lly have been their doom. Constant
relapses into external as well as internal Judaism, there were, but
they were but the signal for increased misery to the whole nation; and
by degrees they ceased. It was from the forcible baptism of the 90,000
Hebrews, by Sisebut, that we may trace the origin of the secret
Jews. From father to son, from mother to daughter, the solemn secret
descended, and gradually spread, still in its inviolable nature,
through every rank and every profession, from the highest priest to
the lowest friar, the general to the common soldier, the noble to the
peasant, over the whole land. There were indeed some few in Spain,
before the final edict of expulsion in 1492, who were Hebrews in
external profession as well as internal observance; but their
condition was so degraded, so scorned, so exposed to constant
suffering, that it was not in human nature voluntarily to sink down
to them, when, by the mere continuance of external Catholicism--which
from its universality, its long existence, and being in fact a rigidly
enforced statute of the state, _could_ not be regarded either as
hypocrisy or sin--they could take their station amongst the very
highest and noblest of the land, and rise to eminence and power in any
profession, civil, military, or religious, which they might prefer.
The subject is so full of philosophical inquiry, that in the limits of
a romance we cannot possibly do it justice; but to accuse the secret
Jews of Spain of hypocrisy, of departing from the pure odinances of
their religion, because _compelled_ to simulate Catholicism, is taking
indeed but a one-handed, short-sighted view of an extensive and
intensely interesting topic. We may often hope for the _present_ by
considering the changes of the _past_; but to attempt to pronounce
judgment on the sentiments of the _past_ by reasoning of the
_present_, when the mind is always advancing, is one of the weakest
and idlest fallacies that ever entered the human breast.

Digression as this is, it is necessary clearly to comprehend the
situation in which Marie's avowal of her religion had placed her,
and her reason for so carefully wording her information as to the
existence of the secret closet, that no suspicion might attach itself
to the religion of her husband. Her confession sent a shock, which
vibrated not only through Isabella's immediate court, but through
every part of Spain. Suspicion once aroused, none knew where it might
end, or on w