Chapter XXVI

"Nor take it ill, mine utterance. For here we cannot stay. The king will come to seek us, for he is not far away; But to destroy the castle seems in no way good to me. An hundred Moorish women in that place I will set free And of the Moors an hundred. Since there, as it befell, I captured them. Hereafter shall they all speak of me well. Ye all are paid; among you is no man yet to pay. Let us on the morrow morning prepare to ride away, For against my lord AIfonso the strife I would not stir."

What the Cid said was pleasing to his every follower. Rich men they all departed from the hold that they had ta'en And the Moors both men and women blessed them o'er and o'er again.

Up the Henáres hastened they and hard they rode and strong. They passed through the Alcárrias, and swift they marched along, By the Caverns of Anquíta they hastened on their way. They crossed the stream. Into Taránz the great plain entered they, And on down through that region as hard as they might fare. Twixt Faríza and Cetína would the Cid seek shelter there. And a great spoil he captured in the country as he went, For the Moors had no inkling whatso'er of his intent. On the next day marched onward the great Cid of Bivár, And he went by Alháma, and down the vale afar. And he passed Bubiérca and Atéca likewise passed, And it was nigh to Alcocér that he would camp at last Upon a rounded hillock that was both strong and high. They could not rob him of water; the Jalón it flowed hard by. My lord Cid don Rodrigo planned to storm Alcocér.

XXVII. He pitched a strong encampment upon the hillock there, Some men were toward the mountains, some by the stream arrayed. The gallant Cid, who in good hour had girded on the blade, Bade his men near the water dig a trench about the height, That no man might surprise them by day nor yet by night. So might men know that there the Cid had taken up his stand.