Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/449

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 427 Eudocia had taken refuge ; but the lover was forgotten ; the apostate was scorned ; she preferred her religion to her country ; and the justice of Caled, though deaf to mercy, refused to detain by force a male or female inhabitant of Damascus. Four days was the general confined to the city by the obligation of the treaty and the urgent cares of his new conquest. His appetite for blood and rapine would have been extinguished by the hope- less computation of time and distance ; but he listened to the importunities of Jonas, who assured him that the weary fugitives might yet be overtaken. At the head of four thousand horse, in the disguise of Christian Arabs, Caled undertook the pursuit. They halted only for the moments of prayer ; and their guide had a perfect knowledge of the country. For a long way the foot- steps of the Damascenes were plain and conspicuous : they vanished on a sudden ; but the Saracens were comforted by the assurance that the caravan had turned aside into the mountains, and must speedily fall into their hands. In traversing the ridges of the Libanus, they endured intolerable hardships, and the sink- ing spirits of the veteran fanatics were supported and cheered by the unconquerable ardour of a lover. From a peasant of the country, they were informed that the emperor had sent orders to the colony of exiles, to pursue without delay the road of the sea-coast and of Constantinople ; apprehensive, perhaps, that the soldiers and people of Antioch might be discouraged by the sight and the story of their sufferings. The Saracens were conducted through the territories of Gabala^^ and Laodicea, at a cautious distance from the walls of the cities ; the rain was incessant, the night was dark, a single mountain separated them from the Roman army ; and Caled, ever anxious for the safety of his brethren, whispered an ominous dream in the ear of his com- panion. With the dawn of day, the prospect again cleared, and they saw before them, in a pleasant valley, the tents of Damascus. After a short interval of repose and prayer, Caled divided his cavalry into four squadrons, committing the first to his faithful Derar, and reserving the last for himself. They successively rushed on the promiscuous multitude, insufficiently provided with arms, and already vanquished by sorrow and fatigue. Ex- ™The towns of Gabala and Laodicea, which the Arabs passed, still exist in a state of decay (Maundrell, p. ii, 12. Pocock, vol. ii. p. 14). Had not the Chris- tians been overtaken, they must have crossed the Orontes on some bridge in the sixteen miles between Antioch and the sea, and might have rejoined the high road of Constantinople at Alexandria. The itineraries will represent the directions and distanc>es (p. 146, 148, 581, 582, edit, Wesseling).