Why should he not enter the city by the same means as that by which these men had left it? His object in this enterprise was to find Vashti, and having found her to bring her out of this city of death, and to put her into some safe place of concealment, thereby defeating the wicked scheme of Berenice. But his plan, as he rapidly conceived it, required the co-operation of these three Jews, and there lay the difficulty: they might refuse to join him, or, deceiving him by a pretended assent, turn traitors at the very moment of his seeming success. Nevertheless, desperate as the plan was, he determined to take the risks. “Hearken unto me, Asaph, and ye two,” said Crispus, adopting a Hebrew phraseology, to make his address the more impressive. “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, if ye attempt to pass the Roman lines without me ye are dead men. But fear not, I will go with you and save you. Yet will I not go with you to-night, but to-morrow night. Ye must return, and resume your post upon the wall. I will go with you, not to betray the city, but to seek therein a damsel, whose life I would save. ’Tis an easy matter for me to mount the wall by the rope ye have left, but how am I to return, unless the wall be held by those friendly to me? Therefore ye must delay your flight by twenty-four hours. To-morrow night about this time when ye are again playing the part of sentinels I will come to you bringing the damsel, and that hour shall be the hour of your departure. “Know that I am Crispus the Tribune, high in the favor of Titus, and therefore capable of fulfilling my word. Now, if ye will aid me in this, my soul’s desire, I will conduct you to the Roman camp, and send you away in safety; but if ye will not do this thing, then go on your way alone to meet whatever doom befall you. Now, delay not your answer, for the success of my scheme depends upon your speedy return to the city.” The three men whispered together. They were not long in coming to a decision. “Swear in the name of the Lord that you will save our soul alive,” said Asaph, “and we will aid thee in this matter.” Under the black sky the strange compact was made, the three men taking Crispus to be a Hebrew proselyte, a belief in which he did not undeceive them. “Let us return at once,” said Asaph, “ere our flight be discovered.” Accompanied by his new-sworn allies Crispus began the steep ascent of Ophel, climbing with all silence and caution, and grateful to the darkness that hid them from the view of the sentinel Zealots above. Arrived at the foot of the ramparts they crept along, Asaph leading the way, till a point was reached where the semicircular base of a huge projecting tower made an angle with the wall. Within this angle, and scarcely discernible in the dark, hung a rope attached to a battlement above. “A good sign, this,” said Crispus in a whisper. “Had these battlements been visited in your absence this rope would surely have been detected and drawn up.”