markable man, whose name was Dames, of a gigantic
size, and an admirable soldier. When he had been in the camp forty-seven
days, and all the force and cunning of the Saracens availed nothing
toward taking the castle, he desired Abu Obeidah to let him have the
command of thirty men, and he would try his best against it. Kaled had
heard much of the man, and told Abu Obeidah a long story of a wonderful
performance of this Dames in Arabia, and that he looked upon him as a
very proper person for such an undertaking. Abu Obeidah selected thirty
men to go with him, and bade them not to despise their commander because
of the meanness of his condition, he being a slave, and swore that, but
for the care of the whole army which lay upon him, he would be the first
man that should go under him upon such an enterprise. To which they
answered with entire submission and profound respect. Dames, who lay hid
at no great distance, went out several times, and brought in with him
five or six Greeks, but never a man of them understood one word of
Arabic, which made him angry and say: "God curse these dogs! What a
strange, barbarous language they use."

At last he went out again, and seeing a man descend from the wall, he
took him prisoner, and by the help of a Christian Arab, whom he captured
shortly afterward, examined him. He learned from him that immediately
upon the departure of the Saracens, Youkinna began to ill use the
townsmen who had made the convention with the Arabs, and to exact large
sums of money of them; that he being one of them had endeavored to make
his escape from the oppression and tyranny of Youkinna, by leaping down
from the wall. Upon this the Saracens let him go, as being under their
protection by virtue of the articles made between Abu Obeidah and the
Aleppians, but beheaded all the rest.

In the evening, after having sent two of his men to Abu Obeidah,
requesting him to order a body of horse to move forward to his support
about sunrise, Dames has recourse to the following stratagem: Taking out
of a knapsack a goat's skin, he covered with it his back and shoulders,
and holding a dry crust in his hand, he crept on all-fours as near to
the castle as he could. When he heard a noise, or suspected anyone to be
near, to prevent his being discovered he began to make a noise with his
crust, as a dog does when gnawing a bone; the rest of his company came
after him, sometimes skulking and creeping along, at other times
walkin