the noon of night
A lofty wall , with turrets and towers and frequent gates , undulates with the unequal ground which it covers , as it encircles the lost capital of Jehovah . It is a city of hills , far more famous than those of Rome : for all Europe has heard of Sion and of Calvary , while the Arab and the Assyrian , and the tribes and nations beyond , are as ignorant of the Capitolian and Aventine Mounts as they are of the Malvern or the Chiltern Hills . The broad steep of Sion crowned with the tower of David ; nearer still , Mount Moriah , with the gorgeous temple of the God of Abraham , but built , alas ! by the child of Hagar , and not by Sarah 's chosen one ; close to its cedars and its cypresses , its lofty spires and airy arches , the moonlight falls upon Bethesda 's pool ; further on , entered by the gate of St. Stephen , the eye , though ` tis the noon of night , traces with ease the Street of Grief , a long winding ascent to a vast cupolaed pile that now covers Calvary , called the Street of Grief because there the most illustrious of the human , as well as of the Hebrew , race , the descendant of King David , and the divine Son of the most favoured of women , twice sank under that burden of suffering and shame which is now throughout all Christendom the emblem of triumph and of honour ; passing over groups and masses of houses built of stone , with terraced roofs , or surmounted with small domes , we reach the hill of Salem , where Melchisedek built his mystic citadel ; and still remains the hill of Scopas , where Titus gazed upon Jerusalem on the eve of his final assault . Titus destroyed the temple . The religion of Judaea has in turn subverted the fanes which were raised to his father and to himself in their imperial capital ; and the God of Abraham , of Isaac , and of Jacob is now worshipped before every altar in Rome . Jerusalem by moonlight !