But the fortune of war is fickle. The troops of the
Cid were defeated at last by the invaders; and the
Campeador died of grief in July, 1099. They took
his body and embalmed it, and kept vigil by its side;
then, in the legend of the poets, they did as the Cid
had bidden them: they set him upon his good horse
Bavieca, and fastened the saddle well, so that he sat
erect, with his countenance unchanged, his eyes bright
and fair, and his beard flowing down his breast, and
his trusty sword Tizona in his hand. No one would
have known that he was dead. And they led Bavieca
out of the city: Pero Bermudez in front with the banner
of the Cid and five hundred knights to guard it, and
Doña Ximena behind with her company and escort.
Slowly they cut a path through the besiegers, and
took the road to Castile, leaving the Moors in sore
amazement at their strange departure: for they did
not know that the Cid was dead. But the body of
the hero was set in an ivory chair beside the great
altar of San Pedro de Cardeña, under a canopy
whereon were blazoned the arms of Castile and Leon,
Navarre and Aragon, and of the Cid Campeador.
Ten years the Cid sat upright beside the altar, his
face still noble and comely, when the signs of death
at last began to appear; so they buried him before
the altar, where Doña Ximena already lay; and they
left him in the vault, still upright in the ivory chair,
still in his princely robes with the sword Tizona in
his hand,--still the great Campeador whose dinted
shield and banner of victory hung desolate over his
tomb.

-213-