As she spoke--they were standing at the time within the gateway of her dwelling--their ears were caught by the tread of numerous feet accompanied by fierce cries, and looking whence these sounds proceeded they saw, coming at a quick pace and with faces expressive of the wildest excitement, a mob of Jews, some carrying steel weapons and others wooden clubs. In a moment the three Romans sprang within the stone passage, dragging Vashti with them, and closed and barred the gate. They soon discovered, however, that they were not the objects of attack; it was doubtful whether they had even been seen. Like the rush of a whirlwind the crowd swept past the gateway, rending the air with their cries. Similar sounds, proceeding from the adjacent streets, showed that these also were being traversed by excited throngs. “Down with Florus!” shouted some. “That’s a saying with which I can very well sympathize,” said Rufus. “Death to the Romans!” cried others. “Ha! that’s a different matter. That touches you and me,” he continued, addressing Crispus. “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! Sacrilege! Sacrilege!” Successive waves of people rolled along the street, voluble women among them, dragging their slow-moving children by the hand. Their fragmentary talk soon enabled the listening Romans to gather the cause of all this excitement. Florus had sent to Agrippa demanding seventeen talents from the Corban, saying that he wanted them for Cæsar. The Jewish mind was fired to wrath not so much by the amount itself--which was rather a small one for a man of Florus’ rapacity, the sum being about £6,000 in modern English currency--but by the fact that the demand was made upon the Corban or Temple treasury. The gold deposited there was regarded as sacred to Jehovah, to be used only in His service; the diverting of even a single shekel of it to any other purpose was, in the eyes of the frenzied Jew, one of the greatest of crimes. It would be a crime if committed by the high priest himself; but when the demand came from a heathen, unclean, uncircumcized, rapacious, whose object, as all well knew, was not to transmit the money to Cæsar but to spend it upon his own sensual pleasures, it was no wonder that the contemplated profanation should fire the blood of every Jew, and send him running with all haste to prevent the sacrilegious deed. “It is as I have said,” whispered Rufus to Crispus. “Florus is purposely trying to create a revolt.” “Vain is it for Rome to boast of her justice,” sighed Crispus, “when she sends forth governors such as Florus.” “If there be an uproar in the temple,” continued Rufus, “it is my duty to quell it.” As soon as the street of Millo had become comparatively quiet the three Romans stole forth, taking a wide circuit so as to arrive upon the north side of Antonia, the side farthest from the temple.