first efforts to cut off the race of the chosen, failed. He was however
so intent upon their extermination, that he did not hesitate to direct
that all the male children of the Israelites should be cast into the
river as soon as they were born.

While there were so many to court the favour of the monarch and ever
ready for the darkest deeds, how could the sons of the Hebrews now
escape? When Moses was born, his mother hid him three months; and when
concealment was no longer possible, she sought for the babe a strange
place of safety--in the very element which was indicated for its
destruction. The slender ark is framed by the mother's hands, and
deposited among the flags on the bank of the Nile. The morning was
perhaps dawning, and the sky yet gray, when the anxious mother
withdrew.

In a few hours after, the chant of the boatmen is suddenly hushed, and
the passing labourers shroud their heads in token of reverence, as,
surrounded by her attendants, the daughter of Pharaoh approaches the
river. The slight ark, with its precious burden, floating among the
reeds, attracts her eye, and, as her maidens draw it from the water, the
wail of the desolate infant strikes her ear.

"The babe wept"--and full fountains of womanly tenderness were broken up
in the heart of the princess of Egypt. "This is one of the Hebrew
children," said she; and as she drew him from the waves, she resolved to
save and adopt the child.

Miriam, the sister, had lingered near to watch, if not to save the
child. We may fancy the Hebrew maiden at a little distance, eagerly
bending forward, and gazing with intense and breathless interest. And