152 THE ASSAULT. 



upon the city, and expanded their blubber lips, and 

 showed their white fangs. 



At last the day came. The harbour walls were 

 carried by assault, and the Roman soldiers pressed into 

 the narrow streets, which led down to the water side. 

 The houses were six or seven storeys high ; and each 

 house was a fortress, which had to be stormed. Lean 

 and haggard creatures, with eyes of flame, defended 

 their homesteads from room to room, onwards, upwards, 

 to the death struggle on the broad flat roof. 



Day followed day, and still that horrible music did 

 not cease ; the shouts and songs of the besiegers, the 

 yells and shrieks of the besieged, the moans of the 

 wounded, the feeble cries of children divided by the 

 sword. Night followed night, and still the deadly 

 work went on : there was no sleep and no darkness ; 

 the Romans lighted houses, that they might see to 

 kill. 



Six days passed thus ; and only the citadel was 

 left. It was a steep rock in the middle of the town ; 

 a temple of the God of Healing crowned its summit. 



The rock was covered with people, who could be 

 seen extending their arms to heaven, and uniting with 

 one another in the last embrace. Their piteous 

 lamentations, like the cries of wounded animals, as- 

 cended in the air, and behind the iron circle which 

 enclosed them could be heard the crackling of the 

 fire and the dull boom of falling beams. 



The soldiers were weary with smiting : they were 

 filled Avith blood. Nine-tenths of the inhabitants had 

 been already killed. The people on the rock were 

 offered their lives ; they descended with bare hands, 

 and passed under the yoke. Some of them ended their 

 days in prison ; the greater part were sold as slaves. 



