Besides, a
large proportion of the monks were natives of the Peninsula. To
these, I remember, Mysseri's familiarity with the Spanish language
and character was a source of immense delight; they were always
gathering around him, and it seemed to me that they treasured like
gold the few Castilian words which he deigned to spare them.
The monks do a world of good in their way; and there can be no
doubting that previously to the arrival of Bishop Alexander, with
his numerous young family and his pretty English nursemaids, they
were the chief propagandists of Christianity in Palestine. My old
friends of the Franciscan convent at Jerusalem some time since gave
proof of their goodness by delivering themselves up to the peril of
death for the sake of duty. When I was their guest they were forty
I believe in number, and I don't recollect that there was one of
them whom I should have looked upon as a desirable life-holder of
any property to which I might be entitled in expectancy. Yet these
forty were reduced in a few days to nineteen. The plague was the
messenger that summoned them to a taste of real death; but the
circumstances under which they perished are rather curious; and
though I have no authority for the story except an Italian
newspaper, I harbour no doubt of its truth, for the facts were
detailed with minuteness, and strictly corresponded with all that I
knew of the poor fellows to whom they related.
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