on
of some crime; and now hated his life. It was no uncommon thing. As
their procession wound through village streets, the pilgrims would
often see furtive signs made to them from inner chambers: unwilling
converts signalling the symbol that they loved, to eyes that were sure
to be sympathetic.

As Fabri made his way along, his heart was glad. His foot was on holy
ground, and at every step new associations came floating into his
thoughts. These were the mountains to which Moses had looked from
Pisgah; here Jephthah's daughter had made plaint for her young life;
hither had come Mary in the joy of the angel's message; the stones on
which he stumbled might have felt the feet of Christ. At the hill
called Mount Joy they should have seen Jerusalem; but the air was
thick, and they could only make out the Mount of Olives. So they
toiled on along their dusty way, between dry stone walls and thirsty
vegetable-gardens, until, as they reached the crest of a low ridge,
suddenly like a flash of light it shone before them, the City, the
Holy City.

At once their footsteps quickened with new life; and when at length
they found themselves in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, their pent-up emotions burst forth, into tears and groans,
sweet wailings and deep sighs. Some lay powerless on the ground,
forsaken by their strength and to all appearances dead. Others drifted
from one corner to another, beating their breasts, as though urged by
an evil spirit. Some knelt bare-kneed; as they prayed, stretching out
their arms like a rood. Others were shaken with such violent sobs that
they could only sit down and hold their heads in their hands. Some
lost all command of themselves, and, forgetting how to behave, sought
to please God with strange and childish gestures. On the other hand,
Fabri noted some who stood quite unmoved, and merely mocked at the
strange display: dull, unprofitable souls he calls them, brute beasts,
not having the spirit of God. Their self-contained temperament
misliked him, especially as thereafter they held aloof from those who
had given way to such enthusiasm or, as they felt it, weakness.

We cannot company with the party to all the numerous sites that piety
bade them visit. It was prodigiously fatiguing for them under the July
sun, and the ranks grew thin as the weaker spirits fell out dead
tired, to rest awhile in hospitable cloister or by cooling well. Fabri
found it very toilsome to struggle afte