and with three trimmings of gold: this dress was to be so large that a knight in armour might go in at one sleeve, and out at another,.. a fashion which refers to the ceremony of adoption. A mule with its caparisons, a silver cup, and a female Moor, were also to be given. In later times all this was commuted for one thousand maravedis.

Doña Elvira, niece to the Arcidiano Don Matheo de Burgos, and daughter of Ferran Rodrigues de Villarmentero, had been espoused to a knight, and received from him garments and girdles and a mule, as the marriage gift. The marriage was broken off, and he reclaimed them. This discourteous demand came before Don Diego Lope de Faro, then Adelantado of Castille, and the knight and the lady's uncle pleaded in person. The Adelantado pronounced that if the Lady would affirm that after the espousals she had kissed and embraced the knight, the gift should be adjudged to her, otherwise it must be returned. Dona Elvira would not affirm this, and lost the property; and this story is registered as a fazaña of Castille, to be a precedent. Fuero Viejo. L. 5. T. 1. L. 2. 4.

And he loosed his beard. P. 302.

(52.) The Cid seems to have drest his beard in this extraordinary manner on no other occasion, and it is not apparent why he should have done so now.

A fashion of twisting the beard with threads of gold is mentioned in Romance. When the knight of the Burning Sword comes to the Defended Mountain, "going over the bridge he saw at a window of the Castle which looked towards the sea two knights playing at chess, the one not so tall as the other, nor so large-limbed; both were above fifty years of age, and both attired in black; the lesser knight had his hair and beard so long that they hung down below his girdle, and they were filletted with threads of gold: presently he judged by the appearance of this knight that it must be the King of Jerusalem, as the truth was." Amadis de Grecia. P. 1. C. 9.

In the same Romance, P. 2. C. 124, the monster Furior Cornelio has his heard threaded with gold in the same manner, and his hair also in tufts. La barva avia larga y trançada con cuerdas de oro, y assi mesmo los cabellos a guedejas.

Our Athelstan twisted golden threads with his hair (Turner's Hist. of the Anglo Saxons, B. 6. C. 3). Caramansa the negro King, who gave the Portugueze permission to settle where St. Jorge da Mina now stands, had his beard platted with gold wire.

Yepes supposes that they had two names. P. 312.

Barros, L. 3. C. 1.

53.) This opinion that the Cid's daughters had two names, or at least that they bore at one time the names by which they are called in the Poem, and in all the old Historians, derives some confirmation from the fact that a daughter of Doña Elvira bore the same name, which had never been known in the royal house of Navarre before,

and which P. Moret, the laborious historian of that country, supposes therefore to have been introduced by her mother. Investig. L. S, C. 5. Berganza. 5. 27. § 331.

Romance writers have not exaggerated the helpless state of women.

Alonso II. of Aragon sent to ask in marriage the daughter of the Greek Emperor Manuel; his proposal was accepted, and the Princess, escorted by two Archbishops and two Nobles of the empire, set out for Spain. When they arrived at Montpellier, they learnt that Alonso had already married the Infanta of Castille, upon which they made their complaint to Guillen the Lord of that place, and asked him what they should do. Guillen called his Council, and their advice was that he should marry the Princess whether she liked it or not. It was in vain that she and all her retinue protested against this violence, and the inequality of the match,:. the gates were shut, the city up in arms; she was forced to consent, having no power to refuse, and the marriage was celebrated, says Miedes, by the grace of the Holy Ghost!

The Lord of Montpellier was as little bound by the laws of marriage as he had been by those of common honour and hospitality: As soon as he was tired of his Greek wife he married another woman. The daughter of the Princess however recovered her inheritance, and was the mother of King Jayme El Conquistador.

Hist. del Rey Don Jayme el Cong. por el M. Bernardino Gomez Miedes. L. 1. C. 3. 4. 5. The most curious specimen which I have ever seen of barbarous manners towards women occurs in the Mabinogion. It is the advice of a Welsh Mother to her son, Peredur, the hero of the tale. "Now hear: If by chance thou comest by a church, therechaunt thy paternoster. When thou seest victuals and drink, to satisfy thy appetite, help thyself thereto. If thou shouldest hear a cry of distress, go and know the cause; but in particular if it is the voice of a female. Should any precious jewel attract thy eyes, take it; and bestow on others also; thus shalt thou acquire fame. If thou beholdest a beautiful woman, concubinize her, though she seem coy; thou wilt be a better man, and thy prosperity will thus be heightened. From Mr. Owen's MS. Translation.

