the various court officials were easily won over to her party; the
young kalif was urged to assert his manhood, declare himself, throw off
the influence of his dreaded guardian, and give active support to the
cause of his mother. The sultana became exultant as victory seemed
assured. Secretly, she summoned one of Almanzor's military rivals from
Africa, that she might have a leader for her forces in the field. The
public treasury was at her disposal, and no stone was left unturned to
secure ultimate success. As the final _coup_, the vizier was banished
from the royal presence and forbidden to enter the palace. But Almanzor
was still the Invincible. Giving no heed to the terms of his banishment,
he made his way into the presence of the kalif; and there, by bold yet
subtle argument, he not only succeeded in regaining the royal favor, but
secured from Heschem a solemn instrument signed with the royal sign
manual, whereby he was empowered to assume the government of the entire
kingdom. This was the same tragic story which was to be acted over again
in the early part of the seventeenth century, in France, when the great
prime minister, the Cardinal Richelieu, his jealous rival, the
queen-mother, and the weak king, Louis XIII., were more than once
engaged in a struggle for power, which ended invariably in the success
of the minister. It is difficult to find a more striking historical
coincidence, and the case is worthy of remark. In his success, Almanzor
showed no hate for his one-time protectress, who had so nearly caused
his ruin, and in his administration of affairs he left her entire
liberty of action. But her last vestige of power had departed, her most
loyal followers had been induced to abandon her cause after the
defection of the kalif himself, and Sobeyah, who had been the most
powerful of all the Moorish sultanas of Cordova, was now forced in
humiliation to withdraw from active participation in worldly affairs and
to spend the few remaining years of her life in strict seclusion in a
lonely cloister.

In the last part of the eleventh century there were troublous times for
the Moors. For a number of years there had been no strong central power
among them, and the various emirs who were the rulers of the different
parts of the peninsula were so intent upon their own affairs, and so
consumed by greed and selfishness, that the general cause suffered
mightily and the Spanish Christians grew bolder and bolder in their
attac