The captors differed in their evidence. Some averred that the prisoners had offered resistance. Others, with Abu Catâda, a citizen of Medîna, at their head, deposed that they had declared themselves Moslems, and at once complied with the call to prayer. So they were remanded till morning under an armed guard. The night set in cold and stormy, and Khâlid (such is his explanation), with the view of protecting them from its inclemency, gave the guard command ‘to _wrap_ their prisoners.’ The word was ambiguous, signifying in another dialect[45] not ‘to wrap,’ but ‘to _slay_,’ and Dbirâr, commandant of the guard, taking it in that sense, put the prisoners, and with them Mâlik, forthwith to the sword. Khâlid, hearing the uproar, hurried forth; but all was over, and he retired, exclaiming, ‘When the Lord hath determined a thing, the same cometh verily to pass.’ But the fate of Mâlik was not thus easily to be set at rest. He was a chief of name and influence, and a poet of some celebrity. The men of Medina who had opposed the advance were shocked at his cruel fate. Abu Catâda roundly asserted the responsibility of Khâlid. ‘This is thy work!’ he said; and, though chided for it, he persisted in the charge. He declared that never again would he serve under Khâlid’s banner. In company with Motammim, Mâlik’s brother, he set out at once for Medina, and there laid a formal complaint before the Caliph. Omar, with his native impetuosity, took up the cause of the Yerbóa chief. Khâlid had given point to the allegations of his enemies by marrying Leila, the beautiful widow of his victim, on the spot. From this scandalous act, Omar drew the worst conclusion. ‘He hath conspired to slay a believer,’ he said, ‘and hath gone in unto his wife.’ He was instant with Abu Bekr that the offender should be degraded and put in bonds, saying, ‘The sword of Khâlid, dipped thus in violence and outrage, must be sheathed.’ ‘Not so,’ replied the Caliph (of whom it is said that he never degraded one of his commanders); ‘the sword which the Lord hath made bare against the heathen, shall I sheathe the same? That be far from me.’ Nevertheless, he summoned Khâlid to answer for the charge. [Sidenote: Khâlid exonerated by Abu Bekr;]