372 WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 



lems in Irak, who professed their attachment to his 

 cause, and were ready to draw their swords as soon 

 as he should arrive on the banks of the Kuphrates. 

 Under a slender escort of 40 horse and 100 foot, he 

 left Mecca ; and with a numerous retinue of women 

 and children, including the whole of his own family 

 and the greater part of his brother's, he traversed 

 the deserts of Arabia, in the hope of reaching his 

 friends before the lieutenant of Yezzid should have 

 received information of his design. His expecta- 

 tions were miserably disappointed. Obeidallah, the 

 governor of Cufa, had detected and put to death his 

 faithful agent ; and, in quenching the first spark of 

 revolt, the defection or ruin of his party was accom- 

 plished. As Hossein approached the confines of 

 Irak, the hostile face of the country, the wells and 

 places of refreshment on the roads being destroyed, 

 told the melancholy tidings ; and his fears were con- 

 firmed by the intelligence that 4000 of the enemy 

 were on their way to intercept him. " Alas," said 

 he, " encumbered with all this family, how can I 

 retreat V and, quitting the direct route, he pitched 

 his tents by the brook of Kerbela. Here he was 

 immediately surrounded ; his attempts to obtain 

 honourable conditions of peace, or a return to Me- 

 dina, were abortive ; for the command of the inex- 

 orable Obeidallah was peremptory : "Bring me either 

 Hossein or his head !" 



His little band, true to his fortunes and resolved 

 to sh-are his fate, drew up to meet their assailants. 

 Terrified by the disparity of numbers and the cer- 

 tain prospect of death, the women and children gave 

 vent to their sorrows in loud and bitter lamenta- , 



tions. The archers galled them with their arrows, ! 



and in one charge twenty of them were killed on 

 the spot. The survivore maintained the combat 

 with unshaken constancy, until the heat of the day 

 and the impulse of despair rendered their thirst in- 

 supportable : but relief could not be had ; for they 



