Con muchos traspasos e mas sotilesas
Gané lo que tengo en cada lugar.
Agora la muerte vinó me llamar;
Que sera de mi, non se que me faga.
O muerte tu sierra á mi es gran plaga.
Adios, Mercaderes, que voyme á finar!
[149] See a learned dissertation of Fr. Benito Montejo, on the Beginnings of the Independence of Castile, Memorias de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. III. pp. 245-302. Crónica General de España, Parte III. c. 18-20. Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 27-39. Extracts from the manuscript in the Escurial are to be found in Bouterwek, trad. por J. G. de la Cortina, etc., Tom. I. pp. 154-161. I have a manuscript copy of the first part of it, made for me by Professor Gayangos. For notices, see Castro, Bibl., Tom. I. p. 199, and Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 115.
[150] Crónica General, ed. 1604, Parte III. f. 55. b, 60. a-65. b. Compare, also, Cap. 19, and Mariana, Historia, Lib. VIII. c. 7, with the poem. That the poem was taken from the Chronicle may be assumed, I conceive, from a comparison of the Chronicle, Parte III. c. 18, near the end, containing the defeat and death of the Count of Toulouse, with the passage in the poem as given by Cortina, and beginning “Cavalleros Tolesanos trezientos y prendieron”; or the vision of San Millan (Crónica, Parte III. c. 19) with the passage in the poem beginning “El Cryador te otorga quanto pedido le as.” Perhaps, however, the following, being a mere rhetorical illustration, is a proof as striking, if not as conclusive, as a longer one. The Chronicle says, (Parte III. c. 18,) “Non cuentan de Alexandre los dias nin los años; mas los buenos fechos e las sus cavallerías que fizo.” The poem has it, in almost the same words:—
Non cuentan de Alexandre · las noches nin los dias;
Cuentan sus buenos fechos · e sus cavalleryas.