The Maccabee, among the fighting-men on the wall, saw his approach and
discreetly stepped behind a soldier that he might not be singled out
as a familiar toward which the approaching mediator would logically
direct his appeal. He had no desire to be addressed by his name before
this precarious mob already mad with rage at a turncoat.
And thus concealed the Maccabee heard Josephus appeal to the Jews with
apparent sincerity and affection, promise amnesty, protection and
justice in his patron's name; heard his overtures greeted with fury
and finally saw the Jews swarm over the walls and drive him to fly for
his life up Gareb to the camp of Titus.
It was not the first incident he had seen which showed him his own
fate if it became known that he intended to treat with Rome. He put
aside his calculations in that direction as a detail not yet in order,
and turned to the organization of his army. Here again he met
obstacle.
Among his council of Bezethans he found an enthusiasm for some
intangible purpose, objection to his own plans and a certain hauteur
that he could not understand.
"What is it you hope for, brethren?" he asked one night as he stood in
the gloom of the crypt under the ruin with fifty of his ablest
thinkers and soldiers about him.
"The days of Samuel before Israel cursed itself with a king," one man
declared. The others were suddenly silent.
"Those days will not come to you," he answered patiently. "You must
fight for them."
"We will fight."
"Good! Let us unite and I will lead you," the Maccabee offered.
"But after you have led us, perhaps to victory, then what?" they asked
pointedly.
The Maccabee saw that they were sounding him for his ambitions, and
discreetly effaced them.
"Do with me what you will; or if you doubt me, choose a leader among
yourselves."
They shook their heads.
"Then enlist under Simon and John and fight with them," he cried,
losing patience.
Murmurs and angry looks greeted this suggestion, and the Maccabee put
out his hands toward them hopelessly.
"Then what will you do?" he asked.
"It shall be shown us," they replied; and with this answer, with his
organization yet uneffected, his plans more than ever chaotic, the
Maccabee began another day. Shrewd and resourceful as he believed
himself to be, he beheld plan after plan reveal its inefficiency.
Forced by some act of the city to abandon one idea, the next that
followed found a new intractability. It seemed that there were no two
heads in Jerusalem of a similar thought. Whoever was not demoralized
by panic was fatally stubborn or mad. The single purpose that seemed
to prevail was to hold out against reason.
Finally he determined to pick the most rational of his men and shape
an army that would be distinctly Jewish and enviable. Nothing Roman
should mar its organization. He would have again the six hundred
Gibborim of David, and after he had formed them into a body he would
trust to the existing circumstances to direct him how to proceed to
the assistance of Jerusalem with them. He should be the sole captain,
the sole authority, the single commander of them all. He would not
have an unwieldy army, but one perfectly devoted. He would lead by his
own genius, attract and command by his own personality. With six
hundred absolutely subject to his will, trained in endurance and
steadfastness, he could achieve more surely than with an undisciplined
horde which first of all must be fed.