217 225 231 PERSONS IN THE STORY IN THE ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE A AND THE PLAYERS WHO ENACT THESE ROLES IN THE PICTURE MosEsS (ie., he who was “drawn out’) AARON, his brother and chief of the Levite priests RAMESES IT, King of Kinew ent Diaraah of Egypt Miriam, the younger sister of akon wad Aaron ; AN EGyYprian Teepe DaTHAN the Discontented : Son oF PHARAOH, ap First Born aa “apple of his eye” THE WIFE oF PHARAOH Tue Bronze Man, Attendant of Hine me oi Kings . JOSHUA, a young man facuaraed ta com- mand ‘ Dan McTavisy, who ates ne fret ae piece his “Golden Calf” : JoHN McTavisH (“Being a carpenter is about all I’m good for’) , MarTtHa MoTavisH, exemplar of Covenanter piety ; Mary L&EIeH, a waif from the Stree SALLY LuNG, an almond-eyed half-Celestial from Pondicherry . ReEppING, a city Building Tieeertor in league with Dan THE Docror THE Outcast (“Lord, if Thou A Thou canst make me clean!’’) Mrs. ix PLAYED BY Theodore Roberts James Neill Charles De Roche Estelle Taylor Clarence Burton Lawson Butt Terrence Moore Julia Faye Noble Johnson Gino Corrado Rod La Rocque Richard Dix Edythe Chapman Leatrice Joy Nita Naldi Robert Edeson Charles Ogle Agnes Ayres Fy tee aa rai, ae § ¥ ) M ee ey eat THE TEN COMMANDMENTS CHAPTER I PROLOGUE: THE LAND OF GOSHEN East of the ancient delta of the Nile there dwelt—more than three thousand years ago— a pastoral people whose flocks and herds and low habitations dotted the countryside. These white shepherd folk carried a tradition of wanderings from the banks of the Euphrates across Irak, Syria, Palestine, the desert of Sinai, and here at last they were domiciled under the sway of a dusky potentate, fellow subjects with the bronze-hued Egyptians. In ancient times the desert and the highlands frequently made impact with the centers of River culture. Wild storms of fighting nomads swooped down upon delta empires, obliterating the native rule and setting up military over- lordships of the fertile areas. 1 2 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS But the forebears of the people of our story had come as guests. In their privileged posi- tion the descendants had multiplied and grown rich. The Land of Goshen could no longer hold them; they had filtered into the towns, some had acquired fortunes as merchants and warehousemen, and others were high in the King’s service. The intruders—once guests—were literally children of Israel; their common forefather, Jacob, who was renamed Israel (Champion of God) because the Angel of the Most High had wrestled with him in the way. In the old age of Jacob, his son Joseph had won favor of the military Shepherd who sat on the throne of Kigypt. Joseph has been truly called the world’s first banker. In his capacity of Prime Minister he introduced the expedient of warehousing wheat against seasons of drouth, and his resourceful foresight saved millions of lives. Thus, in later years, through the wisdom of Joseph, the Is- raelites had a distinct claim on the gratitude of their hosts. Visualize then if you can the series of changes that led up to the Great Rift, and that THE LAND OF GOSHEN 8 to our mighty theme, the giving of the Com- mandments. After the lapse of over four hun- dred years, what a different picture is pre- sented ! For the few cattle herders, harbored in the marches of Egypt, had grown into a mighty racial minority of 600,000 souls. Their pa- trons, the Shepherd Kings, were overthrown by revolution. Jealousy and distrust were engen- dered. Both were fanned by the spirit of ra- cial and religious hate. The Israelites bowed not down to Amen-Ra and Apis and Osiris. They could not be assimilated to the Kgyptian barbaric civilization, civil or religious. And they were growing, growing, growing as to wealth and numbers, in face of the intense nationalism and the waves of bigotry that would suppress the alien and the unbe- liever. Came evil times on the Land of Goshen. The speckled herds grazing the marches were tended by graybeards, old women and children whilst the able-bodied men and women were commandeered for State work. On vari- ous pretexts the fortunes of traders and arti- sans in the cities were confiscated, The last 4 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS scion of Joseph was thrown out of the bureau- cracy. The Pharaohs (as the Kings of Egypt were known) were pushing ahead a vast build- ing program on which their slave labor was drafted. By an irony of fate the Israelites were forced to build two of Pharaoh’s vast Treasure Cities in their own Land. Pithom and Raamses— what monuments of blows and blood and tears and confiscation and killing toil those glories of Pharaoh became! Beautiful they were in the grand style of far-flung wall and majestic column and sculp- tured relief; terrifying through the tall colossi of god-like Pharaohs guarding their portals; overwhelmingly splendid in the approach down the Avenue of Sphinxes, great couchant figures half-lion and half-man, which, repeated twenty- four times, seemed to propound four times and ~ twenty the Riddle of Death! Eivery brick of the palaces was shaped and sun-dried and laid by an Israelite peon. Every monument of sculpture was dragged there and erected by their hands. At the brick-making and masonry, or aboard the horrible Sphinx wagon creaking under a five-ton load, stood an Overseer wielding a mighty whip. The lash THE LAND OF GOSHEN 5 came down on the bare backs of the loin-girt workers. Cuffs and kicks were administered by the armed guards to the unfortunates the whip didn’t reach. The spirit of grim tragedy was all about, for a darker fate met those who from mutiny or weakened physique did not fulfill the tasks. Often the offender was beaten to death in the sight of his loved ones. . The policy of repression was indeed one of calculated cruelty. It was hoped by the Pharaoh and his counselors that the spirit of the aliens would be broken until they merged into the indistinguishable helotry. ... Strange to say, the tough-fibered ex-herders, inured to a life of privation and toil, withstood the rigors of slavery. The weak died or were weeded out. The strong continued to multiply. Instead of sinking into a common helotage with the Nubians, Libyans and other slaves, the chil- dren of God’s ‘‘first champion’? managed to re- tain their racial integrity. Pharaoh cast about for other means of re- ducing them. Infanticide was resorted to. When the midwives (to their honor) lied to the King and confessed themselves unable to 6 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS kill the babes at the door of the womb, the King and his counselors sent out a general order to all his people re the aliens of Goshen: ‘‘Hivery son that is born ye shall cast in the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive!’’ Unhappy Land of Goshen! That was to be the end of Israelites as Israelites. Within a score of years at most the new generation of potential breeders and fighters would be choked off, and Egypt need not be harried by the night- mare thought of the alien dwellers within her gates possibly joining with her enemies against her. And the daughters ultimately would bear to their masters Kgyptian sons, strengthening the blood of the older race! Unhappy Land of Goshen! There was wail- ing and desolation for the tragedies of work camp and domestic hearth, but there was also keen circumvention of a people doggedly fight- ing being exterminated. A great many mothers succeeded in hiding and saving their boy babies, and such an incident forms the first event in the life of the Commandment-giver. CHAPTER II THE HEBREW PRINCE ‘‘Loox, Ament, see that toy boat floating up yonder !’’ ‘‘Daughter of Ra, I pray thee, I see not!’’ ‘‘Stupid! Cannot thy sharp old eyes make out the tiny thing bobbing up and down? So, turn thy head; follow the line of my arm, now thou canst see it. Hark! Did I hear a faint wail, or was it fantasy? Quick! Run to the Point ere it passes, and with a pole pull it in whatever it may be.”’ The speaker was a bronze beauty of twenty- five, a married but childless daughter of Pharaoh, taking her afternoon dip in a Nile cove. The place was well screened from water craft by a thick clump of flags, whilst along the Nile’s bank the handmaidens of the Prin- cess leisurely paced keeping guard; and only the old servant Ament accompanied her mis- tress into the water to assist in the ablutions. Among the thinner reeds towards the Point, the Princess had distinguished the gently bob- 7 8 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS bing little boat. She was delighted a few min- utes later to see old Ament returning with the captured craft, which she was holding straight in front of her like the butler with his tray. The queer ark (as they called it) was, save for vent holes, entirely enclosed. It was cun- ningly constructed of bullrushes, made water- proof by pitch and slime. Laughing excitedly, the Princess unclasped the hasp and lifted the cover. What she saw— ‘‘Oo-ee! It’s a baby,’’ said the Princess, in soft tones. ‘‘Look, Ament, what a sturdy little rascal, a beautiful little Horus, and I’m its Isis! But he’s hungry and c-c-cold—’’ She took up the infant and cuddled it. ‘‘But look, Nurse, it’s been crying, and the big tears are still rolling down.’’ She carefully dried them. The infant gazed up at her, cooed and smiled. T’ears were in the Princess’ eyes now, and she said: ‘‘Doubtless this is one of the Hebrews’ children, and Ra-Amen has sent it to me to save it!”’ ‘‘There’s a young Hebrew girl here,’’ sug- gested Ament, ‘‘who seemed to have been watching the ark.’? She brought forward a little maiden who made obeisance to the Egyp- tian princess and said: THE HEBREW PRINCE 9 ‘‘Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women who shall raise the child for thee?’’ ? ‘‘Go,’’ said the Princess. She turned to her confidante, who had been holding the child, and sald: ‘*He shall be called Moses (i.e., ‘drawn out’), and he shall be my son. Mayhap one day he will sit on the throne! Thanks be to Amen-Ra for this exceeding precious gift!’ In this tender comedy that preluded Israel’s terrific drama, the little maid was Moses’ sis- ter, and the ‘‘nurse of the Hebrew women’’ was none other than their mother whom the Princess paid day’s wages to fulfill the loved task. Sore at heart—withal happy that her son, now a scion of royalty, was saved from a darker fate—the mother, after the infancy and wean- ing, gave back the child to the daughter of Pharaoh. Young Moses grew up a princeling learned in all the ways and arts of the Egyptian court, a fearless swordsman, an accomplished archer, an acolyte observant behind the scenes of priestly craft and mages’ tricks. 10 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS Successive Divine Pharaohs passed away and were entombed in mummified immortality. His loved foster-mother died without reaping her ambition. He never openly could claim his own parental blood-kin. But the whisper about the ‘‘Hebrew Prince’’ was ever in the air; the lead- ers among the Israelites talked to him secretly. At their reguest he went out to the work places of the people, and learned with his own eyes that his nation was enslaved more cruelly than the very beasts of the field. To his hot, youthful spirit the spectacle was maddening. With difficulty the Prince re- strained himself from attacking wicked Over- seers and hacking them to pieces—a course of conduct that would have brought about a whole- sale butchery. But, returning one day from one of these scenes of flagellation, he saw by the roadside an Kgyptian beating unmercifully an undernourished Hebrew laborer. ‘‘Stop!’’ cried the Prince, intervening be- tween the pair. With his staff (for he was walking incognito) he diverted what might have been the death stroke. The brutish master faced him with uplifted weapon. ‘‘Who are you that dare to intervene twixt me and my slave?’’ he eried. THE HEBREW PRINCE ary ‘‘Tam—’’ Suddenly the newcomer bethought him the secret mustn’t be told. ‘‘Never mind what I am!’’ he replied, quickly glancing about to see that there were no witnesses of the en- counter, ‘‘but if you touch him again, I’ll kill youl’? The Hgyptian struck the victim a contemp- tuous side blow, then was upon the stranger like afury. Seeing red, the Prince drew forth his dagger and felled him. The thrust was true- aimed to the heart. With but a groan or two the brutish slave-driver expired, even as the beaten victim was kissing the hem of Moses’ robe and thanking his deliverer. ‘‘Go your way,’’ said the Prince to the wretched man, ‘‘and let none hear of what befell. ... I will attend to this.’’ After the slave had departed, the younger man scooped a hole in a sand dune, pushed the Egyptian’s carcass into it, and covered it up. He then obliterated the traces of blood from his clothing and from the scene of the encounter. Appalled at the shedding of blood, he nevertheless knew that he had struck to save a life, his own mayhap, the other’s certainly. And returning homeward he racked his wits to devise some scheme of creating a party at 12 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS Court that should influence the Pharaoh to tem- per the Israelite oppression. Alas, the hierarchical clique, bent on destroy- ing his kindred, was all powerful... . Oddly enough, ’twas the attempted role of peacemaker among his people that was the im- mediate cause of driving Moses out of Egypt. The second day thereafter, he again went forth incognito and spied two Hebrews fight- ing in a field. Approaching he said to the at- tacker, ‘‘Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?”’ The man turned on him with angry abuse. Evidently he recognized the ‘‘ Hebrew prince,”’ and word of the event of day before yesterday had spread widely, despite the injunction to secrecy. ‘‘Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?’’ said the quarreler, sarcastically. He came nearer, and leered into Moses’ face. ‘‘Do —you—mean—to—kill—me,’’ he said tensely, “* even—as—you—killed—the—E gy ptian?’’ Sorrowfully Moses turned away from the scene of the brothers’ strife. If even the field workers knew him as the slave-beater’s killer, surely it must reach the thousand ears and eyes of the Court and of Pharaoh. THE HEBREW PRINCE 13 Presently he received direct information that Pharaoh knew, and had sent out emissaries to dispatch him. There was no time to lose! Two of the Israelitish leaders contrived an effective disguise and sent him with a caravan bound across the Sinaitic peninsula. Privately he decided to slip away from it betimes and find a habitation in the land of Midian, through which they were to pass. He was young and strong, proven in battle, inured to the outdoors. Could he not (like his ancestors) take up the shepherd’s crook, and in that rough career find living and refuge? A fortnight later we see the erstwhile prince- ling seated by a well in Midian, wondering what the future is to bring forth. The well in that semi-arid land was the scene of endless disputes. At eve fighting nomads would appear with their flocks and hold it against all comers, even the resident shepherds of the neighborhood who held proprietary rights. Woe betide, then, the Iuckless girl flock-tenders! They too were driven away, often waiting until the late night watches be- fore they could get to it to water their parched rams and ewes. 14 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS Just such an event impended the day Moses sat by the well. Seven daughters of the aged local chief and high priest approached with their flocks, and again the nomad shepherds would have driven them away. But this time the stranger at the well stood up to help them. The stranger was tall and muscular and well-armed. His master- ful authority awed the nomads, backed as it was by his gleaming blade and his evident prowess. The comely shepherdesses were quickly served and quickly sped. The fugitive Prince felt himself well repaid by their lively gratitude and the favor he had found in the eyes of the comeliest, Zipporah. A short time later Moses was summoned to the home of Jethro or Reuel their father. He was an honored guest at the breaking of bread. ‘“‘Tarry with us a while,’’ said the pious Sheik. ‘‘Thou art a man of spirit, and we have need of thee.’’ Thus the fugitive from the face of Pharaoh became Sheik Jethro’s lieutenant in the part- shepherding, part-warring life of the Desert. He married the lovely Zipporah and rejoiced in a son. He mastered all the secret lore of the ‘‘priest of Midian.’’ Instead of the luxury, THE HEBREW PRINCE its, elitter and intrigue of the Court of HEgypt— false, hollow and rotten since founded on slav- ery—he was a free ‘‘prince of the desert’’ in the tending of Jethro’s ficcks. nay tat hye ny | iy. Pi DM AM aad ware de ' i CHAPTER IIT SIXTY YEARS AFTER— Axout sixty years after these events, two venerable men brought promise of God’s deliv- erance to the oppressed slave-dwellers of Goshen. The strange message was as follows: **T, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, have surely visited you, have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task- masters: for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large, a land flow- ang with milk and honey... .”’ Imagine the first reaction of incredulity, wonder. and mockery in Goshen over these words! For nearly a hundred years successive generations had been habituated to slavery. Kiven the worship of the God of Israel was for- bidden. The cult was secretly practiced (though neglected by multitudes of the work- weary who preferred the sensuous excitements 17 18 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS of the Bull-God Mnevis), and its ministers were not widely known save to the elders. One of these spoke up: ‘*We know thee, ancient Aaron, who art of the tribe of Levi and high priest of our people’s God. But who is this other, the bald, white- bearded stranger thou broughtest? And what sign have ye that Jehovah will put forth his hand??’’ ‘‘He is Moses my brother, the prophet of Jehovah,’’ replied the sage addressed. ‘‘Knew ye aught of the Hebrew prince?”’ A murmur of astonishment ran through the assembly. Few had not heard the oft-repeated legend of the adoptive Prince, exiled for fight- ing for his people. ‘‘God out of the burning bush,’’ continued Aaron, ‘‘commanded him to deliver Israel. Sixty years in the silences of the desert, he is slow and halting of speech. God hath ordered that I shall be the spokesman, saying unto him of me: ‘liven he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of Grodiai: Awe seized the elders at the sight of the silent Prophet who handed to Aaron a rod. The high priest cast it upon the ground. Lo! SIXTY YEARS AFTER— 19 the lifeless stick was transformed into a live and wriggling serpent. For the first time Moses (for it was none other than our gallant young hero, now grown very old) swayed from his rigid demeanor. He seized the wriggling snake by the tail, and it came back to his hand —a lifeless stick. ‘‘Jahveh! Jahveh!’’ shouted the elders and people. ‘‘Let us bow down and worship to the God of the Hebrews and follow this, his Prophet!’’ It had not been a welcome task to the aged recluse to come out of the Desert. Himself, wife and sons had prospered in Midian. All his ties were there. Though still strong in the green and patriarchal vigor of eighty, he nat- urally looked forward to an eve of contentment and measured action. But a disturbing Inner Voice prompted to obey the hest of his long-time-gone young man- hood and to die (if need be) in the freeing of his people. Nature commanded what his heart prompted. God spake to him out of the Burn- ing Bush. The wind, the lightning, the sky en- forced the message. And Moses knew that he was cunning—more cunning than all the Hgyp- 20 THK TEN COMMANDMENTS . tian magicians—in controlling and manipulat- ing the secret forces of Nature. His foresight of the course of the elements was uncanny. He performed wonders that caused his Desert in- timates almost to look upon him as a god. He could not speak eloquently, but Jehovah had prepared for this. His elder brother, the high-priest Aaron (who had lived all this while in Egypt) was the orator of the tribe; he was te be the spokesman and the sign-worker. The call to vengeance on the oppressor and the salvation of Israel was irresistible, and Moses answered it. He bade good-by to Mid- ian and the house of Jethro, taking Zipporah and his sons with him. In the Wilderness he met Aaron, sent out to meet him. They wor- shiped together on the Holy Mount. There Moses charged Aaron with the full content of the Divine embassy, instructing him also in the sions he had acquired in the Desert. They moved on into Goshen, where their kinsfolk (save Miriam, a younger sister) were long since deceased. Dead, too, were the men who had sought Moses’ life; dead his aforetime companions of the Court. ... They were as strangers in a strange land except for an Elder here and SIXTY YEARS AFTER— 21 there who remembered Aaron as the furtive, retired High Priest. ... The stage was set for their high but seemingly impossible Mis- sion. ... The wonder-workers from Midian made good of the Elders’ assembly, and whilst the people prayed, entered the gorgeous por- tals of the City of Raamses to beard the Pharaoh. CHAPTER IV A PETITION TO THE KING “Let my people go (saith the Lord God of Israel) that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilder- ness !” Tx Hall in which they found themselves was of vast proportions and gloomy magnificence. Its walls were decorated with cunning picture inlay and fantastic hieroglyph. In the longer dimension two rows of fluted pillars gave a ma- jestic vista up to the steps of the Throne and beyond to a great basalt image of Man-God- Lion in half body. Against the herculean black bosom was set the reigning Pharaoh’s dais, en- tablatured with the dread ensigns of his roy- alty. Before the pillars commanding the first flight of steps two live lions paced restlessly to the limit of their chains, and when they roared the farthest confines of the palace heard the sound! Above the second steps, on each side of the dais, the huge arms of the stone Colossus ter- minated in couchant paws. Ilumined by the 23 24 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS strange diffused light which is said to have been the secret precursor of our Kdisons, the Hall now kindled into life with the dazzling gems and jewels of the courtiers and the brightly flashing lances and battle-axes of the soldiery. ‘‘Make way for the Pharaoh!’’ The figure that entered and reposed on the dais while all abased themselves was majestic as a god. In its right hand rested the snake- twined scepter of Egypt, terminating in the lotus. The monarch’s elaborate head-piece was fronted by the ureeus, the carved semblance of a striking serpent. His necklace was a triple row of gems, flanked on either shoulder by the lotus. Below there depended, on his bare stom- ach, the sacred scarab. The royal arms were ablaze with jeweled armlets of gold, and the girdle and knee-length kirtle were of equal magnificence, whilst golden greaves and jeweled sandals, of which the points worked back in high circles, completed the bar- baric array. Weak men now and again had sat on the throne of Egypt, but here was no weakling! Rameses IT, the last and greatest of the monu- A PETITION TO THE KING 25 ment builders, had made all Egypt and all the subject races ministers of his vast exploits. Even now the Israelites were completing for him the age-long labors on Pithom and Raamses, whilst his vaulting ambition leaped forward to new enterprise—temples, palaces, the mausoleum that should give him immortal- ity! Power spoke in his mighty half-nude frame, his bold eyes and his handsome insolent features—autocratic power without a trace of chivalry. What a contrast, to the outer eye, in the peti- tioners that approached him! A gleaming-eyed, unshorn old man with pro- fuse white locks and billowing beard, clad in a plain desert robe and carrying a desert pil- grim’s staff. With him a shorter graybeard as old or older, more ceremonially dressed in cap and figured garments, upholding an em- blematic rod surmounted by a triangle. ‘“They be Moses and Aaron, chiefs of the laboring tribe known as Israel,’’ said the cham- berlain, ‘‘and crave audience of thee.’’ The shorter man would have abased him- self, but the old patriarch prevented. Anger gleamed in Pharaoh’s look as he imperiously pointed to the ground to command the obei- { 26 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS sance. But bowing only, not prostrating them- selves, the strange visitors came to the foot of the steps. The first words of Aaron, the spokesman, so astonished the monarch that the breach of ceremonial was forgotten. ‘‘TLet my people go, saith the Lord God of Israel, that they may hold a feast unto me in the Wilderness !’’ ‘‘Who is your Lord God,’’ thundered Ram- eses, ‘‘that I should obey His voice? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go!’’ ‘““The God of the Hebrews hath met with us,’’ replied the men reverently. ‘‘Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice unto Him, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.’’ The patience of the monarch was exhausted. What cared he for the Lord Jehovah, a desert deity—he who was the divine representative of Amen-Ra? Plainly these impudent stran- gers were stirring up trouble under religion’s cloak. Only a little of it, and his building schemes might be halted. ‘*Behold, the people of the Land of Goshen now are many,’’ shouted the King, ‘‘and ye make them rest from their burdens. Where- A PETITION TO THE KING 27 fore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the Israelites from their works? Get ye back to your bur- dens! I the Pharaoh have spoken.’’ He turned his head, and the petitioners were quickly conducted out of the palace.... The first essay of Moses and Aaron resulted in more grievous affliction for their people. Pharaoh, quick to act, decided that a more rigorous slavery would subdue the hopes of respite or freedom. Hitherto the material had been furnished to the brickmakers and masons. Baled straw was brought to the workers, and, using the straw as a binder, they fashioned the bricks out of the mud of the Nile. ‘‘Hereafter,’’ ran the edict of Pharaoh, ‘‘L will not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it—yet naught of your work shall be diminished !’’ Naturally the foremen of the people of Goshen (whom the taskmasters had set over them) were unable to deliver the daily tale, since the children of Israel spent much of their time in scouring the fields for straw stubble. 28 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The foremen were beaten by the overseers, and their ery came up to Pharaoh. The King gave them rough answer. ‘‘Ye are an idle people,’’ announced the Pharaoh scornfully. ‘‘ ’Tis therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go there- fore now and work, for there shall be no straw given you, yet shall ye deliver the daily tale of bricks!’’ Now was witnessed the sad spectacle of the weaklings, the little children, the infirm and decrepit of both sexes, working all day long in the fields and often far into the night to gather the stubble for the laborers’ daily stint. Hearth fires went out, the toilers snatched cold victual. The crops grew rank with weeds, and the cattle were neglected. The mooing of cows, bleating of sheep and braying of donkeys were added to the wails of the humanly oppressed. With whips and blows the cruel overseers sped the unintermittent toil. ‘‘Ye have made us abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants!’’ groaned the foremen to the new leaders. ‘‘Ye _ have put in their hand a sword to slay us. Let Jehovah judge twixt you and us!”’ A PETITION TO THE KING 29 Perhaps the saddest note of all was of per- sonal affliction. The brothers’ beautiful younger sister was a burden-bearer before the Sphinxes. In cohort with other young Hebrew girls, she wore a heavy yoke around neck and shoulders. In hods suspended on each side, they were obliged to carry staggering loads of bricks. At other times leathern bags were attached to the yoke sides, and the female slaves were used as water-carriers. There was no let-up from morn till night. The only variant was some overseer’s harsh- ness, often ending in yoking the unfortunate offender with a draught animal to a cart, thus converting God’s semblance into a veritable “beast of burden’?! — Miriam was comely, large-eyed and raven- haired. The grinding toil had not subdued her flowering youth nor soured her looks. In a free land she would have been the cynosure of the bold who admire the fair, but here in oppressed Goshen she was trothed to a sensi- tive and delicate youth who symbolized to her the pathos of her people. ‘“‘The water bottle!’’ shouted the overseer from his Sphinx wagon. 30 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS He was a great hairy, half-nude man, wield- ing a mighty whip, and his thunderous voice made many quake. Miriam, the nearest slave, approached. He detached one of the huge leather bags, and greedily drank. The girl’s eye was drawn to her lover, pulling on the Sphinx rope a few feet away. With outstretched hand and piteous expression that said more than words, he begged water. Momentarily she left the over- seer’s side and gave him to drink. ‘‘Back!’’ shouted that functionary, his own thirst quenched. ‘‘Pull her back from that dog of Israel, I say!’’ he yelled. A guard violently jerked the sister of Moses and Aaron away. The force of the movement was such that she was thrown to the ground. Like a roused tigress the girl recovered her- self and again sprang toward her lover. The overseer hopped up and down with rage—one hand shaking the whip, the other pointing an agitated finger at the disobedience. This time the attendant yanked Miriam yet more roughly. His jerks and blows stretched her half- stunned upon the ground. On the overseer’s face was tyrant vengeance. As she was com- A PETITION TO THE KING 31 ing to, he bent over her with a ferocious ex- pression. ‘Beware thou of crossing me,’’ he said, ‘‘lest haply I work thy leman to death, and make thee yokefellow to the ox!’’?... Yes, the overseer had his marked pets and aversions.... The slowly reviving Miriam could not help shuddering as she looked up at her gorilla-like Taskmaster... . CHAPTER V THE NINE PLAGUES “Behold, I will smite all thy borders.” Low as was the state of all Israel, wretched the plight of his blood kin, and loud the plaint of the headmen against the new movement, the Inner Voice made Moses go on. We must think of him as of an Indomitable Will to vex, harass and annoy; the chief won- der-worker of Egypt, versed in both the Egyp- tian mysteries and the desert lore; above all, the prophet of the true God! He had found God in the wilderness. The Almighty dweller in the smoke and fire of the Sinai Mount was his right arm and his sure defense. The eloquence of Aaron and the divine power expressed through Moses again brought the people together, and (though the people had murmured) reassured them of Jehovah’s prom- ise. It was now meet that Magic should be exerted. 33 384 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The frowning Pharaoh, wondering that his rigorous measures had failed to subdue sedi- tion, consented to a trial of strength twixt the mages of Egypt and the skill of the brothers. He thought he foresaw an easy victory, discred- iting the self-appointed helot leaders. But the teachings of Jethro (in which Moses had cunningly instructed Aaron) Game into play. With equal facility the mages of Egypt and the Israelite high priest transformed their di- vining rods into serpents, back into harmless sticks, and presto! again into serpents. But as the serpents of the Nile magicians wriggled along the ground, lo, the big snake that Aaron had let loose seized each of them in turn and swallowed them! This was a course of procedure not given in the Kgyptian magical books, nor even within the ken of the God Memnon’s priests, who could make the Sun’s ray burn or slay, evoke voices out of the Air and perform many sim- ilar wonders. ‘‘Ye are great magicians,’’? said Pharaoh finally, ‘‘but I will not let Israel go!’’ Their magic had not failed, however, for it had given the two wonder-workers charmed THE NINE PLAGUES 35 lives. In the primitive view, ’twas little use trying to killa mage. Most folk believed that his supernatural powers defied corporeal death! Now started a series of disasters, devasta- tions and plagues that harried the beautiful Land of the Nile as it had not been harried within human memory or the carven records of its twenty dynasties. In the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, Moses and Aaron turned the waters of Nilus red. The fish died. The river stank! Potable water could be had only by well-digging. The Egyptian sorcerers duplicated the hor- rendous feat, and so they did with its sequel plague—the millions of frogs, frogs, frogs that came hopping, hopping, hopping out of the red- dened river into the homes, sleeping places and even ovens and bread-pans of the wailing sub- jects of the Pharaoh. When the river para- sitism had disappeared and the frogs had per- ished, there came a plague of lice o’er the dusty land, and this was inevitably followed by the grievous swarms of flies that Moses alone had predicted. The sorcerers could note and claim as their enchantment the gradual growths in the river 86 THK TEN COMMANDMENTS and the march of the frog invasion, but the sud- denness of the new plagues baffled them com- pletely. ‘‘This is the finger of God!’’ they confessed to Pharaoh. Messengers came run- ning to Pharaoh with the news that whereas all Egypt was corrupted by flies there were none in Goshen! The God of Moses had put this sign of division betwixt His people and their Egyptian oppressors. The cowed monarch offered religious tolera- tion where they abode, but Moses rejected the half-boon. Israel must go three days’ journey into the Wilderness to sacrifice. ‘‘Ye shall not go very far away,’’ replied the monarch, figuring that he would provide an army for the escort. For the first time he had yielded partially to the men’s