The poem opens abruptly with the exile of the Cid from Castille. He rides to his house at Burgos but finds all closed against him. Only a nine-year-old girl is found to tell him that “last night came the King’s letter. We dare not open or receive you, else would we lose our goods and houses, and moreover the eyes of our heads.”
To obtain money the Cid fills two chests with sand, and on these “covered with red leather, and studded with nails well-gilt,” he obtains six hundred marks from the Jews Rachel and Vidas. They are not to open the chests for a year. On the wall in the cloister of the Cathedral at Burgos still hangs an ancient chest known as the _Cofre del Cid_. Thus furnished, the Cid leaves Castille, and he prays solemnly to God and the glorious Saint Mary, “for here I leave Castille, since the King is wrath with me, and I know not if in all my days I shall enter it again.” He takes leave of his wife and children at the Convent of San Pedro de Cardeña, and, after early Mass said by the Abbot Don Sancho, departs, wistfully turning his head to look back. Doña Jimena, his wife, prays for his safety to the “glorious Lord the Father, who madest Heaven and Earth, and thirdly, the sea, who madest stars and moon and the sun to give heat.” Already men were flocking to the Cid’s banner, and his first exploit is the capture of the town of Castejon. He lies in ambush before it: “The dawn is breaking, and morning was at hand. The sun went forth, Heavens! how beautiful it rose. In Castejon all were awaking. They open the gates, and quickly went forth to see their work in the fields and their possessions.” When they were all gone forth, the Cid took the town. The next town, Alcocer, he also captures by a wile. “The news grieves those of Teca, the men of Teruel it does not please; it pleases not the men of Calatayud.” A host of Moors besieges the Cid in Alcocer, and after three weeks, the provisions failing, he goes forth and gains a great victory. At the sound of the drums of the Moorish host “the earth was like to crack.” He pursues the enemy to the walls of Calatayud. _Fata Calatayuth duró el segudar._ He sends Alvar Fáñez to _Castiella la gentil_ with a present of thirty horses for King Alfonso and money for Doña Jimena, and for a thousand masses at Santa María de Burgos. Zaragoza agrees to pay tribute to the Cid. Don Remont Berenger, Count of Barcelona, goes out against him, and persists in coming to an engagement, though the Cid sends him a message: “I have nothing of his, bid him let me go in peace.” The result is a crushing defeat of the “army of the Franks,” and the Count is taken prisoner. The account of his captivity is entertaining. The Count refuses all food: “‘I will not eat a mouthful for all there is in Spain. I will rather die (lit. lose my body and leave my soul) since such ill-equipped men have beaten me in battle.’ You will hear what said my Cid Ruy Diaz: ‘Eat, Count, of this bread and drink this wine; if you do as I say you shall be free, if not in all your days you shall not see Christian land.’” The Count eats nothing for three days: “They dividing these great spoils cannot make him eat a piece of bread.” Then the Cid renews his promise to give him liberty: “But of what you have lost and I won in the field know that I will not give you any part, but what you have lost I will not give you, for I have need of it for me and for my vassals, and will not give it you.” At length the Count yields. “The Count is eating, Heavens! with what good will. Over against him sat he who was born in happy hour: ‘If you eat not well, Count, and I am not satisfied, here we shall remain, we shall not part.’... The Cid, who is watching him, is satisfied, so quickly did Count Remont move his hands,” and he escorts him on his way. The Count takes his leave and “goes turning his head and looking back; with fear he went that the Cid will repent, that which he would not do for all that is in the world.” Fresh victories follow. The Cid carries the war “over against the salt sea” and takes among other towns Murviedro (the old Saguntum and modern Sagunto). Here he is besieged by the Valencians, but sallies forth and defeats them. _Fata Valencia duró el segudar._ For three years he continues to wage war and take towns. “The fame of my Cid, know well, is noised abroad.” “The inhabitants of Valencia know not what to do. From no quarter came bread, father and son are without counsel, friend cannot comfort friend. A bad thing, Sirs, it is to have a lack of bread.” After a siege of nine months the Cid takes Valencia. He establishes a Christian bishopric in his new town, and sends a present of a hundred horses to King Alfonso. Alvar Fáñez on his return escorts Doña Jimena and her daughters Elvira and Sol to Valencia.