Nehushta said that it was folly, whereon Miriam answered that she would go alone.

This she would not suffer her to do, so together they passed up the stairs according to custom, and, having gained the base of the tower through the swinging door of stone, climbed the steps that ran in the thickness of the wall till they reached the topmost gallery.

Here they sat, fanned by the faint night wind, and watched the fires of the Romans stretched far and wide around the walls and even among the ruins of the houses almost beneath them, since that part of the city was taken.
Presently the dawn broke, a splendid, fearful dawn.

It was as though the angel of the daybreak had dipped his wing into a sea of blood and dashed it against the brow of Night, still crowned with her fading stars.

Of a sudden the heavens were filled with blots and threads of flaming colour latticed against the pale background of the twilight sky.