demands. Like the preceding plagues, the fly pest died out after the King had sued to the desert Prophet. Nevertheless, Pharaoh had no real intention of fulfilling his word, and with respite came re- newed refusal. The disease and death of the Kgyptian cattle; an eruptive ailment that attacked the men, women and children; the violent hailstorms that cast down the flax and barley and ruined © the fruit trees; the swaths of the seventeen- THE NINE PLAGUES 37 year-old locust that completed the vegetal dev- astation; and the Great Darkness falling on the land of Egypt for three days, during which all work ceased and the scared folk cowered and shivered in their homes—these were the strange visitations that marked the long strug- gle of the Pharaoh and Moses whilst the former parleyed and hagegled, promised and refused, until Moses at last in the other’s extremity announced the full program of his demands. We must go forward a little in our story to anticipate this crisis and clearly set forth what these terms were: All Israel must be allowed to depart with their goods and cattle. Yea, rich Egypt must fully equip them for their journey! Then—and then only—the strange visitations of Nature would be stayed, and happiness would be re- stored to the harried homeland and its people. Splitting over the question of taking the herds and flocks, the monarch and the Prophet parted. The King knew full well that the Is- raelites taking with them their possessions would never return. The State would be de- prived of the services of a quarter million able- bodied laborers, not counting the weaklings that gathered the brick straw. 88 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS His enterprises would wither. The magnificent mausoleum that was to give him immortality might never be built! And the shame to Egypt of letting a subject nation of 600,000 peons make a free getaway: the mark of it, the disgrace of it, would be ever upon him, like a defeat by a foreign power. The proud Rameses II, shaking off his awe of the Great Magician, trusting mayhap that the nine plagues had finished Nature’s toll, up- raised his palms outwardly and said: ‘‘Get thee from me, thou prophet of the Is- raelites! lake heed of thyself, and see my face no more. For in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die!’ In equal wrath the strange, white-bearded Wizard from Horeb slowly replied: ‘‘Thou hast spoken well—I shall see thy face no more!’’ Little thought Pharaoh, then, that there should be yet two more dread meetings by his own act! What Moses had done was but the faint ink- ling of what he was to do. Already he had fired the sorely oppressed for the hope and trial of redemption. All Israel knew him as the prophet of the true God. Goshen had es- THE NINE PLAGUES 39 ~ eaped the pestilence and darkness, the disease and death that had stricken the Nile lands. The wonders of his achievement were on every tongue. Slaves still, but a close-knit nation bound by the tie of faith in Jehovah and His prophet, they were about to inaugurate the most forward step in history. For the Covenant twixt God and Israel at Mt. Sinai is the beginning and the essence of civilized Law. Greater than magical wonder- worker, greater than primitive prophet of Na- ture’s convulsions (though supreme in each), Moses stands the revealer under God of the framework of our collective being. EKiternal Law of the Ages! The fundamental precepts of right conduct marked out, and the inexorable penalty, for the ‘‘wages of Sin is indeed Death’’! Such was the magnificent contribution of Moses to human affairs... . CHAPTER VI A TRAGEDY BEFORE THE SPHINX Tue gorgeous Treasure City of Raamses was nearly done, and the last Sphinx was being moved by Sphinx wagon to its site before the Palace. Word had been passed that Pharaoh would shortly issue from the Gate of Colossi, the main city gate flanked by four heroic statues of his ancestors. The huge colossi, thirty-five feet high above the wide pediments and of such proportions that the little finger was big as a man’s arm, faced the multitudes of toiling slaves. The children of Israel were doing the work of horses. ... Six long ropes were attached to the great wheeled platform carrying the five-ton load, and each was manned by fifteen or twenty tug- gers, whilst scores of others pushed forward the sides or bent to impel it from behind. Horribly the wagon creaked in its snail-like progress over the sand. Mightily the over- seer on the platform cracked his whip on the 41 42 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS tense and knotted bare backs, and raucously he eried: ‘‘Haste, Ye Dogs, haste ye to finish the work ere He comes!’’ Z-z-zipp! The flail de- scended on a group of weaklings. ‘‘Throw them out, I say,’’ yelled the Taskmaster to a guard. ‘‘Throw them out, and put in those other fellows.... Ready! Altogether, heave!’’ Slowly the wagon moved forward. The Taskmaster caught sight of Miriam with her leather panniers. Wielding the flail had made him hot and thirsty. He summoned her, laid a rough hand on her shoulder, and jerked the nearer bag from her hands. Like an animal he drank—more like animal than man indeed he looked and acted, in his kirtle of leopard’s hide, Beast-Man of huge limbs and _ trunk, hairy chest, and ferocious features! Below there was a commotion midway of the right-hand rope. A man had fallen, overpow- ered by the intense exertion and heat. A dozen pairs of hands stretched out to the girl, beg- ging water to revive him. From the step of the Sphinx wagon she saw that the prostrate one was her sweetheart. Forgetting the Task- master’s wrath, she ran to him. As she bathed his hot temples and wrists and TRAGEDY BEFORE SPHINX 43 moistened his parched lips, the man revived. She hugged him in a protective embrace. The enfeebled worker managed to rise and to make a show of resuming his task. The cruel Task- master had seen the violation of his orders. In a fury he would have dealt hardly with Miriam. But the necessity of finishing the job estopped him. Throwing the water bottle out of the scene, he rose and started to lash the workers. T'wo men helped Miriam to her feet. While the big brute on the cart re-started the drive, she had quickly slipped out of sight. But the violent jerk on the ropes caused the enfeebled lover of the girl to lose his balance. He fell again, this time in the direct path of the wheels of the juggernaut. ‘‘Kneel to the King of kings, the Conqueror of conquerors! Kneel to the mighty Pharaoh —dogs of Israel!’’ It was the royal Herald shouting from the steps of the nearest Colossus. The Taskmas- ter enforced the order. His attendants beat down the bent backs of the absorbed or un- willing. The fiail flashed stingingly across the sullen features of Dathan the Discontented, who dared once to gaze upwards with a venomous WOOK ahhe-2 44 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The Pharaoh came, magnificent, begemmed, seated in a royal palanquin borne by sixteen bearers, and preceded by a double file of sol- diery. The Taskmaster, eager for the royal favor, bade the Sphinx-moving resume as soon as the act of obeisance had been made. All rose to their posts save one—the poor wretch in the wagon’s path. Stretched flat beneath his rope, he was unable to get up nor could his companions pull him away. The Taskmaster looked towards the Pharaoh as for a signal. That monarch had seen the supine figure, but there was no mercy in his heart. ‘‘Tf a man clog the wheels of the Pharaoh,’’ said Rameses II, ‘‘he shall be ground into the dust!’’ The overseer’s savage eye lighted as he urged the wagon on and fulfilled his grudge. Miriam, the object of his hate, had returned. Powerless, she saw the huge wheel mangle her lover to death... Only after it had passed was she permitted to come close to the lifeless and mangled forms G27. ‘‘Lord God of Israel,’? she prayed, uprais- ing her hand to high Heaven. ‘‘See the afflic- TRAGEDY BEFORE SPHINX 45 tion of Thy people which are in Egypt, and hear ATOPY ile oa. The Pharaoh had a beautiful little son who was the darling of his eye. The last encounters of the monarch with the prophets of Israel should have prepared him for a terrible event- uality. The Son of Pharaoh was indeed wiser than he. As the gaunt prophets entered the full- panoplied Court and stood at the steps of the throne before the royal family, the little boy ran to the side of the throne and cried: ‘“‘Mighty Pharaoh, my Father—this man (Moses) has tormented us already with nine plagues! Let us slay him, before a tenth!’’ Rameses smiled indulgently upon his son. He was minded (as we have said) to let the Israelites worship for a little in the wilderness if that would content them. Yet the haughty bearing of Moses, who stopped Aaron from obeisance, provoked him. Pharaoh rose and imperiously pointed his hand to the ground in sign of their duty. *‘T kneel but to One,’’? Moses answered the monarch, ‘‘the Lord God of Israel, Who hath 46 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS smitten the Egyptians with nine plagues be- cause thou dost not let His people go!”’ The God of Israel indeed! Pharaoh looked away to the Altar, where before bright flames an Egyptian priest was invoking the statues of Heqt, Pasht and Harmakhis, of Apis, Mnevis and Anubis. The Captain of the Guard en- tered the throne room and pledged fealty with his sword. ‘‘Let more work be laid upon these idle Israelites!’’ ordered the King as if in an- swer to the prophet’s pridefulness. When the Captain departed, Moses mounted the steps of the throne. His eyes were coals of fire. His voice had all the portentous qual- ity of a judgment as he said: ‘“‘Be warned, O Pharaoh, let us Israel de- part, or God will come into the midst of Egypt, and all the First Born shall die—from the First Born of Pharaoh even unto the First Born of the captive in the dungeon.’’ Pharaoh rose at the astounding message, and the wife of Pharaoh left her handmaidens and hastened over to him. She too had heard the direful words. She clutched the King’s left wrist and placed her other comely hand upon his shoulder, as if imploring her consort to stay his wrath and avert the doom. On Pharaoh’s ‘“LHHdOUd AHL ONIMNOVILV AG NOILVOLIS ASNHL HHL ANON AO HHL “SJUAIUPUDUWMOTD UAT ay] ‘QANIJNY JUNOUDADA 3Y T, TRAGEDY BEFORE SPHINX 47 face was defiance. Yet the coal-like eyes of Moses seemed to burn into the royal pair. Hiven sans speech his grimly set pose and vis- age seemed to shout ‘‘Beware!”’ The little boy broke the tense situation by running in and attacking the Prophet. He carried a small, elegant, child’s riding whip with which he lashed furiously. The blows fell thick and fast on the ample black robe of the majestical old man, who did not notice them. The Pharaoh’s face relaxed into the grim- mest little smile at the fury of his offspring. He gently put the boy one side, then his face erew stern again as he asked: ‘““Thinkest thou that the curse of thy God can destroy the Son of Pharaoh—whose golden sandals have been beaten from the crowns of conquered Kings?”’ ‘¢Yea, my God is Almighty and must prevail, even over thee!’’? answered Moses solemnly. ‘Wilt thou be warned and let Israel go?”’ "Twas then (as told in the preceding chap- ter) that the King and the Prophet mooted the conditions of the leave-taking until at last the angered Pharaoh—resolute to deny the com- plete release that Moses demanded—said he would kill Moses if the disturber ever showed 48 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS his face at Court again. ‘‘Thou hast spoken well,’’ said Moses, turning away. ‘‘I shall see thy face no more!”’ The little lad had watched the altercation. As the Prophet slowly went down the steps to rejoin the waiting Aaron, the boy sprang forward again and whipped the retreating fig- ure. From the top step he hurled the whip after the priests of Israel. ... The divine Pharaoh spoke. ‘‘We are rid forever of these vain babblers,’’ he announced. ‘‘Let there be dancing and music!’’ Backward the exiting prophets looked upon a gay and profane scene. A comely band of gauzily clad musicians played tinkling and seductive airs. The while, a lissome young beauty knelt on the great pave before Pharaoh, then rising with upstretched arms, whirled ecstatic in passionate dance, the wide-floating draperies revealing every contour of her form. The plaint of Israel—the dread warning— had been completely obliterated from the hearts and minds of the dance-enthralled spectators. . .. Blind to all else, they saw not the terrible face of Moses. CHAPTER VII TWILIGHT OF THE OLD GODS “And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the First Born in the land of Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt—for there was not a house where there was not one dead!” Tur Plague of Death! What awesome images, what wailing and des- olation, what torture and black despair of the bereaved, this age-long concept brings up! A concept of which no faint shadow was ap- prehended by the modern world till the World War showed us. Only War (that grisly spec- ter) can be compared in its devastating mor- tality to the disease epidemic that anciently struck swiftly and in an incredibly short time wiped out the flower of a people. There was no way, then, of staying these germ-spread (and often vermin-brought) scourges of humanity. The death plague which struck Egypt was escaped by her Israelite slaves. To the Hebrew the event was a double deliverance. Lamb’s blood sprinkled that night on the lintels of every Hebrew dwelling—a rite en- 49 50 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS foreed by the command of Moses—was the sym- bol of their immunity. The scourge passed Goshen by. The hardy helots were untouched by its ravages.... Instead, all Israel was awake, vibrant and stirring. The power of God was at work as expressed through His prophet. He had gone direct from Pharaoh’s court to the camp of the leaders and had predicted the end of the struggle. The Lord would execute full judgment on Pharaoh and Kgypt, he told them. The de- stroying Angel would spare the homes and the First Born of the Chosen People wherever the sacrificial lamb was slain and its blood scat- tered over the door-posts. They must eat the meat of the Passover (as he called it), with their robes girded for a journey, with shoes on their feet, and with their staves in their hands; and they must eat it in haste. Kach family was also enjoined to borrow from the nearest Egyptians whatever valuables the latter might lend, particularly jewels of silver and jewels of gold. The awe of Moses and the fears of the plague-stricken people would result in a veritable harvest! TWILIGHT OF THE OLD GODS 51 One is to think now of the country of Goshen this historic eve as a seething hive, almost ready to swarm; heads of the households mak- ing ready the blood-sacrifice—the herdsmen herding their flocks—the young folks packing the domestic gear—the children all excitement and questions as they eagerly helped—the old- sters levying valuables from the neighbors in the awesome name of Moses’ cult. The house- wives stopped baking bread. The leeks, greens and savories no longer stewed in the pot. After blood-sprinkling the lintels before every household, the families sat down to meat and uncooked herbs—bowing and worshiping as Moses had commanded, to the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacoby That midnight the Pharaoh sat in the royal throne room which (save the regal dais) was empty and deserted. He had wished to be alone, fighting the inner Furies which assailed him. Kgypt was sick. The land had not re- covered from the nine plagues’ visitations. Pestilence was abroad, so his ministers re- ported. The Israelites continued refractory. As the monarch brooded, he was very much 52 THK TEN COMMANDMENTS surprised to hear footsteps, for usually none dared enter the presence unless when sum- moned. Far down the long corridor Rameses recog- nized the figure of the Bronze Man, an Hthi- opian who was his favorite attendant. The man was carrying something—what it was the ob- scurity of the pillared corridor made it difficult to distinguish. 'The Pharaoh bent his head again. The sound of steps grew louder. The Bronze Man was followed by the Queen and her at- tendants. Suppressed sobs were heard, and commotion—from the Hall of Osiris there came a wailing as of voices in the distance. The Bronze Man had cleared the pillars which partly hid him, and was before the King of Kings. In his arms he carried a small body. In a choked voice he said: : ‘‘Mighty Pharaoh, thy Son is dead!’’ Dazed, Rameses received the little body from the attendant’s arms.... In a near-by corridor the Queen had sunk to the floor, and with her kneeling attendants was wailing. ... Like one transfixed, the Egyptian king held TWILIGHT OF THE OLD GODS 53 the stricken form in his arms while one should count twenty, then in a strange voice spoke: ‘‘Summon thou Moses!’