the besieged perceived the Saracens rushing in upon them, they threw down their arms, and cried, “Quarter!” Abu Obeidah was not far behind with the rest of the army.  Having taken the castle, he proposed Mohametanism to the Christians.  The first that embraced it was Youkinna, and his example was followed by some of the chief men with him, who immediately had their wives and children and all their wealth restored to them.  Abu Obeidah set the old and impotent people at liberty, and having set apart the fifth of the spoil (which was of great value), divided the rest among the Mussulmans.  Dames was talked of and admired by all, and Abu Obeidah, in order to pay him marked respect, commanded the army to continue in their present quarters till he and his men should be perfectly cured of their wounds.

Obeidah’s next thoughts, after the capture of the castle of Aleppo, were to march to Antioch, then the seat of the Grecian Emperor.  But Youkinna, the late governor of the castle of Aleppo, having, with the changing of his religion, become a deadly enemy of the Christians, persuaded him to defer his march to Antioch, till they had first taken the castle of Aazaz.

The armies before Antioch were drawn out in battle array in front of each other.  The Christian general, whose name was Nestorius, went forward and challenged any Saracen to single combat.  Dames was the first to answer him; but in the engagement, his horse stumbling, he was seized before he could recover himself, and, being taken prisoner, was conveyed by Nestorius to his tent and there bound.  Nestorius, returning to the army and offering himself a second time, was answered by one Dehac.  The combatants behaved themselves bravely, and, the victory being doubtful, the soldiers were desirous of being spectators, and pressed eagerly forward.  In the jostling and thronging both of horse and foot to see this engagement, the tent of Nestorius, with his chair of state, was thrown down.  Three servants had been left in the tent, who, fearing they should be beaten when their master came back, and having nobody else to help them, told Dames that if he would lend them a hand to set up the tent and put things in order they would unbind him, upon condition that he should voluntarily return to his bonds again till their master came home, at which time they promised to speak a good word for him.  He readily accepted the terms; but as soon as he was at liberty he immediately seized two of them, one in his right hand, the other in his left, and dashed their two heads so violently against the third man’s that they all three fell down dead upon the spot.  Then opening a chest and taking out a rich suit of clothes, he mounted a good horse of Nestorius’, and having wrapped up his face as well as he could he made toward the Christian Arabs, where Jabalah, with the chief of his tribe, stood on the left hand of Heraclius.  In the mean time Dehac and Nestorius, being equally matched, continued fighting till both