ad
been offered to the Savior's sepulchre, prepared now for a vigorous
defense. But, after an investment of four months, the Patriarch
Sophronius appeared on the wall, asking terms of capitulation. There had
been misunderstandings among the generals at the capture of Damascus,
followed by a massacre of the fleeing inhabitants. Sophronius,
therefore, stipulated that the surrender of Jerusalem should take place
in presence of the khalif himself Accordingly, Omar, the khalif, came
from Medina for that purpose. He journeyed on a red camel, carrying
a bag of corn and one of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern
water-bottle. The Arab conqueror entered the Holy City riding by the
side of the Christian patriarch and the transference of the capital of
Christianity to the representative of Mohammedanism was effected without
tumult or outrage. Having ordered that a mosque should be built on the
site of the temple of Solomon, the khalif returned to the tomb of the
Prophet at Medina.

Heraclius saw plainly that the disasters which were fast settling on
Christianity were due to the dissensions of its conflicting sects; and
hence, while he endeavored to defend the empire with his armies, he
sedulously tried to compose those differences. With this view he pressed
for acceptance the Monothelite doctrine of the nature of Christ. But it
was now too late. Aleppo and Antioch were taken. Nothing could prevent
the Saracens from overrunning Asia Minor. Heraclius himself had to seek
safety in flight. Syria, which had been added by Pompey the Great,
the rival of Caesar, to the provinces of Rome, seven hundred years
previously--Syria, the birthplace of Christianity, the scene of its most
sacred and precious souvenirs, the land from which Heraclius himself had
once expelled the Persian intruder--was irretrievably lost. Apostates
and traitors had wrought this calamity. We are told that, as the ship
which bore him to Constantinople parted from the shore, Heraclius
gazed intently on the receding hills, and in the bitterness of anguish
exclaimed, "Farewell, Syria, forever farewell!"

It is needless to dwell on the remaining details of the Saracen
conquest: how Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed; how Caesarea was captured;
how with the trees of Libanus and the sailors of Phoenicia a Saraeen
fleet was equipped, which drove the Roman navy into the Hellespont; how
Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were ravaged, and the Colossus, which
was counted as one of