, heaped
promiscuously one upon another, in some places above five feet high.
Ibrahim Pasha had left the church only a few minutes before me, and very
narrowly escaped with his life; he was so pressed upon by the crowd on
all sides, and it was said attacked by several of them, that it was only
by the greatest exertions of his suite, several of whom were killed,
that he gained the outer court. He fainted more than once in the
struggle, and I was told that some of his attendants at last had to cut
a way for him with their swords through the dense ranks of the frantic
pilgrims. He remained outside, giving orders for the removal of the
corpses, and making his men drag out the bodies of those who appeared to
be still alive from the heaps of the dead. He sent word to us to remain
in the convent till all the dead bodies had been removed, and that when
we could come out in safety he would again send to us.

We stayed in our room two hours before we ventured to make another
attempt to escape from this scene of horror; and then walking close
together, with all our servants round us, we made a bold push and got
out of the door of the church. By this time most of the bodies were
removed; but twenty or thirty were still lying in distorted attitudes at
the foot of Mount Calvary; and fragments of clothes, turbans, shoes, and
handkerchiefs, clotted with blood and dirt, were strewed all over the
pavement.

In the court in the front of the church, the sight was pitiable: mothers
weeping over their children--the sons bending over the dead bodies of
their fathers--and one poor woman was clinging to the hand of her
husband, whose body was fearfully mangled. Most of the sufferers were
pilgrims and strangers. The Pasha was greatly moved by this scene of
woe; and he again and again commanded his officers to give the poor
people every assistance in their power, and very many by his humane
efforts were rescued from death.

I was much struck by the sight of two old men with white beards, who had
been seeking for each other among the dead; they met as I was passing
by, and it was affecting to see them kiss and shake hands, and
congratulate each other on having escaped from death.

When the bodies were removed many were discovered standing upright,
quite dead; and near the church door one of the soldiers was found thus
standing, with his musket shouldered, among the bodies which reached
nearly as high as his head; this was in a corner near the