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They are of high blood and full orgullous, and I have no liking to this match; but if our Lord the King adviseth it we can do no otherwise; we will talk of this, and God send it for the best. So they entered Valencia, and the Cid spake with Dona Ximena touching this matter, and when she heard it it did not please her; nevertheless she said, if the King thought it good they could do no otherwise.
And he took Pero Bermudez by the hand and led him to Dona Ximena, who wept greatly at seeing him, and said, Ah, Pero Bermudez, what tidings bringest thou of my daughters? And he comforted her and said, Weep not, Lady, for I left them alive and well at Molina, and Alvar Fanez with them; by God's blessing you shall have good vengeance for them!
And then they dispeeded themselves of the Cid and of their mother-in-law Dona Ximena, and took each his wife and returned into their own lands with great riches and honour. And the Cid gave them great treasures, even as he had promised, and gave them certain of those strange beasts which the Soldan had sent. And he rode out with them twelve leagues.
XIII. On the third day after the coming of King Don Alfonso, they would have interred the body of the Cid, but when the King heard what Dona Ximena had said, that while it was so fair and comely it should not be laid in a coffin, he held that what she said was good.
The morning after he reached the city he was dining in the hall of the palace with the king and his nobles, when word was brought to the royal table that Ximena, the daughter of Count Gomez, and her train stood at the gates, and demanded an audience of the king. Fernando rose from his seat, and, signing to his nobles to follow him, he went to meet Ximena.
And they loaded camels and horses with the noblest things which they found, and went after the Bishop Don Hieronymo and Gil Diaz, who, with the body of the Cid, and Doña Ximena, and the baggage, had gone on till they were clear of the host, and then waited for those who were gone against the Moors.
When this was done, the Cid went and seated himself on the estrado with the ladies, he and Dona Ximena in the middle, and beside him he placed Dona Elvira his eldest daughter, and by her, her spouse the Infante Diego Gonzalez; and Dona Sol was seated on the other side, by her mother, and the Infante Ferrando by her.
But Dona Ximena held her hand and said, Daughter, you do ill, in that you break the command of your father, who laid his curse upon all who should make lamentation for him. Then Dona Sol kissed the hand of the Cid and of her mother, and put on her tire again, saying, Lady mother, I have committed no fault in this, forasmuch as I knew not the command of my father.
It had been decided that the dispute over the town should be settled by combat. Rodrigo became the champion of Ferdinand of Castile. The other champion, Martin Gonzalez, began, as soon as the combat opened, to taunt the Cid. "Never again will you mount your favorite steed Babieça," he said, "never will you return to your castle; never will you see your beloved Ximena again."
And he bade them each take with him his whole company, that they might be better advised and accompanied, and that Dona Ximena might come with the greater honour: and the company was this: two hundred knights who were of Don Alvar Fanez, and fifty of Martin Antolinez: and he ordered money to be given them for their disbursement, and for all things needful, in abundance.
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