CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 325 



the priests chanting their gospels, and the motions 

 of their beads and chaplets, is compared to the roll 

 of distant thunder ; while the glittering of their ar- 

 mour resembled flashes of lightning. 



Their iirst effort was directed against the centre 

 of the Arabs, which by a violent assault they en- 

 deavoured to penetrate ; but the whole of the divi- 

 sion was annihilated by Khaled with a body of 10,000 

 horse. Another and an equally unsuccessful at- 

 tempt was made ; yet such was the weight of the 

 Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the SaracenS 

 was broken and separated from the main body. 

 Thrice did they retreat in confusion, and thriee 

 were they driven back to the charge by the blows 

 and reproaches of the womeUj whose tent-poleS 

 were more effective than the terrors of everlasting 

 punishment. The battle raged for several days ; 

 and night separated the combatants only to renew 

 the encounter. In the intervals of action many a 

 lance was shivered in single prowess ; and such was 

 the cunning and skill of the Armenian archers, that 

 in one day, the Day of Blinding, 700 of the Moslems 

 lost one or both of their eyes,— a deformity which, 

 instead of considering a misfortune, they gloried in 

 as a mark of Divine favour. 



The carnage at Yermouk surpassed that of any 

 preceding battle : the veterans of former wars con- 

 fessed it to be one of the most desperate and doubt- 

 ful encounters \hey had ever seen ; but it was deci- 

 sive. Seventy thousand of the best troops of Hefa^ 

 clius, with their general, and a vast number of his 

 principal officers, were left on the field. Of the! 

 fugitives who attempted to escape many perished 

 during the confusion of the night in the woods attd 

 ravines, or in the precipitous watercourses that in- 

 tersect the adjoining mountains. Besides those that 

 were slaughtered after the defeat, many found a 

 watery grave in the Yermouk, which in their panic 

 they had endeavoured to cross. AltogetheTj thS 



Vol. I.— E e 



