Medîna. [Sidenote: summoned to Medîna,]Prompt to obey, though sore at heart, Khâlid first returned to Kinnisrîn; and both there and at Hims, bidding adieu to his friends and to the people, he complained openly and bitterly of the ingratitude of a prince who scrupled not to use him in his times of difficulty, but cast him aside when, through his aid, he had reached the summit of his power. Arrived at Medîna, he reproached the Caliph: ‘I swear that thou hast treated despitefully a faithful servant to whom thou owest much; and I appeal from thee to the whole body of the Faithful.’ ‘Whence came that money?’ was Omar’s only answer. The question was repeated day by day; till at last, galled by the charge of unfaithfulness, Khâlid made answer thus: ‘I have nought but the spoil which the Lord hath given me in the days of Abu Bekr, as well as in thine own. Whatever thou findest over 60,000 pieces, hath been gained in thy Caliphate; take it if thou wilt.’ So his effects were valued, and the estimate reaching 80,000, Omar confiscated the difference. [Sidenote: and there mulcted and deposed.]But he still affected to hold the great general in honour and regard. Accordingly, he sent a rescript to the various provinces, announcing that he had deposed Khâlid, not because of any tyranny or fraud, but because he deemed it needful to remove a stumbling-block out of the way of the people, who were tempted to put their trust in an arm of flesh, instead of looking alone to the Giver of all victory. [Sidenote: Khâlid dies in neglect. A.H. XXI.] So closed the career of Khâlid. The first beginning of Omar’s alienation was the affair of Mâlik ibn Noweira, followed by acts of tyranny in Irâc, which grated on his sense of clemency and justice. But these acts had long since been condoned; and therefore his conduct now was ungenerous and unjust. He used the ‘Sword of God’ so long as he had need of it, and when by it victory was secured, he cast it ungratefully away. Khâlid retired to Hims, and did not long survive. His manner of life when in the full tide of prosperity may be gathered from the brief notice that in the Plague (of which mention will soon be made) _forty_ of his sons were carried off. The remainder of the family took refuge, like many others, in the desert. Soon after, in the eighth year of Omar’s Caliphate, the great general died. In his last illness he kept showing the scars which thickly covered his body all over--marks of his bravery and unflinching prowess. ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I die even as a coward dieth, or as the camel breatheth its last breath.’ His end illustrates forcibly the instability of this world’s fame and glory. The hero who had borne Islam aloft to the crest of victory and conquest, ended his days in penury and neglect.[344] CHAPTER XXII. EXPULSION OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS FROM ARABIA. THE CIVIL LIST OF OMAR. SLAVES OF ARAB BLOOD MADE FREE.