test development of the Arabian
creeds, in which the Almighty himself deigned to become a personal
actor, was assisted by the sacred spell of woman. It is not the Empress
Helene alone who has rivalled, or rather surpassed, the exploits of the
most illustrious apostles. The three great empires of the age, France,
England, and Russia, are indebted for their Christianity to female lips.
We all remember the salutary influence of Clotilde and Bertha which bore
the traditions of the Jordan to the Seine and the Thames: it should not
be forgotten that to the fortunate alliance of Waldimir, the Duke of
Moscovy, with the sister of the Greek Emperor Basil, is to be ascribed
the remarkable circumstance, that the intellectual development of all
the Russias has been conducted on Arabian principles. It was the fair
Giselle, worthy successor of the softhearted women of Galilee, herself
the sister of the Emperor Henry the Second, who opened the mind of her
husband, the King of Hungary, to the deep wisdom of the Hebrews, to the
laws of Moses and the precepts of Jesus. Poland also found an apostle
and a queen in the sister of the Duke of Bohemia, and who revealed to
the Sarmatian Micislas the ennobling mysteries of Sinai and of Calvary.

Sons of Israel, when you recollect that you created Christendom, you may
pardon the Christians even their _autos da fe!_

Fakredeen Shehaab, Emir of Canobia, and lineal descendant of the
standard-bearer of the Prophet, had not such faith in Arabian principles
as to dream of converting the Queen of the Ansarey. Quite the reverse;
the Queen of the Ansarey had converted him. From the first moment he
beheld Astarte, she had exercised over him that magnetic influence
of which he was peculiarly susceptible, and by which Tancred at once
attracted and controlled him. But Astarte added to this influence a
power to which the Easterns in general do not very easily bow: the
influence of sex. With the exception of Eva, woman had never guided the
spirit or moulded the career of Fakredeen; and, in her instance, the
sovereignty had been somewhat impaired by that acquaintance of the
cradle, which has a tendency to enfeeble the ideal, though it may
strengthen the affections. But Astarte rose upon him commanding and
complete, a star whose gradual formation he had not watched, and whose
unexpected brilliancy might therefore be more striking even than
the superior splendour which he had habitually contemplated. Young,
beauti