He wished, he said, to visit the Holy Sepulchre.
He could do so, was the answer, if he paid thirty silver zecchines.
As he had not so much, the gate was again closed.
The pilgrim, however, not to be frightened, struck again with his staff, certain that he would get in. Get in he did, quickly enough, and, after he had been well thrashed, was thrown out again and fell on a rubbish-heap on which dogs hunted for bones. This reception was not encouraging, but for the pilgrim it was exactly what he had expected and wished. He had been beaten in the same city where his Master Christ had been beaten and tortured.
What an honour! What undeserved grace!
But the thirty silver pieces! Why was the price just thirty? Because it was the traitor’s reward for betraying the Beloved. He would try to collect them by begging, even if it took him ten years to do so.
He exhorted himself to patience, and went southward into the valley of Hinnom or the valley of Hell, where all the rubbish of the city was thrown. There was filth and an evil smell there, but the pilgrim did not notice it, for he only sought to catch a glimpse of the walls of the Holy City. When he came to the south end of the valley, he really beheld Mount Zion with David’s Sepulchre. Then he fell on his knees and praised God in song:
“Lauda Sion Salvatorem
Lauda Ducem et pastorem
In hymnis et canticis.”
Strengthened by prayer, he went on. He knew the topography of the place well, and when he came on a piece of waste ground underneath the Hill of Evil Counsel, he knew that it was Aceldama, or the Field of the Dead, which had been purchased with the traitor’s blood-money to bury strangers in. But he had no thoughts of death, for he knew that he would live till he had taken the City. On the other hand, he was hungry. How bitterly he regretted now that he had not accustomed himself in his youth, like other famous eremites, to eat grass. Weary, but not depressed, he sat down on a rubbish heap which seemed quite fresh.
As he sat there, a dog came—a mangy famished creature—and laid his head on the pilgrim’s knee.