to the man. From all sides the roving
Arabs were allured to the standard of religion and plunder: the apostle
sanctified the license of embracing the female captives as their wives
or concubines, and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a feeble type
of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of the faith.
"The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop of
blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail
than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle,
his sins are forgiven: at the day of judgment his wounds shall be
resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of
his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." The
intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm: the picture of
the invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and
the death which they had always despised became an object of hope and
desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets
of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both industry and
virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his speculative belief.
Yet their influence in every age has exalted the courage of the Saracens
and Turks. The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a
fearless confidence: there is no danger where there is no chance:
they were ordained to perish in their beds; or they were safe and
invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.

Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the flight of Mahomet,
had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy, who
could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed through
the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty
followers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune
or dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the
chief of the Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed in
ambush to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren of
Mecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their merchandise and
their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the military
force of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of three
hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and
the rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels,
(the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the pov