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My Dear Father:—My trembling fingers scarcely hold
the light reed with which I am about to write you
concerning the extraordinary things I have seen and heard;
but they tremble only with joy. Oh, my father, my dear,
dear father, Messias HAS COME! I have seen him! I have
heard his voice! He has truly come! Oh, joy, joy!
My eyes have beheld him of whom Moses and the Prophets
did write! But let me not anticipate. In order that you
may believe as I believe, though you have seen Him not,
I will give to you an account of those events which have
happened since my last letter was sent to you. I will
try to write free from emotion, and keep my bounding
heart still, and my hand calm, while I set in order all that
has taken place, that your understanding may judge of
them with that candor and wisdom which makes men see
in you the wisest Israelite in the land of Egypt.

You will recollect that in my last epistle, which went
by the Cairo caravan, I mentioned that Rabbi Amos, taking
advantage of the recess in his duties at the Temple,
the course of the venerable Elihud being now waiting upon
the altar, made up his mind to pay his annual visit to the
wheat fields which he has in charge, near Jericho, and
which, as you know, are not his own lands, but are in

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trust to him for the heirs of Manasseh, of the tribe of Benjamin,
who was slain in trying to rescue Jericho from the
Romans. Rabbi Amos, also, felt no little curiosity to hear
John of Jordan, as he is called, whose fame has spread far
and wide. At the request of Mary and myself, he consented
that we should accompany him. John, the young man
who is betrothed to my cousin, having gone to the sea of
Galilee to see about certain ships which were there in
charge of his brother James and his father, was to meet us
at Gilgal, and accompany us to Jordan; for he thinks and
speaks of nothing now but the prophet of the wilderness,
from whom he feels that he suffers great loss to be absent
even for a day.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho had become recently
unsafe, on account of the boldness of an insurrectionary
chief called Barabbas, who a year ago made insurrection
against the Romans, but was defeated, and his band dispersed
into the mountains south of the sea of Sodom; but
at last, driven to famine, he has taken to robbing caravans;
and since the number of travellers has increased so much
between Jerusalem and Jordan, to hear John, and be baptized
of him, he has fallen upon large parties of them, and
taken from them all their goods and money. On this
account Rabbi Amos accepted the courteous offer of the
escort of the young Centurion, who had been ordered by
the Procurator, Pontius Pilate, to keep the road open
between Jerusalem and Jericho; for even the Roman
couriers were stopped by this fearless robber and slain by
him. The pride of Rabbi Amos shrunk from this dependence
upon a Roman arm, in making a peaceful journey
through his own land; but there is, alas! dear father, no

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one now among the seed of Abraham to assert their rights.
We can only bow our heads to the yoke the Lord God has
placed upon our necks.

It was faint dawn when we rose from our couches to
prepare for the journey. The mules upon which we were
to ride were brought into the court by the two swarthy
Gibeonite serfs, whom Rabbi Amos holds in his service,
and caparisoned with rich saddles covered with Persian
saddle-cloths, embroidered with gold. The two pack mules
were also made ready, on one of which was the travelling
equipage of my cousin Mary and myself, which Rabbi
Amos smilingly said took up more space than the goods
and travelling wares of a Damascus merchant. At sunrise,
after we had kneeled upon the house-top, in view of
the Temple, and sent up our prayers with its sacrifices and
clouds of ascending incense, we descended to the courtyard
to mount for the road. There was a stout mule for
good Rabbi Amos, though the Centurion sent him a handsome
Persian horse to ride; but my uncle said that he had
never trusted himself on so uncertain an animal as a horse
in his youth, and he thought he should scarcely adventure
such a feat in his old age; so he preferred his mule.

Having got ourselves seated upon our cushioned saddles,
and our veils ready to draw over our faces, we expected
each moment the arrival of the Centurion and his cohort
of horse; but a Numidian slave came running, and bowing
to the ground before Rabbi Amos, said that the Centurion
would meet us at the corner of the two ways, beyond the
walls, at Absalom's Pillar. Whereupon we all mounted,
and took our way towards the East Gate. We were five
persons in all, Rabbi Amos, my cousin Mary and myself,

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and the two Gibeonites, both of whom were young men,
whose fathers for many centuries had been servants in the
family of Amos, even from the time of Joshua, when this
people deceived him by their craftiness, and were doomed
to perpetual servitude. I am much struck with the appearance
of this singular race of men. They have very dark
faces, eagle-beaked noses, flashing black eyes, and slender,
lithe forms. They look cunning and treacherous, but seem
to be cowardly, and easily controlled by firmness. They are
incapable of any attachments, and gratitude seems to be
thrown away upon them. I heard a singular tradition
about them from one of the Levites who often visits Rabbi
Amos; which is, that they are descended from the servants
of Noah, which were saved with him in the ark, but who,
as being of an inferior rank, were not included in the record
of Noah's family. But doubtless you have heard the same
tradition.

