[Footnote 9: Exodus, chapter ii. verses 3, 4, Revised Version.]

Then a strange thing happened. The princess came to the river with her
maids for a bath, and finding the babe, was touched by his cries. The
sister came up as if by chance, and asked if she should seek a Hebrew
nurse for the child, and when the princess said Yes, she went
straight for her mother.

So Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess, yet he was nurtured in
infancy by his own mother. This explains why, with all the Egyptian
learning acquired at court, he had still the religious training of a
Jew, and when he grew to manhood he was full of sympathy for the
wrongs of his people. One day he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, and
in his wrath he slew the Egyptian on the spot. News of the deed came
to Pharaoh the king, and Moses fled into a place called Midian. Here
for forty years he lived a quiet pastoral life as a shepherd for
Jethro, whose daughter he had married.

Then came the divine call. He was alone with his sheep on the
mountain-side, when he heard a voice saying, "Come now and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children
of Israel out of Egypt,... and I will bring you up out of the
affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites ... unto a land
flowing with milk and honey."[10] Thus Moses became the leader of his
people in their exodus, or departure from Egypt.

[Footnote 10: Exodus, chapter iii verses 10 and 17.]

[Illustration: MOSES. _Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome._]