ing  from  one  to  twenty-five  miles  in  width  and  thrice
that  length  from  north  to  south.  Both  of  them  led
into  a  vast  valley-plain  of  twenty  by  thirty  miles  running
directly  across  the  country  from  east  to  west,  the  great
plain  of  Esdraelon,  the  battle-field  of  the  world.  On
this  field  armies  of  every  ancient  and  of  nearly  every
modern  nation  have  met  in  deadly  conflict.  It  has  been
trod  by  Babylonian  armies  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  by
Assyrian  armies  under  Sennacherib,  by  Jewish  armies
under  Gideon  and  Saul,  by  Egyptian  hosts  under  Necho,
by  Moslem  hordes  under  Saladin,  by  crusaders  from
Spain  and  Portugal,  from  Germany  and  Italy,  by  Eng-
lish troops  under  Smith,  and,  less  than  a  hundred  years
ago,  by  Frenchmen  carrying  the  imperial  eagles  under
the  personal  leadership  of  Napoleon  I.  of  France.  The
world's  history  has  been  written  in  blood  on  this  plain
of  Esdraelon,  in  Palestine.  Those  great  conquerors
whose  disastrous  fame  has  filled  up  with  sickening  full-
ness the  records  of  human  history,  have  all  seen  that
Palestine  was  geographically  the  pivot  of  empire,  and
that  the  Esdraelon  plain  was  the  great  field  the  winning
or  the  losing  of  which  carried  with  it  all  they  hoped  or
all  they  feared.  To  this  plain  they  have  come  either  in
person  or  by  their  armies.  Here  came  the  Persian
Cyrus,  the  man  whose  rise  to  power  is  the  most  wonder-
ful exploit  in  history  ;  that  Nebuchadnezzar  who  when
he  died  left  behind  him  "  more  buildings  reared  by  his
hands  than  any  man  who  ever  stood  on  this  planet ;"


DIFFICULTIES   ABOUT   HISTORIC   FACTS.  179

that  Macedouian  conqueror  who  wept  for  other  worlds
to  subdue  ;  that  Roman  Caesar  who  by  his  vast  hordes
overrun  Palestine,  giving  imperial  names  to  her  cities
and  to  her  beautiful  inland  sea  ;  that  Richard  of  Eng-
land whose  fame  is  world-wide  ;  that  Godfrey,  at  once
the  pride  of  Europe  and  the  boast  of  his  own  France  ;
that  great  emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa,  whose  ashes  are
buried  in  the  ruins  of  the  old  Christian  temple  at  Tyre,
near  by  this  plain  where  he  fought  so  nobly  ; — these  are
some  of  the  men  who  have  seen  in  Palestine  the  very
central  spot  of  geographical  position,  the  possession  of
which  in  their  day  was  essential  to  their  plans  of  empire.
