408 THE HOLY LAND. 
^^x^* ^^^^^'^^ ^i'^ horse's haunches. This, we knew/ 
v % - .1 > would be sufficient to communicate the plague to 
every one of us ; therefore there was no alterna- 
tive, but to insist instantly upon the young 
grandee's immediate dismissal. However, when 
our resolutions were made known to him, he 
positively refused to leave the party: upon this, 
we were compelled to have recourse to measures 
which proved effectual; and he rode oif, at full 
speed, muttering the curses usually bestowed 
on Christians, for our insolence and cowardice. 
We reached the great gate of the Convent of the 
Nativity without further accident; but did not 
choose to venture within it, both on account of 
the danger, and the certainty of beholding over 
again much of the same sort of mummery which 
had so frequently put our patience to the proof 
Descent iu Jerusalem. Passing close to its walls, we 
Valley! took our course down into the deep valley 
which lies upon its north-eastern side ; visiting 
the place where tradition says the angel, with a 
multitude of the heavenly host, appeared to the 
shepherds of Judcea, with the glad tidings of 
our Saviour's nativity'; and, finally, halting in 
(l) Bernard the Monk, who visited Bethlehem in the year 870, 
speaks of a monastery iu this place, which he describes as a luile 
distant from the town. We saw nothing; of the monastertj alluded to 
by him j neither does the place here mentioned agree with his 
distance. 
