ian nations. She was Spain "the
Catholic"--the loved and favorite child of the Church--and great
monarchs in England, France, and Germany bestowed their sons and
daughters upon her kings and princes. Poor though she was in purse,
and somewhat rude yet in manners, she held up her head high in
proud consciousness of her aristocratic lineage, and her unmatched
championship of Christianity.

We realize how close had become the tie binding her to other nations
when we learn that King Fernando III. was the grandson of Queen
Eleanor of England (daughter of Henry II.), and that Louis IX. of
France, that other royal saint, was his own cousin; and also that his
wife Beatrix, whom he brought with him to Seville, was daughter of
Frederick II., Emperor of Germany.

The deep hold which Arabic life and thought had taken upon their
conquerors was shown when Alfonso X., son of Ferdinand, came to the
throne. So in love was he with learning and science that he let his
kingdom fall into utter confusion while he busied himself with a set
of astronomical tables upon which his heart was set and in holding up
to ridicule the Ptolemaic theory. If he had given less thought to
the stars, and more to the humble question as to who was to be his
successor, it would have saved much strife and suffering to those who
came after him.

While the Moslems were building up their kingdom and making of their
capital city a second and even more beautiful Cordova, there was a
partial truce with the Moors in Granada. Moors and Christians were
enemies still; the hereditary hatreds were only lulled into temporary
repose. But Christian knights who were handsome and gallant might
love and woo Moorish maidens who were beautiful; and, as a writer
has intimated, love became the business and war the pastime of the
Spaniard in Andalusia. Spain was unconsciously inbibing the soft,
sensuous charm of the civilization she was exterminating; and the
peculiar rhythm of Spanish music, and the subtle picturesqueness
which makes the Spanish people unique among the other Latin nations
of Europe, came, not from her Gothic, nor her Roman, nor her Phenician
ancestry, but from the plains of Arabia; and the guitar and the dance
and the castanet, and the charm and the coquetry of her women, are
echoes from that far-off land of poetry and romance. Not so the
bull-fight! Would you trace to its source that pleasant pastime, you
must not go to the East; the Oriental was cruel to man, bu