.

"There is no talk, is there, rabbi, of any movement on the part of
the Romans to come against us, in force?"

"None, so far as I have heard," the rabbi replied. "King Agrippa
remains in his country, to the east; but he has no Roman force with
him sufficient to attempt any great enterprise and, so long as they
leave us alone, we are content."

"They will come, sooner or later," Simon said, shaking his head.
"They are busy elsewhere. When they have settled with their other
enemies, they will come here to avenge the defeat of Cestius, to
restore Florus, and to reconquer the land. Where Rome has once laid
her paw, she never lets slip her prey."

"Well, we can fight," Solomon Ben Manasseh said, sternly. "Our
forefathers won the land with the sword, and we can hold it by the
sword."

"Yes," Martha said quietly, joining in the conversation for the
first time, "if God fights for us, as He fought for our
forefathers."

"Why should He not?" the rabbi asked sternly. "We are still his
people. We are faithful to his law."

"But God has, many times in the past, suffered us to fall into the
hands of our enemies as a punishment for our sins," Martha said,
quietly. "The tribes were carried away into captivity, and are
scattered we know not where. The temple was destroyed, and the
people of Judah dwelt long as captives in Babylon. He suffered us
to fall under the yoke of the Romans.

"In his right time, He will fight for us again; but can we say that
that time has come, rabbi, and that He will smite the Romans, as He
smote the host of Sennacherib?"

"That no man can say," the rabbi answered, gloomily. "Time only
will show but, whether or no, the people will fight valiantly."

"I doubt not that they will fight," Simon said; "but many other
nations, to whom we are but as a handful, have fought bravely, but
have succumbed to the might of Rome. It is said that Josephus, and
many of the wisest in Jerusalem, were heartily opposed to the
tumults against the Romans, and that they only went with the people
because they were in fear of their lives; and even at Tiberias many
men of worth and gravity, such as Julius Capellus, Herod the son of
Miarus, Herod the son of Gamalus, Compsus, and others, are all
strongly opposed to hostility against the Romans.

"And it is the same, elsewhere. Those who know best what is the
might and power of Rome would fain remain friendly with her. It is
the ignorant and violent classes have led us int