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and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" (Acts vii. 58, 59.) I was also shown the place where Saul, who was consenting to his death, is said to have taken care of the clothes of those who stoned him.

You are obliged to cross the brook Cedron in the way to the garden of Gethsemane. This garden belongs to the Fathers of the Holy Land; it is enclosed only by a wretched wall, a yard high, built of uncemented stones. Its extent is upwards of one hundred paces square. It contains eight olive-trees of remarkable dimensions and of such visible antiquity, that one may well believe with the tradition that they existed at the time of Christ. I am aware that during the siege of the holy city, Titus ordered all the trees round about to be cut down. But even supposing the order to have been strictly executed, it appears to me allowable, and, indeed, perfectly reasonable, to think that some must have escaped; as, in a town taken by assault, notwithstanding the formal orders of the general to put all to the sword, it is rarely, very rarely, that eight, ten persons, or more, do not escape the slaughter. Besides, it is ascertained that olive-trees live thousands of years; and if those in question have no other advantage over trees of their kind than that of having drawn their sap from a soil moistened with the sweat and the blood of the Son of God suffering for guilty man, that ought, methinks, to be sufficient to fix the attention of the Christian, and to obtain for them a sort of homage. Accordingly, not a creature approaches them but with respect the Greek, the Armenian, the very Arab, venerate them like ourselves.

The convent of Jerusalem keeps a Turkish guard to

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prevent any one from meddling with these olive-trees, which, notwithstanding their decrepitude, yield a few olives, with which chaplets are made: their rarity seems to enhance still more the high value that is attached to them. I picked up a number of them. It was too late when I was told that it was forbidden upon pain of excommunication to touch the leaves and the branches. I had already taken the liberty to cut off some of them — a sin of ignorance which, I hope, you will deem very excusable. I will show them to you some day, if God brings me back to you.

Near the extremity of the garden is the spot where the apostles fell asleep when our Lord left them to pray. I was assured that their bodies had left an impression upon the stone on which they slept, and that some traces of it were still visible; but I discovered nothing that could authorise me to believe such an assertion.

A little farther is the grotto in which Jesus prayed: it is called the Grotto of the Agony. It is in absolutely the same state as in the time of our Lord. The sort of vault which it forms is supported by three pilasters of the same rock. The light enters by an aperture made in the top, over which is placed a large grating to keep back the stones that the Turks might throw at it. Formerly the floor was on a level with the ground outside : now you descend into it by eight or ten steps. It is closed by a door, the key of which is kept by the Franciscan Fathers.

It was in this place, one of the most venerable in the world, that the Saviour underwent the pangs of death, that he felt agony inexpressible, that he lifted his droop

GROTTO OF THE AGONY.

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ing hands towards the Creator, and that burning tears, trickling from his eyes and mingling with bloody sweat, bedewed his whole body; it was here, in short, that the innocent Jesus endured for the sake of mankind all the rigours of inexorable justice. ... On the very spot of the agony is an altar, and above it a picture representing our Lord supported by the angel who came to strengthen him. Here we find also the following inscription:

master.

HIC FACTUS EST SUDOR EJUS SICUT GUTTE

SANGUINIS DECURRENTIS IN TERRAM.

A spot which one cannot behold without feeling an inward shudder, is that where Judas delivered up his It is a space, fifteen or twenty paces in length, and two wide, between two low walls. It is called Osculo, from the kiss, in Latin osculum, with which the Son of Man was betrayed (Luke, xxii. 48). The pilgrim, after adoring Jesus betrayed and bound, immediately retires filled with horror.

If the wretched apostle, after the sacrilegious bargain, by which he had engaged to deliver up his master to the Jews, had said to them: He whom I shall strike is the man; if he had then, at the head of a gang of homicides, and sword in hand, rushed upon Jesus, there would have been, after all, in this conduct, atrocious enough, it is true, but exempt from hypocrisy, something less hideous. This horrible idea would have been less revolting to the soul. But where do the annals of crimes present a more frightful signal of treachery than that of a kiss? . . . . "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; hold him

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fast." What language! The fondest token of love for selling a friend, a benefactor, a father, and for delivering him up to his bitterest enemies! . . . .

I returned to the monastery in religious silence.

To-day, the festival of the Conception, there has been a solemn service: the reverend Father warden of the Holy Sepulchre performed it with great pomp. He is mitred, crosiered, and bestows confirmation. His functions last for three years, at the expiration of which, if he be not re-elected, he returns to the shade of his cloister. The church was hung with rich draperies; the vestments of the officiating clergy were white, and adorned with gold embroidery of great beauty: these were a present from Portugal. The throne of the Father warden, above which I remarked with pleasure the arms of Austria, is of cloth of silver. All that met my view was magnificent, but the objects that most struck me were two candelabra of silver, eight feet high, with bassorelievos of exquisite workmanship. They were made out of the remains of a lamp of extraordinary richness and beauty, presented by the imperial family of Austria, which so nobly unites piety and generosity with glory. This lamp contained three hundred smaller ones. Unfortunately so admirable a masterpiece excited the jealousy of the Greeks, who cut the chain by which it was suspended before the Holy Sepulchre, and thus caused its destruction.

The front of the altar is of massive silver. It represents the descent of the Holy Ghost; it is a gift of the kings of Naples, as well as the canopy for the host, which is of gold, and enriched with precious stones.

CELLS OF THE FRANCISCAN FATHERS.

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Charles III. took from his finger a ring of great value to adorn this canopy. The Holy Land, in general, abounds in monuments of the piety of the catholic sovereigns of Europe, who, formerly, at least, took delight in decorating the sacred places with sumptuous ornaments. In no church have I seen any of such beauty as in that of Jerusalem. But what appeared to me, for my part, still more admirable, was the manner in which the service is performed; the majesty, the precision, the unity of the ceremonies, the harmony of the organ and of some fine voices-all this ravishes, enchants, and elevates the soul.

On coming out of church, I paid a visit to the principal members of the establishment. I was accompanied by Father Perpetuus, secretary of the Holy Land. Upon entering their cells, I was moved at the sight of the extreme poverty which I remarked in them: in each I found but a single wretched chair; so that, if courtesy offered it to me, the secretary was forced to sit on the bed, and the person whom I was visiting to stand or to seat himself on a little box, if he had one. "All for God, nothing for ourselves," is the noble motto of a monk of the Holy Land. The Father warden of the holy sepulchre has only two small ill-furnished rooms for his lodging..... Such, nevertheless, is the man, whom people have dared to represent as a sovereign surrounded with Asiatic splendour. And yet, in reality, he is but a poor Franciscan monk, who, excepting when he officiates, has no outward sign of his dignity, unless it be a silver-headed cane, which he uses when he goes abroad, barefooted like his brethren, dressed like his brethren, without crosier, without ring, and humble as