In the spring of this year war broke out afresh between the Druzes and Maronites, and Lebanon was again purged by fire. It was in no sense a religious war, but a desperate struggle for political ascendency. The Maronite clergy in the Druze part of the mountain had been rapidly recovering power, and were as rapidly rising in their opposition to the mission. The result of this war, as aforetime, was the destruction of their villages and their power; and the Patriarch sank under the disappointment and died. Moreover the party in Hasbeiya, which stoned the Protestants and their teachers, were driven out of the place by the Druzes, and great numbers of them killed, so that the "Young Men's" party seemed to be broken to pieces.1 1 There was a special enmity of the Druzes against the Christians of Hasbeiya. The most celebrated sacred place of the Druzes is on the top of a hill just above Hasbeiya, called Khulwat el Biyad. In their revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in 1838, he was aided by the Christians, and when the Druzes were defeated in a battle near this place, their sacred place was entered, and several chests of books, setting forth their tenets, were scattered through the land. The Christians paid dearly for their trespass. The leader of the Hauran rebellion became, for a time, the governor of Hasbeiya, and for this loss imposed exorbitant indemnities on every one, who had been known to take a book. The consequent enmity between the parties doubtless had much to do with the events described above.