splendid
palace of Herod. Besides these were walls, fortresses, gates and palaces
without number, so intricate and many that the eye could scarcely follow
or count them, and, between, the numberless narrow streets of Jerusalem.
These and many other things Ithiel pointed out to Miriam, who listened
eagerly till he wearied of the task. Then they looked downwards through
the overhanging platforms of stone to the large market-place beneath and
to the front, and upon the roofs of the houses, mostly of the humbler
sort, that were built behind almost up to the walls of the Old Tower,
whereon many people were gathered as though for safety, eating their
morning meal, talking anxiously together, and even praying.

Whilst they were thus engaged, Nehushta touched Miriam and pointed
to the road which ran from the Valley of Thorns on the northeast.
She looked, and saw a great cloud of dust that advanced swiftly, and
presently, through the dust, the sheen of spears and armour.

"The Romans!" said Nehushta quietly.

She was not the only one who had caught sight of them, for suddenly the
battlement of every wall and tower, the roof of every lofty house, the
upper courts of the Temple, and all high places became crowded with
thousands and tens of thousands of heads, each of them staring towards
that advancing dust. In silence they stared as though their multitudes
were stricken dumb, till presently, from far below out of the maze of
winding streets, floated the wail of a single voice.

"Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" said the voice. "Woe, woe to the City and the
Temple!"

They shuddered, and as it seemed to them, all the listening thousands
within reach of that mournful cry shuddered also.

"Aye!" repeated Ithiel, "woe to Jerusalem, for yonder comes her doom."

Now on the more rocky ground the dust grew thinner, and through it they
could distinguish the divisions of the mighty army of destroyers. First
came thousands of Syrian allies and clouds of scouts and archers, who
searched the country far and wide. Next appeared the road-makers and the
camp-setters, the beasts of burden with the general's baggage and its
great escort, followed by Titus himself, his bodyguard and officers,
by pikemen and by horsemen. Then were seen strange and terrible-looking
engines of war beyond count, and with them the tribunes, and the
captains of cohorts and their guards who preceded the engines, and that
"abomination of desolation," the Roman Eagles, surrou