CHAPTER V

THE INVASION AND CONQUEST OF SPAIN

710–713

General Conditions and Physical Features of the Spanish

Peninsula--Various Classes of the Population--Supremacy of

the Church--Tyranny of the Visigothic Kings--Fatal Policy

of Witiza--Accession of Roderick--Count Julian--Invasion of

Tarik--Battle of the Guadalete--Its Momentous Results--Progress

of the Moslems--Arrival of Musa--His Success--Immense Booty

secured by the Victors--Quarrel of Tarik and Musa--Interference

of the Khalif--Submission of the Goths--Musa’s Vast Scheme of

Conquest--The Two Generals ordered to Damascus--The Triumphal

Procession through Africa--Fate of Musa--Causes and Effects of

the Moslem Occupation of Spain.

The encroaching spirit of Islam, dominated by the potent motives

of avarice, ambition, and fanaticism, was not content with its

marvellous achievements and the possession of two continents, it

aspired to universal conquest. The submission of Africa was now

complete. The sovereignty of the Byzantine Empire had vanished forever

from the southern coast of the Mediterranean. The tact and military

skill of Musa had won the confidence, and inspired the respect,

of the treacherous, warlike, and hitherto intractable, tribes of

Mauritania. A large number of the latter had embraced Mohammedanism.

A still greater proportion who, either from association, policy, or

conviction, professed attachment to the law of Moses, maintained an

intimate correspondence with their oppressed brethren of the Spanish

Peninsula. The latter in secret brooded over the accumulated wrongs

of centuries, and, under an appearance of resignation, harbored

designs that boded ill to the temporal and ecclesiastical tyrants of

the Visigothic monarchy. The restless glance of the Arabian general

had long contemplated with envy, mingled with an insatiable desire

for plunder, the rich and splendid cities of ancient Bætica; its

teeming mines; its pastures, with their myriads of cattle; its plains,

traversed by innumerable canals and rivers; where even a careless and

incomplete system of cultivation produced harvests almost rivalling in

luxuriance those of the famous valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile.

A strait, of less than eight miles in width in its narrowest part,

now presented the sole physical impediment to the further progress of

the conqueror. It was defended upon the African side by the fortress

of Ceuta, whose governor was a vassal or tributary of the Visigothic

king, and whose valor had rendered nugatory the efforts of the bravest

Moslem captains, who, fully appreciating the strategic importance

of this stronghold, had made repeated and desperate attempts to

capture it. This promontory, which formed one side of the channel,

familiar for ages to the Phœnicians, and supposed by the ignorant to

be the end of the world, was protected from foreign intrusion by the

portentous fables and prodigies invented by Tyrian artifice. Facing

it, on the Spanish shore, stood the Temple of Hercules, with its dome

of gilded bronze, its columns of electrum, and its mysterious altars

raised to Art, Old Age, and Poverty. Unlike other Pagan shrines--for

it contained no visible representation of a divinity--it was always

approached by the Phœnician mariner with feelings of gratitude and awe.

It was associated with his naval superiority over the other nations

of antiquity. It was intimately connected with the increase of his

wealth; with the continuance of his prosperity; with the discovery of

lands unknown to his contemporaries and rivals; with the preservation

of his stores of occult wisdom, whose sources he explored with such

acuteness and concealed with such success. Every device of fable and

superstition had been employed to clothe this locality with such a

character as might effectually check the efforts of an inquiring or

aggressive commercial spirit. To the accomplishment of this end, the

phenomena of Nature lent their powerful aid. The contracted passage

between two of the greatest bodies of water known to the ancients was

of unfathomable depth. On both sides, despite the agitation of the

waves, its level remained the same. Even during both the ebb and flow

of the tide, the current always ran strongly towards the east. Its

force was steady, constant, invariable; the waxing and waning of the

moon, the most furious tempests, exerted no appreciable influence over

the inflexible regularity of its motion. It was not without reason that

the apparent suspension of the laws of equilibrium and of the forces of

Nature was attributed by the superstitious to the divinity whose temple

guarded the famous portals upon which he had imposed his name. It has

been maintained by scholars that within this shrine was preserved, as

a sacred relic, a fragment of magnetic ore, of great antiquity, known

to the Tyrian navigator as a priceless talisman--the precursor of the

mariner’s compass--which had guided his course to distant Britain, and

assured to his countrymen the empire of the seas. According to popular

belief, through this channel the way led to the realm of Chaos. To

brave its unknown and dreaded perils was sacrilege, and to none, save

those authorized by the priests of Melcareth, was this undertaking

permitted. In subsequent times, invested with little less mystery, this

region had bequeathed not a few of its reminiscences to the Roman,

and awakened the curiosity of the Arab, as he fixed his gaze upon the

white-topped waves sparkling in the sunlight between continent and

continent and sea and sea, like the facets of a precious gem; or, in

the beautiful imagery of the Oriental chronicler, “like a diamond

between two emeralds and two sapphires, the master-stone in the ring of

empire.”

In the beginning of the eighth century the kingdom of the Visigoths

presented every appearance of prosperity and power. Its inherent

weakness was imperfectly disguised by the pomp of its hierarchy and

the luxury of its court, which veiled the defects of its constitution

and the abuses of its government with a false and delusive splendor.

Its licentious sovereign retained none of the primitive virtues of his

ancestors, whose intrepid spirit and resistless valor had sustained

them on a hundred fields of battle, and had borne their arms in a

long succession of triumphs from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. The

successor of Reccared and Wamba had degenerated into a feeble tyrant,

who reigned by a disputed title, and in whose sensual nature neither

the rites of hospitality, the obligations of friendship, the dignity of

the regal office, nor the infirmities of age, interposed any obstacle

to the indulgence of his unbridled passions.

A haughty nobility decimated by the sanguinary feuds promoted by a

contested succession, and divided into factions whose members hated

each other with far greater intensity than that which they bore to

a common enemy; unaccustomed to the exercise of arms; destitute of

faith and honor; concealing treasonable sentiments under the semblance

of enthusiastic loyalty, endeavored to sustain, by vainglorious

boasts and barbaric ostentation, the dignity of their order and the

majesty of the throne. The martial ardor of the legions which had for

centuries upheld the greatness and the renown of the Roman name had

been supplanted by the zeal and avarice of the monastic hordes, who

defended by every expedient of fraud and violence the rising cause

of the church militant. The crosier, in the hands of an arrogant

caste which monopolized the learning of the age, had become far more

potent than the sword or the sceptre, and the origin of all political

measures of national importance was to be sought not in the palace

but in the cathedral. The wise, tolerant, and judicious policy of the

early ecclesiastics, that had animated and directed the councils of the

Church, which by its humanizing influence had softened the prevailing

rudeness of the age, and framed laws whose equitable maxims have

served as models for succeeding legislators, had been abandoned for

the degrading but profitable occupation of hunting down and plundering

heretics. The proud and exclusive hierarchy of the Visigoths refused to

acknowledge the supremacy, or respect the edicts, of the See of Rome.

When the Pope interfered in the spiritual affairs of the Peninsula--an

occurrence, however, that rarely took place--he did so rather in the

capacity of a mediator, or even a suppliant, than as a mighty ruler,

the head of Christendom, and the Vicar of God. His titles were assumed

and his prerogatives usurped by the Spanish prelates; his infallibility

was questioned, not only by the higher clergy, whose ministrations were

declared to be endowed with equal virtue, but even by the sovereign

and the nobles, who openly ridiculed his pretensions and defied his

authority. The evil example of royal profligacy had infected every

grade of the priesthood. The episcopal palace became the scene of daily

turmoil and midnight orgies, which scandalized the populace, itself far

from immaculate; while the excellence of the wines and the beauty of

the female companions of priest and primate were matters of public jest

and infamous notoriety. The relative positions of the great officials

of Church and State had, by reason of the peculiar functions exercised

by the former, who had entirely usurped the legislative power, been

reversed. The prelate, while still retaining the outward insignia of

his sacred profession, had, from the practice of the generous and

self-sacrificing duties of a minister of grace and mercy, descended

to the ignoble arts of an active, scheming, unscrupulous politician.

The nobility, after having virtually surrendered to their spiritual

advisers the complete control of the administration, preserved, to a

pharisaical degree, the outward semblance of devotion. In private life,

the morals of both classes were stained with degrading vices and crimes

which were thinly veiled by a more or less rigid observance of the

prescribed forms of religious worship.

No country in Europe had, from the earliest times of which history

makes mention, constantly offered such inducements to the enterprise

and prowess of an invader as Spain. The Orient and the Occident met

upon her shores. Every material advantage which could attract the

attention of man, which could stimulate his ambition, increase his

wealth, insure his comfort, supply his necessities, and minister to his

happiness, was hers. The balmy air of her southern provinces--whose

skies for months were unobscured by a single cloud--was tempered by the

breezes of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The varied landscape

of hill and plain, seamed with a net-work of artificial rivulets, was

covered with a mantle of perpetual verdure. Her orchards furnished an

inexhaustible supply of the most delicious fruits. The products of her

mines had made the fortune of every possessor--Phœnician, Carthaginian,

Roman, Vandal, and Goth. Her gold and silver had embellished the

thrones of Babylon, the shrines of Tyre, the palaces of Memphis, the

temple of Jerusalem. Her coasts, easy of access from every point,

offered a succession of safe and commodious harbors. The Visigoths,

despite their barbarian prejudice against manual labor, recognized the

importance of agriculture. The provinces of the realm were apportioned

among the nobility. A stated tribute was required of their vassals

by the great landed proprietors, who rarely had the justice to grant

indulgence for a failure of the harvests or a deficiency resulting

from public or private misfortune. The cultivators were attached to

the glebe, which could not be alienated without them, and, forming an

hereditary caste, were, to all intents and purposes, slaves; although,

under the Gothic polity, their position was nominally superior to that

of the unfortunate who was exposed for sale in the market. From these

two classes, dispirited by generations of arduous toil and constant

oppression, were recruited the rank and file of the army, who were

expected to fight for the preservation of their tyrants’ possessions

and the continuance of their own degradation. The lot of the serf

under later Visigothic rule was, in general, far more grievous than

that of the slave had been under the Roman. The Teutonic custom which

encouraged the imposition of personal service in return for protection

was unknown under the Empire. The rendering of this obligation an

hereditary charge--a cardinal principle of the German constitution,

but which became in a measure obsolete under the later Visigothic

kings--added to the aggravation which attended its performance. The

restrictions upon marriage, the separation of families, the severity

of punishment imposed for even trifling offences, added to the

humiliation and hardships of the servile condition. While the Arian

heresy was predominant, the burdens of serfdom were lightened, and its

state had been gradually improved. The generosity of the bishops was

displayed in every way that kindness and consideration could suggest;

