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IN THE HOLY LAND.

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stationary rivals, who are incessantly labouring to supplant you!

Were I permitted to express my thoughts to the Franciscan superiors in Europe, I would tell them that it is ardently to be wished that they would send to the Holy Land men who combine with the high piety of those with whom I passed such happy days at Jerusalem a deeper knowledge of men and things; or who, at least, could remain there long enough to acquire it, and to make it subservient to the glory of God and the triumph of our holy religion. Full of gratitude to the good Fathers, full of admiration of their virtues, fain would I, at the expence of my blood, at the expence of the years that may still be left me on earth, procure for them the rest, the peace, and, above all, the protection which they so much need against the persecutions to which they are liable. Since the late invasion, their tranquillity has been rather less disturbed: the Egyptian government seems to manifest a favourable disposition towards them; it has even ordered them not to pay the Turks the sums which they were accustomed to exact. What will be the end of this? God knows!

Adieu, my dear friend! According to all appearance, my next letter will not be dated from Jerusalem. My eyes fill with tears; my bosom heaves. Once more, farewell.

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PREPARATIONS TO LEAVE JERUSALEM.

LETTER XXXVI.

PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING JERUSALEM LAST FAREWELL TO THE SANCTUARIES AT BETHLEHEM; THE TOMBS OF MARY AND JOSEPH; THE GROTTO OF THE AGONY; THE GARDEN OF OLIVES - LAST NIGHT PASSED IN THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE-GRIEP AT LEAVING THOSE SACRED PLACES - DEPARTURE FROM JERUSALEM FOR JAFFATHE PLAGUE IN THE HOLY CITY-M. CATAFAGO, AUSTRIAN VICECONSUL RAVAGES OF THE PLAGUE AT ROME-JAFFA-IBRAHIM AGA, THE GOVERNOR; HIS CRUELTY-WEdding of M. CATAPAGO'S NEPHEW.

Jaffa, May 14th, 1832.

I HAD fixed my departure from Jerusalem for the 7th of this month, and I could not think of it without a feeling of intense pain. Never had my heart inclined so strongly towards any object as it inclined towards that unfortunate city; never had it experienced such lively impressions. The miser does not love his treasure, the husband his wife, the fondest of mothers her first-born, more dearly than I loved Jerusalem. The most delicious days of my life I had spent there, at Bethlehem, in Judea. When wet to the skin from a soaking shower, stiff with cold, bespattered with mud, I crossed the brook Cedron; or panting, covered with dust and perspiration, scorched by the sun, fainting with fatigue, I thus ascended, several times a week, the Mount of Olives; I felt incomparably happier than I had been in my apartments, surrounded by all that can gratify the senses; incomparably happier than I had been when, young, glowing with health, bedizened, and perfumed, I mounted the staircases of kings to participate in the pleasures and splendour of their entertainments.

Determined to pass the last days far from all distraction, and to think of nothing but my God, I had made

LAST VISIT TO BETHLEHEM.

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preparations for my departure some time beforehand. The precious objects which I meant to take with me had been carefully packed in cases, after having been blessed on the tomb of our Saviour, and deposited for a moment in each sanctuary. I wished, above all, to anoint all those sanctuaries with oil of roses, before leaving them for ever, and I had provided myself with a sufficient quantity of that perfume. The horses for the journey were ready. I belonged, if I may so say, entirely to myself; and I had yet left me two days, every hour of which I intended. to make good use of.

On the 4th, very early in the morning, I set out on horseback for Bethlehem. The roads being unsafe, I reinforced my guide with an armed Bethlehemite. We had not proceeded a quarter of a league, before we perceived, at a distance, some persons walking in the same direction as ourselves, and one of whom, turning towards us, began to call us with loud cries. I advanced, and soon found myself in the presence of an elderly man, who intreated me to take up his son behind me, and to carry him to Bethlehem. I was in haste; the lad was dirty and ill clad . . . . . but, how refuse to take up a child on the road to Bethlehem! I complied, and bound him to me with my handkerchief, desiring him, by a sign, to hold fast.

On reaching the rising ground of St. Elijah, being considerably in advance of my guide and my Bethlehemite, I suddenly descried, twenty paces from me, seven or eight Turks, armed with muskets, pistols, and sabres, who appeared to be lying in ambush there. On my approach, one of them stepped forward, as if to prevent me from

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passing. My mare was an excellent animal; I might face about, and dart away with the swiftness of lightning : but the consideration that the boy, of whom I had taken charge, might run the risk of falling; perhaps, also, a little vanity, and a sense of honour- all these, together, determined me to proceed. The Turks, who had remained concealed, suddenly rose.

He who had come

forward into the road did not molest me.

I passed very

close to him; not without some alarm, I must confess; and pursued my route, while all looked at me without uttering a word. When I was at some distance, I turned round to look for my travelling companions. They had approached the Turks, along with the father of the boy behind me. As they did not continue to follow, I imagined that they were stopped, and this was a fresh cause of alarm for me. Fortunately, my apprehension was not long: five minutes afterwards they rejoined me. I learned from them, that these Turks, who had immediately replaced themselves in ambuscade at the same spot, belonged to the village of St. John in the Desert; that they were waiting for some wealthy inhabitant or other of Bethlehem to pass, with the intention of seizing and keeping him as an hostage, till, as they said, another Bethlehemite, who was in their debt and had absconded, should come back and pay them.

Strange conduct! singular justice! according to which all the townsmen of the runaway were held responsible for an obligation, for which none of them had made himself security!

On my

arrival at Bethlehem, I learned that the plague

FAREWELL TO BETHLEHEM.

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was ravaging its environs. I proceeded straightway to the Grotto of the Nativity. There I tarried some time in prayer, meditating anew on the ineffable mystery of mercy which was there accomplished, and repeating my humble homage to the divine Infant, who had deigned to be born there, and to suffer for us.

Bending over the manger, my soul agitated with gratitude and love, I began with trembling hand to anoint it with oil of roses. At four o'clock I uttered there, for the last time, the sweet names of Jesus and Mary, and bade farewell to those august places, deeply grieved to think that I was quitting them for ever. A few minutes afterwards, I was on the road to Jerusalem.

On reaching the monastery of St. Elijah, at the moment when the hill was about to intercept Bethlehem from my sight, I cast upon it a look of regret; as I thought, it was the last ... But all at once this painful idea: :- "I shall never see it more!" darted across my mind and stopped me. I determined to bid it once more adieu, and, scampering over the ground I had just traversed, I regained the point from which I had started; and my eyes, moistened with tears, were fixed for another quarter of an hour on the cradle of my Saviour.

Next morning, by day-break, I was on horseback, to pay a last visit to the places in the vicinity of the holy city. I first went to the tomb of Mary, where the Greek sacristan, to whom I had given notice of my intention, was waiting for me. I anointed that august tomb with oil of roses, as I had done at Bethlehem. On re-ascending the steps, I entered the tombs of Joseph, Joachim, and

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