had to hide in
caverns, escape in disguise; fly hither and thither; homeless, in
continual peril of his life. More than once it seemed all-over with
him; more than once it turned on a straw, some rider's horse taking
fright or the like, whether Mahomet and his Doctrine had not ended
there, and not been heard of at all. But it was not to end so.

In the thirteenth year of his mission, finding his enemies all banded
against him, forty sworn men, one out of every tribe, waiting to take
his life, and no continuance possible at Mecca for him any longer,
Mahomet fled to the place then called Yathreb, where he had gained
some adherents; the place they now call Medina, or '_Medinat al Nabi_,
the City of the Prophet,' from that circumstance. It lay some 200
miles off, through rocks and deserts; not without great difficulty, in
such mood as we may fancy, he escaped thither, and found welcome. The
whole East dates its era from this Flight, _Hegira_ as they name it:
the Year 1 of this Hegira is 622 of our Era, the fifty-third of
Mahomet's life. He was now becoming an old man; his friends sinking
round him one by one: his path desolate, encompassed with danger:
unless he could find hope in his own heart, the outward face of things
was but hopeless for him. It is so with all men in the like case.
Hitherto Mahomet had professed to publish his Religion by the way of
preaching and persuasion alone. But now, driven foully out of his
native country, since unjust men had not only given no ear to his
earnest Heaven's-message, the deep cry of his heart, but would not
even let him live if he kept speaking it,--the wild Son of the Desert
resolved to defend himself, like a man and Arab. If the Koreish will
have it so, they shall have it. Tidings, felt to be of infinite moment
to them and all men, they would not listen to these; would trample
them down by sheer violence, steel and murder: well, let steel try it
then! Ten years more this Mahomet had: all of fighting, of breathless
impetuous toil and struggle; with what result we know.

Much has been said of Mahomet's propagating his Religion by the sword.
It is no doubt far nobler what we have to boast of the Christian
Religion, that it propagated itself peaceably in the way of preaching
and conviction. Yet withal, if we take this for an argument of the
truth or falsehood of a religion, there is a radical mistake in it.
The sword indeed: but where will you get your sword! Every new
opinion, at