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accessary to the murder. On this occasion the conduct of the Cid gave very great offence to the king; which, it seems, he did not cordially forgive till many years after, when the personal conquests of that hero had rendered him equal in power to any sovereign prince in Spain, and it became a matter of prudence, or even necessity to keep him in his allegiance to the crown of Castile.

And the king came forward upon a high stage,that all the people might see him, and my Cid came to him to receive the oath; and my Cid took the book of the gospels and opened it, and laid it upon the altar, and the king laid his hands upon it, and the Cid said unto him," King Don Alfonso,you come here to swear concerning the death of King Don Sancho your brother, that you neither slew him nor took counsel for his death: say now,you and these hidalgos, if ye swear this." And the king and the hidalgos answered and said, "yea, we swear it." And the Cid said, "If ye knew of this thing, or gave command that it should be done, may you die even such a death as your brother Don Sancho, by the hand of a vil-, lain whom you trust, one who is not a hidalgo, from another land, not a Castilian ;" and the king and the knights who were with him, said, Amen. And the king's colour changed; and the Cid repeated the oath to him a second time, and the king and the twelve knights said Amen in like manner, and in like manner the countenance of the king changed again. And my Cid repeated the oath unto him a third time, and the king and the knights said amen; but the wrath of the king was exceeding great, and he said to the Cid,

Ruydiez, why dost thou thus press me, man? To-day thou swearest me, and to morrow thou wilt kiss my hand." And from that day forward, there was no love towards my Cid, in the heart of the king.'

The new monarch had not long to wait for an opportunity of venting the ill humour thus conceived against the champion of the crown. The immediate cause of his banishment is not worth relating; but some circumstances attending his departure are so very interesting, that, notwithstanding the amplitude of our extracts already made, we cannot refrain from giving them in this place. As soon as his sentence had been pronounced,

"The Cid sent for all his friends and his kinsmen and vassals, and told them how King Don Alonso had banished him from the land, and asked of them, who would follow him into banishment, and who

* These twelve knights answer in a remarkable manner to the Compurgators' of our old Saxon law. We do not find that Mr. Southey has observed this resemblance; but the reader will find in his notes, some good illustrations of the Spanish laws in this respect.

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would remain at home. Then Alvat Fañez, who was his cousin. german, came forward and said, "Cid, we will all go with you through desart, and through peopled country, and never fail you. in your service we will spend our mules and horses, our wealth, and our garments, and ever while we live, be unto you loyal friends and vassals." And they all confirmed what Alvar Fañez had said, and the Cid thanked them for their love, and said there might come a time in which he should guerdon them.

And as he was about to depart, he looked back upon his own home, and when he saw his hall deserted, the household chests tinfastened, the doors open, no cloaks hanging up, no seats in the porch, no hawks upon the perches, the tears came into his eyes, and he said, 66 My enemies have done this, God be praised for all things." And he turned toward the east, and knelt and said, " Holy Mary mother, and all Saints, pray to God for me, that he may give me strength to destroy all the pagans, and to win enough from them to quite my friends therewith, and all those who follow and help me," Then he called for Alvar Fañez, and said unto him, "Cousin, the poor have no part in the wrong which the king hath done us, see now that no wrong be done unto them along our road,"and he called for his horse. And then an old woman was standing at her door, said, "go in a lucky minute, and make spoil of whatever you wish." And with this proverb he rode on, saying, "friends, by God's good pleasure, we shall return to Castile, with great honour and great gain." And as they went out from Bivar, they had a crow on their right haud, and when they came to Burgos, they had a crow on the left."

We pass over the following particulars of the Cid's banishment in order to come to the very affecting passage descriptive of his parting from Donna Ximena his wife, and his daughters, who were then at the monastery of St. Pedro de Cardeña, in the neighbourhood of the city of Burgos.

The cocks were crowing amain, and the day began to break, when the good campeador reached St. Pedro's. The abbot D. Sisebuto was saying matins, and D. Ximena, and five of her ladies of good lineage were with him, praying to God and St. Peter, to help my Cid. And when he called at the gate, and they knew his voice, God, what a joyful man was the Abbot D. Sisebuto! Out into the court-yard they went, with torches and with tapers, and the Abbot gave thanks unto God, that he now beheld the face of my Cid. And the Cid told him all that had befallen him, and how he was a banished man; and he gave him fifty marks for himself, and hundred for D. Ximena and her children. "Abbot," said he, "I leave two little girls behind me, whom I commend to your care. Take you care of them, and of my wife, and of her ladies and when this money be gone, if it be not enough, supply them abundantly; for every mark which you expend upon them, I will

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give the monastery four, and the Abbot promised to do this with a right good will. Then D. Ximena came up, and her daughters with her, each of them borne in arms, and she knelt down on both her knees before her husband, weeping bitterly; and she would have kissed his hand, and she said to him, 'lo, now you are banished from the land of mischief-making men, and here am I with your daughters, who are little ones, and of tender years, and we and you must be parted, even in your life-time, for the love of St. Mary, tell me now what we shall do.' And the Cid took the children in his arms, and held them to his heart and wept, for he dearly loved them. 'Please God and St. Mary,' said he, 'I shali yet live to give these my daughters in marriage with my own hands, and to do you service yet, my honoured wife, whom I have ever loved, even as my own soul.'

