While she spoke Marcus, shaking his head as though to decline some proposal, and pointing to the men of his command, who stood up watching him, turned to walk back to his own lines, followed by Caleb, who shouted out that he was a coward and did not dare to stand alone before him.  At this insult Marcus winced, then went on again, doubtless because he thought it his duty to rejoin his company, whereon Caleb, drawing his sword, struck him with the flat of it across the back.  Now the Jews laughed, while the Romans uttered a shout of rage at the intolerable affront offered to their commander.  As for Marcus, he wheeled round, sword in hand, and flew straight at Caleb’s throat.

But it was for this that the Jew had been waiting, since he knew that no Roman, and least of all Marcus, would submit to the indignity of such a blow.  As his adversary came on, made almost blind with fury, he leapt to one side lightly as a lion leaps, and with all the force of his long sinewy arm brought down his heavy sword upon the head of Marcus.  The helm was good, or the skull beneath must have been split in two by that blow, which, as it was, shore through it and bit deeply into the bone.  Beneath the shock Marcus staggered, threw his arms wide, and let fall his sword.  With a shout Caleb sprang at him to make an end of him, but before he could strike the Roman seemed to recover himself, and, knowing that his weapon was gone, did the only thing he could, rushed straight at his foe.  Caleb’s sword fell on his shoulder, but the tempered mail withstood it, and next instant Marcus had gripped him in his arms.  Down they came together to the earth, rolling over each other, the Jew trying to stab the Roman, the Roman to choke the Jew with his bare hand.  Then from the Roman lines rose a cry of “Rescue!” and from the Jews a cry of “Take him.”

Out poured the combatants from either side of the market-place by hundreds and by thousands, and there in its centre, round the struggling forms of Caleb and of Marcus, began the fiercest fight of all that day.  Where men stood, there they fell, for none would give back, since the Romans, outnumbered though they were, preferred to die rather than leave a wounded and beloved captain a prisoner in the hands of cruel enemies, while the Jews knew too well the value of such a prize to let it escape them easily.  So great was the slaughter that presently Marcus and Caleb were hidden beneath the bodies of the fallen.  More and more Jews rushed into the fray, but still the Romans pushed onwards with steady valour, fighting shoulder to shoulder and shield to shield.