During the preparations for his departure, a party of his sentinels brought into the camp a young Jew, whom they had discovered lurking among the neighbouring hills, and apparently watching their motions with great anxiety. He fled at their approach, but they pursued and caught him, and now conducted him into the presence of Simon as a spy. The young man had a bold and crafty countenance; and his appearance bespoke that he had endured much hardship and fatigue; but he almost trembled at the fierce aspect of the son of Gioras, whose character was doubtless well known to him. Simon sternly demanded who he was, and what had brought him so near his camp; and believing that deceit could not, in this instance, be of any advantage to him, Javan (for it was him) replied:-- "I am the son of Zadok the priest, and have long been a captive in the hands of the Romans. With danger and difficulty I escaped from them, when they were encamped on the shores of the Dead Sea. For months I have wandered among the mountains and the deserts, seeking vainly to find an opportunity of returning to my native city, and rouse my countrymen to a fiercer opposition against my hated captors. The approach of Vespasian so near the walls of Jerusalem long deterred me from the attempt to gain entrance, as I dreaded falling into the hands of any of his skirmishing parties; and though I burned to find myself upon the battlements of Zion, and to cast defiance at the infidels from her proud bulwarks, yet I was forced to loiter away my time in restless inactivity. When Vespasian withdrew his forces from the neighbourhood, I again approached my native district, but was again disappointed in my object, by finding that your valiant troops were contending with those ruffian Zealots. The succeeding war in Idumea prevented me from passing through that country, until you left it to seek vengeance for the insult offered to you by John of Gischala and his robber band. Then I entered Judea by a secret path through the mountains, and was anxiously watching for a moment of security, that I might present myself before the gates of the city and join her brave defenders, when I fell into the hands of your brave men." Simon was satisfied that the prisoner was not deceiving him, and he replied,-- "Why then did you not boldly come to me, and join the ranks of my patriotic followers? You might have known that the welfare of Jerusalem is my only object; and that I seek to rid her of her present oppressors, that I may establish again the rules of order and good government, and restore the neglected worship of the temple to its former holiness and magnificence. My righteous efforts will doubtless be blessed with success, and the God of battles will put to rebuke those miscreants who now so audaciously trample on his holy sanctuary and despise his laws."