Fortified as it was, it lay open before our gaze.

Several buildings, and in front of all a church with a small cupola, told us plainly that St.Saba lay stretched below.
On the farther bank, seven or eight hundred paces from the convent, rose a single square tower, apparently of great strength.

I little thought that I should soon become much better acquainted with this isolated building.
The priests had observed our procession winding down the hill, and at the first knocking the gate was opened.

Masters, servants, Arabs, and Bedouins, all passed through; but when my turn came, the cry was, "Shut the gate!" and I was shut out, with the prospect of passing the night in the open air,--a thing which would have been rather disagreeable, considering how unsafe the neighbourhood was.
At length, however, a lay brother appeared, and, pointing to the tower, gave me to understand that I should be lodged there.

He procured a ladder from the convent, and went with me to the tower, where we mounted by its aid to a little low doorway of iron.