The
peninsula, broken up into a variety of states, both Christian and
Moslem, became, for centuries, a great campaigning ground, where the
art of war seemed to be the principal business of man, and was carried
to the highest pitch of romantic chivalry. The original ground of
hostility, a difference of faith, gradually lost its rancor.
Neighboring states, of opposite creeds, were occasionally linked
together in alliances, offensive and defensive, so that the cross
and crescent were to be seen side by side, fighting against some
common enemy. In times of peace, too, the noble youth of either
faith resorted to the same cities, Christian or Moslem, to school
themselves in military science. Even in the temporary truces of
sanguinary wars, the warriors who had recently striven together in the
deadly conflicts of the field, laid aside their animosity, met at
tournaments, jousts, and other military festivities, and exchanged the
courtesies of gentle and generous spirits.
Thus the opposite races became frequently mingled together in
peaceful intercourse, or if any rivalry took place, it was in those
high courtesies and nobler acts, which bespeak the accomplished
cavalier. Warriors, of opposite creeds, became ambitious of
transcending each other in magnanimity as well as valor. Indeed, the
chivalric virtues were refined upon to a degree sometimes fastidious
and constrained; but at other times, inexpressibly noble and
affecting.
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