an the fate of traitors, remember
that you have yet a father, without a peer throughout the world.'

None can tell the wrath of the Cid when his daughters came home. Little
he said, for he was ever a man of few words, but he sent forthwith
messengers to the king, telling him of the base deeds of the counts of
Carrion, and begging for leave to plead his cause before the Parliament
at Toledo. This permission Alfonso granted gladly, and bade the counts
of Carrion to be present also and answer the Cid.

Many days they waited ere Don Rodrigo, accompanied by his wife and
daughters, and followed by a train of nobles, rode through the gates.
The king was sitting surrounded by the Cortes or Parliament, but he
desired that the Cid should be brought to him at once, and then
commanded him to set forth his wrongs.

'It is you, O king, and not I, who gave my daughters in marriage to
these base men, therefore it is you, and not I, who must answer for
this. I ask you that you will force them to restore my swords Colada and
Tizona that I girded on them when they bore my children from Valencia.'
And the hearts of the counts were glad when they heard his words, and
they hasted to place the gold-pommelled swords in the hands of the Cid.

Next, Don Rodrigo demanded that the dowries of his daughters should be
given back to him, and this also the king adjudged to be his right.
Last, he set forth the treatment his daughters had suffered from the
counts of Carrion, and challenged them and also their uncle, who had
ever given them evil counsel, to fight with three of his knights that
day.

Before the combat could take place a sound as of armed men was heard in
the courtyard, and in rode two youths covered with golden armour and
tall plumed helmets, and one was Don Ramiro of Navarre, and the other
Don Sancho of Aragon.

'It has reached our ears,' said they, 'that the marriages between the
counts of Carrion and the daughters of the Cid are about to be set
aside, and we have come to pray that the ladies may be given to us to
wife.'

And the king answered: 'If it pleases the Cid, it pleases me also, but
the Cortes here present must grant its consent.'

So the Cid kissed the hand of the king in token of the honour done him,
and the Cortes cried with one voice that the man who allied himself with
Don Rodrigo de Bivar was honoured above all. Therefore, the weddings
were celebrated without delay, the counts of Carrion having been
pronounced ou