and carried off the effects of
the Egyptians, who, in their rage, fought against them, and revenged the
affronts they had received from them; but being overcome in battle, some
of them were slain, and the rest ran away in a shameful manner, and by
that means saved themselves; whereupon the Ethiopians followed after
them in the pursuit, and thinking that it would be a mark of cowardice
if they did not subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with
greater vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country,
they never left off the prosecution of the war: and as the nearest parts
had not courage enough at first to fight with them, they proceeded as
far as Memphis, and the sea itself, while not one of the cities was
able to oppose them. The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, betook
themselves to their oracles and prophecies; and when God had given them
this counsel, to make use of Moses the Hebrew, and take his assistance,
the king commanded his daughter to produce him, that he might be the
general [22] of their army. Upon which, when she had made him swear he
would do him no harm, she delivered him to the king, and supposed his
assistance would be of great advantage to them. She withal reproached
the priest, who, when they had before admonished the Egyptians to kill
him, was not ashamed now to own their want of his help.

2. So Moses, at the persuasion both of Thermuthis and the king himself,
cheerfully undertook the business: and the sacred scribes of both
nations were glad; those of the Egyptians, that they should at once
overcome their enemies by his valor, and that by the same piece of
management Moses would be slain; but those of the Hebrews, that they
should escape from the Egyptians, because Moses was to be their general.
But Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army before those
enemies were apprized of his attacking them; for he did not march by
the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his
sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because
of the multitude of serpents, [which it produces in vast numbers, and,
indeed, is singular in some of those productions, which other countries
do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and
mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out
of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at
unawares, and do them a mischief,] Moses invented a