On its roof, which was
flat, were three columns of marble, terminated by gilded spikes. By the
gate one of the Sanhedrim was waiting for them, that same relentless
judge, Simeon, who had ordered Miriam to be searched.
"Has the woman confessed where she hid the Roman?" he asked of Caleb.
"No," he answered, "she says that she knows nothing of any Roman."
"Is it so, woman?"
"It is so, Rabbi."
"Bring her up," he went on sternly, and they passed through some
stone chambers to a place where there was a staircase with a door of
cedar-wood. The judge unlocked it, locking it again behind them, and
they climbed the stairs till they came to another little door of stone,
which, being opened, Miriam found herself on the roof of the gateway.
They led her to the centre pillar, to which was fastened an iron chain
about ten feet in length. Here Simeon commanded that her hands should
be bound behind her, which was done. Then he brought out of his robe a
scroll written in large letters, and tied it on to her breast. This was
the writing on the scroll:
"Miriam, Nazarene and Traitress, is doomed here to die as God shall
appoint, before the face of her friends, the Romans."
Then followed several signatures of members of the Sanhedrim, including
that of her grandfather, Benoni, who had thus been forced to show the
triumph of patriotism over kinship.
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