X. BOOK power them by tumult, or in any other way than by fair combat, for whosoever shall begin a tumult, I have given my people orders to cut him in pieces upon the spot, and no enquiry shall be made touching the death of him who shall so have offended.. Full sorrowful were the Infantes of Carrion for this command which the King had given. And the King appointed twelve knights who were hidalgos to be true-men' and place the combatants in the lists, and show them the bounds at what point they were to win or to be vanquished, and to divide the sun Cid. v.3583. between them. And he went with a wand And he went with a wand in his hand, and saw them placed on both sides; then he went out of the lists, and gave command that the people should fall back, and not approach within seven spears-length of the lines of the lists. Poema del 3623. Chr. del Cid. cap. 264. 265. Chr. Gen. f. 299. Of the combat between Pero Bermudez and Ferrando Gonzalez IV. Now were the six combatants left alone in the lists, and each of them knew now with whom he had to do battle. And they laced their helmets, and put shield upon the arm, and laid lance in rest. And the knights of my Cid advanced against the Infantes of Carrion, and they on their part against the champions of the Campeador. Each bent down with his face to the saddle-bow, and gave his horse the spur. And they met all six with such a shock, that they who looked on expected to see them all fall dead. Pero Bermudez and Ferrando Gonzalez encountered, and the shield of Pero Bermudez was pierced, but the spear past through on one side, and hurt him not, and brake in two places; and he sat firm in his seat. One blow he received, but he gave another; he drove his lance through Ferrando's shield, at his breast, so that nothing availed him. 1 Fieles may be well rendered by this phrase; the number twelve is particularized by the Chronica General. These true-men seem to have been literally judges of the facts that past before them. X. Ferrando's breast-plate was three fold; two plates the spear BOOK went clean through, and drove the third in before it, with the velmez and the shirt, into the breast, near his heart; and the girth and the poitral of his horse burst, and he and the saddle went together over the horse's heels, and the spear in him, and all thought him dead. Howbeit Ferrando Gonzalez rose, and the blood began to run out of his mouth, and Pero Bermudez drew his sword and went against him; but when he saw the sword Tizona over him, before he received a blow from it, he cried out that he confessed himself conquered, and that what Pero Bermudez had said against him was true. And when Pero. Bermudez heard this he stood still, and the twelve true-men det came up and heard his confession, and pronounced him van- chr.del Cid. quished. This Ferrando did thinking to save his life; but the 265. wound which he had got was mortal. Poema del 3657. 266. f. 300. between tolinez and zalez. V. Martin Antolinez and Diego Gonzalez brake their lances of the battle on each other, and laid hand upon their swords. Martin Anto- Martin Anlinez drew forth Colada, the brightness of which flashed over Diego Gonthe whole field, for it was a marvellous sword; and in their strife he dealt him a back-handed blow which sheared off the crown of his helmet, and cut away hood and coif, and the hair of his head and the skin also: this stroke he dealt him with the precious Colada. And Diego Gonzalez was sorely dismayed therewith, and though he had his own sword in his hand he could not for very fear make use of it, but he turned his horse and fled and Martin Antolinez went after him, and dealt him another with the flat part of the sword, for he mist him with the edge, and the Infante began to cry out aloud, Great God, help me and save me from that sword! And he rode away as fast as he Poema del could, and Martin Antolinez called out after him, Get Don Traitor! and drove him out of the lists, and remained queror. Cid 3658. out, 3678. con Chr.del Cid. cap. 267. Chr. Gen. ff. 300. BOOK Of the battle no Gustiog and Suero Gonzalez. VI. Muño Gusticz and Suero Gonzalez dealt each other such strokes with their spears as it was marvellous to behold. between Mu And Suero Gonzalez being a right hardy knight and a strong, and of great courage, struck the shield of Muño Gustioz and pierced it through and through; but the stroke was given aslant, so that it past on and touched him not. Muño Gustioz lost his stirrups with that stroke, but he presently recovered them, and dealt him such a stroke in return that it went clean through the midst of the shield, and through all his armour, and came out between his ribs, missing the heart; then laying hand on him he wrenched him out of the saddle, and threw him down as he drew the spear out of his body; and the point of the spear and the haft and the streamer all came out red. Then all the beholders thought that he was stricken to death. And Muño Gustioz turned to smite again. But when Gonzalo Ansures his father saw this, he cried out aloud for great ruth which he had for his son, and said, For God's sake do not strike him again, for he is vanquished. And Muño Gustioz, like a man of good understanding, asked the true-men whether he were to be held as conquered for what his father said, and they said not, unless he confirmed it with his own mouth. And Muño Gustioz Poema del turned again to Sucro Gonzalez where he lay wounded, and lifted his spear against him, and Suero Gonzalez cried out, Strike me not, for I am vanquished. And the judges said it was enough, and that the combat was at an end. Cid. v.3682. 