reduce the Castles to his obedience, so that they should pay the same
rents unto him as had been paid unto the former Kings of Valencia; and
that the Cid should protect him against all men, Moors or Christians,
and should have his home in Valencia, and bring all his booty there to
be sold, and that he should have his granaries there. This covenant was
confirmed in writing, so that they were secure on one side and on the
other. And my Cid sent to all those who held the Castles, commanding
them to pay their rents to the King of Valencia as they had done
aforetime, and they all obeyed his command, every one striving to have
his love.

XVII. When, the Cid had thus set the land in order he went against the
King of Denia, and warred against Denia and against Xativa, and he
abode there all the winter, doing great hurt, insomuch that there did
not remain a wall standing from Orihuela to Xativa, for he laid every
thing waste; and all his booty and his prisoners he sold in Valencia,
Then he went towards Tortosa, destroying every thing as he went; and he
pitched his camp near unto the city of Tortosa, in a place which in
Arabic is called Maurelet, and he cut down every thing before him,
orchards and vines and corn. When King Abenalfange saw that the land
was thus destroyed, and that neither bread, nor wine, nor flocks would
be left him, he sent to Count Ramon Berenguer, beseeching him to gather
together a great force, and drive the Cid out of the land, for which
service he would give him whatever he might stand in need of. And the
Count, thinking now to be revenged of the Cid for his former defeat,
and because he had taken from him the rents which he used to receive
from the land of Valencia, took what the King gave him, and assembled a
great host of the Christians. This was so great a power when the Moors
had joined, that they surely thought the Cid would fly before them; for
the Moors held that these Frenchmen were the best knights in the world,