On Saturday, April 26th, or Holy Saturday, the day preceding the Greek Easter, I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, to witness what is said to be the miraculous kindling of the sacred fire over the tomb of Christ. After traversing a few winding and windowless streets, stony and irregular, and then almost deserted, we entered the busy bazar which leads to the church. Here all was bustle and confusion; buyers and sellers paused to watch the concourse of people hastening to the festivals. We passed under an archway, and found ourselves opposite the beautiful façade, with its double doorway and sculptured friezes. It was about half-past eleven. The square court was lined with Turkish soldiers. The surrounding terraces and house-tops were covered with women shrouded in white sheets, and forming picturesque groups, sitting and standing in the dazzling sunlight. Crowds of Greeks and Armenians were entering in at the door. I was met there by Mons. Lesselle, the Cancelière of the French Consulate, and with difficulty he led me into the church, and across the area of the rotunda, where all was confusion and excitement. The pilgrims were running and leaping in all directions, uttering wild cries, and a monotonous sort of chant. The noise was almost bewildering. With Mons. Lesselle’s assistance I climbed up a steep platform, and then ascended a tottering staircase, which led to the Latin gallery on the north side of the rotunda.
One portion of it had been set apart for strangers, and I was glad to be safely placed there. It was like a large opera-box, with heavy but insecure railings in front, close to which chairs were occupied by a Dutch Baroness and her daughter, a monk, and the celebrated Abbé Ratisbon, an American lady and a Scottish lady, to all of whom I had been previously introduced. There were several Arab women seated on the matted floor in the back part of the box, smoking narghilés. Among them I recognized with pleasure the lady at whose house I had rested at Ramleh. After I had exchanged greetings with her I went forward,
