Then a groan went up from the people. There was wailing in the streets. Pharaoh himself could bear no more. He sent for Moses and Aaron in the night time and said to them, "Rise up, you and the Israelites and all their children. Take all that you have and be gone." Then Moses and Aaron told the people, and bade them make haste lest again Pharaoh repent. But Pharaoh's heart was too heavy. At last his proud spirit was subdued, and Moses and Aaron, with 600,000 Israelites, set out for the land of Canaan. THE DESTROYING ANGEL. He stopped at last, And a mild look of sacred pity cast Down on the sinful land where he was sent To inflict the tardy punishment. "Ah! yet," said he, "yet, stubborn king, repent, Whilst thus unarm'd I stand, Ere the keen sword of God fill my commanded hand; Suffer but yet thyself and thine to live: Who would, alas! believe That it for man," said he, "So hard to be forgiven should be, And yet for God so easy to forgive!" Through Egypt's wicked land his march he took, And as he march'd the sacred first born strook Of every womb: none did he spare, None, from the meanest beast to Pharaoh's purple heir. Whilst health and strength and gladness doth possess The festal Hebrew cottages; The blest destroyer comes not there To interrupt the sacred cheer: Upon their doors he read, and understood God's protection writ in blood; Well was he skill'd i' the character divine; And though he passed by it in haste, He bow'd and worshipp'd, as he pass'd, The mighty mystery through its humble sign. --_A. Cowley_ [Illustration: THE EGYPTIANS DROWNED IN THE RED SEA.] [Illustration] THE RED SEA. When the Israelites were gone, peace settled down upon Egypt and all things prospered. This was because Pharaoh had given freedom to the people of Israel, and so had caused the displeasure of God to be removed from the land. But Pharaoh did not think of it in that way. He began, rather, to think that he had done a most foolish thing in allowing 600,000 faithful workmen and slaves to go out from the land. The Egyptians needed their help in brick making, and in the planting and reaping of the heavy crops. The more he thought of it, the stronger grew his determination to bring the Israelites back. He had forgotten the suffering that had come to his people; and perhaps he began to think this suffering might more easily have been kept away. So what do you suppose the foolish, hard-willed, stubborn-hearted Pharaoh did? He gathered together a great army and started out in pursuit of the Israelites. "If only we can overtake them before they reach the Red Sea," he thought, "we shall easily drive them back into Egypt." Now, the Lord heard the wicked plotting of Pharaoh, and although he allowed him to set forth, he allowed no harm to come to his chosen people.