ime, sank down overcome by the
heat, and where they fell they died.

From the Court of Israel went up one mighty wail of those who sank
beneath the sword. From the thousands of the Romans went up a savage
shout of triumph, the shout of those who put them to the sword. From the
multitude of the Jews who watched this ruin from the Upper City went
up a ceaseless scream of utter agony, and dominating all, like the
accompaniment of some fearful music, rose the fierce, triumphant roar of
fire. In straight lines and jagged pinnacles the flames soared hundreds
of feet into the still air, leaping higher and ever higher as the white
walls and gilded roofs fell in, till all the Temple was but one gigantic
furnace, near which none could bide save the dead, whose very garments
took fire as they lay upon the ground. Never, was such a sight seen
before; never, perhaps, will such a sight be seen again--one so awesome,
yet so majestic.

Now every living being whom they could find was slain, and the Romans
drew back, bearing their spoil with them. But the remainder of the Jews,
to the number of some thousands, escaped by the bridges, which they
broke down behind them, across the valley into the Upper City, whence
that piercing, sobbing wail echoed without cease. Miriam watched till
she could bear the sight no longer. The glare blinded her, the heat of
the incandescent furnace shrivelled her up, her white dress scorched and
turned brown. She crouched behind the shelter of her pinnacle gasping
for breath. She prayed that she might die, and could not. Now she
remembered the drink that remained in the leathern bottle, and swallowed
it to the last drop. Then she crouched down again against the pillar,
and lying thus her senses left her.

When they came back it was daylight, and from the heap of ashes that
had been the Temple of Herod and the most glorious building in the whole
world, rose a thick cloud of black smoke, pierced here and there by
little angry tongues of fire. The Court of Israel was strewn so thick
with dead that in places the soldiers walked on them as on a carpet,
or to be rid of them, hurled them into the smouldering ruins. Upon the
altar that stood on the Rock of Sacrifice a strange sight was to be
seen, for set up there was an object like the shaft of a lance wreathed
with what seemed to be twining snakes and surmounted by a globe on which
she stood a golden eagle with outspread wings. Gathered in front of it
were a