nd his company.

"He rushed straight upon a Norman who was armed and riding on a
war-horse, and tried with his hatchet of steel to cleave his helmet; but
the blow miscarried, and the sharp blade glanced down before the
saddle-bow, driving through the horse's neck down to the ground, so that
both horse and master fell together to the earth. I know not whether the
Englishman struck another blow; but the Normans who saw the stroke were
astonished and about to abandon the assault, when Roger de Montgomeri
came galloping up, with his lance set, and, heeding not the long-handled
axe which the Englishman wielded aloft, struck him down and left him
stretched on the ground. Then Roger cried out, 'Frenchmen, strike! the
day is ours!' And again a fierce _melee_ was to be seen, with many a
blow of lance and sword; the English still defending themselves, killing
the horses and cleaving the shields.

"There was a French soldier of noble mien who sat his horse gallantly.
He spied two Englishmen who were also carrying themselves boldly. They
were both men of great worth and had become companions in arms and
fought together, the one protecting the other. They bore two long and
broad bills and did great mischief to the Normans, killing both horses
and men.

"The French soldier looked at them and their bills and was sore alarmed,
for he was afraid of losing his good horse, the best that he had, and
would willingly have turned to some other quarter if it would not have
looked like cowardice. He soon, however, recovered his courage, and,
spurring his horse, gave him the bridle and galloped swiftly forward.
Fearing the two bills, he raised his shield, and struck one of the
Englishmen with his lance on the breast, so that the iron passed out at
his back. At the moment that he fell the lance broke, and the Frenchman
seized the mace that hung at his right side, and struck the other
Englishman a blow that completely fractured his skull.

"On the other side was an Englishman who much annoyed the French,
continually assaulting them with a keen-edged hatchet. He had a helmet
made of wood, which he had fastened down to his coat and laced round his
neck, so that no blows could reach his head. The ravage he was making
was seen by a gallant Norman knight, who rode a horse that neither fire
nor water could stop in its career when its master urged it on. The
knight spurred, and his horse carried him on well till he charged the
Englishman, striking hi