In silence they stared as though their multitudes
were stricken dumb, till presently, from far below out of the maze of
winding streets, floated the wail of a single voice.
"Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" said the voice. "Woe, woe to the City and the
Temple!"
They shuddered, and as it seemed to them, all the listening thousands
within reach of that mournful cry shuddered also.
"Aye!" repeated Ithiel, "woe to Jerusalem, for yonder comes her doom."
Now on the more rocky ground the dust grew thinner, and through it they
could distinguish the divisions of the mighty army of destroyers. First
came thousands of Syrian allies and clouds of scouts and archers, who
searched the country far and wide. Next appeared the road-makers and the
camp-setters, the beasts of burden with the general's baggage and its
great escort, followed by Titus himself, his bodyguard and officers,
by pikemen and by horsemen. Then were seen strange and terrible-looking
engines of war beyond count, and with them the tribunes, and the
captains of cohorts and their guards who preceded the engines, and that
"abomination of desolation," the Roman Eagles, surrounded by bands of
trumpeters, who from time to time uttered their loud, defiant note.
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