BOOK I. CHAP. I.
ALEXANDRIA.
The whole house was in commotion. The camels were receiving their load in the inner court, and drinking, before their journey, from the fountain beneath the palm trees. The slaves ran this way and that way: in the apartments of the women the maid-servants were busily preparing the farewell meal for the son of their mistress, who, while she hurried in different directions and issued her commands, was repeating the words of the forty-second Psalm.—
As the hart panteth for the water-brooks,
So panteth my soul after thee, O God!
My soul thirsteth for God,
The living God!
When shall I return
And appear before the face of God!
She had been born in the Holy Land, and her deceased husband had brought her to Egypt. The country in which her youthful days had been spent, and the journies to Jerusalem, in which she had borne a part, rose up to her remembrance, and with overflowing eyes she proceeded: