ng the
capitulation it is shown how costly to himself was the alliance of
Mahomet with Alfonso, and how it played its part in the coming of his
coreligionists from Africa to his assistance, and finally, as it proved,
to his own undoing and the supplanting of the power he represented in
the Mahometan government of Spain.)

The fall of Toledo, however it might have been foreseen by the
Mahometans, filled them with equal dismay and indignation. As Mahomet
was too formidable to be openly assailed, they turned their
vociferations of anger against his _hagib_, whom they accused of
betraying the faith of Islam. Alarmed at the universal outcry, Mahomet
was not sorry that he could devolve the heavy load of responsibility on
the shoulders of his minister. The latter fled; but though he procured a
temporary asylum from several princes, he was at length seized by the
emissaries of his offended master; was brought, first to Cordova, next
to Seville; confined within the walls of a dungeon; and soon beheaded by
the royal hand of Mahomet. Thus was a servant of the King sacrificed for
no other reason than that he had served that King too well.

The conquest of Toledo was far from satisfying the ambition of Alfonso:
he rapidly seized on the fortresses of Madrid, Maqueda, Guadalaxara, and
established his dominion on both banks of the Tagus. Mahomet now began
seriously to repent his treaty with the Christian, and to tremble even
for his own possessions. He vainly endeavored to divert his ally from
the projects of aggrandizement which that ally had evidently formed. The
kings of Badajoz and Saragossa became tributaries to the latter; nay, if
any reliance is to be placed on either Christian or Arabic
historians,[29] the King of Seville himself was subjected to the same
humiliation. However this may have been, Mahomet saw that unless he
leagued himself with those whose subjugation had hitherto been his
constant object--the princes of his faith--his and their destruction was
inevitable. The magnitude of the danger compelled him to solicit their
alliance.

[Footnote 29: Conde gives the translation of two letters--one from
Alfonso to Mahomet, distinguished for a tone of superiority and even of
arrogance, which could arise only from the confidence felt by the writer
in his own strength; the other from Mahomet to Alfonso, containing a
defiance. The latter begins:

"To the proud enemy of Allah, Alfonso ben Sancho, who calls himself lord
of b