he Cid became governor of Valencia, under tribute to King Alfonso,
and under honor to hold it against the Moors.

The famous champion was not done with his troubles with Alfonso. In the
years that followed he was once more banished by the faithless king, and
his wife and children were seized and imprisoned. At a later date he came
to the king's aid in his wars, but found him again false to his word, and
was obliged to flee for safety from the camp.

Valencia had passed from his control and had more than once since changed
hands. At length the Moorish power grew so strong that the city refused to
pay tribute to Spain and declared its independence. Here was work for the
Cid--not for the benefit of Alfonso, but for his own honor and profit. He
was weary of being made the foot-ball of a jealous and faithless monarch,
and craved a kingdom of his own. Against Valencia he marched with an army
of free swords at his back. He was fighting now for the Cid, not for
Moorish emir or Spanish monarch. For twenty months he beseiged the fair
city, until starvation came to the aid of his sword. No relief reached the
Moors; the elements fought against them, floods of rain destroying the
roads and washing away the bridges; on June 15, 1094, the Cid Campeador
marched into the city thenceforth to be associated with his name.

Ascending its highest tower, he gazed with joy upon the fair possession
which he had won with his own good sword without aid from Spanish king or
Moorish ally, and which he proposed to hold for his own while life
remained. His city it was, and today it bears his name, being known as
Valencia del Cid. But he had to hold it with the good sword by which he
won it, for the Moors, who had failed to aid the beleaguered city, sought
with all their strength to win it back.

During the next year thirty thousand of them came and encamped about the
walls of the city. But fighting behind walls was not to the taste of the
Cid Campeador. Out from the gates he sallied and drove them like sheep
from their camp, killing fifteen thousand of them in the fight.

"Be it known," the chronicle tells us, "that this was a profitable day's
work. Every foot-soldier shared a hundred marks of silver that day, and
the Cid returned full honorably to Valencia. Great was the joy of the
Christians in the Cid Ruy Diaz, who was born in a happy hour. His beard
was grown, and continued to grow, a great length. My Cid said of his chin,
'For the love of Kin