Page:Jerusalem's captivities lamented, or, A plain description of Jerusalem from Joshua's time to the year 1517, both from Scripture and ancient history.pdf/20

20 ruined themſelves, by quitting thoſe holds of their own accord, that could never have been taken but by famine: and this after the Jews had ſpent ſo much time to no purpoſe upon other places of leſs value. By theſe means, the Romans became matters of three impregnable ſorts by fortune, that could never have been taken any other way: For the three famous towers before mentioned were proof againſt all battery.

Upon Simon and John's quitting theſe towers; or rather, upon their being driven out of them, by the impulſe of judicial infatuation, they haftened away to the vale of Siloa, where they took breath a while, and after ſome recollection, and refreſhment, they gave an aſſualt to the new wall there: But ſo faint and weak, that the guard beat then off; for between fatigue, deſpondency, dread, and miſery, their ſtrength failed them, and they were then ſcattered ſeveral ways in ſinks and gutters.

The ſoldiers were now broken looſe, all over the town, up and down in the ſtreets, with their ſwords drawn; killing all that fell in their way without diſtinction; and burning entire houſes, and whatever was in them, in one common flame. In ſeveral places where they entered to ſearch for pillage, they found whole families dead, and houſes crammed with hunger-ſtarved carcaſes: So that upon the horror of ſo hideous a ſpectacle,