The army consisted of twenty thousand men, half of whom
were infantry and half cavalry. There were also elephants and camels
with stores, and a great multitude of camp-followers.

For five days they marched through Selim's dominions, and on the sixth
day entered the territory of King Gorkol. The frontier was marked by a
range of hills, and the passage of so large a force over these was a
toilsome and tedious operation. The Caliph and king had each a large
tent for his own use, and a small army of officers and attendants to
wait on him.

On the night of the seventh day, after a very exhausting march over
difficult ground, the army encamped in a spacious valley into which
they had descended just as night was approaching.

Whether the enemy managed to get at them unobserved, being stealthy and
knowing every feature of the country, or whether the sentinels, being
weary, slept at their post, is uncertain, but suddenly before daybreak
the great army was awakened by shouts and blows to find the foe was
upon them. In the darkness and the excitement of the moment all was
confusion. Different parties of the royal troops starting hurriedly to
arms, wildly attacked each other. The strife being furious and
hand-to-hand was terrific and deadly; and when daylight appeared the
enemy, pressing boldly forward to the centre of the camp, overcame all
the resistance of which the thinned and disorganized army was capable,
and captured both the king and the Caliph.

The two princes were carried with every mark of indignity into the
presence of the heathen monarch, who, insulting them with references to
their defeat, demanded of them that they should abandon the Moslem
faith and worship the idols of the gods of his people, who had, he
said, given his troops the victory.

But the Caliph answered that although Allah, whose name be praised, had
permitted them to be worsted in the confusion of a night attack, yet
they still trusted in him, and they would never vary in the least
degree from the glorious words of the Prophet: "Allah is God, and there
is no God but Allah."

Hearing this, King Gorkol ordered them to be confined separately in two
dungeons of his castle, there to remain until a great festival of the
gods which was approaching should arrive, when he would sacrifice them
both to the gods whom they had dared to despise. Locked in the gloomy
vaults, and seeing no one but the jailer who once a day brought them
the scanty and h