The greatness of the Visigothic monarchy had departed with the reign of Wamba, the last of its heroes, and one illustrious for the practice of every public and every private virtue. Deprived of his crown by an artifice which reflected more credit on the astuteness than on the integrity of his successor, he was condemned to pass the latter portion of his life in a convent. The new king Ervigius, after an uneventful reign, left his kingdom to his son-in-law Egiza. The character of the latter monarch, while not destitute of the manly virtues of courage and resolution, was tarnished by insatiable rapacity. He was as persevering in his pursuit of wealth as he was unscrupulous in his methods of obtaining it. He commuted the enforcement of penal laws for the payment of fines, which varied with the pecuniary ability of the culprit to discharge them, without regard to the degree or the circumstances of the crime. Under trivial pretexts, he banished wealthy citizens and confiscated their property. He imposed excessive taxes. Emboldened by the impunity of power, he did not hesitate to resort even to forgery; and, by means of spurious documents, implicated in offences against the state such wealthy individuals as had the hardihood to resist his importunate demands. And, worst of all, he lost no opportunity to appropriate the revenues of the Church, under whatever pretence his ingenuity or his audacity might suggest. By an unprincipled and tyrannical hierarchy the former misdemeanors might be overlooked, but the latter offence was tainted with the double reproach of oppression and sacrilege. After formal and unavailing remonstrance, a plot was formed in 692 by Sisebert, Archbishop of Toledo, which had for its object the assassination of the King and his entire family. Some of the most powerful nobles were involved in this conspiracy, which was hatched by the principal ecclesiastics of the capital. Timely information of the plot having reached the ears of the sovereign, the most vigorous means were taken to counteract it. The metropolitan was arrested and deposed. A number of the chief conspirators were executed or exiled. Scarcely had this conspiracy been suppressed, before the existence of a still more formidable one was revealed. The Hebrews, whose condition under this and the preceding reign had been more favorable than for many years, evincing no gratitude for the leniency with which they had been treated, and remembering only past indignities, exulting in their numbers and influence, and assured of aid from Barbary, made arrangements for a general revolt, with a view to a complete reorganization of the government and the metamorphosis of Spain into an absolutely Jewish kingdom. This treasonable design was discovered, however, almost at the moment when it was ripe for execution. The authorities took measures to insure their safety with exemplary severity. A council was convoked and a decree passed, by