The morning was bright and cheerful, with the
golden sun pouring its light over temple and tower, castle
and roof, wall and rampart, hill and grove, valley and
brook, one and all of which were lighted up with the glory
of his morning beams. As we turned the street leading to
the Sheep Gate, we passed the house of Caiaphas, the
High Priest, whom I saw standing upon the marble porch
of his superb palace. He was not arrayed in his sumptuous
robes, with the breast-plate of dazzling stones, and
kingly cap, as I had seen him in the Temple; but was
dressed in a flowing black robe, over which was thrown a
scarf of white linen; and upon his snow-white locks he
wore a scarlet hood, a dress common to all the priests, so
that if I had not recognised him by his tall and

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commanding form, and flowing white hair, and piercing eye, as he
surveyed us, I should not have known that it was the
High Priest. He spoke to Rabbi Amos, who did him
reverence, and lowly did I bend my own head before the
majesty of the representative of God on earth.

A little further on we met a party coming from the
country beyond Kedron, with large cages upon their mules,
laden with turtle doves and young pigeons, which they
were carrying to the Temple, to be sold there for sacrifices.
My heart pitied the innocent things, whose blue, pretty
heads were thrust by the dozen through the rough bars of
their prison houses, as they cast their soft eyes up at me,
as if asking me to deliver them from their bondage. And
when I reflected that they were to offer up their innocent
lives for the sins of the men and women of Israel, my
cheek burned with the blush of shame, that we were so
guilty before the Lord God, that the innocent must die
for us. As Mary was riding behind me, in order to let the
laden mules pass with their immense cages, one of the
turtle-doves, affrighted by the noise of the streets, extricated
itself from between the bars, and, spreading its
wings, flew into the air, and then taking its flight for the
country, soared far above the city walls, and disappeared
in the distance. I felt rejoiced at the innocent bird's
escape, and sent my good wishes for its safe return to its
lodge in the wilderness. Just before we reached the Sheep
Gate by which we were to gain the Jericho road, we met
a poor blind man leading a lamb, or rather being led by a
tame lamb. He also had two pigeons in his bosom. He
was asked by Rabbi Amos, who knew him, whither he
was going. He answered that he was going to the

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Temple to sacrifice them. “Nay,” said Amos, with surprise,
“thou wilt not sacrifice thy lamb, Bartimeus!”

“I have promised them to God, Rabbi Amos, and I
may not break my promise without sin.”

“But thy lamb leadeth thee everywhere. It is eyes to
thee. Thou canst not do without it.”

“God will provide me another lamb,” he answered, his
face beaming with hope.

“But thy doves? Thou earnest by them many a mite
in a day, they are so well taught in cunning and pleasant
tricks to please children. If thou must sacrifice according
to thy vow, spare these so needful to thee, and here is
money to buy doves and another lamb,” answered my benevolent
uncle.

“Hear what I have to say,” answered Bartimeus.
“My father became sick, and was likely to die, and I
vowed a vow to God that if he would heal the old man,
my father, I would sacrifice unto him one of my doves.
The next day my mother, who has nourished my childhood,
and loved me, though I was born blind, with all her heart,
was also taken sick. I then vowed my other pigeon.
The same night my little daughter, my little blind daughter,
whose face I never saw, and who never saw her
father's face, was sick nigh unto death. Then it was that
I vowed all that remained to me, even the lamb of my
bosom, whom I love next to my child! My father, my
mother, my child, are restored, and in my joy I am on my
way to the Temple to offer these gifts of God to him. It
will be hard, sir, but shall I not perform my vow? It will
be hard to part with them, I shall miss them so much;
but God will not let blind Bartimeus suffer, since He will

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see that he offereth, in offering his two little doves and his
lamb, all that he hath.”

With these words he moved on, the lamb obeying the
string which he held, softly moving on before; while I
could see the sightless eyes of the righteous son and father
trickle tears, as he kissed, and kissed again, the doves that
lay in his bosom. This little occurrence made me sad;
yet I honored the resolute piety of this poor man, whose
eyes, though they saw not men, seemed to see God and
feel his presence. There is still humble piety in the land,
my dear father, and finding it not among the proud and
splendid priests, we must look for it in the hearts of the
poor and humble, like Bartimeus.

Upon reaching the Sheep Gate, we were not detained
by the Roman captain, who kept others, examining their
passports, and taking gate-money from those who were
without them; for though foot passengers may pass in
and out free, yet from those who ride horses or mules is
exacted money, unless they have passes signed by the
Procurator. But the captain of the gate no sooner saw
us, than he, with great civility, made us pass through the
gate in advance of others who were ready to go through,
saying that the young Centurion, whose name, I think, I
have not told you is æmilius, had given him orders not to
detain us. The stern, iron-cased Roman soldiers that
stood about the gate, struck me as having just the aspect
and forms of men who could conquer the world. When I
reflected that there was not a city on the earth, at whose
gates did not stand just such men as these, armed, and
clad, and bearded like them, I could not but respect the
universal power of the Roman empire, while I feared it.

