For a long time the Zealots and the people, massed upon the northern wall of the city, continued to watch the distant host, who seemed to be occupied in forming an encampment. Suddenly a shout arose. Something was seen to separate itself from the common body, and to move forward quickly towards the city amid a cloud of dust. That something on a nearer approach proved to be a detachment of cavalry, six hundred strong, led by Titus in person, who, coming not to fight but merely to reconnoiter, rode bareheaded, having left both helmet and breastplate behind. By his side rode that Jewish apostate, Tiberius Alexander, who, having at one time been procurator of Judæa, was in a position to explain to Titus the topography of the city. A sea of faces glared at them along the whole extent of the northern wall; the battlements of Antonia, the porticoes of the temple, the distant ramparts of Mount Zion were similarly crowded; in all the wide city there was neither wall nor tower, neither roof nor window, but showed a cluster of human beings. Their excited cries blending together came to the ears of Titus like the restless murmur of the sea. “How many people doth the city hold, think you?” he asked of Alexander. “My spies report the number to be a million--yea, and a hundred thousand beyond that. ’Tis the eve of the passover, and Jews from every province of the empire have come up to worship.” “A million? Ye gods! Has this nation appointed a rendezvous for its own destruction? But as to the fighting men?” “All will fight, even children, if it be to defend their city and their religion. The women and girls will weave their hair into ropes, if ropes be needed. The priests themselves will arm should the war approach the temple.” “Little care I for such foes. My concern is with those who have any knowledge of actual warfare.” “Why, as to that, Eleazar guards the holy house with 2,400 Zealots; John, your old opponent in Galilee, keeps the cloisters with 6,000. But Simon, who holds Mount Zion, is the man to be feared. He hath 15,000 fierce spirits, so fanatically devoted to him, that each would fall on his own sword did he but command it.” “Twenty-three thousand fighting men? Well, we have more than double that number with us.” “Your number may be tenfold theirs, but such superiority avails nothing in view of their impregnable position.--As you see, O Cæsar,” he continued, pointing first to the city, and then to a map that he carried, a map drawn by the hand of Josephus, “Jerusalem occupies the southern tongue of a rocky plateau; on the east, on the west, on the south, its walls look down upon ravines and valleys whose slopes are too steep to be scaled by an army; it is from this quarter only that the attack can be made.” Titus recognized the fact at a glance. The city, the real city--namely, the stronghold of Zion--was assailable only from the north, but the way to it was barred by huge ramparts.