in the diminution of labor; in rewards for fidelity; in attendance

in sickness; in sympathy in misfortune. The unhappy serf, deceived

by these concessions and favors, not unnaturally concluded that they

portended increased liberty and ultimate emancipation. The clergy gave

color to this presumption by frequent declarations from the pulpit

that slavery was contrary to the teachings of the Gospel. In time,

with the increase of influence, the control of royal elections, and

the absolute dictation of the policy of the throne, these spiritual

statesmen found it expedient to forget the benevolent precepts of

government which they had formerly so earnestly inculcated. After the

acceptance of the orthodox faith, the inherent evils of the servile

system were magnified to an unprecedented degree. The high rank, sacred

character, and practically unlimited power of the great prelates of

the Church, offered unusual opportunities for the indulgence of the

passions of tyranny and avarice. The dependents of bishops walked

in the processions, by which were celebrated the great festivals of

the Church, attired in silken liveries embroidered with gold. The

appointments of their palaces and the magnificence of their trains

surpassed even those of the sovereign. The estates of these dignitaries

were the most extensive and important of the kingdom; in many instances

they exceeded in value the royal demesnes. Immense numbers of slaves

were employed upon them, not merely in the cultivation of the soil,

but in the producing and perfecting of every article, then known,

which could contribute to the pleasure of their luxurious lords. For

these unhappy laborers, whose tasks each year became more arduous,

and whose aspirations for liberty, cherished during many generations,

were now destroyed, the prospect of relief from their unsupportable

burdens seemed absolutely hopeless. Inferior in numbers to these two

classes of agricultural serfs, and the individuals condemned by

the accident of birth, or the process of law, to perpetual bondage,

but vastly superior to them in intelligence, in shrewdness, and in

all the arts of deceit, were the Jews. A sweeping decree of the

Seventeenth Council of Toledo had confiscated their possessions and

sentenced them to servitude. A hundred thousand of these sectaries,

in whose breasts rankled a spirit of fierce and sullen hatred, born

of hostility handed down for ages, and aggravated by a system of

repression scarcely justifiable even by the sternest demands of

political necessity, constituted an element of a far more dangerous

character than all of the others whose machinations and discontent had

undermined the fabric of the Visigothic empire. The national sentiment

of superiority--born of theocratic government, of the claims of an

arrogant priesthood, of the alleged favor of the Almighty, and of the

traditions of three thousand years--was then, as now, all-powerful in

the minds of the Jewish people. The defective annals of that age have

failed to furnish us with data by which we can determine with what

degree of strictness the laws against the Hebrews were enforced. It

is probable, however, that in the cities, where a higher condition

of intelligence existed and more correct ideas of justice obtained,

observance of these inhuman edicts was frequently evaded. In the

villages and hamlets the fanaticism and jealousy of the peasantry

undoubtedly inflicted every hardship and indignity upon the Jews. In

vain might the favored steward or counsellor of the noble, who still

retained his residence in the palace, and continued to supply by his

own talents and experience the deficiencies produced by his employer’s

sloth and incapacity, attempt to alleviate the wretchedness of his

countrymen. With the ignorant rabble, the possession of wealth and

the exertion of political power by heretics were always unpardonable

crimes. The clergy, on all occasions, for ends of their own, fomented

the popular discontent, lauded this cruel policy as acceptable to

God, and by every device sought to perpetuate the ancient antagonism

of the Aryan and Semitic races, in which is to be sought one cause of

the irrational and widely-diffused prejudice against the Jew. This

feeling was also intensified by the current tradition that, during the

reign of Leovigild, the Hebrews had, with unconcealed alacrity, aided

the heterodox clergy in persecuting members of the Roman Catholic

communion. Under these circumstances, too much importance cannot

be attached to the part played in the Moorish occupation of Spain

by this numerous and enterprising sect, skilled in all the arts of

dissimulation, and exasperated by centuries of oppression, which the

Visigothic kingdom nourished in its bosom. Without the information

afforded by its members the Arab attack would probably have never been

undertaken. Without its support and co-operation it is certain that

the subjugation of a nation of six million souls could never have

been accomplished in the space of a few months by a mere handful of

undisciplined horsemen.

No nation has ever flourished under the rule of a hierarchy.

The circumstances indispensable for the security and happiness

of the subject are incompatible with the demands of the alleged

representatives of divine inspiration and omnipotent power. The narrow

policy inseparable from protracted ecclesiastical domination is

inevitably productive of national ruin and disgrace. In this instance,

it dispossessed the Spanish people of the richest part of their

inheritance for eight hundred years. Under the monarchs of the Austrian

line--incapable of profiting by the experience of their predecessors

and deaf to the warnings of history--similar acts of imprudence and

folly contributed more than aught else to deprive the Spanish Crown of

the political supremacy of Europe.

The events in the annals of Spain which relate to the close of the

seventh and the commencement of the eighth century are involved in

more than ordinary obscurity. It was a period fraught with political

and social disturbance. Treason and regicide, crimes from which,

heretofore, the Gothic people had been proverbially exempt, were now

considered justifiable expedients by every ambitious noble who aspired

to raise himself to the throne. The degrees of favor and absolution

which the successful traitor could expect from the clergy were directly

proportionate to the value of the gifts which he was able to deposit

in the treasury of the Church. Every offence, no matter how flagrant,

was pardonable after satisfactory pecuniary intercession with the

priest. The fulminations of the Holy Council were denounced against all

who refused allegiance to the royal assassin, whose election had been

ratified by the votes of the assembled prelates. Where the aspirant to

kingly power lacked the courage for deeds of blood, a resort to fraud

was deemed excusable, provided it was attended with success and the

customary liberal contribution for ecclesiastical purposes was not

forgotten. To such a depth of degradation had fallen the descendants of

the loyal, brave, and generous warriors of the Teutonic race!

The greatness of the Visigothic monarchy had departed with the reign

of Wamba, the last of its heroes, and one illustrious for the practice

of every public and every private virtue. Deprived of his crown by an

artifice which reflected more credit on the astuteness than on the

integrity of his successor, he was condemned to pass the latter portion

of his life in a convent. The new king Ervigius, after an uneventful

reign, left his kingdom to his son-in-law Egiza. The character of

the latter monarch, while not destitute of the manly virtues of

courage and resolution, was tarnished by insatiable rapacity. He was

as persevering in his pursuit of wealth as he was unscrupulous in his

methods of obtaining it. He commuted the enforcement of penal laws

for the payment of fines, which varied with the pecuniary ability of

the culprit to discharge them, without regard to the degree or the

circumstances of the crime. Under trivial pretexts, he banished wealthy

citizens and confiscated their property. He imposed excessive taxes.

Emboldened by the impunity of power, he did not hesitate to resort

even to forgery; and, by means of spurious documents, implicated

in offences against the state such wealthy individuals as had the

hardihood to resist his importunate demands. And, worst of all, he

lost no opportunity to appropriate the revenues of the Church, under

whatever pretence his ingenuity or his audacity might suggest. By an

unprincipled and tyrannical hierarchy the former misdemeanors might be

overlooked, but the latter offence was tainted with the double reproach

of oppression and sacrilege. After formal and unavailing remonstrance,

a plot was formed in 692 by Sisebert, Archbishop of Toledo, which had

for its object the assassination of the King and his entire family.

Some of the most powerful nobles were involved in this conspiracy,

which was hatched by the principal ecclesiastics of the capital. Timely

information of the plot having reached the ears of the sovereign, the

most vigorous means were taken to counteract it. The metropolitan

was arrested and deposed. A number of the chief conspirators were

executed or exiled. Scarcely had this conspiracy been suppressed,

before the existence of a still more formidable one was revealed. The

Hebrews, whose condition under this and the preceding reign had been

more favorable than for many years, evincing no gratitude for the

leniency with which they had been treated, and remembering only past

indignities, exulting in their numbers and influence, and assured of

aid from Barbary, made arrangements for a general revolt, with a view

to a complete reorganization of the government and the metamorphosis

of Spain into an absolutely Jewish kingdom. This treasonable design

was discovered, however, almost at the moment when it was ripe for

execution. The authorities took measures to insure their safety with

exemplary severity. A council was convoked and a decree passed, by

which the Jews were condemned to be banished, enslaved, stripped of

their possessions, and deprived of their children. The outrageous

cruelty of the measure, however, caused an almost immediate reaction,

and it was not generally enforced. The discontented sectaries, grieving

under their accumulated wrongs, and exasperated by the miscarriage

of their plans, continued to hope for assistance from abroad, and

embraced every opportunity to send information of the public disorders

to their sympathetic brethren in Africa. The reign of Egiza, agitated

hitherto by almost incessant political convulsions, was now threatened

with the evils of foreign invasion. A Saracen fleet, well manned and

equipped, descended upon the defenceless Spanish coast, ravaged the

fields, plundered the villages, and carried the inhabitants into

captivity. To provide against this new danger a naval expedition was

fitted out, and entrusted to the command of Theodomir, an officer of

approved experience, and a noble of the highest rank. Setting sail,

the Gothic admiral lost no time in encountering the hostile fleet.

A bloody engagement took place; two hundred of the enemy’s vessels

were destroyed or taken; and the embryotic maritime power of the

Moslems was swept from the seas. In the following year a war with the

Franks, the cause of which is unknown, was carried on for several

months with the indecisive results characteristic of the operations

of desultory warfare. Egiza, being advanced in years and conscious of

his infirmities, was desirous of associating his son Witiza with him

in the administration, and of securing to him the succession at his

decease. A council having been convoked for this purpose, his wishes

were realized without opposition, and Witiza was raised to the regal

dignity. The following year the old King died, leaving to his young

and inexperienced successor the sole responsibility of government,

and a series of difficulties and embarrassments such as no other

monarch of his time had hitherto been forced to contend with, and

which involved both the stability of the Visigothic empire and the

preservation of the Christian faith. The accession of Witiza promised

a happy and prosperous future to the country afflicted with so many

calamities. His youth had been distinguished by the practice of the

virtues of temperance, generosity, justice, and filial reverence. As

soon as he attained to absolute power, he evinced a disposition to

win the attachment of the people by making amends for the pecuniary

exactions and oppressive laws which had been imposed by the avarice

and extortions of his family. A general amnesty was proclaimed.

The forged documents by which the wealthy had been plundered were

destroyed. All taxes, except such as were absolutely necessary to the

support of the government, were remitted. Great numbers of exiles

were invited to return, and their possessions were surrendered. The

Jews were restored to partial favor; but, as the popular prejudice

was still bitter and universal, a politic appearance of severity

was maintained, which, however, it was evident would be entirely

removed in time. Under such favorable auspices began the reign of

Witiza, whose magnanimity, tact, and affable demeanor had already

won the hearts of his subjects. The opinion of the latter was at

first confirmed by the mild disposition and virtuous behavior of

their youthful sovereign. But this fair promise of future greatness

was fallacious, for Witiza soon plunged into excesses which awakened

the horror of his subjects, and provoked the censures of the clergy,

ever disposed to be lenient towards such transgressions except when

they threatened their influence or their revenues. The whole court

was soon abandoned to indiscriminate licentiousness. Not only was the

violation of the most sacred traditions of the Church permitted, but

polygamy and concubinage were openly encouraged by sacerdotal authority

and example. The pious instructors of the people were the first to

improve the opportunities afforded by these impolitic enactments, and

the feelings of the devout were outraged by excesses which did not

respect even the sacred precincts of the altar and the confessional.

No scandals, however, aroused such indignation as the indulgence which

was manifested towards the Jews. Every ecclesiastic, especially,

considered any moderation of the condition of this down-trodden race

an affront to his order, and a crime worse than sacrilege. Enraged

by the contempt with which Witiza treated their remonstrances, the

clergy lost no occasion of increasing the prevailing discontent, and,

with a view to strengthening their position by enlisting the aid of

the Holy See, they secretly despatched an embassy to Rome. The ire

of the Pope was excited by the representations of the envoys of the

Spanish Church, whose prelates, though not acknowledging his supreme

jurisdiction, did not disdain to solicit his intervention as an affair

which seemed to involve the interests of Christendom. Elated by the

hope of establishing his authority in the Peninsula, the Holy Father

Constantine, without delay, sent a message to the recalcitrant monarch

threatening him with the loss of his kingdom, unless he at once

revoked the offensive edicts and permitted the unrestricted persecution

of the Jews. To this Witiza retorted with contempt that if the Pope

did not cease intermeddling with what did not concern him, he would

drive him from the Vatican; and he forthwith published an edict that no

attention should be paid to the mandates of the Papacy under penalty

of death. These proceedings further embittered the prejudices of both

the clergy and the people, and the popular clamor became so loud that

Witiza began to tremble for both his crown and his life. Agitated by

his fears, and resolved to afford as little encouragement as possible

to any treasonable undertaking, he dismantled the principal fortresses,

and razed the walls of every city in the kingdom, excepting those of

Toledo, Astorga, and Lugo; an act of folly which not only failed of

its object, but in the end directly contributed to the overthrow of

the monarchy. The Jews, on the other hand, now placed in positions of

profit and responsibility, far from appreciating the honors with which

they were invested and the confidence which was reposed in them, with

characteristic treachery and ingratitude, availed themselves of their

power for the destruction of their royal benefactor. Aided by their

intrigues, a formidable conspiracy broke out. The majority of the

clergy and a considerable body of the nobles joined the insurgents; a

rival king was elected; and, after a short conflict, Witiza was deposed

and probably murdered, for history has preserved no record of his fate.