And he asked whether among those things there as aught which had belonged to the person of the Soldan. P. 317.

(54.) Sir, said the Ambassadors of the Old Man of the Mountain, to King St: Louis, we say to you on the part of our Lord, that as the shirt is the garment which is nearest the body, therefore he sends you his shirt, which you see here, in token that you are the only Prince in the world whom he most desires to love and to serve; . . and for a farther assurance you see this ring which he sendeth; it is of pure gold, and his name is graven thereon. With this ring our master weddeth you, in token that henceforth you shall be like the fingers of his hand.

Joinville in the Collection Universelle des Memoires Particuliers

relatifs a l'histoire de France. T. 2. P. 60.

A garment belonging to his own person was one of the presents which Sebastian sent to a Brazilian Chief who had distinguished himself in his service against the French. Vasconcellos. Chr. de Comp. L. 3. § 134.

Book XI. P. 326.

(55.) The Poem, after relating the second marriage of the Cid's daughters, mentions his death and concludes. It was therefore written before the story of his removal from Valencia was invented; and all the circumstances of that removal are certainly fictitious. Valencia was retained five years after his death. Berganza labours to find some truth in the story,.. but the silence of the Poem would be decisive against it, were there no other reasons for disbelief.

Perhaps a remarkable part of this fiction was borrowed from the story of Bernardo del Carpio,.. the readers of Romance are better acquainted with the name of this hero than with his history.

Bernardo was the only child of a secret marriage, between Count Sandias de Saldaña, and Ximena, sister to Alfonso the Chaste. As soon as the King discovered the marriage, he put Count Sandias in irons, and imprisoned him in the Tower of Lunia, vowing that he should never be delivered; his sister he forced into a convent: .. but he took the child and bred him up, and loved him as if he had been his own son ; and Bernardo knew not who were his parents.

Alfonso had formerly requested aid of Charlemagne against the Moors, and having no issue, promised him the succession; but when his nobles understood what he had done they advised him to annul the treaty, or they would drive him from his kingdom ; for they would rather die than become the slaves of France. He necessarily yielded. Charlemagne was incensed against him, and threatened him with his utmost vengeance unless he immediately became his vassal. Bernardo, who had been the most zealous to preserve the liberty of his country, obtained assistance from Marsil the Moorish King of Zaragoza; the French invaded Spain, and the battle of Roncesvalles was fought, in which Charlemagne himself escaped; all his peerage fell, and Roland, the noblest of all, by Bernardo's hand.

Some kinsmen of Sandias let Bernardo know who was his father, and how he was imprisoned. As soon as he heard it, the blood in his body turned, and he put on mourning garments and went to the King, and besought him to release his father. Alfonso refused ;.. many times afterwards, when Bernardo saved him in danger, he promised to grant this request, and as often broke his promises: till at last Bernardo renounced his allegiance, and being then banished, made war upon Leon. During the two succeeding reigns he is not mentioned. When Alfonso the Great succeeded, he did him good service against the Moors, and after every success demanded his father's liberty, which the King, like his Uncle before him, often promised but never would grant. Bernardo at last took

arms in despair; he fortified the Castle of Carpio, from whence his name has been given him, and leagued with the Moors: many knights also joined him, from the country round Benevente and Toro and Zamora. Alfonso besieged him in his Castle. Bernardo ever acting more generously than experience warranted, released two Counts whom he had taken prisoner, and required his father in exchange; the reasonable demand was refused; he sallied, routed the besiegers, and plundered the royal camp. But this war proved so destructive that the men of the land gathered together, and came before the King, and insisted that Count Sandias should be released. He was compelled to yield, and bound himself to deliver him up to Bernardo in exchange for the Castle of Carpio. Bernardo without hesitation gave up his strong hold,.. the King sent to release his father, but the knights who went to the Tower of Lunia to deliver him, found him dead.

