Ah! 'tis pleasant to
mix once more with our own people. To the left. So! we must descend a
little. We hold our meetings in an ancient cemetery. You have a finer
temple, I warrant me, in Bagdad. Jerusalem is not Bagdad. But this has
its conveniences. 'Tis safe, and we are not very rich, nor wish to seem
so.'
A long passage brought them to a number of small, square, low
chambers[41] leading into each other. They were lighted by brass lamps,
placed at intervals in vacant niches, that once held corpses, and
which were now soiled by the smoky flame. Between two and three
hundred individuals were assembled in these chambers, at first scarcely
distinguishable by those who descended from the broad daylight; but
by degrees the eyesight became accustomed to the dim and vaporous
atmosphere, and Al-roy recognised in the final and more illumined
chamber a high cedar cabinet, the type of the ark, and which held the
sacred vessels and the sanctified copy of the law.
Standing in lines, with their heads mystically covered,[42] the forlorn
remnant of Israel, captives in their ancient city, avowed, in spite of
all their sufferings, their fidelity to their God, and, notwithstanding
all the bitterness of hope delayed, their faith in the fulfilment of his
promises.
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