ds, the five prisoners, who should
instantly be beheaded. At this threat Kaled, bidding Mahan attend to
what he was about to say, swore by God, by Mahomet, and the holy temple
of Mecca, that if he killed them he should die by his hands, and that
every Saracen present should kill his man, be the consequences what they
might, and immediately rose from his place and drew his sword. The same
was done by the rest of the Saracens. But when Mahan told him that he
would not meddle with him for the aforesaid reasons, they sheathed their
swords and talked calmly again. And then Mahan made Kaled a present of
the prisoners, and begged of him his scarlet tent, which Kaled had
brought with him, and pitched hard by. Kaled freely gave it him, and
refused to take anything in return (though Mahan gave him his choice of
whatever he liked best), thinking his own gift abundantly repaid by the
liberation of the prisoners.

Both sides now prepared for that fight which was to determine the fate
of Syria. The particulars are too tedious to be related, for they
continued fighting for several days. Abu Obeidah resigned the whole
command of the army to Kaled, standing himself in the rear, under the
yellow flag which Abu-Bekr had given him at his first setting forth into
Syria, being the same which Mahomet himself had fought under at the
battle of Khaibar. Kaled judged this the most proper place for Abu
Obeidah, not only because he was no extraordinary soldier, but because
he hoped that the reverence for him would prevent the flight of the
Saracens, who were now like to be as hard put to it as at any time since
they first bore arms. For the same reason the women were placed in the
rear. The Greeks charged so courageously and with such vast numbers that
the right wing of the Saracen horse was quite borne down and cut off
from the main body of the army. But no sooner did they turn their backs
than they were attacked by the women, who used them so ill and loaded
them with such plenty of reproaches that they were glad to return every
man to his post, and chose rather to face the enemy than endure the
storm of the women. However, they with much difficulty bore up, and were
so hard pressed by the Greeks that occasionally they were fain to forget
what their generals had said a little before the fight, who told them
that paradise was before them and the devil and hell-fire behind them.
Even Abu Sofian, who had himself used that very expression, was forced