ll that
his father required of him to vindicate the honor of the army, and
that now it would be most prudent to retreat, without risking another
battle on the morrow. So he caused fresh supplies of fuel to be put
upon the camp-fires in order to deceive the enemy, and then marched
out of his camp in the night with all his men. The next morning, by
the time that the sultan's troops were again under arms, he had
advanced far on his march to join his father, and was beyond their
reach.

He soon rejoined his father, and was received by him with great joy.
Genghis Khan was extremely pleased with the course which his son had
pursued, and bestowed upon him many public honors and rewards.

After this other great battles were fought between the two armies. At
one of them, a great trumpet fifteen feet long is mentioned among the
other martial instruments that were used to excite the men to ardor in
making the charge.

In these battles the Monguls were victorious. The sultan, however,
still continued to make head as well as he could against the invaders,
until at length he found that he had lost one hundred and sixty
thousand of his men. This was almost half of his army, and the loss
enfeebled him so much that he was convinced that it was useless for
him any longer to resist the Monguls in the open field; so he sent off
his army in detachments to the different towns and fortresses of his
kingdom, ordering the several divisions to shut themselves up and
defend themselves as well as they could, in the places assigned to
them, until better times should return.

The sultan, however, did not seek shelter in this way for himself. He
selected from his troops a certain portion of those who were most
active and alert and were best mounted, and formed of them a sort of
flying squadron with which he could move rapidly from place to place
through the country, wherever his aid might be most required.

Genghis Khan, of course, now prepared to attack the cities where the
several divisions of the sultan's army had intrenched themselves. He
wished first to get possession of Otrar, which was the place where the
embassadors and the merchants had been massacred. But the city was not
very large, and so, instead of marching toward it himself, he gave the
charge of capturing it to two of his younger sons, whom he sent off
for the purpose at the head of a suitable detachment.

He himself, with the main body, set off upon a march toward the cities