the sand that is upon the sea-shore for multitude," etc.

But Joshua fell upon them and utterly destroyed them, root and branch.

That was his usual policy in war. He never left any chance for newspaper

controversies about who won the battle. He made this valley, so quiet

now, a reeking slaughter-pen.

Somewhere in this part of the country--I do not know exactly where

--Israel fought another bloody battle a hundred years later. Deborah, the

prophetess, told Barak to take ten thousand men and sally forth against

another King Jabin who had been doing something. Barak came down from

Mount Tabor, twenty or twenty-five miles from here, and gave battle to

Jabin's forces, who were in command of Sisera. Barak won the fight, and

while he was making the victory complete by the usual method of

exterminating the remnant of the defeated host, Sisera fled away on foot,

and when he was nearly exhausted by fatigue and thirst, one Jael, a woman

he seems to have been acquainted with, invited him to come into her tent

and rest himself. The weary soldier acceded readily enough, and Jael put

him to bed. He said he was very thirsty, and asked his generous

preserver to get him a cup of water. She brought him some milk, and he

drank of it gratefully and lay down again, to forget in pleasant dreams

his lost battle and his humbled pride. Presently when he was asleep she

came softly in with a hammer and drove a hideous tent-pen down through

his brain!

"For he was fast asleep and weary. So he died." Such is the touching

549

The Innocents Abroad