excited admiration in every generous bosom. It was obviously most
repugnant to Isabella's natural disposition, and must be admitted to leave
a stain on her memory, which no coloring of history can conceal. It may
find some palliation, however, in the bigotry of the age, the more
excusable in a woman whom education, general example, and natural distrust
of herself accustomed to rely, in matters of conscience, on the spiritual
guides, whose piety and professional learning seemed to qualify them for
the trust. Even in this very transaction, she fell far short of the
suggestions of some of her counsellors, who urged her to put every
inhabitant without exception to the sword; which, they affirmed, would be
a just requital of their obstinate _rebellion_, and would prove a
wholesome warning to others! We are not told who the advisers of this
precious measure were; but the whole experience of this reign shows, that
we shall scarcely wrong the clergy much by imputing it to them. That their
arguments could warp so enlightened a mind, as that of Isabella, from the
natural principles of justice and humanity, furnishes a remarkable proof
of the ascendency which the priesthood usurped over the most gifted
intellects, and of their gross abuse of it, before the Reformation, by
breaking the seals set on the sacred volume, opened to mankind the
uncorrupted channel of divine truth. [31]

The fate of Malaga may be said to have decided that of Granada. The latter
was now shut out from the most important ports along her coast; and she
was environed on every point of her territory by her warlike foe, so that
she could hardly hope more from subsequent efforts, however strenuous and
united, than to postpone the inevitable hour of dissolution. The cruel
treatment of Malaga was the prelude to the long series of persecutions,
which awaited the wretched Moslems in the land of their ancestors; in that
land, over which the "star of Islamism," to borrow their own metaphor, had
shone in full brightness for nearly eight centuries, but where it was now