In this altar they used to keep one of the most curious relics that human eyes ever looked upOn—a thing that had power to fascinate the beholder in some mysterious way and keep him gazing for hours together．It was nothing less than the copper plate Pilate put upon the Saviour’S cross。and upon which he wrote．“THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS．”I think St．Helena，the mother of Constantine．found this wonderful memento when she was here in the mird century．She traveled all over Palestine，and was always fortunate．Whenever the good old enthusiast found a thing mentioned in her Bible，Old or New，she would go and search for that thing，and never stop until she found it．If it was Adam，she would find Adam；if it was the Ark，she would find the Ark：if it was G01iah，or Joshua，she would find them．She found the inscription here that 1 was speaking of,I think．She found it in this very spot．close to where the martyred Roman soldier stood．That copper plate is in one of the churches in Rome，now．any one can see it there．The inscription is very distinct．
We passed along a few steps and saw the altar built over the very spot where the good Catholic priests say the soldiers divided the raimentof the Saviour． Then we went down into a cavern which cavilers say was once acistern．It is a chapel，now however--the Chapel of St．Helena．It is fifty—one feet long by forty—three wide．In it is a marble chair which Helenaused to sit in while she superintended her workmen when they weredigging and delving for the True Cross．In this place is an altar dedicatedto St．Dimas．the penitent thief．A new bronze statue is here——a statueOf St．Helena．It reminded US of poor Maximilian．SO lately shot．Hepresented it tO this chapel when he was about to leave for his throne inMexico． From the cistern we descended twelve steps into a large roughly——shaped grotto，carved wholly out of the living rock．Helena blasted it out when she was searching for the true cross．She had a laborious piece of work，here，but it was richly rewarded．Out of this place she got the crown of thorns，the nails of the cross，the true cross itself,and the cross of the penitent thief．When she thought she had found everything and was about to stop，she was told in a dream to continue a day longer．It was very fortunate．She did SO，and found the cross of the other thief．