Suddenly Tancred moved, heaved a deep sigh,
and opened his dark eyes. The unnatural fire which had yesterday lit
them up had fled. Calmly and thoughtfully he surveyed those around him,
and then he said, 'The Lady of Bethany!'
CHAPTER XXXVI.
_The Angel's Message_
BETWEEN the Egyptian and the Arabian deserts, formed by two gulfs of the
Erythraean Sea, is a peninsula of granite mountains. It seems as if an
ocean of lava, when its waves were literally running mountains high, had
been suddenly commanded to stand still. These successive summits, with
their peaks and pinnacles, enclose a series of valleys, in general stern
and savage, yet some of which are not devoid of pastoral beauty. There
may be found brooks of silver brightness, and occasionally groves of
palms and gardens of dates, while the neighbouring heights command
sublime landscapes, the opposing mountains of Asia and Afric, and the
blue bosom of two seas. On one of these elevations, more than five
thousand feet above the ocean, is a convent; again, nearly three
thousand feet above this convent, is a towering peak, and this is Mount
Sinai.
On the top of Mount Sinai are two ruins, a Christian church and a
Mahometan mosque. In this, the sublimest scene of Arabian glory, Israel
and Ishmael alike raised their altars to the great God of Abraham.
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