I crossed the plain of Esdraelon and entered amongst the hills of
beautiful Galilee.
It was at sunset that my path brought me
sharply round into the gorge of a little valley, and close upon a
grey mass of dwellings that lay happily nestled in the lap of the
mountain. There was one only shining point still touched with the
light of the sun, who had set for all besides; a brave sign this to
"holy" Shereef and the rest of my Moslem men, for the one
glittering summit was the head of a minaret, and the rest of the
seeming village that had veiled itself so meekly under the shades
of evening was Christian Nazareth!
Within the precincts of the Latin convent in which I was quartered
there stands the great Catholic church which encloses the
sanctuary, the dwelling of the blessed Virgin. {23} This is a
grotto of about ten feet either way, forming a little chapel or
recess, to which you descend by steps. It is decorated with
splendour. On the left hand a column of granite hangs from the top
of the grotto to within a few feet of the ground; immediately
beneath it is another column of the same size, which rises from the
ground as if to meet the one above; but between this and the
suspended pillar there is an interval of more than a foot; these
fragments once formed a single column, against which the angel
leant when he spoke and told to Mary the mystery of her awful
blessedness.
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