292 
THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP. 
VI I. 
Reception 
by the In- 
habitants. 
walls and the road side being covered with 
spectators. An immense multitude, at the same 
time, accompanied us on foot ; some of whom, 
welcoming the procession with compliments and 
caresses, cried out, Bon Inglesif Viva ringil- 
terra I"" others, cursing and reviling, called us 
a set of rascally Christian dogs, and filthy 
infidels. We could never learn why so much 
curiosity had been excited; unless it were, that 
of late, owing to the turbulent state of public 
affairs, the resort of strangers to Jerusalem had 
become less frequent; or that they expected 
another visit from Sir Sidney Smith, who had 
marched into Jerusalem with colours flying and 
drums beating, at the head of a party of English 
sailors. He protected the Christian guardians 
of the Holy Sepulchre from the tyranny of their 
Turkish rulers, by hoisting the British standard 
upon the walls of their monastery. Novelty, 
at any period, produces considerable bustle at 
Jerusalem: the idleness of its inhabitants, and 
the uniform tenor of their lives, rendered more 
than usually dull by the cessation of pilgrimage, 
naturally dispose them to run after a new sight, 
or to listen to new intelligence. The arrival of 
a Tahtar courier from the Vizier s army, or the 
coming of foreigners to the city, rouses Christians 
