Mr. Bernard is
always with the English bishop, who is delighted to have an addition to
his congregation, which is not too much, consisting of his own family,
the English and Prussian consuls, and five Jews, whom they have
converted at twenty piastres a-week; but I know they are going to
strike for wages. As for the doctor, he has not a minute to himself. The
governor's wife has already sent for him; he has been admitted to the
harem; has felt all their pulses without seeing any of their faces, and
his medicine chest is in danger of being exhausted before your lordship
requires its aid.'
'Take care that they are comfortable,' said Tancred. 'And what does your
lordship wish to do today?'
'I must go to Gethsemane.'
''Tis the shot of an arrow; go out by the gate of Sion, pass through the
Turkish cemetery, cross the Kedron, which is so dry this weather that
you may do so in your slippers, and you will find the remnant of an
olive grove at the base of the mount.'
'You talk as if you were giving a direction in London.'
'I wish I knew London as well as I know Jerusalem! This is not a very
great place, and I think I have been here twenty times. Why, I made
eight visits here in '40 and '41; twice from England, and six times from
Egypt.
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