The new monarch, Roderick, although he had reached the great age of

eighty-two years, retained, in an unusual degree, the strength and

activity of early manhood. His life had been passed amidst the athletic

pastimes which exercised the leisure of the Gothic youth, and, in

occasional expeditions undertaken against the hardy mountaineers

of Galicia and Biscay, he had earned a well-merited reputation for

courage and military skill. Although not of royal blood, his natural

endowments, the dignity of his carriage, the apparent but deceptive

austerity of his manners, and the mildness of his temper, gained for

him the respect of all who were admitted to his presence. In the

elegant luxury of his palace, in the splendor of his retinue, in the

majestic pomp which distinguished every public ceremony over which

he presided, he far surpassed his predecessors, and emulated, with

no little success, the magnificence of the Roman court in the age of

imperial decadence.

The intriguing spirit which animated the subjects of a monarchy

essentially elective, but one where courtesy and real or apparent

merit occasionally made an exception in favor of hereditary descent,

had established, among the Visigoths, the custom of retaining near

the throne the children of powerful families; nominally for purposes

of education, but in fact to insure the fidelity of their relatives

often entrusted with the custody of frontier strongholds or important

military commands. The sons, until they attained to manhood, served

as pages in the royal household, and were trained in all the manly

and martial exercises of the time. The attendants of the queens were

recruited from the noble maidens, whom this prudent custom placed

and retained in the precincts of the court, and who were carefully

instructed in the few but graceful accomplishments indispensable to the

position of ladies of distinguished lineage. Among the latter, at the

court of Roderick, was the daughter of Count Julian, formerly a vassal

of the Byzantine Empire, and the commandant of the fortress of Ceuta;

whom political necessity, the isolation consequent upon the subjugation

of every Greek settlement in Africa, and the rapidly increasing power

of the Moors, had compelled to appeal to the nearest Christian monarch

for protection, and to transfer his allegiance to the court of Toledo.

This girl, who was of great beauty, excited the licentious desires of

the King, who, failing to accomplish his object by fair means, in an

evil hour resorted to force. Informed of the injury which had been

inflicted upon his family, Count Julian, braving without hesitation

the storms of winter, hastened to the capital. Dissembling, with

true Greek astuteness, his outraged feelings, he asked permission to

remove his daughter to the bedside of her mother whom he represented

as being dangerously ill. Without any misgivings Roderick granted the

request, and, manifesting every appearance of respect and loyalty, the

veteran officer left the court and retraced his steps. No sooner had he

arrived at his post, than he began to carry out the plan of vengeance

which he had already fully matured. The castle of Ceuta was the key

of Europe. Impregnable to all the resources of military engineering

in an age when gunpowder was unknown, its value as an obstacle to

foreign invasion was not understood by the Visigoths. The immunity of

centuries; the contempt for barbarians; the ignorance of the mighty

and unexampled power of Islam; the inertia produced partly by the

influence of climate, but principally by an abuse of all the pleasures

of unbridled luxury, had disposed the sovereigns of Toledo to consider

their kingdom inaccessible to attack, and their empire eternal. As has

already been mentioned, this haughty and corrupt nation was constantly

agitated and its integrity menaced by a score of discordant factions.

Its recent monarchs had bent all their energies to the abrogation

of the statesmanlike measures inaugurated by their forefathers. The

nobles and the clergy, inflamed with mutual animosity, suspicious of

their partisans, and arrayed against each other, were engaged in a

mortal struggle for superiority. The Jews, indulged and persecuted

by turns, lived in a continual state of apprehension and despair.

All the salutary restraints of religion were apparently removed; the

Church was regarded as a convenient instrument for the attainment

of political power; the priesthood were devoted to the practice of

nameless vices; the people to indiscriminate libertinage. A large body

of slaves, who, under the lash of brutal masters, still preserved the

traditions of liberty, were ripe for revolt, and longed for the day of

their deliverance. A disastrous famine, followed by its usual successor

the pestilence, and whose effects were still apparent in untilled

fields and deserted hamlets, had contributed to increase the popular

suffering and discontent. Fortified on one side against the incursions

of the Franks by the natural rampart of the Pyrenees, and isolated

on the others by the Mediterranean and the ocean, the inhabitants of

the Peninsula, in the enjoyment of a salubrious climate and fruitful

soil, rested in fancied security, and had long since laid aside the

armor whose weight had become oppressive, and abandoned those warlike

exercises whose preservation was their only safeguard.

Incited by a spirit of desperation which considered neither the

consequences of his acts nor the means by which they were to be

accomplished, Count Julian sought the presence of Musa. He found the

Moslem general at Kairoan, which had been selected as the seat of the

viceregal government of Western Africa. The intrepid character of

his visitor was not unknown to the great Arab soldier whose designs

upon Ceuta had been twice frustrated, by the valiant Greek, after the

employment of all the resources at the command of the Khalif, and Count

Julian was received with every token of honor and respect. Unfolding

his project, he descanted long and earnestly upon the riches of the

Gothic monarchy and the facility of its conquest. He explained the

feuds and bitter feelings engendered by disappointed ambition, by

religious persecution, by the seizure of hereditary estates, by the

sufferings of wounded pride. He expatiated on the sense of injury

experienced by the advocates of hereditary descent, who considered

the reigning monarch of foreign lineage and inferior rank that had

justly incurred the odium of usurpation. He portrayed in glowing

terms the innumerable attractions of the country, its productive

valleys, its crystal streams, the medicinal value of its herbs and

plants to which magical virtues were attributed by popular report,

its mines, its fisheries, the precious spoil which awaited the hand

of the invader, the transcendent beauty of its women. He described

the effeminate character of the inhabitants, enervated by idleness,

luxury, and sensual indulgence. Much of this information was already

familiar to Musa, but hitherto the impassable barrier of the fortress

defended by the stubborn courage of the governor of Ceuta had checked

the aspirations of the Moslem commander; nor had it been possible to

even confirm the accuracy of the wonderful tales which had been related

concerning Ghezirah-al-Andalus, or the Vandal Peninsula, as Spain was

known to the Arabs.

Thoroughly appreciating the importance of the proposal, the magnitude

of the interests involved, and the uncertainty which would attend

the issue of the expedition, and, at the same time, distrusting the

good faith of the Goth, Musa determined to obtain the consent of the

Khalif before returning a definite answer. Despatches, with complete

information, were accordingly sent to Damascus. The reply of Al-Walid,

who then occupied the throne of the khalifate, was favorable; but he

strongly advised the exercise of caution, a recommendation entirely

superfluous in the case of a man of Musa’s suspicious and crafty

disposition. Sending for Count Julian, Musa informed him that he would

be required to prove his fidelity by heading a reconnaissance into

the enemy’s country. The count accepted the condition with alacrity;

crossed the strait with a small detachment of soldiers belonging to

his garrison; ravaged the coast in the neighborhood of Medina Sidonia;

burned several churches; destroyed the growing harvests, and returned

with considerable booty. Knowing his ally to be now compromised beyond

all hope of pardon, and the trifling resistance encountered having

apparently demonstrated the feasibility of the enterprise, Musa

announced his willingness to negotiate. The conditions of the compact

which disposed of one of the richest kingdoms of Europe have escaped

the notice of history. There is reason to believe, however, that Count

Julian was promised substantial pecuniary remuneration in addition

to the gratification of revenge; and that their hereditary estates

were to be restored to the family of Witiza, whose sons were present

at the conference, and whose brother Oppas was not only privy to the

conspiracy but was one of its principal promoters. The keys of Ceuta

were surrendered, and Count Julian, having sworn allegiance to the

Khalif, was invested with a command in the Moslem army.

The wary old veteran Musa was not yet satisfied, and determined to

send a second expedition, under one of his own captains, to explore

the Spanish coast. He selected for this purpose one of his trusty

freed-men, Abu-Zarah-Tarif by name, who, embarking with one hundred

cavalry and three hundred infantry, landed at Ghezirah-al-Khadra, now

Algeziras, in July, 710. The incursion of Tarif differed little in its

results from that of his predecessor, but confirmed the representations

of the latter, and proved beyond doubt the defenceless condition of the

Visigothic kingdom. Preparations for war were now made upon a larger

scale, but one which still could not contemplate the overthrow of the

monarchy in the incredibly short period required to accomplish it,

and which, indeed, was designed only as a predatory expedition. The

command of the troops was given to Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad, a Berber, whose red

hair and light complexion disclosed his descent from the Vandals. The

similar names of these two officers, both of whom were freed-men of

Musa, have led to a confusion and mistaken identity, which has greatly

embarrassed the narratives of both ancient chroniclers and modern

historians. Tarik was a soldier of approved experience, extraordinary

enterprise, and unflinching courage. His army was one of the most

motley forces which had ever been assembled under the Moslem standard.

The number was comparatively insignificant, amounting to only seven

thousand, of whom but few were cavalry. The bulk of the troops was

composed of Berbers--fierce savages of the Atlas Mountains, proselytes

reclaimed from fetichism by the policy and eloquence of Musa--among

them being representatives of the tribes of Ghomarah, Masmoudah, and

Zenetah, names destined to a cruel celebrity in the subsequent history

of Spain. Every nation whose types chance, misfortune, the love of

plunder, or the spirit of adventure had impelled upon the African

coast, was represented in the ranks of the invaders; descendants of

the Vandals and the Goths; Bedouins from the Hedjaz; political exiles

from the far Orient; conspirators from Syria; apostate Byzantines

who had renounced allegiance to the Emperor of Constantinople; and a

considerable body of Jews, whose relations with their Spanish brethren

rendered them valuable auxiliaries, swelled the command of Tarik.

In the latter were adherents of every form of religion,--the adorer

of fire, the worshipper of the stars, the Pagan votary of the gods

of Olympus, the orthodox and the heretic Christian. Each tribe was

marshalled under its respective banner, and the varied nationality of

the rank and file was equally displayed in the widely diverse origin

of the subordinate officers--Count Julian the renegade Greek, Tarik

the Berber, Mugayth-al-Rumi the Goth, and Kaula-al-Yahudi the Jew.

Vessels for the passage of the strait were furnished by Count Julian,

who impressed such merchantmen as lay at anchor in the ports under his

jurisdiction, the only ones obtainable; the number of these, however,

was so insufficient that the transportation of the army consumed

several days. The Moslems finally disembarked at the foot of an immense

promontory known to the ancient world as Calpe, but which, rechristened

by the Arabs Gebal-al-Tarik, the Mountain of Tarik, has transmitted

its new appellation, almost unchanged, to future ages as the famous

Gibraltar. Scarcely had the invaders landed, when they were attacked

by the Goths under Theodomir, that chieftain whose successful conduct

of the naval expedition during the reign of Egiza had induced Roderick

to invest him with the command of the forces at his disposal. The

ill-equipped and undisciplined troops of the Gothic general at once

disclosed their inability to withstand the onset of the fiery horsemen

of the Desert, and Theodomir was compelled to retreat. He sent, without

delay, the alarming news of the invasion to the King, revealing the

universal dismay with which this strange enemy was regarded, in the

following language: “Our land has been invaded by people whose name,

country, and origin are unknown to me. I cannot even tell thee whence

they came, whether they fell from the skies or sprang from the earth.”

