This holy cross still has the form at the lower end by which the standard-bearer rested it in the pommel of his saddle.
“Inestimable,” adds Fray Antonio Agapida, “are the relics and remains of saints and sainted warriors.” In after times, when Fernando the Third, surnamed the Saint, went to the conquest of Seville, he took with him a bone of this thrice-blessed and utterly renowned cavalier, together with his sword and pennon, hoping through their efficacy to succeed in his enterprise,—nor was he disappointed; but what is marvelous to hear, but which we have on the authority of the good Bishop Sandoval, on the day on which King Fernando the Saint entered Seville in triumph, great blows were heard to resound within the sepulchre of the count at Arlanza, as if veritably his bones which remained behind exulted in the victory gained by those which had been carried to the wars. Thus were marvelously fulfilled the words of the holy psalm,—“Exaltabant ossa humilitata.”[72]
Here ends the chronicle of the most valorous and renowned Don Fernan Gonzalez, Count of Castile. Laus Deo.
CHRONICLE OF FERNANDO THE SAINT.
