NOTES.

Note 1.

MOUNTAIN Christians, those natives of Spain, who, under their prince, Pelayo, took refuge amongst the mountains of the northern provinces, where they maintained their religion and liberty, whilst the rest of their country was overrun by the Moors.

Note 2.

Oh, free doth sorrow pass, &c.

Frey geht das Unglück durch die ganze Erde.
Schiller's Death of Wallenstien, act iv. sc. 2.

Note 3.

Tizona, the fire-brand. The name of the Cid's favourite sword, taken in battle from the Moorish king Bucar.

Note 4.

How he won Valencia from the Moor, &c.

Valencia, which has been repeatedly besieged, and taken by the armies of different nations, remained in the possession of the Moors for an hundred and seventy years after the Cid's death. It was regained from them by King Don Jayme of Aragon, surnamed the Conqueror; after whose success I have ventured to suppose it governed by a descendant of the Campeador.

Note 5.

It was a Spanish tradition, that the great bell of the cathedral of Saragossa always tolled spontaneously before a king of Spain died.

Note 6.

"El que en buen hora nasco;” he that was born in happy hour. An appellation given to the Cid in the ancient chronicles.

Note 7.

For this, and the subsequent allusions to Spanish legends, see The Romances and Chronicle of the Cid.

Note 8.

“La voilà, telle que la mort nous l'a faite !"-Bossuet, Oraisons Funébres.

Note 9.

This circumstance is recorded of King Don Alfonso, the last of that name. He sent to the Cid's tomb for the cross which that warrior was accustomed to wear upon his breast when he went to battle, and had it made into one for himself; "because of the faith which he had, that through it he should obtain the victory."-Southey's Chronicle of the Cid.

SONGS OF THE CID*.

The following ballads are not translations from the Spanish, but are founded upon some of the 'wild and wonderful' traditions preserved in the romances of that language, and the ancient poem of the Cid.

THE CID'S DEPARTURE INTO EXILE.

WITH sixty knights in his gallant train,
Went forth the Campeador of Spain;

For wild sierras and plains afar,

He left the lands of his own Bivar1.

To march o'er field, and to watch in tent,
From his home in good Castile he went;
To the wasting siege and the battle's van,
-For the noble Cid was a banish'd man!

Originally published in the New Monthly Magazine.