31/37 Though greatly inferior in numbers, they went desperately to work to exterminate or expel every Maronite from their part of the mountains. Not a convent, and scarce a village or hamlet belonging to the Maronites, was left standing. They then descended and dispersed the main army of the Maronites; and were ready to march northward into Kesrawan, and attack the Patriarch in his stronghold, but were persuaded by British officers to suspend their march. The Turkish army, which might have prevented the conflict, now took the field, and separated the combatants.1 1 Tracy's _History_, pp. |