3703. Chr. del Cid. сар. 268. Chr. Gen. f.300. How the In funtes of Ca rton were declared traitors. VII. Then the King entered the lists, and many good knights and hidalgos with him, and he called the twelve true-men, and asked them if the knights of the Cid had aught more to do, to prove their accusation; and they made answer that the knights of the Cid had won the field and done their devoir: and all the hidalgos who were there present made answer, that they said true. And King Don Alfonso lifted up his voice and said, X. Hear me, all ye who are here present: inasmuch as the knights BOOK of the Cid have conquered, they have won the cause; and the twelve true-men made answer, that what the King said was the truth, and all the people said the same. And the King gave command to break up the lists, and gave sentence that the Infantes of Carrion and their uncle Suero Gonzalez were notorious traitors, and ordered his seneschal to take their arms and horses. And from that day forth their lineage never held up its head, nor was of any worth in Castille; and they 2 and their uncle filed away, having been thus vanquished and put to shame. And thus it was that Carrion fell to the King after the days of Gonzalo Poema del Gonzalez, the father of the Infantes. Great was their shame, 3718. and the like or worse betide him who abuseth fair lady, and then cap. 26. leaveth her 3. Cid. 3704. Chr. Gen. f. 301. • P. Carvallo, in the Historia de Asturias, P. 312. (quoted by Berganza, 5. 27. § 342.) says that they fled into the mountains of Asturias, to their cousin Count Don Suero, como todo consta de escrituras antiguas. "This knight made his abode for the most part in the Palacio da Senra, adjoining the Monastery of Cornellana; and having compassion on his kinsmen, he built a tower for them joining the same Monastery, which is still standing, and in which the Abbots have their apartments. Here Don Suero gave order that they should live, and pass their lives with the Religious of that sacred House, which he was then reedifying; and he provided them with all things necessary while they lived, and when they died he buried them in the same church, in a great stone sepulchre, wide enough to contain two bodies side by side, such as we now see it, standing upon stone lions, on the Gospel-side, and close by the first steps which lead up to the high altar. This is understood by tradition in that Convent, and they show the sepulchre as a thing beyond all doubt." No part of the whole history of the Cid has been so frequently controverted and so generally discredited by later historians, as this story of the Infantes of Carrion. Yepes, the Benedictine historian, (T. 6. ff. 80.) has entered into the fullest investigation, for the purpose of vindicating the memory of these Infantes. BOOK VIII. Then the King went to meat, and he took the knights of the Cid with him; and great was the multitude which followed after them, praising the good feat which they had atchieved. in Valencia. And the King gave them great gifts, and sent them away by Of the great joy which was made He shows that their father's name was Gomez Diaz, not Gonzalo Gonzalez, and consequently they were called Diego Gomez and Ferrando Gomez, not Gonzalez. Sandoval (ff. 64.) had shown before him that these Infantes died nine years after the marriage of the Cid, consequently before his daughters were marriageable: and Francisco Diago, in his Anales de Valencia, (L. 6. C. 15.) that the daughters were named Christina and Maria, not Elvira and Sol; and that the latter married the Count of Barcelona, not the Infante of Aragon. Yepes proceeds to invalidate the circumstances of the story... He is shocked at the indecorous scenes at the Cortes, and still more that it should be supposed two Spanish princes would marry women whose busbands were yet alive, and that any Spanish prelate should be thought capable of solemnizing such marriages. In reply to these arguments, Berganza proves incontestably that all the descendants both of the Infanta Doña Christina, daughter of Bermudo II. and of Doña Velasquita, whose possessions lay at Carrion, were called Infantes, and that there were such Infantes as the story mentions, living at that time, whom the impugners of the story, regarding only the elder branch, had overlooked. The difficulty concerning the names of the ladies is not so satisfactorily removed. Yepes supposes that they had two names, which was not unusual;.. but this is only supposition. He might have shown that no scruple was made at that time of changing a name, if it did not happen to please the husband:.. there is an exceedingly curious instance in the history of Alfonso himself. Perhaps the Infantes of Navarre and Aragon followed his example, not liking to use those names by which their wives had been known when they were dishonoured. Either supposition is possible,.. neither of them satisfactory. It is however a difficulty of little consequence to the story. The question is, whether the facts related of the two daughters of the Cid (be their names what they may) are to be believed. Berganza invalidates the arguments used to prove that Doña Sol did not marry an Infante of Aragon; in this he is successful, and he reconciles the other account by supposing that after his death she married the Count of Barcelona. Of the other difficulties which Yepes had advanced Berganza makes light. There is nothing improbable in the scene at the Cortes, and Yepes had forgotten |