At first they thought that he
was dead, but one of the Jews, who chanced to be a physician by trade,
declared that this was not so, and that if he were left quiet for a
while, he would come to himself again. Therefore, as they desired to
preserve this Prefect alive, either to be held as an hostage or to be
executed in sight of the army of Titus, they brought him into the Old
Tower, clearing it of their own wounded, except such of them as had
already breathed their last. Here they set a guard over him, though of
this there seemed to be little need, and went under the command of the
victorious Caleb to assist in strengthening the market-wall.
All of these things Miriam watched from above in such an agony of fear
and doubt, that at times she thought that she would die. She saw her
lover and Caleb fall locked in each other's arms; she saw the hideous
fray that raged around them. She saw them dragged from the heap of
slain, and at the end of it all, by the last light of day, saw Marcus,
living or dead, she knew not which, borne into the tower, and there laid
upon the ground.
"Take comfort," whispered Nehushta, pitying her dreadful grief. "The
lord Marcus lives. If he were dead they would have stripped him and
left his body with the others.
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