Besides these were walls, fortresses, gates and palaces
without number, so intricate and many that the eye could scarcely follow
or count them, and, between, the numberless narrow streets of Jerusalem.
These and many other things Ithiel pointed out to Miriam, who listened
eagerly till he wearied of the task. Then they looked downwards through
the overhanging platforms of stone to the large market-place beneath and
to the front, and upon the roofs of the houses, mostly of the humbler
sort, that were built behind almost up to the walls of the Old Tower,
whereon many people were gathered as though for safety, eating their
morning meal, talking anxiously together, and even praying.
Whilst they were thus engaged, Nehushta touched Miriam and pointed
to the road which ran from the Valley of Thorns on the northeast.
She looked, and saw a great cloud of dust that advanced swiftly, and
presently, through the dust, the sheen of spears and armour.
"The Romans!" said Nehushta quietly.
She was not the only one who had caught sight of them, for suddenly the
battlement of every wall and tower, the roof of every lofty house, the
upper courts of the Temple, and all high places became crowded with
thousands and tens of thousands of heads, each of them staring towards
that advancing dust.
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