own was besieged by Hannibal, and had to
surrender. The inhabitants were allowed to leave, unarmed, and taking
away with them only their clothes; the men were searched as they passed
out, but not so the women.

Together men and women left the town. A mile away they halted, and the
women drew forth from beneath their robes concealed weapons. Together
the men and the women returned to their town and stealthily fell upon
their foes, slaughtering them in considerable numbers. Hannibal was so
"enchanted" (!) with the bravery displayed by the women, that he drew
away his army from the town, leaving the patriotic inhabitants to settle
again their beloved Salamanca.

The Western Goths, upon their arrival in Spain, found Salamanca in a
flourishing state, and respected its episcopal see, the origin of which
is ignored. The first bishop we have any record of is Eleuterio, who
signed the third Council of Toledo in 589.

The Arabs treated the city more harshly; it was in turn taken and
destroyed by infidels and Christians; the former sacking frontier towns,
the latter destroying all fortresses they could not hold.

In the eighth century no bishop seems to have existed in Salamanca; in
the tenth, date of a partial reestablishment of the see, seven prelates
are mentioned; these did not, however, risk their skins by taking
possession of their chair, but lived quietly in the north, either in
Santiago--farther north they could not go!--or else in Leon and Burgos.
The eleventh century is again devoid of any ecclesiastical news
connected with the see of Salamanca; what is more, the very name of the
city is forgotten until Alfonso VI. crossed the Guaderrama and fixed his
court in Toledo. This bold step, taken in a hostile country far from the
centre of the kingdom and from his base of operations, obliged the
monarch to erect with all speed a series of fortresses to the north; as
a result, Salamanca, Segovia, and Avila, beyond the Guaderrama
Mountains, and Madrid to the south, were quickly populated by
Christians.

This occurred in 1102; the first bishop _de modernis_ was Jeronimo, a
French warrior-monk, who had accompanied his bosom friend el Cid to
Valencia, had fought beside him, and had been appointed bishop of the
conquered see. Not for any length of time, however, for as soon as el
Cid died, the Moors drove the Christians out of the new kingdom, and the
bishop came to Leon with the Cristo de las Batallas,--a miraculous cross
of o