The Turkish governor of the prison, moved by pity, immediately released the unoffending old man. Passing through a Turkish burying ground, he reached his home unobserved. It was the Sabbath day, and he says, "Being delivered from the hands of reckless men, I fell down on my face about the eighth hour, with my wife alone, and gave glory to God that He had accounted me worthy of such an honor, which I formerly avoided, but now by his grace he has made me cheerfully to receive, though I am altogether unworthy. He has kept me for such a day." Haritun's inability to pay his debts subjected him to a second imprisonment; but as his cup increased in bitterness, his resolve was the more firmly fixed, never to deny his Lord and Saviour. His spotless reputation, and his meekness in suffering, procured for him many friends, even among the Mohammedans.1 1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 219-223, 366. It deserves to be recorded, that the magnate who secured his imprisonment, was thrown from his horse, not long after, and received a fracture of the skull, from which he died; and his splendid mansion was subsequently consumed by fire. After having thus cruelly treated Priest Haritun, the bishop summoned the evangelical brethren before him, as a body, and so wrought upon their fears, that they all agreed to sign the paper of recantation. Some of them, however, declared to the bishop, at the time, that they should continue to read the Gospel, and come together for prayer; and he assured them, that he merely wanted their signatures as a matter of form, and that they should be left at liberty to believe and act as they pleased. But they lost all peace of mind from that moment, until they had abjured their recantation, and publicly declared their determination to abide by the doctrines of the Gospel, even unto death. This was in March, 1846. They were all soon after excommunicated.