me, and go not to this battle, for there is reason enough why you
should be excused, and not break the oath which you made unto my
father. And she took hold on him, and would not let him go, and made
him be disarmed. Then came many knights around him, to demand arms of
him, and request that they might do battle in his stead; nevertheless
he would give them to none. And he called for his son Pedro Arias, who
was a right brave knight, though but of green years, and who had
greatly intreated his father before this, that he would suffer him to
fight in his stead. And Don Arias armed him compleatly with his own
hands, and instructed him how to demean himself, and gave him his
blessing with his right hand, and said unto him, that in such a point
he went to save the people of Zamora, as when our Lord Jesus Christ
came through the Virgin Mary, to save the people of this world, who
were lost by our father Adam. Then went they into the field, where Don
Diego Ordonez was awaiting them, and Pedrarias entered the lists, and
the judges placed them each in his place, and divided the sun between
them, and went out, leaving them in the lists.

VI. Then they turned their horses one against the other, and ran at
each other full bravely, like good knights. Five times they
encountered, and at the sixth encounter their spears brake, and they
laid hand upon their swords, and dealt each other such heavy blows that
the helmets failed; and in this manner the combat between them
continued till noon. And when Don Diego Ordonez saw that it lasted so
long, and he could not yet conquer him, he called to mind that he was
there fighting to revenge his Lord, who had been slain by a foul
treason, and he collected together all his strength. And he lifted up
his sword and smote Pedrarias upon the helmet, so that he cut through
it, and through the hood of the mail also, and made a wound in the
head. And Pedrarias with the agony of death, and with the blood which