Christians were not excluded from the most responsible posts of the Moorish fiscal administration. They discharged with skill and fidelity the duties connected with all the various employments of the revenue. To members of their sect was invariably committed the collection of the tribute due from their co-religionists. Thousands of them served in the Mussulman armies. When Barcelona was besieged by the Franks, the Christian residents of that city fought side by side with the Moslems against the orthodox King of Aquitaine. Of all nationalities, the Spanish Christians were considered most worthy to guard the sacred person of the khalif. At no period of the Arab domination were they absolutely excluded from court. Under the administration of the Almoravide sultan, Ali, who was conspicuous among the fanatical princes of his line for the strictness of his orthodoxy and the austerity of his manners, the Mozarabes were in high favor, and exerted an almost preponderating influence in the government. Although in theory belonging to an inferior caste, in fact the tributary could not, by the unpractised eye, be distinguished from the votary of Islam. His life, his habits, his language, were the same. His house was an exact counterpart of that of his Moorish neighbor; his garments were cut after the pattern of the Orient. His manners were no longer suggestive of the rudeness of his Gothic ancestors. When his means permitted, he went to great lengths in the gratification of propensities censured by the canons of his Church,--entertained catamites, indulged in polygamous practices, and filled his harem with female slaves guarded by retinues of eunuchs. But while the line of demarcation between Moslem and Christian was thus faintly drawn, and threatened, in the course of time, to entirely disappear through the fusion of the two races, there still existed in the minds not only of the zealots of the hostile sects, but also in those of the masses, a profound and irreconcilable antipathy. This prejudice was sedulously and successfully nourished by the Mohammedan faquis as well as by the Christian clergy. The tributaries, while apparently on the point of merging into the body of the conquerors, were in reality isolated from them by the most powerful emotions that can influence the human heart. No concessions could thoroughly eradicate the prejudices arising from difference of religious belief. No familiarities of social intercourse could banish the humiliating remembrance of conquest. No political honors could compensate for the injuries inflicted by racial animosity. The actual condition of the Spanish Christians was, therefore, the reverse of that exhibited by their daily life. In the presence of a mutual antagonism, all the more violent for being repressed, there could be no thorough amalgamation of races. The exalted spirit of religious enthusiasm which could voluntarily solicit the tortures of martyrdom was not propitious to national apostasy.