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.
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