And now came the age of knight and paladin, of crusades and talismans.  The rough, vigorous life that had been developing at the North, exuberant with a strength not yet so mature that it could be employed in the wise and practical pursuits of civilized life, burst forth into an enthusiasm half military, half religious, that pervaded all ranks, but was ‘mightiest in the mighty.’  The Saxons, fair-haired, with wild blue eyes, whence looked an inflexible perseverance, the dark-browed Normans, and the men of fair Bretagne, swooped down falcon-like from their nests among the rocks and by the seas of Northern Europe upon the impetuous Saracens, and fought brave poems that were written on sacred soil with their blood.  From the strife of years the heroes returned, their flowing locks whitened by years and suffering, the fair Saxon faces browned by the fervent suns of the distant East.  From hardship and imprisonment they marched with gay songs amid acclamations and welcome to their homes upon the Northern shores.  Their once shining armor was dimmed and rusted with their own blood; but they bore upon their ‘spears the light’ of a culture more refined, a knowledge more subtle, than those high latitudes had ever before known.

From this marriage of the barbaric vigor of the North with the delicate and infinitely pliable sensuousness of the South, the classic union of Strength and Desire, Chivalry was born.  Leaping forth to light and power, a majestic creation, glittering in the knightly panoply, noble by its knightly vows, it stood resplendent against the dark background of the past ages, the inevitable and legitimate offspring of the times and circumstances that gave it birth.  The courtly baptism was eagerly sought, its requirements rigidly obeyed.  The lands bristled with the lances of their valiant sons, and Quixotic expeditions were the order of the age.  But not alone with sword and spear were gallant contests decided; the gauntlet thrown at the feet of a proud foe was not always of iron. El gai saber, the gaye science, held its august courts, where princesses entered the lists and vanquished gallant troubadours with the concord of their sweet measures.  Slowly, yet with resistless strength, a new social world was rising upon the splendid ruins of the old.  Its principles were just, if their garb was fantastical.  It began with that almost superstitious reverence for woman, which had borrowed its religion from the Teuton, its romance from the Minnesinger and the Trouveur:  it will end in the honesty and freedom of a world mature for its enjoyment.

Thus, while the kingdoms of Europe were rising to a height where to oppress, to torture, to fight, were to seem their sole aim and purpose, in a hitherto obscure corner of the great theatre of modern life an unknown element was developing itself, which was in time to shake the greatest nations with its power, to inflame all Europe with jealousy and cupidity, and to dictate to empires the very terms of their existence.