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then the Jews came to close quarters and pressed hard upon the Romans, and fought desperately, without sparing either soul or body, one detachment relieving another by turns when it was tired out.

Now Vespasian, looking upon himself as besieged in turn by these sallies of the Jews and the long time the siege lasted, as his banks were now not far from the walls, determined to apply his battering-ram. This is a vast beam of wood like the mast of a ship; its fore part is armed with a thick piece of iron at the head of it, which is so carved as to be like the head of a ram, whence its name is taken. This ram is slung in the air by its middle by ropes, and is hung, like the balance in a pair of scales, from another beam, and braced by strong beams on both sides of it. When this is pulled backward by a great number of men, and then with united force thrust forward by the same men, it batters walls with the iron part which is prominent. Nor is there any tower so strong, or walls so broad, if they resist its first battery, but are forced to yield to it at last. This was the experiment which the Roman general betook himself to, as he was eagerly bent upon taking the city, for he found lying in the field so long to be to his disadvantage, as the Jews would never be quiet. So the Romans brought their catapults and other engines for galling an enemy nearer to the walls, that they might reach such as were upon the walls who endeavored to frustrate their attempts, and threw stones and javelins at them, and the archers and slingers in like manner came closer to the wall. This brought matters to such a pass that none of the Jews durst man the walls, and then other Romans brought forward the batteringram, that was cased with wickerwork all over, and in the upper part was covered by skins, and this both for the security of themselves and it. Now the wall was shaken at the very first stroke of this battering-ram, and a terrible clamor was raised by the people within the city, as if they were already taken.

Now when Josephus observed this ram frequently battering the same place, and saw that the wall would quickly be thrown down by it, he resolved to elude for a while the force of that contrivance. So he gave orders to fill sacks with chaff, and to let them down before the place where they saw the ram always battering, that the stroke might be turned aside, or that the place might feel less of the stroke in consequence of the yielding nature of the chaff. This very much delayed the

Romans, because, let them remove their battering-ram to what part they pleased, those that were on the walls also removed their sacks, and placed them opposite the strokes it made, insomuch that the wall was not at all injured in consequence of the resistance that the sacks made, till the Romans made a counter contrivance of long poles, and by tying scythes at their ends cut off the sacks. Now when the battering-ram thus became effective again, and the wall (having been but newly built) was giving way, Josephus and those about him had thenceforward recourse to fire to defend themselves. So they took whatever materials they had that were dry, and made a sally three ways, and set fire to the machines and wickerwork and banks of the Romans. And they could not well come to their assistance, being at once in consternation at the Jews' boldness, and being prevented by the flames from coming to their aid. For the materials being dry, and bitumen and pitch and brimstone also being among them, the fire spread quicker than one would think, and what cost the Romans a great deal of labor was in one hour consumed. . .

Those who were with Josephus, though they fell one after another, being struck by the darts and stones which the engines threw at them, could not for all that be driven from the wall, but attacked with fire and iron weapons and stones those who were propelling the ram under the protection of the wickerwork though they could do little or nothing, but fell themselves perpetually, because they were seen by those whom they could not see. For the light of their own fire shone about them, and made them as visible a mark to the enemy as they were in the daytime, while the enemy's engines could not be seen at a great distance, and so what was thrown at them could not well be avoided. For the force with which these engines threw stones and darts made them wound many at a time, and the whizzing stones that were cast by the engines carried away the battlements, and broke off the corners of the towers. Indeed, no body of men could be so strong as not to be overthrown to the last rank by the size of the stones. . The whir of the instruments and the noise of the missiles was more terrible still. Dire too was the noise the dead bodies made when they were knocked down one after another on the walls, and dreadful was the clamor which the women raised within the city, which was echoed back by the cries of those outside who were being slain; and the whole space of ground whereon

they fought ran with blood, and the wall might have been climbed up to over dead bodies. The mountains also contributed to increase the noise by their echoes, nor was there on that night anything wanting that could terrify either the ear or eye. And very many of those that fought nobly at Jotapata fell, and very many were wounded, and the morning watch was come ere the wall yielded to the machines employed against it, though it had been battered without intermission; and those within covered their bodies with their armor and built up again what was thrown down of the wall, before those scaling machines were laid to the wall by which the Romans were to ascend into the city. In the morning Vespasian mustered together his army to take the city, after a little rest from the fatigues of the night. And as he wished to draw off those that checked him from the places where the wall had been thrown down, he made the most courageous of his cavalry dismount from their horses, and placed them in three files opposite these breaches in the wall, defended by their armor on every side, and with poles in their hands, that so they might begin the ascent as soon as the machines for such ascent were laid to the wall. And behind these he placed the flower of his foot, and he ordered the rest of the horse to deploy from the walls over all the hills to prevent any from escaping out of the city when it should be taken; and behind these he placed the archers all round, and commanded them to have their arrows ready to shoot. He gave the same commands to the slingers, and to those that managed the engines, and bade others bring ladders and apply them to those parts of the wall that were uninjured, that those who tried to hinder their ascent might leave off guarding the breaches in the wall, while the rest of the besieged might be overpowered by the darts cast at them, and yield an entrance into the city.

