At
the beginning the Englishmen were so strong that they reculed back
their enemies: then the earl Douglas, who was of great heart and high
of enterprise, seeing his men recule back, then to recover the place
and to shew knightly valour he took his axe in both his hands, and
entered so into the press that he made himself way in such wise, that
none durst approach near him, and he was so well armed that he bare
well off such strokes as he received.[1] Thus he went ever forward
like a hardy Hector, willing alone to conquer the field and to
discomfit his enemies: but at last he was encountered with three
spears all at once, the one strake him on the shoulder, the other on
the breast and the stroke glinted down to his belly, and the third
strake him in the thigh, and sore hurt with all three strokes, so that
he was borne perforce to the earth and after that he could not be
again relieved. Some of his knights and squires followed him, but not
all, for it was night, and no light but by the shining of the moon.
The Englishmen knew well they had borne one down to the earth, but
they wist not who it was; for if they had known that it had been the
earl Douglas, they had been thereof so joyful and so proud that the
victory had been theirs.
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171