DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0157
THE RAVAGES OF WAR.
141
try. We had spent our last night in the wilder-
ness, and were now approaching the Holy Land ;
and no pilgrim ever approached its borders with a
more joyous and thankful heart than mine.
At nine o'clock we came to another field of ru-
ins, where the relics of an Arab village were min-
gled with those of a Roman city. The hands of the
different builders and residents were visible among
them ; two square buildings of large Roman stone
were still standing like towers, while all the rest
had fallen to pieces, and the stones which once
formed the foundations of palaces were now
worked up into fences around holes in the rocks,
the burrowing-places of the miserable Arabso
And here, too, we saw the tokens of man's
inhumanity to man; the thunder of war had been
levelled against the wretched village, the habita-
tions were in ruins, and the inhabitants whom the
sword had spared were driven out and scattered no
one knew whither. On the borders of the Holy
Land we saw that Ibrahim Pacha, the great Egyp-
tian soldier, whose terrible war-cry had been heard
on the plains of Egypt and among the mountains
of Greece, in the deserts of Syria and under the
walls of Constantinople, was ruling the conquered
country with the same rod of iron which his
father swayed in Egypt. He had lately been to
this frontier village with the brand of war, and
burning and desolation had marked his path.
Soon after we came to an inhabited village, the
VOL. II.—N
141
try. We had spent our last night in the wilder-
ness, and were now approaching the Holy Land ;
and no pilgrim ever approached its borders with a
more joyous and thankful heart than mine.
At nine o'clock we came to another field of ru-
ins, where the relics of an Arab village were min-
gled with those of a Roman city. The hands of the
different builders and residents were visible among
them ; two square buildings of large Roman stone
were still standing like towers, while all the rest
had fallen to pieces, and the stones which once
formed the foundations of palaces were now
worked up into fences around holes in the rocks,
the burrowing-places of the miserable Arabso
And here, too, we saw the tokens of man's
inhumanity to man; the thunder of war had been
levelled against the wretched village, the habita-
tions were in ruins, and the inhabitants whom the
sword had spared were driven out and scattered no
one knew whither. On the borders of the Holy
Land we saw that Ibrahim Pacha, the great Egyp-
tian soldier, whose terrible war-cry had been heard
on the plains of Egypt and among the mountains
of Greece, in the deserts of Syria and under the
walls of Constantinople, was ruling the conquered
country with the same rod of iron which his
father swayed in Egypt. He had lately been to
this frontier village with the brand of war, and
burning and desolation had marked his path.
Soon after we came to an inhabited village, the
VOL. II.—N