keepeth thee will
not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy
soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth, and even for evermore.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE BATTLE OF OHOD.

"Dost thou not know the fate of soldiers?
They're but Ambition's tools, to cut a way
To her unlawful ends."

--_Southern._

While these events had been taking place in the North, Henda had given
Abu Sofian little peace, urging him every day to pay the dues of
blood-revenge for her relatives, and taunting him with cowardice in his
long delay.

At length, in the third year of the Hegira he gathered a considerable
army, and with three thousand men of the Koreish tribe, among whom were
two hundred horsemen, left Mecca, accompanied by Henda and fifteen of
the matrons of Mecca bearing timbrels and singing war-like chants.

The whole army advanced with the intention of besieging Medina, but
Mohammed's men entreated him to let them encounter Abu Sofian outside of
the city, and he yielded to their entreaties. With only one thousand
men,[10] fifty of whom were chosen archers, the prophet took up his
stand on a declivity of Mount Ohod, about six miles north of the city.
There, on its black and barren slope, he divided his army into four
parts, three of which bore sacred banners, while the great standard was
placed before Mohammed himself.

In order to imbue his men with courage, he came out in full view of the
whole army, and, in a loud voice that penetrated even the farthest
ranks, gave promise of victory. Then, for the sake of those who should
be killed in battle, he expatiated upon the delights of that Paradise
which surely awaited all who should be slain in the cause, representing
it such a paradise as would be peculiarly adapted to the tastes and
stimulating to the imagination of the Arabs--a race accustomed to arid
wastes, burning sands, and glaring skies; a paradise of green fields and
flowery gardens cooled by innumerable rivers and sparkling fountains,
which glittered from between shaded bowers inter-woven with perfumed
flowers. He gave them promise of streams literally flowing with milk and
clea