Not long after this the king of Navarre sent forth his champion to challenge one of Alfonso’s, the stake this time being three castles which the Cid won.  But the Moors, taking advantage of the Cid’s illness which followed this battle, rose up against Alfonso, who was compelled to wage war against them.  In this campaign he would have fallen into the enemy’s hands had not the Cid risen from his sick-bed to extricate him from peril!  By this time the renown of the Cid was so great, that people in speaking of him invariably termed him “the Perfect One,” thereby arousing such jealousy among the courtiers, that they persuaded Alfonso his subject was trying to outshine him!  In anger the king decreed Rodrigo’s immediate banishment, and, instead of allowing him the customary thirty days to prepare for departure, threatened to put him to death were he found within the land nine days later!  As soon as the Cid informed his friends he was banished, one and all promised to follow wherever he went, as did his devoted cousin Alvar Fanez.

It is at this point that the present poem of the Cid begins, for the ballads covering the foregoing part of the Cid’s life exist only in a fragmentary state.  We are told that the decree of banishment proved a signal for the courtiers to plunder the hero’s house, and that the Cid gazing sadly upon its ruins exclaimed, “My enemies have done this!” Then, seeing a poor woman stand by, he bade her secure her share, adding that for his part he would henceforth live by pillaging the Moors, but that the day would come when he would return home laden with honors.

On his way to Burgos the Cid was somewhat cheered by good omens, and was joined by so many knights in quest of adventure that no less than sixty banners fluttered behind him.  A royal messenger had, however, preceded him to this city, to forbid the people to show him hospitality and to close his own house against him.  The only person who dared inform the Cid of this fact was a little maid, who tremblingly reported that he was to be debarred from all assistance.

  “O thou that in a happy hour didst gird thee with the sword,
  It is the order of the king; we dare not, O my lord! 
  Sealed with his royal seal hath come his letter to forbid
  The Burgos folk to open door, or shelter thee, my Cid. 
  Our goods, our homes, our very eyes, in this are all at stake;
  And small the gain to thee, though we meet ruin for thy sake. 
  Go, and God prosper thee in all that thou dost undertake."[13]

Pausing at the church only long enough to say a prayer, the Cid rode out of the gates of Burgos and camped on a neighboring hill, where his nephew Martin Antolinez brought him bread and wine, declaring he would henceforth share the Cid’s fortunes in defiance of the king.  It was to this relative that the Cid confided the fact that he was without funds and must raise enough money to defray present expenses.  Putting their