kingdom in Spain was therefore mainly that of the deadly strife
between Arianism and Catholicism, or orthodoxy. The Goths could not
discuss, for they were utterly unable to understand even the terms
under discussion; but they could fight and lay down their lives for
the faith which had done so much for them; and this they did freely
and fiercely.

So the simple Gothic people were bewildered by finding themselves
in the presence of a Christianity incomprehensible to them; a
complicated, highly organized social order, equally incomprehensible;
and a science and a literature of which they knew nothing. They might
struggle for a while against this tide of superiority, but one by one
they entered the fascinating portals of learning and of art, accepted
the dogmas of learned prelates, and a few generations were sufficient
to make them meek disciples of the older civilization.

The Spanish language fairly illustrates the result from this
incongruous mingling of Roman and Gothic. It is said to be a language
of Latin roots with a Teutonic grammar.

The Goths laid rough hands on the speech they consented to use, and
the smooth, sonorous Latin was strangely broken and mixed with Gothic
words and idioms; yet it became one of the most copious, flexible,
and picturesque of languages, with a literature marvelously rich and
beautiful.

In precisely the same way was the classic old ruin of a Roman state
re-enforced with a rough Gothic framework, and after centuries have
hidden the joints and the scars with mosses and verdure, we have a
picturesque and beautiful Spain!

But barbarous kings were fighting other things besides heresy. There
were rebellions to put down; there were remnants of Sueves and of
Roman power to drive out, and there were always the fierce mountain
tribes who never mingled with any conquerors, nor had ever surrendered
to anything but the Catholic faith.

There were intermarriages between the three Gothic kingdoms, in
Burgundy, Gaul, and Spain, and the history of some of these royal
families shows what wild passions still raged among the Goths, and
what atrocities were strangely mingled with ambitious projects and
religion.

Athanagild, one of the Visigoth kings, gave his daughter Brunhilde in
marriage to the King of the Franks in Gaul. The story of this terrible
Queen, stained with every crime, and accused of the death of no less
than ten kings, comes to a fitting end when, we are told, that in
her wicked