ortal. Yet by my arms has the
Almighty been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of Iran, Turan, and the
Indies. I am not a man of blood; and God is my witness that in all my
wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always
been the authors of their own calamity." During this peaceful
conversation the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood and reechoed with
the cries of mothers and children, with the shrieks of violated virgins.
The rich plunder that was abandoned to his soldiers might stimulate
their avarice; but their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory command
of producing an adequate number of heads, which, according to his
custom, were curiously piled in columns and pyramids. The Mongols
celebrated the feast of victory, while the surviving Moslems passed the
night in tears and in chains.

I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to Damascus,
where he was rudely encountered, and almost overthrown, by the armies
of Egypt. A retrograde motion was imputed to his distress and despair;
one of his nephews deserted to the enemy; and Syria rejoiced in the tale
of his defeat, when the Sultan was driven, by the revolt of the
mamelukes, to escape with precipitation and shame to his palace of
Cairo. Abandoned by their Prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still
defended their walls; and Timur consented to raise the siege if they
would adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom, each article of nine
pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into the city, under
color of a truce, than he perfidiously violated the treaty, imposed a
contribution of ten millions of gold, and animated his troops to
chastise the posterity of those Syrians who had executed, or approved,
the murder of the grandson of Mahomet. After a period of seven centuries
Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a Tartar was moved by religious
zeal to avenge the blood of an Arab.

The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timur to renounce the
conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his return to the Euphrates he
delivered Aleppo to the flames and justified his pious motive by the
pardon and reward of two thousand sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to
visit the tomb of his son. I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes
which mark the character of the Mongol hero, but I shall briefly mention
that he erected, on the ruins of Bagdad, a pyramid of ninety thousand
heads; again visited Georgia; encamped on the banks of the Arax