This ominous despatch reached Roderick before the walls of Pampeluna,

which had recently revolted against his authority. Whatever were his

faults, the Gothic monarch was certainly not deficient in courage and

resolution. Raising the siege, he hastened to Cordova, and devoted

all his energies to the assembling of an immense army for the defence

of the kingdom. Every resource was employed,--promises of amnesty,

threats, bounties, and conscription, until a hundred thousand men

had been mustered under the royal standard. But this great host was

formidable only in appearance. The levies of which it was composed

were wholly wanting in discipline and unaccustomed to the perils of

warfare. Their weapons were mainly implements whose use was familiar

in the practice of the peaceful arts of husbandry. The rank and file,

a tumultuous rabble of slaves and hirelings, marched on foot. Horses

were few and expensive in the Peninsula; only the nobles were mounted;

and to the deficiency of cavalry among the Goths the Arab historians

have largely attributed the crushing reverses sustained by their arms.

To the unwieldy and disorderly character of the Gothic army was added

the secret and fatal influence of treason. Thousands had been enrolled

to defend the imperilled crown of Roderick, whose chief desire was

the transfer of that crown to a rival dynasty. Others, high in rank,

had tendered their services with the hope that, amidst the general

confusion, they might push their political fortunes and gratify an

inordinate ambition. The imperative necessity of the occasion had

compelled the enlistment of the leaders of the hostile faction who

had been injured beyond reparation, and whom it was equally dangerous

to trust or further to offend. At the head of these were the sons

and brothers of Witiza, who, while they repulsed the conciliatory

overtures of Roderick, eagerly accepted a command which might promote

their schemes of vengeance. Scores of those belonging to the noble and

ecclesiastical orders, and the Jews to a man, inflamed with revenge

and hatred, were in daily communication with the head-quarters of the

enemy. The jealousy of rival commanders tended still further to impair

the efficiency of the Christians, whose feuds and discontent being well

known to their adversaries had a tendency to inspire the latter with a

well-grounded hope of victory.

In the mean time, Tarik had seized and occupied the ancient town of

Carteja, and, fortifying himself securely, sent foraging expeditions

far and wide throughout the surrounding country. These were, without

exception, successful, and the rapid movements of the Arab cavalry,

their seemingly invincible character, and the valuable booty they

secured, not only struck terror into the astonished natives, but

greatly encouraged the main body of the invading army, encamped

under the shadow of Gibraltar. The emissaries and secret allies of

Tarik, who swarmed in the court and camp of Roderick, lost no time

in apprising him of the preparations being made for his destruction.

Alarmed by the accounts he received, he despatched a messenger to Musa

for reinforcements. A detachment of five thousand Berber cavalry was

sent to his aid, which with the remainder of his troops amounted to

twelve thousand veterans; a mere handful when compared with the army

of the Goths, but composed of warriors inured to privation, accustomed

to conquer, inflamed with religious zeal, and bearing a devoted and

unswerving attachment to their commander.

On the morning of a beautiful July day, in the year 711, the beginning

of an era most notable in the annals of Spain, the hostile armies

faced each other near Lake La Janda, upon the rolling plains of

Medina-Sidonia. The Moors, flushed with the uniform success which had

hitherto attended their arms, relying upon the dissensions of the enemy

as much as upon their own valor, and impatient for the conflict,

appeared in glittering mail, wearing snowy turbans, and equipped with

sword and lance; while over their shoulders was suspended the Arabian

bow, whose shafts, like those of the Parthian, made the archer all

the more formidable in retreat. The Moorish general, after performing

the rites of his faith, addressed his soldiers in a few stirring and

well-chosen words. With consummate skill, he availed himself of the

strongest passions which control humanity,--avarice, military glory,

the love of woman, the priceless rewards of religious constancy. He

revealed to them a dream, in which the Prophet had announced that the

issue of the conflict would be favorable to the adherents of Islam,

and which portended the confusion of the infidel. He placed before

them their desperate position, where defeat implied annihilation, and

victory was the only hope. He exhorted them to banish all thought of

fear, and to rely upon their courage tested upon many fields of battle.

He pictured in burning language the attractions of the country and the

matchless charms of the Gothic houris who inhabited it. He repeated the

passages of the Koran which promised that all the martyrs who fell in

battle would at once receive the reward of their devotion amidst the

ineffable delights of Paradise.

Upon the other hand, the bribes, the appeals, and the threats of

Roderick had brought together the entire available military power of

the Gothic monarchy. The King, surrounded by his nobles and escorted

by his guards, displayed all the pomp and splendor of the Orient. He

was borne to the front by white mules, upon a litter of ivory richly

inlaid with silver, and sheltered by a canopy of many-colored silk;

a purple cloak covered his shoulders, upon his head was the royal

diadem, and his robes of cloth of gold were enriched with priceless

jewels. The devices of the nobles marked the order of the various

divisions, and in the rear was led a train of many thousand beasts of

burden whose only loads were ropes with which to bind the prisoners.

The details of the battle which changed the destiny of Western Europe

are unusually meagre, even for the unlettered and credulous age in

which it occurred. It seems to have consisted of a series of indecisive

skirmishes which lasted eight days, during which time the two armies

traversed a distance of twenty miles, to the neighborhood of the

modern city of Jerez de la Frontera. Here, with amazing ignorance,

or with fatal disregard of the elementary rules of military tactics,

the Goths took up their position with the river Guadalete in their

rear. Upon the final charge of the Arabs, the treason of the former

partisans of Witiza became apparent. A large body of nobles with

their retainers openly deserted; a panic ensued; and the vast array

took to headlong flight. Pressing forward with the shrill war-cry of

the Moslem, which struck terror into the defeated Goths, the Moorish

squadrons drove the enemy into the rapid waters of the Guadalete. The

carnage was terrible. Exasperated by days of fighting, and haunted by

the constant jeopardy of servitude and death, the soldiers of Tarik

gave no quarter. The ground was heaped with corpses. The channel of the

river was choked with the dead and dying, with horses, and chariots,

and camp equipage, with treasures which the fugitives vainly tried to

save. Of the invaders, three thousand are said to have fallen, but no

computation was made of the loss of the Goths. The remnants of the

army which escaped the swords of the Arabs were pursued to the very

gates of the neighboring cities. Many were cut to pieces before they

could reach a place of safety; and finally, satiated with blood, the

conquerors found upon their hands a great number of prisoners whom

the ropes which they themselves had provided now served to secure.

The war-horse of Roderick covered with trappings of great value was

taken, but no trace remained of the King. One of his sandals, encrusted

with rubies and emeralds, was found on the bank of the river, which

would seem to indicate that he perished by drowning; but his body

was never recovered, and his fate is a mystery; notwithstanding that

Spanish romance and monkish credulity have invested his disappearance

with many extravagant legends, attested by a formidable array of

ecclesiastical evidence. The booty which fell into the hands of the

Moslems was incalculable. The number of horses taken was so large that

the entire army was mounted, thereby adding greatly to its efficiency.

The housings of these animals--whose possession among the Goths implied

the enjoyment of rank and fortune--were of the costliest description;

many of the finest chargers were shod with silver or gold. The Gothic

nobles, rather accustomed to vie with each other in the service of

their tables, the size of their retinues, and the magnificence of their

equipages than in valor and military knowledge, and little dreaming of

the result, had brought with them their most valuable possessions in

plate and jewels. Their love of ostentation caused them to surround

themselves with multitudes of slaves, whose daily broils kept the camp

in a continuous uproar, and between whom and the enemy existed a secret

understanding, whose effects were fearfully manifested in the hour of

disaster. All of this wealth, together with the ornaments and insignia

of the royal household, became the spoil of the conqueror. The fifth,

which according to the law of Islam belonged to the Khalif, having

been set aside, the remainder was divided on the field, amidst the

tumultuous acclamations of the exultant soldiery.

The battle of the Guadalete is justly ranked with the great and

decisive victories of the world. Indeed, if we consider the relative

number of the combatants, the duration of the action, and the

importance of its results, it has no parallel in the annals of warfare.

While the intrigues of unscrupulous factions contributed largely to

the success of the Arabs, the fact must not be lost sight of, that the

numbers of the latter were scarcely appreciable when compared with

the vast masses of their antagonists, and that they labored under the

additional disadvantage of fighting in the enemy’s country. As to

generalship, none could have been displayed on either side. The Moslems

were little better than banditti, commanded by barbarians and renegades

whose sole military experience had been acquired by predatory raids in

the African Desert. The Goths, idle and effeminate in life, debilitated

in body, cowardly, debased, and wholly unused to arms, were dominated

by inordinate vanity and filled with contempt for their opponents.

The tyranny, excesses, and arbitrary acts of Witiza having caused the

exclusion of his posterity from the throne, the partisans of the latter

were willing to sacrifice their country and their religion to insure

the overthrow of the usurper and to satisfy their insatiable cravings

for revenge.

Thus fell the enfeebled and tottering monarchy of the Goths. It had

long survived its glory and its prestige. The severe political maxims

of its founders, suited to the frigid regions of the Baltic, had been

found incompatible with the physical and moral conditions imposed by

the voluptuous climate of Bætica and Lusitania. Undermined by the

vices of the nobility, by the turbulent ambition of the priesthood,

by the treasonable machinations of the Jews, and by the supine

indifference of the masses to any fate--provided only that it involved

a change of masters-- the first shock of a determined enemy swept

it from the face of the earth. In its stead arose a new empire and a

strange dynasty of exotic origin, foreign alike in dress, in laws, in

customs, in constitution, in religion. Far from being uncongenial, the

meteorological conditions of the semi-tropical Peninsula, which have

insensibly determined the manners, the policy, and the fate of so many

races, were eminently favorable to the highest intellectual development

of its people. Through the wise and noble ambition of its rulers was

established that universal culture which made Cordova the intellectual

centre from whence diverged those rays of light which illumined the

darkness of the mediæval world. From the genius of its statesmen,

the skill of its generals, and the prowess of its armies arose that

constant apprehension of impending disaster, a portentous shadow,

which, hanging over Europe like the imperfectly defined outlines of a

gigantic spectre, threatened for centuries the overthrow of the Seat of

St. Peter, and the destruction of that system of faith which had risen

upon the ruins of Pagan idolatry and superstition.

Great and wide-spread was the consternation which seized the Goths

after the rout of the Guadalete. The entire resources of the kingdom

had been staked and lost. The sovereign had mysteriously disappeared.

In the carnage of the field, and in that which had accompanied the

still more disastrous retreat, the nobility had suffered so greatly

that few, if any, of its members who were eligible to the throne

had survived or remained at liberty. The sacred profession of the

priesthood, which had encouraged by its presence and exhortations the

flagging spirits of the soldiery, had not been able to protect them

from the edge of the Moorish scimetar. The hatred and fanaticism of

the invaders were aroused to frenzy by the sight of the vestments

and insignia of the Church, and even the most venerable prelates were

massacred; for the ferocious Moslem gave no quarter to the ministers

of Christianity, and disdained even the menial services of those who

had denounced to eternal perdition the followers of the Prophet. The

accumulated wealth of generations, which the vanity and ostentation

of the palatines had exhibited at the court, on the march, and in the

camp, had been swept into the coffers of the victor. The fugitives who

were so fortunate as to escape took refuge in the neighboring cities;

whither they were soon followed by the peasantry, who beheld with

dismay the sight of their burning homes and desolated fields. In one

engagement, and virtually in a single day, one of the most populous

and opulent countries of Europe had succumbed to the impetuous but

desultory attack of an unknown foe. For the space of two centuries, and

under far less favorable circumstances, the Carthaginian and Iberian

provinces of the Peninsula had successfully defied the resources

and the prestige of the Roman arms. For three centuries longer, the

Visigoths, relying upon the traditions and military fame of their

ancestors, had protected, without difficulty, their possessions wrested

from the feeble hands of the Cæsars, and had repeatedly rolled back the

tide of Frankish invasion from the slopes of the Pyrenees.

With the advent of overwhelming national misfortune, there fell

upon the terror-stricken people the apathy of despair. The public

wretchedness was augmented by the censures of the clergy, who, with

characteristic effrontery, declared the invasion to be a divine

punishment for the crimes of the wicked; crimes in which they

themselves had not only participated, but by their shameless conduct

had obtained an infamous pre-eminence in an age of unprecedented

corruption.

