city of Athanasius, and Arius, and Cyril; the
city that had imposed Trinitarian ideas and Mariolatry on the Church.
In his palace at Constantinople Heraclius received the fatal tidings.
He was overwhelmed with grief. It seemed as if his reign was to be
disgraced by the downfall of Christianity. He lived scarcely a month
after the loss of the town.

But if Alexandria had been essential to Constantinople in the supply
of orthodox faith, she was also essential in the supply of daily food.
Egypt was the granary of the Byzantines. For this reason two attempts
were made by powerful fleets and armies for the recovery of the place,
and twice had Amrou to renew his conquest. He saw with what facility
these attacks could be made, the place being open to the sea; he saw
that there was but one and that a fatal remedy. "By the living God, if
this thing be repeated a third time I will make Alexandria as open to
anybody as is the house of a prostitute!" He was better than his word,
for he forthwith dismantled its fortifications, and made it an untenable
place.

FALL OF CARTHAGE. It was not the intention of the khalifs to limit their
conquest to Egypt. Othman contemplated the annexation of the entire
North-African coast. His general, Abdallah, set out from Memphis with
forty thousand men, passed through the desert of Barca, and besieged
Tripoli. But, the plague breaking out in his army, he was compelled to
retreat to Egypt.

All attempts were now suspended for more than twenty years. Then Akbah
forced his way from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean. In front of the
Canary Islands he rode his horse into the sea, exclaiming: "Great God!
if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still go on to the
unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and
putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship any other gods
than thee."

These Saracen expeditions had been through the interior of the country,
for the Byzantine emperors, controlling for the time the Mediterranean,
had retained possession of the cities on the coast. The Khalif
Abdalmalek at length resolved on the reduction of Carthage, the most
important of those cities, and indeed the capital of North Africa.
His general, Hassan, carried it by escalade; but reenforcements from
Constantinople, aided by some Sicilian and Gothic troops, compelled
him to retreat. The relief was, however, only temporary. Hassan, in the
course of a few months renewed his at