knowing who he
was, the Jew spared his life. It was a strange story, and anyone
besides Titus would have kept it to himself; and run his sword
through the body of the Jew, to make sure of his silence; but Titus
has notions of his own, and he is as generous as he is brave. By
what he said, I gathered that the Jew abstained from striking,
believing--as was truly the case--that Titus was more merciful than
Vespasian, and that he would spare Jerusalem and their Temple, if
he could.

"And now, why all these questions?"

"One more on my part first: what became of the Jew, and what was he
like?"

"That is two questions," the general replied; "however, I will
answer them. Titus let him go free, when he was recovered from his
wounds. He was a young man, of some twenty years old."

"And do you know his name?"

"I know his name was John, for so he told Titus; but as every other
Jew one comes across is John, that does not tell much."

"I can tell you his other name," Tibellus said. "It was John of
Gamala."

An exclamation of astonishment broke from the officers.

"So that was John of Gamala, himself!" the general said. "None of
us ever dreamt of it; and yet it might well have been for, now I
think of it, the young fellow I saw lying wounded in the tent next
to that of Titus answered, exactly, to the description we have
heard of him; and the fact that he overcame Titus, in itself, shows
that he had unusual strength and bravery.

"But how do you know about this?"

"Simply because John of Gamala is, at present, working as a slave
in my garden."

"You do not say so!" the general exclaimed. "We have often wondered
what became of him. We learned, from the deserters, that he had
entered into Jerusalem, and was fighting there against us. They all
agreed that the men he had brought with him took no part in the
atrocities of the soldiers of Simon, and John of Gischala; but that
they kept together, and lived quietly, and harmed no man. It was
they, we heard, who did the chief part in the three days' fighting
at the breach of the lower town; but we never heard what became of
him, and supposed that he must have fallen in the fighting round
the Temple.

"And so, he is your slave, Tibellus! How did you know it was he,
and what are you going to do? The war is over, now, and there has
been bloodshed enough and, after all, he was a gallant enemy, who
fought us fairly and well."

"He told me, himself, who he was," Tibellus said;