A fuera, a fuera, Rodrigo, El soberbio Castellano! Acordarte te debria De aquel tiempo ya passado, Quando fuiste caballero En el altar de Santiago; Quando el Rey fue tu padrino, Tu Rodrigo el ahijado. Mi padre te dio las armas, Mi madre te dio el caballo, Yo te calze las espuelas, Porque fuesses mas honrado, Que pensé casar contigo. No lo quiso mi pecado; Casaste con Ximena Gomez, Hija del Conde Loçano. Con ella uviste dineros, Conmigo uvieras estado. Bien casaste, Rodrigo, Muy mejor fueras casado; Dexaste hija de Rey, Por tomar la de su vasallo. This was one of the most popular of the old ballads. It is often alluded to by the writers of the best age of Spanish literature; for example, by Cervantes, in “Persiles y Sigismunda,” (Lib. III. c. 21,) and was used by Guillen de Castro in his play on the Cid. Alfonso the Sixth succeeded on the death of Sancho, who perished miserably by treason before the walls of Zamora; but the Cid quarrelled with his new master, and was exiled. At this moment begins the old poem already mentioned; but even here and afterwards the ballads form a more continuous account of his life, carrying us, often with great minuteness of detail, through his conquest of Valencia, his restoration to the king’s favor, his triumph over the Counts of Carrion, his old age, death, and burial, and giving us, when taken together, what Müller the historian and Herder the philosopher consider, in its main circumstances, a trustworthy history, but what can hardly be more than a poetical version of traditions current at the different times when its different portions were composed. Indeed, in the earlier part of the period when historical ballads were written, their subjects seem rather to have been chosen among the traditional heroes of the country, than among the known and ascertained events in its annals. Much fiction, of course, was mingled with whatever related to such personages by the willing credulity of patriotism, and portions of the ballads about them are incredible to any modern faith; so that we can hardly fail to agree with the good sense of the canon in Don Quixote, when he says, “There is no doubt there was such a man as the Cid and such a man as Bernardo del Carpio, but much doubt whether they achieved what is imputed to them”;[217] while, at the same time, we must admit there is no less truth in the shrewd intimation of Sancho, that, after all, the old ballads are too old to tell lies. At least, some of them are so.