No such unanimity of thought and action had, before this time, ever been evinced by the turbulent and mutually jealous colonists from Africa. The alliances of the various tribes had always been of temporary duration, formed and maintained by necessity in the face of an enemy. At the conclusion of a campaign each clan resumed the unrestrained liberty and patriarchal independence incident to a pastoral life. But the present organization promised to be permanent, and was consequently fraught with danger. It augured ill for the prevalence of civilized institutions in Europe that the country which, even under the most adverse political conditions, had preserved in a large measure its intellectual superiority and its artistic excellence should become the prey of ruthless barbarians, who had already desolated its fairest provinces and levelled its most beautiful architectural monuments with the earth. The moment was a most favorable one for the realization of this ominous scheme of barbarian ambition. The people of the Moslem States of Spain were inflamed with sentiments of mutual suspicion and hatred. The two great cities of Cordova and Seville were experimenting with a novel and untried form of government. The only ally of the latter, the governor of Carmona, had recently been disposed of by the conquest of his territory and its annexation to the principality of Malaga. But one possibility existed of counteracting the impending ruin. Could a coalition of the parties hostile to Berber supremacy be formed, the destruction of all the beneficial results accomplished by the Ommeyade dynasty might be averted. This plan, however, despite its obvious necessity, seemed impracticable. The reciprocal enmity maintained by citizens of the various principalities was far more violent than the apprehension with which they regarded the possible restoration of African tyranny. Some had sustained, others had inflicted, unpardonable injuries upon their neighbors. In many instances the despised Christian had been called in to contribute to the humiliation of an execrated but too powerful adversary. By this means, so repugnant to the principles of a conscientious Moslem, the coveted vengeance had been secured. Fine estates had been laid waste. Families had been extirpated. Entire districts had been swept by conflagration. The sanctity of the harem, so dear to every Oriental, had been profaned by the cruel insults and shameless lubricity of the gigantic and repulsive barbarians of the North, and their blasphemous jests had echoed through the stately colonnades of Moslem temples, the desecration of whose hallowed precincts by infidels was, under the law of Islam, punishable with death.