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And they moved on from Salvacanete and came to Osma, and then Alvar Fanez asked of Dona Ximena if they should not put the body of the Cid into a coffin covered with purple and with nails of gold; but she would not, for she said that while his countenance remained so fresh and comely, and his eyes so fair, his body should never be placed in a coffin, and that her children should see the face of their father; and they thought that she said well, so the body was left as it was.
At length the patience of Ximena was worn out, and she wrote a letter to Fernando in which she told him plainly all that was in her mind.
And when the seven days were over, King Don Ramiro and Queen Dona Elvira his wife, and her sister, Dona Sol, set apart rents for the soul of Dona Ximena, and they appointed that Gil Diaz should have them for his life, and that then they should go to the Monastery for ever: and they ordained certain anniversaries for the souls of the Cid and of Dona Ximena.
And he gave the Abbot the thousand marks of silver which the Cid had sent for the Monastery, with which to discharge all the debt that Dona Ximena and his daughters had contracted. Great was the stir throughout all that land of the honour of the Cid, and of the licence which the King gave to as many as should chuse to join him; and for this reason full sixty knights came to St.
XXII. The body of the Cid remained in the vault wherein it had been placed as ye have heard, till the year of the Incarnation 1272, when King Don Alfonso the Wise, for the great reverence which he bore the memory of the Cid his forefather, ordered a coffin to be made for him, which was hewn out of two great stones; and in this the body of the Cid was laid, and they placed it on that side where the Epistle is read; and before it, in, a wooden coffin, they laid the body of Dona Ximena.
And in that time the Bishop Don Hieronymo arrived, who abode with King Don Alfonso, and he came to do honour to the body of Dona Ximena; for so soon as he heard that she was departed, he set off taking long journies every day.
XV. Gil Diaz did his best endeavour to fulfil all that his Lord the Cid Ruydiez had commanded him, and to serve Dona Ximena and her companions truly and faithfully; and this he did so well, that she was well pleased with his faithfulness.
While they were preparing for the journey, Alvar Fanez sent three knights to the Cid to tell him how they had sped with the King, and of the great favour which they had found at his hands, and how he only tarried now to equip Dona Ximena, that she might come full honourably.
This kingdom had spread from the Asturias over Leon, which gave its name to the new realm, and the slow work of driving back the Moslem conquerors had well begun. Alfonso never married and had no children. People called him Alfonso the Chaste. He went so far as to forbid any of his family to marry, so that the love affairs of his sister, the fair infanta Ximena, ran far from smooth.
They dug a vault before the altar, beside the grave of Dona Ximena, and vaulted it over with a high arch, and there they placed the body of the Cid seated as it was in the ivory chair, and in his garments, and with the sword in his hand, and they hung up his shield and his banner upon the walls.
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