The Yoke

The Yoke, by Elizabeth Miller

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Title: The Yoke A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the
Children of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt
Author: Elizabeth Miller
Release Date: August 22, 2005 [EBook #16583]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Al Haines

THE YOKE
A ROMANCE OF THE DAYS WHEN THE LORD REDEEMED
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT
BY

ELIZABETH MILLER

GROSSET & DUNLAP
Publishers -:- New York

COPYRIGHT, 1904
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
JANUARY

TO
PERCY MILLER
MY BROTHER
WHO CONSTRUCTED
THE PLOT

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
CHOOSING THE TENS II UNDER BAN OF THE RITUAL III THE
MESSENGER IV THE PROCESSION OF AMEN V THE HEIR TO
THE THRONE VI THE LADY MIRIAM VII ATHOR, THE
GOLDEN VIII THE PUNISHMENT OF ATSU IX THE COLLAR OF
GOLD X THE DEBT OF ISRAEL XI HEBREW CRAFT XII

CANAAN XIII THE COMING OF THE PHARAOH XIV THE
MARGIN OF THE NILE XV THE GODS OF EGYPT XVI THE
ADVICE OF HOTEP XVII THE SON OF THE MURKET XVIII AT
MASAARAH XIX IN THE DESERT XX THE TREASURE CAVE
XXI ON THE WAY TO THEBES XXII THE FAN-BEARER'S
GUEST XXIII THE TOMB OF THE PHARAOH XXIV THE
PETITION XXV THE LOVE OF RAMESES XXVI FURTHER
DIPLOMACY XXVII THE HEIR INTERVENES XXVIII THE
IDOLS CRUMBLE XXIX THE PLAGUES XXX HE HARDENED
HIS HEART XXXI THE CONSPIRACY XXXII RACHEL'S
REFUGE XXXIII BACK TO MEMPHIS XXXIV NIGHT XXXV
LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS XXXVI THE MURKET'S SACRIFICE
XXXVII AT THE WELL XXXVIII THE TRAITORS XXXIX
BEFORE EGYPT'S THRONE XL THE FIRST-BORN XLI THE
ANGEL OF DEATH XLII EXPATRIATION XLIII "THE PHARAOH
DREW NIGH" XLIV THE WAY TO THE SEA XLV THROUGH
THE RED SEA XLVI WHOM THE LADY MIRIAM SENT XLVII
THE PROMISED LAND

THE YOKE
A STORY OF THE EXODUS
CHAPTER I
CHOOSING THE TENS
Near the eastern boundary of that level region of northern Egypt,
known as the Delta, once thridded by seven branches of the sea-hunting
Nile, Rameses II, in the fourteenth century B. C., erected the city of
Pithom and stored his treasure therein. His riches overtaxed its coffers
and he builded Pa-Ramesu, in part, to hold the overflow. But he died
before the work was completed by half, and his fourteenth son and
successor, Meneptah, took it up and pushed it with the nomad
bond-people that dwelt in the Delta.

The city was laid out near the center of Goshen, a long strip of fertile
country given over to the Israelites since the days of the Hyksos king,
Apepa, near the year 1800 B. C.
Morning in the land of the Hebrew dawned over level fields, green with
unripe wheat and meadow grass. Wherever the soil was better for
grazing great flocks of sheep moved in compact clouds, with a lank dog
and an ancient shepherd following them.
The low, shapeless tents and thatched hovels of the Israelites stood in
the center of gardens of lentils, garlic and lettuce, securely hedged
against the inroads of hares and roving cattle. Close to these were
compounds for the flocks and brush inclosures for geese, and cotes for
the pigeons used in sacrifice. Here dwelt the aged in trusteeship over
the land, while the young and sturdy builded Pa-Ramesu.
Sunrise on the uncompleted city tipped the raw lines of her half-built
walls with broken fire and gilded the gear of gigantic hoisting cranes.
Scaffolding, clinging to bald façades, seemed frail and cobwebby at
great height, and slabs of stone, drawn and held by cables near the
summit of chutes, looked like dice on the giddy slide.
Below in the still shadowy passages and interiors, speckled with fallen
mortar, lay chains, rubble of brick and chipped stone; splinters, flinders
and odd ends of timber; scraps of metal, broken implements and the
what-not that litters the path of construction. Without, in the avenues,
vaguely outlined by the slowly rising structures on either side, were
low-riding, long, heavy, dwarf-wheeled vehicles and sledges to which
men, not beasts, had been harnessed. Here, also, were great cords of
new brick and avalanches of glazed tile where disaster had overtaken
orderly stacks of this multi-tinted material. In the open spaces were
covered heaps of sand, and tons of lime, in sacks; layers of paint and
hogsheads of tar; ingots of copper and pigs of bronze. Roadways,
beaten in the dust by a multitude of bare