paratively poor, before his valour had acquired him riches as well as glory. D. Sancho divided his states amongst his children: D. Garcia became King of Navarre, D. Ferdinand, King of Castile, and D. Ramirez, King of Aragon. The Cid, who was a subject of D. Ferdinand, entered upon his military career under that monarch's banners, where he displayed that marvellous strength and prodigious valour, that constancy and coolness, which raised him above all the other warriors of Europe. Many of the victories of Ferdinand and the Cid were obtained over the Moors, who being at that time deprived of their leader and without a central government, were much exposed to the attacks of the Christians. It was when the young Hescham el Mowajed, the last of the Ommiades, was on the point of receiving at Cordova, in 1031, the oath of allegiance of all the Moors of Spain, and of being raised to the throne as Emir el Mumenin, (Miramolin, or Emperor of the West,) that a sudden cry was heard amongst the people: "The Almighty hath turned away his eyes from the race of Omajah! Reject ye the forsaken one!" The result was, that the Prince was compelled to take to flight, and to abandon his throne; and that every noble and powerful individual rendered himself independent in one or another of the cities of Moorish Spain as Emir or Cheick. The arms of Ferdinand and the Cid were not, however, always directed against the infidels. The ambitious Monarch soon afterwards attacked his brother-in-law, Bermudez III. of Leon, the last of the descendants of D. Pelagius, whom he despoiled of his states, and put to death in 1037. He subsequently attacked and dethroned his eldest brother, D. Garcia, and afterwards his younger brother, D. Ramirez, the former of whom he likewise sacrificed. The Cid, who had received his earliest instructions under D. Ferdinand, made no scrupulous enquiries into the justice of that prince's cause, but combating blindly for him, rendered him glorious in the eyes of the vulgar by these iniquitous conquests. It is also in the reign of Ferdinand, that the first romantic adventures of the Cid are said to have occurred; his attachment to Ximena, the only daughter of Count Gormaz; his duel with the Count, who had mortally injured his father; and lastly his marriage with the daughter of the man who had perished by his sword. The authenticity of these poetical achievements rests entirely on the romances which we shall examine in the next chapter; but though this brilliant story is not to be found in any historical document, yet the universal tradition of a nation seems to stamp it with sufficient credit. The Cid was in habits of the strictest friendship with the eldest son of Ferdinand, D. Sancho, surnamed the Strong, and the two warriors always combated side by side. During the lifetime of the father, the Cid, in 1049, had rendered tributary the Musulman Emir of Saragossa. He defended that Moorish Prince against the Aragonese, in 1063; and when Sancho succeeded to the throne in 1065, he was placed, by the young King, at the head of all his armies, whence, without doubt, he acquired the name of Campeador, D. Sancho, who merited the friendship of a hero, and who always remained faithful to him, was, notwithstanding, no less ambitious and unjust than his father, whose example he followed in endeavouring to deprive his brothers of their share of the paternal inheritance. To the valour of the Cid he owed his victories over D. Garcia, King of Galicia, and D. Alfonso, King of Leon, whose states he invaded. The latter prince took refuge amongst the Moors, with the King of Toledo, who afforded him a generous asylum. D. Sancho, after having also stripped his sisters of their inheritance, was slain in 1072, before Zamora, where the last of his sisters, D. Urraca, had fortified herself. Alfonso VI., recalled from the Moors to ascend the vacant throne, after having taken an oath, administered by the hands of the Cid, that he had been in no degree accessary to his brother's death, endeavoured to attach that celebrated leader to his interests, by promising him in marriage his own niece Ximena, whose mother was sister-in-law to Ferdinand the Great and Bermudez III. the last King of Leon. This marriage, of which historical evidence remains, was celebrated on the 19th of July, 1074.` The Cid was at that time nearly fifty years of age, and had survived his first wife Ximena, the daughter of Count Gormaz, so celebrated in the Spanish and French tragedies. Being soon afterwards despatched on an embassy to the Moorish princes of Seville and Cordova, the Cid assisted them in gaining a great victory over the King of Grenada; but scarcely had the heat of the battle passed away, when he restored all the prisoners whom he had taken, with arms in their hands, to liberty. By these constant acts of generosity he won the hearts of his enemies as well as of his friends. He was admired and respected both by Moors and Christians. He had soon afterwards occasion to claim the protection of the former; for Alfonso VI. instigated by those who were envious of the hero's success, banished him from Castile. The Cid upon this occasion took refuge with his friend Ahmed el Muktadir, King of Saragossa, by whom he was treated with boundless confidence and respect. He was appointed by him to the post of governor of his son, and was in fact intrusted with the whole administration of the kingdom of Saragossa, during the reign of Joseph El Muktamam, from 1081 to 1085, within which period