brother Sancho. Finally when the Cid is independent master of
Valencia, the Sultan of Persia, hearing of his exploits, sends him
rich presents and a magic balsam. This the Cid drinks when he is
at the point of death. It preserves his dead body with such
perfect semblance of life that, mounted on Babieca, he turns the
victory of the Moor Bucar into utter rout.

Not the least curious is the legend of the Jew who having feared
the living Cid, desired to pluck his sacred beard as he lay in
state in St. Peter's at Cardena. "This is the body of the Cid,"
said he, "so praised of all, and men say that while he lived none
plucked his beard. I would fain seize it and take it in my hand,
for since he lies here dead he shall not prevent this." The Jew
stretched forth his hand, but ere he touched that beard the Cid
laid his hand upon his sword Tizona and drew it forth from its
scabbard a handsbreadth. When the Jew beheld this he was struck
with mighty fear, and backward he fell in a swoon for terror. Now
this Jew was converted and ended his days in St. Peter's, a man of
God.

The uninitiated reader will doubtless miss in the Epic more than
one of his most fondly cherished episodes. If he prefer the Cid of
romance and fable, let him turn to the ballads and the Chronicle
of the Cid. If he would cling to the punctilious, gallant hidalgo
of the early seventeenth century, let him turn to the Cid of
Guillem de Castro, or to Corneille's paragon. Don Quixote wisely
said: "That there was a Cid there is no doubt, or Bernardo del
Carpio either; but that they did the deeds men say they did, there
is a doubt a-plenty." In the heroic heart of the Epic Cid one
finds the simple nobility that later centuries have obscured with