“Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary, During the Years 1806 and 1807” by François-René vicomte de Chateaubriand p. 391-392 (I left out some of the yucky parts):
While the new Jerusalem thus rises from the desert, resplendent in brightness, cast your eyes between the temple and Mount Sion; behold another petty tribe cut off from the rest of the inhabitants of this city. The particular objects of every species of degradation, these people bow their heads without murmuring; they endure every kind of insult without demanding justice; they sink beneath repeated blows without sighing; if their head be required, they present it to the scymetar. On the death of any member of this proscribed community, his companion goes at night and inters him by stealth in the valley of Jehoshaphat, in the shadow of Solomon’s temple. Enter the abodes of these people, you will find them, amidst the most abject wretchedness, instructing their children to read a mysterious book, which they in turn will teach their offspring to read. What they did five thousand years ago, these people still continue to do. Seventeen times have they witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, yet nothing can discourage them, nothing can prevent them from turning their faces towards Sion. To see the Jews scattered over the whole world, according to the word of God, must doubtless excite surprise; but to be struck with supernatural astonishment, you must view them at Jerusalem; you must behold them expecting, under all oppressions, a king who is to deliver them. Crushed by the cross that condemns them and is planted on their heads, skulking near the temple, of which not one stone is left upon another, they continue in their deplorable infatuation. The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, are swept from the earth; and a petty tribe, whose origin preceded that of those great nations, still exists unmixed among the ruins of its native land. If any thing among nations wears the character of a miracle, that character, in my opinion, is here legibly impressed.
What can appear more wonderful, even to the philosopher, than this spectacle of ancient and modern Jerusalem at the foot of … exulting before the only tomb which will have no deposit to render up at the consummation of ages.
End.
By the way, a trained, careful historian may want to examine this account more closely to shed light on the murky question of when the Jews were allowed on or near the Temple Mount and its environs.