ents, and entered the Temple with the worshipers.

At a signal, the swords were drawn and the cry of battle was
raised. Eleazar and his followers at once fled, in dismay, to the
vaults under the Temple. The multitude in the courts above, panic
stricken at the threatened conflict, strove to escape. Many were
trampled under foot and killed. Some were wantonly slain by John's
followers, to whom murder had become a pastime.

When order was restored, John of Gischala went to the entrance of
the vaults, and shouted to Eleazar that he desired to keep his
oath, and would do him no harm; but that, for the general safety of
the city, he could be no longer permitted to hold the inner Temple
but must, with his men, take his share in the defense of the walls.
If Eleazar would agree to do this, he promised that no harm,
whatever, should be done to him or his followers. Eleazar, being at
the mercy of his foe, accepted the terms and, with his followers,
ascended into the Temple.

For once, John of Gischala kept his word. Eleazar was permitted to
retain the command of his own two thousand men, but his force
henceforth formed a part of the Zealot army of John. Thus, from
this time forward, there were but two factions in the city.

Josephus, always the bitter enemy of John of Gischala, speaks in
terms of the utmost reprobation of his conduct on this occasion;
and the occasion and manner in which the deed was effected cannot,
for a moment, be defended. At the same time, it must be admitted
that the occasion was an urgent one, that the existence of this
enemy in his midst crippled John of Gischala's power to defend his
portion of the city; and that the suppression of Eleazar's faction,
and the conversion of his troops from enemies into allies, was an
act of high policy, and was indeed a necessity, if Jerusalem was to
be successfully defended.

The desecration of the Temple, however, upon so sacred an occasion
as the feast of the Passover, filled all pious Jews with horror;
and caused John to be regarded with even greater detestation than
before. For the opinion of the unarmed multitude, however, he cared
little. He had crushed the faction of Eleazar, had added two
thousand men to his strength; and was now ready, without fear of
trouble within, to face the Roman enemy without.

The desperate sortie of the Jews had convinced Titus that, if
Jerusalem was to be taken, it must be by means of regular siege
operations, conducted with the g