when he found he had been duped. The women and
children soon began to drop behind; but the men pressed on, leaving
the helpless and despairing women behind them.

In the morning, when Titus appeared before the town, it opened its
gates to him at once; the people hailing him as their deliverer
from the oppression they had so long suffered, at the hands of John
and his bands of ruffians. Titus entered Gischala amidst the
acclamations of the people; and behaved with great moderation,
injuring no one, and contenting himself with throwing down a
portion of the walls; and warning the inhabitants that, if they
again rose in rebellion, the same mercy would not be extended to
them.

He had at once dispatched a troop of horse in pursuit of the
fugitives. They overtook them, and slew six thousand of the men,
and brought three thousand women and children back into the city.
John himself, with the strongest of his band, were not overtaken,
but made their way to Jerusalem.

The fame of the successful exploit, of the destruction of the Roman
camp, brought large numbers of young men flocking to the hills, as
soon as the Romans retired from Gamala, all eager to join the band;
and John could have recruited his numbers to any extent but, now
that all Galilee had fallen, and the Romans retired to their winter
quarters, he did not see that there was anything to be done, until
the spring. It would be madness to attack either of the great Roman
camps, at Scythopolis or Caesarea; and although, doubtless, the
garrisons left in Tiberias, Tarichea, and other towns might have
been driven out, this would only have brought upon those cities the
anger of the Romans, and involved them in ruin and destruction.

Still less would it have been of any advantage to go down, at
present, into Judea. That province was suffering woes, as great as
the Romans could inflict upon it, from the action of the factions.
Under the pretense of punishing all who were supposed to be
favorable to making terms with Rome, bands of armed men pervaded
the whole country, plundering and slaying the wretched inhabitants.

Law and order were at an end. Those in Jerusalem who claimed, for
themselves, the chief authority in the country had done nothing to
assist their countrymen, in the north, in their struggle with the
Romans. Not a man had been dispatched to Galilee. The leaders were
occupied in their own desperate feuds, and battles took place in
the streets of the city. Th