storm that had visited Medina passed over Mecca. They saw the ragged
clouds borne wildly over the northern hills; they saw the stunted aloes
bending low beneath the sweep of the wind. Yet to them there was a
grandeur in it, for there was still upon them the influence of the
Divine presence, and they thought of Him who "walketh upon the wings of
the wind."

And as they went on, bowing their heads before its spent fury, Asru,
Amzi, and Yusuf, far to the northward, struggled on with the fugitive
army, wondering at the continued triumph of the false prophet, yet
serene in the confidence that in the Divine Hands all was well, and that
in the far-distant end, however blurred to human vision, all must work
for good to those who love God, even though the reason of his working,
the seeming mystery of the fortunes of the great conflict, might not be
unravelled until in the bright hereafter, when all things will at last
be made plain.

CHAPTER XXII.

MANASSEH AND ASRU AT KHAIBAR.

"Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness, pitying, see!
O make our hearts thy dwelling-place,
And worthier Thee."

The Koreish, after their disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Ditch,
returned in bitter disappointment to Mecca. Many even of the bravest of
the tribe felt that it was hopeless to strive against the prophet, whose
phenomenal success seemed to render his troops invincible. Many, too,
with the superstition at all times common to the Arabs, were in deadly
dread of his "enchantments," and were only too ready to listen to his
bold assertions that the momentous storm at the siege of Medina had been
caused in his favor by heavenly agency; that a great host of angels had
been in invisible co-operation with the Moslems and had drawn their
legions about the ill-fated company, crying, "God is great!" and
striking panic to the hearts of the besiegers.

Because of these superstitions the hearts of the Arabs failed them, and
they day after day lessened in their hostility, and increased in their
spirit of submission to the now famous prophet of El Islam.

The Jews, however, held out to the last, and against them the reeking
blades of Mohammed's army were turned. The Jewish tribes of the
Koraidha, Kainoka, and the Nadhirites, in the vicinity of Medina, were
speedily overthrown, and their goods taken possession of by the Moslems.
Then, before the blood cooled on the scimitars, these conquests were
followed by the dast