the wretched inhabitants made the prize of the contending parties. The Romans at length gained possession of two of the three walls which defended the city, and fear once more united the factions. This pause to their fury had, however, scarcely begun, when famine made its ghastly ap pearance in the Jewish army. It had for some time been silently approaching, and many of the peaceful and the poor had already perished for want of necessaries. With this new calamity, strange to relate, the madness of the factions again returned, and the city presented a new picture of wretchedness. Impelled by the cravings

of hunger, they snatched the staff of life out of each other's hands, and many devoured the grain unprepared. Tortures were inflicted for the discovery of a handful of meal; women forced food from their husbands, and children from their fathers, and even mothers from their infants; and, while sucking children were wasting away in their arms, they scrupled

not to take away the vital drops which sustained them! So justly did our Lord pronounce a wo on "them who should give suck in those days*." This dreadful scourge at length drove multitudes of the Jews out of the city into the enemies' camp, where the Romans crucified them in such numbers, that, as Josephus relates, space was wanted for the crosses, and crosses for the captives; and it having been discovered that some of them had swallowed gold, the Arabs and Syrians, who were incorporated in the Roman army, impelled by avarice, with unexampled cruelty, ripped open two thousand of the deserters in one night. Titus, touched by these calamities, in person entreated the Jews to surrender, but they answered him with revilings. Exasperated by their obstinacy and insolence, he now resolved to surround the city by a circumvallation, which, with astonishing activity,

*Mat. xxiv. 19.

This trench was thirty-nine furlongs in circuit, and strengthened with thirteen towers.

was effected by the soldiers in three days. Thus was fulfilled another of our Lord's predictions, for he had said, while addressing this devoted city, "Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round about, and keep thee in on every side*." As no supplies whatever could now enter the walls, the famine rapidly extended itself, and, increasing in horror, devoured whole families. The tops of houses and the recesses of the city, were covered with the carcasses of women, children, and aged men. The young men appeared like spectres in the places of public resort, and fell down lifeless in the streets. The dead were too numerous to be interred, and many expired in the performance of this office. The public calamity was too great for lamentation. Silence, and, as it were, a black and deadly night overspread the city. But even such a scene could not awe the robbers; they spoiled the tombs,

*Luke xix. 43.

and stripped the dead of their grave. clothes, with an unfeeling and wild laughter. They tried the edges of their swords on their carcasses, and even on some that were yet breathing; while Simon Gioras chose this melancholy and awful period to manifest the deep malignity and cruelty of his nature, in the execution of the High Priest Matthias, and his three sons, whom he caused to be condemned as favourers of the Romans. The father, in consideration of his having opened the city gates to Simon, begged that he might be executed previously to his children; but the unfeeling tyrant gave orders that he should be dispatched in the last place, and in his expiring moments insultingly asked him, whether the Romans could then relieve him.

While the city was in this dismal situation, a Jew named Mannæus fled to Titus, and informed him, that from the beginning of the siege (14th April) to the first

of July following, one hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies had been carried through one gate only, which he had guarded. This man had been appointed to pay the public allowance for carrying the bodies out, and was therefore obliged to register them. Soon after several respectable individuals deserted to the Romans, and assured Titus that the whole number of the poor who had been cast out at the different gates, was not less than six hundred thousand. The report of these calamities excited pity in the Romans, and in a particular manner affected Titus, who, while surveying the immense number of dead bodies which were piled up under the walls, raised his hands towards heaven, and, appealing to the Almighty, solemnly protested that he had not been the cause of these deplorable calamities; which, indeed, the Jews, by their unexampled wickedness, rebellion, and obstinacy, had brought down "on their own heads.