which the divine wrath had overwhelmed with destruction. The
discharge of a few muskets made them rise from their rock: but
they showed no disposition to move from their ominous perch,
and, soon returning, floated over our heads, regardless of the
shots fired at them, as if the eagles of God were beyond the
reach of human injury."--(II. 8-9.)

Jerusalem was a subject to awaken all our author's enthusiasm, and call
forth all his descriptive powers. The first approach to it has exercised
the talents of many writers in prose and verse; but none has drawn it in
such graphic and brilliant colours as our author:--

"We ascended a mountain ridge, strewed over with enormous grey
rocks, piled one on another as if by human hands. Here and
there a few stunted vines, yellow with the colour of autumn,
crept along the soil in a few places cleared out in the
wilderness. Fig-trees, with their tops withered or shivered by
the blasts, often edged the vines, and cast their black fruit
on the grey rock. On our right, the desert of St John, where
formerly 'the voice was heard crying in the wilderness,' sank
like an abyss in the midst of five or six black mountains,
through the openings of which, the sea of Egypt, overspread
with a dark cloud, could still be discerned. On the left, and
near the eye, was an old tower, placed on the top of a
projecting eminence; other ruins, apparently of an ancient
aqueduct, descended from that tower, overgrown with verdure,
now in the sear leaf; that tower is Modin, the stronghold and
tomb of the last heroes of sacred story, the Maccabees. We left
behind us the ruins, resplendent with the first rays of the
morning--rays, not blended as in Europe in a confused and vague
illumination, but darting like arrows of fire tinted with
various colours, issuing from a dazzling centre, and diverging
over the whole heavens as they expand. Some were of blue,
slightly silvered, others of pure white, some of tender
rose-hue, melting into grey; many of burning fire, like the
coruscations of a flaming conflagration. All were distinct, yet
all united in one harmonious whole, forming a resplendent arch
in the heavens, encircling, and issuing from a centre of fire.
In proportion as the day advanced, the brilliant light of these
separate rays was gradually dimmed-