"I wasn"t going to eat till you woke, if it had been all night,"
Jonas said. "Still, I am glad you are awake; they are quiet now, up above, and I have heard the Roman trumpets sounding. I expect that most of them have marched back to their camp."
The next day pa.s.sed like the first. Occasionally cries of agony were heard. Sometimes bodies were hurled from the top of the rock, but a short distance from where they were lying.
The next two days pa.s.sed more quietly, but upon that following a murmur, as of a mult.i.tude of men working, was heard. From time to time there were heavy crashes, as ma.s.ses of stones, hurled down the precipice, struck against its face as they fell; and then bounded, far out beyond the stream, at its foot. All these sounds were echoed back by the surrounding hills, until it seemed as if a storm was raging, far away in the heart of the mountains.
"They are destroying the town," John said, in answer to his companion"s question as to the cause of the uproar. "That is the best thing possible for us. Had it remained standing, they might have left a garrison here, to prevent our people reoccupying it. If they destroy it, it is a sign that they intend to march away, altogether."
Several times Jonas wished to climb up, at night, to ascertain what was going on; but John would not hear of it.
"There is nothing to find out, Jonas. We know what they did at Gadara, where they slew all the males and carried off all the women, although no resistance was offered. We may be sure that there will be no more mercy shown at Jotapata, which has affronted the Roman power by keeping their great army at bay, for nearly seven weeks, and whose capture has cost them thousands of men. We know what has happened--they have slain every soul, save a few young women, who were worth money as slaves. Now they are leveling the town to its foundations. The place that defied them will cease to exist.
"And yet, they talk of Roman magnanimity! Would we had five thousand fighting men, hidden here with us. We would climb then, Jonas, and fall upon them in the night, and take a mighty vengeance for the woes they have inflicted. But, being alone, we will remain here till we have reason to believe that the last Roman has left.
Did one of them catch sight of you, our fate would be sealed. They have no boys among them, and the slightest glimpse of your figure would be enough to tell them that you were a Jew who had been in hiding and, in their fear that one man should escape their vengeance, they would hunt you down, as a pack of wolves might hunt down a solitary lamb."
"They could never get down here, John."
"Not by the way you came; but they would lower a cage full of armed men, from above, and slay us without pity."
"But if I were found out, John, I would not lead them here. I would throw myself over the precipice, rather than that risk should come to you!"
"But I don"t want you to throw yourself over the precipice, Jonas.
I want to keep you with me: in the first place because we are great friends now; in the second because, if you were killed, I might as well throw myself over, at once--for I do not think I could ever climb up this rock, without your a.s.sistance."
"It is much easier going up than coming down, John."
"That may be and, indeed, I have no doubt it is so; but I would rather not put the matter to the test. No; we have provision and water here, enough to last us for ten days and, until they are consumed, it were best not to stir from here."
Four days later, however, they heard the sound of the Roman trumpets and, on raising their heads carefully a few inches, saw that the guards on the opposite hills had all been withdrawn.
Having now less fear of being seen, they raised their heads still further, and looked up the valley to the great camp on the hillside where, at night, they had seen the fires of the Romans, blazing high.
"They are going!" Jonas exclaimed, joyously. "Look at the sun sparkling on the long lines of arms and armor Not a sound is to be heard, above--the work is done. They are about to march away."
"Do not let us expose ourselves further," John said. "It may be that they have left a few watchers, to see if any who have eluded their search may show themselves, believing that they have gone. I have no doubt they are going and, by tomorrow, it will be safe for us to move."
All day they heard the sound of trumpets, for the great host took a long time getting into motion but, gradually, the sound grew fainter and fainter, as the rear guard of the army took the road which they had cut through the mountains, eight weeks before.
That night, when darkness fell, and the two lads sat up on their ledge and looked round, not a light was to be seen; and not a sound broke the silence of the night.
"At daybreak tomorrow, Jonas, as soon as it becomes light enough for you to see your way, you shall go up and look round. They may have left a guard behind, but I should hardly think so. After the wholesale slaughter at Gadara, and here, the hatred of the Romans will be so intense that, confident as they are in their arms and discipline, they would hardly venture to leave a small body of men, in the heart of these mountains."
As soon as it was daylight, Jonas prepared to climb up to the plateau above. He took with him the rope; arranging that, if he found that the place was absolutely deserted, he would lower one end to John and fasten the other to the tree above; and that he would then aid John, as much as his strength would permit, in making his way up the rock.
John watched his companion making his way up, and observed exactly where he placed his feet and hands, until he was out of sight. Then he waited. In about a quarter of an hour, the end of the rope fell in front of him. He fastened it securely under his arms and then, taking off his sandals, began the ascent. It was not so difficult as it had looked; and the steady strain which Jonas kept on the rope, from above, aided him and gave him confidence. In three or four minutes, he gained the top of the rock.
"There is not a soul to be seen," Jonas said. "The town has gone, and the people, and the Romans. All is desolation!"
The scene was indeed changed, since John had last looked upon it.
