n to
prove our innocence.'

Amazed at their stupidity, I took a step towards them, arguing. They
vanished headlong, when I realised for the first time that my
appearance was in truth alarming. Perceiving the advantage that
appearance gave me, I pursued them, promising them plagues in this
world and perdition in the next unless they brought some water
instantly.

The horse, which I was leading all this while, had been as quiet as a
lamb; but, frightened by my shouts and gestures, he became
unmanageable. I was struggling with him in the doorway of the house
when a large and dignified ecclesiastic came upon the scene, the
jewelled cross upon his cassock flashing in the sun. In the twinkling
of an eye, it seemed to me, he had subdued the horse and tied him to a
ring in the wall which I, in my bewilderment, had failed to see; had
seized me by the collar of my coat and driven me before him through a
kind of tunnel to a second court in which there was a cistern and a
pump. He worked that pump and held my head beneath it, cursing the
servants for a pack of imbeciles.

The man and woman reappeared, completely tamed. He sent them running,
one for stuff to make a bandage, the other for medicaments, but said
no word to me until the work was ended, when he grinned and asked:
'Art happy now?'

I told him that I felt a great deal better.

'Good,' he said, and led me by the hand into an upper chamber, richly
carpeted, and furnished with a cushioned divan, of which the windows
framed a wide view eastward over the Judaean wilderness.

There, sitting comfortably, he asked who I was and of what country;
and, hearing that I came from England, questioned me about the High
Church and the Low Church in that land, and whether they formed one
communion or were separate--a problem which he seemed to think of
great importance. He was glad, he said, that I was not a Roman
Catholic, a sect which he regarded as the worst of heretics.

But his concern with all these matters seemed perfunctory compared
with the delight he took in farming; for when I noticed from the
window some sleek cows munching in a small enclosure, he brightened up
and told me they were recent purchases. He talked about his poultry
and his sheep and goats, all of which he would be pleased to show me
if I cared to see them.

Accordingly, when we had drunk some coffee, which completed my
revival, he took me out and showed me round his small demesne. We
were standing in th