Now the Romans
had set up their battering engines at the very gates of the Temple, and
slowly but surely were winning their way into its outer courts.
On a certain night, about an hour before the dawn, Miriam woke Nehushta,
telling her that she was stifling there in those vaults and must ascend
the tower. Nehushta said that it was folly, whereon Miriam answered that
she would go alone. This she would not suffer her to do, so together
they passed up the stairs according to custom, and, having gained the
base of the tower through the swinging door of stone, climbed the steps
that ran in the thickness of the wall till they reached the topmost
gallery. Here they sat, fanned by the faint night wind, and watched the
fires of the Romans stretched far and wide around the walls and even
among the ruins of the houses almost beneath them, since that part of
the city was taken.
Presently the dawn broke, a splendid, fearful dawn. It was as though the
angel of the daybreak had dipped his wing into a sea of blood and dashed
it against the brow of Night, still crowned with her fading stars. Of a
sudden the heavens were filled with blots and threads of flaming colour
latticed against the pale background of the twilight sky.
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