Sentose el Conde a la mesa, No cenava, ni podia, Con sus hijos al costado, Que muy mucho los queria. Echo se sobre los hombros, Hizo, como se dormia, De lagrimas de sus ojos Toda la mesa cubria. The board is laid, he takes his place, Where viands tempt in vain, For near him his lov’d children are, Now lov’d, alas! with pain. In seeming sleep with head reclin’d, He tries to hide his woe; But from his eyes the big tears roll, And o’er the table flow. The apparent fatigue of the Count induces the Countess to accompany him to his apartment. When they enter, the Count fastens the door, relates what has passed, and desires his lady to prepare for death. De morir aveis, Condessa, Antes que amenesca el dia. O Countess, thou art doom’d to die, Before the morning’s dawn. She begs him to spare her only for her children’s sake. The Count desires her to embrace for the last time the youngest, whom she has brought with her into the room asleep in her arms. Abrazad este chiquito, Que aquesto es el que os perdia. Peso me de vos, Condessa, Quanta pesar me podia. Give to that babe one parting kiss, That babe for whom thou’rt lost; Beshrew me--but I pity thee-- I who need pity most. She submits to her hard fate, and only asks for time to say an _ave maria_. The Count desires her to be quick. She falls on her knees, and pours forth a brief but fervent prayer; she then requests a few moments more delay, that she may once more give suck to her infant son. What modern poet would have thought of introducing so exquisite a touch of nature? The Count forbids her to wake the child. The unfortunate lady forgives her husband, but predicts that, within thirty days, the king and his daughter will be summoned before the tribunal of the Almighty. The Count strangles her. Echole por la garganta Una toca que tenia, Apreto con los dos manos, Con la fuerza que podia. No le afloxo la garganta, Mentre que vida tenia. In the conclusion, the fulfilment of the unfortunate Countess’s prophecy is briefly related. On the twelfth day the princess died, on the twentieth the king, and on the thirtieth the Count himself expired. [54] Those in the _Cancionero de Romances_ are of this kind. (See the remark, p. 35.) [55] Sarmiento counted one hundred and two romances relative to the Cid, in one collection. Only some of them are inserted in the _Romancero general_, interspersed among others. [56] In the following romance, for instance, the assonance is very skilfully managed.