r the archer. Sentinels, clothed in steel
and shining in the sunset, paced, at regular intervals, the cautious
wall, and on a lofty tower a standard waved, a snowy standard, with a
red, red cross!

The Prince of the Captivity at length beheld the lost capital of his
fathers.[35]

A few months back, and such a spectacle would have called forth all the
latent passion of Alroy; but time and suffering, and sharp experience,
had already somewhat curbed the fiery spirit of the Hebrew Prince. He
gazed upon Jerusalem, he beheld the City of David garrisoned by the
puissant warriors of Christendom, and threatened by the innumerable
armies of the Crescent. The two great divisions of the world seemed
contending for a prize, which he, a lonely wanderer, had crossed the
desert to rescue.

If his faith restrained him from doubting the possibility of his
enterprise, he was at least deeply conscious that the world was a very
different existence from what he had fancied amid the gardens of
Hamadan and the rocks of Caucasus, and that if his purpose could be
accomplished, it could only be effected by one means. Calm, perhaps
somewhat depressed, but full of pious humiliation, and not deserted by
holy hope, he descended into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and so, slaking
his thirst at Siloah, and mounting the opposite height, David Alroy
entered Jerusalem by the gate of Zion.[36]

He had been instructed that the quarter allotted to his people was near
this entrance. He inquired the direction of the sentinel, who did not
condescend to answer him. An old man, in shabby robes, who was passing,
beckoned to him.

'What want you, friend?' inquired Alroy.

'You were asking for the quarter of our people. You must be a stranger,
indeed, in Jerusalem, to suppose that a Frank would speak to a Jew. You
were lucky to get neither kicked nor cursed.'

'Kicked and cursed! Why, these dogs----'

'Hush! hush! for the love of God,' said his new companion, much alarmed.
'Have you lent money to their captain that you speak thus? In Jerusalem
our people speak only in a whisper.'

'No matter: the cure is not by words. Where is our quarter?'

'Was the like ever seen! Why, he speaks as if he were a Frank. I save
him from having his head broken by a gauntlet, and----'

'My friend, I am tired. Our quarter?'

'Whom may you want?'

'The Chief Rabbi.'

'You bear letters to him?'

'What is that to you?'

'Hush! hush! You do not know what Jerusalem is, you