deas, and for two centuries it was a pagan city whose people were
devoted to the worship of strange gods and regarded not the sacred
places. Three hundred years after the Ascension of our Savior, the
blessed St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, made a pilgrimage
from Constantinople to Jerusalem. Inspired with holy zeal, she gave
orders for the erection of churches on the sites of the Nativity at
Bethlehem and the Ascension at Olivet. She prayerfully sought for the
sacred tomb in which the Lord had been laid, and her efforts were
rewarded by the finding of the true cross. She cleared away the
accumulated rubbish and built the chapel on the holy ground, and that
chapel has grown into the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Afterwards
the locations of the events on the way to the cross were marked on the
modern street to correspond as nearly as possible to the places on the
ancient street which lay buried many feet below. The finding of a part
of the true Via Dolorosa in the excavation within our enclosure has been
a blessing to the convent."

[Illustration: WITH FACE TURNED TO THE WALL, KISSING IT AND MUTTERING
PRAYERS.]

The Abbess deserved and received more than spoken thanks for her
courtesy. We realized then the truth of her last words.

During our walk we visited an old Armenian church, which was gaudily
decorated with red brocade hangings and very antiquated paintings
quaintly representing scenes from Bible history. In the court-yard of
the church a young Armenian kindly offered us a pitcher of water, which
he said had been brought from a spring outside the city for the use of
the monks in the adjoining convent. We received it most gratefully, for
the drinking water of Jerusalem is noted for impurity, and, as we had
been cautioned against it, we had abstained from drinking water for
three days.

"Will it be difficult for the tourists to find their way through the
narrow crooked streets of the city without a guide?" inquired one of the
ladies of the dragoman at the noon hour.

"Oh no!" he replied. "Please open your map. I notice you have one. You
see that the city is divided into four marked sections by the two
principal streets which cross each other at right angles: David street
extending from the Jaffa Gate at the west, through the center of the
city, to the Temple Area at the east; and Damascus street extending from
the Damascus Gate on the north, through the center of the city, to the
Zion Gate o