The Moslems under the lead of the enterprising Tarik, who displayed

the talents of a skilful general in his ability to profit by every

advantage, lost no time in securing the fruits of victory. From the

army--now a compact and active body of cavalry--were sent in all

directions detachments to cut off straggling parties of the enemy,

and to capture supplies destined for the overcrowded cities already

threatened with the horrors of starvation.

Tidings of the wonderful success upon the plains of Jerez soon spread

far and wide through the towns and provinces of Africa. Animated by

the hope of plunder and glory, the Moslems, many of them abandoning

their homes and making use of every available craft to cross the

strait, flocked by thousands to the standard of Tarik. The latter,

after thoroughly reorganizing his new recruits, and appointing to the

command officers of tried fidelity and experience, took Sidonia. The

strongly fortified city of Carmona next claimed his attention. As

its reduction by the slow process of a siege was out of the question

with the resources at his command, resort was had to stratagem. A

squadron of the retainers of Count Julian, headed by that worthy in

person, and apparently pursued by a body of the enemy, appeared before

the walls. Shelter was at once given the fugitives, who in the dead

of night killed the sentinels and opened the gates to the enemy.

Thence Tarik advanced upon Ecija, where the greater portion of the

survivors of the battle of the Guadalete had taken refuge. The Goths,

disdaining the protection of their defences, and nerved to despair by

their situation, which involved the alternative of slavery or famine,

boldly encountered the Moslems in the field. The action was hotly

contested, and although the loss sustained by the invaders was greater,

in proportion to the number of combatants engaged, than any suffered

during the Conquest, the Goths were in the end defeated, and the city

taken. Ecija swarmed with members of the monastic orders, and the nuns,

who largely predominated, were famous for their beauty. The prospect

of the infidel harem filled these pious virgins with horror; and they

adopted the heroic expedient of mutilating their features, hoping by

the sacrifice of their charms to preserve both their honor and their

lives. The compassion of the Moslem freebooter, infuriated by this

attempt to deprive him of his prey, was not moved by the evidences of

saintly devotion; the sight of a conventual habit became the signal for

outrage; death followed fast upon violence; and many hundreds of the

self-mutilated spouses of Christ received the crown of martyrdom.

In the mean time, Musa had forwarded despatches to Damascus announcing

the victory, but, actuated by the petty jealousy which formed such

a prominent feature of his character, he carefully concealed from

the Khalif the name of the successful commander. Having formed the

determination to cross over to Spain and conduct the campaign in

person, he sent peremptory orders to Tarik not to advance farther

until he arrived. But the hero of the Guadalete, fully alive to

the importance of affording the enemy no opportunity for rest and

reorganization, and advised by Count Julian to march at once on Toledo,

was of the opinion that the interests of his sovereign, as well as his

own fortunes, would be promoted by disobedience of the commands of his

superior. He therefore paraded his troops, and after enjoining them to

make war only upon those actually in arms, to leave all non-combatants

unmolested, and scrupulously to respect the religious prejudices of the

people, set out for Cordova at the head of a numerous army. The latter

city was strong and well defended, and Tarik, after nine days, seeing

that the siege would probably be of long duration, left its conduct to

his lieutenant, Mugayth-al-Rumi, and moved without delay upon Toledo.

The governor of Cordova, who was of the royal blood of the Goths, and a

brave and determined officer, inspirited by the departure of the main

body of the enemy, made no question of his ability to defend the city

against a force not greatly exceeding his own in numbers. But the good

fortune which seemed to attend the Moslems upon every occasion did not

desert them in the present emergency. Information was soon brought to

Mugayth-al-Rumi of a weak point in the fortifications which might be

scaled. Aided by a dark night and the noise made by a storm of hail,

a detachment crossed the river under the guidance of a shepherd, and

reached the place which had been indicated. A fig-tree which stood near

the wall was mounted by an active soldier, who, unrolling his turban,

drew up several of his comrades, who occupied the battlements without

resistance; for the severity of the tempest had driven the sentries

from their posts. Proceeding quietly and rapidly through the streets,

the guard at the gates was surprised and cut to pieces, the army was

admitted, and by daybreak the city was in the hands of the Moslems. The

governor, with four hundred of the garrison, fled to the church of St.

George, which stood outside the western wall, and being surrounded by

a moat and supplied with water by a subterranean conduit from a spring

in the neighboring mountains, offered all the obstacles of a fortress

whose towers and barbicans could bid defiance to an enemy destitute

of military engines and ignorant of the mode of conducting a siege.

For a considerable time the Goths repulsed the attacks of the band

of Mugayth-al-Rumi, until at last, after diligent search, the source

of the water-supply having been discovered and the aqueduct cut, the

besieged, reduced to extremity, were compelled to surrender. The

majority of the garrison were permitted to join their countrymen in the

North, but the officers and the governor--who was a personage of too

great importance to be set at liberty--were retained in the camp of the

victor.

Before leaving Ecija, Tarik had sent one of his officers,

Zeyd-Ibn-Kesade, at the head of a considerable force, to overrun the

southern portion of Andalusia. In this region, as elsewhere, the

mysterious terror which attended the exploits of the invaders had

preceded them. Baja, Antequera, Elvira, and the adjoining districts

yielded almost without resistance, but Granada, relying upon its

fortifications, refused to accept the proffered terms and was carried

by storm. The small number of the Moslems rendered it impossible for

them to leave garrisons in the captured towns, and the most important

of the latter were placed in charge of Arab governors, with whom the

Jews, who seemed to have thriven under persecution, engaged themselves

to co-operate. So numerous was the Hebrew element in Granada that

it was practically a Jewish community, and, with its aid, a single

company was sufficient to hold in subjection a city of nearly a hundred

thousand souls. Having accomplished the object of his expedition with

trifling loss, loaded with rich booty, and accompanied by innumerable

slaves of both sexes, Zeyd, sacking Jaen on his way, hastened to join

Tarik at Toledo.

Eight months had elapsed since the battle of the Guadalete before

the Moslem army appeared before the gates of the Visigothic capital.

Perched upon a lofty eminence, and almost surrounded by the Tagus,

whose current ran swiftly through a deep channel worn in the living

rock, art had combined with nature to render its position impregnable.

Walls built of stones of almost cyclopean dimensions environed

it, and rose to a great height even on the side towards the river,

where the precipitous cliffs themselves discouraged all attempts at

escalade. The approach from the north had been protected by barbicans

and outworks of double strength. These defences had been designed

and perfected by Wamba, the last of the Gothic kings whose martial

genius had, for a brief period, revived the glorious traditions and

long forgotten exploits of the ancient dynasty. The imperial capital,

a citadel in itself, where all the resources of a vast monarchy had

been lavished and all the knowledge of military engineering of the

age had been employed to insure the safety of the court, now trembled

in the presence of a few thousand roving barbarians. The dread which

was associated with the unknown enemy was augmented by the rapidity

of his movements, which to the superstitious fears of the Visigoths

made him appear ubiquitous. A sufficient military force had been

available to defend this fortress, but the sentiments of patriotism,

loyalty, and courage, so essential to the preservation of obedience

and discipline, had disappeared. Instead of preparing for resistance,

each individual thought only of his own preservation, when news arrived

that the foe was approaching. The majority of the citizens, leaving

their possessions, fled to Galicia and the Asturias. The lawless

soldiers of the garrison pillaged the deserted houses, and stripped

without hindrance the defenceless fugitives. The clergy, considering

the evil as only temporary, walled up the treasures of chapel and

convent in crypts, where to-day the greater portion of them still

remain undiscovered. The primate, laden with the most precious effects

of the churches, and leaving his ecclesiastical inferiors to contend

for the prize of martyrdom offered by the infidel, accompanied his

terrified parishioners in their flight, nor did he arrest his steps

until safe within the walls of Rome. A disorderly rabble of priests

and monks, actuated either by faith or indolence, remaining at their

posts, endeavored to avert the impending calamity by fasting, prayer,

and pilgrimage to the innumerable shrines situated both within and

without the city. Unfortunately, however, no divine response was

vouchsafed to these last frantic efforts of a despairing hierarchy.

The waving pennons and sparkling lances of the Arab cavalry appeared

in the distance, and their light and active squadrons swept around

the walls. The fields were laid waste. The convents and the villas

which embellished the suburbs were razed to the ground or burnt. Every

unlucky straggler was compelled, at the point of the sword, to renounce

the religion of his fathers or submit to the fate of a slave. In a

town deserted by its garrison, half depopulated, without provisions,

deprived of every prospect of relief, and principally occupied by

non-combatants and Jews who were in sympathy with the enemy, no idea

of resistance could be entertained. The usual conditions offered by

the Moslems were eagerly accepted. All had permission to retire who

desired to do so, with the understanding that such abandonment of their

homes involved a forfeiture of every description of property. Those

who preferred to remain were assured of protection, under payment

of a reasonable tribute. Both Jews and Christians were indulged in

the practice of their religious rites; but half of the churches were

confiscated for the use of Islam, and no new houses of worship could be

constructed without permission of the government. The tributaries were

left subject to their own laws, enforced by their own tribunals, as

long as these did not conflict with the policy of the dominant power.

No impediments to proselytism were tolerated, and severe punishment

was denounced against such as should offer intimidation or insult to

Christian renegades. Such were the terms imposed upon the inhabitants

of the Peninsula by the generous policy of the conqueror; a pleasing

contrast to the brutality of the barbarians, the duplicity of Carthage,

and the avarice and selfishness of Rome.

Notwithstanding the most valuable treasures of the imperial capital had

been carried away by the fleeing population, the plunder secured by the

Moslems was immense, and even their rapacity, ordinarily insatiable,

was for once appeased. The variety and number of the precious objects

which met their bewildered gaze was so great, that the rude warriors of

the Atlas not infrequently turned aside from the splendid vestments and

jewel-studded furniture destined for the service of the Church, to more

portable and gorgeous baubles which caught their momentary fancy. It is

related by the most accurate of the Christian and Moorish chroniclers,

that two Berbers, having found an altar-cloth of gold brocade enriched

with rows of hyacinths and emeralds which was too heavy for them to

carry, cut out that portion containing the jewels and rejected the

balance as worthless. Another, who had secured a golden vase filled

with pearls, kept the precious receptacle, but, ignorant of their

value, cast away its contents. In the cathedral were found many votive

crowns of gold, each inscribed with the name of a Gothic king. The

confusion incident to a hasty flight had left in the religious houses

of every description a vast amount of wealth, which fell into the hands

of the conqueror. An apartment was discovered in the palace occupied by

Tarik which was literally filled with the treasures and royal insignia

of the various dynasties which had for ages swayed the fortunes of

the Visigothic monarchy. Chains and diadems, urns and uncut jewels,

sceptres, richly decorated weapons, costly armor, robes of cloth of

gold, have been enumerated among the spoil by the historians of the

time; by the Christian, with regret and shame, by the Mohammedan, with

all the exultation of victory.

After the surrender of the capital, Tarik, leaving the city in charge

of his faithful adherents, the Jews, at once advanced northward

in pursuit of the retreating Goths. The latter, in every instance

when it was possible, upon the appearance of the cloud of turbaned

horsemen, abandoned their burdens and took refuge in the mountain

fastnesses. Overtaking a body of fugitives a short distance beyond

Toledo, Tarik captured a magnificent table, or lectern--used to support

the Gospels--which had belonged to the cathedral; whose origin the

romantic credulity of that age attributed to Solomon, and supposed to

be a portion of the booty brought by Titus from the sack of Jerusalem;

but which more reliable accounts have demonstrated to have been the

handiwork of Visigothic artisans. The body and framework of this

precious jewel were of the purest gold. Into it were inserted alternate

rows of hyacinths, rubies, pearls, and emeralds, and, as it was the

custom of each monarch to contribute something to its embellishment,

royal emulation had exhausted itself to surpass the efforts of

preceding reigns in the decoration of an object whose sanctity made

it more priceless in the eyes of the superstitious than even the

inestimable value of its materials and ornamentation. It stood upon

four feet, the latter being so encrusted with emeralds as to convey the

impression that each was formed of a single stone. This table, whose

estimated value was five hundred thousand crowns, and which has been

described with such exaggeration as to have even aroused the doubts of

historical critics concerning its existence, was set aside with the

portion of the spoil destined for the Khalif.

