24 GRANADA 



but feel the liveliest admiration for the valour 

 and sagacity of its rulers and the stout-hearted- 

 ness of its people. Had not the Court been too 

 often the theatre of contending factions, had not 

 those factions turned their swords against each 

 other, the Sultanate of Granada might have 

 outworn Spain's military and national vigour, 

 and have endured to our own day as a western 

 Turkey. For the spirit of Tarik, of Abdurrah- 

 man, and of Almansur was not altogether dead, 

 even in the brave but ill-starred sovereign to 

 whom alone historians ascribe the downfall of 

 the kingdom, and whom they, strangely enough, 

 accuse of effeminacy and weakness. The Moors 

 of Granada knew how to fight a losing fight ; 

 in gambler's parlance, when they had lost the 

 tricks, they struggled to win the honours. They 

 proved themselves worthy of their ancestors ; 

 and the finest, as it was also the latest, monument 

 of the Mohammedan dominion in Spain is Granada 

 the noble and the memorable. 



