in a single day. The event
depends on your discipline and patience. Reserve yourselves till the
evening. It was in the evening that the Prophet was accustomed to
vanquish." During two successive engagements, his temperate firmness
sustained the darts of the enemy, and the murmurs of his troops. At
length, when the spirits and quivers of the adverse line were almost
exhausted, Caled gave the signal of onset and victory. The remains of
the Imperial army fled to Antioch, or Caesarea, or Damascus; and the
death of four hundred and seventy Moslems was compensated by the opinion
that they had sent to hell above fifty thousand of the infidels. The
spoil was inestimable; many banners and crosses of gold and silver,
precious stones, silver and gold chains, and innumerable suits of the
richest armor and apparel. The general distribution was postponed till
Damascus should be taken; but the seasonable supply of arms became the
instrument of new victories. The glorious intelligence was transmitted
to the throne of the caliph; and the Arabian tribes, the coldest or most
hostile to the prophet's mission, were eager and importunate to share
the harvest of Syria.

The sad tidings were carried to Damascus by the speed of grief and
terror; and the inhabitants beheld from their walls the return of the
heroes of Aiznadin. Amrou led the van at the head of nine thousand
horse: the bands of the Saracens succeeded each other in formidable
review; and the rear was closed by Caled in person, with the standard of
the black eagle. To the activity of Derar he intrusted the commission
of patrolling round the city with two thousand horse, of scouring the
plain, and of intercepting all succor or intelligence. The rest of the
Arabian chiefs were fixed in their respective stations before the
seven gates of Damascus; and the siege was renewed with fresh vigor and
confidence. The art, the labor, the military engines, of the Greeks
and Romans are seldom to be found in the simple, though successful,
operations of the Saracens: it was sufficient for them to invest a
city with arms, rather than with trenches; to repel the allies of
the besieged; to attempt a stratagem or an assault; or to expect the
progress of famine and discontent. Damascus would have acquiesced in
the trial of Aiznadin, as a final and peremptory sentence between the
emperor and the caliph; her courage was rekindled by the example and
authority of Thomas, a noble Greek, illustrious in a priv