Then a horse was brought him the which was exceeding white, and the apostle Santiago mounted upon it, being well clad in bright and fair armor, after the manner of a knight.  And he said to Estiano, “I go to help King Don Ferrando, who has lain these seven months before Coimbra, and to-morrow, with these keys which thou seest, will I open the gates of the city unto him at the third hour, and deliver it into his hand.”  Having said this, he departed.  And the bishop, when he woke in the morning, called together the clergy and people of Compostella, and told them what he had seen and heard.  And as he said, even so did it come to pass; for tidings came, that on that day, and at the third hour, the gates of the city had been opened.

King Don Ferrando then assembled his counts and chief captains, and told them all that the monks of Lorvam had done, in bringing him to besiege the city, and in supplying his army in their time of need:  and the counts and chief captains made answer and said, “Certes, O King, if the monks had not given us the stores of their monastery, thou couldest not have taken the city at this time.”  The King then called for the abbot and the brethren, for they were with him in the host, and said the hours to him daily, and mass in St. Andre’s, and buried there and in their monastery as many as had died during the siege, either of arrow-wounds or by lances, or of their own infirmities.  So they came before him and gave him joy of his conquest; and he said unto them, “Take ye now of this city as much as ye desire, since by God’s favor and your counsel I have won it.”  But they made answer, “Thanks be to God and to you, and to your forefathers, we have enough and shall have, if so be that we have your favor and dwell among Christians.  Only for the love of God, and for the remedy of your own soul, give us one church with its dwelling-houses within the city, and confirm unto us the gifts made to us in old times by your forefathers.”

With that the King turned to his sons and his soldiers, and said, “Of a truth, by our Creator, they who desire so little are men of God.  I would have given them half the city, and they will have only a single church!  Now therefore, since they require but this, on the part of God Almighty let us grant and confirm unto them what they ask, to the honor of God and St. Mamede.”  And the brethren brought him their charters of King Ramiro, and King Bermudo, and King Alfonso, and of Gonzalo Moniz, who was a knight and married a daughter of King Bermudo, and of other good men.  And the King confirmed them, and he bade them make a writing of all which had passed between him and them at the siege of Coimbra; and when they brought him the writing, they brought him also a crown of silver and of gold, which had been King Bermudo’s, and which Gonzalo Moniz had given to the monastery in honor of God and St. Mamede.