eedom and dignity in her movement, which is quite different
at least from the shuffling walk of the shrouded Moslem women.
She is a woman of Bethlehem, where a tradition, it is said, still claims
as a heroic heritage the blood of the Latin knights of the cross.
This is, of course, but one aspect of the city; but it is one
which may be early noted, yet one which is generally neglected.
As I have said, I had expected many things of Jerusalem,
but I had not expected this. I had expected to be disappointed
with it as a place utterly profaned and fallen below its mission.
I had expected to be awed by it; indeed I had expected to be frightened
of it, as a place dedicated and even doomed by its mission.
But I had never fancied that it would be possible to be fond of it;
as one might be fond of a little walled town among the orchards
of Normandy or the hop-fields of Kent.

And just then there happened a coincidence that was also something
like a catastrophe. I was idly watching, as it moved down
the narrow street to one of the dark doorways, the head-dress,
like a tower of white drapery, belonging to the Christian woman
from the place where Christ was born. After she had disappeared
into the darkness of the porch I continued to look vaguely
at the porch, and thought how easily it might have been a small
Gothic gate in some old corner of Rouen, or even Canterbury.
In twenty such places in the town one may see the details that
appeal to the same associations, so different and so distant.
One may see that angular dogtooth ornament that makes the round
Norman gateways look like the gaping mouths of sharks.
One may see the pointed niches in the walls, shaped like windows
and serving somewhat the purpose of brackets, on which were
to stand sacred images possibly removed by the Moslems.
One may come upon a small court planted with ornamental trees
with some monument in the centre, which makes the precise impression
of something in a small French town. There are no Gothic spires,
but there are numberless Gothic doors and windows; and he who
first strikes the place at this angle, as it were, may well feel
the Northern element as native and the Eastern element as intrusive.
While I was thinking all these things, something happened which in
that place was almost a portent.

It was very cold; and there were curious colours in the sky.
There had been chilly rains from time to time; and the whole
air seemed to have taken on something