Percival. Is the skeleton the only object seen in the sketch?
Seyton. No, no; let me examine more closely. Here, to the left, I dimly trace the heads and fore-parts of two horses; the animals, with distended nostrils and ears turned back, evidently starting in fear at suddenly coming on such an object of grisly horror lying right in their path.
The horses appear to belong to some Egyptian of rank: they wear the cumbrous trappings with which the antiquities at the Museum make us familiar. Had there been space on your canvas, we should doubtless have traced on it the outline of some gorgeous chariot, perhaps that of Pharaoh himself.
Percival. I have tried, by the tightly-drawn reins, to show that the driver of the chariot has suddenly perceived the ghastly obstacle in his path. By that skeleton, I intended to convey to the mind an image of death—that sudden death which was so close to Pharaoh and his godless hosts, even while they were pressing forward in eager pursuit of spoil and revenge.
Seyton. Now let us turn to the right hand of the picture which your pencil has bathed in mysterious light. I see an Israelite mother. Her mantle, falling back, shows a face of Oriental beauty, full of anxiety and fear.
Percival. Yes, she has heard the tramp and the snorting of the war-horses of Pharaoh; and she knows that she is the last of all the fugitives, the one nearest to the enemy. She has been left behind the rest: for in the confusion she had been separated from her child; and she has wildly sought him, and found him at last almost close to the fierce pursuers.
Seyton. And evidently utterly unconscious of danger. That bare-footed, beautiful little boy, whose face beams with delight, presents an expressive contrast to the anxious mother, who, grasping one of his small hands, is trying to draw him hastily away.
Percival. The child is exulting; for he has found a prize in the leviathan's fleshless jaws. His hand holds a beautiful coral.
Seyton. Percival! is this a picture or a parable?
Percival. Perhaps both. Do you grasp the meaning of the latter?