n religion as professed by the monks, and,
contented with the luxuries of their new settlements, their military
spirit soon declined. The Saracens, on the other hand, having embraced
the religion of Mohammed, their rage for war received every addition
which can possibly be inspired by religious enthusiasm. Not only the
spoils of the vanquished, but Paradise itself was to be obtained by
their sabres. Strengthened and inspired by a commission which they
esteemed divine, the rapidity of their conquests far exceeded those of
the Goths and Vandals. The majority of the inhabitants of every country
they subdued embraced their religion and imbibed their principles; thus,
the professors of Mohammedanism became the most formidable combination
ever leagued together against the rest of mankind. Morocco and the
adjacent countries had now received the doctrines of the Koran, and the
arms of the Saracens spread slaughter and desolation from the south of
Spain to Italy, and the islands of the Mediterranean. All the rapine and
carnage committed by the Gothic conquerors were now amply returned on
their less warlike posterity. In Spain, and the province now called
Portugal, the Mohammedans erected powerful kingdoms, and their lust of
conquest threatened destruction to every Christian power. But a romantic
military spirit revived in Europe under the auspices of Charlemagne. The
Mohammedans, during the reign of this sovereign, made a most formidable
irruption into Europe; France in particular felt the weight of their
fury. By the invention of new military honours that monarch drew the
adventurous youth of every Christian power to his standards, which
eventually resulted in the crusades, the beginning of which, in
propriety, should be dated from his reign. Few indeed are the historians
of this period, but enough remains to prove, that though the writers of
the old romance seized upon it, and added the inexhaustible machinery of
magic to the adventures of their heroes, yet the origin of their
fictions was founded on historical facts.[34] Yet, however this period
may thus resemble the fabulous ages of Greece, certain it is, that an
Orlando, a Rinaldo, a Rugero, and other celebrated names in romance,
acquired great honour in the wars which were waged against the
Saracens, the invaders of Europe. In these romantic wars, by which the
power of the Mohammedans was checked, several centuries elapsed, when
Alonzo, King of Castile, apprehensive that the