musing upon these things the wind suddenly arose, the doors and shutters
of the half-uninhabited monastery slammed and grated upon their hinges;
and as the moon, which had been obscured, again shone clearly on the
court below, I saw the dead muleteer with the jacket which he held
waving in the air, the grimmest figure I ever looked upon. His face was
black from the violence of his death, and he seemed like an evil spirit
waving on his ghastly crew; and as the wind increased, the shrouds of
some of the dead men fluttered in the night air as if they responded to
his call. The clouds, passing rapidly over the moon, east such shadows
on the corpses in their shrouds, that I could almost have fancied they
were alive again. I returned to bed, and thanked God that I was not also
laid out with them in the court below.

In the morning I awoke at a late hour and looked out into the court; the
muleteer and most of the other bodies were removed, and people were
going about their business as if nothing had occurred, excepting that
every now and then I heard the wail of women lamenting for the dead.
Three hundred was the number reported to have been carried out of the
gates to their burial-places that morning; two hundred more were badly
wounded, many of whom probably died, for there were no physicians or
surgeons to attend them, and it was supposed that others were buried in
the courts and gardens of the city by their surviving friends; so that
the precise number of those who perished was not known.

When we reflect in what place and to commemorate what event the great
multitude of Christian pilgrims had thus assembled from all parts of the
world, the fearful visitation which came upon them appears more dreadful
than if it had occurred under other circumstances. They had entered the
sacred walls to celebrate the most joyful event which is recorded in the
Scriptures. By the resurrection of our Saviour was proved not only his
triumph over the grave, but the truth of the religion which He taught;
and the anniversary of that event has been kept in all succeeding ages
as the great festival of the Church. On the morning of this hallowed day
throughout the Christian world the bells rang merrily, the altars were
decked with flowers, and all men gave way to feelings of exultation and
joy; in an hour everything was turned to mourning, lamentation, and woe!

There was a time when Jerusalem was the most prosperous and favoured
city of the worl