uritan strictness of
Mohammedanism with them, had done much towards destroying the highest
cultivation among them before the Spanish kingdoms became united, and
finally triumphed over them. During the long interval of two centuries,
while Castille was by Italian occupied by internal wars, and Aragon
conquests, there had been little aggression on the Moorish borderland,
and a good deal of friendly intercourse both in the way of traffic and
of courtesy, nor had the bitter persecution and distrust of new converts
then set in, which followed the entire conquest of Granada. Thus, when
Ronda was one of the first Moorish cities to surrender, a great merchant
of the unrivalled sword-blades whose secret had been brought from
Damascus, had, with all his family, been accepted gladly when he
declared himself ready to submit and receive baptism. Miguel Abenali
was one of the sons, and though his conversion had at first been mere
compliance with his father's will and the family interests, he had
become sufficiently convinced of Christian truth not to take part with
his own people in the final struggle. Still, however, the inbred
abhorrence of idolatry had influenced his manner of worship, and when,
after half a lifetime, Granada had fallen, and the Inquisition had begun
to take cognisance of new Christians from among the Moors as well as the
Jews, there were not lacking spies to report the absence of all sacred
images or symbols from the house of the wealthy merchant, and that
neither he nor any of his family had been seen kneeling before the
shrine of Nuestra Senora. The sons of Abenali did indeed feel strongly
the power of the national reaction, and revolted from the religion which
they saw cruelly enforced on their conquered countrymen. The Moor had
been viewed as a gallant enemy, the Morisco was only a being to be
distrusted and persecuted; and the efforts of the good Bishop of
Granada, who had caused the Psalms, Gospels, and large portions of the
Breviary to be translated into Arabic, were frustrated by the zeal of
those who imagined that heresy lurked in the vernacular, and perhaps
that objections to popular practices might be strengthened.

By order of Cardinal Ximenes, these Arabic versions were taken away and
burnt; but Miguel Abenali had secured his own copy, and it was what he
there learnt that withheld him from flying to his countrymen and
resuming their faith when he found that the Christianity he had
professed for