Not until he halted to seek quarters for the soldiers did he hear from Hornecht, the captain of the archers, what had happened during the night.

He listened silently, without the quiver of an eye-lash, or a word of questioning, until his men had pitched their tents.

He had but just gone to rest when a Hebrew maiden, spite of the menaces of the guard, made her way in to implore him, in the name of Eliab, one of the oldest slaves of his family, to go with her to the old man, her grandfather.

The latter, whose weakness prevented journeying, had been left behind, and directly after the departure of the Hebrews he and his wife had been carried on an ass to the little but near the harbor, which generous Nun, his master, had bestowed on the faithful slave.
The grand-daughter had been left to care for the feeble pair, and now the old servant's heart yearned for one more sight of his lord's first-born son whom, when a child, he had carried in his arms.

He had charged the girl to tell Hosea that Nun had promised his people that his son would abandon the Egyptians and cleave to his own race.