Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem

by H. Rider Haggard

  When they came back it was daylight, and from the heap of ashes thathad been the Temple of Herod and the most glorious building in the wholeworld, rose a thick cloud of black smoke, pierced here and there bylittle angry tongues of fire. The Court of Israel was strewn so thickwith dead that in places the soldiers walked on them as on a carpet,or to be rid of them, hurled them into the smouldering ruins. Upon thealtar that stood on the Rock of Sacrifice a strange sight was to beseen, for set up there was an object like the shaft of a lance wreathedwith what seemed to be twining snakes and surmounted by a globe on whichshe stood a golden eagle with outspread wings. Gathered in front of itwere a vast number of legionaries who did obeisance to this object. Theywere offering worship to the Roman standards upon the ancient altar ofthe God of Israel! Presently a figure rode before them attended bya glittering staff of officers, to be greeted with a mighty shout of"Titus _Imperator_! Titus _Imperator_!" Here on the sense of his triumphhis victorious legions named their general Caesar.

  Nor was the fighting altogether ended, for on the roofs of some ofthe burning cloisters were gathered a few of the most desperate of thesurvivors of the Jews, who, as the cloisters crumbled beneath them,retreated slowly towards the Gate Nicanor, which still stood unharmed.The Romans, weary with slaughter, called to them to come down andsurrender, but they would not, and Miriam watching them, to her horrorsaw that one of these men was none other than her grandfather, Benoni.As they would not yield, the Romans shot at them with arrows, so thatpresently every one of them was down except Benoni, whom no dart seemedto touch.

  "Cease shooting," cried a voice, "and bring a ladder. That man is braveand one of the Sanhedrim. Let him be taken alive."

  A ladder was brought and reared against the wall near the Gate Nicanorand up it came Romans. Benoni retreated before them till he stood uponthe edge of the gulf of advancing fire. Then he turned round and facedthem. As he turned he caught sight of Miriam huddled at the base of hercolumn upon the roof of the gate, and thinking that she was dead, wrunghis hands and tore his beard. She guessed his grief, but so weak andparched was she, that she could call no word of comfort to him, or domore than watch the end with fascinated eyes.

  The soldiers came on along the top of the wall till they feared toapproach nearer to the fire, lest they should fall through the burningrafters.

  "Yield!" they cried. "Yield, fool, before you perish! Titus gives youyour life."

  "That he may drag me, an elder of Israel, in chains through the streetsof Rome," answered the old Jew scornfully. "Nay, I will not yield, and Ipray God that the same end which you have brought upon this city and itschildren, may fall upon your city and its children at the hands of meneven more cruel than yourselves."

  Then stooping down he lifted a spear which lay upon the wall and hurledit at them so fiercely, that it transfixed the buckler of one of thesoldiers and the arm behind the buckler.

  "Would that it had been your heart, heathen, and the heart of all yourrace!" he screamed, and lifting his hands as though in invocation,suddenly plunged headlong into the flames beneath.

  Thus, fierce and brave to the last, died Benoni the Jew.