"One of John's men says that the heads of the arrows are blunted and
the most of them snapped in two when they are picked up."

"The Romans have ceased to shoot at him!"

"They say that his footprints in the dust on the Tyropean Bridge are
Hebrew letters writing 'Elia' in gold!"

"It is said that the inner Temple is rocking with trumpet blasts and
that John is struck dead!"

"They say that those who believe in him shall ask for whatever they
would have and have it!"

"The breaches in the First Wall have been healed; the old rock is back
in its place!"

"They say that the dead beyond the wall in Tophet are prophesying!"

"There is a bolt of lightning fixed in the sky over Titus' camp. We
are called to go forth and see it fall!"

A voice swept by distantly crying that a woman had eaten her child.
Crazed Posthumus, self-elected guardian of the Law, with the sacred
roll under his arm, declaimed, without any of his audience attending,
that prophecy which this horror fulfilled.

All Jerusalem was in the streets; all Jerusalem poured into the
immense open space where some palatial ruin stood, and melted in the
giant concourse that gathered to hear the prophetess.

Laodice and the Maccabee were unable to see the woman; only her voice,
mystic, musical, pitched at a singing monotone, intoning rather than
speaking, reached them from the distance. The long harangue, delivered
as a chant, had long ago had a mesmerizing effect on her audience.
Absolutely she controlled them; along the dead level of her preaching
they maintained a low continuous murmur, accompanied by a slight slow
swaying of the body; in the climaxes of the appeal they responded with
cries and wild gestures, flinging themselves about in attitudes
characteristic of their frenzy. In their faces was the reflection of a
peculiar light that proved that derangement had settled over
Jerusalem. It was the end of the reign of reason.

"It is the abomination of desolation. Even so, it is finished! It is
the time, it is full time, and Michael hath come. There are seventy
weeks; behold them. The transgression is finished and the end hereto
of all sins. Approacheth the hour for the reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision
and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy! Prepare ye!"

Somewhere in the city a voice that was heard even by the fighting-men
on the wall in Akra cried:

"The Sacrifice has failed! The Ob