48 I GO A -FISHING. 



barred their convent doors against Jew, Turk, and infidel, 

 as is their custom when either is likely to demand their 

 services. So we were left to ourselves, and when the 

 troop returned my valiant defender mounted me by his 

 side, and we went at a rattling pace down the hill from 

 the Jaffa gate and up the sharp winding passage that 

 leads south to the gate of the Mograbbins. And here 

 we passed near my own house, and I asked my brave 

 friend to pause, and let me thank him for his aid. But 

 he declined briefly, saying the city would probably be 

 too hot for him to-night. 



" ' But shall I not see you again at all, to thank you ?' 



" ' Thanks are not needed. I did but my duty. But 

 stay — you live in this quarter ? Then you are a Jew. We 

 are both bound to enmity against this accursed govern- 

 ment. I must hasten now, but I will see you again. 

 Which is your house ? To-morrow night at this hour I 

 will be there — Sebulkeer ; ' — and he was gone. What nec- 

 romancy was it that a minute later made the gate of 

 the Mograbbins clang heavily as it closed — that gate 

 least often opened in the daytime of any gate of Jeru- 

 salem, and always shut at night as firmly as if sealed 

 with the seal of Solomon ? 



"Before noon of the next day I was on watch in the 

 Church of the Sepulchre ; but I watched in vain for the 

 blue gown. There were hundreds of that color; but the 

 form and step I looked for were absent. 



As I stood near the door of the Sepulchre, looking 

 eagerly toward the stone of unction, I became suddenly 

 aware of a conversation carried on in English within 

 the Chapel of the Angel. It was in low tones ; but I 

 was standing directly in front of the small hole in the 

 wall through which the Greek priests are accustomed to 



