were independent of all factions, recognized the pretensions of no dynasty, and acknowledged the authority of no government save that of their own. A force not unworthy of an Oriental crusade assembled for the conquest of this piratical stronghold. The armies of Castile, of Leon, of Aragon, of Navarre, the Counts of Montpellier and Catalonia, the combined navies of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, and thousands of soldiers of fortune, serving in bands under their respective commanders, but without a standard and without a country, responded to the crusading appeal. No estimate of the allied host has come down to us, but its numbers were so overwhelming that not a single Moslem prince dared to assist his countrymen; and the Almerians, closely invested, without means of defence and destitute of all hope of relief, after a two months’ blockade surrendered. By the terms of capitulation, safety of their persons was assured; an unusual concession in those times, and one which indicates the introduction of a spirit of good faith and humanity into the hitherto barbarous usages of war. The Italians, by superior dexterity or assurance, obtained the larger share of the spoil; the city itself, the most valuable prize, was allotted to the Count of Barcelona, the proximity of whose dominions afforded the best security for its retention as a Christian possession; and the King of Castile, who had been the soul of the undertaking, and whose followers had been over-reached in the division of booty, was forced to be content with the conscious satisfaction of success and the profuse but empty congratulations of the Holy See. The enterprise achieved, the allied army dispersed with the unceremonious haste characteristic of enlistments under feudal institutions. Deficiency of experience and absence of discipline; impatience of the delay and inaction implied by a lengthy campaign; the want of cohesion exhibited by a force consisting of different nationalities and divided by conflicting interests; apprehension of the storms of winter in an unknown climate, dissipated in a day a force capable of the greatest military exploits.