, or a slave, who, passing as it were indifferently the silent
retinue of the minister, threw out a word. That word Pentuer recorded
sometimes, but more frequently he remembered it, for his memory was
amazing.

No one in the noisy throng of the staff paid attention to these
details. The officers, sons of great lords, were too much occupied by
running, by noisy conversation, or by singing, to notice who approached
the minister; all the more since a multitude of people were pushing
along the highway.

On the sixteenth of Mesore the staff of Prince Ramses, together with
his dignity the minister, passed the night under the open sky at the
distance of five miles from the regiments which were arranged in battle
order across the highway beyond the city of Pi-Bailos.

In that early morning which precedes our six o'clock, the hills grew
violet, and from behind them came forth the sun. A rosy light flowed
over the land of Goshen. Villages, temples, palaces of magnates, and
huts of earth-tillers looked like sparks and flames which flashed up in
one moment from the midst of green spaces. Soon the western horizon was
flooded with a golden hue, and the green land of Goshen seemed melting
into gold, and the numberless canals seemed filled with molten silver.
But the desert hills grew still more marked with violet, and cast long
shadows on the sands, and darkness on the plant world.

The guards who stood along that highway could see with the utmost
clearness fields, edged with palms, beyond the canal. Some fields were
green with flax, wheat, clover; others were gilded with ripening barley
of the second growth. Now earth-tillers began to come out to field
labor, from huts concealed among trees; they were naked and bronze-
hued; their whole dress was a short skirt and a cap. Some turned to
canals to clear them of mud, or to draw water. Others dispersing among
the trees gathered grapes and ripe figs. Many naked children stirred
about, and women were busy in white, yellow, or red shirts which were
sleeveless.

There was great movement in that region. In the sky birds of prey from
the desert pursued pigeons and daws in the land of Goshen. Along the
canal squeaking sweeps moved up and down, with buckets of fertilizing
water; fruit-gatherers appeared and disappeared among the trees, like
colored butterflies. But in the desert, on the highway, swarmed the
army and its servants. A division of mounted lancers shot past. Behind
them marched