he gained many brilliant victories over the Christians of Aragon, Navarre, and Barcelona. Always generous to the vanquished, he again gave liberty to the prisoners. Alfonso VI. now began to regret that he had deprived himself of the services of the most valiant of his warriors; and being attacked by the redoubtable Joseph, the son of Teschfin, the Morabite, who had invaded Spain with a new army of Moors from Africa, and having sustained a defeat at Zalaka, on the 23d of October, 1087, he recalled the Cid to his assistance. That hero immediately repaired to his standard with seven thousand soldiers, levied at his own charge; and for two years continued to combat for his ungrateful sovereign; but at length, either his generosity in dismissing his captives, or his disobedience to the orders of a prince far inferior to himself in the knowledge of the art of war, drew upon him a second disgrace about the year 1090. He was again banished; his wife and son were imprisoned, and his goods were confiscated. It is at this period that the poem, from which we are about to make some extracts, commences. It is in fact the fragment of a complete history of the Cid, the beginning of which has been lost. The opening, as it has been transmitted to us, is not deficient either in dignity or in interest. The hero is departing from Bivar, his native place, where every thing bears the marks of desolation. The doors are torn down, the windows driven in, and the rooms usually appropriated to the protection of treasure and valuable effects, are broken open and empty. The falcons' mews are deserted, and within them neither falcons nor hawks are to be found.* The hero weeps as he quits these scenes; for to shed tears was never deemed by the ancient knights to be inconsistent with their character as brave men. He traverses Burgos at the head of sixty lances. The friends of a knight ever remained faithful to him in misfortune. The anger of a king could not separate those who had pledged their faith to each other in battle; and those who had marched beneath the triumphant standard of Rodrigo, cheerfully followed him into exile. The citizens of Burgos, crowding to their doors and windows, wept as he passed, and exclaimed, "O God! why didst not thou give so good a vassal a good Lord ?" None, however, ventured to invite the fugitive to partake of the rites of hospitality; for Alfonso had in his anger declared, that whoever, in the city, should receive him, should forfeit his goods and be deprived of his eyes. The Cid, after having thus traversed the capital of Castile, was compelled to leave it by the opposite gate, without meeting a single individual who dared to offer him an asylum. The language of the poet frequently does not rise above. that of a barbarous chronicler; but he relates his incidents with great fidelity, and places them, as it were, before our eyes. He tells us how the Cid, advancing towards the borders of the Moorish territories, found that he lacked money to carry on the war; and as all his property had been sequestrated by order of the king, how he borrowed from a Jew five hundred marks of silver wherewith to equip his troops, giving him, by way of pledge for repayment, two heavy cases filled with sand, which, as he pretended, held his treasures, and which he commanded the Jew not to open until a year had expired. This deception, the only one of *The following are the opening lines: De los sus ojos tan fuertemientre lorando, Sospirò mio Cid, ca mucho avie grandes cuidados: Grado a ti, señor padre, que estàs en alto, Esto me han buelto mios enemigos malos. which the Spanish hero was ever guilty, scarcely merited the name, since his word, which was alone worth a treasure, was pledged for the restoration of the money. The first Moorish spoils enabled him to repay the loan. The Cid had left Ximena, with his daughters, at the abbey of St. Peter; and she, hearing of his arrival at that place, commanded her six ladies to conduct her to his presence. Her eyes were full of tears, and she sunk upon the floor, And she tried to kiss his hands, and cried, Mercy, Campeador ! Your enemies have made you here a banish'd man to stand. And even while we live 'tis doom'd that we live separate; The Cid placed his hand upon his bushy beard, and embracing his daughters, strained them to his breast, for they were very dear to him. As his eyes filled with tears, he sighed and exclaimed: Ximena! fairest woman, as my soul to me you're dear, But we must part, and I must go, and you must tarry here. I hither will return to my daughters and to you; I'll marry them, and pass again some happy days with thee Three hundred cavaliers attached themselves to the fortunes of the Cid, and in company with him abandoned Castile. Don Rodrigo, banished from his native land, still continued to combat against the enemies of his prince and his faith. On the first day, he captured Chatillon de Henarez, and after having divided the booty among his soldiers, he abandoned the castle to the Moors, and advanced further into their territories. He soon afterwards besieged Alcocer, and after having gained possession of that strongly fortified place, was in his turn besieged in it by three of the Moorish kings.|| He had no hope of succour, and already the stores of provisions were beginning to fail, when, inspiring his soldiers with the courage of despair, he attacked the Moors, and * [The Cid was called, "The born in happy hour."-Tr.] Il Sanchez, v. 645, p. 254. Sanchez, v. 422, p. 246. |