III. Early on the morrow he sent to call all his honourable men to the
Alcazar; and when they were all assembled before him, he began to say
unto them, weeping the while, Friends and kinsmen and true vassals and
honourable men, many of ye must well remember when King Don Alfonso our
Lord twice banished me from his land, and most of ye for the love which
ye bore me followed me into banishment, and have guarded me ever since.
And God hath shown such mercy to you and to me, that we have won many
battles against Moors and Christians; those which were against
Christians, God knows, were more through their fault than my will, for
they strove to set themselves against the good fortune which God had
given me, and to oppose his service, helping the enemies of the faith.
Moreover we won this city in which we dwell, which is not under the
dominion of any man in the world, save only of my Lord the King Don
Alfonso, and that rather by reason of our natural allegiance than of
anything else. And now I would have ye know the state in which this
body of mine now is; for be ye certain that I am in the latter days of
my life, and that thirty days hence will be my last. Of this I am well
assured; for for these seven nights past I have seen visions. I have
seen my father Diego Laynez, and Diego Rodríguez my son; and every time
they say to me, You have tarried long here, let us go now among the
people who endure for ever. Now notwithstanding man ought not to put
his trust in these things, nor in such visions, I know this by other
means to be certain, for Sir St. Peter hath appeared to me this night,
when I was awake and not sleeping, and he told me that when these
thirty days were over, I should pass away from this world. Now ye know
for certain that King Bucar is coming against us, and they say that
thirty and six Moorish Kings are coming with him; and since he bringeth
so great a power of Moors, and I have to depart so soon, how can ye
defend Valencia! But be ye certain, that by the mercy of God I shall
counsel ye so, that ye shall conquer King Bucar in the field, and win
great praise and honour from him, and Doña Ximena, and ye and all that
ye have, go hence in safety; how ye are to do all this I will tell ye
hereafter, before I depart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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