nistered the comfortable reflection,
that the infidels partook of their sufferings without partaking of their
reward. Four thousand and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field
of battle; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred
to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious service. The
veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was the hardest and most
doubtful of the days which they had seen. But it was likewise the most
decisive: many thousands of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords
of the Arabs; many were slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and
mountains; many, by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of
the Yermuk; and however the loss may be magnified, the Christian writers
confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. Manuel, the
Roman general, was either killed at Damascus, or took refuge in the
monastery of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah
lamented the manners of Arabia, and his unlucky preference of the
Christian cause. He had once inclined to the profession of Islam; but
in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his
brethren, and fled with amazement from the stern and equal justice of
the caliph These victorious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of
pleasure and repose: the spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu
Obeidah: an equal share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse,
and a double portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian
breed.

After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer appeared in the
field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the fortified towns
of Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the caliph
whether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem; and the advice of
Ali determined the immediate siege of the latter. To a profane eye,
Jerusalem was the first or second capital of Palestine; but after Mecca
and Medina, it was revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the
temple of the Holy Land which had been sanctified by the revelation of
Moses, of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian was
sent with five thousand Arabs to try the first experiment of surprise
or treaty; but on the eleventh day, the town was invested by the whole
force of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to the chief
commanders and people of _AElia_.

"Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way! We
requi