Michael Aramon took the place of Butrus in the seminary, and gave the highest satisfaction both as to his literary and his religious qualifications for the post. A Hasbeiyan brother, well informed, upright, "a burning and shining light," taught a school among the Druzes in the higher part of the mountains. Another, named Asaad el-Maaluk, exercised a silent influence for good, in a school and upon the people of another mountain village where he taught. Through him, a priest in the Greek church of that village, named Elias, became gradually enlightened. When Asaad began declaring the truths of the gospel, the villagers appealed to priest Elias, and he several times endeavored publicly to defend the doctrines and ceremonies of his Church. Perceiving at length how much the Bible was against him, and that he could not answer his opponent, he became angry, and forbade all communication with Asaad. But the mild and earnest manner of the native brother at length won his heart, and he came to the conclusion, that nothing in his Church had any authority, which was not derived from the Bible. This change in his views he soon declared to his people, and absented himself from the church. Once and again they forced him to go and say mass. Sometimes he yielded, and sometimes refused; till, near the end of January, 1849, having performed mass, he went out with the people, locked the door of the church, threw the key down before the door, and declared, in the presence of them all, that he was a Protestant, and could no more act against his conscience by officiating as a priest. Various methods were tried to bring him back, but in vain. In May, 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest accompanied their husbands to Hasbeiya, and had delightful intercourse with the native Protestant women, who had from the first gone hand in hand with the men. The brethren at Tripoli endeavored to secure a summer residence in the Maronite village of Ehden, where Mr. Bird had been so rudely assailed twenty years before, but were driven thence by similar acts of violence. The English Consul at Beirut, without the knowledge of the missionaries, laid the facts before the British Government, and Lord Palmerston promptly administered a severe rebuke to the Patriarch and Emir. The case was eventually settled by the offenders paying seventy dollars, and by the governor of the mountains furnishing the missionaries with an official guaranty in writing, for their protection wherever they should be able to hire houses. The American Ambassador also procured a strong vizieral letter to the Pasha in the Tripoli district.