? The Prophet was already waiting at the door of the palace. He answered the summons in- stantly, for he knew that the hour had come. Swiftly he passed through the corridor and up the steps of the throne, then, with outstretched arm pointing to Pharaoh’s cold and lifeless burden, told the tragic general calamity of which the death of Pharaoh’s son was a part. ‘“‘This night the Lord hath smitten all the First Born in the Land of Egypt, and against the gods of Egypt hath he executed judg- ment!’’ He paused and spoke again. ‘‘Now therefore, O Pharaoh, wilt thou let his people depart?’’ Shuddering at the enacted doom, his hand averted and his features agonized, the stricken man replied: ‘‘Get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, to serve your Lord. Take your flocks and herds—and_ be- gone!”’ Moses had triumphed. 54 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The long sought permission was wrested at last, and the old Wonder Worker of Horeb went forth to summon the waiting host. But what of Pharaoh? The crazed father could not yet believe his son was beyond hope. On the Altar still burned brightly the orange flames to Anubis the Jackal; Mnevis, the be- loved Bull God; Harmakhis the hawk-nosed; Hegt the frog-headed; Pasht the lioness; Apis, the holy Bull of Memphis. Bearing his son’s body, Pharaoh carried it to these age-long protectors of Egypt. Gently he laid it down at the edge of the Altar, looking up questioningly at the huge statues. More brightly the sacrificial flames leaped up! Still embracing the dead body of his boy and with the other hand upraised in supplication, he cried: ‘‘Hearken, ye Gods of Egypt! Show that ye are stronger than this God of Israel—and call back life into the body of my Son!”’ Alas! the animal deities heard not nor could they grant the prayer! Vainly, through the remaining watches of the night, Pharaoh peti- tioned their succor. The rosy hues did not come back to the pal- TWILIGHT OF THE OLD GODS 55 lid cheeks. The lttle frame stiffened in rigor mortis. The morning dimness seemed the twilight of the Old Gods, powerless to restore what the God of Israel had stricken. Broad day broke upon their helpless, ugly impassivity, and Pharaoh’s anger waxed hot against Israel, for his deified images of metal and stone could not put life back into the loved form. At last the King rose, addressing the little figure on the altar: ‘““My First Born whom I have loved—hear me! This day shall Israel be ground under the chariots of EKgypt—thus shalt thou be re- venged upon their God!”’ Striding across the great hall, Pharaoh struck the Palace gong three times. The effect was as of magic. Headed by their captain, the ever-ready lancemen of the royal dwelling clattered down the stairway en masse, their lances first up- raised, then abased to the King, whilst the cap- tain of the guard did reverence. ‘¢Sound ye the trumpets!’’ cried Pharaoh in his blazing wrath. ‘‘Make ready the chariots, for we shall be avenged a thousand fold upon these dogs of Israel!’’ 56 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS At the Captain’s command, the gleaming force rushed up the stairway again. There was much to do, and there was need of haste. Whilst the trumpet spake, summoning the hosts, and the Master of the Horse commanded forth six hundred fighting chariots, the tiring women girded the terrible King of Kings in his BLIIOT eee CHAPTER VIII THE ESCAPE “And it came to pass, even the selfsame night, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” Stx hours before the mighty Rameses gave the command to his army of chariots to pursue, all Israel was on the march. All Israel had been ready, and the word of Moses flew in the quick orders of his lieuten- ants and the speeding of his swift messengers to every part of the little province of Goshen. The objective of the host was the wilderness on the east, where the Red Sea sends up an arm to the place now known as Suez. ‘‘Tsrael is free! Israel is free!’’ Miriam cried the tidings from the high ped- iment of one of the Colossi. Dathan roared it with full-sounding fury against the oppressor. Joshua, born to command, magnificently voiced the soul-thrilling message of Moses. ‘“‘Take ye your goods and your cattle and all that ye have got from the Egyptians to serve 57 58 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS the Lord in the wilderness. Haste ye forth from Raamses unto Succoth, for this night God hath freed Israel!’’ Very unwarlike the Exodus must have looked on that balmy Spring night three thousand years ago. The rays of the full moon cast a weird light on the strangest pilgrimage of history. At its head the majestic Prophet with his tall gnarled staff, pointing the way to the moon-lit desert beyond the shadows of the great Avenue of Sphinxes. Behind him a multitude whose vastness could only be guessed but was momentarily increased by country folk and their herds coming from many directions. Flocks of sheep and goats; long double files of camels, the immemorial ships of the desert; innumerable kine, driven reluctant from their Goshen pasturages; asses and mules, the colts trotting beside the mothers and snatching nutrition at the shortest halt; the Israelite children and their pets, playful lambs and kids whose hops, skips and jumps were very bothersome; here and there, a bob- _ bing howdah showing where some rich Hebrew transported his folk behind curtains in camel- THE ESCAPE 59 back grandeur; the bed-ridden old women in their wagons; the vast mass of able-bodied men, women and children trudging along afoot, bur- dened with loads of gear. The girl Miriam carried one of the biggest of these packs. She was good to the little ones and to the aged, helping start them on their way before taking up her burden. The glorious hope of new happiness mended her sorely stricken spirit, and even the dour Dathan seemed to share her curiously uplifted mood. ... As for the gathered thousands of the freed people, they were laughing, crying, running and jumping in their joy. No exertion seemed too great, no sacrifice of home-leaving too much, in the ravishing prospect of liberty from their bondage. Dawn found the motley, variegated host struggling o’er the bare, curved slopes and sand hills that precede the declivity of the Red Sea. Gayly hued and beautiful the pilgrimage was in the bright lights of the morning, stretching along many a mile in wavy irregular serpen- tine; the colorful costumes of the folks and the warm color tones of the animals set against 60 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS background of yellow desert and intense blue sky! But the helplessness of it. ... None knew whither he was going or what might hap. A host of unwarlike people setting out into the desert! What folly, what mad tempting of Fate it appears! There was need of the Wonder Worker, Israel’s leader, who alone could give guidance. The desert Prophet invoked the aid of Je- hovah. Before they made their second camp at Etham on the wilderness’ edge, a dark cloud to the eastward revealed and set their course. At night the same cloud flashed fire and gave them light. It would have been a quick journey across the northern neck of Suez to the land of Philistia which bordered their Promised new home of Canaan. But what chance had they—yesterday’s bond slaves—to withstand the proved prowess of the Philistines? Canaan (or Palestine, as we now know it) would have to be entered far to the southeast by way of Sinai. Were it possible that the shoals of the Red THE ESCAPE 61 Sea might be crossed, avoiding the warlike tribes farther up? (Napoleon Bonaparte—the reader should be reminded—more than thirty centuries later made that difficult passage, though he nearly lost his life.) Moses under God inclined their course until they found themselves opposite the westerly arm of the Sea. The course must have seemed to those who knew the country stark madness! Behind them, rocky hills; to the north and south, natural avenues of attack in the stretch of beaches; be- fore them, the seemingly impassable Red Sea. A natural trap! The children of Israel were cornered. ... Or were they? ... ‘‘And he made ready his chariot, and gath- ered before the great gates of Raamses six hundred chariots—and all the chariots of Egypt —and captains over every one of them.’’ The tocsin sounded Pharaoh’s charge. For hours the soldiery had been massing for the expedition, and at last all was ready. The horses ramped at the bits, the drivers held them back with taut muscles, the fighters armed themselves and leaped to the platforms. 