they do not begin to fight till they have walled their camp about; nor is the defence they can raise rashly made, or uneven; nor do they all abide in it, nor do those that are in it take their places at random; but if it happens that the ground is uneven, it is first levelled: their camp is four-square by measure, and carpenters are ready in great numbers with their tools, to erect their buildings for them.” Such was the _system_ of the great “nation of the sword,” differing, perhaps, but little, except in the scale upon which it operated, from that of Sparta. The machines employed by the Romans were the artificial tower, with its drawbridges, catapultæ, balistæ, and rams; the weapons--javelins, darts, arrows, pikes, stones, swords, and daggers, with the shield or buckler. EIGHTH SIEGE, A.D. 613. In the reign of Heraclius, a countless host of Persians--fire-worshippers--under the leadership of Sarbar, poured like a torrent upon Palestine, and carried their ravages to the gates of Jerusalem, of which they took possession. Nearly a hundred thousand Christians perished on this occasion: the great eastern inundations of hordes of barbarous conquerors, being always effected by numbers, necessarily produce an amount of carnage in the vanquished which is sometimes staggering to our belief. But the loss most felt by the Christians, was that of the holy cross, which the conqueror carried away with him, in a case sealed with the seal of Zacchariah, then Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulchre and the churches were given up to the flames. NINTH SIEGE, A.D. 635.