what they had done, took six hundred armed men, and came to the
house where I abode, in order to set it on fire. When this their
insult was told me, I thought it indecent for me to run away, and
I resolved to expose myself to danger, and to act with some
boldness; so I gave order to shut the doors, and went up into an
upper room, and desired that they would send in some of their men
to receive the money [from the spoils] for I told them they would
then have no occasion to be angry with me; and when they had sent
in one of the boldest of them all, I had him whipped severely,
and I commanded that one of his hands should be cut off, and hung
about his neck; and in this case was he put out to those that
sent him. At which procedure of mine they were greatly
affrighted, and in no small consternation, and were afraid that
they should themselves be served in like manner, if they staid
there; for they supposed that I had in the house more armed men
than they had themselves; so they ran away immediately, while I,
by the use of this stratagem, escaped this their second
treacherous design against me.

31. But there were still some that irritated the multitude
against me, and said that those great men that belonged to the
king ought not to be suffered to live, if they would not change
their religion to the religion of those to whom they fled for
safety: they spake reproachfully of them also, and said that they
were wizards, and such as called in the Romans upon them. So the
multitude was soon deluded by such plausible pretenses as were
agreeable to their own inclinations, and were prevailed on by
them. But when I was informed of this, I instructed the multitude
again, that those who fled to them for refuge ought not to be
persecuted: I also laughed at the allegation about witchcraft,