VII. My Cid and his company alighted at the gate of the Palaces of
Galiana, and he and his people went in gravely, he in the midst and his
hundred knights round about him. When he who was born in happy hour
entered, the good King Don Alfonso rose up, and the Counts Don Anrrich
and Don Remond did the like, and so did all the others, save the
curly-headed one of Granon, and they who were on the side of the
Infantes of Carrion. All the others received him with great honour. And
he said unto the King, Sir, where do you bid me sit with these my
kinsmen and friends who are come with me? And the King made answer,
Cid, you are such a one, and have past your time so well to this day,
that if you would listen to me and be commanded by me, I should hold it
good that you took your seat with me; for he who hath conquered Kings,
ought to be seated with Kings. But the Cid answered, That, Sir, would
not please God, but I will be at your feet for by the favour of the
King your father Don Ferrando was I made, his creature and the creature
of your brother King Don Sancho am I, and it behoveth not that he who
receiveth bounty should sit with him who dispenseth it. And the King
answered, Since you will not sit with me, sit on your ivory seat, for
you won it like a good man; and from this day I order that none except
King or Prelate sit with you, for you have conquered so many high-born
men, and so many Kings, both Christians and Moors, that for this reason
there is none who is your peer, or ought to be seated with you. Sit
therefore like a King and Lord upon your ivory seat. Then the Cid
kissed the King's hand, and thanked him for what he had said, and for
the honour which he had done him; and he took his seat, and his hundred
knights seated themselves round about him. All who were in the Cortes
sate looking at my Cid and at his long beard which he had bound with a
cord; but the Infantes of Carrion could not look upon him for shame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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