So she rose and put on her robes, and they passed together into the great chamber.

Here they found the Essenes at prayer and making their reverences to the sun which they could not see, after which they ate their morning meal.

Now Miriam spoke to Ithiel, telling him of her trouble about her grandfather, who, if he himself still lived, would think that she was dead.
"One thing is certain," replied her great-uncle: "that you shall not go out to seek him, nor must you tell him of your hiding-place, since soon or late this might mean that all of us would be destroyed, if only for the sake of the food which we have hoarded." Miriam asked if she could not send a message.

He answered: "No, since none would dare to take it." In the end, however, after she had pleaded with him long and earnestly, it was agreed that she should write the words, "I am safe and well, but in a place that I must not tell you of," and sign her name upon a piece of parchment.

This letter Ithiel, who purposed to creep out into the city that evening disguised as a beggar, to seek for tidings, said he would take, and, if might be, bribe some soldier to deliver it to Benoni at the house of the high priest, if he were there.
So Miriam wrote the letter, and at nightfall Ithiel and another brother departed, taking it with them.
On the following morning they returned, safe, but with a dreadful tale of the slaughters in the city and in the Temple courts, where the mad factions still fought furiously.
"Your tidings, my uncle ?" said Miriam, rising to meet him.