spring flower, fell before the axe; the landmarks were thrown down, the water-courses destroyed; even the deep and shady glens were levelled and filled up with the masses of rugged and picturesque rocks which used to overshadow them. A broad and level road led from Scopos to the tomb of Herod, near the pool of Serpents.

While this work was proceeding, one day a considerable body of the Jews was seen to come, as if driven out from the gate near the tower of the Women. They stood cowering under the walls, as if dreading the attack of the Romans. It seemed as if the peace party had expelled the fiercer insurgents, for many at the same time were seen upon the walls, holding out their right hands in token of surrender, and making signs that they would open the gates: at the same time they began to throw down stones on those without. The latter appeared at one moment to endeavour to force their way back, and to supplicate the mercy of those on the walls; at another to advance towards the Romans, and then retreat as if in terror. The unsuspecting soldiers were about to charge in a body, but the more wary Titus ordered them to remain in their position. A few, however, who were in front of the workmen, seized their arms and advanced towards the gates. The Jews fled till their pursuers were so close to the gates as to be within the flanking towers; they then turned; others sallied forth and surrounded the Romans, while those on the walls hurled down stones and every kind of missile on their heads. After suffering great loss in killed and wounded, some of them effected their retreat, and were pursued by the Jews to the monument of Helena.

The Jews, not content with their victory, stood and laughed at the Romans for having been deceived by so simple a stratagem, clashed their shields, and assailed them with every ludicrous and opprobrious epithet. Nor was this the worst; they were received with stern reproof by their tribunes, and Cæsar himself addressed them in language of the strongest rebuke: The Jews," he said, "who have no leader but despair, do every thing with the utmost coolness and precau

tion; lay ambushes, and plot stratagems; while the Romans, who used to enslave fortune by their steady discipline, are become so rash and disorderly as to venture into battle without command." He then threatened, and was actually about to put into execution, the military law, which punished such a breach of order with death, had not the other troops surrounded him, entreating mercy for their fellow soldiers, and pledging themselves to redeem the blow by their future regularity and discipline. Cæsar was with difficulty appeased.

The approach to the city was now complete, and the army took up a position along the northern and western wall. They were drawn up, the foot in front, seven deep; the horse behind, three deep, with the archers between them. The Jews were thus effectnally blockaded; and the beasts of burden which carried the baggage, came up to the camp in perfect security. Titus himself encamped about a quarter of a mile from the wall, near the tower Psephia; another part of the army near the tower called Hippicus, at the same distance; the tenth legion kept its station near the Mount of Olives.

PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE-FAMINE-CRUCIFYING BEFORE THE WALLS.

ATER in the progress of the siege two walls had fallen, but still the precipitous heights of Sion, the im

pregnable Antonia and the stately

temple, lowered defiance on the invaders. Titus determined to suspend the siege for a few days, in order to allow time for the ter

ror of his conquests to operate on the minds of the besieged, and for the slow famine to undermine their strength and courage. He employed the time in making a magnificent review of all his troops, who were to receive their pay in view of the whole city. The troops defiled slowly, in their best attire, with their arms taken out of their cases, and their breast-plates on, the cavalry leading their horses, accoutred in their most splendid trappings. The whole suburbs gleamed with gold and silver. The Romans beheld the spectacle with pride, the Jews with consternation. The whole length of the old wall, the northern cloisters of the temple, every window, every roof, was crowded with heads, looking down, some with stern and scowling expressions of hate and defiance; others in undisguised terror; some emaciated with famine, others heated with intempe

The sight might have appalled the boldest; but the insurgents knew that they had offended too deeply to trust to Roman mercy, and that nothing remained but still to contend with the stubborn obstinacy of desperation. For four days this procession continued defiling beneath the walls: on the fifth, as no overtures for capitulation were made, Titus gave orders to recommence the siege: one part of the army was employed to raise embankments against the Antonia,

where John and his followers fought; the rest against the monument of John, the high priest, on the part of the wall defended by Simon. The Jews had now learned, by long practice, the use of their military engines, and plied them from their heights with tremendous effect. They had three hundred scorpions for the discharge of darts, and forty balistas which threw enormous stones. Titus used every means to induce them to surrender, and sent Josephus to address them in their native language.

Josephus with some difficulty found a place whence he might be heard, and, at the same time be out of arrow-shot. Whether his prudence marred the effect of his oratory or not, by his own statement, he addressed to them a long harangue. He urged their own interest in the preservation of the city and temple, the unconquerable power of the Romans, their mercy in offering terms of capitulation, and he dwelt on the famine which had begun to waste their strength. Neither the orator himself, nor his topics were very acceptable to the fierce Zealots. They scoffed at him, reviled him, and hurled their darts against his head. Josephus then reverted to the ancient history of the nation: he urged that the Jewish people had never yet relied on such defenders, but ever on their God. Such was the trust of Abraham, who did not resist, when Necho, the Pharaoh of Egypt, took away his wife Sarah! The orator seems here to have reckoned on the ignorance of his audience. He then recounted, first, the great deliverances, then the great calamities, of the nation; and proceeded in a strain of vehement invective little calculated to excite any thing but furious indignation in the minds of the Zealots. They, as might be expected, were only more irritated. The people, by his account, were touched by his expostulations; probably their miseries and the famine argued more powerfully to their hearts: they began to desert in num bers. Some sold their property at the lowest price: others swallowed their more valuable articles, gold and jewels, and when they fled to the Romans, unloaded themselves of their precious burthens. Titus allowed them to pass unmolested.

The news of their escape excited many others to follow their example, though John and Simon watched every outlet of the city, and executed without mercy all they suspected of a design to fly. This, too, was a convenient charge, by which they could put to death as many of the more wealthy as they chose.

In the mean time the famine increased, and with the famine the desperation of the insurgents. No grain was exposed for public sale; they forced open and searched the houses; if they found any, they punished the owners for their refusal; if none was discovered, they tortured them with greater cruelty for concealing it with such care. The looks of the wretched beings were the marks by which they judged whether they had any secret store or not: those who were hale and strong were condemned as guilty of concealment : they passed by only the pale and emaciated. The wealthy secretly sold their whole property for a measure of wheat— the poorer for one of barley, and, shrouding themselves in the darkest recesses of their houses, devoured it unground. Others made bread, snatched it half-baked from the embers, and tore it with their teeth. The misery of the weaker was aggravated by seeing the plenty of the stronger. Every knd feeling-love, respect, natural affection-were extinct through the all-absorbing want. Wives would snatch the last morsel from husbands, children from parents, mothers from children; they would intercept even their own milk from the lips of their pining babes. Even the most scanty supply of food was consumed in terror and peril. The marauders were always prowling about. If a house was closed, they supposed that eating was going on; they burst in, and squeezed the crumbs from the mouths and the throats of those who had swallowed them. Old men were scourged till they surrendered the food to which their hands clung desperately, and even were dragged about by the hair till they gave up what they had. Children were seized as they hung upon the miserable morsels they had got, whirled around and lashed upon the pavement. Those who Those who anticipated the