hristian Europe.

Spain was the extreme western limit of the Roman Empire. It was the plan
of these terrible Saracens, after conquering Spain, to sweep over the
Pyrenees into France. Then another Saracen army, after conquering
Constantinople, was to flow westward, and the two streams would meet at
Rome.

It was a very nice plan--for the Saracens! But they did _not_ get over the
Pyrenees. Nor did they take Constantinople until six hundred years later.
So they were content to establish themselves firmly in Spain and upon the
African coast opposite, and bided their time.

After the occupation of Northern Africa and Spain, they were no longer
call Saracens, but Moors. They lingered in Spain until the discovery of
America; and the final expulsion of the Moors from the Spanish peninsula,
which was effected with great cruelty, took place during the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella. They made Spain beautiful, and they made it great.

When the Goths flowed in a rough torrent over Southern Europe they effaced
civilization. But this Saracen wave of conquest bore on its crest--but
only on its crest--art, refinements, and culture of a type unknown to
Europe. The twilight of the Middle Ages was illumined by a revival of
Greek culture at Constantinople, and by Saracenic art and erudition in
Spain.

For seven hundred years they remained in Spain, which still bears traces
of their beautiful architecture; and the Middle Ages would have been
darker still but for the enriching stores of knowledge brought into Europe
by the Asiatic people.

So in the 8th century there were two great empires in Europe: the Roman
and the Mahometan.

The one had passed its meridian and was swiftly declining. The other, with
irresistible energy, and with the vigor of a terrible youth, made men
tremble for the fate of Christendom.

This Saracen Empire now stretched from the heart of Asia to the outer
confines of Europe. So, like the Roman, it was divided into its Eastern
and Western parts with two Caliphs (or Emperors): one at Bagdad, in Asia
and the other at Cordova in Spain.

A part of their possessions in the East was the spot the most sacred in
the world to Christians. Palestine, the land hallowed by the birth, life,
and death of Christ, was held by these infidels, whose religion required
them to insult and degrade the very name of Christ, and offered rich
rewards for exterminating His followers.

This led to the most heroic event in all history.