Presently, as she wondered, the great gates were opened very softly
and out poured the Jews upon their last sally. Miriam was witnessing the
death-struggle of the nation of Israel. At the foot of the marble steps
they divided, one-half of them rushing towards the cloister on the
right, and the other to that upon the left. Their object, as it seemed
to her, was to slay those Roman soldiers, who, by the command of Titus,
were still engaged in fighting the flames that devoured these beautiful
buildings, and then to surprise the camp beyond. The scheme was such as
a madman might have made, seeing that the Romans, warned by the sortie
of the morning, had thrown up a wall across the lower part of the Court
of Women, and beyond that were protected by every safeguard known to the
science of ancient war. Also the moment that the first Jew set his foot
upon the staircase, watching sentries cried out in warning and trumpets
gave their call to arms.
Still, they reached the cloisters and killed a few Romans who had not
time to get away. Following those who fled, they came to the wall and
began to try to force it, when suddenly on its crest and to the rear
appeared thousands of those men whom they had hoped to destroy, every
one of them wakeful, armed and marshalled.
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