The people of Mecca were curious to note the triumphant entrance of the great conqueror.  Many, indeed, threw themselves upon their faces in agony of lost hope; but the housetops swarmed with people, and the side of Abu Kubays was moving with a dense crowd of women and children, who, at a safe distance, watched for the strange pageant.

The prophet was allowed to enter the borders of the town unmolested, but when the deserter, Khaled Ibn Waled, appeared, the rage of the Koreish knew no bounds; a howl of derision arose, and an ungovernable mob fired straight upon him with their arrows.  Khaled dashed upon them with sword and lance, but Mohammed, noting the commotion, rode up and ordered him to desist.

The melee subsided, and, just as the sun rose over Abu Kubays, the conqueror entered the city.  He was habited in scarlet, and mounted upon a large Syrian camel; and, as he rode, followed by the whole host of his army, he repeated aloud passages from the Koran.

Straight on towards the Caaba he went, looking neither to right nor to left.  Its gates were thrown open before him, and the vast procession, with the prophet at its head, performed Tawaf about the temple.  Then, ere the mighty trampling ceased, Mohammed entered the Caaba—­that Caaba in which he had been spat upon and covered with mud thrown by derisive hands.  Little wonder that he felt his triumph complete!

Three hundred and sixty idols still stared from the walls of the temple, and, ere night fell, not an image remained to pollute an edifice in which, if in ever so blind a manner, the name of the living God had been once mentioned.

Mohammed then took his stand upon the little hill Al Safa, and gave the command that every man, woman, and child in Mecca, save those detained by illness, should pass before him.

Kedar found his weakness a sufficient reason for remaining at home, but Yusuf, Amzi, and Manasseh were forced to join the long procession.

One by one, the inhabitants knelt before the victor, renouncing idolatry and declaring their fealty to him as their governor and spiritual head.  But a few among the Christian Jews refused to acknowledge him as the prophet of God.

“As conqueror we accept you,” they said; “as subjects we will obey you in all that does not interfere with our worship of the true God, and his Son, the Christ.  But as Mohammed prophet of God, we will not acknowledge you.”

The prophet, however, was in a lenient frame of mind.  At no time a cruel tyrant when victory was once assured, he was still less inclined to be so upon a day when everything augured so favorably for the future.  Moreover, when it seemed to him practicable, Mohammed delighted in showing mercy.  This trait is but one of the incomprehensible features of his strange, contradictory character.

“So be it,” he returned, graciously.  “I give you your lives and property.  They are a gift from the prophet ye despise.  Yet, lest ye be stirrers up of sedition, I enjoin you to leave the city with what expedition ye will.  Go where ye please, provided it be out of my dominions; take what time ye need to settle your affairs, and dispose of your property; then, in the name of Allah, I bid you good speed.”