was not with this number at all. However, as the woman seemed likely to

die with the convulsions that were tearing her, they concluded that the

third could do no more than put her out of her misery with a happy

dispatch. So they brought it, and behold, a miracle! The woman sprang

from her bed, smiling and joyful, and perfectly restored to health. When

we listen to evidence like this, we cannot but believe. We would be

ashamed to doubt, and properly, too. Even the very part of Jerusalem

where this all occurred is there yet. So there is really no room for

doubt.

The priests tried to show us, through a small screen, a fragment of the

genuine Pillar of Flagellation, to which Christ was bound when they

scourged him. But we could not see it, because it was dark inside the

screen. However, a baton is kept here, which the pilgrim thrusts through

a hole in the screen, and then he no longer doubts that the true Pillar

of Flagellation is in there. He can not have any excuse to doubt it, for

he can feel it with the stick. He can feel it as distinctly as he could

feel any thing.

Not far from here was a niche where they used to preserve a piece of the

True Cross, but it is gone, now. This piece of the cross was discovered

in the sixteenth century. The Latin priests say it was stolen away, long

ago, by priests of another sect. That seems like a hard statement to

make, but we know very well that it was stolen, because we have seen it

ourselves in several of the cathedrals of Italy and France.

639

The Innocents Abroad