ABSTRACT
The officers who return from the outside bring news to those who have not left the camp. Nothing yet. the vile Khita persist in remaining invisible, and all the Asiatics whom they question either know nothmg or will know nothing. A few young men are inclined to consider the action of the enemy a proof of
THE BA1""l'LE. 175
impotence and cowardice: Khitasir is hiding because he is afraid. The veterans shake their heads as they listen to these remarks; like Pharaoh, they think that the battle is neal', and the less the enemy shows himself the more they distrust him. The vile Khita has good generals, a well-disciplined army, allies full of energy; if he does not move it is because he is preparing some surprise. 1£ the eye could .penetrate the ravines and woody mountains that surround the plain, perhaps the army so vainly sought for two months might be discovered. The storm usually gathers on the heights; woe to us on the day that it bursts over the plain. Meanwhile Pharaoh would do well to redouble his vigilance. A surprise is sudden in warfare, and a. defeat under the walls of Kadesh would take the army back to Gaza more quickly than it had come.
