r consideration
whether he should leave the country.

5. The letter of Phares was sent off by a moslem, who returned at
evening, saying that when he arrived at the convent, he was accosted by
two or three men, inquiring his business, telling him he was a Greek,
and had letters from the English. They then seized him, and took the
letter by force, and, had he not shewn them that he was a moslem, would
have probably sent him to the emir of the district for further
examination. They then asked him some questions about the English, and
assured him that after eight days Asaad would no longer be a living man.
Thus were our hopes of a second deliverance of this sufferer of
persecution, for the present, blasted. After all the threats, which have
been thrown out without being put in execution, we rather hope, that
this last will prove like the rest; yet we cannot tell how far their
hatred of the truth may, with the divine forbearance, carry them. We
leave all with him, in whose hands our life and breath are, and whose
are all our ways, with the humble hope, that light may yet arise out of
darkness, and that much glory may be added to his name, from this
evident work of Satan.

6. Sent word, in a blind hand, on a torn scrap of paper, to Phares
respecting the fate of our message to his brother. He returns answer
that he is coming to Beyroot to-morrow.

7. Phares came, according to his notice of yesterday, saying, that if
the patriarch should get his letter to Asaad, there would be danger in
his staying at Hadet. He should be glad to go to Malta, or almost any
other place out of the Maronite influence, lest his brothers should
seize him, and deliver him up to the fury of the patriarch, as they had
done his brother Asaad. Mansoor, the eldest and most violent of them,
when he heard, yesterday, that a letter had arrived for Phares from
Beyroot, breathed out threatenings and slaughter, not only against
Phares, but against the innocent messenger himself.

8. Wrote to ----, a friendly Maronite bishop, to give me whatever
information he might be able to procure respecting Shidiak.

_May_ 10. A messenger whom we sent to Cannobeen, returned with the
report that he was denied the privilege of seeing Asaad, under pretence
that he was going through a course of confession, during which the rule
is, that the person so confessing, shall pass his time, for a number of
days, alone, and see no company.

14. We were, to-day, credibly informed,