King, Georgiana Goddard: A brief account of the military orders in Spain (New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1921)

30
MILITARY ORDERS
There are times at the autumnal equinox,
if a strong wind is blowing, that the tide
The storm-
never goes down at all, but as the hours
tide of the
13th
pass and high-water comes around again,
century
it rises still, mounts inland, and climbing
threatens to overwhelm the shore.
The Archbishop of Toledo, D. Rodrigo
Ximenez de Rada, went to Rome, and into
France, preaching a crusade, urgently
asking help, warning the princes of Europe
of what would happen if Spain were over-
whelmed. The princes of Europe were
occupied, but they permitted what we
should call “a drive” and “propaganda.”
Of volunteers there was no lack: the chance
offered adventure, loot, and salvation, all
In Toledo
at once. By February of 1212 Toledo was
filling up with foreigners, chiefly French
and Italian. The Four Gauls sent swarms
of men—gentlemen and enthusiasts, ruf-
fians and criminals, all classes and all
kinds more or less in contact, all marked
with the cross, visibly, on the shoulder.
Queen Leonor drew from her father’s
continental domain, and the Archbishop of
Bordeaux came in person: so also a myste-
HISPANIC NOTES