the _estrados_, each in the place where he ought to be, and which
belonged to him; and they remained awhile silent. Then the Cid rose and
called for Alvar Fanez and said, Thou knowest what my Lord the King
commanded; fulfil now his bidding, ... take thy cousins, and deliver
them to the Infantes, for it is the King who gives them in marriage,
and not I. And Alvar Fanez arose and took the damsels one in each hand,
and delivered them to the Infantes, saying. Diego Gonzalez, and
Ferrando Gonzalez, I deliver unto you these damsels, the daughters of
the Cid Campeador, by command of King Don Alfonso my Lord, even as he
commanded. Receive you them as your equal helpmates, as the law of
Christ enjoineth. And the Infantes took each his bride by the hand, and
went to the Cid and kissed his hand, and the same did they to their
mother Dona Ximena Gomez: and the Bishop Don Hieronymo espoused them,
and they exchanged rings. When this was done, the Cid went and seated
himself on the _estrado_ with the ladies, he and Dona Ximena in the
middle, and beside him he placed Dona Elvira his eldest daughter, and
by her, her spouse the Infante Diego Gonzalez; and Dona Sol was seated
on the other side, by her mother, and the Infante Ferrando by her. And
when they had solaced themselves awhile, the Cid said that now they
would go eat, and that the marriage should be performed on the morrow,
and he besought and commanded the Bishop Don Hieronymo to perform it in
such a manner that no cost should be spared, but that every thing
should be done so compleatly, that they who came from Castille to this
wedding might alway have something to tell of.

XXXIII. On the morrow they went to the Church of St. Mary, and there
the Bishop Don Hieronymo sate awaiting them, and he blest them all four
at the altar. Who can tell the great nobleness which the Cid displayed
at that wedding, the feasts and the bull-fights, and the throwing at
the target, and the throwing canes, and how many joculars were there,