The Yoke | Page 5

time," Rachel said, speaking in a low tone, "for Israel
is in sore straits. The hand of the oppressor assaileth with fury his
bones and his sinews now. How shall it be with him if he is bequeathed
from Pharaoh to Pharaoh of an intent like unto the last three? He shall
have perished from the face of the earth, for the Hebrew bends not; he
breaks."
Deborah did not answer at once. Her sunken eyes were set and she
seemed not to hear. But presently she spoke:
"Thou hast said. But the Hebrew droppeth out of the inheritance of the
Pharaohs in thy generation, Rachel. The end of the bondage is at hand.
Thou shalt see it. Of a truth Israel shall perish. If its afflictions increase
for long. But they shall not continue. Have we entered Canaan as God
sware unto Abraham we should? Have we possessed the gates of our
enemies? Shall He stamp us out, with His promise yet unfulfilled?
Behold, we have gone astray from Him, but not utterly, as all the other
peoples of the earth. For centuries, amid the great clamor of prayers to
the hollow gods, there arose only from this compound of slaves, here, a
call to Him. Out of the reek of idolatrous savors, drifted up now and

again the straight column from the altar of a Hebrew, sacrificing to the
One God. Where, indeed, are any faithful, save in Israel? Shall He
condemn us who only have held steadfast? Nay! He hath but permitted
the oppression that we may have our fill of the glories of Egypt and be
glad to turn our backs upon her. He will cure us of idols by showing
forth their helplessness when they are cried unto; and when Israel is in
its most grievous strait and therefore most prone to attach itself to
whosoever helpeth it. He will prove Himself at last by His power. Aye,
thou hast said. Israel can suffer little more without perishing. Therefore
is redemption at hand."
Rachel had turned her eyes away from the humiliation of Israel to its
exaltation--from fact to prophecy. She was looking with awed face at
Deborah. The prophetess went on:
"Israel hath been a green tree, carried hither in seed and grown in the
wheat-fields of Mizraim. The herds and the flocks of the Pharaoh
gathered under its branches and were sheltered from the sun by day and
from the wolves by night. The early Pharaohs loved it, the later
Pharaohs used it and the last Pharaohs feared it. For it grew
exceedingly and overshadowed the wheat-fields and they said: 'It will
come between us and Ra who is our god and he will bless it instead of
the wheat. Let us cut it down and build us temples of its timber.' But
the Lord had planted the tree in seed and in its youth it grew under the
tendance of the Lord's hand. And in later years, though it lent its
shadow as a grove for the idols and temples of gods, the most of it
faced Heaven, and for that the Lord loves it still. The Pharaohs have
lopped its branches, unmolested, but lo! now that the ax strikes at its
girth, the Lord will uproot it and plant it elsewhere than in Mizraim.
But the soil will not relinquish it readily, for it hath struck deep. There
shall be a gaping wound in Mizraim where it stood and all the land
shall be rent with the violence of the parting."
The prophetess paused, or rather her voice died away as if she actually
beheld the scene she foretold, and no more words were needed to make
it plain. Rachel's hands were clasped before her breast. "Sayest thou
these things in prophecy?" she asked finally in an eager half-whisper.

Deborah's eyes seemed to awaken. She looked at Rachel a moment and
answered with a nod. The girl's vision wandered slowly again toward
the camp, and the sorrowful unrest of Israel subdued the inspired
elation that had begun to possess her. Her face clouded once more.
Deborah touched her.
"Trouble not thyself concerning these people. They go forth to labor,
but their burdens shall be lightened ere long. As for thee and me--" she
paused and looked up toward the eminence on which the military
headquarters were built.
"As for thee and me--" Rachel urged her. Deborah motioned in the
direction she gazed. "Come, let us make ready," she said; "they are
beginning."
The Egyptian masters over Israel of Pa-Ramesu were emerging from
the quarters. They were, almost uniformly, tall, slender and immature
in figure. Dressed in the foot-soldier's tunic and coif, they looked like
long-limbed youths compared with the powerful manhood of the sons
of Abraham.
Among them, in white wool and enameled