had
commanded. This continued for eight days or nine, till the companions
of the Cid had made ready everything for their departure, as he had
commanded. And King Bucar and his people thought that the Cid dared
not come out against them; and they were the more encouraged, and
began to think of making bastiles and engines wherewith to combat the
city, for certes they weened that the Cid Ruydiez dared not come out
against them, seeing that he tarried so long.

All this while the company of the Cid were preparing all things to go
into Castile, as he had commanded before his death; and his trusty Gil
Diaz did nothing else but labor at this. And the body of the Cid was
thus prepared: first it was embalmed and anointed, and the virtue of
the balsam and myrrh was such that the flesh remained firm and fair,
having its natural color, and his countenance as it was wont to be,
and the eyes open, and his long beard in order, so that there was not
a man who would have thought him dead if he had seen him and not known
it. And on the second day after he had departed, Gil Diaz placed the
body upon a right noble saddle, and this saddle with the body upon
it he put upon a frame; and he dressed the body in a _gambax_ of fine
sendal, next the skin. And he took two boards and fitted them to the
body, one to the breast and the other to the shoulders; these were so
hollowed out and fitted that they met at the sides and under the arms,
and the hind one came up to the pole, and the other up to the beard.
These boards were fastened into the saddle, so that the body could not
move.

All this was done by the morning of the twelfth day; and all that day
the people of the Cid were busied in making ready their arms, and in
loading beasts with all that they had, so that they left nothing of
any price in the whole city of Valencia, save only the empty houses.
When it was midnight they took the body of the Cid, fastened to the
saddle as it was, and placed it upon his horse Bavieca, and fastened
the saddle well; and the body sat so upright and well that it seemed
as if he was alive. And it had on painted hose of black and white, so
cunningly painted that no man who saw them would have thought but that
they were greaves and cuishes, unless he had laid his hand upon them;
and they put on it a surcoat of green sendal, having his arms blazoned
thereon, and a helmet of parchment, which was cunningly painted that
every one might have believed it to be iron;