Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

In account of a base and barbarous Stratagem practised by a Moorish Prince.

History records a very singular and cruel scheme of politics projected and executed by Memenet Almehdi, king of Fez, a prince not less remarkable for his ambition than his refined craft and hypocrisy. He had a long war to maintain against some neighbouring nations, who refused to submit to his tyranny. He gained over them several victories, but having afterwards lost a battle, wherein he had exposed his troops with a blind fury, they were so dispirited that they refused to go against the enemy. To inspire them with courage he imagined the following stratagem:

Having assembled secretly a certain number of officers who were best affected to him, he proposed to them considerable rewards, if they would consent to be shut up for some hours, in graves, as if they had been killed in battle: that he would leave them a sufficient vent for breathing, and that when, in consequence of a superstitious device he designed cunningly to spread through the army, they should happen to be interrogated, they were to answer, that they had found what their king had promised them; that they enjoyed the rewards of martyrdom, and that those who should imitate them by fighting valiantly, and should die in that war, would enjoy the same felicity. The thing was executed as he had proposed. He laid his most faithful servants among the dead, covering them with earth, and left them a small vent for drawing breath. He afterwards entered the camp, and assembled the principal chiefs about midnight: "You are," said he, "the soldiers of God, the defenders of the faith, and the protectors of truth. Prepare to exterminate your enemies, who are likewise the enemies of the most high, and depend upon it you will never find so sure an opportunity of being pleasing in his sight. But, as there may be dastards and stupid wretches among you, who do not believe my words, I am willing to convince them by the sight of a great prodigy. Go to the field of battle, ask those of your brethren who have been killed this day; they will assure you that they enjoy the most perfect happiness, for having lost their lives in this war." He then led them to the field of battle, where he cried out with all his might: "O assembly of faithful martyrs, make known how many wonders you have seen of the Most High God!" They answered, "We have received from the Almighty infinite rewards, which the living can have no idea of." The chiefs, surprised at this answer, ran to publish it in the army; and revived courage in the spirits of the soldiery. Whilst this was transacted in the camp, the King, feigning an ecstasy, caused by this miracle, remained near the graves where his buried servants waited for deliverance; but he stopped up the holes through which they breathed, and sent them to receive, in the other world, by his barbarous stratagem, the reward they had merited.