The capture of Toledo was the last important exploit of the Berber

general, whose success could not atone for the gross insubordination of

which he was guilty. A few other cities had been taken, a large area of

territory had been ravaged, when the news of the approach of Musa, and

the anticipation of his commander’s wrath, suddenly checked the career

of Tarik in the full flush of conquest and glory.

The fame and popularity of the latter as well as the report of the

vast riches amassed by him had excited, to the full measure of their

malignity, the envy and the hatred of Musa. The adventurers who had

hastened to Iberia to serve under the standard of Tarik had depleted

the garrisons of Africa, and it was fourteen months after the main

expedition had sailed before Musa was able to muster a sufficient force

to take the field in person. Crossing the strait with a numerous body

of troops--which included representatives of the most distinguished

families of Arabia, many of whom had enjoyed the rare distinction of

being friends of the Companions of the Prophet, as well as the flower

of the African soldiery--he disembarked at Ghezirah-al-Khadra. His

jealousy of the success of Tarik, and the certainty that the Berbers

had left no city or hamlet unplundered in their march, led Musa to

desire to proceed to Toledo by a different route. Informed of his

wish, his guides promised to gratify him, and place within his power

cities of far greater extent and magnificence than those which had

submitted to his rebellious lieutenant. They conducted him first to

Carmona, which, like most of the other towns of Andalusia, had cast

off the Moslem yoke as soon as the departure of the army of Tarik had

inspired its inhabitants with confidence; and this well-fortified

place, despite its strength, seems to have at once yielded to the

summons of the invader. Seville, then as now one of the largest,

wealthiest, and most beautiful cities of Spain, was next besieged. One

month sufficed to reduce it, but not without many bloody engagements,

in which the Moslems sustained considerable loss. A garrison was left

in the citadel, and Musa marched upon Merida, famous from the days of

the Romans for its massive fortifications, its imposing public works,

and the architectural grandeur and richness of its temples. Founded

by the veterans of Augustus, and honored with his name, Merida still

retained, in the eighth century, a few of the stupendous memorials of

her pristine splendor, which nearly three hundred years before had so

impressed the astonished barbarians of Germany, and now exerted their

awe-inspiring influence upon the simple and superstitious tribesmen of

Africa and Arabia. The partiality of the Roman emperors had lavished

upon this provincial capital treasures that had enabled its citizens

to raise structures rivalling those of Rome itself. Bridges, of such

extraordinary length and huge proportions as to almost defy the

efforts of modern science to demolish them, crossed the sandy bed of

the sluggish Guadiana. Aqueducts, suspended upon tiers of graceful

arches, traversed, high in air, the populous and highly cultivated

plain. Monuments of the reigns of Hadrian and Trajan spanned the

streets and towered in the forum. In the suburbs stood the theatre,

the circus, and the naumachia; buildings worthy of the taste and

grandeur of any city of the empire. The population was one of the

most prosperous and opulent in the kingdom. The archiepiscopal see of

Merida vied in dignity and influence with the primacy of Toledo. It had

not been many years since the vassals and slaves of the metropolitan,

to the number of nearly a thousand, glittering with jewels and cloth

of gold, had dazzled the eyes of the populace, and excited the envy

of the nobles, while participating in the ceremonial pageantry of

the Church--exhibitions so well adapted to impress the beholder with

the greatness, the pomp, and the resources of ecclesiastical power.

Well might the enthusiasm of the predatory Arab be excited by the

architectural magnificence and historic souvenirs of the far-famed

capital of Lusitania! While the gigantic proportions of its edifices

called forth his admiration, and led him to attribute their erection

to giants and demons, his avarice was, at the same time, stimulated by

the thought of the booty to be obtained by the pillage of a place of

such extent and importance. But the inhabitants, worthy of the renown

of their ancestors, and undismayed by the sudden appearance of an

unknown foe, did not hesitate to engage him on equal terms. A series

of combats followed, in which the valor of the besieged acquired for

them a temporary advantage. In the face of such determined resistance,

and wholly unacquainted with the methods of carrying on a siege, the

Moslems began to falter. But their veteran commander, confident in his

skill, now brought to bear the experience which he had acquired in many

hard-fought campaigns in Syria and Africa. The city was completely

blockaded. Every foraging party which issued from the gates was

intercepted and captured or cut to pieces. The stratagems of Berber

warfare were adopted to the confusion of an intrepid but unwary enemy.

Detachments which sallied forth to attack the besieging lines were

lured into ambush and annihilated. Military engines familiar to that

age were constructed, but the activity and courage of the Visigoths

were such that, although breaches were made, no forlorn hope could

effect a lodgment within the fortifications; and one which succeeded

in penetrating them--a circumstance which gave to the place where

it occurred the suggestive name of the Tower of the Martyrs-- was

destroyed to a man. Each day, with the rising of the sun, the battle

was renewed, and Musa saw with rage and apprehension his well-tried

veterans and the bravest of his officers perish before his eyes. The

fortifications appeared impregnable; and had it not been for the

opportune arrival of Abd-al-Aziz, the son of the Arab general, with a

reinforcement of seven thousand cavalry and five thousand crossbow-men,

the Moslems would have been compelled to abandon the undertaking.

Disheartened by this change in their fortunes, and beginning to suffer

from a scarcity of provisions, the inhabitants of Merida now made

overtures for a surrender. Although in the position of suppliants, the

envoys provoked the resentment of Musa by their demeanor, and several

conferences were necessary before the citizens would condescend to

accept the usual terms of capitulation. When all had been arranged and

hostages delivered, the Moslem army took possession of the city. Great

wealth fell into the hands of the grasping Musa, who appropriated as

his slave Egilona, the captive widow of Roderick, a princess whose

subsequent marriage to his son Abd-al-Aziz was the source of many

calamities to his family and nation.

The heroic defence of Merida had inspired with the hope of freedom the

cities of the South, upon whom the Moslem yoke but recently imposed sat

lightly, and Seville, Malaga, Granada, and Jaen rose simultaneously in

revolt. The attention of Musa was first directed to Seville, the latest

and most valuable of his recent acquisitions. The rebels of that city

had massacred thirty men of the garrison and put the rest to flight,

while the Jews, true to the instincts of a people long degraded by

servitude, not only refused to assist their allies, but hastened with

cringing servility to make peace once more with their old oppressors.

For this defection, a terrible retribution was exacted. Abd-al-Aziz

carried the place by storm, and put to death without mercy every

Christian and Hebrew male who was found within its walls. The Moslems,

taught by experience the imperative necessity of colonization, and

being now in sufficient numbers to justify a division of their forces,

placed a strong garrison in Seville; while the confiscated lands were

partitioned among the natives of Arabia the Happy present with the

invading army, who hastened to take possession of the luxurious estates

of the Gothic merchants and nobility. This was the first instance of

the settlement of conquered territory by the natives of a particular

country, afterwards so common under Mohammedan rule; a stroke of policy

whose effects are to this day apparent in the traditions, the dialects,

the customs, and the popular superstitions of the different provinces

of Spain. Abd-al-Aziz easily reduced to obedience the remaining

rebellious cities of Andalusia, which, colonized in like manner,

remained ever faithful to their allegiance. A portion of Murcia was

also occupied; and unusually advantageous terms were, at the surrender

of Orihuela, accorded to the Christians through the address of the

Gothic general Theodomir, whom, after the death of Roderick, a faction

of the Goths had invested with the supreme command.

The authorities are so contradictory that it is impossible to ascertain

how far into the enemy’s country Tarik penetrated after the capture of

Toledo. It is probable, however, that his operations were mere inroads,

destitute of historical importance. The spirit of the nation was

broken; its armies were scattered; its leaders killed or enslaved; its

capital in the hands of the enemy. The subjugation of the Peninsula was

virtually ended, and the successful general could well afford to rest

upon his laurels and devise means to avert the just indignation of his

superior, provoked by flagrant disobedience to his orders, an offence

which under the strict regulations of military law was punishable with

death.

The two captains met at Talavera, whither Tarik in his anxiety had

advanced, attended by his officers and loaded with costly presents,

the choicest spoil of the Visigothic capital. The envious spirit of

Musa, however, was not to be appeased by gifts whose splendor only

served to suggest the greater value of the plunder which he had lost.

He assailed his insubordinate lieutenant with bitter reproaches, and,

forgetting the magnitude of his recent services, even went so far

as to remind him of his former servile condition by striking him in

the presence of the entire army. Then placing him under arrest, he

hurried to Toledo, and ordered him instantly to collect and deliver

all the booty which had fallen into his hands at the surrender of

the city. Of the latter, the so-called table of Solomon, whose fame

had long before reached Musa, was by far the most valuable. Tarik,

thoroughly cognizant of the baseness and injustice of his commander,

and suspecting that he would appropriate as his own the credit of this

important prize, with an astuteness worthy of his Berber origin, had

secretly removed one of its emerald-studded feet. In this condition it

was delivered to Musa, who, being assured that it was thus mutilated

when found, had the missing foot replaced with one of gold; no jewels

of corresponding size being obtainable, although the collections of

individuals and the coffers of the Gothic treasury were diligently

ransacked for that purpose. Musa, having secured the coveted booty,

now deprived Tarik of his command, and threw him into a dungeon. The

keen foresight of the Berber chieftain, who knew that such a step was

only the prelude to assassination, did not abandon him in this trying

emergency. Having, through the mediation of his friends, succeeded

in bribing a messenger whom Musa despatched to Damascus, a special

envoy was sent by the Khalif ordering the immediate release of the

illustrious captain and his restoration to authority. With unconcealed

reluctance Musa complied with the orders of his sovereign, and Tarik,

relieved of his chains, resumed his duties amidst the acclamations

of the troops. A temporary and apparent reconciliation was effected

between the antagonistic leaders, who in public treated each other with

courtesy, but in whose hearts smouldered the inextinguishable fires of

mutual hatred, kindled by unpardonable wrong and baffled enmity. With

united forces, eager for glory, they invaded Aragon. Each horseman was

provided with a small copper pot, a leathern bag for provisions, and a

bottle for water; the infantry carried nothing but their arms. The camp

equipage was loaded on trains of pack-mules. Military and political

considerations required and enforced the observance of the strictest

discipline. Non-combatants were unmolested. Pillage was forbidden

under pain of death, save in actual battle and during the storming of

cities. The religious prejudices of the people were respected, and no

property was destroyed except when resistance or violence was offered

the troops. The province was overrun, and its capital, Saragossa, taken

and settled by adventurers from Africa. Upon the inhabitants of this

city Musa imposed a fine new in the annals of Islam, denominated the

Contribution of Blood, which was exacted before the army entered the

gates and exempted the conquered from annoyance. The Valley of the

Ebro pleased the colonists, who intermarried with the people, and the

governor, Hanash-Ibn-Ali, signalized his administration by the erection

of a splendid mosque, vestiges of which still remain. Catalonia and

Valencia next submitted to the common fate, and then the two generals,

reversing their course, marched to the wild region of the West where,

among the mist-enshrouded sierras of Galicia and the Asturias, the

remnant of the Visigothic nation, led by its honored prelates and

indomitable chieftains, had borne its venerated relics and its

household gods; to lay under such unpromising auspices the foundations

of a far grander and more powerful empire, destined in after years to

command the admiration and the terror of the world.

