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DEATH OF THREE HUNDRED PILGRIMS.

either from suffocation, or from being thrown down and trampled to death by the crowd. The governor of the city, who was present as a spectator in the Frank gallery, with a humanity creditable to his character, ran down and endeavoured to restore order, and get the gates broken open ; but he too was borne down by the pressure, and only for the vigorous exertions made by his attendants to rescue him, he would have perished with the other unhappy victims, at this shrine of superstition, being with great difficulty saved. At length the guard forced back some of the crowd with their bayonets, and opened the doors. Many who were carried into the open air recovered; but, from all that I could collect from the most authentic sources, not less than 300 persons perished on that night. Terrific as was this scene of death, one not less heart-rending ensued, as described to me by my friend, Mr. Nicolayson, the Jewish* missionary, and other witnesses. The great majority of those who perished in the building were Greeks of Asia Minor, and Armenian Persians, whose noble, athletic forms every person must admire. The dead bodies were immediately

* A female servant of this gentleman had gone to witness the proceedings, and before she returned, the family were aroused by a piteous cry throughout the city. Mr. Nicolayson set out to search for her, and so had an opportunity of seeing the scene which followed that which took place in the church. The servant, however, escaped.

A MIDNIGHT SCENE IN JERUSALEM.

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removed from the court of the church by their respective friends, relatives, or countrymen, and conveyed to the convent yards, the public karavansaries, and even to the bazaars and open streets in different parts of the city. They were then washed, laid out, and, waked, surrounded by those very torches by which they had, in so remarkable a manner lost their lives, for notwithstanding the accident, the ceremony still proceeded in the church. The mourning groups that knelt around the corpses of their friends and kindred, so lately radiant with life and health, and on which the cold stiffness of death had scarcely yet appeared, presented an impressive and afflicting picture. A wail of sorrow, long and loud, rose at times upon the midnight air throughout the city, and reminded those who heard it of the lamentation that was heard in Bethlehem, when its children were butchered by the Roman soldiers, to gratify the vengeance, and to satisfy the fears of the guilty Herod; or, as when the angel of destruction passed over the land, and smote the first-born of Egypt.

Those concerned in the jugglery of this miraculous fire endeavoured, by all possible means, to cloke the matter, and to prevent the exact number that were killed from being made public; but the impression made on the minds of the people was so great, and so direct and awful appeared this rebuke of the Most High, that on the next day the

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ORIGIN OF THE CEREMONY.

very same Armenian bishop who had assisted at the ceremony, preached openly against its continuance, and strongly urged the people not to require the performance of what they had been taught to believe was miraculous. The Greeks persuaded him afterwards, however, to resume the farce, which is still performed, being in fact the flywheel of the machine that fills the coffers of the convents. The Latins, or Roman Catholics, at present hold the ceremony in extreme contempt; but we must at the same time bear in mind that this mockery was originally their own invention, and the deception was practised by them, with full force about four centuries ago. Since the occurrence of the catastrophe I have mentioned, there has been an open space left in the fan-light of the dome, and the doors of the church are not now closed as they were before, when the people have assembled.

Having now conducted my readers to what is to many one of the chief objects of attraction in the Holy Land, giving the simple narrative of its present state and appearance, and stating some of the feelings that I experienced during my visits to it, it may be asked, has not this place, called Calvary, and the Holy Sepulchre, been long since proved to be nothing more than a fable got up by the Empress Helena, and propagated by credulous travellers, and the impositions of ignorant and superstitious monks?

VALIDITY OF THE SACRED PLACES.

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To discuss the varied and conflicting opinions upon this much mooted and warmly contested topic, would far exceed the limits of my narrative, or the extent of my reading; nevertheless, I shall in the two next chapters, offer a few remarks upon the objections brought against the validity or identity of Calvary and the tomb; and which, though they may not possess the same argumentative force of others, who have written on the subject, yet will have at least the value of having been formed from actual observation on the spot, unbiassed, I trust, by either the credulity of Sandys, the enthusiasm of Chateaubriand, the poetry of Lamartine, or the traditionary legends of modern monks and pilgrims.

CHAPTER VI.

JERUSALEM.

Topography of Jerusalem-Mode of Constructing Maps Opinions of Clarke and Buckingham—Plans of Mr. Catherwood-Description of the hills on which the city stands-The Streams and Valleys-Map of the Author-History of the several Cities on this Spot-Salem-Sion-Building of the Temple-Destruction by Nebuchadnezzar-Rebuilt by Zerubbabel-Agrippa's Wall round Bezetha-Errors in Topography-Descriptions of Josephus-Acra and Moriah -The Three Walls-Tower of Hippicus-Circuit of the Ancient City-Tower of Antonia-Tower of Psephinus-The Royal Sepulchres-Walls of Nehemiah -Description of the Gates and Fountains-Establishment of their Sites-The Armoury-Existing Remains of the Ancient City-Cyclopean Work-The Outer Enclosure of the Temple-Mourning Israelites Berca Solymon-Corroborations-Similarity of Architecture-Authority of Ancient WritersCircumference of the Ancient and Modern City-Elia Capatolina.

IN considering the question proposed in the last chapter, regarding the identity of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, we find that so much depends upon the position that the ground now covered by the church of the sepulchre occupied in relation to the walls of the ancient city, that it necessarily becomes mixed up with the topography of Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion. For this reason, the same arguments and observations that are adapted to the one case, become, if true, the proofs of the

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