made a last sortie, which was ineffectual. " The Eomans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy House itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched' somewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the holy House, on the north side of it. As the flames went upward the Jews made a great clamour, such as so mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it ; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered anything to restrain their force, since that holy House was perishing, for whoso sake it was that they kept such a guard about it." * Titus, with all his staff, hastened to save what he could. He exhorted the soldiers to spare the building. He stood in the Holy of Holies itself, and beat back the soldiers who were pressing to the work of destruction. But in vain : one of the soldiers threw a torch upon the gateway of the sanctuary, and in a moment the fate of the building was sealed. And while the flames mounted higher the carnage of the poor wretches within went on. None was spared ; ten thousand were killed that were found there— children, old men, priests and profane persons, all alike ; six thousand fled to the roof of the royal cloister, that glorious building which crowned the Temple wall to the south, stretching from " Eobinson's Arch " to the valley of the Kedron. The Eomans fired that too, and the whole of the multitude perished together. " One would have thought that the hill itself, on which the Temple stood, was seething hot, full of fire in every part ; that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire ; * Joseph, vi. iv. 5.