CHAPTER XVII
THE FIRST STONE
[Initial B]
But the young men would hold their hands no longer. Impatient of delay,and encouraged by a sign from their leader, they rushed in upon theprisoners. Esca shielded Mariamne with his body. Calchas, pale andmotionless, calmly awaited his fate. Gioras, the son of Simeon, aprominent warrior amongst the Sicarii, hurling on him a block of granitewith merciless energy, struck the old man bleeding to the earth; but whilethe missile left his hands--while he yet stood erect and with extendedarms, a Roman arrow quivered in the aggressor's heart. He fell upon hisface stone dead at the very feet of his victim. That random shaft was butthe first herald of the storm. In another moment a huge mass of rock,projected from a powerful catapult against the building, falling short ofits mark, struck the prophet as he sat moaning on the ground, and crushedhim a lifeless, shapeless mass beneath its weight. Then rose a cry ofdespair from the outer wall--a confused noise of strife and shouting, thepeal of the trumpets, the cheer of the conquerors, the wild roar ofdefiance and despair from the besieged. Ere long fugitives were pouringthrough the court, seeking the shelter of the Temple itself. There was notime to complete the execution--no time to think of the prisoners. John ofGischala, summoning his adherents, and bidding the young men hasten fortheir armour, betook himself to his stronghold within the Sacred Place.The Sanhedrim fled in consternation, although Matthias and the braver ofhis colleagues died afterwards in the streets, as became them, undershield. In a few minutes the Court of the Gentiles was again clear, savefor the prisoners, one of whom was bound, and one mangled and bleeding onthe pavement, tended by Mariamne, who bent over her kinsman in speechlesssorrow and consternation. The fragment of rock, too, which had beenpropelled against the Temple, lay in the centre, over the crushed andflattened body of the prophet, whose hand and arm alone protruded frombeneath the mass. The place did not thus remain in solitude for long.Fighting their retreat step by step, and, although driven backward,contesting every yard with their faces to the enemy, the flower of theJewish army soon passed through, in the best order they could maintain, asthey retired upon the Temple. Among the last of these was Eleazar;hopeless now, for he knew all was lost, but brave and unconquered still.He cast one look of affection at his brother's prostrate form, one ofastonishment and reproof on his kneeling child; but ere he could approachor even speak to her, he was swept on with the resistless tide of thedefeated, ebbing before the advance of the Roman host.
And now Esca's eye kindled, and his blood mounted, to a well-known battle-cry. He had heard it in the deadly circus; he had heard it on thecrumbling breach; he had heard it wherever blows rained hard and bloodflowed free, and men fought doggedly and hopelessly, without a chance or awish for escape. His heart leaped to the cheer of the gladiators, risingfierce, reckless, and defiant above all the combined din of war, and heknew that his old comrades and late antagonists had carried the defenceswith their wonted bravery, as they led the Roman army to the assault.
The Legion of the Lost had indeed borne themselves nobly on this occasion.Their leader had not spared them; for Hippias well knew that to-day, withthe handful left him by slaughter and disease, he must play his last stakefor riches and distinction; nor had his followers failed to answergallantly to his call. Though opposed by Eleazar himself and the best hecould muster, they had carried the breach at the first onset--they haddriven the Jews before them with a wild headlong charge that no couragecould resist, and they had entered the outskirts of the Temple almost atthe same moment with its discomfited defenders. It was their trumpetssounding the advance that reached Mariamne's ear as she stood in the Courtof the Gentiles, awaiting the vengeance she had defied. And amongst thiscourageous band two combatants had especially signalised themselves byfeats of reckless and unusual daring. The one was old Hirpinus, who feltthoroughly in his element in such a scene, and whose natural valour wasenhanced by the consciousness of the superiority he had now attained as asoldier over his former profession of a gladiator. The other was a comradewhom none could identify; who was conspicuous no less from his flowinglocks, his beautiful form, and his golden armour, than from the audacitywith which he courted danger, and the immunity he seemed to enjoy, incommon with those who display a real contempt for death.
