These sounds interested them, since many of those who listened were doomed to take a leading part in the spectacle of this new day.

In the outer court, for instance, were a hundred men called malefactors, for the most part Jews convicted of various political offences.

These were to fight against twice their number of savage Arabs of the desert taken in a frontier raid, people whom to-day we should know as Bedouins, mounted and armed with swords and lances, but wearing no mail.

The malefactor Jews, by way of compensation, were to be protected with heavy armour and ample shields.

Their combat was to last for twenty minutes by the sand-glass, when, unless they had shown cowardice, those who were left alive of either party were to receive their freedom.