The Maccabee, among the fighting-men on the wall, saw his approach and
discreetly stepped behind a soldier that he might not be singled out
as a familiar toward which the approaching mediator would logically
direct his appeal. He had no desire to be addressed by his name before
this precarious mob already mad with rage at a turncoat.
And thus concealed the Maccabee heard Josephus appeal to the Jews with
apparent sincerity and affection, promise amnesty, protection and
justice in his patron's name; heard his overtures greeted with fury
and finally saw the Jews swarm over the walls and drive him to fly for
his life up Gareb to the camp of Titus.
It was not the first incident he had seen which showed him his own
fate if it became known that he intended to treat with Rome. He put
aside his calculations in that direction as a detail not yet in order,
and turned to the organization of his army. Here again he met
obstacle.
Among his council of Bezethans he found an enthusiasm for some
intangible purpose, objection to his own plans and a certain hauteur
that he could not understand.
"What is it you hope for, brethren?" he asked one night as he stood in
the gloom of the crypt under the ruin with fifty of his ablest
thinkers and soldiers about him.
"The days of Samuel before Israel cursed itself with a king," one man
declared.
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