; then, in the name of Allah, I bid you good speed."

The Jews, among them Yusuf and Amzi, passed thankfully on. A tall,
gaunt, Bedouin woman, with flashing eyes and hands showing like the
claws of a vulture beneath her black robe, came next. It was Henda in
disguise.

"What!" exclaimed the prophet, with a smile, "has Abu Sofian taken to
the hills again, that his wife thus comes in Bedouin garb?"

Henda, seeing that her disguise was penetrated, fell at his feet
imploring for pardon.

"I forgive you freely," he said, raising her to her feet. "You will now
acknowledge your prophet?"

"Never!" cried the Koreish woman.

"Boldly said!" returned Mohammed. "The wife of Abu Sofian doth not
readily follow in the path of her master. He has trained her but poorly.
Yet, go in peace, O daughter of the Koreish, and know that the prophet
of Islam has a merciful heart."

Thus passed the whole long day until the stars shone through the blue;
and Mohammed went to rest, serene in his triumph, yet troubled by bodily
pain, for, ever since he had eaten the poisoned mutton at Khaibar, his
health had been steadily declining.

In a few days he returned to Medina. A fresh revelation of the Koran,
commending fully his doctrine of the sword, was there proclaimed from
the mosque; and to Khaled was given the task of subjugating the
remaining tribes.

The prophet's health now began to give way rapidly, and he resolved upon
a last pilgrimage to the holy city. In the month Ramadhan, at the head
of one hundred thousand men, the mightiest expedition he had ever led,
he started for Mecca. He rode in a litter, and about him were his nine
wives, also seated in litters; while, at the rear of the procession,
trudged a great array of camels destined for sacrifice, and gayly
decorated with ribbons and flowers.

About a day's journey from Mecca, at twilight, the vast host met the
troops of Ali, returning from an expedition into Yemen, and these
immediately turned with the pilgrimage. It was a weird and impressive
scene. In the night, the augmented host now pressed onward, with
increased impatience, over a plain strewn with basaltic drift. The soft
thud of padded feet sounded over the hard ground. Huge camels loomed
shapelessly through the uncertain haze. No voice of mirth or singing
arose from the vast assemblage, but the night-wind sighed through the
ribs of the scant-leaved acacias above, and stooped to blow the red
flames of the torches back in a