eserved for the men of his
family, close to the hekel, or holy of holies, where the altar stood and
the priests performed their functions. A partition, covered with
ill-wrought images and a few gilt ornaments, divided it from the main
body of the church, and the whole edifice produced an impression that was
neither splendid nor particularly edifying. The basilica, which had once
been richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in a fight
between them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city had not been in
a position to restore the venerable church to anything approaching its
original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could see nothing
calculated to raise his devotion.

The congregation were required to stand all through the service; and as
it often was a very long business, not the women only, behind the screen,
but many of the men supported themselves like cripples on crutches. How
unpleasing, too, were the tones of the Egyptian chant, accompanied by the
frequent clang of a metal cymbal and mingled with the babble of
chattering men and women, checked only when the talk became a quarrel, by
a priest who loudly and vehemently shouted for silence from the hekel.

Generally the chanted liturgy constituted the whole function, unless the
Lord's Supper was administered; but in these anxious times, for above a
week past, a priest or a monk preached a daily sermon. This began a short
while after the young man had taken his place, and it was with painful
feelings that he recognized, in the hollow-eyed and ragged monk who
mounted the pulpit, a priest whom he had seen more than once drunk to
imbecility, in Nesptah's tavern, And the revolting creature, who thus
flaunted his dirty, dishevelled person even in the pulpit, thundered down
on the trembling congregation declarations that the delay in the rising
of the Nile was the consequence of their sins, and God's punishment for
their evil deeds. Instead of comforting the terrified souls, or
encouraging their faith and bidding them hope for better times, he set
before them in burning words the punishment that awaited their wicked
despondency.

God Almighty was plaguing them and the land with great heat; but this was
like the cool north wind at Advent-tide, as compared with the fierceness
of the furnace of hell which Satan was making hot for them. The scorching
sun on earth at any rate gave them daylight, but the flames of hell shed
no light, that the terrors might