them for what they had done like good knights: howbeit he was full
sorrowful for Alvar Salvadores that he should be in the hands of the
Moors, but he trusted in God that he should deliver him on the morrow.

XIX. And the Cid assembled his chief captains and knights and people,
and said unto them, Kinsmen and friends and vassals, hear me: to-day
has been a good day, and to-morrow shall be a better. Be you all armed
and ready in the dark of the morning; mass shall be said, and the
Bishop Don Hieronymo will give us absolution, and then we will to
horse, and out and smite them in the name of the Creator and of the
Apostle Santiago. It is fitter that we should live than that they
should gather in the fruits of this land. But let us take counsel in
what manner we may go forth, so as to receive least hurt, for they are
a mighty power, and we can only defeat them by great mastery in war.
When Alvar Fanez Minaya heard this, he answered and said, Praised be
God and your good fortune, you have achieved greater things than this,
and I trust in God's mercy that you will achieve this also. Give me
three hundred horse, and we will go out when the first cock crows, and
put ourselves in ambush in the valley of Albuhera; and when you have
joined battle we will issue out and fall upon them on the other side,
and on one side or the other God will help us. Well was the Cid pleased
with this counsel, and he said that it should be so; and he bade them
feed their horses in time and sup early, and as soon as it was
cock-crow come to the Church of St. Pedro, and hear mass, and shrive
themselves, and communicate, and then take horse in the name of the
Trinity, that the soul of him who should die in the business might go
without let to God.

XX. Day is gone, and night is come. At cock-crow they all assembled
together in the Church of St. Pedro, and the Bishop Don Hieronymo sung