After these venerable priests were slain, the zealots and their auxiliaries fell upon the people, as upon a herd of profane animals, and slew them. They first imprisoned the nobles and the youth of the city, then endeavoured to bring them over to their party; and, failing in corrupting them, they scourged and tortured their bodies till they died. Those whom they seized through the day, they slew in the night; and the terror that dwelt in the minds of survivors was so extreme, that no one had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead, or secretly to bury them. Those who were shut up at home shed tears in secret, but durst not utter a sigh lest they should be heard. Only in the night they ventured to take up a little dust and throw it upon the bodies of the dead. Twelve thousand of the upper ranks of the inhabitants, or better sort of people perished in this sanguinary manner.

The zealots and Idumeans, weary of putting the people to death in this summary way, instituted a kind of mock tribunal, as if they would give a colour of justice to their proceedings; and placed seventy men as judges, to try a certain

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man of the name of Zacharias, whom they accused of a design to betray their city to the Romans. But the seventy judges, chusing rather to die than to be unjust, brought in a verdict in favour of Zacharias, whereupon two of the boldest of the zealots slew him in the middle of the temple, and cast his dead body over the wall.

The Idumeans at last, touched with remorse, repented of the part they had acted; and being persuaded that the imputation of treason was a calumny, and that the Romans were not at that time coming nearer the city, they withdrew, setting at liberty two thousand of the populace who were in prison; who, on being liberated, went and joined Simon, of whom we shall speak hereafter. But the zealots continued to thirst after the blood of the most valiant and most noble in the city; the former they destroyed out of envy, and the latter out of fear. Thus they slew Gorion, a man of eminent dignity, and also Niger of Perea, who in dying uttered this imprecation, which, alas! was too fatally confirmed,—that "they might suffer both famine and pestilence in the war, and that they might end in the mutual slaughter of each other."

The Roman commanders, hearing of the seditious state of the city, urged the general to attack it, but he replied, while their enemies were destroying each other, his business was to sit still as a spectator. Many of the Jews deserted to the Romans. The rich purchased their flight by money, but the poor who attempted to desert, were slain. The zealots became so barbarous, that they denied burial alike to the slain in the city, and the dead that lay along the roads. Cancelling at once the laws of nature and of their country, they insulted God also, and left the dead bodies to putrify under the sun. The same punishment awaited the deserter, and the man that buried his friend; and he that granted a grave to another, speedily stood in need of one for himself. In one word, no other gentle passion was so entirely lost among them as mercy; and terror was so universal, that he who was alive, called him happy who was dead,-and they that were under torture in prisons, called them the happiest, who lay unburied.

CHAP. IV.

"Manasseh" against "Ephraim; and Ephraim" against "Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah.”

Now John began to tyrannize over his party, and joining himself to the most wicked of them all, broke off from the rest of the faction. Some submitted to him out of fear, and others from good-will; and many thought they would be safer if their misconduct and cruelty were reduced to one head. John was a shrewd man, great both in action and in counsel, but very imperious, and evidently aiming at monarchy. Thus the sedi tion was divided into two parts, and John reigned in opposition to his adversaries, and both fought against the people, and contended one with another who should bring home the largest prey.

But while the city had to contend with war, tyranny, and sedition, it appeared to many that war was the least evil of the three: thus many deserted to the Romans, and found that protection from their enemies, which they despaired of obtaining among their own people.

Now there was a man whose name was Simon, the son of Gioras, who, after ravaging the country, marched unexpectedly into Idumea, and took the city of Hebron. From thence he made a progress over all Idumea, ravaging the cities and villages; and besides those that were completely armed who accompanied him, he had forty thousand men who followed him, insomuch that he had not sufficient provisions for such a multitude, -and as one may see all the woods despoiled of their leaves by locusts, so there was nothing left behind Simon's army but a desert.

These ravages of Simon excited the wrath of the zealots; and, though they were afraid to fight him openly, they lay in ambush in the passes near Jerusalem, and seized his wife. Upon this occasion, Simon came to the wall of Jerusalem, infuriated like a lion when it is wounded, and vented