Then follow their challenge to any two knights in Sancho’s camp (except the King himself and the Cid), its acceptance by the two Counts, the Cid’s mocking intervention, and the encounter:—
The Counts arrive; one clad in black, And one in crimson bright; The opposing ranks each other meet, And furious is the fight.
The youth has quick unhorsed his man, With sturdy stroke and true; The Sire has pierced the other’s mail, And sent his lance right through.
The horseless knight, pale at the sight, Ran hurrying from the fray; Back to Zamora ride the twain, With glory crowned that day!
And another _romance_ worth giving from the Zamora series is the impressive
Por aquel postigo viejo que nunca fuera cerrado.[43]
Fortunately, Lockhart’s omission has been made good by
Gibson, though of course no translation can do more than give a hint of the original:—
On through the ancient gateway, That had nor lock nor bar, I saw a crimson banner come, With three hundred horse of war;
I saw them bear a coffin, And black was its array; And placed within the coffin A noble body lay....
These ballads are included in the _Romancero del Cid_, and they are particularly interesting as being the _débris_ of a lost epic on the siege of Zamora which has apparently been utilised in the _Crónica general_; but perhaps a translator might excuse himself for not dealing with them on the ground that the Cid only appears incidentally. Indeed in
Por aquel postigo viejo que nunca fuera cerrado,
the Cid does not appear at all. The same excuse might be given for omitting the well-known
Doliente estaba, doliente, ese buen rey don Fernando,[44]
of which Gibson, however, gives a fairly adequate rendering, so far as the difference of language allows:—
The King was dying, slowly dying, The good King Ferdinand; His feet were pointed to the East, A taper in his hand.
Beside his bed, and at the head, His four sons took their place, The three were children of the Queen, The fourth of bastard race.
The bastard had the better luck, Had rank and noble gains; Archbishop of Toledo he, And Primate of the Spains....
So, again, the Cid does not appear in the often-quoted _romance_ beginning—
Rey don Sancho, rey don Sancho, no digas que no te aviso.[45]