his way in peace: but the Count made answer, that my Cid should now
learn whom he had dishonoured, and make amends once for all. Then my
Cid sent the booty forward, and bade his knights make ready. They are
coming upon us, said he, with a great power both of Moors and
Christians, to take from us the spoils which we have so hardly won, and
without doing battle we cannot be quit of them; for if we should
proceed they would follow till they overtook us: therefore let the
battle be here, and I trust in God that we shall win more honour, and
something to boot. They come down the hill, drest in their hose, with
their gay saddles, and their girths wet; we are with our hose covered
and on our Galician saddles;--a hundred such as we ought to beat their
whole company. Before they get upon the plain ground let us give them
the points of our lances; for one whom we run through, three will jump
out of their saddles; and Ramon Berenguer will then see whom he has
overtaken to-day in the pine-forest of Tebar, thinking to despoil him
of the booty which I have won from the enemies of God and of the faith.

XVI. While my Cid was speaking, his knights had taken their arms, and
were ready on horseback for the charge. Presently they saw the pendants
of the Frenchmen coming down the hill, and when they were nigh the
bottom, and had not yet set foot upon the plain ground, my Cid bade his
people charge, which they did with a right good will, thrusting their
spears so stiffly, that by God's good pleasure not a man whom they
encountered but lost his seat. So many were slain and so many wounded,
that the Moors were dismayed forthwith, and began to fly. The Count's
people stood firm a little longer, gathering round their Lord; but my
Cid was in search of him, and when he saw where he was, he made up to
him, clearing the way as he went, and gave him such a stroke with his
lance that he felled him down to the ground. When the Frenchmen saw
their Lord in this plight they fled away and left him; and the pursuit