Note 574 — Chapter XLVI · HASAN SUCCEEDS ALY.—ABDICATES IN FAVOUR OF MUAVIA. A.H. XL., XLI. A.D. 661.

Amru, they say, wished Muâvia to fight Cays, but he answered that it would be only useless bloodshed, and so sent to Cays a clean sheet signed at foot, as he had done to Hasan, agreeing to any terms he might propose. Cays, upon receiving this, bade his soldiers choose whether they ‘preferred to obey an illegitimate prince, or to go on fighting without any prince at all.’ They preferred to give in, and so retired from the field.

We hear little more of Cays, who died before Muâvia. His sympathies had been all on the side of Aly; and if the correspondence that passed between Muâvia and him, when in Egypt, be genuine, he had little reason to trust Muâvia.