epeatedly to the
spot and examined the ground. The south-eastern angle of the temple wall
at Jerusalem (where the great stones are found) is distinctly visible
from the houses. I sat there upon my horse and remarked how unassailable
by cavalry and elephants this site must have been, and how great its
value for a military outwork to the sanctuary of the temple. The
pediment and moulding of a column lay at my feet,--around and opposite
across the valley were numerous sepulchres hewn in the solid rock; yet
the infantry of the Syrians were sufficient to overwhelm the gallant
defenders. Judas in this emergency resolved to come to their relief,
raising the siege of the citadel and outflanking the enemy. For this
purpose he "pitched at Bath Zacharias over against the king's camp,"
(ver. 32.) This was seventy stadia, or nearly nine Roman, or eight and a
half English miles distant from Bethsura, (Josephus' Antiq. xii. 9, 4.)
I believe Bath Zacharias to be the village which now bears the name of
"Bait Sahhoor of the Christians," close to Bethlehem. {432} I have
ridden over the space between the two villages called Bait Sahhoor; the
distance upon a well marked and rather winding road, answers well to the
description of the historian. The stratagem of Judas becomes here very
intelligible, which was to take the invaders in the rear, and placing
them between two hostile Jewish forces, to draw away the main attack from
Bethsura and Jerusalem; besides cutting off any assistance from the
south. Antiochus did face round in order to attack him, and was met in
narrow straits between the two localities. This I take to be the broken
ground south-east of Mar Elias, where certainly it would be just as
impossible now for two elephants to go abreast as it was when Josephus
wrote his lively description of the engagement that ensued; of the shouts
of the men echoing among the mountains, and the glitter of the rising sun
upon the polished accoutrements. It was summer, for they excited the
elephants with the blood of the grape and the mulberry. The road is to
this day defined by true tokens of antiquity, such as lines of stones
covered with hoary lichen, old cisterns, especially a noble one called
the _Beer el Kott_, with here and there steps cut in the shelves of solid
rock. The last part of the road on the south is among slippery, rocky,
narrow defiles and paths, half-way down the hill-sides.

Here six hundred of the Syrian army were c