DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0299
282
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
more than three years, when he had accompanied
a great apostolic vicar, holding a distinguished
situation in the church of France ; and this was the
last and only time he had ever bestowed such atten-
tion on a stranger. The kind-hearted old man in-
tended it as an act of extraordinary kindness; I
received it as such ; and as such he told me I
could mention it to my friends in America. Hum-
ble and unimportant as was that old monk in the
great drama of life, I felt proud of his kindness—
prouder than I should have been of a reception at
a European court, or a greeting from royal lips—
and my pride was the greater that I did not as-
cribe it to any merits of my own. My only claim
was that possessed by all my countrymen—I was
an American; my country had heard the cry of
his in her distress, and from her seat across the
broad Atlantic had answered that cry.
We passed, as before, through the subterrane-
ous passages into the garden. The miserable Be-
douins who were gathered around outside, waiting
for the bread which they received daily from the
convent, surprised at the unexpected but welcome
appearance of the superior, gathered around him
and kissed his hands and the hem of his garment.
He had provided himself with an extra sack of
bread, which he distributed among them, and
which they seemed to receive with peculiar pleas-
ure from his hands. The monks of Mount Sinai
are now no longer obliged to have recourse to
carnal weapons for protection; peace reigns be-
tween them and the Bedouins; and part of the price
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
more than three years, when he had accompanied
a great apostolic vicar, holding a distinguished
situation in the church of France ; and this was the
last and only time he had ever bestowed such atten-
tion on a stranger. The kind-hearted old man in-
tended it as an act of extraordinary kindness; I
received it as such ; and as such he told me I
could mention it to my friends in America. Hum-
ble and unimportant as was that old monk in the
great drama of life, I felt proud of his kindness—
prouder than I should have been of a reception at
a European court, or a greeting from royal lips—
and my pride was the greater that I did not as-
cribe it to any merits of my own. My only claim
was that possessed by all my countrymen—I was
an American; my country had heard the cry of
his in her distress, and from her seat across the
broad Atlantic had answered that cry.
We passed, as before, through the subterrane-
ous passages into the garden. The miserable Be-
douins who were gathered around outside, waiting
for the bread which they received daily from the
convent, surprised at the unexpected but welcome
appearance of the superior, gathered around him
and kissed his hands and the hem of his garment.
He had provided himself with an extra sack of
bread, which he distributed among them, and
which they seemed to receive with peculiar pleas-
ure from his hands. The monks of Mount Sinai
are now no longer obliged to have recourse to
carnal weapons for protection; peace reigns be-
tween them and the Bedouins; and part of the price