When Alfonso heard this he commanded them to dress the body in rich garments, and place it on horseback as if it were living, and so bring it to Salamanca. As they drew nigh the city, the king and Bernardo rode out to meet them; and when Bernardo saw his father approaching, he exclaimed, O God,.. is Count Sandias of Saldaña indeed coming?.. Look where he is, replied the cruel King, and now go and greet him whom you have so long desired to see! Bernardo went forward, and took his father's hand to kiss it; but when he felt the dead weight of the hand, and saw the livid face of the corpse, he cried aloud and said, Ah Don Sandias, in an evil hour didst thou beget me! thou art dead, and I have given my strong hold for thee, and now I have lost all. Alfonso immediately banished him, and nothing is related of his after fortune..

Cor. Gen. ff. 30. 33. 36. 45. Rod. Tol. L. 4. C. 9. 10. 15.

Bernardo del Carpio is one of the personages whom Ferreras would annihilate, which is as unreasonable as it would be to believe all that the ballad-makers have sung concerning him. The main difficulty of his history is obviated if the authority of those chronicles be admitted, which affirm that the French suffered a second defeat in Ronces valles, under Charles the Bald.

I have two heroic poems of which he is the hero. Las Hazañas del invincible Cavallero Bernaldo de Carpio, por Augustin Alonso, Toledo 1585; and España Defendida, de Christoval Suarez de Figueroa, Madrid 1612. Both these are designed as continuations of the Orlando Furioso. There is another poem upon the same subject by Bernardo de Balbuena, which I have never seen, but which after two centuries of neglect is now obtaining a late, and probably therefore a deserved reputation.

Balsam. P. 331.

(56.) With this balm or balsam, some sort of superstition seems to have been always connected. At Cairo it was said that the trees grew nowhere but in one garden about a league from that city, where was the fountain in which the Virgin had washed the

cloaths of her blessed son, and where a lamp was, three centuries ago, kept burning to her honour in the hollow of an old fig tree, which had served them for a place of shelter. Itenerario de Antonio Tenreiro. C. 42:

The Armenian Patriarch pretended to make, or rather increase it, by miracle. An altar was raised in the fields, seven carpets were laid upon it, and on them a large ' vessel was placed, containing many flowers. After long prayers a small quantity of balm from Cairo was given the Patriarch, who poured it on the flowers, and put St. Gregory's arm into the vessel, and began praying again. Immediately the whole began to boil up and froth, .. the scum was distributed among the beholders, and the Patriarch kept the rest as a treasure. This miracle was never performed by a Patriarch more than once in his life. Tenreiro. C. 20.

An Arabian superstition concerning it is noticed in Thalaba. B. 9. Zarate (L. 1. C. 4.) had perhaps the story of the Cid in his thoughts when he said of a Peruvian balsam, that if a corpse were anointed with it, and some of it poured down the throat, the body would never corrupt.

The second victory over King Bucar. P. 336.

(57.) This second victory is manifestly the first told over again, as a fit conclusion to such a life. The number of Kings who came in Bucar's army will not appear improbable, if it be recollected how vague the title is. Royalets swarm in the barbarous ages of society. Joshua smote one and thirty, . . and if the present Scourge of God goes on multiplying them as he has hitherto done, we may live to see them, in the day of deliverance, hung up by half-dozens all over the Continent, as they were formerly in Canaan.

The tomb of Doña Ximena. P. 362.

(58.) When the French were in Spain during the last war, nothing excited their curiosity till they came to Burgos and heard that Chimène was buried at Cardeña: but then every day parties were made, who visited her tomo, and spouted over it passages from Corneille.

The reader will not be displeased to see what is known of the companions of the Cid. Alvar Fañez was made Governor of Toledo, one of the most important posts in the Kingdom: he was killed by the people of Segovia in 1114, but on what occasion is not related. (Berganza L. 6. 1. § 32.) His tomb is shown at Cardeña, with those of Pero Bermudez, Alvar Salvadores, Martin Antolinez, and Martin Pelaez the Asturian. Their arms are on the tombs, but they who placed them there did not know that armorial bearings were not used in Spain till after the days of the Cid. "That good Christian" the Bishop Don Hieronymo, was a native of Periguex in France, and after the abandonment of Valencia was made Bishop of Zamora, and then of Salamanca,