because we have to proceed with his history. Ye are to know therefore,
that after the treason which King Don Ordono the Second committed upon
the Counts of Castille, that country remained without a chief: the
people therefore chose two judges, of whom the one was called Nuno
Rasuera, and the other Layn Calvo, who married Nuno's daughter, Elvira
Nunez. From Nuno Rasuera King Don Ferrando descended, and from Layn
Calvo, Diego Laynez, who took to wife Dona Teresa Rodriguez, the
daughter of Don Rodrigo Alvarez, Count and Governor of Asturias, and
had by her this Rodrigo. In the year of the Incarnation 1026 was
Rodrigo born, of this noble lineage, in the city of Burgos, and in the
street of St. Martin, hard by the palace of the Counts of Castille,
where Diego Laynez had his dwelling. In the church of St. Martin was he
baptized, a good priest of Burgos, whose name was Don Pedro de
Pernegas, being his godfather: and to this church Rodrigo was always
greatly affectionate, and he built the belfry tower thereof.

III. At this time it came to pass that there was strife between Count
Don Gomez the Lord of Gormaz, and Diego Laynez the father of Rodrigo;
and the Count insulted Diego and gave him a blow. Now Diego was a man
in years, and his strength had passed from him, so that he could not
take vengeance, and he retired to his home to dwell there in solitude
and lament over his dishonour. And he took no pleasure in his food,
neither could he sleep by night, nor would he lift up his eyes from the
ground, nor stir out of his house, nor commune with his friends, but
turned from them in silence as if the breath of his shame would taint
them. Rodrigo was yet but a youth, and the Count was a mighty man in
arms, one who gave his voice first in the Cortes, and was held to be
the best in the war, and so powerful that he had a thousand friends
among the mountains. Howbeit all these things appeared as nothing to
Rodrigo when he thought of the wrong done to his father, the first