Note 53 — Chapter IX

The correspondence between the above story and the following Spanish legend is singularly close.—“The night before the battle was fought at the Navas de Tolosa, in the dead of the night a mighty sound was heard in the whole city of Leon, as if it had been the tramp of a whole army passing through: and it went on to the royal monastery of St. Isidro, and there was great knocking at the gate thereof; and they called to a priest who was keeping vigil in the church, and told him that the captains of the army which he heard were the Cid Ruy Diaz, and Count Ferran Gonzalez; and that they came to call up King Don Fernando the Great, who lay buried in that church, that he might go with them to deliver Spain. And on the morrow that great battle of the Navas de Tolosa was fought, wherein 60,000 of the unbelievers were slain, which was one of the greatest and noblest battles ever won over the Moors.”—Chronicle of Cid, xi. 21. It occurred a.d. 1212.