CHAPTER VI.

And now the prophecy had been fulfilled. The once fair land lay a barren waste. Egypt so long in thralldom to her myriad gods, was helpless, speechless, and prayerless, before the might of the ONE Jehovah. Hope was dead, courage had fled, and naught seemed left but a remnant of stubborn will in which to still cry out: "Israel shall not go."

The hour had come in which the last curse was to fall. Scarce had the sun gone down when the idiot King gave up the ghost, and through all the realm there arose a wailing cry: "Oh, my first born; oh, my son, my son!"