more obstinate; and Chalcis alone was taxed
at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces of silver, two
thousand robes of silk, and as many figs and olives as would load five
thousand asses. But the terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully
observed; and the lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to
enter the walls of the captive Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable
in his tent till the jarring factions solicited the interposition of
a foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Syria was
achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the faithful
reproved the slowness of their progress; and the Saracens, bewailing
their fault with tears of rage and repentance, called aloud on their
chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the Lord. In a recent
action, under the walls of Emesa, an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled,
was heard aloud to exclaim, "Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking
upon me; one of whom, should she appear in this world, all mankind would
die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one of them a handkerchief
of green silk, and a cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and
calls out, Come hither quickly, for I love thee." With these words,
charging the Christians, he made havoc wherever he went, till, observed
at length by the governor of Hems, he was struck through with a javelin.

It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valor
and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught, by
repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would
speedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces
of Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand soldiers were transported by sea
and land to Antioch and Caesarea: the light troops of the army consisted
of sixty thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the
banner of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in the
van; and it was a maxim of the Greeks, that for the purpose of cutting
diamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his person
from the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or perhaps his
despondency, suggested a peremptory order, that the fate of the province
and the war should be decided by a single battle. The Syrians were
attached to the standard of Rome and of the cross: but the noble, the
citizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of
a licentious host, who