The populace rose in helpless fury, and for three years defied the might of the Spanish empire.

But the result could not be doubtful.

A naked peasantry could not withstand the disciplined battalions that had proved their valor on every field from Mexico to the Levant and from Saxony to Algiers.

It was not a war but a massacre and pillage.

The whole of Andalusia, the most flourishing province in Spain, beautiful with its snowy mountains, fertile with its tilled valleys, and sweet with the peaceful toil of human habitation, was swept by a universal storm of carnage and of flame.