Rufus had scarcely made an end of speaking when on the still air rose the chiming of the silver trumpets, blown by the priests as a signal that the hour had come for the closing of the temple. The crowd murmured, hesitated, but finally departed in peaceful fashion, and the great temple-courts were left to silence. CHAPTER IX “LET US GO HENCE!” It was the evening of Crispus’ first day in Jerusalem, and Rufus, who, as the Roman overlord of the temple, had free access to its outer courts during any hour of the day or night, now suggested a quiet and contemplative walk around its cloisters. “Come!” said he, “and I will show you THE STRONGEST FORTRESS IN THE WORLD!” By the glorious light of an Eastern moon, that silvered the sleeping city and the peaceful hills around it, the two Romans crossed the arch connecting the fortress Antonia with the northern side of the Temple Hill, the hill anciently known by the name of Mount Moriah. They descended a flight of stairs and entered the northern cloister of the temple, a cloister divided into two long aisles by lines of marble columns, forty feet in height, and formed of marble, beautifully polished. “Each of these columns,” remarked Rufus, “consists of a single block.” The roof of the cloister was of cedar, curiously graven, and the pavement a mosaic of many colors. This magnificent colonnade was reared upon the very edge of the scarped cliff, and extended in a direct line east and west for a length of more than one thousand feet. “The temple-platform,” observed Rufus, “as you will see, after having gone round it, forms an irregular quadrangle, and occupies the flat summit of a precipitous rock. We’ll inspect all four sides in turn. First, what think you of this, the northern side?” Crispus turned his eyes upon Antonia, frowning white in the moonlight from the other side of the ravine. “Throw down that arch,” said he, “and you make this side of the temple practically unassailable, and--but whom have we here?” he added, breaking off suddenly. Slowly making their way along the cloister came a band of men clothed in semi-military garb, and bearing spears. A few carried torches, whose yellow glare was reflected from the polished surface of column and pavement. “Be it known to you,” said Rufus, “that the temple has _two_ captains, Roman and Jewish. While it is my duty from Antonia to keep watch _over_ the temple, it is the duty of yon officer to keep watch _within_ it. This is the Levitical guard going its round. Woe to the sentinel whom they find asleep. They’ll beat him with clubs, or wake him by setting fire to his clothing.” “Who is the fierce-looking hero marching at their head?”