The reports of Musa to the Khalif show that the Arabs fully appreciated

the value and importance of their conquest. “In the clearness of the

sky and the beauty of its landscape it resembles Syria; in softness of

climate even Yemen is not its superior; in profusion of flowers and

delicacy of perfumes it suggests the luxury of India; it rivals Egypt

in the fertility of its soil, and China in the variety and excellence

of its minerals,” wrote the experienced veteran to whom the wealth

and resources of both Asia and Africa were familiar. The multitude

of captives acquired by the Moslems struck the old general with

surprise. “It is like the assembly of nations on the Day of Judgment,”

he exclaimed; although he doubtless remembered that Mauritania had

yielded its prisoners by the hundred thousand, and human chattels were

so cheap that it was not an unusual occurrence for an able-bodied

man to be sold in the bazaar of Kairoan for a handful of pepper. A

female merchant, who dealt in trinkets and perfumes, left Toledo after

its surrender with five hundred slaves in her train. Thirty thousand

Christian maidens, selected for their beauty, were destined for the

markets of the East. The Jews especially reaped a rich harvest from

the misfortunes of their former oppressors. Profiting by the ignorance

of the soldiers, they purchased for trifling sums the sacred utensils

of the altar, the jewels which had graced the beauties of the court,

and all the rich and costly appliances of Gothic luxury. From the

Saracen conquest, with the enormous wealth it afforded them, dates the

prominence subsequently attained by the Hebrews in the political and

financial affairs of Europe.

The strange fatality which preserved for future greatness and renown

the broken fragments of the Visigothic monarchy, even now at the very

outset, when it seemed inevitable that the entire Peninsula should

become Mohammedan, asserted its mysterious power. Tarik had reached

Astorga and Musa was still at Lugo, when a message was delivered from

the Khalif Al-Walid ordering both generals to return to Damascus.

This step had been resolved upon, not so much on account of the

mutual hostility of the two leaders which, manifested even in their

despatches, seriously impaired the prestige of the Moslem arms and

menaced the stability of the Moslem conquests, as from fear lest the

ambition of Musa might lead him to usurp the sovereignty of the newly

acquired possessions. Prudential considerations also prevented the

appointment of Tarik as governor of the Peninsula. His popularity

was even greater than that of Musa, and the remote situation of the

conquered territory was but too favorable for the establishment of

an independent monarchy, whose subjection in case of rebellion would

be difficult, if not impossible. The aspiring genius of the veteran

commander had formed a vast scheme of conquest, a project so grand

as at first sight to appear extravagant, yet which, after careful

examination, might be considered far from impracticable. It was his

wish to emulate the example and surpass the achievement of Hannibal

by traversing Europe, and to meet before the walls of Constantinople

an army which could co-operate with him in the siege and capture

of the Byzantine capital. Had this gigantic design been realized,

the domain of the Khalifate of Damascus would have far exceeded the

limits of the Roman Empire. He had seen with what ease the Visigothic

kingdom, possessed of incalculable wealth, and animated by the

military traditions of three centuries, had been subverted in a day.

The unprecedented success of their recent military operations had

induced the fanatical and credulous soldiery to regard themselves as

the special favorites of Allah. It was moreover a matter of common

notoriety that the able chieftain who had crushed, and then converted,

the hitherto independent tribes of the Libyan Desert and the Atlas

Mountains, and swept resistlessly over the plains of the Peninsula,

had, in campaigns which extended over an entire generation, never

failed in an enterprise or lost a battle. The very mention of a crusade

against the infidel roused the wildest passions in the Moslem’s

heart. Unlimited treasure was available for any undertaking, however

extensive; a consideration of but little moment, however, with a force

accustomed to be paid in booty, and whose subsistence was wrested from

the enemy. The barbarian monarchy of France, perpetually vexed by

internal dissensions, was not likely to offer more serious impediments

to invasion than those which had vanished before the tempest of the

Guadalete. Was it then chimerical for Musa to hope that, with the

combined aid of his own genius and the invincible prowess of his

veterans, he might add to the domains of the successor of Mohammed the

fairest regions of Europe, in the very seat of the Papacy proclaim

from the towers of the Eternal City the doctrines of Islam, and,

passing eastward, exchange greetings upon the shores of the Bosphorus

with his friends and brethren of Syria? This plan of conquest,

doubtless suggested by the invasion of the Carthaginian general, but

which promised far more important results, owing to the thoroughly

disorganized condition of the provinces once constituting the Roman

Empire, an enterprise worthy of the ambition and daring of any military

leader, was unhesitatingly condemned by the suspicious Khalif, who saw

in its successful execution the portentous menace of a rival monarchy.

With inexpressible grief and vexation, yet, to some degree, sustained

by the hope that a personal interview might accomplish what written

explanation had failed to do, Musa prepared to obey the mandate of

his sovereign. In furtherance of this resolution, and to gratify a

not unreasonable vanity, he determined to parade before the court and

populace of Damascus the trophies of Africa and Spain with a pomp

proportionate to the splendor of those conquests.

A general rendezvous was appointed at Seville, now designated as the

capital of the kingdom, by reason of its proximity to the sea, and

its ease of access to the Moslem settlements of Africa. There were

assembled the spoil of palaces, the sacrilegious plunder of churches,

the booty of many a battle-field, the throngs of noble captives, the

insignia of fallen royalty. Ponderous vehicles were constructed for

the conveyance of this treasure, whose value for once exceeded the

wildest estimates of Oriental exaggeration. When all was ready, Musa,

having appointed his son Abd-al-Aziz viceroy during his absence,

crossed over to Ceuta. In obedience to orders issued previously to his

arrival, every town of Al-Maghreb in the line of march contributed its

contingent to increase the magnificence of the triumph. The fierce

chieftains of Mauritania trooped after the victor in the character of

warriors, proselytes, or slaves. Heaped in picturesque confusion upon

endless strings of camels were the primitive spoils of the Desert--rude

weapons, defensive armor, wearing apparel, and coarse trappings upon

which had been lavished all the resources of barbaric decoration.

Hundreds of the wild and beautiful Kabyle maidens, selected for their

superior charms and fettered with chains of gold, toiled wearily along

the dusty roads which ultimately led to the distant harems of Syria.

Four hundred Gothic nobles, in whose veins coursed the royal blood,

clothed in gorgeous robes secured by golden girdles, and crowned

with diadems, represented the departed fortunes of the dynasties

of Iberia. Thirty wagons hardly sufficed to convey the enormous

quantities of gold, silver, and precious stones--objects of public

ostentation, private luxury, and personal adornment--the gem-encrusted

receptacles of the Host, the costly vessels of the mass, besides other

and innumerable mementos of the most finished efforts of Visigothic

opulence and Byzantine art. Among the guards of Musa, splendidly

equipped, rode descendants of the proudest families of the Koreish,

and the most distinguished officers of the Moslem army. In the rear of

this brilliant cavalcade followed, to the number of more than a hundred

thousand, the less important captives taken in the campaigns of Africa

and Spain.

Arrived at Kairoan, Musa divided the government of Africa among his

three sons Abdallah, Abd-al-Melik, and Abd-al-Ala, in the hope of

perpetuating in his family the authority which he realized that he now

held by an uncertain tenure, and then resumed his journey.

Tidings of his approach having preceded him, the wanderers of the

Desert and the inhabitants of the cities of the coast alike poured

forth in countless multitudes to do him honor. It was a strange

and impressive spectacle, one which had not been seen since the

laurel-crowned victor, preceded by his trophies and his captives, had

traversed the streets of Rome amid the acclamations of the populace,

to deposit his offerings upon the shrine of the Capitoline Jupiter.

With the progress of the triumphal procession the number of curious

spectators increased, reaching its culmination at Cairo, where the way

was blocked by the teeming myriads from the banks of the Nile. During

the course of the journey, Musa, elated beyond measure by the adulation

heaped upon him, was prompted to the commission of an act of tyranny

which seriously prejudiced his fortunes. Desirous of neglecting no

opportunity of magnifying his importance, and utterly unscrupulous in

appropriating the credit due to others, he demanded of Mugayth-al-Rumi

the captive governor of Cordova, whom the latter held as his slave, and

designed as a present to the Khalif. Upon the refusal of that officer

to comply with his demand, Musa ordered the immediate execution of the

Gothic prince, and by this deed of violence and injustice increased the

enmity of Mugayth-al-Rumi, whose sympathies had already been enlisted

on the side of Tarik, his friend and former comrade in arms.

Hardly had Musa passed the borders of Syria, when there was placed

in his hands a secret message from Suleyman, heir presumptive of the

Khalifate, announcing the fatal illness of his brother Al-Walid,

and desiring him not to advance further until he received authentic

information of the death of his sovereign. Suleyman was induced to

make this request, not only on account of the prestige which his

accession to the throne would derive by the public exhibition of the

vast plunder of the nations of the West, but also because the personal

gifts presented to the family of the Khalif, presumably of immense

value, would be lost to his successor. Musa, however, whose native tact

and shrewdness seem to have been diminished by age and disappointment,

paid no attention to the representations of Suleyman; and without an

hour’s delay marched on to Damascus. He entered the city on Friday,

and proceeding to the great mosque, where Al-Walid was at prayer,

entered at the head of the captive nobles and chieftains, all of

whom were clothed in the costumes of their respective countries and

adorned with the insignia of their rank. After the service the Khalif

embraced Musa, clothed him with his own robe, and presented him with

fifty thousand dinars, in addition to pensioning his sons and the most

worthy of his subordinates. The inferior captives and the royal fifth

were then placed in the custody of the officers of the Treasury. The

wonderful table was, as Tarik had conjectured it would be, claimed by

Musa, who, on being interrogated concerning the golden foot, declared

it was in that condition when he found it. Thereupon, Tarik, who was

present, advanced, claimed the honor of the capture, and after relating

the stratagem he had practised, produced the missing portion in

corroboration of his testimony, to the speechless rage and confusion of

his rival. Al-Walid, who estimated this work of art solely by the value

of its materials, caused the jewels to be removed, and then sent the

frame of the table as an offering to the temple of Mecca.

Forty days after Musa’s arrival at Damascus Al-Walid died, and Suleyman

ascended the throne. The latter, notorious for the ferocity of his

disposition and the vulgarity and gluttony of his tastes, lost no

time in imposing upon Musa the full weight of his displeasure. The

first judicial act of his administration was the arraignment of the

veteran general, now more than eighty years of age. The evidence of

corruption, extortion, and tyranny, to which Musa could make but a

feeble defence, having been presented, he was found guilty, sentenced

to be stripped of his property, and required to pay a fine of two

hundred thousand pieces of gold. In addition to this severe penalty,

he was also forced to remain chained to a post under a blazing sun,

as a punishment for having publicly reproached the Khalif for his

ingratitude. Through the intercession of friends he was released

after many hours of torture, and permitted to retire from the court,

accompanied by a single faithful slave. His remaining years were passed

in poverty; dependent upon alms, he begged his bread from the Bedouin

tribes, putting aside every dirhem he could obtain to be applied to

the payment of his fine, until he died in abject wretchedness at

Wada-al-Kora, a remote settlement of Arabia. Such was the miserable

end of one of the greatest military leaders Islam ever produced. His

courage was dauntless, his sagacity almost amounted to inspiration,

his resources were inexhaustible. His zeal, which bordered upon

fanaticism, assured him of the favor of Allah, and infused into his

troops the most unbounded confidence in his genius. The bursts of his

oratory rivalled in eloquence and enthusiasm the rhetorical efforts

of the greatest preachers of the age. He observed the ceremonial of

his faith with scrupulous diligence. His prudence and the accuracy of

his perceptions were proverbial. In all his experience, where he held

command in person, no enemy ever prevailed over him. His suspicious

nature and intuitive knowledge of mankind made him more than a match

for statesmen whose lives had been passed in the atmosphere of courts.

