ddin determined to follow this advice, and, after a brief period
of repose at the castle, he again took the field.

He made great exertions, and finally succeeded in getting together
about twenty thousand men. This was a small force, it is true,
compared with the numbers of the enemy; but it was sufficient, if well
managed, to enable the prince to undertake operations of considerable
importance, and Jalaloddin began to feel somewhat encouraged again.
With his twenty thousand men he gained one or two victories too, which
encouraged him still more. In one of these cases he defeated rather a
singular stratagem which the Mongul general contrived. It seems that
the Mongul detachment which was sent out in this instance against
Jalaloddin was not strong enough, and the general, in order to make
Jalaloddin believe that his force was greater than it really was,
ordered all the felt caps and cloaks that there were in the army to be
stuffed with straw, and placed on the horses and camels of the
baggage, in order to give the appearance of a second line of reserve
in the rear of the line of real soldiers. This was to induce
Jalaloddin to surrender without fighting.

But in some way or other Jalaloddin detected the deceit, and, instead
of surrendering, fought the Monguls with great vigor, and defeated
them. He gained a very decided victory, and perhaps this might have
been the beginning of a change of fortune for him if, unfortunately,
his generals had not quarreled about the division of the spoil. There
was a beautiful Arabian horse which two of his leading generals
desired to possess, and each claimed it. The dispute became, at last,
so violent that one of the generals struck the other in his face with
the lash of his whip. Upon this the feud became a deadly one. Both
parties appealed to Jalaloddin. He did not wish to make either general
an enemy by deciding in favor of the other, and so he tried to
compromise the matter. He did not succeed in doing this; and one of
the generals, mortally offended, went off in the night, taking with
him all that portion of the troops which was under his command.

Jalaloddin did every thing in his power to bring the disaffected
general back again; but, before he could accomplish this purpose,
Genghis Khan came up with a large force between the two parties, and
prevented their effecting a junction.

Jalaloddin had now no alternative but to retreat. Genghis Khan
followed him, and it was in this wa