ay in sport so much water, when they supposed them not to have enough
to drink themselves. This made the Roman general despair of taking the
city by their want of necessaries, and to betake himself again to arms,
and to try to force them to surrender, which was what the Jews greatly
desired; for as they despaired of either themselves or their city being
able to escape, they preferred a death in battle before one by hunger
and thirst.

14. However, Josephus contrived another stratagem besides the foregoing,
to get plenty of what they wanted. There was a certain rough and uneven
place that could hardly be ascended, and on that account was not guarded
by the soldiers; so Josephus sent out certain persons along the western
parts of the valley, and by them sent letters to whom he pleased of the
Jews that were out of the city, and procured from them what necessaries
soever they wanted in the city in abundance; he enjoined them also to
creep generally along by the watch as they came into the city, and to
cover their backs with such sheep-skins as had their wool upon them,
that if any one should spy them out in the night time, they might
be believed to be dogs. This was done till the watch perceived their
contrivance, and encompassed that rough place about themselves.

15. And now it was that Josephus perceived that the city could not hold
out long, and that his own life would be in doubt if he continued in it;
so he consulted how he and the most potent men of the city might fly
out of it. When the multitude understood this, they came all round about
him, and begged of him not to overlook them while they entirely depended
on him, and him alone; for that there was still hope of the city's
deliverance, if he would stay with them, because every body would
undertake any pains with great cheerfulness on his account, and in that
case there would be some comfort for them also, though they should be
taken: that it became him neither to fly from his enemies, nor to desert
his friends, nor to leap out of that city, as out of a ship that was
sinking in a storm, into which he came when it was quiet and in a calm;
for that by going away he would be the cause of drowning the city,
because nobody would then venture to oppose the enemy when he was once
gone, upon whom they wholly confided. 16. Hereupon Josephus avoided
letting them know that he was to go away to provide for his own safety,
but told them that he would go out of the city for the