Word was soon received however that another army of seventy thousand men had been gathered by Heraclius to raise the siege of Damascus. Sending swift couriers to all the Moslem generals within his call to meet him at the camp of the Greeks, he began a hasty march to Aiznadin. When the Moslems beheld the multitude and formidable array of the imperial host they at first quailed at the sight: but Khaled harangued them with fervid speech: "You behold," he said, "the last stake of the infidels. This army met and vanquished they can never muster another force, and all Syria is ours." Khaled armed the fierce women who were among them--some of them of the highest rank with orders to slay any Moslem whom they saw turning his back to the foe. Reinforced by fresh thousands, when, after some preliminary skirmishes, on the second day the trumpets sounded a general charge, the imperial armies were struck with confusion and what followed was rather a massacre than a battle. They broke and fled in all directions to Cæsarea, to Damascus and to Antioch. The booty of the camp was of immense value, which Khaled declared should not be divided until after the capture of Damascus. Great indeed was the consternation in the city when they learned from the fugitives that escaped, of the slaughter of this second army and that all hope of succor was gone. But they set themselves bravely to work to meet the coming storm. New fortifications were erected. The walls were lined with engines for hurling stones and darts upon the besiegers. Soon the Moslems appeared greatly reinforced. The city was invested. The troops were carefully stationed and orders given as to the support to be given. The battles that followed were fierce as the passions of desperate men could make them. One day a simultaneous sortie was made from every gate of the city at the first peep of day. The besiegers were taken by surprise and were struck down before they could arm themselves or mount. Khaled is said to have wept as he beheld the carnage and the slaughter of his finest troops. "O thou, who never sleepest, aid thy faithful servants; let them not fall beneath the weapons of the infidels." Finally the tide of battle turned and the Christians were repulsed and driven within the walls leaving several thousand dead on the field. It was no disgrace for even such Christians to be beaten by such Moslems.