o her
people in that she restored the captives to their kinsfolk."

But the Citizens and Refugees were by no means so contented. Their
quarrel arose nominally out of the distribution of spoil, but really it
was a long smouldering discontent that finally burst into flame. Mahomet
was faced with what threatened to be a serious revolt, and only his
orders for an immediate march prevented the outbreak of desperate
passions--greed and envy.

Abdallah, their ubiquitous leader, is chidden in the Kuran, where the
whole affair brings down the strength of Mahomet's scorn upon his
offending people.

The camp broke up immediately, and through its hasty departure Ayesha was
faced with what might have been the tragedy of her life. Her litter was
carried away without her by an oversight on the part of the bearers, and
she was left alone in the desert's velvet dusk with no alternative but to
await its return. The dark deepened, adding its mysterious vastness and
silence to trouble her already tremulous mind. In the first hours of the
night Safwan, one of Mahomet's rear, came towards her as she sat forlorn,
and was amazed to find the Prophet's wife in such a position. He brought
his mule near her, then turned his face away as she mounted, so as to
keep her inviolate from his gaze. Closely veiled, and trembling as to her
meeting with Mahomet, Ayesha rode with Safwan at her bridle until the
next day they came up with the main column.

Now murmurs against her broke out on all sides. Mahomet refused to
believe her story, and remained estranged from her until she asked
permission to return to her father as her word was thus doubted. Ali was
consulted by the Prophet, and he, with that antagonism towards Ayesha
which germinated later into open hatred, was inclined to believe her
defamers. At last the outcry became so great that Mahomet called upon
Allah. Entering his chamber in Medina, he received the signs of divine
inspiration. When the trance was over, he declared that Ayesha was
innocent, and revealed the passage dealing with divorce in Sura 24:

"They who defame virtuous women and bring not four witnesses, scourge
them with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony forever,
for these are perverse persons.... And they who shall accuse their wives,
and have no witnesses but themselves, the testimony of each of them shall
be a testimony by God four times repeated, that He is indeed of them that
speak the truth."

The revel