camp toward Valencia. With Zaragoza as his base he laid waste the
lands of Sancho and avenged himself upon Alphonso by ravaging
Calahorra and Najera.

Finally in 1092 the overthrow of Alkaadir prompted him to
interfere definitely in the affairs of Valencia. He besieged the
city closely and captured it in 1094. There he ruled, independent,
until his death in 1099.

Even the Moorish chroniclers of the twelfth century pay their
tribute to the memory of the Cid by the virulence of their hatred.
Aben Bassam wrote: "The might of this tyrant was ever growing
until its weight was felt upon the highest peaks and in the
deepest valleys, and filled with terror both noble and commoner. I
have heard men say that when his eagerness was greatest and his
ambition highest he uttered these words, 'If one Rodrigo brought
ruin upon this Peninsula, another Rodrigo shall reconquer it!' A
saying that filled the hearts of the believers with fear and
caused them to think that what they anxiously dreaded would
speedily come to pass. This man, who was the lash and scourge of
his time, was, because of his love of glory, his steadfastness of
character and his heroic valor, one of the miracles of the Lord.
Victory ever followed Rodrigo's banner--may Allay curse him--he
triumphed over the princes of the unbelievers . . . and with a
handful of men confounded and dispersed their numerous armies.'
[2] One can hardly look for strict neutrality in the verdicts of
Moorish historians, but between the one extreme of fanaticism that
led Aben Bassam elsewhere to call the Cid a robber and a Galician
dog and the other that four centuries later urged his
canonization, the true believer can readily discern the figure of