Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/482

456 456 RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS. 11, PART ten more, for its nominal conversion to Christianity A long centm'j of persecution, of unmitigated and unmerited suffering, was to follow, before the whole was to be consummated bj the expulsion of this un- happy race from the Peninsula. Their story, in this latter period, furnishes one of the most memo- rable examples in history, of the impotence of persecution, even in support of a good cause against a bad one. It is a lesson that cannot be too deep- ly pondered through every succeeding age. The fires of the Inquisition are, indeed, extinguished, probably to be lighted no more. But where is the land, which can boast, that the spirit of intolerance, which forms the very breath of persecution, is alto- gether extinct in its bosom ?