t downward by a gust that tore the rocks in a flinty shower around
me.

While I lay helpless, I heard the whirlwind roar through the cloudy
hill; and the vapours began to revolve. A pale light, like that of the
rising moon, quivered on their edges; and the clouds rose, and rapidly
shaped themselves into the forms of battlements and towers. Voices were
heard within, low and distant, yet strangely sweet. Still the lustre
brightened, and the airy building rose, tower on tower, and battlement
on battlement. In awe we knelt and gazed upon this more than mortal
architecture. It stood full to earth and heaven, the colossal image of
the first Temple. All Jerusalem saw the image; and the shout that, in
the midst of their despair, ascended from its thousands and tens of
thousands told what proud remembrances were there. But a hymn was heard,
that might have hushed the world. Never fell on mortal ear sound so
majestic and subduing, so full of melancholy and grandeur and command.
The vast portal opened, and from it marched a host such as man had never
seen before, such as man shall never see but once again; the guardian
angels of the city of David! They came forth glorious, but with woe in
their steps, tears flowing down their celestial beauty. "Let us go
hence," was their song of sorrow. "Let us go hence," was announced by
the echoes of the mountains.

The procession lingered on the summit. The thunder pealed, and they rose
at the command, diffusing waves of light over the expanse of heaven.
Then the thunder roared again; the cloudy temple was scattered on the
winds; and darkness, the omen of her grave, settled upon Jerusalem.

_IV.--The Hour of Doom_

I was roused by the voice of a man. "What!" said he, "poring over the
faces of dead men, when you should be foremost among the living? All
Jerusalem in arms, and yet you scorn your time to gain laurels?" I
sprang up, and drew my scimitar, for the man was--Roman.

"You should know me," he said calmly; "it is some years since we met,
but we have not been often asunder."

"Are you not a Roman?" I exclaimed. He denied that nationality, and
offered me his Roman trappings, cuirass and falchion, saying they would
help me to money, riot, violence, and vice in the doomed city; "and,"
said he, "what else do nine-tenths of mankind ask for in their souls?"

He tore his helmet from his forehead, and, with a start of inward pain,
flung it to a measureless distance in the air. I beheld-