Did he haunt the Wailing Wall, then, sharing the woe of his brethren?
For in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the Scribe found him not.
V
The Scribe had slipt in half disguised: no Jew being allowed even in
the courtyard or the precincts of the sacred place. His first open
attempt had been frustrated by the Turkish soldiers who kept the
narrow approach to the courtyard. "_Rüh! Emshi!_" they had shouted
fiercely, and the Scribe recklessly refusing to turn back had been
expelled by violence. A blessing in disguise, his friends had told
him, for should the Greek-Church fanatics have become aware of him, he
might have perished in a miniature Holy War. And as he fought his way
through the crowd to gain the shelter of a balcony, he felt indeed
that one ugly rush would suffice to crush him.