." Impressed by this
dramatic presentation of the subject, Isabella was impelled to sign the
decrees which banished the Jews from Spain and led to so much slaughter
and persecution. All of this side of Isabella's character causes some
expression of surprise perhaps, but it must be remembered that her
religious zeal and enthusiasm were such that anyone who dared to oppose
the power of Rome in any way could have no claim upon her of any kind.

This same trait of character is everywhere prominent in Isabella's
treatment of the Moors. In the year 1487 the important Moorish city of
Malaga was compelled finally to surrender to the armies of Fernando and
Isabella after a most heroic defence, but these Christian rulers could
feel no pity for their unfortunate captives, and were unwilling to show
any sense of appreciation of their valor. Accordingly, the whole
population of some fifteen thousand people was sold into slavery and
scattered throughout Europe! Prescott, in his history of the time of
Fernando and Isabella, states that the clergy in the Spanish camp wanted
to have the whole population put to the sword, but to this Isabella
would not consent. Burke gives the following details with regard to the
fate of all these prisoners of war: "A hundred choice warriors were sent
as a gift to the pope. Fifty of the most beautiful girls were presented
to the Queen of Naples, thirty more to the Queen of Portugal, others to
the ladies of her court, and the residue of both sexes were portioned
off among the nobles, the knights, and the common soldiers of the army,
according to their rank and influence." If Isabella showed herself
tender-hearted in not allowing a regular massacre of these poor Moors,
she was far less compassionate with regard to the Jews and the renegade
Christians who were within the walls of Malaga when the city was taken.
These poor unfortunates were burned at the stake, and Albarca, a
contemporary Church historian, in describing the scene, says that these
awful fires were "illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of
Fernando and Isabella."

Isabella shows this same general mental temper in her whole attitude to
war and warlike deeds, for she seems to have possessed little of that
real sentiment or pity which women are supposed to show. Tolstoi has
said that the first and chief thing that should be looked for in a woman
is fear, but this remark cannot be applied in any way to Isabella, for
no fear was ever f