DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0368
CO
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, v.u
laid their foreheads in the dust, whilst a profound silence, more
impressive than the loudest acclamations, prevailed over all:
even the Moslems gazed reverently on what was to them also a
holy city, and recalled to mind the pathetic appeal of their lore-
father—" Hast thou not a blessing for me, also, O my Father ?"
When the crusading army, thinned by pestilence, privation,
and many a battle-field, gazed upon the view before us, that war-
rior-host knelt down as a single man; sobs burst from their mailed
bosoms, and tears streamed down their rugged cheeks. Those
tears, and not the blood so profusely shed upon the plains of Pal-
estine, were the true evidences of the Crusading spirit.
Apart from all associations, the first view of Jerusalem is a
most striking one. A brilliant and unchequered sunshine has
something mournful in it, when all that it shines upon is utterly
desolate and drear. Not a tree or green spot is visible; no sign
of life breaks the solemn silence; no smile of nature's gladness
ever varies the stern scenery around. The flaming, monotonous
sunshine above, and the pale, distorted, rocky wastes beneath,
realize but too faithfully the prophetic picture—" Thy sky shall
be brass, and thy land shall be iron." To the right and left, as
far as the eye can reach, vague undulations of colourless rocks
extend to the horizon. A broken and desolate plain in front is
bounded by a wavy, battlemented wall, over which towers frown,
and minarets peer, and mosque-domes swell; intermingled with
church-turret and an indistinguishable mass of terraced roofs.
High over the city, to the left, rises the Mount of Olives; and the
distant hills of Moab, almost mingling with the sky, afford a
background to the striking picture.
There was something startlingly new and strange in that wild,
shadowless landscape; the clear outlines of the hills, and the
city walls—so colourless, yet so well defined against the naked
sky—gave to the whole a most unreal appearance * it resembled
rather an immense mezzotinto engraving, than any thing which
nature and nature's complexion had to do with.
I am not sure that this stern scenery did not present the only
appearance that would not disappoint expectation. It is unlike
any thing else on earth—so blank to the eye, yet so full of mean-
ing to the heart; every mountain round is familiar to the memo.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, v.u
laid their foreheads in the dust, whilst a profound silence, more
impressive than the loudest acclamations, prevailed over all:
even the Moslems gazed reverently on what was to them also a
holy city, and recalled to mind the pathetic appeal of their lore-
father—" Hast thou not a blessing for me, also, O my Father ?"
When the crusading army, thinned by pestilence, privation,
and many a battle-field, gazed upon the view before us, that war-
rior-host knelt down as a single man; sobs burst from their mailed
bosoms, and tears streamed down their rugged cheeks. Those
tears, and not the blood so profusely shed upon the plains of Pal-
estine, were the true evidences of the Crusading spirit.
Apart from all associations, the first view of Jerusalem is a
most striking one. A brilliant and unchequered sunshine has
something mournful in it, when all that it shines upon is utterly
desolate and drear. Not a tree or green spot is visible; no sign
of life breaks the solemn silence; no smile of nature's gladness
ever varies the stern scenery around. The flaming, monotonous
sunshine above, and the pale, distorted, rocky wastes beneath,
realize but too faithfully the prophetic picture—" Thy sky shall
be brass, and thy land shall be iron." To the right and left, as
far as the eye can reach, vague undulations of colourless rocks
extend to the horizon. A broken and desolate plain in front is
bounded by a wavy, battlemented wall, over which towers frown,
and minarets peer, and mosque-domes swell; intermingled with
church-turret and an indistinguishable mass of terraced roofs.
High over the city, to the left, rises the Mount of Olives; and the
distant hills of Moab, almost mingling with the sky, afford a
background to the striking picture.
There was something startlingly new and strange in that wild,
shadowless landscape; the clear outlines of the hills, and the
city walls—so colourless, yet so well defined against the naked
sky—gave to the whole a most unreal appearance * it resembled
rather an immense mezzotinto engraving, than any thing which
nature and nature's complexion had to do with.
I am not sure that this stern scenery did not present the only
appearance that would not disappoint expectation. It is unlike
any thing else on earth—so blank to the eye, yet so full of mean-
ing to the heart; every mountain round is familiar to the memo.