soon as I had taken my place, and began to speak to them, they
all made an acclamation, and called me the benefactor and savior
of the country. And when I had made them my acknowledgments, and
thanked them [for their affection to me], I also advised them to
fight with nobody, (19) nor to spoil the country; but to pitch
their tents in the plain, and be content with their sustenance
they had brought with them; for I told them that I had a mind to
compose these troubles without shedding any blood. Now it came to
pass, that on the very same day those who were sent by John with
letters, fell among the guards whom I had appointed to watch the
roads; so the men were themselves kept upon the place, as my
orders were, but I got the letters, which were full of reproaches
and lies; and I intended to fall upon these men, without saying a
word of these matters to any body.

48. Now, as soon as Jonathan and his companions heard of my
coming, they took all their own friends, and John with them, and
retired to the house of Jesus, which indeed was a large castle,
and no way unlike a citadel; so they privately laid a band of
armed men therein, and shut all the other doors but one, which
they kept open, and they expected that I should come out of the
road to them, to salute them. And indeed they had given orders to
the armed men, that when I came they should let nobody besides me
come in, but should exclude others; as supposing that, by this
means, they should easily get me under their power: but they were
deceived in their expectation; for I perceived what snares they
had laid for me. Now, as soon as I was got off my journey, I took
up my lodgings over against them, and pretended to be asleep; so
Jonathan and his party, thinking that I was really asleep and at
rest, made haste to go down into the plain, to persuade the