| Alcocer |
Believed to be present-day Catejon de las Armas. Not the better-known town of the same name north of Tarragona.
And on the morrow they passed Alfama, and leaving the Gorge below them they passed Bobierca, and Teca which is beyond it, and came against Alcocer.
My Cid thought to take Alcocer: so he pitched his tents securely, having the Sierra on one side, and the river on the other, and he made all his people dig a trench, that they might not be alarmed, neither by day nor by night.
And my Cid lay before Alcocer fifteen weeks; and when he saw that the town did not surrender, he ordered his people to break up their camp, as if they were flying, and they left one of their tents behind them, and took their way along the Salon, with their banners spread.
In this manner did my Cid win Alcocer, and take up his abode therein.
And they sent to the King of Valencia to tell him that one who was called Ruydiez the Cid, whom King Don Alfonso had banished, was come into their country, and had taken Alcocer; and if a stop were not put to him, the King might look upon Teca and Teruel and Calatayud as lost, for nothing could stand against him, and he had plundered the whole country, along the Salon on the one side, and the Siloca on the other.
And they sent their messengers through the land to all the Councils thereof, ordering all men at arms, as well horsemen as footmen, to join them, and the third night they halted at Calatayud, and great numbers joined them; and they came up against Alcocer, and pitched their tents round about the Castle.
And he divided the spoil, giving to each man his fair portion, and the Moors whom they had put out of Alcocer before the battle, they now received again into the castle, and gave to them also a part of the booty, so that all were well content.
For since you were wroth against him, and banished him from the land, he being a man disherited, hath helped himself with his own hands, and hath won from the Moors the Castle of Alcocer.
My Cid remained awhile in Alcocer, and the Moors of the border waited to see what he would do.
And in this time King Fariz got well of his wound, and my Cid sent to him and to the Moors, saying, that if they would give him three thousand marks of silver, he would leave Alcocer and go elsewhere.
But the Moors of Alcocer were full sorry to see him depart, because he had been to them a kind master and a bountiful; and they said unto him, Wherever you go, Cid, our prayers will go before you: and they wept both men and women when my Cid went his way.