reat repute, who desired that I might come
to his house, which thing being granted, he courteously entertained
me.'

Four or five days later there came down an Irish friar from Jerusalem
to see the prisoner. At first he spoke kindly to him, and greeted him
as a fellow-countryman, seeing that they both came from the distant
Isles of Britain, set in their silver seas. Presently it appeared,
however, that he had not come out of friendship, but as a messenger
from the friars at Jerusalem, to insist that the Englishman must make
five solemn promises before he could be allowed to proceed on his
journey. He must promise:

'1. That he would visit the Holy Places [so the friar called them] as
other pilgrims did.

2. And give such sums of money as is the usual manner of pilgrims.

3. Wear such a sort of habit as is the manner of pilgrims.

4. Speak nothing against the Turks' laws.

5. And when he came to Jerusalem not to speak anything about
religion.'

George Robinson had no intention of promising any one of these
things--much less all five. 'I stand in the will of God, and shall do
as He bids me,' was the only answer he would make, which did not
satisfy the Irish friar. Determined that his journey should not have
been in vain, and persuasion having proved useless, he sought to
accomplish his object by force. Taking his prisoner, therefore, he set
him on horseback, and surrounding him with a number of armed guards,
both horsemen and footmen, whom he had brought down from Jerusalem for
the purpose, he himself escorted George Robinson back for the second
time to Jaffa. There, that very day, he put him aboard a vessel on the
point of sailing for Acre. Then, clattering back with his guards
across the plain of Sharon, the Irish friar probably assured the
Ramleh friars that they had nothing more to fear from that heretic.

Nothing could turn George Robinson from his purpose. He was still
quite sure that his Master had work for His servant to do in His Own
City of Jerusalem; and, therefore, to Jerusalem that servant must go.
He was obliged to stay for three weeks at Acre before he could find a
ship to carry him southwards again. He lodged at this time at the
house of a kind French merchant called by the curious name of Surrubi.

'A man,' Robinson says, 'that I had never seen before (that I knew
of), who friendly took me into his house as I was passing along, where
I remained about twenty days.'

Surrubi was a most courteou