the same time. Monks were performing in this place also. They perform

everywhere--all over the vast building, and at all hours. Their candles

are always flitting about in the gloom, and making the dim old church

more dismal than there is any necessity that it should be, even though it

is a tomb.

We were shown the place where our Lord appeared to His mother after the

Resurrection. Here, also, a marble slab marks the place where St.

Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, found the crosses about

three hundred years after the Crucifixion. According to the legend, this

great discovery elicited extravagant demonstrations of joy. But they

were of short duration. The question intruded itself: "Which bore the

blessed Saviour, and which the thieves?" To be in doubt, in so mighty a

matter as this--to be uncertain which one to adore--was a grievous

misfortune. It turned the public joy to sorrow. But when lived there a

holy priest who could not set so simple a trouble as this at rest? One

of these soon hit upon a plan that would be a certain test. A noble lady

lay very ill in Jerusalem. The wise priests ordered that the three

crosses be taken to her bedside one at a time. It was done. When her

eyes fell upon the first one, she uttered a scream that was heard beyond

the Damascus Gate, and even upon the Mount of Olives, it was said, and

then fell back in a deadly swoon. They recovered her and brought the

second cross. Instantly she went into fearful convulsions, and it was

with the greatest difficulty that six strong men could hold her. They

were afraid, now, to bring in the third cross. They began to fear that

possibly they had fallen upon the wrong crosses, and that the true cross

638

The Innocents Abroad