“She lies,” said the officer contemptuously.  “Here, kill this traitress.”

A man advanced lifting his sword, and Miriam, thinking that all was over, hid her eyes while she waited for the blow.  Before it fell, however, Caleb whispered something to the officer which caused him to change his mind.

“So be it,” he said.  “Hold your hand and take this woman with you to the Temple, there to be tried by her grandfather, Benoni, and the other judges of the Sanhedrim.  They have means to cause the most obstinate to speak, whereas death seals the lips forever.  Swift, now, swift, for already they are fighting on the market-place.”

So they seized Miriam and dragged her away from the Old Tower, which an hour later was taken possession of by the Romans, who destroyed it with the other buildings.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SANHEDRIM

The Jewish soldiers haled Miriam roughly through dark and tortuous streets, bordered by burnt-out houses, and up steep stone slopes deep with the debris of the siege.  Indeed, they had need to hasten, for, lit with the lamp of flaming dwellings, behind them flowed the tide of war.  The Romans, driven back from this part of the city by that day’s furious sally, under cover of the night were re-occupying in overwhelming strength the ground that they had lost, forcing the Jews before them and striving to cut them off from their stronghold in the Temple and that part of the Upper City which they still held.

The party of Jews who had Miriam in their charge were returning to the Temple enclosure, which they could not reach from the north or east because the outer courts and cloisters of the Holy House were already in possession of the Romans.  So it happened that they were obliged to make their way round by the Upper City, a long and tedious journey.  Once during that night they were driven to cover until a great company of Romans had marched past.  Caleb wished to attack them, but the other captains said that they were too few and weary, so they lay hid for nearly three hours, then went on again.  After this there were other delays at gates still in the hands of their own people, which one by one were unbolted to them.  Thus it was not far from daylight when at length they passed over a narrow bridge that spanned some ravine and through massive doors into a vast dim place which, as Miriam gathered from the talk of her captors, was the inner enclosure of the Temple.  Here, at the command of that captain who had ordered her to be slain, she was thrust into a small cell in one of the cloisters.  Then the men in charge of her locked the door and went away.