DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0191
180
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
blow it wr 3 thrown wide open, with a suddenness
that startled me, and a dark, surly, and half-naked
Arab stood facing me in the doorway. He had
been reconnoitring, and though not sufficiently
assured to come out and welcome us, he was ready
to open when again summoned. With no small
degree of asperity, and certainly without the meek-
ness of the character upon which I was then pre-
suming, I asked him if that was his Christian spirit,
to let a stranger and a Christian sleep outside his
walls when he had a roof to shelter him ; and, be-
fore he could interpose a word, I had read him a
homily upon the Christian virtues, that would have
done credit to some pulpits. He might have re-
torted upon me, that with the Christian duties
coming so glibly from my tongue, I was amazingly
deficient in the cardinal virtue of forbearance ; but
I had the satisfaction of learning that I had not
been excluded by the hands of Christians. The
priests and monks had gone to a neighbouring vil-
lage, and he was left alone. I followed him
through a sort of courtyard into a vestibule, where
was a noble fire, with a large caldron boiling
over it. He neither asked me to stay nor told me
to go, and seated himself by the fire, perfectly in-
different to my movements. As soon as I had
satisfied myself that he was alone, and saw that
my Arabs had followed me, I thought I ran no
risk in considering the building as a castle which I
had stormed, and him as the captive of my bow
and spear. I therefore required him to show me the
interior of the convent, and he immediately took
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
blow it wr 3 thrown wide open, with a suddenness
that startled me, and a dark, surly, and half-naked
Arab stood facing me in the doorway. He had
been reconnoitring, and though not sufficiently
assured to come out and welcome us, he was ready
to open when again summoned. With no small
degree of asperity, and certainly without the meek-
ness of the character upon which I was then pre-
suming, I asked him if that was his Christian spirit,
to let a stranger and a Christian sleep outside his
walls when he had a roof to shelter him ; and, be-
fore he could interpose a word, I had read him a
homily upon the Christian virtues, that would have
done credit to some pulpits. He might have re-
torted upon me, that with the Christian duties
coming so glibly from my tongue, I was amazingly
deficient in the cardinal virtue of forbearance ; but
I had the satisfaction of learning that I had not
been excluded by the hands of Christians. The
priests and monks had gone to a neighbouring vil-
lage, and he was left alone. I followed him
through a sort of courtyard into a vestibule, where
was a noble fire, with a large caldron boiling
over it. He neither asked me to stay nor told me
to go, and seated himself by the fire, perfectly in-
different to my movements. As soon as I had
satisfied myself that he was alone, and saw that
my Arabs had followed me, I thought I ran no
risk in considering the building as a castle which I
had stormed, and him as the captive of my bow
and spear. I therefore required him to show me the
interior of the convent, and he immediately took