[205] Memorias para la Poesía Española, Sect. 528. * * * * * _Historical Ballads._--The most important and the largest division of the Spanish ballads is, however, the historical. Nor is this surprising. The early heroes in Spanish history grew so directly out of the popular character, and the early achievements of the national arms so nearly touched the personal condition of every Christian in the Peninsula, that they naturally became the first and chief subjects of a poetry which has always, to a remarkable degree, been the breathing of the popular feelings and passions. It would be easy, therefore, to collect a series of ballads,--few in number as far as respects the Gothic and Roman periods, but ample from the time of Roderic and the Moorish conquest of Spain down to the moment when its restoration was gloriously fulfilled in the fall of Granada,--a series which would constitute such a poetical illustration of Spanish history as can be brought in aid of the history of no other country. But, for our present purpose, it is enough to select a few sketches from these remarkable ballads devoted to the greater heroes,--personages half-shadowy, half-historical,--who, between the end of the eighth and the beginning of the twelfth century, occupy a wide space in all the old traditions, and serve alike to illustrate the early popular character in Spain, and the poetry to which that character gave birth. The first of these, in the order of time, is Bernardo del Carpio, concerning whom we have about forty ballads, which, with the accounts in the Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise, have constituted the foundations for many a drama and tale, and at least three long heroic poems. According to these early narratives, Bernardo flourished about the year 800, and was the offspring of a secret marriage between the Count de Saldaña and the sister of Alfonso the Chaste, at which the king was so much offended, that he kept the Count in perpetual imprisonment, and sent the Infanta to a convent; educating Bernardo as his own son, and keeping him ignorant of his birth. The achievements of Bernardo, ending with the victory of Roncesvalles,--his efforts to procure the release of his father, when he learns who his father is,--the falsehood of the king, who promises repeatedly to give up the Count de Saldaña and as often breaks his word,--with the despair of Bernardo, and his final rebellion, after the Count’s death in prison,--are all as fully represented in the ballads as they are in the chronicles, and constitute some of the most romantic and interesting portions of each.[206] [206] The story of Bernardo is in the “Crónica General,” Parte III., beginning at f. 30, in the edition of 1604. But it must be almost entirely fabulous.