Alfonso, saying that he had tarried in Requena, knowing that the King
was gone another way, that so he might give the Moors opportunity to
fall upon him. And the King believed them, and was wroth against the
Cid, and ordered all that he had in Castille to be taken from him, and
sent to take his wife, and his daughters. When the Cid heard this he
sent presently a knight to the King to defend himself, saying, that if
there were Count or Rico-ome or knight who would maintain that he had a
better and truer will to do the King service than he had, he would do
battle with him body to body, but the King being greatly incensed would
not hear him. And when they who hated the Cid saw this, and knew that
the Cid was gone against a Castle near Zaragoza, they besought the King
to give them force to go against him; howbeit this the King would not.
At this time Ali Abenaxa, the Adelantado of the Almoravides, besieged
Murcia, and there was a dearth in the city, and Alvar Fanez who should
have relieved them did not, and they were so closely beset that they
were compelled to yield up the town. As soon as he had taken Murcia he
went against the Castle of Aledo, of which you have heard, and
assaulted it vigorously, and took it by force and by famine. And when
he had won Murcia and Aledo, he wished to have Valencia also, and they
of Valencia, because of the yoke of the Cid, longed to be his vassals,
even as the sick man longeth after health. When King Don Alfonso heard
what Ali Abenaxa had done, he made ready to go against him. And the
Queen his wife, and certain knights who were friends to the Cid, wrote
to him that he should now come and serve the King in such a season,
that the King might thank him greatly and lay aside his wrath. Having
seen these letters the Cid set out from Zaragoza where he was, and went
his way with a great host, and advanced as far as Martos, where he
found the King. And the King received him honourably, and they
continued together till the King passed the Sierra de Elvira, and the
Cid went in the plain below before him. And they who wished ill to him