d, her eyes flashing with excitement, and her lips drawn back,
exposing her yellow, fang-like teeth. A tigress she looked in her fury,
and it was with difficulty that Abu Jahl prevented her from going with
the expedition, which, in the cooler shades of evening, started off at a
rapid pace, leaving her to nurse her vengeance until a later day.

Hurried, yet long and tedious, was the journey, and the anxiety and
impatience of the volunteers made it seem almost interminable.

[Illustration: The youth made a quick lunge, piercing the priest's
shoulder.--See page 46.]

At length news was brought of the safety of the caravan, and of its
deviation towards the sea. But the blood of the Meccans was up, and the
fiery old leader was determined to punish Mohammed for his misconduct,
and thus, perhaps, prevent him from committing similar atrocities in the
future. Accordingly he sent part of his troops for protection to the
caravan, and commanded the rest, about nine hundred in number, to push
on; and among those ordered forward to the field was Yusuf.

Mohammed, with three hundred and thirteen soldiers, mounted chiefly on
camels, received word of this advance. His men were lying between Medina
and the sea, and, as he thought, directly between the caravan and Abu
Jahl's army. He told his men to be of good cheer, as Allah had promised
them an easy victory; yet he was careful to omit no human means of
securing an advantage. He posted his troops beside the brook Bedr, and
had them hastily throw up an entrenchment to cover the flank of his
troops. Then, sure of a constant supply of water, and safe from fear of
surprise, he awaited the Meccan army.

He himself ascended a little eminence, accompanied only by Abu Beker,
and, in a small hut made of branches, he prayed for the assistance of
three thousand angels. In his excitement, one of his old paroxysms came
on, but this was regarded as auspicious by his men, to whom,
superstitious as they were, every occurrence of this kind was an
additional presage of victory and an additional spur to bravery in
battle.

And now the opposing force appeared, coming down the opposite hill, the
men hot, weary, and covered with dust.

After a preliminary skirmish between individual combatants, the battle
began,--not a systematic charge in close ranks, not the disciplined
attack of trained warriors, but a wild melee of camels, horses, flashing
scimitars, gleaming daggers and plunging spears, in the mid