'The Saxons,'reported Duke William's outposts of Norman soldiers,who were instructed to retire as King Harold's army advanced,'rush on us through their pillaged country with the fury of madmen.'
'Let them come,and come soon!'said Duke William.
Some proposals for a reconciliation were made,but were soon abandoned.In the middle of the month of October,in the year one thousand and sixty-six,the Normans and the English came front to front.All night the armies lay encamped before each other,in a part of the country then called Senlac,now called (in remembrance of them)Battle.With the first dawn of day,they arose.There,in the faint light,were the English on a hill;a wood behind them;
in their midst,the Royal banner,representing a fighting warrior,woven in gold thread,adorned with precious stones;beneath the banner,as it rustled in the wind,stood King Harold on foot,with two of his remaining brothers by his side;around them,still and silent as the dead,clustered the whole English army-every soldier covered by his shield,and bearing in his hand his dreaded English battle-axe.
On an opposite hill,in three lines,archers,foot-soldiers,horsemen,was the Norman force.Of a sudden,a great battle-cry,'God help us!'burst from the Norman lines.The English answered with their own battle-cry,'God's Rood!Holy Rood!'The Normans then came sweeping down the hill to attack the English.
There was one tall Norman Knight who rode before the Norman army on a prancing horse,throwing up his heavy sword and catching it,and singing of the bravery of his countrymen.An English Knight,who rode out from the English force to meet him,fell by this Knight's hand.Another English Knight rode out,and he fell too.But then a third rode out,and killed the Norman.This was in the first beginning of the fight.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 rode 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 rode 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 the 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 rode 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,firms 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 upon 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!
