were levelled to the ground. The
predictions of the prophets were fulfilled,--the holy city was a heap of
desolation. Zedekiah, with his wives and children, had escaped through a
passage made in the wall, at a corner of the city which the Chaldeans
had not been able to invest, and made his way toward Jericho, but was
overtaken and carried in chains to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar was
encamped. As he had broken a solemn oath to remain faithful, a severe
judgment was pronounced upon him. His courtiers and his sons were
executed in his sight, his own eyes were put out, and then he was taken
to Babylon, where he was made to work like a slave in a mill. Thus ended
the dynasty of David, in the year 588 B.C., about the time that Draco
gave laws to Athens, and Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome.

As for Jeremiah, during the siege of the city he fell into the power of
the nobles, who beat him and imprisoned him in a dungeon. The king was
not able to release him, so low had the royal power sunk in that
disastrous age; but he secretly befriended him, and asked his counsel.
The princes insisted on his removal to a place where no succor could
reach him, and he was cast into a deep well from which the water was
dried up, having at the bottom only slime and mud. From this pit of
misery he was rescued by one of the royal guards, and once again he had
a secret interview with Zedekiah, and remained secluded in the palace
until the city fell. He was spared by the conqueror in view of his
fidelity and his earnest efforts to prevent the rebellion, and perhaps
also for his lofty character, the last of the great statesmen of Judah
and the most distinguished man of the city. Nebuchadnezzar gave him the
choice, to accompany him to Babylon with the promise of high favor at
his court, or remain at home among the few that were not deemed of
sufficient importance to carry away. Jeremiah preferred to remain amid
the ruins of his country; for although Jerusalem was destroyed, the
mountains and valleys remained, and the humble classes--the
peasants--were left to cultivate the neglected vineyards and cornfields.

From Mizpeh, the city which he had selected as his last resting-place,
Jeremiah was carried into Egypt, and his subsequent history is unknown.
According to tradition he was stoned to death by his fellow-exiles in
Egypt. He died as he had lived, a martyr for the truth, but left behind
a great name and fame. None of the prophets was more vener