322 THE REFUGEES. 



to be tolerated. There were fanatics who, when they 

 heard the cry of the muezzin, " There is no God but 

 God, and Mahomet is the messenger of God," would 

 sign the cross upon their foreheads and exclaim in a 

 loud voice, " Keep not thou silence, O God, for lo 

 thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee 

 have lifted up the head ;" and so they would rush into 

 the mosque, and disturb the public worship, and an- 

 nounce that Mahomet was one of the false prophets 

 whom Christ had foretold. And when such blasphemers 

 were put to death, which often happened on the spot, 

 there was an epidemic of martyr-suicide such as that 

 which excited the wonder and disgust of the younger 

 Pliny. And soon both the contumacy of the Chris- 

 tians and the evil passions of the Moslems, which that 

 contumacy excited, were increased by causes from with- 

 out. When Spain had first been conquered, a number of 

 Gothic nobles, too proud to submit on any terms, re- 

 treated to the Asturias, taking with them the sacred 

 relics from Toledo. They found a home in mountain 

 ravines clothed with chesnut woods, and divided by 

 savage torrents foaming and gnashing on the stones. 

 Here the Christians established a kingdom, discovered 

 the bones of a saint which attracted pilgrims from all 

 parts of Europe, and were joined from time to time by 

 foreign volunteers, and by the disaffected from the 

 Moorish towns. 



The Caliph of Cordova was a Commander of the 

 Faithful : he united the spiritual and temporal powers 

 in his own person : he was not the slave of Mamelukes 

 or Turkish guards. But he had the right of naming 

 his successor from a numerous progeny, and this 

 custom gave rise, as usual, to seraglio intrigue and civil 

 war. The empire broke up into petty states, which 



