For two years and a half the steed Bavieca was reverently tended by
the Cid's followers, none of whom, however, ever presumed to bestride
him. As for Ximena, having mounted guard over her husband's remains
four years, she finally died, leaving grandchildren to rule over
Navarre and Aragon.

And so his honor in the land grows greater day by day.
Upon the feast of Pentecost from life he passed away.
For him and all of us the Grace of Christ let us implore.
And here ye have the story of my Cid Campeador.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: All the quotations in this chapter are taken from
translation, of "The Cid" by Ormsby.]




PORTUGUESE EPICS


Portuguese literature, owing to its late birth, shows little
originality. Besides, its earliest poems are of a purely lyrical and
not of an epical type. Then, too, its reigning family being of
Burgundian extraction, it borrowed its main ideas and literary
material from France. In that way Charlemagne, the Arthurian romances,
and the story of the Holy Grail became popular in Portugal, where it
is even claimed that Amadis de Gaule originated, although it received
its finished form in Spain.