at it was altogether too late, now, to make terms; nor could we
expect that the Romans would keep to their conditions, after we had
set them the example of breaking faith.

"Cestius fell back to his camp, a mile distant, but he had no rest
there. Exultant at seeing a retreat from their walls, all the
people poured out, and fell upon the Romans with fury.

"The next morning Cestius began to retreat; but we swarmed around
him, pressing upon his rear, and dashing down from the hills upon
his flanks, giving him no rest. The heavy-armed Romans could do
nothing against us; but marched steadily on--leaving numbers of
dead behind them--till they reached their former camp at Gabao, six
miles away. Here Cestius waited two days but, seeing how the hills
around him swarmed with our people, who flocked in from all
quarters, he gave the word for a further retreat; killing all the
beasts of burden, and leaving all the baggage behind, and taking on
only those animals which bore the arrows and engines of war. Then
he marched down the valley, towards Bethoron.

"The multitude felt now that their enemy was delivered into their
hands. Was it not in Bethoron that Joshua had defeated the
Canaanites, while the sun stayed his course? Was it not here that
Judas, the Maccabean, had routed the host of Nicanor? As soon as
the Romans entered the defile, the Jews rushed down upon them, sure
of their prey.

"The Roman horse were powerless to act. The men of the legions
could not climb the rocky sides and, from every point, javelins,
stones, and arrows were poured down upon them; and all would have
been slain, had not night come on and hidden them from us, and
enabled them to reach Bethoron.

"What rejoicings were there not, on the hills that night, as we
looked down on their camp there; and thought that, in the morning,
they would be ours! Fires burned on every crest. Hymns of praise,
and exulting cries, arose everywhere in the darkness; but the watch
was not kept strictly enough. Cestius left four hundred of his
bravest men to mount guard, and keep the fires alight--so that we
might think that all his army was there--and then, with the rest,
he stole away.

"In the morning, we saw that the camp was well-nigh deserted and,
furious at the escape of our foes, rushed down, slew the four
hundred whom Cestius had left behind, and then set out in pursuit.
But Cestius had many hours' start and, though we followed as far as
Antipatris, we could not