and deliver us!" were
successively drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With bold
and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace of the governor, who
celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of his deliverance. From
thence, returning to his companions, he assaulted on the inside the
entrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate,
let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrival
of Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured
their conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and useful
proselyte; and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard for the
most humble merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo till Dames was cured
of his honorable wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by the
castle of Aazaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of
those important posts, and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies,
the luxury of Antioch [86] trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed
with three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of the
successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government of the East,
which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and
holy, and inviolate was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the
secondary rank of a provincial town. [87]

[Footnote 85: The Persian historian of Timur (tom. iii. l. v. c. 21,
p. 300) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock one hundred
cubits in height; a proof, says the French translator, that he had never
visited the place. It is now in the midst of the city, of no strength
with a single gate; the circuit is about 500 or 600 paces, and the
ditch half full of stagnant water, (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p.
149 Pocock, vol. ii. part i. p. 150.) The fortresses of the East are
contemptible to a European eye.]

[Footnote 86: The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is of
some importance. By comparing the years of the world in the chronography
of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the history of Elmacin, we
shall determine, that it was taken between January 23d and September 1st
of the year of Christ 638, (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal. tom. ii.
p. 812, 813.) Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. i. p. 314) assigns that event to
Tuesday, August 21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that
year on April 5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see the
Tables of the Art de Verifier les Dates.)]

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