son would
become discouraged, and then would attempt to make some terms or
conditions with the conqueror before they surrendered. In these cases,
however, the terms which the Monguls insisted upon were often so hard
that, rather than yield to them, the garrison would go on fighting to
the end.

In one instance there lived in a town that was to be assailed a
certain sheikh, or prince, named Kubru, who was a man of very exalted
character, as well as of high distinction. The Mongul general whom
Genghis Khan had commissioned to take the town was his third son,
Oktay. Oktay had heard of the fame of the sheikh, and had conceived a
very high respect for him. So he sent a herald to the wall with a
passport for the sheikh, and for ten other persons such as he should
choose, giving him free permission to leave the town and go wherever
he pleased. But the sheikh declined the offer. Then Oktay sent in
another passport, with permission to the sheikh to take a thousand men
with him. But he still refused. He could not accept Oktay's bounty,
he said, unless it were extended to all the Mohammedans in the town.
He was obliged to take his lot with the rest, for he was bound to his
people by ties too strong to be easily sundered.

So the siege went on, and at the end of it, when the town was carried,
the sheikh was slain with the rest in the streets, where he stood his
ground to the last, fighting like a lion.

All the Mohammedan chieftains, however, did not possess so noble a
spirit as this. One chieftain, when he found that the Monguls were
coming, caused himself to be let down with ropes from the wall in the
night, and so made his escape, leaving the town and the garrison to
their fate.

The garrisons of the towns, knowing that they had little mercy to
expect from their terrible enemies, fought often very desperately to
the last, as they would have done against beasts of prey. They would
suddenly open the gates and rush out in large bands, provided with
combustibles of all kinds and torches, with which they would set fire
to the engines of the besiegers, and then get back again within the
walls before the Monguls could recover sufficiently from the alarm and
confusion to intercept them. In this manner they destroyed a great
many of the engines, and killed vast numbers of men.

Still the Monguls would persevere, and, sooner or later, the place was
sure to fall. Then, when the inhabitants found that all hope was over,
they had beco