were with him do the like. Now the Infantes of Carrion were there,
Diego Gonzalez and Ferrando Gonzalez, the sons of Count Don Gonzalo.
And they found the company of the Cid about half a league from the
town, and when the King saw how many they were, he blest himself, for
they seemed like a host. And Minaya and Pero Bermudez pricked on when
they saw him, and came before him, and alighted, and knelt down, and
kissed the ground and kissed both his feet; and he bade them rise and
mount their horses, and would not hear them till they had mounted, and
taken their places one at his right hand, and the other at his left.
And they said, Sir, the Cid commends himself to your grace as his liege
Lord, and thanks you greatly for having sent him with such honour his
wife and daughters. And know. Sir, that since they arrived, he hath
achieved a great victory over the Moors, and their King Yucef of
Morocco, the Miramamolin, who besieged him in Valencia with fifty
thousand men. And he went out against them, and smote them, and hath
sent you these two hundred horses from his fifth. Then Alvar Fanez gave
order that the horses should be led forward. And this was the manner in
which they came. The two hundred horses came first, and every one was
led by a child, and every one had a sword hanging from the saddle, on
the left side; and after them came the pages of all the knights in
company, carrying their spears, and then the company, and after them,
an hundred couple with spears in rest. And when they had all past by,
the King blest himself again, and he laughed and said that never had so
goodly a present been sent before to King of Spain by his vassal. And
Alvar Fanez said moreover, Sir, he hath sent you a tent, the noblest
that ever man saw, which he won in this battle: and the King gave order
that the tent should be spread, and he alighted and went into it, he
and all his people, and he was greatly pleased; and they all said that
they had never seen so noble a tent as this; and the King said he had
won many from the Moors, but never such as this. But albeit that all