Even now, as we have been sitting here, a lonely and mournful, but loud voice, has been repeating in the lanes and in the high streets of the city, “Wo, wo to Jerusalem!” And for four years, by day and in the deep stillness of night, that melancholy cry has been unceasingly heard denouncing wo to the affrighted and cowering inhabitants. A plain countryman came up to the Feast of Tabernacles four years ago while the country was prosperous and at peace; and while engaged in the duties of this occasion became suddenly a changed man, and before the multitudes cried aloud, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!” A dead weight of fear has ever since lain upon the spirits of the inhabitants, crushing the timid, and oppressing even the boldest. They have tried by every means to stop his mournful cry; they have beaten him till his bones were laid bare, but he made no supplication and shed no tears; they have carried him before the rulers, but he has not been awed to silence, nor to their queries and threats has he made any reply; he has associated with no one, but in the crowded city has made himself a solitary and a lonely man; he has not complained when ill treated and abused from day to day; he has not thanked those who gave him food; to each he has replied only by his usual exclamation of, wo to the city; the channels of all feeling, except a deep and dreadful horror, seem to have been frozen up. He rests but little; something within him hath murdered sleep. At midnight, when all nature is hushed in death-like repose, from amid the deep darkness his mournful voice is heard; and the mother starts and draws her infant to her breast, and the sentry on his post trembles at the prolonged and melancholy cry, “Wo, wo, wo to Jerusalem!” * * * * * The wo hath been poured out upon the unhappy city. * * * * * Eleven hundred thousand persons perished during the siege, by famine, pestilence, or by human violence. Ninety-seven thousand at its close were carried as captives into distant lands.[70] FOOTNOTES: [64] I trust that I shall be pardoned if I add that the Commodore and myself had some of it worked at Mahon into tables representing, in Mosaic work, the hills and valleys of Jerusalem, a plan of the city, and a view of the Mount of Olives, its buildings and roads. The workmanship was well executed, and they make handsome pictures. The ingenious workman, Juan Rivdavetz y Prieto, just before we left that city, contrived a method of staining on plain apple wood, pictures of fruit, &c., with a very rich back-ground, forming beautiful cabinet work. The Commodore offered him a passage in the Delaware to America; but the love of his native island prevailed, and he remained.