my feelings upon entering this sacred place. I really CHAP. VL cannot tell. So many reflections rushed at once upon Feelings of my mind, that I was unable to dwell upon any parti- Vicomte. cular idea. I continued nearly half an hour upon my knees in the little chamber of the Holy Sepulchre, with my eyes riveted upon the stone, from which I had not the power to turn them. One of the two monks who accompanied me remained prostrate on the marble by my side, while the other, with the Testament in his hand, read to me by the light of the lamps the passages relating to the sacred tomb. All I can say is, that when I beheld this triumphant Sepulchre, I felt nothing but my own weakness; and that when my guide exclaimed with St Paul, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory! I listened, as if Death were about to reply that he was conquered and enchained in this monument. Where shall we look in antiquity for any Comparison thing so impressive, so wonderful, as the last scenes de- with all scribed by the Evangelists? These are not the absurd adventures of a deity foreign to human nature: it is a most pathetic history,-a history which not only extorts tears by its beauty, but whose consequences, applied to the universe, have changed the face of the earth. I had just beheld the monuments of Greece, and my mind was still profoundly impressed with their grandeur; but how far inferior were the sentiments which they excited to those I felt at the sight of the places commemorated in the gospel!" *

other scenes

We must not presume to follow the ardent pilgrim Via Dolorosa. along the Via Dolorosa, the name given to the way by

which the Saviour passed from the house of Pilate to the Mount of Calvary. Nor can we stop to revere the arch, called Ecce Homo, where, we are told, the window may still be seen from which the Roman judge exclaimed to the vindictive Jews, "Behold the Man!" We cannot resign our belief to the minute description which recognises the house of Simon the Pharisee, where Mary

* Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, &c. vol. ii. p. 22.

CHAP. VI. Magdalene confessed her sins; the prison of St Peter, and the dwelling of Mary the mother of Mark, in which the same apostle took refuge when he was set at liberty by the angel; and even the mansion of Dives, the rich man, at whose gate the mendicant Lazarus was laid, full of sores.

Mount Sion.

On crossing the small ravine which divides the modern city from Mount Sion, the attention of the traveller is drawn to three ancient monuments, or more properly ruins, covered with buildings comparatively modern,— the house of Caiaphas,—the place where Christ held his Jast Supper, and the tomb or palace of David. The first of these now a church, the duty of which is performed by the Armenians; the second, consecrated by the affecting solemnity with the memory of which it is still associated, presents a mosque and a Turkish hospital ; while the third, a small vaulted apartment, contains only three sepulchres formed of dark-coloured stone. The holy hill. This holy hill is equally celebrated in the Old Testament and in the New. Here the successor of Saul built a city and a royal dwelling,-here he kept for three months the Ark of the Covenant,―here the Redeemer instituted the sacrament which commemorates his death,-here he appeared to his disciples on the day of his resurrection,

First Chris tian temple.

Pool of
Siloam.

-and here the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles. The place hallowed by the Last Supper, if we may believe the early Fathers, was transformed into the first Christian temple the world ever saw, where St James the Less was consecrated the first bishop of Jerusalem, and where he presided in the first council of the church. Finally, it was from this spot that the apostles, in compliance with the injunction to go and teach all nations, departed, without purse and without scrip, to seat their religion upon all the thrones of the earth.

Descending Mount Sion on the eastern side, the eye is attracted by the Fountain and Pool of Siloam, so celebrated in the history of our Saviour's miracles. The brook itself is ill supplied with water, and, compared with the ideas formed in the mind by the fine invocation

A few CHAP. VI.

of the poet, usually creates disappointment.* paces to the northward is the source of the scanty rivulet, Fountain of which is called by some the Fountain of the Virgin, the Virgin. from an opinion that she frequently went thither to drink. It appears in a recess about twenty feet lower than the surface, and under an arched vault of masonry tolerably well executed. The rock had been originally hewn down to reach this pool; and a small winding passage, of which only the beginning is seen, is said to convey the water out of the valley, and to supply the means of irrigating the little gardens still cultivated in that spot. Notwithstanding the dirty state of the water, and its harsh and brackish taste, it continues to be used by the devout for diseases of the eye.

of the foun

It is said to have a kind of ebb and flow, sometimes Appearance discharging its current like the Fountain of Vaucluse, tain. at others retaining and scarcely suffering it to run at all. The Levites, we are told, used to sprinkle the water of Siloam on the altar at the Feast of Tabernacles, saying, "Ye shall draw water with joy from the wells of salvation." The reader will find on the following page a representation of the Pool, as it appeared to the eye of an able traveller,—a considerable part of the arch having fallen down, or been destroyed by the barbarians who continue to hold the sacred capital in subjection.

Jehoshaphat

The Valley of Jehoshaphat stretches between the Valley of eastern walls of the city and the Mount of Olives, containing a great variety of objects, to which allusion is made in the Sacred Writings. It was sometimes called

*The invocation alluded to must be familiar to the youngest reader :

"Sing, heavenly muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb or of Sinai didst inspire

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos; or, if Zion Hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song."

Paradise Lost, book i.

Its monuments.

Fountain of Siloam.

the King's Dale, from a reference to an event recorded in the history of Abraham, and was afterwards distinguished by the name of Jehoshaphat, because that sovereign erected in it a magnificent tomb. This narrow ravine seems to have always served as a burying-place for the inhabitants of the holy city: there are seen monuments of the most remote ages, as well as of modern times; thither the descendants of Jacob resort from the four quarters of the globe, to yield up their last breath; and a foreigner sells to them, for its weight in gold, a scanty spot of earth to cover their remains in the country

of their ancestors. "Observing many Jews, whom I CHAP VI. could easily recognise by their yellow turbans, quick The brook dark eyes, black eyebrows, and bushy beards, walking Kedron. about the place, and reposing along the Brook Kedron in a pensive mood, the pathetic language of the Psalmist occurred to me, as expressing the subject of their meditation By the rivers we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.' Upon frequently inquiring the motive that prompted them in attempting to go to Jerusalem, the answer was, to die in the land of our fathers.'"*

This valley or dale still exhibits a very desolate Desolation of appearance. The western side is a high chalk-cliff the valley. supporting the walls of the city, above which is seen Jerusalem itself; while the eastern acclivity is formed by the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offence, so called from the idolatry which darkens the fame of Solomon. These two hills are nearly naked, and of a dull-red colour. On their slopes are observed a few bleak and parched vines, some groves of wild olivetrees, wastes covered with hyssop, chapels, oratories, and mosques in ruins. At the bottom of the valley is a bridge of a single arch, thrown across the channel of the Brook Kedron. The stones in the Jewish cemetery look Village of like a heap of rubbish at the foot of the declivity, below Sioane. the Arab village of Siloane, the paltry houses of which are scarcely to be distinguished from the surrounding sepulchres. From the stillness of the city, whence no smoke arises and no noise proceeds,-from the solitude of these hills, where no living creature is to be seen,from the ruinous state of all these tombs, overthrown, broken, and half-open, one might imagine that the last trumpet had already sounded, and that the Valley of Jehoshaphat was about to render up its dead.

Amidst this scene of desolation three monuments Tombs in the arrest the eyes of the intelligent pilgrim,-the tombs of valley. Zachariah, of Absalom, and of the king whose name still distinguishes the valley. The first mentioned of

* Travels by Rae Wilson, voi. 1. p. 220.