The Yoke

ꃌ
The Yoke, by Elizabeth Miller

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yoke, by Elizabeth Miller This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
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
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOKE ***

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 fa?ades, 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 feet, led in a hundred directions, all merging in one great track toward the camp of the laboring Israelites.
This was pitched in a vast open in the city's center, wherein Rameses II had planned to build a second Karnak to Imhotep.