Kamuss
remained. Mahomet was exultant.

"Allah Akbar! truly when I light upon the coasts of any people, woe unto
them in that day."

Then he assembled all his men and put the sacred eagle standard at their
head, the white standard with the black eagle embossed, wrought out of
the cloak of his wife, Ayesha. He bade them lead the assault upon Kamuss
and spare nothing until it should fall to them. In the carnage that
followed Marhab, chief of Kheibar, was slain, and at length the Jews were
beaten back with terrible loss. There was now no hope left: the fortress
Kamuss must fall, and with it the last resistance of the Jews. Their
houses, goods, and women were seized, their lands confiscated. Kinana,
the chief who had dared to try and originate a coalition previously
against Mahomet, was tortured by the burning brand and put to death,
while Safia, his seventeen year old bride, passed tranquilly into the
hands of the conqueror. Mahomet married her and she was content, indeed
rejoiced at this sudden change; for, according to legend, she had dreamed
that such honour should befall her.

But all the women of the Jews were not so complacent, and in Zeinab,
sister of Marhab, burned all the fierceness and lust for revenge of which
the proud Hebrew spirit is capable. She would smite this plunderer of her
nation, though it might be by treacherous means. Had he not betrayed her
kindred far more terribly upon the bloody slaughter ground of the
Koreitza? She prepared for his pleasure a young kid, dressed it with
care, and placed it before him. In the shoulder she put the most
effective poison she knew, and the rest of the meat she polluted also.
When Mahomet came to the partaking he took his favourite morsel, the
shoulder, and set it to his lips. Instantly he realised the tainted
flavour. He cried to his companions:

"This meat telleth me it is poisoned; eat ye not of it."

But it was too late to save two of the Faithful, who had swallowed
mouthfuls of it. They died in tortures a few hours afterwards. Mahomet
himself was not immune from its poison. He had himself bled at once, and
immediate evil was averted. But he felt the effects of it ever after, and
attributed not a little of his later exhaustion to the poisoned meats he
had eaten in Kheibar. The woman was put to death horribly, and the Muslim
army hastened to depart from the ill-omened place.

They returned to Medina after several months absence, and there the spoil
was divi