A great feast did they make that day, in the monastery of the good Campeador, and the bells of St. Pedro rung merrily. Meantime tidings had gone through Castile, how my Cid was banished from the land, and great was the sorrow of the people. Some left their houses to follow him, others forsook their honourable offices which they held. And that day, a hundred and fifteen knights assembled at the bridge of Arlanzon, all in quest of my Cid ; and there Martin Antolinez joined them, and they rode on together to St. Pedro's. And when he of Bivar knew what a goodly company was coming to join him, he rejoiced in his own strength, and rode out to meet them, and greeted them full courteously; and they kissed his hand, and he said to them, "I pray to God that I may one day requite ye well, because ye have forsaken your houses and your heritages for my sake, and I trust that I shall pay ye two fold." Six days of the term allotted were now past, and three only remained; if after that time, he should be found in the king's dominions, neither for gold nor for silver could he then escape. That day they feasted together, and when it was evening, the Cid distributed among them all that he had, giving to each man according to what he was; and he told them, that they must meet at mass after ma tins, and depart at that early hour. Before the cock crew, they were ready, and the Abbot said the mass of the Holy Trinity, and when it was done, they left the church and went to horse. And my Cid en braced D.Ximena and his daughters and blest them; and the parting between them was like the separating the nail from the quick flesh; and he wept and continued to look round after them. Then Alvar Fañez, came up to him and said, "where is your courage -my Cid In a good hour were you born of woman. Think of our

road now these sorrows will yet be turned into joy,” (P. 103.)

We have found ourselves insensibly drawn in, by the very interesting nature of the work, to give a much more ample detail of its contents than we at first intended, yet, copious as we have been in our extracts, we have omitted several pasCRIT. REV. Vol. 16, January, 1809.

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sages which we had marked with the pencil, as deserving of particular attention, and as we proceed, shall be compelled to abridge still more of the pleasure which we had wished to convey to our readers.

(To be continued).

ART. 11.-Philosophical Transactions for 1808. Part I. I. The Bakerian Lecture, on some new Phenomena of Chemical Changes produced by Electricity, particularly the Decomposition of the fixed Alkalies, and the Exhibition of the new Substances which constitute their Bases; and on the general Nature of Alkaline Bodies. By Humphrey Davy, Esq. Sec. R.S. M.R.I.A.-We have noticed in a former number of our journal, Mr. Davy's conjecture, that by the application of those high powers of electricity developed by the the galvanic apparatus, a more intimate knowledge of the true elements of bodies might be acquired, than what is hitherto pos¡ sessed. We have now to relate the brilliant success of this admirable experimentalist and acute reasoner in the prosecution of his labours, which have led him to the discovery of the bases of the fixed alkalies. After describing the powers of his apparatus, and an unsuccessful attempt to effect the wished for decomposition, he says

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The presence of water appearing thus to prevent any decomposition, I used potash in igneous fusion. By means of a stream of oxygen gas from a gazometer applied to the flame of a spirit lamp, which was thrown on a platina spoon containing potash, this alkali was kept for some minutes in a strong red heat, and in a state of perfect fluidity. The spoon was preserved in communication with the positive side of the battery of the power of 100 of 6 inches, highly charged, and the connexion from the negative side was made by a platina wire.

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By this arrangement some brilliant phenomena were produced. The potash appeared a conductor in a high degree, and long as the communication was preserved, a most intense light was exhibited at the negative wire, and a column of flame which seemed to be owing to the developement of combustible matter, arose from the point of contact.

"When the order was changed, so that the platina spoon was made negative, a vivid and constant light appeared at the opposite point; there was no effect of inflammation round it; but aëriform globules, which inflamed in the atmosphere rose through the potash.'

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Though potash perfectly dried by ignition, is a non-conductor, yet it is rendered a conductor by very slight addition of moisture, which does not perceptibly destroy its aggregation, and in this state it readily fuses and decomposes by strong electrical powers.

A small piece of pure potash which had been exposed for a few seconds to the atmosphere, so as to give conducting power to the surface, was placed upon an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery of the power of 250 of 6 and 4 in a state of intense activity; and a platina wire communicating with the positive side, was brought in con tact with the upper surface of the alkali. The whole apparatus was in the open atmosphere.

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Under these circumstances a vivid action was soon observed to take place. The potash began to fuse at both its points of electrization; there was a violent effervescence at the upper surface; at the lower or negative surface, there was no liberation of elastic fluid, but small globules having a high metallic lustre, and being precisely similar in visible characters to quicksilver, appeared, some of which burnt with explosion and bright flame, as soon as they were formed; and others remained, and were merely tarnished and finally covered with a white film which formed on their surfaces.?

Such are the beautiful experiments which have effected the decomposition of potash. The globules are a peculiar inflammable principle, the basis of the alkali; the same substance was produced, when copper, silver, gold, plumbago, or even charcoal were employed for compleating the circuit.

From soda Mr. Davy obtained also a similar inflammable basis. But its decomposition requires an electrical power of much higher intensity; the basis of potash re mains fluid in the temperature of the atmosphere, at the time of its production, but the basis of soda, though fluid at the heat requisite to its production, becomes solid upon cooling, and appears to have the lustre of silver.

The gas which is emitted at the upper and positive surface, proved to be pure oxygen. Thus then was the analysis of the alkalis complete, the synthesis confirmed the truth of the analytic conclusions; the inflammable bases of the alkalies attract the oxygen of the atmosphere, and are thus converted into potash and soda respectively. If the energy of affinity be exalted by heat, they burn with a brilliant white flame, giving the same products. The weights of the alkalis produced exceed considerably those of the bases,

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