reenwich and Smithfield.
Only suppose for a moment the mighty edifice crowded to excess with
fanatic pilgrims of all the Eastern Churches, who, instead of lifting pure
hands to God, without wrath and quarrelling, are led, by the petty
jealousy about precedency which they should maintain in the order of their
processions, into tumults and fighting, which can only be quelled by the
scourge and whip of the followers of the false prophet.

"Suppose, farther, those thousands of devotees running from one extreme to
the other, from the extreme of savage irritation to that of savage
enjoyment, of mutual revellings and feastings, like Israel of old, who,
when they made the golden calf, were eating and drinking, and rising to
play. Suppose troops of men stripped half naked, to facilitate their
actions, running, trotting, jumping, galloping to and fro, the breadth and
length of the church, walking on their hands with their feet aloft in the
air, mounting on one another's shoulders, some in a riding and some in a
standing position, and by the slightest push are all sent to the ground in
one confused heap, which made one fear for their safety.

"Suppose, farther, many of the pilgrims dressed in fur caps, like the
Polish Jews, whom they feigned to represent, and whom the mob met with all
manner of insult, hurrying them through the church as criminals who had
been condemned, amid loud execrations and shouts of laughter, which
indicated that Israel is still a derision amongst these heathens, by whom
they are still counted as sheep for the slaughter.

"About two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the preparations for the
miraculous fire commenced. The multitude, who had been hitherto in a state
of frenzy and madness, became a little more quiet, but it proved a quiet
that precedes a thunderstorm. Bishops and priests, in full canonicals,
then issued forth from their respective quarters, with flags and banners,
crucifixes and crosses, lighted candles and smoking censers, to join or
rather to lead a procession, which moved thrice round the church, invoking
every picture, altar, and relic in their way to aid them in obtaining the
miraculous fire.

"The procession then returned to the place from whence it started, and two
grey-headed bishops, the one of the Greek and the other of the Armenian
Church, were hurled by the soldiers through the crowd, into the apartment
which communicated with that of the Holy Sepulchre, where they locked
themselve