But for the noblemen and the youth, they first caught them and
bound them, and shut them up in prison, and put off their
slaughter, in hopes that some of them would turn over to their
party; but not one of them would comply with their desires, but
all of them preferred death before being enrolled among such
wicked wretches as acted against their own country. But this
refusal of theirs brought upon them terrible torments; for they
were so scourged and tortured, that their bodies were not able to
sustain their torments, till at length, and with difficulty, they
had the favor to be slain. Those whom they caught in the day time
were slain in the night, and then their bodies were carried out
and thrown away, that there might be room for other prisoners;
and the terror that was upon the people was so great, that no one
had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead man that
was related to him, or to bury him; but those that were shut up
in their own houses could only shed tears in secret, and durst
not even groan without great caution, lest any of their enemies
should hear them; for if they did, those that mourned for others
soon underwent the same death with
those whom they mourned for. Only in the night time they would
take up a little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and even
some that were the most ready to expose
themselves to danger would do it in the day time: and there
were twelve thousand of the better sort who perished in this
manner.

4. And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of
barely killing men, so they had the impudence of setting up
fictitious tribunals and judicatures for that purpose; and as
they intended to have Zacharias (9) the son of Baruch, one of the