which is nine leagues from Valencia.
X. Abenalfarax, he who wrote this history in Arabic, saith, that the
day when the company of the Cid went out from Valencia, and
discomfited King Bucar and the six and thirty Kings who were with him,
the Moors of Alcudia and of the suburbs thought that he went out alive,
because they saw him on horseback, sword in hand; but when they saw
that he went towards Castille, and that none of his company returned
into the town, they were astonished. And all that day they remained in
such amaze, that they neither dared go into the tents which King
Bucar's host had left, nor enter into the town, thinking that the Cid
did this for some device; and all night they remained in the same
doubt, so that they dared not go out from the suburbs. When it was
morning they looked towards the town, and heard no noise there; and
Abenaltarax then took horse, and taking a man with him, went toward the
town, and found all the gates thereof shut, till he came to that
through which the company of the Cid had gone forth; and he went into
the city and traversed the greater part thereof, and found no man
therein, and he was greatly amazed. Then he went out and called aloud
to the Moors of the suburbs, and told them that the city was deserted
by the Christians; and they were more amazed than before: nevertheless
they did not yet dare either to go out to the camp or to enter into the
town, and in this doubt they remained till it was mid-day. And when
they saw that no person appeared on any side, Abenalfarax returned
again into the town, and there went with him a great company of the
best Moors; and they went into the Alcazar, and looked through all the
halls and chambers, and they found neither man nor living thing; but
they saw written upon a wall in Arabic characters by Gil Diaz, how the
Cid Ruydiez was dead, and that they had carried him away in that manner
to conquer King Bucar, and also to the end that none might oppose their
going. And when the Moors saw this they rejoiced and were exceeding
glad, and they opened the gates of the town, and sent to tell these
tidings to those in the suburbs. And they came with their wives and
children into the town, each to the house which had been his before the
Cid won it. And from that day Valencia remained in the power of the
Moors till it was won by King Don Jayme of Aragon, he who is called the
Conqueror, which was an hundred and seventy years. But though King Don
Jayme won it, it is alway called _Valencia del Cid_. On the morrow they
went into the tents of King Bucar, and found there many arms; but the
tents were deserted, save only that they found certain women who had
hid themselves, and who told them of the defeat of King Bucar. And the
dead were so many that they could scarcely make way among them. And
they went on through this great mortality to the port, and there they
saw no ships, but so many Moors lying dead that tongue of man cannot
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