Kenkenes returned into the unhappy
streets again.
He went to the square in which the loiterers were congregated, even
though there was one dead in the household, and seeking out the most
intelligent, questioned him concerning the departure of the Pharaoh.
He learned that the king and the ministers had left Tanis, and driven
south, the afternoon after the night of death. At nightfall, sixteen
chariots from the nome followed him. And though the young man inquired
of many sources in the capital, he discovered nothing further.
Avowedly, it was Meneptah's intent to overtake the Hebrews, turn them
back, or destroy them. He could not accomplish that thing with a score
of ministers and sixteen picked chariots. It was evident that he meant
to collect an army near the track of the Hebrews, and that he had
departed for the rendezvous.
If the Israelites traveled but two miles an hour, they could cover the
distance between Pa-Ramesu and the Rameside wall by the sunset of this,
the second day after the death of the first-born. It would have been
the first act of the Pharaoh to close the gates of the wall against
them. The army of the north could gather from the remotest nomes by
the close of this day also.
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