Two more years went by, two dreadful, bloody years.  In Jerusalem the factions tore each other.  In Galilee let the Jewish leader Josephus, under whom Caleb was fighting, do what he would, Vespasian and his generals stormed city after city, massacring their inhabitants by thousands and tens of thousands.  In the coast towns and elsewhere Syrians and Jews made war.  The Jews assaulted Gadara and Gaulonitis, Sebaste and Ascalon, Anthedon and Gaza, putting many to the sword.  Then came their own turn, for the Syrians and Greeks rose upon them and slaughtered them without mercy.  As yet, however, there had been no blood shed in Tyre, though all knew that it must come.  The Essenes, 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 people.  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”