[210] Among the ballads taken from the “Crónica General” is, I think, the one in the ballad-book of 1555, beginning “Preso esta Fernan Gonzalez,” though the Chronicle says (Parte III. f. 62, ed. 1604) that it was a Norman count who bribed the castellan, and the ballad says it was a Lombard. Another, which, like the two last, is very spirited, is found in the “Flor de Romances,” Séptima Parte, (Alcalá, 1597, 18mo, f. 65,) beginning “El Conde Fernan Gonzalez,” and contains an account of one of his victories over Almanzor not told elsewhere, and therefore the more curious. The ballads which naturally form the next group are those on the Seven Lords of Lara, who lived in the time of Garcia Ferrandez, the son of Fernan Gonzalez. Some of them are beautiful, and the story they contain is one of the most romantic in Spanish history. The seven Lords of Lara, in consequence of a family quarrel, are betrayed by their uncle into the hands of the Moors, and put to death; while their father, by the basest treason, is confined in a Moorish prison, where, by a noble Moorish lady, he has an eighth son, the famous Mudarra, who at last avenges all the wrongs of his race. On this story there are about thirty ballads; some very old, and exhibiting either inventions or traditions not elsewhere recorded, while others seem to have come directly from the “General Chronicle.” The following is a part of one of the last, and a good specimen of the whole:--[211] [211] The story of the Infantes de Lara is in the “Crónica General,” Parte III., and in the edition of 1604 begins at f. 74. I possess, also, a striking volume, containing forty plates, on their history, by Otto Vaenius, a scholar and artist, who died in 1634. It is entitled “Historia Septem Infantium de Lara” (Antverpiae, 1612, fol.); the same, no doubt, an imperfect copy of which Southey praises in his notes to the “Chronicle of the Cid” (p. 401). Sepúlveda (1551-84) has a good many ballads on the subject; the one I have partly translated in the text beginning,-- Quien es aquel caballero Que tan gran traycion hacia? Ruy Velasquez es de Lara, Que à sus sobrinos vendia. The corresponding passage of the Chronicle is at f. 78, ed. 1604.