and flourished about their naked

they would rather die than yield.

swords, as if

Titus looked on, admiring the courage of the men, and pitying their sufferings. During this interval, one of the Romans shot an arrow at Castor, and wounded His companions pulled out the

him in the nose.

arrow and shewed it to Titus, complaining of the unfair treatment he had received. Titus re

proved the soldier who shot the dart; and desired Josephus, who was standing by him, to give Castor his right hand for security.

Josephus was too crafty to be taken in; and he told Titus that he was sure it was all pretence, and that nothing good was meant he therefore refused to go, and persuaded those who were about him to do the same.

Castor, however, kept calling out that some one should go and receive the money which he had about him. At length, a foolish fellow, named Æneas, ran up to him; but Castor threw a large stone at him, which, missing him, wounded another soldier, who happened to be in the way.

Titus, thus finding himself deceived, was very much irritated, and ordered the engines to begin working again; while Castor and his compa

CASTOR'S DEVICE.

137

nions set fire to the tower, and leaped into some caverns below. Of these the Romans knew nothing; and, supposing that these men had leaped into the fire, they could not but admire their bravery.

138

CHAPTER VIII.

TITUS Soon made himself master of the second wall, and entered that part of the city where the merchants sold their wool, and where was the market for cloth, and the braziers' shops; and if he had immediately demolished the wall, and let in all his troops, his conquest of the city would have been soon completed.

But Titus, as we have said before, was no lover of bloodshed: the hope, he constantly entertained, that the Jews would repent, made him keep his soldiers back. He was desirous, if possible, to save the city; and to save the Temple too, for the sake of the city; and he would neither allow his soldiers to set fire to the houses, nor to plunder the inhabitants.

The people in the city were well inclined to peace: but the Jewish soldiers laughed at the humanity of Titus; and threatened to put all men to death, who should even talk of peace. They attacked the Romans, drove a great many out of

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the city, and pursued them down the narrow lanes, where they had greatly the advantage, by being acquainted with all the little by-paths. Indeed, all the Romans, who had entered the city, would have been killed, if Titus had not ordered his archers to stand at the entrance of these lanes, and prevent the Jews from coming into them; and he himself stood with them, shooting darts at whoever approached, till all his soldiers had retreated out of the city.

The fighting-men in the city were not a little pleased at having driven the Romans away, after they had gained the second wall: and they began to boast that the Romans would never venture in again; and that, if they kept within the city themselves, they could never be conquered.

But they were very short-sighted; they did not perceive that a famine was creeping in-that terrible enemy to besieged towns. Poverty had for a long time been felt by the better sort of people, many of whom had died for want of necessaries. But this was very little regarded by the seditious, who did not care what became of their peaceable neighbours, so long as they could keep up the war. They little cared, therefore, for the fate of those within the city, at the same time that they vigorously defended themselves

from the Romans. They covered themselves with their armour, and formed a kind of wall with their bodies, which, for three days, the Romans in vain attempted to cut through: on the fourth day, however, they were obliged to give way to the furious attacks made upon them. They fled; and the Romans again became masters of the second wall. On this occasion, Titus was less lenient than before: he destroyed this wall, and, putting garrisons into the towers on the south of the city, made preparations for assaulting the third and last wall.

Titus, nevertheless, paused a little before he began, and thought he would again try either to persuade or to terrify the Jews into obedience. It was the time when his soldiers were to receive their pay; and he had them drawn out in battle array in front of the city, where each soldier had his money given him. They marched out, opened the cases, in which they kept their arms, themselves having on their breastplates, and their horses their gayest trappings. It was a very brilliant sight, and to the Jews most terrible, to behold so fine a body of men, glittering in their armour, in all their strength. The houses in the city were filled with spectators; and the whole of the city, together with the old wall,