e. Also among the Romans it was
a disgrace for a soldier, and especially for an officer of high rank, to
be made prisoner, and he was loth to expose his own shame. As Gallus had
told Miriam, no Roman should be taken alive. So Marcus attempted to do
nothing, but waited, sick at heart, for whatever fate fortune might send
him. Indeed, had he been quite sure that Miriam was dead, he, who was
disgraced and a captive, would have slain himself and followed her. But
although none doubted her death--except Nehushta--his spirit did not
tell him that this was so. Thus it came about that Marcus lived on among
the Essenes till his health and strength came back to him, as it was
appointed that he should do until the time came for him to act. At
length that time came.

When Samuel, the Essene, left Tyre, bearing the letter and the ring of
Miriam, he journeyed to Jerusalem to find the Holy City but a heap
of ruins, haunted by hyaenas and birds of prey that feasted on the
innumerable dead. Still, faithful to his trust, he strove to discover
that entrance to the caverns of which Miriam had told him, and to this
end hovered day by day upon the north side of the city near to the old
Damascus Gate. The hole he could not find, for there were thousands of
stones behind which jackals had burrowed, and how was he to know which
of these openings led to caverns, nor were there any left to direct him.
Still, Samuel searched and waited in the hope that one day an Essene
might appear who would guide him to the hiding-place of the brethren.
But no Essene appeared, for the good reason that they had fled already.
In the end he was seized by a patrol of Roman soldiers who had observed
him hovering about the place and questioned him very strictly as to his
business. He replied that it was to gather herbs for food, whereon their
officer said that they would find him food and with it some useful
work. So they took him and pressed him into a gang of captives who were
engaged in pulling down the walls, that Jerusalem might nevermore become
a fortified city. In this gang he was forced to labour for over four
months, receiving only his daily bread in payment, and with it many
blows and hard words, until at last he found an opportunity to make his
escape.

Now among his fellow-slaves was a man whose brother belonged to the
Order of the Essenes, and from him he learned that they had gone back
to Jordan. So thither Samuel started, having Miriam's ring still hid