Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/446

424 THE DECLINE AND FALL touch me more, for I have dedicated myself to the service of God." Without a groan, without a tear, she washed the corpse of her husband, and buried him with the usual rites. Then grasping the manly weapons, which in her native land she was accustomed to wield, the intrepid widow of Aban sought the place where his murderer fought in the thickest of the battle. Her first arrow pierced the hand of his standard-bearer ; her second wounded Thomas in the eye ; and the fainting Christians no longer beheld their ensign or their leader. Yet the gener- ous champion of Damascus refused to withdraw to his palace ; his wound was dressed on the rampart ; the fight was continued till the evening ; and the Syrians rested on their arms. In the silence of the night, the signal was given by a stroke on the great bell ; the gates were thrown open, and each gate dis- charged an impetuous column on the sleeping camp of the Saracens. Caled was the first in arms ; at the head of four hundred horse he flew to the post of danger, and the tears trickled down his iron cheeks, as he uttered a fervent ejacula- tion : " O God ! who never sleepest, look upon thy servants, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies". The valour and victory of Thomas were arrested by the presence of the sword of God ; with the knowledge of the peril, the Moslems recovered their ranks, and charged the assailants in the flank and rear. After the loss of thousands, the Christian general retreated with a sigh of despair, and the pursuit of the Saracens was checked by the military engines of the rampart. After a siege of seventy days,"^ the patience, and perhaps the provisions, of the Damascenes were exhausted ; and the bravest of their chiefs submitted to the hard dictates of necessity. In the occurrences of peace and war, they had been taught to dread the fierceness of Caled, and to revere the mild virtues of Abu Obeidah. At the hour of midnight, one hundred chosen deputies of the clergy and people were introduced to the tent of that venerable commander. He received and dismissed them with courtesy. They returned with a written agreement, on "■^ Abulfeda allows only seventy days for the siege of Damascus (Annal. Moslem. p. 67, vers. Reiske) ; but Elmacin, who mentions this opinion, prolongs the term to six months, and notices the use of fin /is fae by the Saracens (Hist. Saracen, p. 25, 32). Even this longer period is insufficient to fill the interval between the battle of Aiznadin (July, A.D. 633) and the accession of Omar (24 July, A.d. 634 [but see Appendix 21]), to whose reign the conquest of Damascus is unanimously ascribed (Al Wakidi, apud Ockley, vol. i. p. 115 ; Abulpharagius, Dynast, p. 112, vers. Pocock). Perhaps, as in the Trojan war, the operations were interrupted by excursions and detachments, till the last seventy days of the siege.