Meanwhile, the soldiers of Simon and John came to prevent citizens
from gathering in bodies, and with sword and spear drove into the
struggle and added murder to it all. The spirit of terror then issued
out of that bloody alley and seized upon street by street. Far and
wide the tumult ran, growing in volume with every accession, until the
raging and humiliated Titus, among his six hundred, heard Jerusalem
howl like a beaten slave and hushed his pagan curses to listen.
Late that same afternoon, the Esquiline Gate, inaccessible, despised
and sealed, was broken open from within and under it and down its
difficult and dangerous approach poured a silent multitude, numbering
thousands. They were abandoning the Rock of David to its fate. Among
them went the last remnants of that sect of Christians who had tarried
long after their brethren had been warned away, hoping against hope.
They were not missed among the numbers in Jerusalem, for the Passover
hosts still poured through the gates to the south and took their
places in the unhappy city. And with these that same afternoon Laodice
and her old servant came into Jerusalem.
It was the eighth day after they had applied to the priest at Emmaus
whither they had fled in their search for the frosts, a good three
leagues north of the direct road to Jerusalem. They had stopped at the
Lavatory outside the walls, washed themselves and had purchased the
white garments of the purified. Old Momus carried with him the price
of the lambs, of the fine flour and the oil for their cleansing and
the two were ready to present themselves for their purification at the
Temple. But all the roar and disorder of the great city in its warfare
and its discord confused them. Ascalon had not a thousandth part of
this turmoil at its busiest season. Neither was there a servant in a
purple turban with the gold star to meet them and they were bewildered
and lost.
The rest of the visitors to the Passover hurried into the heart of the
city; wave after wave of new-comers replaced them; but the young woman
and her dumb old servant stood aside just within reach of the shadow
of the immemorial portal and waited.
Time and again wolfish Idumean soldiers who were numerous about the
place noted the pair and commented to one another or spoke insolently
to the shrinking girl who hid ineffectually behind her veil. Hour
after hour they stood with growing distress and no friendly face in
all that army of hurrying, restless, quarreling Jews welcomed them.
The afternoon waned. Laodice thought of the darkness and trembled.
An old man fumbling a talisman of bone drew near them. Laodice took
courage and approached him.
"I pray thee, sir, I seek Amaryllis, the Seleucid."