ring, the ancient
wooden image of Pallas, etc., and was the scene of the oldest and most
venerated ceremonies and recollections of the Athenians. Perhaps, for
this reason, King George of Greece, in celebrating his 25th anniversary
on the Throne, he gave upon this rock of Acropolis, that remarkable
banquet to all crowned visitors, 175 in number from every royal family
of Europe. At this memorable event, the writer held the office of "man
at arms" on the Acropolis, although he was the youngest officer in the
Royal Gendarmery of Greece, at the time.
Between the Propylaea and the Erechtheum was placed the colossal bronze
statue of Pallas-Promachos, the work of Phidias, which towered so high
above the other buildings, that the plume of her helmet and the point of
her spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens. Moreover,
the Acropolis was occupied by so great a crowd of statues and monuments,
that the account, as found in Pausanias, excites the reader's wonder,
and makes it difficult for him to understand how so much could have
been crowded into a space which extended from the southeast only 1150
feet, whilst its greatest breadth did not exceed 500 feet.
On the hill itself where Paul stood, was the temple of Furies, and in
the court house of Areopagus, there was the altar to Athene Areia.
In all historical probability, Paul, stood exactly on this place when,
"=to the unknown God=" as his text, he delivered the understanding of "The
True and Living God," who made the world and all things therein, and he
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth.
The writer, consequently, in bidding farewell to his beloved Athens, he
knew that he was going as a brother among members of the same family of
humanity in a land where man is free to worship God, not in hypocrisy
and deceit, but in Spirit and in truth.
On the same beautiful April day that Prince Andreas was going abroad,
the writer went aboard on the same S. S. Messengerie-Maritime, unaware
of H. R. H.'s presence there, notified only at the last moment by the
agent of the company, Mr. Christopher of Piraeus, who was on board
himself going to Italy on a business trip. Mr. Christopher, by being a
member of the same fellowcraft in which the writer was the Grand
Chaplain, he took pains to secure a very comfortable stateroom for his
brother Chaplain.
Now I was following Mr. Christopher and an officer of the S. S. to
locate myse
|