glory when it should again become a Christian city, . . but they might have his body instead. . . And who was he? . . He was St. Isidore. Alvito humbly intreated him to be dreamt of twice more, that he might be sure this was not merely a dream; and the dead Bishop gave the desired proof. At his last appearance he struck the ground thrice with his crosier, saying, You will find me here, here, here. In the morning three holes were seen in the ground, and upon digging there they discovered his body in full odor. The court and clergy went out from Leon in procession to Sandoval. meet the relics; the King and his three sons bore the body barefooted; all the Monks and Clergy of the city were feasted upon the occasion, and Fernando and the Queen served them at the board.

ff. 9.

Acta Sanc

torum.

The zeal with which these patron saints were worshipped Apr. 4. was proportionate to the beneficial power which they possessed. They could preserve their own district from pestilence, and if for the sins of the people they sometimes suffered the Infidels to violate their sanctuaries, they never failed to punish the violation. In their beatitude they were still influenced by human feelings, by gratitude, and by national and local affection. A Saint was the representative of his townsmen in Heaven where he was supposed to receive their prayers, and exert all his influence in their behalf.

The religious fervor of the Moors meanwhile was abating. Fanaticism in a few generations becomes bigotry. The belief which the first Mahommedans had chosen was inherited by their children; in the fathers it had the life and ardor of a new passion; in the sons it was become habit, inveterate indeed, but cold. This process has been exemplified in every age, and by every sect. The Dominicans and Franciscans of the present day profess the same tenets which their predecessors practised at the massacre and the auto da fe. There are analogies in nature; the wolf has been tamed. into the dog and swine were once formidable in the forest.

In the first years of the Moorish conquest the Christians carried on a perpetual war against their invaders. There was no alternative between hostilities and submission; but during the anarchy which soon weakened the conquerors, their little kingdom acquired a respectable strength, and they could venture to rest from war when peace was convenient. A righteous national hatred was encouraged by their leaders, and this hatred was increased by religious contempt and abhorrence. Yet even these feelings readily gave way whenever either public or individual interest required their sacrifice. A frequent intercourse necessarily subsisted between the two people; discontented chiefs fled to a Moorish Court for protection, and the Christian princes, when at war with each other, scrupled not to invite Moorish assistance. It has even been said, that when the kingdom of Aragon was founded, and that compact established between the sovereign and the people which the Aragonese have struggled so nobly, but unsuccessfully to maintain, one of the privileges Zurita 1. 1. proposed to them was, that they might choose either a Christian, or a Mahommedan King, at pleasure; but they rejected it as a thing which ought not to be thought of.

c. 5.

Still the war between the two nations was a war of extermination. Peace was never named, never thought of as a thing possible; but because perpetual hostilities would have destroyed both by famine, they made occasional truces by common consent, to recover strength for renewing the contest or the weaker power purchased a respite by paying tribute, till he believed himself strong enough to revolt. These intervals were short; the Spaniards could never long endure to be idle; they had to recover the country of their fathers, an honorable and a holy object: and war also was the business, the amusement, the passion of the age. It was in war that the chiefs found their sport and their spoil; that the King at once employed and gratified a turbulent nobility; that the people indulged their worst passions, and believed that they were at the same time atoning for their sins. And

what a warfare! it was to burn the standing corn, to root up the vine and the olive, to hang the heads of their enemies. from the saddle-bow, and drive mothers and children before them with the lance; to massacre the men of a town in the fury of assault; to select the chiefs that they might be murdered in cold blood; to reserve the women for violation, and the children for slavery; . . and this warfare year after. year, till they rested from mere exhaustion. The soldiers of Ferran Gonzalez complained that they led a life like Devils, like those in Hell, who rested neither day nor night: Our Lord, said they, is like Satan, and we are like his servants, whose whole delight is in separating soul from body. Cor. Gen. The Spaniards on their part suffered retaliated cruelties, and P. 3. ff. 54. the perpetual sense of danger. At one time Knights, Nobles, and Kings, never slept without having the war-horse readysaddled in the chamber.

In the beginning of the eleventh century, Navarre, Aragon, and Castille, were united under Sancho the Great. But experience had not taught the Christian Kings good policy, and when accident had joined the separate states, the possessor divided them at his death, desirous that his sons should all be Kings, though thereby they inevitably became enemies. Sancho left Navarre to his eldest son Garcia, Aragon to his bastard son Ramiro, and Castille to Fernando; and these latter states, which had long been independent, now first received the appellation of kingdom.

Sancho had compelled Bermudo the King of Leon to give his sister in marriage to Fernando; the King of Leon had no children, his sister was his heir, and the kingdom therefore would fall to her husband. Leon had long been declining; but when the territories of Sancho were divided at his death, Bermudo hoped to recover its old ascendency, and declared war against his brother-in-law. Fernando called Garcia to his aid, and an obstinate battle was fought. Bermudo, who was a brave man, confident in his own strength, and in that of his horse Pelayuelo, rode into the Castilian

Do. ff. 93.

Zurita. 1. 1.

c. 13.

army, meaning to engage Fernando man to man; he was slain in the attempt, and Fernando possessed himself of Leon by the double right of conquest and inheritance.

The elder brother regarded with impatience the division of his father's kingdoms. Fernando had excited some dispute respecting their boundary, and though no enmity was yet avowed, no fraternal affection existed. It happened that Garcia fell sick; the Castilian went to visit him at Najara; he discovered that his brother designed to imprison him, and extort a cession of territory for his ransom, and he hastily departed, and then sent to excuse his departure on the plea of urgent business. He soon feigned sickness and requested Garcia to come and see him; the king of Navarre came, and was immediately made prisoner: by the help of money he effected his escape, and open war followed. Garcia invited the Moors to his assistance, and entered Castille. The armies met about four leagues from Burgos, near Atapuerca. St. Iñigo, the Abbot of Oña, endeavored to persuade Garcia to peace; the good old man was revered by him, and though his persuasions were vain, still continued in the camp, hoping he might yet succeed in his mediation. An old knight called Fortun Sanchez tried also to reconcile the brethren; he was Garcia's foster-father, and had loved them both from infancy. When he found that his advice and entreaties were of no avail, knowing the danger of Garcia, and that he could not prevent it, the old man threw off his defensive armor, and with only his sword and spear, went foremost among the enemy to die, that he might not behold the overthrow and destruction of his foster-child. Before the battle began, two knights whom Garcia had unjustly stript of their possessions came to him, and demanded that he would redress their wrongs, and for the future respect their privileges. The demand was just, but Garcia gave no ear to it, perhaps provoked that it should be made like a menace in his hour of need. They then renounced their allegiance, and went over to the Castilian army. The other knights who

had joined with them in their remonstrance, did not indeed desert the king, but they served him without good will, and without exertion. There was a band of Leonese, who directed their efforts against him to revenge Bermudo; the two knights whom Garcia had wronged, fought in their company, and one of them thrust him through with a lance. The wound was mortal. He died upon the field with his head between the Abbot's knees, the pious old man holding it, and praying and weeping over him as he expired. A great stone was set up as a monument, by the brook side Sandoval. where he was slain. In consequence of this victory Fernando became the most powerful of all the Kings of Spain, Moor or Christian. It was in his days that the Cid began to distinguish himself.

ff. 6.