xandria. It was also
agreed that every Mussulman travelling through the country should be
entitled to three days' hospitality, free of charge.

The traitor Mokawkas was put in possession of his ill-gotten wealth. He
begged of Amru to be taxed with the Copts and always to be enrolled
among them, declaring his abhorrence of the Greeks and their doctrines;
urging Amru to persecute them with unremitting violence. He extended
his sectarian bigotry even into the grave, stipulating that at his death
he should be buried in the Christian Jacobite church of St. John at
Alexandria.

Amru, who was politic as well as brave, seeing the irreconcilable hatred
of the Coptic or Jacobite Christians to the Greeks, showed some favor to
that sect, in order to make use of them in his conquest of the country.
He even prevailed upon their patriarch Benjamin to emerge from his
desert and hold a conference with him, and subsequently declared that
"he had never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent manners
or venerable aspect." This piece of diplomacy had its effect, for we are
told that all the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the
Caliph.

Amru now pressed on for the city of Alexandria, distant about one
hundred and twenty-five miles. According to stipulation, the people of
the country repaired the roads and erected bridges to facilitate his
march; the Greeks, however, driven from various quarters by the progress
of their invaders, had collected at different posts on the island of the
Delta and the channels of the Nile, and disputed with desperate but
fruitless obstinacy the onward course of the conquerors. The severest
check was given at Keram al Shoraik, by the late garrison of Memphis,
who had fortified themselves there after retreating from the island of
the Nile. For three days did they maintain a gallant conflict with the
Moslems, and then retired in good order to Alexandria. With all the
facilities furnished to them on their march, it cost the Moslems
two-and-twenty days to fight their way to that great city.

Alexandria now lay before them, the metropolis of wealthy Egypt, the
emporium of the East, a place strongly fortified, stored with all the
munitions of war, open by sea to all kinds of supplies and
reinforcements, and garrisoned by Greeks, aggregated from various
quarters, who here were to make the last stand for their Egyptian
empire. It would seem that nothing short of an enthusiasm bordering on
m