in another direction, “and spake again and said, See, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company cometh by the way of the terebinth of the augurs.”  Zebul, seeing the affair turn out so well, threw off the mask, and replied railingly, “Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray, now, and fight with him.”  The King of Manasseh had no difficulty in defeating his adversary, but arresting the pursuit at the gates of the city, he withdrew to the neighbouring village of Arumah.*

     * This is now el-Ormeh, i.e.Kharbet el-Eurmah, to the south-
     west of Nablus.

He trusted that the inhabitants, who had taken no part in the affair, would believe that his wrath had been appeased by the defeat of Gaal; and so, in fact, it turned out:  they dismissed their unfortunate champion, and on the morrow returned to their labours as if nothing had occurred.

[Illustration:  288.jpg MOUNT GERIZIM, WITH A VIEW OF NABLUS]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced by the Duc de
     Luynes.

Abimelech had arranged his Abiezerites in three divisions:  one of which made for the gates, while the other two fell upon the scattered labourers in the vineyards.  Abimelech then fought against the city and took it, but the chief citizens had taken refuge in “the hold of the house of El-berith.”  “Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder:  and he said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.  And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.”

[Illustration:  289.jpg THE TOWN OF ASCALON]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Ramesseum. 
     This is a portion of the picture representing the capture of
     Ascalon by Ramses II.

This summary vengeance did not, however, prevent other rebellions.  Thebez imitated Shechem, and came nigh suffering the same penalty.* The king besieged the city and took it, and was about to burn with fire the tower in which all the people of the city had taken refuge, when a woman threw a millstone down upon his head “and brake his skull.”

     * Thebez, now Tubas, the north-east of Nablus.