nking and praying for me, and will
never throw away my life recklessly; and if the time comes when I
see that all is lost--that fighting is no longer of avail--I will
neither rush into the enemy's ranks to die, nor will I throw down
my arms and die unresisting, nor will I slay myself with my own
weapons; but I will strive, in every way, to save my life for your
sake, having done all that I could for our country, and the
Temple."

"That is all I ask, John. I am quite content to wait here, until
the day comes that you shall return; and then, though our cause be
lost, our country ruined, and God's Temple destroyed, we can yet
feel that God has been good and merciful to us--even if we be
driven out of our home, and have to become exiles, in a far land."

A week later, the news came that the Romans were preparing to take
the field. The young men of the village at once started, as
messengers, through the country. At night, a vast pile of brushwood
was lighted on the hill above Gamala; and answering fires soon
blazed out from other heights. At the signal, men left their homes
on the shores of Galilee, in the cities of the plains, in the
mountains of Peraea and Batanaea. Capitolias, Gerisa and Pella,
Sepphoris, Caphernaum and Tiberias--and even the towns and villages
almost within sight of Caesar's camp, at Caesarea--sent their
contingents and, in twenty-four hours, eight thousand armed men
were gathered on the slopes of Mount Galaad.

Each man brought with him grain, sufficient for a week's
consumption; and all had, according to their means, brought money,
in accordance with the instructions John and the other commanders
had issued. For John held that although--as they were fighting for
the country--they must, if necessary, live upon the country; yet
that, as far as possible, they should abstain from taking food
without payment, and so run the risk of being confounded with the
bands who, under the cloak of patriotism, plundered and robbed the
whole country.

The bands assembled, each under their leaders. It was easy to see
that they had come from different localities. Tarichea and Tiberias
had both sent two companies, and the aspect of these differed
widely from that of the companies of peasants, raised in the
villages on the slopes of Hermon or among the mountains of Peraea;
but all seemed animated by an equal feeling of devotion, and of
confidence in their young leader.

John, after carefully inspecting his own band,