They see their troops from four sides arrive
to succour them. And the King's men ride hard with spur to
attack them. They deal such blows upon their shields that,
beside the wounded, they unhorse more than five hundred of them.
Alexander, with his Greeks, has no thought of sparing them,
making every effort to prevail into the thickest of the fight he
goes to strike a knave whose shield and hauberk are of no avail
to keep him from falling to the earth. When he has finished with
him, he offers his service to another freely and without stint,
and serves him, too, so savagely that he drives the soul from his
body quite, and leaves the apartment without a tenant. After
these two, he addresses himself to another, piercing a noble and
courteous knight clean through and through, so that the blood
spurts out on the other side, and his expiring soul takes leave
of the body. Many he killed and many stunned, for like a flying
thunderbolt he blasts all those whom he seeks out. Neither coat
of mail nor shield can protect him whom he strikes with lance or
sword. His companions, too, are generous in the spilling of
blood and brains, for they, too, know well how to deal their
blows. And the royal troops butcher so many of them that they
break them up and scatter them like low-born folk who have lost
their heads.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279