, but in shapeless
sheets of flame, and ere they faded the deafening crash of the thunder
pealed forth, reverberating in wild uproar amid the hard, rocky
precipices of the rugged mountain, and dying away in deep, muttering
echoes along the end of the bay and the shore.

Whenever the clouds, menacing destruction, discharged their lightnings,
sea and land, human beings and animals, far and near, were illumined by
the brilliant glare, while the waters and the sky above were tinged
with a sulphurous yellow hue through which the vivid lightning shone and
flamed as through a wall of yellow glass.

Ephraim now thought he perceived that the blackest thunder-clouds came
from the south and not from the north, but the glare of the lightning
showed behind him a span of frightened horses rushing into the sea, one
chariot shattered against another, and farther on several jammed firmly
together to the destruction of their occupants, while they barred the
progress of others.

Yet the foe still advanced, and the space which separated pursued and
pursuers did not increase. But the confusion among the latter had become
so great that the warriors' cries of terror and their leaders' shouts
of encouragement and menace were distinctly heard whenever the fierce
crashing of the thunder died away.

Yet, black as were the clouds on the southern horizon, fiercely as
the tempest raged, the gloomy sky still withheld its floods and the
fugitives were wet, not with the water from the clouds but by the waves
of the sea, whose surges constantly dashed higher and more and more
frequently washed the dry bed of the bay.

Narrower and narrower grew the pathway, and with it the end of the
procession.

Meanwhile the flames blazing in the pitch pans continued to show the
terrified fugitives the goal of escape and remind them of Moses and the
staff God had given him. Every step brought them nearer to it. Now a
loud shout of joy announced that the tribe of Benjamin had also reached
the shore; but they had at last been obliged to wade, and were drenched
by the foaming surf. It had cost unspeakable effort to save the oxen
from the surging waves, get the loaded carts forward, and keep the
cattle together; but now man and beast stood safe on shore. Only the
strangers and the lepers were still to be rescued. The latter possessed
no herds of their own, but the former had many and both sheep and cattle
were so terrified by the storm that they struggled against p