322 CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 



abstemious Arabs, and the messenger that carried 

 to Omar the news of this second victory, reported 

 that the Mussulmans had learned to drink wine. 

 A pimishment of fourscore stripes on the soles of 

 the feet was ordered to be inflicted on the oifenders ; 

 and so tender was the conscience of the believers, 

 that on the proclamation of Obeidah, numbers sub- 

 mitted without an accuser to the penance of the law. 



Terror had already spread the fame of the Sara- 

 cens beyond their actual conquests ; though in the 

 prosecution of the war their policy was not less 

 effectual than their swords. The cities of Syria 

 individually trembled for their security. Instead of 

 acting in concert, each was willing to make the fall 

 of others the signal for their own capitulation, and 

 agreed to purchase a temporary respite at an enor- 

 mous ransom, which only enriched the enemy by 

 impoverishing themselves. Chalcis alone was taxed 

 at 5000 ounces of gold, as many of silver, 2000 robes 

 of silk, and as maify figs and* olives as would load 

 5000 asses. The less wealthy or less obstinate paid 

 in proportion. By these short and separate treaties 

 the union of the Christians was dissolved ; their 

 hands were tied up from mutual assistance while 

 the Arabs were ravaging the country ; and at the 

 expiry of the truce their exhausted magazines and 

 arsenals left them an easy prey to the besiegers. 



Homs or Emesa, and Baalbec or Heliopolis, both 

 populous and wealthy cities, were the next that 

 yielded to the rapacity of the barbarians. But the 

 slowness of their progress was offensive to the ca- 

 liph, who wondered at the silence and inactivity of 

 his soldiers. In an epistle to Obeidah he gently in- 

 sinuated his suspicions that the wives and the spoil 

 of Syria were dearer to them than the service of 

 God and his apostle. The Moslems understood 

 the rebuke, and with tears of rage and remorse 

 demanded to be led forth to the "battles of the 

 I^ord." 



