(viii) And now for the _eighth_ time the release of the people was demanded, and the monarch was told that, in the event of refusal, the country, already grievously devastated, should be given up to the awful ravages of the _Locusts_, which, in numbers, _such as neither his fathers nor his fathers’ fathers had seen_, should swarm in the palace and the hut, covering the face of the ground, and eating up whatever herb or tree had escaped the fury of the late storm. This announcement filled the Egyptians, already suffering severely, with uttermost alarm. _Let the people go_, they cried to their king, _that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?_ Even Pharaoh was fain to lend an ear to this remonstrance. Summoning Moses and Aaron, he informed them that he was ready to allow such as were _men_ amongst the Israelites to depart and serve their God, but their wives and children must remain as a guarantee for their return. The servants, however, of Jehovah, were not empowered to make this concession, and the plague began. A strong east wind blew continuously and brought the locusts, which in dense swarms covered the face of the land, so that it was darkened and became a desolate wilderness, without a leaf upon the trees or a blade of grass in the fields[65]. The obduracy of the monarch now broke down, and was followed by a brief repentance, which lasted no longer than the west wind which swept away the locusts; for once more, in the face of an utterly devastated country and a murmuring people, he refused to hearken to the word of the Lord (Ex. x. 1–20). (ix) Without the pre-announcements, therefore, which had preceded the infliction of the other plagues, the _ninth_ now appeared in the shape of _Darkness_[66] so dense _that it might be felt_, which for three days enveloped the entire land, save only the favoured country of Goshen. During this period the light of the sun was obscured, an awful and preternatural gloom shrouded the land, so that the Egyptians neither could see one another nor rise from their place. At the end of the three days Pharaoh once more capitulated; all the Israelites, young and old, might depart, the flocks and herds alone must remain. These conditions, however, were rejected by Moses, and he was dismissed from the palace with the warning to take heed that he saw the face of Pharaoh no more, for _on the day that he saw his face, he should surely die_ (Ex. x. 21–29). CHAPTER III. _THE LAST PLAGUE――THE PASSOVER――THE EXODUS._ EXOD. XI.–XV.