them that the place was solitary and
inviolate. "We are only two," said the trembling Abubeker. "There is
a third," replied the prophet; "it is God himself." No sooner was the
pursuit abated than the two fugitives issued from the rock, and
mounted their camels: on the road to Medina, they were overtaken by the
emissaries of the Koreish; they redeemed themselves with prayers and
promises from their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of an Arab
might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet
from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable aera of the _Hegira_, which,
at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of
the Mahometan nations.

The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had not
Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca.
Medina, or the _city_, known under the name of Yathreb, before it was
sanctified by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the tribes
of the Charegites and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled
by the slightest provocations: two colonies of Jews, who boasted a
sacerdotal race, were their humble allies, and without converting
the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion, which
distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblest
citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Caaba, were converted by the preaching
of Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief of God and his
prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two
secret and nocturnal interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In
the first, ten Charegites and two Awsites united in faith and love,
protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and their absent
brethren, that they would forever profess the creed, and observe the
precepts, of the Koran. The second was a political association, the
first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens. Seventy-three men and
two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his kinsman,
and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other by a mutual oath
of fidelity. They promised, in the name of the city, that if he should
be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a
leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their wives and
children. "But if you are recalled by your country," they asked with
a flattering anxiety, "will you not abandon your new allies?" "All
things," replied Mahomet with a smile