London Insects. 165 



as Ireland ever was, a conquered country, and with 

 every prospect of remaining so, until a Spider came 

 to the rescue, and by cheering the Bruce, as he lay 

 with broken spirits six times beaten to make a 

 last attempt which was to succeed, drove out the 

 English and delayed the Union for three hundred 

 years, until all reasonable excuse for soreness was for- 

 gotten. 



To look further still afield and take a wider view. 

 It is a simple matter of history that the danger 

 faced on the field of Tours did more than anything 

 else to startle Europe, which had lain for a long time 

 half stunned and stupefied by the fall of Rome, into 

 life again. And surely not even the modern sceptics, 

 who throw doubt on the Dun Cow, and try to 

 explain away Lady Godiva's ride through Coventry, 

 would wish us to give up the sure belief that we 

 should never have heard of the Saracens but for 

 that other Spider which stood ready at Allah's com- 

 mand to throw his web, at a critical moment, over 

 the hole in the cave in which Mahomet crouched for 

 his life on the great day of the Hegira the day 

 which is to every Mussulman, good, bad, or indif- 

 ferent (some five or six times as many, according 

 to Mr. Bosworth Smith's estimate, as the entire popu- 

 lation of the British Isles), what the year of our Lord 

 is to Christendom. Then there would have been no 

 Mahomedan invasion to give Charles Martel the 

 opportunity to put his mark on his century, and clear 

 the way for Charlemagne to found the second Western 

 Empire. 



When Mahomet's Spider shook himself that morn* 

 ing and thought he would try to catch a fly for his 

 breakfast, he turned the entire course of mediaeval 

 and modern history, smashed the great Persian 



