aused her to awake. She looked up to see Benoni standing before her.

"What is it, grandfather?" she asked.

"Oh! my daughter," groaned the wretched old man, "I am come here at some
risk, for because of you and for other reasons they suspect me, those
wolf-hearted men, to bid you farewell and to ask your pardon."

"Why should you ask my pardon, grandfather? Seeing things as they see
them, the sentence is just enough. I am a Christian, and--if you would
know it--I did, as I hope, save the life of Marcus, for which deed my
own is forfeit."

"How?" he asked.

"That, grandfather, I will not tell you."

"Tell me, and save yourself. There is little chance that they will take
him, since the Jews have been driven from the Old Tower."

"The Jews might re-capture the tower, and I will not tell you. Also, the
lives of others are at stake, of my friends who have sheltered me, and
who, as I trust, will now shelter him."

"Then you must die, and by this death of shame, for I am powerless to
save you. Yes, you must die tied to a pinnacle of the gateway, a mockery
to friend and foe. Why, if it had not been that I still have some
authority among them, and that you are of my blood, girl though you be,
they would have crucified you upon the wall, serving you as the Romans
serve our people."

"If it pleases God that I should die, I shall die. What is one life
among so many tens of thousands? Let us talk of other things while we
have time."

"What is there to talk of, Miriam, save misery, misery, misery?" and
again he groaned. "You were right, and I have been wrong. That Messiah
of yours whom I rejected, yes, and still reject, had at least the gift
of prophecy, for the words that you read me yonder in Tyre will be
fulfilled upon this people and city, aye, to the last letter. The Romans
hold even the outer courts of the Temple; there is no food left. In the
upper town the inhabitants devour each other and die, and die till none
can bury the dead. In a day or two, or ten--what does it matter?--we
who are left must perish also by hunger and the sword. The nation of the
Jews is trodden out, the smoke of their sacrifices goes up no more, and
the Holy House that they have builded will be pulled stone from stone,
or serve as a temple for the worship of heathen gods."

"Will Titus show no mercy? Can you not surrender?" asked Miriam.

"Surrender? To be sold as slaves or dragged a spectacle at the wheels of
Caesar's triumphal car, throu