negroes were slaughtered; the surviving Berbers betook themselves to Malaga, where they entered the service of Yahya; and Kasim, repulsed from the gates of Seville, in which city he had hoped once more to find security, made his way to Xeres, where he soon afterwards fell into the hands of his nephew, and was by his order strangled in prison. Liberated from the detested presence of the Berbers after an interregnum of two months, the inhabitants of Cordova determined to exercise the right of election in the choice of a ruler, an ancient and integral but long suspended principle of their polity. A vast concourse was convoked in the spacious temple erected by Abd-al-Rahman I. The proceedings were conducted with every circumstance of pomp and solemnity. The presence of the surviving princes of the House of Ommeyah, of the descendants of families illustrious for centuries in the annals of the Peninsula, of nobles who traced their lineage beyond the Hegira, all arrayed in silken vestments embroidered with gold and silver, imparted an air of majesty and splendor to the scene. Thousands of the clients of the dynasty, whose fate had been so closely interwoven with that of the capital it had done so much to embellish, attended in the snowy robes which constituted the distinguishing badge of their party. The Mosque, which easily contained ten thousand people, was crowded to its utmost capacity. Three candidates--Abd-al-Rahman, brother of Mohammed Mahdi; Suleyman, son of Abd-al-Rahman IV.; and Mohammed-Ibn-al-Iraki--appeared to solicit the suffrages of the multitude. Of these, Suleyman, whose claims were urged by the viziers and by the most powerful nobles of the court, seemed so certain of success that, with ill-advised haste, he appeared in the assemblage clad in the costume reserved for royalty, while his adherents had prematurely caused the deed of investiture to be drawn up in his name. But the votes of the lower classes, with whom Abd-al-Rahman was the favorite, overwhelmed the aristocratic party of Suleyman, and, amidst the acclamations of his supporters, the fortunate candidate received the reluctant homage of his rivals, and was raised to the throne of his ancestors under the name of Abd-al-Rahman V.