The Franciscans, as well as the Government authorities,
were obliged to give way, and the Arabs triumphantly marched into
the church. The festival, however, must have seemed to them rather
flat, for although there may have been some "casualties" in the way
of eyes black and noses bloody, and women "missing," there was no
return of "killed."
Formerly the Latin Catholics concurred in acknowledging (but not, I
hope, in working) the annual miracle of the heavenly fire, but they
have for many years withdrawn their countenance from this
exhibition, and they now repudiate it as a trick of the Greek
Church. Thus of course the violence of feeling with which the
rival Churches meet at the Holy Sepulchre on Easter Saturday is
greatly increased, and a disturbance of some kind is certain. In
the year I speak of, though no lives were lost, there was, as it
seems, a tough struggle in the church. I was amused at hearing of
a taunt that was thrown that day upon an English traveller. He had
taken his station in a convenient part of the church, and was no
doubt displaying that peculiar air of serenity and gratification
with which an English gentleman usually looks on at a row, when one
of the Franciscans came by, all reeking from the fight, and was so
disgusted at the coolness and placid contentment of the Englishman
(who was a guest at the convent), that he forgot his monkish
humility as well as the duties of hospitality, and plainly said,
"You sleep under our roof, you eat our bread, you drink our wine,
and then when Easter Saturday comes you don't fight for us!"
Yet these rival Churches go on quietly enough till their blood is
up.
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