TIMUR BEG. 
113 
person ; but their intentions being suspected, they were 
examined,, and poisoned daggers found concealed in 
their boots. The chief conspirator was ordered to be 
slain with one of the daggers he had intended to direct 
against the emperor’s life,, and his body to be burned. 
His companions were deprived of their noses and ears., 
and in that mutilated state sent with a letter to their 
treacherous employer. 
At this time, the revolt of Timur’s grandson Mirza 
Sultan Hussyn, who joined the Syrian army, gave the 
enemy such confidence that they attacked the Jagatay 
forces, which were nearly overthrown by the vigour of 
their onset. After a fierce struggle, however, the better 
fortune of the Tartars prevailed, and they pursued 
the flying squadrons of Syria to the gates of Da- 
mascus. The rebel prince was taken, and brought 
loaded with chains into the presence of his grand- 
father, who ordered him to receive the bastinado, but 
soon afterwards restored him to favour. 
On the following morning, the emperor’s battalions, 
headed by the elephants, advanced against Damascus. 
A distance of from nine to twelve miles intervened be- 
tween the extremities of the two wings. Having ob- 
tained a truce, the sultan quitted the capital at mid- 
night. The next day, Timur discovering the sultan’s 
flight, invested the city with his whole army. This 
so terrified the inhabitants, that they threw open 
their gates ; and the principal citizens repairing to the 
imperial tent, offered their homage to the conqueror, 
and tendered a voluntary ransom for their lives. The 
citadel was taken with great difficulty. Its walls 
were formed of enormous stones, squared and admirably 
