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er order came requiring them to put the prisoner to death, and this order was immediately executed. What was the fate of his courageous and devoted wife has never been known. CHAPTER XX. BATTLES AND SIEGES. 1219-1220 Continuation of the war.--Saganak.--Hassan.--The murdered embassador.--Jughi's revenge.--Jughi's general policy.--Account of a stratagem.--The town taken.--A beautiful city.--Toukat.--Toukat taken.--Arrangements for plundering it.--Kojend.--Timur Melek.--His preparations for defense.--Engines and battering-rams.--The floating batteries.--The morass.--Obstinate conflict.--The pretended deserters.--No more stones.--Building of the jetty.--The horsemen in the water.--Timur's boats.--The fire-proof awnings.--The fire-boats and the bridge.--The bridge burned.--Pursuit.--Battle in the river.--The boats aground.--Timur's adventures.--He finally escapes.--The governor's family.--Kojend surrendered. After the fall of Bokhara and Otrar, the war was continued for two years with great vigor by Genghis Khan and the Monguls, and the poor sultan was driven from place to place by his merciless enemies, until at last his cause was wholly lost, and he himself, as will appear in the next chapter, came to a miserable end. During the two years while Genghis Khan continued the war against him, a great many incidents occurred illustrating the modes of warfare practiced in those days, and the sufferings which were endured by the mass of the people in consequence of these terrible struggles between rival despots contending for the privilege of governing them. At one time Genghis Khan sent his son Jughi with a large detachment to besiege and take a certain town named Saganak. As soon as Jughi arrived before the place, he sent in a flag of truce to call upon the people of the town to surrender, promising, at the same time, to treat them kindly if they would do so. The bearer of the flag was a Mohammedan named Hassan. Jughi probably thought that the message would be better received by the people of the town if brought to them by one of their own countrymen, but he made a great mistake in this. The people, instead of being pleased with the messenger because he was a Mohammedan, were very much exasperated against him. They considered him a renegade and a traitor; and, although the governor had solemnly promised that he should be allowed to go and come in safety, so great a tumult arose that the governor fou
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