As he followed the golden headpiece and the long brown hair, that made wayso irresistibly through the press, more than one stout swordsman exultedin the belief that some tutelary deity of his country had descended inhuman shape to aid the Roman arms; and Titus himself inquired, and waitedin vain for an answer, "Who was that dashing warrior, with white arms andshining corselet, leading the gladiators so gallantly to the attack?"
But old Hirpinus knew, and smiled within his helmet as he fought. "Thecaptain is well rid of her," thought he, congratulating himself the whileon his own freedom from such inconveniences. "For all her comely face andwinning laugh, I had rather have a tigress loose in my tent than thisfair, fickle, fighting fury, who takes to shield and spear as other womendo to the shuttle and the distaff!"
Valeria, in truth, deserved little credit for her bravery. Whileapprehension of danger never for a moment overmastered her, the excitementof its presence seemed to offer a temporary relief to her wounded andremorseful heart. In the fierce rush of battle she had no leisure to dwellon thoughts that had lately tortured her to madness; and the very physicalexertion such a scene demanded, brought with it, although she wasunconscious of its severity, a sure anodyne for mental suffering. Like allpersons, too, who are unaccustomed to bodily perils, the impunity withwhich she affronted each imparted an overweening confidence in her goodfortune, and an undue contempt for the next, till it seemed to herselfthat she bore a charmed life; and that, though man after man might fall ather side as she fought on, _she_ was destined to fulfil her taskunscathed, and reach the presence of Esca in time to save him fromdestruction, even though she should die the next minute at his feet.
The two first assailants who entered the Court of the Gentiles wereValeria, in her golden armour, and Hirpinus, brandishing the short deadlyweapon he knew how to use so well. They were close together; but theformer paused to look around, and the gladiator, rushing to the front,made for his old comrade, whom he recognised on the instant. His haste,however, nearly proved fatal. The heavily-nailed sandals that he woreafforded but a treacherous foothold on the smooth stone pavement, his feetslipped from under him, and he came with a heavy back-fall to the ground._Habet!_(23) exclaimed Hippias, from the sheer force of custom, followingclose upon his tracks; but he strained eagerly forward to defend hisprostrate comrade while he spoke, and found himself instantly engaged witha score of Jewish warriors, who came swarming back like bees to settle onthe fallen gladiator. Hirpinus, however, covered his body skilfully underhis shield, and defended himself bravely with his sword--dealing more thanone fatal thrust at such of his assailants as were rash enough to believehim vanquished because down. As more of the gladiators came pouring in,they were opposed by troops of the Jews, who, with Eleazar at their head,made a desperate sally from the Temple to which they had retired, and afierce hand-to-hand struggle, that lasted several minutes, took placeround Hirpinus in the centre of the court. When he at length regained hisfeet, his powerful aid soon made itself felt in the fray, and the Jews,though fighting stubbornly still, were obliged once more to retreat beforethe increasing columns of the besiegers.
Valeria, in the meantime, rushing through the court to where she spied awell-known form struggling in its bonds, came across the path of Eleazar,at whom she delivered a savage thrust as she met him, lest he shouldimpede her course. The fierce Jew, who had enough on his hands at such amoment, and was pressing eagerly forward into the thickest of thestruggle, was content to parry the stroke with his javelin, and launchthat weapon in return at his assailant, while he passed on. The cruelmissile did its errand only too well. The broad thirsty point clovethrough a crevice in her golden corsele
t, and sank deep in her whitetender side, to drink the life-blood of the woman-warrior as she spedonward in fulfilment of her fatal task. Breaking the javelin's shaft inher hands, and flinging the fragments from her with a scornful smile,Valeria found strength to cross the court, nor did her swift step falter,nor did her proud bearing betray wounds or weakness, till she reachedEsca's side. A loving smile of recognition, two strokes of her sharpblade, and he was free! but as the severed bonds fell from his arms, andhe stretched them forth in the delight of restored liberty, his deliverer,throwing away sword and shield, seized his hand in both her own, and,pressing it convulsively to her bosom, sank down helpless on the pavementat his feet.
Sank down helpless on the pavement at his feet.]