There, in an instant, clear and
long-drawn, his command to mount rang over the desert. Front and rear,
wing and wing, the trumpets took up the call, "To horse!" A second
command in the strong voice, a second winding of the many trumpets, and
with a rush of air and jar of earth the great army of the Pharaoh swept
like the wind toward the sea.
Kenkenes, Menes, Nechutes and those of the royal guard that had started
in pursuit of the traitor, did well to save themselves from
annihilation under the hoofs of twenty thousand horse. Bewildered and
amazed, they were an instant realizing what was taking place.
"He is running away with the army!" they said to themselves in a daze.
"He is running away with the army!" And they knew that not all the
efforts of the guards and the ministers and the Pharaoh himself would
avail, for the army had received its orders from its great commander
and no man but he might turn it back.
So the short-poled chariots, multi-tinted and gorgeous, wheel to wheel,
axle-deep in a cloud of dust, glittered out across the desert--sixty
ranks, ten abreast. Far to the left moved the horsemen, the dust of
their rapid passage hiding their galloping mounts up to the stirrup.
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