nd and lover, Marcus.' So, let those read it who have the
time; for my part I am satisfied. This woman is a traitress; I give my
vote for death."

"It was written from Rome two years ago," pleaded Miriam; but no one
seemed to heed her, for all were talking at once.

"I demand that the whole letter be read," shouted Benoni.

"We have no time, we have no time," answered Simeon. "Other prisoners
await their trial, the Romans are battering our gates. Can we waste more
precious minutes over this Nazarene spy? Away with her."

"Away with her," said Simon the son of Gioras, and the others nodded
their heads in assent.

Then they gathered together discussing the manner of her end, while
Benoni stormed at them in vain. Not quite in vain, however, for they
yielded something to his pleading.

"So be it," said their spokesman, Simon the Zealot. "This is our
sentence on the traitress--that she suffer the common fate of traitors
and be taken to the upper gate, called the Gate Nicanor, that divides
the Court of Israel from the Court of Women, and bound with the chain to
the central column that is over the gate, where she may be seen both of
her friends the Romans and of the people of Israel whom she has striven
to betray, there to perish of hunger and of thirst, or in such fashion
as God may appoint, for so shall we be clean of a woman's blood. Yet,
because of the prayer of Benoni, our brother, of whose race she is, we
decree that this sentence shall not be carried out before the set
of sun, and that if in the meanwhile the traitress elects to give
information that shall lead to the recapture of the Roman prefect,
Marcus, she shall be set at liberty without the gates of the Temple. The
case is finished. Guards, take her to the prison whence she came."

So they seized Miriam and led her thence through the crowd of onlookers,
who paused from their wanderings and weary searching of the ground
to spit at or curse her, and thrust her back into her cell and to the
company of the cold corpse of Theophilus the Essene.

Here Miriam sat down, and partly to pass the time, partly because she
needed it, ate the bread and dried flesh which she had left hidden in
the cell. After this sleep came to her, who was tired out and the worst
being at hand, had nothing more to fear. For four or five hours she
rested sweetly, dreaming that she was a child again, gathering flowers
on the banks of Jordan in the spring season, till, at length, a sound
c