ars after the death of Almanzor anarchy and
ruin reigned in that city. The gentle, studious youth who was Khalif,
was dragged with his only child to a dismal vault attached to the
great mosque; and here, in darkness and cold and damp, sat the
grandson of the first Great Khalif, his child clinging to his breast
and begging in vain for food, his wretched father pathetically
pleading with his jailers for just a crust of bread, and a candle to
relieve the awful darkness.

The brutal Berbers now had their turn. The priceless library, with its
six hundred thousand volumes, was in ashes. They were in the "City of
the Fairest." Palace after palace was ransacked, and in a few days
all that remained of its exquisite treasures of art was a heap of
blackened stones (1010). The Christians drew their broken state closer
together, and gathered themselves for a more aggressive warfare than
any yet undertaken. The time when the Moors were in the throes of
civil war was favorable. The three kingdoms of Asturias, Leon, and
Castile were in 1073 united into one "kingdom of Castile," under
Alfonso VI., who had already made great inroads upon the Moslem
territory and laid many cities under tribute. With this event, the
name _Castilian_ comes into Spanish history, and from thenceforth that
name represents all that is proudest, bravest, and most characteristic
of the part of the race which traces a direct lineage from the ancient
Visigoth Kings.

Alfonso had not misjudged his opportunity. He had traversed Spain
with his army, and bathed in the ocean in sight of the "Pillars of
Hercules." His great general Rodrigo Diaz, known as "My Cid, the
Challenger," had cut another path all the way to Valencia, where he
reigned as a sort of uncrowned king; and he will forever reign
as crowned king in the realm of romance and poetry; the perfect
embodiment of the knightly idea--the "Challenger," who, in defense
of the faith, would stand before great armies and defy them to single
combat! Whether "My Cid" ever did such mighty deeds as are ascribed to
him, no one knows. But he stands for the highest ideal of his time.
He was the "King Arthur" of Spanish history; and so valiantly did
he serve the Christian cause that the Moors were driven to a most
disastrous step. With the Cid in Valencia, with Alfonso VI. marching
a victorious army through the Moslem territory, and with Toledo, the
city of the ancient Visigoth Kings, repossessed, it looked as if,
after alm