r way into the town. The besieged were
accordingly obliged to abandon the outer walls and retire within the
inner lines.

The Monguls now had possession of the suburbs, and, after pillaging
them of all that they could convert to their own use, and burning and
destroying every thing else, they advanced to attack the inner works;
and here the contest between the besiegers and the garrison was
renewed more fiercely than ever. The besieged continued their
resistance for five months, defending themselves by every possible
means from the walls, and making desperate sallies from time to time
in order to destroy the Monguls' engines and kill the men.

At length Kariakas, the captain of the guard, who had been sent to
assist the governor in the defense of the town, began to think it was
time that the carnage should cease and that the town should be
surrendered. But the governor, who knew that he would most assuredly
be beheaded if in any way he fell into the hands of the enemy, would
not listen to any proposal of the kind. He succeeded, also, in
exciting among the people of the town, and among the soldiers of the
garrison, such a hatred of the Monguls, whom he represented as
infidels of the very worst character, the enemies alike of God and
man, that they joined him in the determination not to surrender.

Kariakas now found himself an object of suspicion and distrust in the
town and in the garrison on account of his having made the proposal to
surrender, and feeling that he was not safe, he determined to make a
separate peace for himself and his ten thousand by going out secretly
in the night and giving himself up to the princes. He thought that by
doing this, and by putting the Monguls in possession of the gate
through which his troops were to march out, so as to enable them to
gain admission to the city, his life would be spared, and that he
might perhaps be admitted into the service of Genghis Khan.

But he was mistaken in this idea. The princes said that a man who
would betray his own countrymen would betray _them_ if he ever had a
good opportunity. So they ordered him and all his officers to be
slain, and the men to be divided among the soldiers as slaves.

They nevertheless took possession of the gate by which the deserters
had come out, and by this means gained admission to the city. The
governor fled to the citadel with all the men whom he could assemble,
and shut himself up in it. Here he fought desperately for a m