62 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS Ag the Pharaoh in his royal chariot at the front said ‘‘Go!’’ the primitive battle array of antiquity’s mightiest kingdom hurtled itself out of the Avenue of Sphinxes and sped over the eastern sands in pursuit of the fugitive slaves. Little recked they for spill or collision as on, on, they plunged in mad haste to make the objective! Wrecks here and there—even the erisly spectacle of a jumbled up lot of men and horses precipitated headlong down a sand cliff —did not halt the general mass. Speed, speed, SPEED! was the all-essential—speed to catch the fugitives before they could seek the refuge of the Wilderness’ stony spaces. The broad track of the pursued lay in front. There was no mistaking the innumerable footprints. They had but to go on quickly, and the quarry would be theirs. | Rameses and all the soldiers bereaved in the terrible Tenth Plague exulted in their revenge. Not a man nor a man-child of the runaways should be spared until the full blood-lust was satiated! Panic seized the Israelitish host at the awful sight of the deadly chariot army bearing down upon them, The appearance of Pharaoh in THE ESCAPE 63 arms could mean but one thing—their annihi- lation! They cried to Heaven in their extrem- ity, many surrendered to black despair as if already lost, even the leaders quaked and trem- bled and bitterly regretted they had listened to the voice of Moses. Panic would have turned to indiscriminate flight, but there was nowhere to flee. The galloping horses of the Egyptians, thundering down the sands to the camp, would overtake the speediest runner. A cry ‘‘Moses! Moses!’’ went up. That venerable old man, with Miriam and Aaron, was standing on a point of land jutting into the water. Eyes shaded by his hand, he was gazing across one of the long indentations of the shore, towards Pharaoh’s approaching host. He was calm, but Aaron was frightened and Miriam was weeping. Frantically the people crowded out toward the little peninsula, wailing, imploring, begging, praying the Prophet to save them. Thousands of hands were outstretched to him in agony. Crying children tugged for protection at their mothers’ skirts. The mothers’ sheer terror caused the children’s cries to be unheeded. A tall dark man of saturnine cast pushed his way through the wailing throng and bearded 64 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS the Prophet. It was Dathan, and his venom- ous words were like the serpent’s stab. ‘Because there were no graves in HKgypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilder- ness? For is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, Let us alone, to serve the Egyptians? Truly it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die here at their hands!’’ The Prophet surveyed the man ealmly, silently without deigning an answer. A minute, thus; then he lifted his face and arms to the sky as one in communion with his Maker. Glancing yet again at the oncoming army in the distance, he turned to the host of the people and proudly said: ‘“‘Hear ye not, stand still, and see the salva- tion of the Lord which he will show to you to- day!’’ He prophesied again: ‘‘Hear and dread shall fall upon them! By the greatness of thy arm, O Lord, they shall be as still as a stone—till thy people pass over.’’ Was it vaunting or was it prophecy? Or knowledge of Nature, and Nature’s God? Far down the beach, a barrage of yellow- red flames appeared, blocking the Egyptians’ path. A south wind fanned the flames into THE ESCAPE 65 fantastic, mounting shapes, and rolled the black- gray smudge into the horses’ faces. Pharaoh halted his chariot, and the army of the char- loteers drew up behind him. Through the transparent orange-like fires, as the smudge cloud swayed this way and that, Pharaoh and his men could see the camp of Israel. But there was no way of passing the living death, and Pharaoh perforce stopped the advance, aghast at the strange barrage: when it did not shortly abate, he ordered rest and supper.... Yes, it was evening, and the Israelites in their camp noticed an even stranger thing. The sky in the east had cleared, and the heavens towards the Egyptians were blackened. As night drew on, the pillar of cloud protected the children of Israel, whilst its flashes gave them light to see. The two hosts were sundered as if by mountain walls! The Hebrews slept peacefully, awaiting the orders of their commander which would come just before the gray light of the early dawn. For Pharaoh and his officers ’twas a restless and foreboding night, worn by unending argu- ments about the strange nature of the phenom- enon and savage threats of what they would do on the morrow when it had passed... . é 4 hy, ty CHAPTER Ix DELIVERANCE OF THE SEA Aut that night a strong east wind blew and gradually lowered the shoals... . The treacherous Red Sea! What secrets it could tell if its age-long waters were articulate! Of man’s might con- quered and God’s power triumphant; of battle, sudden death, defeat and victory; of Napoleon himself almost entoiled in 1798, whereat the course of modern times might have changed and even World War might have been averted; of peaceful yoking of Red and Mediterranean by Suez Canal, giving Britain the way of the Seven Seas! More sphinx-like than the sphinxes, more majestic in its pyramidal power than the Pyramids of Gizeh confronting it, its bosom carried the galleys that brought to Med- iterranean littorals the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, the gold of Ophir, the frankincense of Arabia and the other precious things that pleased the divinities of Egyptian and of Jew: 67 68 THK TEN COMMANDMENTS thus a peaceful beneficent Neptune, were not its wild heart untamed! Like the awesome God-indwelling voleano of Mount Sinai on its jutting peninsula, the Red Sea’s mercy was mysterious, its violence sud- den and incalculable. Man’s might and boast were puny and vain beside it. Only the old Prophet of the adjacent Horeb desert—he who had walked with God and di- vined divine Nature—knew aught of the riddle of its winds and waves... . In that early dawn when the barrage be- twixt the two hosts was slowly dissipating, Pharaoh and his captain made reconnoissance. ‘‘See!’? cried the monarch, pointing off in the distance. ‘‘These dogs of Israel are already girded and afoot. Gird ye quickly, yoke ye the horses and the chariots, for ’tis my decree that the people of Moses be blotted out this day!’ ‘‘It shall be done, O King of Kings!’’ re- plied the captain with low obeisance. ‘‘Hven as the corn at the sharp edge of the reaping sickle, shall they be cut down. Your swift forces shall overwhelm them before yon east- ern sun hath fairly lit their path!’’ DELIVERANCE OF THE SEA 69 As soon as the brief preparations were com- pleted, the Pharaoh, once again his bold im- petuous vainglorious self, led the van.... Not a man of the twelve hundred warriors and charioteers doubted that instant victory would be theirs. . . . Scarcely a battle indeed, but a carnage that should satiate the vengeful blood LiPESS EOC ay But Moses’s look was toward the sea, where the waters had shoaled under the whipping of the night wind. The fury of Atolus was un- abated. With each successive blast the waters raced out like a tidal bore, churning and foam- ing like veritable cascading walls! Miriam and Aaron were wonderstruck at the strange spectacle, the while Dathan and others of little faith continued to gaze northward at Pharaoh’s army, giving themselves up as lost. The Prophet’s eye for a moment swept the nearer and the distant scene—the host of Israel, and the host of Egypt—as he cried: ‘‘Set ye forth!’’ The caravan of a people on the march was afoot for its journey. The herdsman had rounded up the cattle, the little ones and the invalids were in their wagons, the packmen and packwomen took up their burdens. ... Set forth—but whither? 70 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The people were already at the water’s edge, Pharaoh’s chariots about to thunder on them from behind, and the long strip of beach to the southward was devoid of refuge. Around Moses they gathered as they had the day be- fore, huddled and frightened. Moses raised his arms towards Heaven. ‘‘O Lord God, deliver thou us, even the deliver- ance of the Sea!?’’ He lowered his eyes to the boiling maelstrom in front of him, and stretched his right hand out over it. Hach side the central shoal the waters had parted till they seemed like a wall upon the right hand and a wall upon the left. Between them, the shallow place was rapidly drying in the first rays of the sun. Veritably ‘‘the floods stood upright in a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.’’ Moses turned to the fear-struck suppliants. 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