side; and the death of his friend Nicanor, who ventured too near the walls and was shot, led him to begin by an act of vengeance-the setting on fire of all the suburbs, and the cutting down of all the trees. Then the batteringrams were advanced, and the assault began.

"The Jews threw stones and missiles of all sorts, and the Roman engines, especially the rams, replied. The very rocks were hurled at the city by the engines; and when the Romans perceived that their whiteness enabled the Jews to see them from afar, and to avoid them, they actually blackened the stones. As for the rams, they played in three different parts; and soon a corner tower came down. Then danger drew closer the foes within; they more cordially united; and their whole force came forth to destroy the embankments; but the energy of the Romans, and their undaunted perseverance, so wearied out the Jews, that they forsook the first wall, and allowed the Romans to enter and take possession of Bezetha. Then Antonia and the northern cloister of the temple became the scene of a more desperate conflict; the Jews constantly making furious sorties, and neither party daring to pass the night unarmed.

"The reckless valour of the Jews was their great strength; and it often was more than a match for Roman discipline. They tried stratagem, too, and a man named Castor made an elaborate feint of surrender for the sake of killing one man.

"It was not long before the second wall was lost and retaken; for the Jews knew the streets better than did the Romans, and were able to harass them to such an extent that they were glad to retreat.

"As for Josephus, he had been set free by Vespasian, his prophecy about the empire having gained him favour; only he remained on the Roman side. It was when the second wall had finally been taken, and partly thrown

down by the besiegers, that he was made to address his countrymen on their folly in maintaining the siege. But, all his eloquence was wasted on the Zealots; it only inflamed their rage, though of the common people many deserted at every opportunity, some of them first swallowing their valuables, that the tyrants within might not get them. However, Simon and John watched every outlet, and suffered none to pass whom they suspected, and it was at a desperate risk when any slipped out; for very early in the siege a poor Jew caught by the Romans was crucified in front of the walls.

There was injustice on every side; and both within and without the walls it seemed to be suffered to go on unchecked, as a retributive judgment for that great act of injustice committed nearly seven-and-thirty years before on Calvary.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

66

THE DAY OF DOOM.

They shall not leave in thee one stone upon another."LUKE xix. 44.

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UT now, added to all other sufferings of the siege, famine began to be felt. It would have surprised us to find how soon, did we not know all the previous circumstances; and here again it was the common people who suffered first: for Simon and John held the city only for themselves, so that the miserable citizens were starved by the very men who appeared to be defending them. Titus would willingly have separated their cause from that of the soldiery, and gave this out; but he could not, for the fierce chieftains threatened every one with instant death who even spoke of peace or surrender.

"The troops began now to enter the houses and carry off all the food they could find, so that it became dangerous to appear healthy and well; and the wretched citizens had to hide with what food they had in cellars and the darkest holes, and frequently to eat the meat raw and the flour unground, lest the smell of cooking or the sound of grinding should betray them.

"Often they were scourged, or dragged about by the hair, and their children dashed on the pavement to make them give up the necessaries of life. It was all this which caused the extreme misery of this siege. We can't conceive the despair to which those people of Jerusalem

must have been reduced. It makes one's blood run cold to think of it.

"As a last resource some of the poor creatures would creep down the ravines by night, and steal out to pick up anything that could possibly be eaten; but these, if the cruel Romans detected them, were tortured and crucified in front of the walls, all sorts of insults being added to their torments. Oh, must not they amidst their sufferings have often recalled the mockery of that other crucifixion!

"The Lord had indeed brought against them a nation from far, -a nation of fierce countenance, which neither regarded the persons of the old, nor shewed favour to the young. And he was besieging them in all their gates, until those high and fenced walls should come down. Literally did it come to pass, that in the siege they ate the flesh of their sons and daughters, so that even the tender and delicate among them grew hardened to the wants of their nearest and dearest; for in their mad despair we read that wives would snatch the last morsel from their husbands, parents from children, and children from parents. And one terrible story is told of a noble lady who boiled and ate her own son! Whole families lay dying at once; and when dead, none mourned or buried them. Only after a time, to rid themselves of the stench, the bodies were thrown out into the ravine below, and even Titus is said to have groaned when he saw these rotting heaps, and to have called on God to witness that this was not his work.

"The soldiers then began to suffer; but they knew so well that there was no mercy for them, that they only gained a sort of superhuman obstinacy and power of resistance and revenge. For instance, the Romans had been seventeen days raising embankments on which to mount their engines, and the assault was about to begin afresh, when suddenly the ground began to heave and shake, and

flames to burst forth. Simon had undermined the whole, and filled the excavations with fuel; so that engines and embankments were destroyed together. Then the Jews made a furious sally, and set fire to the Helepolis, or great battering-ram, killing all who defended it; so you see the city was not lost for want of a valorous defence. I think nothing could have exceeded the stubborn obstinacy of the Jewish soldiery. But Titus had resources inexhaustible, and no angel came to trouble his host as in the olden time. He began now to make a trench and a wall of circumvallation; and surely, surely in some ears, when they saw this, there must have rung the sound of our Lord's words, Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.'

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"Those within saw this work in progress, and many must have heard of the prediction; but whatever effect the remembrance may have had on some of the poor souls who were no longer free agents, it took none on the troops and their leaders, who continued to heap crime on crime.

"The high priest, a feeble old man named Matthias, was charged with treachery, and with his three sons immediately executed in sight of the Romans, a number of the Sanhedrim being put to death at the same time, while the parents of Josephus were cast into prison.

"This led to a conspiracy against Simon; and indignation gave a few men courage to offer to surrender one of the towers to the Romans; but of course they were suspicious, and while they hesitated, the plot was discovered, and all the conspirators put to death.

John, the Zealot, about the same time plundered the treasures in the temple, a crime far greater in the eyes of the Jews than all his murders; but as at the end of three months a measure of wheat was selling for a talent, no doubt he was at his wit's end how to feed his soldiers.