Now, there prevailed in those days the belief that it was possible for a soothsayer to paralyze the efforts of a hostile army by the utterance of magical spells; and hence, the Romans being too far off to catch his words, even if they had been able to understand his Hebrew language, mistook him for a priest engaged in the task of cursing them. “His curses shall fall upon his own pate,” muttered an angry balistarius, directing his assistants to slew the head of the machine round so as to bring its aim to bear athwart the line of the moving figure. “Woe to the city! Woe to the people! Woe to the holy house! _Woe, woe, to myself also!_” Scarcely had this last utterance left his mouth when the stone prepared from all eternity for the purpose, smote him so that he fell to rise no more. The Zealots gazed at the horribly mangled form in fear and awe. This man, who had prophesied the moment of his own doom, had prophesied likewise the doom of the city; since his word was true in the one case, why should it not be true in the other? Leave musing for the night; the day is for action, and the Zealots flew to obey the orders of Simon, who was growing somewhat concerned at the shaking of the masonry caused by the strokes of the ram Nico. He directed that gabions or huge sacks stuffed with chaff, should be lowered in front of the ram in order to weaken the effect of its blows. But the simple device was defeated by one equally simple. Projecting horizontally from each side of the tower in which the ram hung were iron mantelets or screens, under cover of which stood a number of Romans armed with long poles ending in sharp scythes, and with these they severed the ropes from which the gabion hung, and when the defenders substituted a chain for the rope, the Romans fell upon the gabion instead, so that through a score of rents the chaff came pouring out, leaving the gabion to flap emptily against the wall. “Why this waste?” said Rufus sarcastically. “They’ll be glad of this chaff for food before the war be over.” A third gabion was lowered. This time a soldier bolder than his fellows, breaking cover, ran forward, and with a lighted torch fired the lower end of the gabion. Instantly there shot upwards a column of blinding smoke and dazzling flame, whose heat drove the holders of the gabion backwards; in their confusion they let go the chain, which thus fell into the hands of the Romans, who punctuated their capture with an extra loud boom of the ram. “No more burnable stuff. Fill the sacks with earth,” said Simon. For a few moments he looked on, watching the destruction of gabion after gabion. His brow frowning at first began gradually to clear. “What will you say, Ananus,” said he, turning to one of his fifty captains, “if I prophesy that within a little space the brazen head of yon ram shall be hanging over the gate of the temple, an offering to Jehovah?” “If Simon says it, ’twill be so,” replied the other, who had unbounded faith in his chief.