prison-
house, I mounted the staircase, and gained the summit of the tower.
Here I had a splendid view of the country round about, my elevated
position enabling me distinctly to trace the greater part of the
desert, with its several rows of hills and mountains skirting the
horizon. All these hills were alike barren and naked; not a tree
nor a shrub, not a human habitation, could I discover. Silence lay
heavily on every thing around, and it seemed to me almost as though
no earth might here nourish a green tree, but that the place was
ordained to remain a desert, as a lasting memorial of our Saviour's
fasting. Unheeded by human eye, the sun sank beneath the mountains;
I was, perhaps, the only mortal here who was watching its beautiful
declining tints. Deeply moved by the scene around me, I fell on my
knees, to offer up my prayers and praise to the Almighty, here in
the rugged grandeur of the desert.

But I had only to turn away from the death-like silence, and to cast
my eye towards the convent as it lay spread out before me, to view
once more the bustle and turmoil of life. In the courtyard the
Bedouins and Arabs were employed in ministering to the wants of
their horses, bringing them water and food; beyond these a group of
men was seen spreading mats on the ground, while others, with their
faces bowed to the earth, were adoring, with other forms of prayer,
the Omnipotent Spirit whose protection I had so lately invoked;
others, again, were washing their hands and feet as a preparation
for offering up their worship; priests and lay brethren passed
hastily across the courtyard, busied in preparations for
entertaining and lodging the numerous guests; while some of my
fellow-travellers stood apart, in earnest conversation, and Mr. B.
and Count Salm Reifferscheit reclined in a quiet spot and made
sketches of the convent. Had a painter been standing on my tower,
what a picture of the building might he not have drawn as the wild
Arab and the thievish Bedouin leant quietly beside the peaceful
priest and the curious European! Many a pleasant recollection of
this evening have I borne away with me.

I was very unwilling to leave the battlements of the tower; but the
increasing darkness at length drove me back into my chamber.
Shortly afterwards a priest and a lay brother appeared, and with
them Mr. Bartlett. The priest's errand was to bring me my supper
and bedding, and my English fellow-traveller had kindly come to
inq