a bracelet balanced on our heads during the whole of the ceremony. The
bride shook, and her bracelet fell down. After the ceremony she received
me unveiled. She was a fine tall dark girl, but not a pretty woman. From
Jaffa I journeyed to Jerusalem, and travelled all through the Holy Land,
with a feeling of deep emotion, which was only disturbed by one
vexatious incident. On the day I was to go to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, a great crowd had got there before me, and a quarrel, which
degenerated into a general melee, forthwith arose between Greeks, Jews,
and Armenians. It was only by dint of hard knocks that the Turkish
police made way for me to enter the Holy Place, and to crown the
scandal, just as I knelt in deep devotion, before the altar, the organ
began to play the Marseillaise. There was yet another episode during my
stay at Jerusalem. The Governor of the Province waited upon me to say he
had Mehemet Ali's orders to place himself at the disposal of the son of
the King of France, and to do whatever he desired. I caught the ball on
the hop, and replied he was just in time, for I had just been going to
ask his leave to enter the Mosque of Omar, which stands on the site of
the ancient Temple of Solomon. It should be added that this fine mosque,
which is next in holiness in Mussulman eyes to that at Mecca, and which
is now open to all the world, had at that date never been seen except by
the famous traveller Ali Bey.

Governor Hassan Bey tugged his beard when he heard my request, and
seemed very much put out indeed. After a moment's silence he made up his
mind, and said, "Come to-morrow: I'll take you there myself." The next
day I kept my appointment, bringing Bruat and two or three officers who
were making the same trip with me. We entered the mosque, which is
really very beautiful, and went all over it. The Imaums and Softas, the
priests and students, had cast horrified glances upon us from the moment
of our entry. Suddenly one of them began to intone in a falsetto voice a