n Madrid on the day hostilities commenced. The following extract
will suffice to show how the religious sentiment of the people was
indirectly appealed to to convince them that Spain was defending a
noble cause.

_Very Beloved Sons_:--

The cursed hunger for gold and the unquenchable thirst for power
have combined to tarnish that flag which the Great Queen Isabella
raised, by the hand of Columbus, in the West Indies. With justice
trodden under foot, the voice of the Pope unheeded, and the
intervention of the nations despised with arrogance, every road
to the counsels of peace has been barred and the horrors of war
have become a necessity. Let Heaven be witness that we are not
the authors of this disaster, and let the responsibility before
God be on that vain people whose dogma seems to be that money
is the God of the world.... There, ploughing the seas, go our
soldiers and our sailors. Have no fear, let no one weep, unless,
indeed, it be for fear of arriving too late for the fray. Go,
braves, to fight with the blessing of the Fatherland. With you
goes all Spain, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, from Irun
to Tarifa. With what envy do We contemplate you weighing anchor
to leave our shores! Oh! why does juvenility, or decrepitude, or
duty deprive us of the joy of taking part in your enterprise? But
no! with you goes our Spanish heart.... May the Immaculate Virgin,
whose scapulary hangs around your necks and whose blessed image
floats on your flags, protect you under her mantle in the moment
of danger, deliver you from all evil, and shower blessings upon
you! May Saint James, patron of Spain, and the martyr Nicodemus
and Saint Telmo and Saint Raymond and the King Saint Ferdinand
go before you and ever march in the vanguard wherever you may go
and make you invulnerable to the bullets of the enemy, so that you
may return victorious to tread once more this noble soil and kiss
the cheek of the weeping mother who bore you!... We, who cannot
go to take part in the battles, will hold and brandish the arms
of prayer, like Moses who prayed on the mountain, whilst Joshua
slew his ferocious enemies in the valley.... God has triumph in
His hand and will give it to whom He pleases. He gave it to Spain
in Covadonga, in Las Navas, in El Salado, in the river of Seville,
on the plain of Granada,