chief, who hid him under her clothes. When, in later years, he came to
power, he rewarded the chief and his wife richly for their kindly aid.

On another occasion a body of horse rode into the village of tents in
which he dwelt as a guest and demanded that he should be given up. The
handsome aspect and gentle manner of the fugitive had made the tribesmen
suspect that they were the hosts of a disguised prince; he had gained a
sure place in their hearts, and they set the pursuers on a false scent.
Such a person was with them, they said, but he had gone with a number of
young men on a lion hunt in a neighboring mountain valley and would not
return until the next evening. The pursuers at once set off for the place
mentioned, and the fugitive, who had been hidden in one of the tents, rode
away in the opposite direction with his slender train.

Leaving Barca, he journeyed farther westward over the desert, which at
that point comes down to the Mediterranean. Finally Tahart was reached, a
town within the modern Algeria, the seat of the Beni Rustam, a tribe which
gave him the kindliest welcome. To them, as to the Barcans, he seemed a
prince in disguise. Near by was a tribe of Arabs named the Nefezah, to
which his mother had belonged, and from which he hoped for protection and
assistance. Reaching this, he told his rank and name, and was welcomed
almost as a king, the tribesmen, his mother's kindred, paying him homage,
and offering their aid to the extent of their ability in the ambitious
scheme which he disclosed.

This was an invasion of Spain, which at that time was a scene of confusion
and turmoil, distracted by rival leaders, the people exhausted by wars and
quarrels, many of their towns burned or ruined, and the country ravaged by
famine. What could be better than for the heir of the illustrious house of
Ommeyades, flying from persecution by the Abbassides, and miraculously
preserved, to seek the throne of Spain, bring peace to that distracted
land, and found an independent kingdom in that western section of the vast
Arabian empire?

His servant, Bedr, who had kept with him through all his varied career and
was now his chief officer, was sent to Spain on a secret mission to the
friends of the late dynasty of caliphs, of whom there were many in that
land. Bedr was highly successful in his mission. Yusuf, the Abbasside
emir, was absent from Cordova and ignorant of his danger, and all promised
well. Not waiting for the assi