"How darest thou announce these Hebrews?" cried the king, sharply, to his trembling grand-chamberlain.
"I could not forbid them, O king! I fled instinctively and without power of resistance before the majesty of their presence. Behold them advancing!"
Pharaoh turned pale. He essayed to give some fierce order to those about him, but his tongue failed him.
"Who will slay me these men?" cried the Prince Amunophis, seeing the king's troubled looks.
Not a man moved. Awe and curiosity took the place of all other feelings. Side by side the two brothers came unfalteringly forward till they stood before the monarch,—fixing their regards only upon him.
"What are ye come for, Moses and Aaron?" at length he uttered, in a thick voice. "Have I spared your lives, that you might come again to mock me in my palace?"
"We are come, O king," answered Moses with dignity, and looking far more kingly than he whom he addressed—"we are come in the name of the God of the Hebrews. He hath heard their cry from all the land of Egypt, by reason of their taskmasters, and I am sent to command thee, in His name, to send the children of Israel out of thy land!"
"Have I knowledge of your God? What is His power? Let Him make Himself known! Or, if He hath sent thee to me, where are thy credentials from His hand? I listen to no ambassadors from God or man, unless they show me that they are sent. By what sign wilt thou declare thy mission? If a king sent thee, show me his handwriting; if a god, show me a miracle!"
Aaron held the rod of Moses in his hand, and casting it upon the marble pavement of the court, it became a serpent, slowly gliding along the floor and flashing fire from its eyes. The servants of Pharaoh fled before it. The king upon his throne, at first, became alarmed, but seeing the monster inflate its throat and stretch lazily and innocuously along the lion-skin before his footstool, he smiled contemptuously and said—
"Thy Arabian life has given thee great skill, O Moses. Ho! call my magicians! I have magi that can equal thy art!"