Not a wall, in the so-lately busy little town, had been left standing. The whole area was covered, three or four feet deep with a chaos of stones, mortar, and beams; forming a great grave, below which lay the bodies of forty thousand of the defenders of the place. The walls so bravely defended had disappeared; and the embankment, whose erection had cost the Romans so much labor and bloodshed, had been destroyed by fire. A dead silence hung over the place, and the air was tainted with a terrible odor of corruption.
The desolation and solitude of the scene overpowered John, and he sat down on a fragment of masonry and wept, unrestrainedly, for some time. He roused himself, at last, as Jonas touched him.
"I shall go down again, and get what grain there is left," the boy said. "There is no chance of finding anything to eat within a day"s march of here. The Roman horse will have destroyed every village within a wide circuit."
"But I cannot let you go down again, Jonas. The danger is too great."
"But I have been up and down, lots of times," Jonas said.
"That may be, Jonas, but you might be dashed to pieces, this time."
"Well, if you like I will fasten the rope round me; then, if I should slip, I shall be safe."
John consented with some reluctance, but he was so nervous and shaken that he walked some distance away, and did not turn round until he heard Jonas" footsteps again approaching him.
"Now we can start," the boy said. "We have got grain here, enough for three days; and tonight we will crush it, and cook it. I have had enough of eating raw grain, for a long time to come."
The boy"s cheerfulness restored the tone of John"s nerves and--making their way with some difficulty over the chaos of stone and timber, until they arrived at the pile of charred timber, which marked the spot where the Roman embankment had stood--they stepped out briskly, descended the hill, crossed the deserted lines of circ.u.mvallation; and then began to ascend the mountains, which had, for some distance, been stripped of their timber for the purposes of the siege. In another hour"s walking they reached the forest, and pressed on until the afternoon. Not that there was any need for speed, now, but John felt a longing to place as wide a gap as possible between himself and the great charnel ground which, alone, marked the spot where Jotapata had stood.
At length, Jonas urged the necessity for a halt, for rest and food.
They chose a spot at the foot of a great tree, and then set to work to collect a store of firewood. John took out the box of tinder which, in those days, everyone carried about with him, and a fire was soon lighted. Jonas then looked for two large flat stones, and set to work to grind some grain.
The halting place had been chosen from the vicinity of a little spring, which rose a few yards distant. With this the pounded grain was moistened and, after kneading it up, Jonas rolled it in b.a.l.l.s and placed them in the hot ashes of the fire. In half an hour they were cooked, and the meal was eaten with something like cheerfulness.
Another day"s walking brought them to a little village, nestled in the forest. Here they were kindly received, though the people scarce believed them when they said that they were survivors of the garrison of Jotapata. The news of the capture of the town, and the destruction of its defenders, had already spread through the country; and John now learned, for the first time, the fate which had befallen j.a.pha and the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim--events which filled him with consternation.
The folly of the tactics which had been pursued--of cooping all the fighting men up in the walled cities, to be destroyed one after the other by the Romans--was more than ever apparent. He had never, from the first, been very hopeful of the result of the struggle; but it seemed, now, as if it could end in nothing but the total destruction of the Jewish race of Palestine.
John stayed for two days in the little mountain village and then, with a store of provisions sufficient to last him for some days, pursued his way; following the lines of the Anti-Liba.n.u.s, until that range of hills joined the range of Mount Hermon, north of the sources of the Jordan.
He had stopped for a day at Dan, high up among the hills. Here the people had no fear of Roman vengeance; for the insurrection had not extended so far north, and the Roman garrison of Caesarea Philippi overawed the plains near the upper waters of the Jordan.
Determined, however, to run no unnecessary risks, John and his companion pursued their way on the lower slopes of the hills until, after six days" walking, they arrived at Neve.
Here they learned where the farm of John"s kinsman was situated, and made their way thither. As they came up to the house a woman came out, gazed intently at John and, with a scream of terror, ran back into the house. It was one of Martha"s maids. John stood irresolute, fearing that his sudden appearance might startle the other inmates when, suddenly, Mary appeared at the door, looking pale but resolute. She, too, gazed fixedly at John; and her lips moved, but no sound came from them.
"Don"t you know me, Mary?" John said.
The girl gave a scream of joy, and threw herself into his arms. A moment later Martha, followed by Miriam and the other servants, came out.
"It is no spirit, mother, it is John, himself," Mary exclaimed and, the next moment, John was clasped in his mother"s arms.
It was not surprising that the first who saw John had thought that he was a spirit. The news had already been received that the whole of the garrison of Jotapata had been put to the sword; and John"s appearance was changed so greatly, within the last three months, that he would scarce have been known. Fatigue, anxiety, and the loss of blood--from several wounds which he had received, in the course of the siege--had so pulled him down that he was but a shadow of his former self. His clothes were in rags. He had washed them at the village where he had first stopped for, before that, they had been stiffened with blood; and even now, stained and ragged as they were, they gave him the appearance of a mendicant.
Jonas had held back a little, while the first joyful greeting was going on, but John soon turned to him.
"Mother," he said, "this must be as another son to you for, next to the protection of G.o.d, it is to him I owe my life."
Martha welcomed the young stranger affectionately.