belief. San Fruto, on the other hand, lived
the life of a hermit in the mountains and wrought many miracles, such
as splitting open a rock with his jack-knife, etc. The most miraculous
of his deeds was the proof he gave to the Moors of the genuineness of
the Catholic religion: on a tray of oats he placed the host and offered
it to a mule, which, instead of munching oats and host, fell on its
knees, and perhaps even crossed itself!

Disputed by Arabs and Christians, like all Castilian towns, Segovia
lagged along until it fell definitely into the hands of the latter. A
Christian colony seems, nevertheless, to have lived in the town during
the Arab dominion, because the documents of the time speak of a Bishop
Ilderedo in 940.

The exact year of the repopulation of Segovia is not known, but
doubtless it was a decade or so prior to either that of Salamanca or
Avila.

Neither was the warlike spirit of the inhabitants inferior to that of
their brethren in the last named cities. It was due to their bravery
that Madrid fell into the hands of the Christians toward 1110, for,
arriving late at the besieging camp, the king, who was present, told
them that if they wished to pass the night comfortably, there was but
one place, namely, the city itself. Without a moment's hesitation the
daring warriors dashed at the walls of Madrid, and, scaling them, took a
tower, where they passed the night at their ease, and to their monarch's
great astonishment.

In 1115, the first bishop _de modernis_, Don Pedro, was consecrated, and
the cathedral was begun at about the same time. Several of the
successive prelates were battling warriors rather than spiritual
shepherds, and fought with energy and success against the infidel in
Andalusia. One, Don Gutierre Giron, even found his death in the terrible
defeat of the Christian arms at Alarcon.

The event which brought the greatest fame to Segovia was the erection of
its celebrated Alcazar, or castle, the finest specimen of military
architecture in Spain. Every city had its citadel, it is true, but none
were so strong and invulnerable as that of Segovia, and in the stormy
days of Castilian history the monarchs found a safe retreat from the
attacks of unscrupulous noblemen behind its walls.

Until 1530 the old cathedral stood at the back of the Alcazar, but in a
revolution of the Comuneros against Charles-Quint, the infuriated mob,
anxious to seize the castle, tore down the temple and used its sto