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BLOSS C.A.
Heroines of the Crusades
page 55
Hardrager had intelligence of their movements, and con-ducted nie by the shortest route to join them.
" Benedicite, holy father," said he, as he lifted me gently from the horse, and reverently inclined before me, " a blessing in the Saxon tongue would be health to my guilty soul."
A tear glittered in his eye, and if it were a sin Heaven assoil me, for I yielded to his importunity and granted him the blessing. " Adieu, good friar," said he, " thou hast taken a load from my heart. Accept from the gratitude of Ilardrager that which may stand thee instead, when thy fancied relics are of little avail." So saying, he gave me a small slip of parchment inscribed with Arabic characters, and rode slowly away. I thrust the scroll into my purse, little knowing its value, for my sight and sense were filled with Jerusalem, which I now saw for the first time. As ( walked along the brow of Olivet, like my Saviour, I beheld the city and wept over it, for the glory of Solomon's temple had departed ; the holy prophets and apostles had passed away, and bands of Infidels whose bright scimeters gleam-ed in the light of the setting sun dashed through her sacred streets, and encountered each other with barbarian clamor^ in her holy courts. The sound of the vesper-bell from the church of the Ascension invited us to prayer. "With divine rapture we pressed our lips upon the stone imprinted with the last footsteps of our Saviour, and with pious theft we gathered some of the sacred dust from before the altar.
Descending from the mountain, we spent the night in fasting and prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, and at the first cock-crowing, arose to pass over the Brook Cedron. In the valley of Jehoshaphat we were met by the venerable patriarch, with the Latin and Syrian Christians of Jerusa-lem, who conducted us in solemn procession through the midst of the city to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.
There, amid the clangor of cymbals, and the sweet sounds of psaltery and harp, we bowed in worship and adoration, while through the cloud of ascending incense streamed the effulgence of innumerable lights, like the
HEROINES OP THE CRUSADES.
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