Then began that memorable siege of nine months, during which the people of Valencia suffered agonies of hunger and thirst, while the Cid maintained his remorseless leaguer round the walls. The besieged were reduced to the agonies of starvation, and those who rushed out, or were thrust forth as useless burdens by the townspeople, were massacred or sold into slavery by the Cid's soldiers. It is even said by the Moorish historians that the Cid had many of them burnt alive. The _Chronicle_ pathetically records: "Now there was no food to be bought in the city, and the people were in the waves of death; and men were seen to drop and die in the streets." Thus wrote a poet of the devoted city: "Valencia! Valencia! trouble is come upon thee, and thou art in the hour of death; and if peradventure thou shouldst escape, it will be a wonder to all that shall behold thee. "But if ever God hath shown mercy to any place, let Him be pleased to show mercy unto thee; for thy name was joy, and all Moors delighted in thee and took their pleasure in thee. "And if it should please God utterly to destroy thee now, it will be for thy great sins, and for the great presumption which thou hadst in thy pride. "The four corner stones whereon thou art founded would meet together and lament for thee, if they could! "Thy strong wall which is founded upon these four stones trembles, and is about to fall, and hath lost all its strength. "Thy lofty and fair towers which were seen from far, and rejoiced the hearts of the people, ... little by little they are falling. "Thy white battlements which glittered afar off, have lost their truth with which they shone like the sunbeams. "Thy noble river Guadalaviar, with all the other waters with which thou hast been served so well, have left their channel, and now they run where they should not. "Thy water-courses, which were so clear and of such great profit to so many, for lack of cleansing are choked with mud. "Thy pleasant gardens which were round about thee; ... the ravenous wolf hath gnawn at the roots, and the trees can yield thee no fruit. "Thy goodly fields, with so many and such fair flowers, wherein thy people were wont to take their pastime, are all dried up. "Thy noble harbour, which was so great honour to thee, is deprived of all the nobleness which was wont to come into it for thy sake. "The fire hath laid waste the lands of which thou wert called Mistress, and the great smoke thereof reacheth thee. "There is no medicine for thy sore infirmity, and the physicians despair of healing thee. "Valencia! Valencia! from a broken heart have I uttered all these things which I have said of thee. "And this grief would I keep unto myself that none should know it, if it were not needful that it should be known to all."