envoys provoked the resentment of Musa by their demeanor, and several conferences were necessary before the citizens would condescend to accept the usual terms of capitulation. When all had been arranged and hostages delivered, the Moslem army took possession of the city. Great wealth fell into the hands of the grasping Musa, who appropriated as his slave Egilona, the captive widow of Roderick, a princess whose subsequent marriage to his son Abd-al-Aziz was the source of many calamities to his family and nation. The heroic defence of Merida had inspired with the hope of freedom the cities of the South, upon whom the Moslem yoke but recently imposed sat lightly, and Seville, Malaga, Granada, and Jaen rose simultaneously in revolt. The attention of Musa was first directed to Seville, the latest and most valuable of his recent acquisitions. The rebels of that city had massacred thirty men of the garrison and put the rest to flight, while the Jews, true to the instincts of a people long degraded by servitude, not only refused to assist their allies, but hastened with cringing servility to make peace once more with their old oppressors. For this defection, a terrible retribution was exacted. Abd-al-Aziz carried the place by storm, and put to death without mercy every Christian and Hebrew male who was found within its walls. The Moslems, taught by experience the imperative necessity of colonization, and being now in sufficient numbers to justify a division of their forces, placed a strong garrison in Seville; while the confiscated lands were partitioned among the natives of Arabia the Happy present with the invading army, who hastened to take possession of the luxurious estates of the Gothic merchants and nobility. This was the first instance of the settlement of conquered territory by the natives of a particular country, afterwards so common under Mohammedan rule; a stroke of policy whose effects are to this day apparent in the traditions, the dialects, the customs, and the popular superstitions of the different provinces of Spain. Abd-al-Aziz easily reduced to obedience the remaining rebellious cities of Andalusia, which, colonized in like manner, remained ever faithful to their allegiance. A portion of Murcia was also occupied; and unusually advantageous terms were, at the surrender of Orihuela, accorded to the Christians through the address of the Gothic general Theodomir, whom, after the death of Roderick, a faction of the Goths had invested with the supreme command.