The people of Zahleh had been accompanied by a number of Greek priests, and in prosecuting their object employed entreaties, threats, bribes, reproaches, and actual violence. They were countenanced by the Emir, and backed up by a "Young Men's Party," which had grown into an organization under the political excitement of the times. They returned home in consequence of an order obtained from the Pasha of Damascus, but not until they had drawn away perhaps twenty, old and young, some of whom soon after returned to the instructions of Mr. Thomson and Tannus, who had taken the place of Mr. Smith and Butrus. While they were absent on the mountain to recover from illness, the result of confinement, anxiety, and a suffocating sirocco, the "Young Men" rose in arms, against the Protestant brethren. They virtually took the government of the place into their own hands, and the Protestant men fled to escape their murderous violence. Returning to Hasbeiya, Mr. Thomson found only the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of those who had fled; some of them so poor as not to know how or where they could find their daily bread, yet apparently without fear. He overtook the fugitive people the next day, who were half perishing with hunger. Abeih was their place of refuge; and there they remained till October, zealously attending upon religious instruction. In that month, one of the two Druze skeiks [sic] arrived, who had interposed on their behalf on the fifteenth of July, bringing with him a document from the Pasha of Damascus, procured, it was said, by Mr. Wood, English Consul there, directing their return and guaranteeing their entire security. The guaranty proved to be illusive, though probably not intended to be so. Strong, unfriendly influences were subsequently brought to bear on the Pasha.1 They were accompanied by Butrus, and it was intended that one of the missionaries should soon follow. The party reached Hasbeiya on the fourteenth of October, and found those who had remained there in great fear. The Patriarch having arrived the same day, to inflame the passions of their enemies, intimidate the governor, and weaken the hands of the Druze sheiks. Butrus wrote, advising that no missionary come there until the Patriarch was gone, and things had become more quiet. He was succeeded by Tannus, in October, and he, in the following month, by Elias el-Fuaz. The friendly governor was at length set aside for one more in sympathy with their persecutors. On the two following Sabbaths, the Bible-men were stoned in the streets, and Elias el-Fuaz was seriously wounded; while the governor made only a sham resistance, that emboldened the evil-doers, as he intended it should, till the native preacher was driven from the place, and some of the Protestants fled to Lebanon. Others, wearied with persecutions to which they could see no end, complied so far with the demands of the Patriarch, as to visit the Greek church,