hey have only
left five. Count Engres has rushed forward, and before the eyes
of all goes to strike Calcedor on his golden shield, so that he
throws him to the ground dead. Alexander is much grieved when he
sees his comrade slain; he well-nigh goes mad with the fury that
comes upon him. His reason is dimmed with anger, but his strength
and courage are doubled, and he goes to strike the count with
such a mighty force that his lance breaks; for willingly, if he
could, would he avenge the death of his friend. But the count was
of great strength, a good and bold knight to boot, such that
there would not have been a better in the world if he had not
been disloyal and a traitor. The count, on his side, prepares to
give him such a blow that he bends his lance, so that it
altogether splinters and breaks; but the shield does not break
and the one knight does not shake the other from his seat any
more than he would have shaken a rock, for both were very strong.
But the fact that the count was in the wrong mightily vexes and
weakens him. The one grows furious against the other, and both
have drawn their swords, since they had broken their lances. And
there would have been no escape if these two champions had wished
further to prolong the fight; one or the other would have had to
die forthwith at the end. But the count does not dare to stand
his ground, for he sees his men slain around him, who, being
unarmed, were taken unawares. And the king's men pursue them
fiercely, and hack and hew, and cleave, and brain them, and call
the count a traitor. When he hears himself accused of treason, he
flees for refuge towards his keep; and his men flee with him. And
their enemies who fiercely rush after take them captive; they let
not a single one escape of all those that they catch. They kill
and slay so many that I do not think that more than seven reached
a place of safety. When the traitors entered the keep, they are
stayed at the entrance; for their pursuers had followed them so
close that their men would have got in if the entrance had been
open. The traitors defend themselves well; for they expect
succour from them who were arming in the town below. But by the
advice of Nabunal, a Greek who was very wise, the way was held
against the reinforcements, so that they could not come in time,
for they had tarried over-long from lukewarmness and indolence.
Up there into that fortress there was only one single entry; if
the Greeks stop up that