The Mussulmans set down before it and,
having made several breaches with their engines, marched resolutely up
to them, but were vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Mahomet, having
by a herald proclaimed liberty to all the slaves who should come over to
him, twenty-three deserted, to each of whom he assigned a Mussulman for
a comrade. So inconsiderable a defection did not in the least abate the
courage of the besieged; so that the prophet began to despair of
reducing the place, and, after a dream, which Abu-Bekr interpreted
unfavorably to the attempt, determined to raise the siege. His men,
however, on being ordered to prepare for a retreat, began to murmur;
whereupon he commanded them to be ready for an assault the next day. The
assault being made the assailants were beaten back with great loss. To
console them in their retreat, the prophet smiled, and said, "We will
come here again, if it please God." When the army reached Jesana, where
all the booty taken from the Hawazanites had been left, a deputation
arrived from that tribe to beg it might be restored.
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