ropes passing over its middle; and hung, like the balance in a pair of scales, from another beam, braced by beams that passed on both sides of it, in the shape of a cross. This ram was pulled backwards and forwards by a great number of men; and battered the walls with the iron part, making a great noise. The strongest towers and the broadest walls were forced to give way to it.

The Romans brought up this ram to the walls of the city, covered with hurdles and skins to protect it; and at the very first stroke the wall was broken down; and a clamour raised by the people as if the city had been already taken.

"I am not at all frightened, Aunt," cried Anne, who nevertheless looked rather pale, "for I think Josephus will be able to match even this monster."

"Well, my dear, let us hear," said Aunt Jane; "I own I am quite anxious to know what invention will cure the mischief, which this ram has, already, been guilty of."

Wherever this battering ram was placed, Josephus ordered his men to hang down sacks filled with chaff, which turned the

stroke of the ram aside, and very much annoyed the Romans; for wherever they placed the ram, there they were sure to find the sacks ready for them. But by the contrivance of hooks at the end of long poles they cut down the sacks. The Jews now every moment expected that their wall would come down; and, in utter despair, they set fire to all the dry materials they could find, and sent them against the engines, which in an hour they had the pleasure of seeing entirely demolished. Added to this, we ought not to omit the exploit of a Jew of the name of Eleazar. He took up an immense stone, and hurled it, down from the wall against the ram, with such force, that it broke its head off, which he, having leaped from the wall, picked up, and returned to the top with the ram in his hand, standing as a mark for the enemy to aim at. In a moment, his body was covered with darts and stones, till he fell down into the ditch with the head of the ram.

The same evening, the Romans erected a new ram ; and began to batter a fresh part of the wall with it. In the mean time a Jew, from the wall, hit Vespasian with a dart on his

foot, and the Romans, when they saw the blood, made a great outcry, and spread the report through the army that their general was wounded. In a moment all left off fight. ing, and came running to the spot: and first of all Titus, who was in an agony at the news. But Vespasian concealed the pain his wound gave him, and ordered them to return to battle; which they did, vowing as they went to revenge their general.

The battering ram worked hard all night, and broke down the wall in many places; and Vespasian, the next morning, determined to take the city by storm.

Josephus perceived what he intended to do, and prepared the city for defence. The old men he placed at the sound parts of the walls, and where they were broken he placed his strongest troops. The women and children he shut up in their own houses, for fear that their cries and lamentations should make his men effeminate.

And now the trumpeters of the Roman legions sounded all at once, and the army made a terrible shout as they approached to make the attack. They placed their engines

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and their ladders against the walls, and, sheltered by their shields, which they held above their heads, they began to mount. The Jews in vain tried to prevent them: their darts and stones had no effect upon the shields of the Romans; great numbers of whom were rapidly rising to the top of the walls, when Josephus, with his ever-ready invention, ordered a quantity of scalding oil to be brought, which he poured down on all sides upon the Romans, and threw the red hot vessels upon them also.

The oil easily trickled down the whole body, underneath the armour, from head to foot, and so scalded the Romans, that they fell down in heaps, and rolled about in agonies, and in this state were easily pursued and beaten by their persevering enemies.

The Jews made use of another invention likewise, to stop the Roman soldiers in their ascent; they poured an oily substance upon the boards of the machines, so that they could neither get up higher nor go back again, but slipped about in every direction, many of them falling backwards and being trampled upon, and others pushed down and slain by the Jews.