A HOLY LAND ROMANCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4777, 14 July 1876, Page 3

A HOLY LAND ROMANCE.

(From the New York Sunday Mercury.) About twenty-five years ago a company of young men started out from Damascus, and headed for Jerusalem. They had not gone far before a band of armed horsemen surrounded them, and ordered a halt. The leader said tile caravan might move on, unhurt and unharmed, if they would deliver up one of their number, a young man named Randall, who should not suffer if he would come along with them peacefully. The terms, though hard, were acceded to, and the last look his companions had of him was to see him mounted on a fine horse, attended by the gay horsemen of the Bedouin Sheik of the Le Avish tribe. The young man was taken to the sheik’s tent, and to his surprise found a magnificent entertainment awaiting him. What does it all mean ? Arzalia, the sheik’s daughter, has seen the young man and fallen -passionately in love with him, and this -is the wedding feast. The young man and,. Arzalia are married. There was no escape for him. His tent - was guarded by night, and his person watched by day, lest he should escape, and this guard kept over him for years. r He and his Arzalia, however, seemed happy, r,,. Children were born to them, and their domestic life was marked by kindness, courtesy," and true affection. Randall rapidly acquired the Arabic language, his wife as rapidly mastered the English. Their children were taught in both. Now, who was this Randall, I; In Oneida county," N.Y., lives his father, who has never seen the face of his son. This father is now a man of some seventy years, who was brought up among the Indians, and has travelled again and again with the hunters of his tribe in search of fish and game. At the age of twentyone t]»e chief of his tribe said to him—“ You had better return to the white people, for among them you can be more of a man than among the Indians.” He returned, secured a Welsh lady for his wife, and while she was on a visit to her relations in Wales this son was born. The mother dying soon after his birth, he remained until manhood with his kindred in Wales, and was taking a trip through Syria, previous to his return to America, when ho was captured by the sheik and compelled to marry his daughter. His mother was n Baptist, and he, before he left Wales for the Orient, was baptised. When he was admitted to the sheik’s family, they had to receive his religion as well aa his person. Through him his wife became a Christian ; his father-in-law became a patron of his son-in-law!s faith ; his children were brought up “in the fear of the Lord his son had be-, come a sheik of the tribe—the father-in-law having died. All the surrounding tribes have become favorable to the new religion, and have pledged their swords in its defence. But a dervish, a zealot of the Mohammedan faith, had for a long time been endeavoring to stir up opposition and persecution. ■; He strove to have Randall’s sons thrown out of the employ of the Turkish Government, and, failing in this, he turned his assault upon a daughter of the foreigner, and charged her with witchcraft and apostacy from the true faith. She was brought before the meghs, composed of 111 venerable sheiks and effendis, to answer charges which involved her life. She, although but fourteen years of age, and dressed in the neatest manner, with a placid face, and calm, hearty, and unfaltering trust, responded, “Most venerable fathers, I will reply in person ; ” and then with fervor, and faith, and power, holding her Bible in her hand, and frequently reading passages from it, she made a defence worthy of an apostle, and when she was finished the unanimous verdict was in her favor, and the chiefs of the tribes pledged each othertheir swords anew to defend all Christians who thought and felt as Rosa did. But the old dervish breathed revenge, and determined to take that young life. The trial was in October, 1872. In June, 1873 while Rosa was teaching a class of fortytwo little girls in a grove, the dervish stealthily approached, and before anyone was aware, he had murdered fcho maid and fled. In the last letter from Lady Arzalia Lo Avish Randall, giving all the particulars of her child s trial and tragic death, occurs this beautiful sentence and earnest request“ Pray for me, that my piety may he as humble as the violet, as endunpg as the olive, and as fragrant as the Orient,”