he siege. In another hour's walking they reached the forest,
and pressed on until the afternoon. Not that there was any need for
speed, now, but John felt a longing to place as wide a gap as
possible between himself and the great charnel ground which, alone,
marked the spot where Jotapata had stood.

At length, Jonas urged the necessity for a halt, for rest and food.
They chose a spot at the foot of a great tree, and then set to work
to collect a store of firewood. John took out the box of tinder
which, in those days, everyone carried about with him, and a fire
was soon lighted. Jonas then looked for two large flat stones, and
set to work to grind some grain.

The halting place had been chosen from the vicinity of a little
spring, which rose a few yards distant. With this the pounded grain
was moistened and, after kneading it up, Jonas rolled it in balls
and placed them in the hot ashes of the fire. In half an hour they
were cooked, and the meal was eaten with something like
cheerfulness.

Another day's walking brought them to a little village, nestled in
the forest. Here they were kindly received, though the people
scarce believed them when they said that they were survivors of the
garrison of Jotapata. The news of the capture of the town, and the
destruction of its defenders, had already spread through the
country; and John now learned, for the first time, the fate which
had befallen Japha and the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim--events
which filled him with consternation.

The folly of the tactics which had been pursued--of cooping all the
fighting men up in the walled cities, to be destroyed one after the
other by the Romans--was more than ever apparent. He had never,
from the first, been very hopeful of the result of the struggle;
but it seemed, now, as if it could end in nothing but the total
destruction of the Jewish race of Palestine.

John stayed for two days in the little mountain village and then,
with a store of provisions sufficient to last him for some days,
pursued his way; following the lines of the Anti-Libanus, until
that range of hills joined the range of Mount Hermon, north of the
sources of the Jordan.

He had stopped for a day at Dan, high up among the hills. Here the
people had no fear of Roman vengeance; for the insurrection had not
extended so far north, and the Roman garrison of Caesarea Philippi
overawed the plains near the upper waters of the Jordan.
Determined, however, to run no unnece