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Once outside of the gates, the air blew fresh from the
hills of olives, laden with fragrance. After being so long
confined within the walls and narrow streets, it seemed to
me that I had just broken out of my cage, like the pretty
blue-headed, turtle dove, and I felt like winging my way
too to the free deserts, if wings of a dove so ardently longed
for by King David, could only have been given me. On
our right, not far from the gate, Rabbi Amos pointed out
to me the pool of Bethesda, and turning my eyes towards
it, I beheld a most touching spectacle. All the five
porches were filled with sick and impotent folk, the lame,
halt, blind, and withered, waiting, as my uncle told us,
for the moving of the waters; for, at certain seasons, he
said that God sends an angel down into the pool to trouble
the water, when, whosoever steps in first, is made whole
of whatsoever disease he may have. I could not but stop
my mule to regard so remarkable a sight as this congregation
of miserable people, of whom there must have been no
less than four hundred; some leaning, pale and haggard,
against the columns, some creeping about in helplessness,
like brutes trying to get nigher the pool, from which the
stronger thrust them back; some reclining patiently upon
their beds, in humble waiting for God's time; and others
being borne thither on the shoulders of men. Suddenly,
as I was about to ride on, and shut out this painful sight,
one of the most extraordinary scenes that human eyes
could witness took place. The surface of the pool which
was hitherto perfectly placid, all at once became agitated,
as if it were boiling, and began to swell, rush, or rather
swing from side to side, in a remarkable manner. No
sooner was this seen, then there arose from the throng of

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wretched invalids who crowded its steps, a cry of four
hundred voices all at once, shrieks of joy, shouts of wonder,
words of amazed exclamation, while a simultaneous movement
took place of the whole mass of human bodies,
which became as wildly tossed to and fro as were the
waters. Those nearest plunged madly in, while those
behind rushed down, some wildly shrieking in their agonizing
haste, and some uttering the most fearful curses,
as they found their way obstructed by the impenetrable
masses before them. The most weak and impotent being
most eager, and being farthest off, made superhuman exertions
to gain the pool, howling, and climbing with hands
and feet, over the backs of others, to be hurled to the
ground and trampled upon by others who were behind
them. Some strong men, who tried to open the way for
one they were carrying, drew their knives, and proceeded
to cut their way through the haggard and mouthing
wretches who crowded the way, which violence being
seen by the Romans from the gate, they went down, some
score of them, with drawn swords, to quell the tumult; for
the whole pool was in an uproar. Unable to endure the
dreadful scene, we rode rapidly on, but I afterwards heard
that before quiet was restored, several men were slain, and
that five of those who had got into the pool were drowned
beneath the feet of those who recklessly leaped in over the
heads of others upon them.

“Is it possible,” I asked Rabbi Amos, after we had
reached the borders of Kedron, “that it is the act of an
angel that can produce all this confusion and outbreak of
the worst of human passions?”

“There is no doubt that the troubling of the waters is a

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miracle,” he answered. “The act of the angel is good.
His touch gives a healing power that cures diseases; and
shall his benevolence be answerable for these dreadful and
disgusting consequences which we have just witnessed?”

I was silent; but I sighed for the wickedness of man,
that can make even God's gifts curses in the reception of
them.

We now turned a little to the right, for as the bridge
by which the road of Jericho is usually gained was being
solidly rebuilt by the Romans, we had to follow the brookside
till we came near Absalom's Pillar, at the sight of
which, the whole history of that misguided young prince
came before me. How wonderful, that the glorious head
of golden hair, of which he was vain, and of which the
poets of that day speak more than once, should have been
the instrument of his death! There were ancient oak
trees in sight, which the Rabbi said were old enough to
be a part of the forest through which he rode so fatally,
and doubtless were. He showed me the pit into which
the ten young men who slew Absalom cast him, heaping
great stones upon him. It is close beside the pillar. This
prince must have been as brave as he was beautiful and
disobedient, that when hanging by his hair in the oak,
and incapable of doing them harm, it should require “ten
young men to compass him and smite him.” How interesting
to me is every spot about Jerusalem! I seem to
live in the ancient days, when I see the scenes where
have been enacted the great events which constitute the
history and glory of our nation.

We had hardly reached the place where the two roads
meet, when we heard to the west the sound of the

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galloping of a large body of horse, and the next moment the
young Roman Centurion came in sight, by the road from
the Horse Gate, riding at the head of a troop of horse,
whose martial appearance, with the ringing of their armor,
and the melody of their bugles, made my blood leap; and
I am sure if I could have seen my eyes, I should have discovered
in them a martial fire. Æmilius looked like a Prince,
and his burnished armor shone in the sun like armor of
fire. At his side rode a youth who bore the eagle of his
band; but the Centurion himself carried in his hand only
the badge of his rank, which was a vine-rod bound with
rings of gold. He saluted us with that courtesy which
distinguishes his every motion, and then dividing his
troop into two bodies, half of whom trotting on a-head,
led the van, and the other half, falling behind, served as
a rear guard. He then gave the word to move forward.
The Centurion himself rode either by the side of Rabbi
Amos, or near our bridles, but he did not so far occupy
himself with us as to forget his duty as captain, which he
fulfilled with the utmost vigilance, especially after we
passed the village, and entered upon the desert space that
lies beyond Bethany.

Farewell, dear father, till my next, when I will resume
my narrative of the events which have taken place since
I left Jerusalem. The God of our father Abraham be
your defence and shield. Your affectionate daughter,

p612-122

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