But Josephus, seeing through Vespasian's plan, set the old men and those that were tired out at the sound part of the wall, as not at all likely to be hurt there, but set the most efficient of his soldiers at the place where the wall was broken down, and in front of them all six men by themselves, among whom he himself shared in the post of greatest danger. He also gave orders that when the legions made a shout they should stop their ears, that they might not be dismayed at it, and also that, to avoid the shower of the enemies' darts, they should bend down on their knees, and cover themselves with their shields, and retreat a little backwards for a while, till the

archers should have emptied their quivers; and that, when the Romans should lay their machines for ascending the walls, they should leap out, and with their own instruments meet the enemy, and that every one should strive to do his best, not to defend his own city, as if it were possible to be preserved, but to revenge it, as if it was already destroyed; and that they should try and picture before their eyes how their old men would be slain, and their children and wives killed immediately by the enemy; and that they should beforehand spend all their fury on account of the calamities coming upon them, and pour it out on the perpetrators of them.

Thus did Josephus dispose of both his bodies of men. As for the useless part of the citizens, the women and children, when they saw their city surrounded by a triple line (for none of the former guards were withdrawn for battle), and their enemies with swords in their hands at the breaches in the wall, as also the hilly country above them shining with arms, and the darts ready and poised in the hands of the Arabian archers, they made a final wail at their capture, as if their ruin was not only imminent, but had actually come upon them already. But Josephus ordered the women to be shut up in their houses, lest they should unnerve the courage of the men by pity, and commanded them to hold their peace, and threatened them if they did not, and went himself to the breach, where his position was allotted. As to those who brought up ladders to the other places, he took no notice of them, but earnestly waited for the expected shower of arrows.

And now the trumpeters of all the Roman legions sounded together, and the army raised a terrible shout, and as a shower of darts were hurled at a preconcerted signal, the air was darkened by them. But Josephus' men remembered the orders he had given them; they stopped their ears at the shouts, and protected their bodies against the darts; and as for the scaling engines that were laid to the wall, the Jews sallied out at them, before those that should have used them were got upon them. And now, on the ascending of the soldiers, there was a great hand-to-hand fight, and much valor both of hands and soul was exhibited, while the Jews earnestly endeavored, in the extreme danger they were in, not to show less courage than those who, without being in danger, fought so stoutly against them, nor did they leave struggling with the Romans till they either fell down dead themselves, or killed

their antagonists. But as the Jews grew weary with defending themselves continually, and had not enough men to relieve them, so on the side of the Romans fresh men still succeeded those that were tired, and still new men quickly got upon the scaling engines in the room of those that were thrust down, encouraging one another, and joining side to side, and protecting themselves with their shields over their heads, so that they became an invincible body, and as they pushed back the Jews with their whole line, as though they were but one body, they began already to get upon the wall.

Then did Josephus in this utmost distress take for his counselor necessity (which is very clever in invention when it is sharpened by despair), and gave orders to pour scalding oil upon those whose shields protected them. Whereupon they soon got it ready, for many brought it and in great quantities, and poured it on all sides upon the Romans, and threw down upon them the vessels as they were still hissing from the heat of the fire. This so burnt the Romans, that it dispersed their compact body, who now tumbled down from the wall in dreadful pain, for the oil easily ran down their whole bodies from head to foot under their full armor, and fed upon their flesh like fire, its fat and unctuous nature rendering it soon heated and slowly cooled. And as the men were encumbered with their helmets and breastplates, they could in no way get free from this burning, and could only leap and roll about in pain, as they fell off their gangways. And as they thus were beaten back, and retired to their own party, who still pressed them forward, they became an easy prey to those that wounded them from behind.

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE.

BY ADOLPHE THIERS.

[LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS: A French statesman and author; was born at Marseilles, April 16, 1797. In 1832 he became minister of the interior, and in 1836 he was made prime minister, and again in 1840; on February 8, 1871, he was elected member of the National Assembly, and on August 31 received the title of "President of the Republic." His works are: "History of the French Revolution" (1823-1827), “History of the Consulate and the Empire" (1845-1862), "History of John Law" (1826; English translation, 1859), "On Property" (1848), and "Man and Matter" (1875). He died at Saint-Germain, September 3, 1877.]

LET us recapitulate the events of the system, in order to review the whole and understand more clearly the causes of its downfall.

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