of Aragon and Navarre and Catalonia, and Franks and Germans and
Italians, and men of other countries, to bear their part in so great
and catholic a war. And the King entertained them well, being full
bountiful, insomuch that he was called He of the Open Hand. Never had
so goodly a force of Christians been assembled in Spain, nor so great
an enterprise attempted, since the coming of the Moors. And of this
army was my Cid the leader. So soon as the winter was over they began
their march. And when they came to a ford of the Tagus, behold the
river was swoln, and the best horsemen feared to try the passage. Now
there was a holy man in the camp, by name Lesmes, who was a monk of St.
Benedict's; and he being mounted upon an ass rode first into the ford,
and passed safely through the flood; and all who beheld him held it for
a great miracle.

IV. Greatly to be blamed are they who lived in those days for not
handing down to everlasting remembrance the worthy feats which were
atchieved at this siege. For not only was Toledo a strong city, both by
nature and in its walls and towers, but the flower of the chivalry of
all Spain and of all Christendom was there assembled, and the Moors of
Spain also, knowing that this was, as it were, the heart of their
empire, did all they could to defend it: greatly to be blamed are they
who neglected to transmit to us the memory of their deeds, and greatly
have they wronged the worthy knights whose exploits should else have
gained for them a never-dying renown. Nothing more, owing to their
default, can we say of this so notable a siege, than that when Don
Cabrian, the Bishop of Leon, was earnestly engaged in prayer for the
success of the Christian arms, the glorious St. Isidro appeared unto
him, and certified that in fifteen days the city should be surrendered;
and even so it came to pass, for the gates were opened to the King on
Thursday the twenty-fifth of May, in the year of the aeera 1123, which