es in which would have fallen the young Hebrew and the
gentle Ra'hel,--a general destruction, which this time would have
changed the waters of the Nile into real blood; and she strove to turn
away the King's wrath by her caresses and gentle words.

The funeral procession came for the body of the young prince, to carry
it to the Memnonia quarter, where it was to undergo the preparation for
embalming, which lasts seventy days. The Pharaoh saw the body depart
with a gloomy look, and he said, as if filled with a melancholy
presentiment,--

"Now have I no longer a son, O Tahoser. If I die, you will be Queen of
Egypt."

"Why speak of death?" said the priest's daughter; "years will follow
years without leaving a trace of their passage upon your robust body,
and generations will fall around you like the leaves around a tree which
remains standing."

"Have I not been vanquished,--I who am invincible?" replied the Pharaoh.
"Of what use are the _bassi-relievi_ of the temples and the palaces
which represent me armed with a scourge and a sceptre, driving my war
chariot over bodies, and dragging by their hair subject nations, if I am
obliged to yield to the spells of a foreign magician,--if the gods to
whom I have raised so many vast temples, built for eternity, do not
defend me against the unknown god of that low race? The prestige of my
power is forever gone; my wise men, reduced to silence, abandon me; my
people murmur against me. I am only a mighty simulacrum. I willed, and I
could not perform. You were right when you said just now, Tahoser, that
I am a man. I have come down to the level of men. But since you love me
now, I shall try to forget; I shall wed you when the funeral ceremonies
are over."

Fearing lest the Pharaoh should recall his word, the Hebrews were
getting ready for departure, and soon their cohorts started, led by a
cloud of smoke during the day and a pillar of fire by night. They took
their way through the sandy wastes that lie between the Nile and the Sea
of Weeds, avoiding the tribes which might have opposed their passage.
One after another, the Hebrew tribes defiled in front of the copper
statue made by the magicians, which possessed the property of stopping
escaping slaves, but this time the spell, which had been invincible for
centuries, failed to work; the Lord had destroyed it. The vast
multitude advanced slowly, covering the land with its flocks, its beasts
of burden laden with the riches borrowed