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And his heart rejoiced, and he smiled and said, ’Thanks be to God and to Holy Mother Mary! We had a smaller company when we left the house of Bivar.’" The next year King Yussef, leader of the Moors, came again to the siege of Valencia, this time with fifty thousand men. Small as was the force of the Cid as compared with this great army, he had no idea of fighting cooped up like a rat in a cage.
II. But when King Yahia was slain, his servants and eunuchs and they of his household fled to Juballa, a Castle which was held by a kinsman of the Guazil Abenalfarax, who lay in prison; other some fled to Zaragoza, and told the Cid all that had befallen.
This permission Alfonso granted gladly, and bade the counts of Carrion to be present also and answer the Cid. Many days they waited ere Don Rodrigo, accompanied by his wife and daughters, and followed by a train of nobles, rode through the gates.
And he said unto the Cid, My uncle and Lord, I know not what to say, but ill is my luck that I could not take vengeance before I returned here; and certes, if I could have found them I would have died, or have compleated it: but they when they had done this villainy dared not appear before the King, neither in his Court, and therefore he hath issued this summons to them that they should come.
"Horace, condemned by the decemvirs, was acquitted by the people," said Corneille. The same year Cinna came to give the finishing touch to the reputation of the great poet: "To the persecuted Cid the Cinna owed its birth."
I cannot help my nature; I never talk nor rail; But when a thing is to be done, you know I never fail. Fernando, you have lied, you have lied in every word; You have been honored by the Cid and favored and preferred. I know of all your tricks, and can tell them to your face: Do you remember in Valencia the skirmish and the chase?
I can account for it only in the supposition that the mischief was inhered, an heirloom from the old sea-kings of the ninth century. Education and reflection have, indeed, since wrought a change in my feelings. The trumpet of the Cid, or Ziska's drum even, could not now waken that old martial spirit.
But the King of Zaragoza all this while had his eye upon the town, thinking that it would be given up to him as Abencano had promised; but he saw no sign of this, neither knew he how he could win it. Moreover Yahia had placed his love upon the Cid, and had sent him full noble gifts when he was upon the road, in secret, so that the King of Zaragoza knew not thereof.
There is a story of a Jew who went to the grave of the Cid to steal his sword, which, according to custom, was interred with the owner: the corpse is said to have resented the intrusion by unsheathing the weapon, which miracle so amazed the Jew that he turned Christian! German armour was popular. Cologne swords were great favourites in England. King Arthur's sword was one of these,
Away went Alvar Fanez, and the two hundred horsemen; and the Cid remained in ambush with the rest of his company. And as soon as it was morning, the Moors of Castrejon, knowing nothing of these who were so near them, opened the castle gates, and went out to their work as they were wont to do.
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