threw down stones from the gate and from the wall, and shot their
arrows, so that neither stone nor arrow fell in vain; and the Cid and
they who had advanced with him went into a bath which was near the
wall, to be under cover from the arrows. And Abeniaf's company opened
the gate and sallied out, seeing that the stones and arrows from the
wall had hurt many, and made the Christians draw back; and the Cid and
they who were with him remained in the bath, being shut up there, for
they could not go out by the door where at they had entered, and they
broke through the wall on the other side, and the Cid escaped that way,
being thus put to rout. Then he thought himself ill advised in having
attacked the town, and in putting himself into a place from whence he
had escaped with such great danger; and he held that the worst war
which he could make upon the men of Valencia was to let them die of
hunger. So he ordered proclamation to be made so loud that all the
Moors upon the walls could hear, bidding all who had come out from the
town to return into it, or he would burn as many as he should find; and
saying also that he would slay all who came out from that time forth.
Nevertheless they continued to let themselves down from the walls, and
the Christians took them without his knowledge. But as many as he found
he burnt alive before the walls, so that the Moors could see them; in
one day he burnt eighteen, and cast others alive to the dogs, who tore
them in pieces. They who could hide any sent them away by sea and by
land to be sold; the most whom they sent were young men and girls, for
others they would not take; and many virgins they kept for themselves.
And if they knew that any who came out, had left kinsmen or friends in
the town who would give any thing for them, they tortured them before
the walls, or hung them from the towers of the Mosques which were
without the city, and stoned them; and when they in the town saw this
they gave ransom for them, that they might be permitted to dwell in
Alcudia with the Moors who were in peace with the Cid. This continued