Note 210 — Chapter VII

Among the ballads taken from the “Crónica General” is, I think, the one in the ballad-book of 1555, beginning “Preso esta Fernan Gonzalez,” though the Chronicle says (Parte III. f. 62, ed. 1604) that it was a Norman count who bribed the castellan, and the ballad says it was a Lombard. Another, which, like the two last, is very spirited, is found in the “Flor de Romances,” Séptima Parte, (Alcalá, 1597, 18mo, f. 65,) beginning “El Conde Fernan Gonzalez,” and contains an account of one of his victories over Almanzor not told elsewhere, and therefore the more curious.