ohap.v.] ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 291

infant Saviour and his blessed mother sojourned,may exist; for it is a cavern or grotto . 1 Old Cairohad an amazing quantity of splendid palaces as theresidences of the opulent Egyptian patricians, whichrank appeared to have existed then, though therehas been scarce a shadow of any such in Egypt forcenturies. Its being an open town, made it moreconvenient for horses; and besides it contained thechief charitable and religious establishments, andits streets were neither so narrow nor so crowdedand suffocating as New Cairo: but above all, therewas more liberty; as not exactly under the despot’seye, nor every moment subject to his caprices, sothat a menaced grandee could escape into thecountry or desert or Upper Egypt; and the samemight be said of other classes respecting the cus-tom-house officers, or tax-gatherers and the mul-tifarious tools of a bad administration; as well asavoiding their inevitable consequences, frequentfrantic and bloody revolutions. Once that nest ofaristocracy is in cinders, tyranny may reign rampantover the whole land of Egypt. Nothing to arrest thetyrant; all moral restraint at an end, and vice andbrute force are everything . 2 Beware of Egyptwas scriptural; but into whatever effeminacy or

Michaud : Orient., vi. 20. 2 Id. : Hist., ii. 240.

U 2