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99 Läsebok. N:o 77 — 78.
röde out, and killed the Norman. This was in the first
beginning of the light. It soon raged everywhere.
The English, keeping side by side in a great mass,
cared no more for the showers of Norman arrows than if
they had been showers of Norman rain. When the Norman
horsemen röde against them, with their battle-axes they cut
men and horses down. The Normans gave way. The
English pressed forward. A cry went forth among the Norman
troops that Duke William was killed. Duke William took off
his helmet, in order that his face might be distinctly seen,
and röde along the line before his men. This gave them
courage. As they turned again to face the English, some of
their Norman horse divided the pursuing body of the
English from the rest, and thus all that foremost portion of’ th?
English army fell, fighting bravely. The main body still
remaining firm, heedless of the Norman arrows, and with
their battle-axes cutting down the crowds of horsemen when
they röde up, like forests of young trees, Duke William
pretended to retreat. The eager English followed. The Norman
army closed again, and fell upon them with great slaughter.
»Still», said Duke William, »there are thousands of the
English, firm as rocks around their King. Shoot upward,
Norman archers, that your arrows may fall down upon their
faces!»
The sun rose high, and sank, and the battle still raged.
Through all the wild October day, the clash and din
resounded in the air. In the red sunset, and in the white
moonlight, heaps of dead men lay strewn, a dreadful spectacle, all
over the ground. King Harold wounded with an arrow in
the eye, was nearly blind. His brothers were already killed.
Twenty Norman Knights, whose battered armour had flashed
fiery and golden in the sunshine all day long, and now
looked silvery in the moonlight, dashed forward to seize the
royal banner from the English Knights and soldiers, still
faithfully collected round their blinded King. The King
received a mortal wound and dropped. The English broke and
fled. The Normans rallied, and the day was lost.
O ! what a sight beneath the moon and stars, when lights
were shining in the tent of the victorious Duke William,
which was pitched near the spot where Harold fell -— and
he and his knights were carousing, within — and soldiers
with torches, going slowly to and fro, without, sought for
the corpse of Harold among piles of dead — and the
Warrior, worked in golden thread and precious stones, lay low,
all torn and soiled with blood — and the three Norman
Lions kept watch over the field!
Charles Dickens (Household Words.)
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