utamin and Mostain, the Cid remained for nearly eight
years, fighting their battles against Mahommedan and Christian, when not
engaged upon his own, and being admitted almost to a share of their
royal authority. He made more than one attempt to be reconciled with
Alphonso, but, his overtures being rejected, he turned his arms against
the enemies of the Beni Houd, extending their dominions at the expense
of the Christian states of Aragon and Barcelona, and harrying even the
border lands of Castile. Among the enterprises of the Cid the most
famous was that against Valencia, then the richest and most flourishing
city of the peninsula, and an object of cupidity to both Christian and
Moslem. The Cid appeared before the place at the head of an army of 7000
men, for the greater part Mahommedans. In vain did the Valencians
implore succour from the emir of Cordova, and from their co-religionists
in other parts of the peninsula. In defiance of an army which marched to
the relief of the beleaguered city under Yusef the Almoravide, the Cid
took Valencia after a siege of nine months, on the 15th of June
1094--the richest prize which up to that time had been recovered from
the Moors. The conditions of the surrender were all violated--the cadi
Ibn Djahhaff burnt alive, a vast number of the citizens who had escaped
death by famine slaughtered, and the possessions divided among the
Campeador's companions. In other respects the Cid appears to have used
his victory mildly, ruling his kingdom, which now embraced nearly the
whole of Valencia and Murcia, for four years with vigour and justice. At
length the Almoravides, whom he had several times beaten, marched
against him in great force, inflicting a crushing defeat at Cuenca upon
the Cid's army, under his favourite lieutenant, Alvar Fanez. The blow
was a fatal one to the aged and war-worn Campeador, who died of anger
and grief in July 1099. His widow maintained Valencia for three years
longer against the Moors, but was at last compelled to evacuate the
city, taking with her the body of the Cid to be buried in the monastery
of San Pedro at Cardena, in the neighbourhood of Burgos. Here, in the
centre of a small chapel, surrounded by his chief companions-in-arms, by
Alvar Fanez Minaya, Pero Bermudez, Martin Antolinez and Pelaez the
Asturian, were placed the remains of the mighty warrior, the truest of
Spanish heroes, the embodiment of all the national virtues and most of
the national vices. The