visions. Miracles were a familiar occurrence. The violated tombs of the
saints sent forth thunders and lightnings to consume the invaders; and,
when the Christians fainted in the fight, the apparition of their patron,
St. James, mounted on a milk-white steed, and bearing aloft the banner of
the cross, was seen hovering in the air, to rally their broken squadrons,
and lead them on to victory. [14] Thus the Spaniard looked upon himself as
in a peculiar manner the care of Providence. For him the laws of nature
were suspended. He was a soldier of the Cross, fighting not only for his
country, but for Christendom. Indeed, volunteers from the remotest parts
of Christendom eagerly thronged to serve under his banner; and the cause
of religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain, as on the plains of
Palestine. [15] Hence the national character became exalted by a religious
fervor, which in later days, alas! settled into a fierce fanaticism. Hence
that solicitude for the purity of the faith, the peculiar boast of the
Spaniards, and that deep tinge of superstition, for which they have ever
been distinguished above the other nations of Europe.

The long wars with the Mahometans served to keep alive in their bosoms the
ardent glow of patriotism; and this was still further heightened by the
body of traditional minstrelsy, which commemorated in these wars the
heroic deeds of their ancestors. The influence of such popular
compositions on a simple people is undeniable. A sagacious critic ventures
to pronounce the poems of Homer the principal bond which united the
Grecian states. [16] Such an opinion may be deemed somewhat extravagant.
It cannot be doubted, however, that a poem like that of the "Cid," which
appeared as early as the twelfth century, [17] by calling up the most
inspiring national recollections in connection with their favorite hero,
must have operated powerfully on the moral sensibilities of the people.

It is pleasing to observe, in the cordial spirit of these early effusions,