DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0220
204
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
me, who had so long been debarred all conversa-
tion except with Paul and the Arabs, it v s a
pleasure which few can ever know, to sit down
with a compatriot, and once more, in my native
tongue, hold converse of my native land.
Each of us soon lei: ned to look upon the other
as a friend; for we found that an old friend and
schoolmate of mine had been also a friend and
schoolmate of his own. He would have had me
stay at his house ; but I returned to the convent,
and with my thoughts far away, nd full of the
home of which we had been talking, I slept for the
first night in the city of Jerusalem.
The first and most interesting object within the
walls of the holy city, the spot to which every pil-
grim first directs his steps, is the holy sepulchre.
The traveller who has never read the descriptions
of those who have preceded him in a pilgrimage
through the Holy Land, finds his expectations
strangely disappointed, when, approaching this hal-
lowed tomb, he sees around him the tottering
houses of a ruined city, and is conducted to the
door of a gigantic church.
This edifice is another, and perhaps the prin-
cipal, monument of the Empress Helena's piety.
What authority she had for fixing here the site of
the Redeemer's burial-place, I will not stop to in-
quire. Doubtless she had her reasons ; and there
is more pleasure in believing than in raising doubts
which cannot be confirmed. In the front of the
church is a large courtyard, fihed .with dealers
in beads, crucifixes, and relics; among the most
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
me, who had so long been debarred all conversa-
tion except with Paul and the Arabs, it v s a
pleasure which few can ever know, to sit down
with a compatriot, and once more, in my native
tongue, hold converse of my native land.
Each of us soon lei: ned to look upon the other
as a friend; for we found that an old friend and
schoolmate of mine had been also a friend and
schoolmate of his own. He would have had me
stay at his house ; but I returned to the convent,
and with my thoughts far away, nd full of the
home of which we had been talking, I slept for the
first night in the city of Jerusalem.
The first and most interesting object within the
walls of the holy city, the spot to which every pil-
grim first directs his steps, is the holy sepulchre.
The traveller who has never read the descriptions
of those who have preceded him in a pilgrimage
through the Holy Land, finds his expectations
strangely disappointed, when, approaching this hal-
lowed tomb, he sees around him the tottering
houses of a ruined city, and is conducted to the
door of a gigantic church.
This edifice is another, and perhaps the prin-
cipal, monument of the Empress Helena's piety.
What authority she had for fixing here the site of
the Redeemer's burial-place, I will not stop to in-
quire. Doubtless she had her reasons ; and there
is more pleasure in believing than in raising doubts
which cannot be confirmed. In the front of the
church is a large courtyard, fihed .with dealers
in beads, crucifixes, and relics; among the most