It was soon manifest that the Byzantine captains were preparing to deliver a general and decisive charge. Issuing from their defences, they rolled up in dense volume along both sides of the plain. A bystander, gazing at the moving field, exclaimed, ‘How many the Romans, how few the Moslems!’ ‘Nay,’ cried Khâlid, ‘say rather “How many the Moslems, how few the Romans”; for, if ye count aright, numbers wax by the help of the Lord, but when He withdraweth His face, then they wane. I would that the Romans were double the number they now appear, if I had but under me my good Arab steed!’--for the hoofs of his favourite bay had been worn down by the rapid marching from Irâc. Still the Romans kept rolling up in dense columns. The fate of Syria depended on the day. [Sidenote: but is kept in check.] As the enemy drew near, Khâlid called upon Ikrima, who had brought his reserve upon the field, and Cacâa with his warriors from Irâc, to advance and check them. Just then a messenger rode up in haste, carrying a despatch from Medîna. To the inquiry of those who flocked around, he answered: ‘All is well, and reinforcements on the way.’ But in Khâlid’s ear he whispered a secret message, and he delivered a letter which, hastily glanced at, Khâlid slipped into his quiver. Then, bidding the messenger keep close by him throughout the day, he rode forth to meet Jâreja. [Sidenote: Battle of Wacûsa, on the Yermûk. Rajab, A.H. XIII. Sept., A.D. 634.] The defection of this general was a calamity to the Romans, but at the first it caused an unexpected issue. He had probably a troop, or escort, which followed him, as he rode forth towards the Arab general; but whether or no, a Roman battalion, mistaking his movement for a desperate attack upon the enemy, advanced to his support with such an energetic charge that the Moslem front was broken and thrown into confusion. Ikrima stood firm. He who in the days of Ignorance had measured arms even with the Prophet of the Lord, should he flee before the infidel! ‘Who now,’ he cried, ‘will join me in the covenant of death?’ Four hundred, with his own son, and the hero Dhirâr, took the fatal pledge.[171] He charged, and the battalion which had created the surprise, bewildered at the treachery of Jâreja, fell back. The ground now clear, Khâlid ordered the whole line to move forward. The Romans too advanced, and the charge was met on both sides with the sword. All day the battle raged. Fortune varied; and the carnage amongst the Moslems, as well as the Romans, was great. Ikrima’s gallant company, holding their ground firm as a rock in front of Khâlid’s tent, bore the brunt of the day; they were slain or disabled almost to a man. So fierce were the Arabs, that even the women joined their husbands and brothers in the field; and Huweiria, daughter of Abu Sofiân, inheriting the spirit of her mother Hind, was severely wounded in an encounter with the enemy.[172] [Sidenote: The Moslem victory.]