At San Pedro the Cid found Ximena and his two little daughters. “Abbot,” he said, addressing himself to the priest. “I commend my two little niñas to your care. Take care of them while I fight, and my wife and her ladies, and when the money I now give you is gone, supply them all the same, for every mark I will hereafter give you four.” And the abbot promised.
Doña Ximena and her daughters kissed the Cid, and she knelt down at his feet weeping bitterly.
The Cid, whose heart was tender for his own however hard with his enemies, wept too, and took the children in his arms, for he dearly loved them.
“My dear and honoured wife,” he said, “cheer up, I shall yet live to give these children in marriage to great lords. Have faith in me, Ximena, whom I love as my own soul.”
Again and again the Cid commended Ximena to the abbot, then he and all the knights loosened the reins of their horses and pricking forward to the Sierra entered into the country of the Moors.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Adventures of the Cid—Death and Burial
ROM this time began that life of knight-errantry which has made the Cid famous in all ages.
First he betook himself to the court of the Count of Barcelona, but not agreeing with him, passed into the service of the Sheikh Móstadri, the most powerful of the Moslem princes of Saragossa. At his death, which occurred soon after, the Cid continued with his eldest son, Montamin, and assisted him against his two brothers with prodigies of valour.
In five days he overran Aragon and harried a large tract of country for spoil, returning in triumph to Saragossa, bringing with him prisoner the Count of Barcelona.