The Morning Herald

A LEGEND OF SOFIA.

A St. Petersburg letter to the San Francisco Chronicle says:

A legend in poetical form has lately been published in the Moscow and St. Petersburg journals, the subject being a tradition long cherished by the inhabitants of Sofia. Over 400 years ago, when the Turks entered the city sword in hand, numbers of the inhabitants took refuge in the churches, and especially in the cathedral, without, however, escaping the merciless scimetars of the Moslems. The bishop had remained praying at the altar, and the Turkish commander, in mock humanity, gave orders not to touch the old man, but bricks and mortar were carried to the spot and the praying bishop walled up. The legend says, and some of the good people of Sofia still believe, that the good bishop did not die in his narrow prison. It was ordained by Providence that he should stay there alive until a Christian army entered Sofia to relieve him, when the wall would be pulled down, and he step forward as well as ever. This episode is said to have taken place in the year 1430, and since to that time no Christian soldiers have set foot within the gate of Sofia, the ancient Serdria of the Comans. But now the time for the verification of the legend has arrived. The Russians entered the ancient city on the third of last month, but up to date we have no news of the predicted resurrection having taken place. Should the "cruel wall" be pulled down without revealing any proof of the Pacha's inhumanity, not even the small bones of a skeleton, some explanation will no doubt be found to satisfy the implicit believers in old traditions.—St. Petersburg Letter to San Francisco Chronicle.