this, requested Mr. Thomson to carry a flag of
truce, with offers of safety and permission to retire whenever they
might choose. This was done at some risk, as the battle was still
raging. After the surrender, Dr. Van Dyck dressed the wounded
Maronites in the palace, and brought several of them to his own
house. He also performed like services for the wounded Druzes. This
he did not without peril to himself; for, returning alone from the
neighboring village, where he had gone on this professional errand,
a Druze warrior mistook him for a Maronite, and was so enraged that
one in an Arab dress and with an Arab tongue should pretend to be an
American, that, but for the providential coming up of one who knew
the Doctor, he would have killed him on the spot. Meanwhile Mr.
Laurie had come safely from Beirut, attended by only two
janissaries, and passing through hordes of the victorious Druzes.
Finding, on his arrival, a half-burned corpse of the Italian padre
lying in the street, he buried it under the pavement of his chapel.

The Maronites being in a starving condition, the missionaries baked
for them all the flour they had on hand, and sent express by night
to Beirut for more. Fearing, too, that the Maronites might be
massacred by the Druzes on their way down to Beirut, notwithstanding
their Turkish escort, they sent an express to Colonel Rose, the
English Consul-general, which brought him up immediately with his
most efficient protection. It should be added, that on the day the
Maronites left Abeih, a strong proclamation came out from the
Maronite and Greek Catholic bishops at Beirut to all their people,
requiring them to protect all the members of the American mission.

The reflections of Mr. Smith on the death of the persecuting
Patriarch, are just and impressive. "What a lesson," he says, "does
that event, in such circumstances, teach us! After having martyred
that faithful witness Asaad Shidiak, caused the Bible often to be
burned, had missionaries insulted and stoned, and boasted that he
had at last left no spot open for them to enter the mountains, he
finds himself stripped of all his power; missionaries established
permanently in the midst of his flock, and his own favorite bishop
constrained to give orders for their protection; his people once and
again ravaged and ruined in wars, which his own measures have
hastened, if they have not originated; and finally he sinks himself
under his disappointment and dies. How