contents of the vessel on the ground. ‘I wanted not the water,’ he said, ‘but quarter, and now thou hast given it me.’ ‘Liar!’ cried Omar in anger, ‘thy life is forfeit.’ ‘But not,’ interposed the bystanders, ‘until he drink the water up.’ ‘Strange,’ said Omar, foiled for once, ‘the fellow hath deceived me, and yet I cannot spare the life of one who hath slain so many noble Moslems by his reiterated treachery. I swear that thou shalt not gain by thy deceit, unless thou shalt forthwith embrace Islam.’ Hormuzân, nothing loth, made profession of the Faith upon the spot; and thenceforth, taking up his residence at Medîna, received a pension of the highest grade.[388] [Sidenote: Deputation urge removal of the ban against advance.] ‘What is the cause,’ inquired Omar of the deputation, ‘that these Persians thus persistently break faith and rebel against us? Maybe, ye treat them harshly.’ ‘Not so,’ they answered; ‘but thou hast forbidden us to enlarge our boundary; and the king is in their midst to stir them up. Two kings can in no wise exist together, until the one of them expel the other. It is not our harshness, but their king, that hath incited them to rise up against us after that they had made submission. And so it will go on until that thou shalt remove the ban and leave us to go forward, occupy their cities, and expel their king. Not till then will their vain hopes and machinations cease.’ [Sidenote: Omar begins to see this.] These views were, moreover, enforced by Hormuzân. And the truth began now to dawn on Omar that necessity was laid upon him to withdraw the ban against advance. In self-defence, there was nothing left for him but to crush the Chosroes and take entire possession of his realm. CHAPTER XXVI. CONQUEST OF PERSIA. A.H. XXI., XXII. A.D. 642, 643. [Sidenote: Persian campaign forced on Omar.] It was not long before any doubts that might still have rested in the mind of Omar were put an end to by the hostile attitude of the Persian Court; and he was again forced to bid his armies take the field with the avowed object of dealing a final blow at the empire. [Sidenote: Yezdegird gathers a great army against the Arabs. A.H. XX. A.D. 641.]