note-making search of a spy in them.

"Ha! By Hector, that penurious Herod was a builder!" they seemed to
say. "There is enough stone insolence in these walls to trouble Rome
for a while!"

Rod after rod of the slowly rising ground he traversed; rod after rod
of the tall fortification passed under his inspection, and now the
twin Women's Towers rose upon the ashes and scarped rock to the north.

Titus spoke to his horse and rode faster.

Meanwhile silent dozens climbed panting and dumbly resisting the
sentries up beside the first Jews. They were citizens who dared not
rejoice aloud. They followed the young Roman with brightened eyes,
saying each within his heart:

"Thus David came up against Saul, unto Israel!"

But there was an increase of uproar in the city below, as if news of
the coming of Titus had spread abroad.

Titus was now almost a mile from the nearest of his soldiers. He
passed the Gate of the Women's Towers. Hedges, gardens, ditches and
wind-breaks of cedars of Lebanon from time to time obscured him. When
he came in sight again, he had placed obstruction between himself and
retreat.

The next instant the Gate of the Women's Towers swung in. Out of it
rushed a sortie of motley soldiery, brandishing weapons and shouting
the war-cries of Simon and John.

The citizens on the walls pressed their hands to their temples and
watched, transfixed with horror. Jerusalem's defenders had gone out
against the Deliverer!

The attack had been seen by the disorganized troops on Gareb and the
rapid trumpet-calls showed formation. But between the time of their
movement and the moment of their relief a company could have been
unhorsed. Meanwhile Titus, with nothing less than Fate preserving him
for its own work, dodged javelins and, enraging the white stallion
that he rode, kept out of reach of hand-to-hand encounter with his
assailants. Back and forward he rode, his horse carrying him at times
out of range of missiles; again, all but surrounded by the unorganized
enemy. About his head whizzed axes and spears, wild, and frequently
slaying their own. Far up the slope of Gareb the six hundred gathered
itself and swept in mass down upon the conflict.

Between them and Titus lay two furlongs. To join his column with all
honor to himself, he had to work back over the wadies he had crossed
and circle the gardens that stood in his way. But a hedge pressed too
close upon the space he must pass, between it and the enemy,