Everyone was contented in his poverty, thinking of heaven, which is the only truth, and the worship of God which corresponds to it.

Is it that you possibly do not believe in God ?" Gabriel avoided an answer, and went on talking of those times.
"It was a period of barbarism and stagnation, and while Europe was developing and progressing the people who had been foremost in all civilisation were now left far behind.

The kings, inspired by Spanish pride and the hereditary pretensions of the German Caesars, conceived the mad idea of mastering all Europe, with no more support than a nation of seven million of inhabitants, and a few companies of ill-paid and starving soldiers.

The gold from America had gone to fill the Dutchmen's purses, and in this undertaking, worthy of Don Quixote, the nation received blow after blow.

Spain became more and more Catholic, poorer and more barbarous.