effective. Force was his only temporal weapon; compulsion his only
policy.

The command went forth through the lips of Mosleima:

"Thus saith the Prophet of the Lord: Ye shall go forth out of my land
within a space of ten days; whosoever that remaineth behind shall be
put to death."

The Beni Nadhir were aghast and trembling. They urged their former
treaties with Mahomet, and the antiquity of their settlements. It was
impossible that they should break up their homesteads thus suddenly and
depart forlorn into an unknown land. But Mahomet was obdurate, with that
same fixity of purpose which was everywhere the keynote of his dominance.

"Hearts are changed now," was the only reply to their prayers, their
entreaties, and their throats. Abdallah, leader of the Beni Aus and
Khazraj, sought desperately for a reconciliation, but to no purpose; the
die was cast. Then the Jews, brought to bay and careless with the despair
of impotence, refused to obey the command, and prepared to encounter the
wrath of Allah and the vengeance of his emissary.

"Behold the Jews prepare to fight: great is the Lord!" the Prophet
declared when the news was brought to him.

He was sure of his victim, and ruthless in destruction. All things were
made ready for the undertaking. The army was assembled and the march
begun. Ali carried the great green banner of the Prophet towards the
stronghold of his enemies. The Beni Nadhir were invested in their own
quarters, the date trees lying outside their fort were burned, their
fields were laid waste. For three weeks the siege endured, each day
bringing the miserable garrison nearer to the inevitable privations and
final surrender. At last the Jews recognised the hopelessness of their
lot and came to reluctant terms, submitting to exile and agreeing to
depart immediately.

Then followed the terrible breaking up of homes, and the wandering forth
of a whole tribe, as of old, to seek other dwelling-places. Some went to
Kheibar, where they were to suffer later on still more severely at
Mahomet's hands; some went to Jericho and the highlands south of Syria,
but all vanished from their ancient abiding places as suddenly as if a
plague had reduced their land to silence. It was an important conquest
for Mahomet, and has found fitting notice in the Kuran. The number of his
enemies within the city was considerably reduced. He was gradually
proving his power by breaking up the Jewish federations, and thereby
advanc