Consuegra © Mark Wade

Early on the morrow he sent to call all his honourable men to the Alcazar; and when they were all assembled before him, he began to say unto them, weeping the while, Friends and kinsmen and true vassals and honourable men, many of ye must well remember when King Don Alfonso our Lord twice banished me from his land, and most of ye for the love which ye bore me followed me into banishment, and have guarded me ever since.

And God hath shown such mercy to you and to me, that we have won many battles against Moors and Christians; those which were against Christians, God knows, were more through their fault than my will, for they strove to set themselves against the good fortune which God had given me, and to oppose his service, helping the enemies of the faith.

Moreover we won this city in which we dwell, which is not under the dominion of any man in the world, save only of my Lord the King Don Alfonso, and that rather by reason of our natural allegiance than of anything else.

And now I would have ye know the state in which this body of mine now is; for be ye certain that I am in the latter days of my life, and that thirty days hence will be my last.

Of this I am well assured; for for these seven nights past I have seen visions.

I have seen my father Diego Laynez, and Diego Rodriguez my son; and every time they say to me, You have tarried long here, let us go now among the people who endure for ever.

Now notwithstanding that man ought not to put his trust in these things, nor in such visions, I know this by other means to be certain, for Sir St. Peter hath appeared to me this night, when I was awake and not sleeping, and he told me that when these thirty days were over, I should pass away from this world.

Now ye know for certain that King Bucar is coming against us, and they say that thirty and six Moorish Kings are coming with him; and since he bringeth so great a power of Moors, and I have to depart so soon, how can ye defend Valencia! But be ye certain, that by the mercy of God I shall counsel ye so, that ye shall conquer King Bucar in the field, and win great praise and honour from him, and Dona Ximena, and ye and all that ye have, go hence in safety; how ye are to do all this I will tell ye hereafter, before I depart.