fact, since they
were invincible in opinion; and the desertion of Youkinna, his false
repentance and repeated perfidy, might justify the suspicion of
the emperor, that he was encompassed by traitors and apostates, who
conspired to betray his person and their country to the enemies of
Christ. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated by
the omens and dreams of a falling crown; and after bidding an eternal
farewell to Syria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants, and
absolved the faith of his subjects. Constantine, his eldest son, had
been stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civil metropolis
of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private interest recalled
him to the Byzantine court; and, after the flight of his father, he
felt himself an unequal champion to the united force of the caliph. His
vanguard was boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs and a thousand black
slaves, who, in the depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of
Libanus, and who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons
of Caled himself. From the north and south the troops of Antioch and
Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore till their banners were joined
under the walls of the Phnician cities: Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed;
and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without distrust the
captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply of arms and provisions to
the camp of the Saracens. Their labors were terminated by the unexpected
surrender of Caesarea: the Roman prince had embarked in the night; and
the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two
hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah,
Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon,
Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the
will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the
caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had despoiled the last of the
Macedonian kings.

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.--Part VI.

The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousands
of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of
martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the words
of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister and
mother: "It is not," said he, "the delicacies of Syria, or the fading
delights of this world, that have prompted me to devote my life i