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This monastery is rich, and is of the same form as 
that of St. Tecla. It belongs to the holy places of Je- 
rusalem. Three Greek monks, one lay sister, old and 
a widow, and one servant, young, strong, and hand- 
some, are the only inhabitants of this solitude. The 
gardeners and workmen live out of the building. 
The next morning, the fourth of April, I went out 
with two guides. The doctor was afraid to follow me, 
and my servant was too fat to ascend the rocks. I rode 
upon a mule to the foot of the rock, which is half an 
hour's ride from the road, where 1 was obliged to 
alight. 
I had first to climb steep acclivities for a quarter of 
an hour, before we arrived at the foot of the point; here 
we found two squares of walls in ruins. 
The point is an almost perpendicular rock on all 
sides, upon the summit of which stands the palace. 
There is not the vestige of a road left to get at it. We 
climbed the side, making use of the projecting pieces, 
pointed stones, or holes, which we reached with our 
hands and feet. We were sometimes obliged to assist 
each other by means of a stick; at other times the guide 
stopped to study where he could fix himself strongest, 
to enable him to ascend the height above him; and to 
complete the picture, we had always at our side a horri- 
ble precipice. 
W e arrived at last, after many fatigues, at the door 
of the palace, where we rested some minutes. 
This singular edifice may be considered as divided 
into four kinds of dwellings, one higher than the other, 
which I shall name as follows; the first as being for the 
body guard, the second for storehouses, the third the 
