31S CONQUESTS OF THE SARACEN'S. 



and houses, with the use and possession of seven 

 churches. On these conditions he was allowed to 

 enter the town by the gate nearest his camp, where 

 the necessary hostages were delivered into his 

 hand. 



Of these transactions Khaled was entirely igno- 

 rant ; and, at the time the truce was concluded, he 

 was storming the walls on the opposite side. By 

 the treachery of a priest, who pretended to have dis- 

 covered in the book of Daniel the future greatness 

 of the Saracen empire, a party of one hundred Ham- 

 yarites were secretly conveyed into the town, and 

 by their means the remainder of the array effected 

 their entrance. The horrid tecbir (the Arabian war- 

 cry) of Allah akbar announced to the astonished 

 Christians that their city was lost. The weapons 

 dropped from their hands as they heard the cry of 

 " No quarter !" from the ferocious Khaled. The 

 ruthless scimitar fleshed itself to the full, and a tor- 

 rent of Christian blood poured down the streets of 

 Damascus. 



The slaughter continued till they reached the 

 church of St. Mary, where the sanguinary conqueror 

 beheld with indignation and surprise the peaceful 

 Obeidah and his troops, with their swords in their 

 scabbards, and surrounded by a multitude of priests 

 and monks. An angry remonstrance ensued be- 

 tween the two generals ; the one urging his articles 

 of treaty and the faith of ISIussulmans — the latter 

 threatening, in right of his office as general, to put 

 every unbeliever to the sword. The rapacious and 

 cruel Arabs would have obeyed the welcome com- 

 mand, but Obeidah averted the atrocious massacre 

 by a decent and dignified firmness. A cou«cil of 

 war assembled in one of the churches ; when it was 

 agreed, after violent altercation, that the part of the 

 city which had surrendered to Obeidah should be 

 entitled to the benefit of his capitulation ; and to 

 this pacific measure Khaled rclactantly assented 



