press me, man? To-day thou swearest me, and to-morrow thou wilt kiss my
hand. And from that day forward there was no love towards my Cid in the
heart of the King.

XII. After this was King Don Alfonso crowned King of Castille, and
Leon, and Galicia, and Portugal; and he called himself King and Emperor
of all Spain, even as his father had done before him. And in the
beginning of his reign he did in all things according to the counsel of
the Infanta Dona Urraca his sister; and he was a good King, and kept
his kingdom so well, that rich and poor alike dwelt in peace and
security, neither did one man take arms against another, nor dare to do
it, if he valued the eyes in his head. And if the King was noble and
high of lineage, much more was he of heart; and in his days justice
abounded in the land so, that if a woman had gone alone throughout the
whole of his dominions, bearing gold and silver in her hand, she would
have found none to hurt her, neither in the waste, nor in the peopled
country. The merchants and pilgrims also who passed through his lands
were so well protected, that none durst do them wrong. Never while the
kingdom was his, had they of his land to do service to any other Lord.
And he was a comforter of the sorrowful, and an increaser of the faith,
and a defender of the churches, and the strength of the people; a judge
without fear; there was not in Spain a consoler of the poor and of
those who were oppressed, till he came. Now there was a mortal enmity
between my Cid and Count Garcia Ordonez, and in this year did my Cid
gather together those of his table, and all his power, and entered into
the lands of Logrono, and Navarre, and Calahorra, burning and spoiling
the country before him. And he laid siege to the Castle of Faro and
took it. And he sent messengers to the Count his enemy, to say that he
would wait for him seven days, and he waited. And the mighty men of the
land came to the Count Don Garcia, but come against my Cid that they