Calvary; as, notwithstanding a very suspicious passage of William of Tyre, we find no indication that the Crusaders ever built any church for the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; it is probable that the church founded by Constantine has always subsisted in its present form, at least as far as regards the walls of the structure. The mere inspection of the architecture of this building would suffice to demonstrate the truth of what I advance.

The Crusaders having gained possession of Jerusalem the 15th of July 1099, wrested the tomb of Christ from the hands of the Infidels. It remained eighty-eight years in the power of the successors of Godfrey of Bouillon. When Jerusalem again fell under the Mahometan yoke, the Syrians ransomed the church of the Holy Sepulchre with a considerable sum of money, and monks repaired to defend with their prayers a spot entrusted in vain to the arms of kings. Thus, amid a thousand revolutions, the piety of the early Christians preserved a church of which the present age was destined to witness the destruction.

The ancient travellers were extremely fortunate: they were not obliged to enter into all these critical disquisitions; in the first place, because they found in their readers that religion which never contends against truth; and, secondly, because every mind was convinced that the only way of seeing a country as it is, must be to see it with all its traditions and recollections. It is, in fact, with the Bible in his hand that a traveller ought to visit the Holy Land. If we are determined to carry with us a spirit of

* It is said that Mary, wife of Hakem, and mother of his successor, defrayed the expence of it, and that in this pious undertaking she was assisted by Constantine Monomachus.

EFFECT ON THE MIND.

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cavil and contradiction, Judea is not worth our going so far to examine it. What should we say to a man, who in traversing Greece and Italy, should think of nothing but contradicting Homer and Virgil? Such, however, is the course adopted by modern travellers; evidently the effect of our vanity, which would excite a high idea of our own abilities, and at the same time fill us with disdain for those of other people.

Christian readers will perhaps inquire, what were my feelings on entering this awful place. I really cannot tell. So many reflections rushed at once upon my mind, that I was unable to dwell upon any particular idea. I continued near half an hour upon my knees in the little chamber of the Holy Sepulchre, with my eyes rivetted on the stone, from which I had not the power to turn them. One of the two religious who accompanied me remained prostrate on the marble by my side, while the other, with the Testament in his hand, read to me by the light of the lamps the passages relating to the sacred tomb. Between each verse he repeated a prayer: Domine Jesu Christe, qui in horá diei vespertina de cruce depositus, in brachiis dulcissima Matris tuæ reclinatus fuisti, horáque ultima in hoc sanctissimo monumento corpus tuum exanime contulisti, &c. All I can say is, that when I beheld this triumphant sepulchre, I felt nothing but my own weakness; and that when my guide exclaimed with St. Paul, "O death, where is thy victory! O grave, where is thy sting!" I listened as if death were about to reply that he was conquered, and enchained in this mo

nument.

We visited all the stations till we came to the summit of Calvary. Where shall we look in anti

quity for any thing so impressive, so wonderful, as the last scenes described by the Evangelists? These are not the absurd adventures of a deity foreign to human nature: it is the most pathetic history-a history, which not only extorts tears by its beauty, but whose consequences, applied to the universe, have changed the face of the earth. I had just beheld the monuments of Greece, and my mind was still profoundly impressed with their grandeur; but how far inferior were the sensations which they excited, to those which I felt at the sight of the places commemorated in the Gospel!

The church of the Holy Sepulchre, composed of several churches, erected upon an unequal surface, illumined by a multitude of lamps, is singularly mysterious; it is pervaded by a sombre light, favourable to piety and profound devotion. Christian priests, of various sects, inhabit different parts of the edifice. From the arches above, where they nestle like pigeons, from the chapels below, and subterraneous vaults, their songs are heard at all hours both of the day and night. The organ of the Latin monks, the cymbals of the Abyssinian priest, the voice of the Greek caloyer, the prayer of the solitary Armenian, the plaintive accents of the Coptic friar, alternately, or all at once assail your ear: you know not whence these concerts proceed; you inhale the perfume of incense, without perceiving the hand that burns it; you merely perceive the pontiff, who is going to celebrate the most awful of mysteries on the very spot where they were accomplished, pass quickly by, glide behind the columus, and vanish in the gloom of the temple.

I did not leave the sacred structure without stopping at the monuments of Godfrey and Baldwin. They face the entrance of the church, and stand

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

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against the wall of the choir. I saluted the ashes of these royal chevaliers, who were worthy of reposing near the sepulchre which they had rescued. These ashes are those of Frenchmen, and they are the only mortal remains interred beneath the shadow of the tomb of Christ. What an honourable distinction for my country!

I returned to the convent at eleven o'clock, and an hour afterwards I again left it to follow the Via Dolorosa. This is the name given to the way by which the Saviour of the world passed from the residence of Pilate to Calvary.

Pilate's house* is a ruin, from which you survey the extensive site of Solomon's Temple, and the mosque erected on that site.

Christ, having been scourged with rods, crowned with thorns, and dressed in a purple robe, was presented to the Jews by Pilate. Ecce Homo! exclaimed the judge; and you still see the window from which these memorable words were pronounced.

According to the tradition current among the Latins at Jerusalem, the crown of Jesus Christ was taken from the thorny tree, called Lycium spinosum. Hasselquist, a skilful botanist, is, however, of opinion, that the nabka of the Arabs was employed for that purpose. The reason which he gives for this conjecture deserves to be mentioned.

"It is highly probable," says he, "that the nabka furnished the crown which was put on the head of our Saviour. It is common in the east. A plant better adapted for this purpose could not have been selected; for it is armed with thorns,

* The governor of Jerusalem formerly resided in this building, but at present these ruins serve only for stabling for his horses.

its branches are supple and pliant, and its leaf is of a dark green, like that of ivy. Perhaps, in order to add insult to punishment, the enemies of Christ chose a plant nearly resembling that made use of to crown the emperors and the generals of armies."

Another tradition at Jerusalem preserves the sentence pronounced by Pilate on the Saviour, of the World, in these words:

Jesum Nazarenum, subversorem gentis, contemptorem Cæsaris, et falsum Messiam, ut majorum suæ gentis testimonio probatum est, ducite ad communis supplicii locum, et eum ludibriis regiæ majestatis in medio duorum latronum cruci affigite. I, lictor, expedi cruces.

A hundred paces from the arch of the Ecce Homo, I was shewn, on the left, the ruins of a church formerly dedicated to Our Lady of Grief. It was on this spot that Mary, who had been at first driven away by the guards, met her son bending beneath the weight of the cross. This circumstance is not recorded by the Evangelists; but it is generally believed, on the authority of St. Boniface and St. Anselm. The former says, that the Virgin sunk to the ground as if lifeless, and could not utter a single word :-nec verbum dicere potuit. St. Anselm asserts that Christ saluted her in these words: Salve, Mater! As John relates that Mary was at the foot of the cross, this account of the Fathers is highly probable. Religion is not disposed to reject these traditions, which shew how profoundly the wonderful and sublime history of the Passion is engraven on the memory of man. Eighteen centuries of persecutions without end, of incessant revolutions, of continually increasing ruins, have not been able to