Increasing his wealth by the most questionable methods, he excluded

his companions from all participation in his prosperity, and under his

incessant peculation the royal revenues were sensibly diminished, an

offence which more than all others insured his ruin. Thus, in spite of

his extraordinary talents, his avarice--whose gratification no bond

of friendship, no obligation of loyalty, no precept of religion, and

no fear of punishment could restrain--proved his destruction, and the

famous commander who had acquired kingdoms, and accumulated wealth

which excited the envy of princes, died poor and despised; an outcast

in the centre of a barren and lonely region far from the scenes of

his glory, and an object of curiosity and compassion to the barbarian

shepherds and brigands of the Desert. History is silent as to the fate

of Tarik after the settlement of his controversy with Musa. Had he been

prominent thereafter in either good or evil fortune, it is certain that

the Arabian chroniclers would have mentioned the fact. It is probable

that he was permitted to pass the remainder of his life in obscurity

and comfort, if not in luxury; and it is beyond question that he was

not intrusted with any important employment; for the jealous court

of Damascus feared the ambition and the ability of the distinguished

general who had achieved the most splendid conquest of his time. And

thus disappeared from the stage of the world the second of those

noted characters to whom was due the acquisition of the beautiful

land of Iberia by the crown of the Khalifate. Of Count Julian, the

third and last of them, whom the undiscerning prejudice of monkish

writers and the animosity of churchman and Spaniard, intensified by

baffled ambition and injured pride, have for thirty-six generations

branded with the name of traitor, we have accounts but little less

unsatisfactory. His nationality, his antecedents, his relations to the

Goths, the origin of his appointment as governor of Ceuta, the scope

of his authority, his obligations to the court of Toledo, are, for the

most part, matters of conjecture. Even the story of the outrage to his

family, the immediate cause of his defection, though supported by the

testimony of almost every Arab chronicler, has been disputed. There are

excellent reasons for presuming that he occupied the position of a mere

tributary of the King of the Visigoths, and had voluntarily surrendered

his daughter as a pledge of his fidelity. Under these circumstances

his allegiance could not have been deeply grounded; and his conduct

appears under a less odious aspect than the treason of an hereditary

vassal would have done, especially when it is remembered that he

was not the aggressor. The general and unqualified abhorrence with

which his name is associated can be traced to ecclesiastical writers,

who have neglected no opportunity to blacken the character of every

political adversary, heretic, and apostate in the eyes of posterity.

After the Conquest, Count Julian retired to Ceuta, which city, with a

portion of the contiguous territory, was erected into a principality

and bestowed upon him as a reward for his services. Notwithstanding

his intimate Mohammedan associations, he and his immediate descendants

remained steadfast in the Christian faith. The preponderating

influence of Islam was, however, shown in the second generation of his

descendants; and his great-grandson Abu-Suleyman-Ayub, who lived in

the tenth century, and had studied under the greatest doctors of the

time, became famous as one of the most acute and learned expounders of

Moslem jurisprudence. The posterity of Tarik was known and esteemed for

several centuries in Spain, until his identity and remembrance were

finally lost in the civil wars and proscriptions which accompanied the

establishment of the dynasty of the Almohades.

The engagements entered into with their allies were performed by

the Moslems with scrupulous fidelity. Oppas was rewarded with the

government of Toledo. The royal demesnes, amounting to three thousand

of the richest estates of the kingdom, were restored to the House of

Witiza. Many benefits at once resulted to the masses from the Arab

conquest. The condition of the serfs was greatly improved. Tribute

was regulated by law, and ceased to be dependent upon the capricious

demands of avarice. The burdens of taxation were, however, still

excessive; the cultivator paid four-fifths of the products of the land

to the owner; from those who tilled the public domain--which comprised

a fifth part of the conquered territory--one-third of the results of

all manual industry was exacted. The tax of the landed proprietor was

approximately twenty per cent. of his income, that of the tributary

Christian varied from twelve to forty-eight dirhems--sixteen to

sixty-four dollars--a year. A treaty, whose provisions determined the

obligations of lord and serf, of subject and sovereign, and signed by

Tarik and the representatives of the Gothic nobility before the arrival

of Musa, was subsequently ratified by the government of Damascus. Upon

this treaty were based all the laws which governed the tributaries in

the Peninsula during the long period of Moslem dominion.

Less than fourteen months sufficed for the complete and irrevocable

overthrow of the Visigothic empire. Within two years, the authority

of the Moslem was firmly established from the Mediterranean to the

Pyrenees. History presents no similar instance of the celerity, the

completeness, the permanence of conquest. Political discord, social

disintegration, the uncertainty of government, the insubordination of

the noble, the rapacity of the priest, the despair of the slave, were

among the most important aids to Mohammedan success. The aspirations

of all not included in the privileged orders were repressed by the

inexorable tyranny of caste. The middle class, from whose exertion and

industry is necessarily derived the prosperity of a nation, had long

been absorbed by the vast body of serfs whose labors contributed to the

wealth, and whose numbers swelled the retinues, of the palatine and the

bishop. The same conditions prevailed which had three centuries before

heralded the fall of the Roman Empire. Force dominated everything.

The spirit of individual freedom, the most prominent feature of the

Teutonic constitution, had become extinct. The royal prerogative

was subordinated to the claims of the nobility, the latter--not,

however, without protest--had fallen under the dominion of the

priesthood. The prospect of affluence, the enjoyment of power, the

indulgence of luxury, were most easily obtained through the avenues

of ecclesiastical preferment. A long peace, attributable largely to

geographical isolation, had removed alike the necessity for martial

exercises and the incentives to military distinction. Concentration

of power, in spite of apparent anarchy, in the end tending to the

exercise of absolute despotism, had become the controlling principle

of government. Yet all of these evidences of national decadence are

scarcely adequate to explain the sudden collapse of a great monarchy.

Disappointed ambition, organized treason, the wholesale defection of

the Jews, contributed their weighty influence to hasten and complete

the catastrophe. Among the Visigoths, patriotism, a quality necessarily

dependent upon individual attachment to one’s country, was unknown.

Public spirit had been supplanted by a thirst for authority, in the

gratification of which all moral considerations were ignored. The

facility with which the Peninsula was won offers a suggestive contrast

to the enormous difficulties which attended its reconquest. The fate

of the Visigothic domination was determined in a week. After two short

years, nothing remained of its greatness but the melancholy souvenirs

of an enslaved people. The conquerors, in their turn, underwent the

same experience. The irreconcilable elements of which they were

composed, from the very beginning disclosed the defects of their polity

which portended inevitable destruction. These elements were far more

active and dangerous than those that had undermined the strength of

the Gothic state. Nevertheless, it required many centuries of conflict

to expel from Western Europe the race whose light-armed horsemen had,

almost without resistance, swept the country from Bætica to Provence,

from the mountains to the sea.

Thus passed into the hands of another branch of the Semitic race a

country which, in former ages, had long flourished under the rule of

Tyre and Carthage. Its attractions had been for centuries the theme of

every poet, its wealth the aim of every conqueror. Despite repeated

changes of government, invasions, conspiracies, revolutions, in its

inaccessible fastnesses, its autochthons, the Basques, had preserved

unimpaired their liberty and their national characteristics, a fate

which distinguished them from all the other nations of Europe. On

the fields of the Peninsula the most renowned soldiers of Rome had

learned the art of war. The highest civilization of the Teutonic race

had been attained in its cities. In its tribunals the most complete

system of jurisprudence the world had until then known was perfected.

The dignity of its ecclesiastical councils had maintained their

independence, and enabled the Spanish hierarchy to withstand alike the

insidious plots and the aggressive usurpations of the Papacy. But, of

the many races of strangers which had established themselves within

its borders, none had been of such a pronounced and original type as

that which now occupied all but a small corner of its ample domain.

The causes which led to, and the results which proceeded from, this

national catastrophe present one of the most curious phases of civil

organization and mental development. That an exotic people should at

one blow overturn a monarchy of three centuries’ duration is certainly

extraordinary. But that this same people, who possessed nothing in

common with the vanquished, no acquaintance with the arts, no knowledge

of civilization, should, in a few years, found an empire whose

inhabitants had already become eminent in every accomplishment which

renders nations learned, illustrious, and powerful, and be able to take

precedence of all their contemporaries, is far more extraordinary.

For an extended period, the affairs of the Peninsula had been ripe

for a domestic upheaval. Little respect remained among the masses for

the traditions of a monarchy once elective, now nominally hereditary,

but whose crown was always obtainable by purchase, assassination,

or intrigue. The piety of the priesthood had been supplanted by an

insatiable thirst for temporal power. In every part of the body politic

flourished antagonistic religious doctrines, racial prejudices,

factious opinions, and discordant social interests. The military

spirit had disappeared. The authority of the civil magistrate was

despised. The enforcement of the laws was regulated according to the

rank and influence of the offender rather than by the measure of his

guilt. Rival candidates for the throne contended for the glittering

prize with all the infamous arts of the conspirator and the demagogue.

Organized bands of robbers preyed upon the defenceless; and their

chieftains, disdaining disguise, stalked insolently through the streets

of the great cities. Boundless luxury and misgovernment had brought

in their train a degree of corruption which equalled that caused by

the worst excesses of the Cæsars. The labors of the husbandman for two

successive seasons had been fruitless, and hunger and disease in their

most fearful form contributed in no small degree to the accumulated

misery of the nation. In every community the members of a united and

isolated sect under the ban of sanguinary laws, yet still powerful in

intellect, in wealth, and in political craft, labored as one man for

the humiliation of their enemies and their own emancipation. At first

the invasion was considered as a mere inroad, and no one supposed that

the occupation of the country would be permanent. With the settlement

of colonies, the opening of seaports to the commerce of the East, the

partition of lands, and the erection of mosques, however, the Visigoths

recognized the full extent of the calamity which had befallen them. But

the moderation of their new rulers tempered the bitterness of defeat.

The payment of tribute, proportioned to the degree of resistance or

obedience to the laws, insured protection to the humblest peasant.

The orthodox zealot was allowed to perform the ceremonies of his

ritual without interference; the heretic could offer his petitions

without apprehension from the furious efforts of sectarian hatred.

Ecclesiastical dignitaries exercised in peace the functions of their

calling, and the monkish chronicler penned fierce anathemas against

his indulgent masters within hearing of the call to prayer from a

hundred minarets. The accounts of Catholic writers, in which the most

flagrant outrages are attributed to the Saracens, are manifestly

exaggerations or falsehoods. Still, there can be no doubt that the

inevitable accidents of warfare were productive of much suffering. An

inconsiderable number of monks, whose clamors and insulting demeanor

made them conspicuously offensive, were martyred. A few hundred nuns

exchanged the orthodox companionship of canons and bishops for the

delights of the seraglio. Fields of grain were given to the torch.

Magnificent villas were levelled with the ground. Altars were despoiled

of their treasures and sacred relics trodden under foot. But no pledge

of security was violated; and absolute immunity in person, property,

and religion was afforded by timely submission--a privilege appreciated

by the majority of the people, and contemned only by intemperate

fanatics who cursed the generous enemy whose prosperity they shared and

whose indulgence they abused.

The ancient judicature was respected, and its regulations, subordinated

to the legal procedure of the ruling power, were permitted to prevail

among the vanquished, so far as they did not directly conflict with

those of the Code of Islam. By its example of equity, toleration,

and mercy, the new government rapidly gained the attachment of its

subjects; the Jew prospered, the Christian forgot his bigotry, and the

slave eagerly repeated the formula which released him from bondage and

placed him on an equality with kings.

In the dark recesses of the cloister, without knowledge of the outer

world, without gratitude for the clemency which permitted him to live,

without appreciation of the increasing benefits of civilization, the

surly friar, alone in his malice and his ignorance, nourished a spirit

of sullen animosity, and with scourge and haircloth performed his

frequent penance; listening, with a vague foreboding of even greater

evil to his Church and order, to the muezzin’s daily repetition of that

ominous monotheistic maxim--ever before the eyes of the fanatic Moslem,

whether it appeared carved amidst the marble foliage of his temples,

or, emblazoned upon his banners in letters of gold, it glittered in

the van of his victorious armies--“There is no God but the Immortal,

the Eternal, who neither begets nor was begotten, and who hath neither

companion nor equal.”