volume one

# both wifhin and witlioiit, was hastening to its fall ;
niSTOEY OF THE CRUSADES. 5
" thing was perishing in the East," says Bossuet.
every-
A new
religion, a new empire, sprang up easily in the midst of ruins.
The armed doctrine of Mahomet invaded, withm a very
short period, the three Arabias, a part of Syria, and a large
di\T.sion of Persia.
After the death of the Prophet of Mecca, his lieutenants
and the companions of his first exploits carried on his great
work. The sight of conquered provinces only increased the
fanaticism and the bravery of the Saracens. They had no
fear of death in the field of battle, for, according to the
w^ords of their prophet, paradise, with all its voluptuous
pleasures, awaited those who precipitated themselves upon
the enemy, and behind them hell opened its abysses. Their
conquests were so much the more rapid, from their uniting,
in their military and religious government, the prompt deci-
sion of despotism with all the passions that are met with in
a republic. Masters of Persia and Syria, they soon took
possession of Eg)'pt ; their \dctorious battalions flowed on
into Africa, planted the standard of the Prophet upon the
ruins of Carthage, and carried the terror of their arms to
the shores of the Atlantic. Prom India to the Straits of
Cadiz, and from the Caspian Sea to the ocean, language,
manners, religion, everything was changed ; what had
remained of Paganism was annihilated, together with the
worship of the Magi ; Christianity scarcely subsisted, and
Europe itself was threatened with a similar destruction.
Constantinople, which was the bulwark of the "West, saw
before its walls innumerable hordes of Saracens : several
times besieged both by sea and land, the city of Constan-
tino only owed its safety to the Greek fire, to the assistance
of the Bulgarians, and to the inexperience of the Arabs in
the art of navigation.
During the first age of the Hegira, the conquests of the
Mussulmans were only bounded by the sea which separated
but when they had constructed vessels,
them from Europe ;
no nation was safe from their invasion; they ravaged
the isles of the Mediterranean, the coasts of Italy and
Greece ; fortime or treason made them masters of Spain,
where they overturned the monarchy of the Goths ; they
took advantage of the weakness of the children of Clovis to