There was an extravagant, half-pastoral manner about them, a pose of which they should not have been conscious at this hour of peril for the nation and the hierarchy.

He looked at their incomplete, meaningless uniform, at their arms, half savage, at their faces, half mad, and believed that he, with an army rationally organized and effectually equipped, would have little difficulty in subduing the unbalanced forces of Simon.
Since siege was laid, he did not expect to be met by Amaryllis' servant in the purple turban.

He approached a citizen.
"I seek Amaryllis, the Seleucid," he said.
The eye of the Jew traveled over him, with some disapproval.
"The mistress of the Gischalan ?" was the returned inquiry.

The Maccabee assented calmly.

The young man indicated a broad street moving with people which led with tolerable directness toward the base of Moriah.
"Hence to the Tyropean Bridge at the end of this street; thence down beside the bridge into Gihon.