es, who
had been driven from their home by the Dead Sea and taken refuge in
Jerusalem, sent messengers to Miriam warning her to flee from Tyre,
where a massacre was being planned; warning her also not to come to
Jerusalem, which city they believed to be doomed, but to escape, if
possible over sea. Nor was this all, for her own people, the Christians,
besought her to fly for her life's sake with them to the city of Pella,
where they were gathering from Jerusalem and all Judaea. To both Miriam
answered that what her grandsire did, that she must do. If he fled,
she would fly; if he stayed at Tyre, she would stay; if he went to
Jerusalem, she would go; for he had been good to her and she had sworn
that while he lived she would not desert him. So the Essene messengers
went back to Jerusalem, and the Christian elders prayed with her, and
having blessed her and consigned her to the care of the Most High and
His Son, their Lord, departed to Pella, where, as it was fated, through
all those dreadful times not a hair of their heads was touched.

When she had parted from them, Miriam sought out her grandfather, whom
she found pacing his chamber with a troubled air.

"Why do you look so sad, Miriam?" he asked. "Have some of your friends
warned you that new sorrows are afoot?"

"Yes, grandfather," and she told him all.

"I do not believe them," he said passionately. "Say, do you? Where is
their authority? I tell you that we shall triumph. Vespasian is now
Emperor in Rome, and there will forget this little land; and the rest,
those enemies who are of our own house and those without it, we will
conquer and kill. The Messiah will come, the true Messiah. Many signs
and wonders declare that he is at hand. Ay! I myself have had a vision
concerning him. He will come, and he will conquer, and Jerusalem shall
be great and free and see her desire upon her enemies. I ask--where is
your authority for these croakings?"

Miriam drew a roll from her robe and read: "But when ye see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand. Then
let them which are in Judaea flee unto the mountains; and let them which
are in the midst of her depart out; and let not them that are in the
country enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things
that are written may be fulfilled. Woe to them that are with child and
to them that give suck in those days! for there shall be great distress
upon the land and wrath unto this