The City of Delight

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."