uarter!" Abu Obeidah was not far behind with
the rest of the army. Having taken the castle, he proposed Mohametanism
to the Christians. The first that embraced it was Youkinna, and his
example was followed by some of the chief men with him, who immediately
had their wives and children and all their wealth restored to them. Abu
Obeidah set the old and impotent people at liberty, and having set apart
the fifth of the spoil (which was of great value), divided the rest
among the Mussulmans. Dames was talked of and admired by all, and Abu
Obeidah, in order to pay him marked respect, commanded the army to
continue in their present quarters till he and his men should be
perfectly cured of their wounds.

Obeidah's next thoughts, after the capture of the castle of Aleppo, were
to march to Antioch, then the seat of the Grecian Emperor. But Youkinna,
the late governor of the castle of Aleppo, having, with the changing of
his religion, become a deadly enemy of the Christians, persuaded him to
defer his march to Antioch, till they had first taken the castle of
Aazaz.

The armies before Antioch were drawn out in battle array in front of
each other. The Christian general, whose name was Nestorius, went
forward and challenged any Saracen to single combat. Dames was the first
to answer him; but in the engagement, his horse stumbling, he was seized
before he could recover himself, and, being taken prisoner, was conveyed
by Nestorius to his tent and there bound. Nestorius, returning to the
army and offering himself a second time, was answered by one Dehac. The
combatants behaved themselves bravely, and, the victory being doubtful,
the soldiers were desirous of being spectators, and pressed eagerly
forward. In the jostling and thronging both of horse and foot to see
this engagement, the tent of Nestorius, with his chair of state, was
thrown down. Three servants had been left in the tent, who, fearing they
should be beaten when their master came back, and having nobody else to
help them, told Dames that if he would lend them a hand to set up the
tent and put things in order they would unbind him, upon condition that
he should voluntarily return to his bonds again till their master came
home, at which time they promised to speak a good word for him. He
readily accepted the terms; but as soon as he was at liberty he
immediately seized two of them, one in his right hand, the other in his
left, and dashed their two heads so violently against t