Baudri-Herren

That you might marvel the more, the Duke quickly puts together
three thousand keels and fills them all with armed men.
Moreover, there were separate ships for the infantry;
some ships carried the cavalry; others, the horses.
A royal ship was raised with gilded prow:
she would not fear the turbid channel.
From the flagship came the cry: 'Release the ropes';
the ropes are loosed; each craft casts off.
A shout of sailors goes up, then a mixed cry.
Wives, mothers, and stay-at-homes wail.
A wife hails her husband, a maid her beau with her prayers;
each woman follows her man with her eyes.
One prays for a swift and happy return -
neither man nor woman can keep from tears.
Songs tell how a city of Asia and capital of a kingdom -
Priam' s Troy - fell to the Greeks,
How when Sinon mingled fire and war in the captive city,
it was not possible to describe so great a din.
By a royal command, thousands of the fathers of Rome
are slain - Rome sank in her own fires.
Then ruin and grief drove the multitude to a cry and the safety of flight.
And though that cry was great, I could not believe
it equalled this din just now, when no one was silent.
If the stars in the sky had fallen, or the platform of the universe,
if the seas were to carry off all the lands,
Men could not have produced a greater racket,
nor would there arise a greater clamour amongst a people.
As soon as the vessels cleared the port, they made their way
through the deep sea; the shouting subsides and a hush falls suddenly.
And now the steersman watches the winds and the stars,
and the men immediately fall to their tasks.
Turning the folds of their sails, they veer into the wind.
At length their oars fall silent and they gain the shore.
Commanders and orders hold ships and sails in check -
that is, if the ships really had sails.
As soon as the fierce prince of the English reached the shore,
he spoke: 'Prosper, O land, if you favour me.
A perjuring tyrant wants to take you away from us.
one guilty of perjury denies us our due.
May it be granted to us to take you away from the perjuring tyrant,
may I be able to remove what is ours from one who is guilty of purjury.
I do not desire, my realm, to lay waste your fields.
I shall be an enemy to my enemies; peace, my land, to you!'
Then he bids some to bear standards, some to bring up their battalions;
he arranges his flanks and his middle.
Now comes the clarion call, now the trumpet of Mars;
the enemy is at close quarters with a huge host.
Though the Norman soldiery had not yet begun the fight,
their hearts went stiff and cold with heavy fear.
For there was no group nor person who could say
how great was the force of the enemy host.
The very dense rank of spears deceived many;
for if a lance did not glisten, it might have been a forest.
The enemy left their horses behind and huddled in a tight wedge,
which, if it had not scattered, would have been safe;
For the Normans did not dare to attack them when united,
nor were they able to draw anyone away from the wedge.
The duke orders his men to use bows and missiles;
the English had not known such deaths before now.
Now they learned to die by the arrow which they had not known,
and they thought that death fell on them from the sky.
A wing of soldiers follows them from a distance
in order to draw off stragglers after it.
The English are tormented by arrows; many die standing;
the huddled men were unable to fall.
Then the barbarian people, on account of their pain and shame
disperse and break ranks: they follow the stragglers.
The Normans simulate flight and flee their pursuers;
the swift cavalry intercepts the English on all sides.
They are slaughtered on the spot; bit by bit they are diminished,
but the shrewd ranks of the duke suffered no decrease.
At length, our people, exasperated by constant taunts,
charge the enemy's united front in broken ranks.
Then, more than ever, the enemy smote the backs of those fleeing
and the soldiers fell back as far as the face of the duke.
Now the hearts of the Normans are close to terror,
and they hope to conceal themselves by flight.
A rumor was spread the the duke had been slain;
at this news the weakening army reels even more.
The the prince senses that his forces are tottering;
removing his helmet from his head, he cries:
'Stand, I beseech you, and remember what is ours, yours, and mine;
truly I live - fear not -I live!
My people, why do you flee? victory is within our reach;
we must all use our swords!
Come, prove your ancestral powers - and your own;
this time the enemy shall run; now let's attack them!
Whither would you flee?' he said. 'The fleet is far from shore;
with one stroke we removed that very hope.
What walls are ours? our defense is a stout right hand;
it is in your power to live or to die.'
Swiftly he goaded his horse with his bronze spurs
and hurled lightning at the enemy with his iron sword.
Not so great a Hector laid low the Greeks,
nor Achilles the Trojans, though both were mighty.
The rest of the army follows the Duke, mad with wrath and shame;
now it is a disgrace to yield; now one smites with the hand.
One man thrusts with the iron blade, another with the terrible sabre;
spirits depart through many kinds of wounds.
Mars favours both sides and smiles on both;
no matter which party falls lifeless in battle
Death quickly follows: now these perish, now those.
Death arrives, hastening with swords of his own.
Unless I am wrong, the sisterly Fates must have wearied:
many a man fell, though his thread was not broken!
Many a dying man departs unbidden to the kingdoms below,
and the Fates hasten a thousand with their hands.
Victory without injury is granted to neither side,
and the dry earth runs with the blood of the slain.
At last, lest the celestial omens proved false,
the merciful deity inclines to the Normans.
A shaft pierces Harold with deadly doom;
he is the end of the war: he was also its cause.
He had girded his shameful head with royal gold
and violated his kingdom with perjuring hand.
The English army trembles, God himself increases their fear;
a whole legion suddenly gives way in flight
Nor afterwards could so great a host be re-assembled;
the impetuous band flees, cast headlong.
Many a one strangles as his vital force is cut;
many perished on their own swords.
Arms do injury to all; those who are able lay down their arms;
the soldier who was fighting just now departs unarmed.
Now the Normans loosen the reins and harry the backs
of the fleeing; swift horses crush many.
The cause of the triumph at hand quickens the Normans;
a slain king and dread dishearten the English.
The Normans are roused, so that war may be avoided in future;
the English arc dispirited by death all around them.
The Norman attacks more savagely than a young tiger;
the Englishman falls everywhere more meekly than a sheep.
Just as a wolf, compelled to the sheepfold by keen hunger,
knows not how to spare the innocent flocks,
But does not cease w,til he has destroyed every one,
so the cruelty of the Normans does not grow cool.
But by God's mercy, night interrupted the war and the slaughter,
and gave the English opportunity for safety and flight.
No night was more welcome to the English than this one,
wherein they might take counsel for their woes.
At night they take whatever positions chance offers them:
some occupy caves, others find shelter in bushes.
The nobles, though weakened, seize the towns,
and a few build fences and walls.
It was already daylight when the duke orders the standards of victory
to be brought forward, and he addresses his men:
'O race unbroken, O people ever most invincible,
whom the clear signs of heaven summon to rule,
Although the great fury of war, the task of the night
and sleeplessness have weakened you,
Though the bodies of dear friends are unburied
and some are perishing from fatal wounds,
Nonetheless, this very day presses on with labours;
This single day shall beget peace for us.
Business put off wreaks harm; delay has brought injury to many.
Let us prepare for our work with mutual discourse.
While it is right to hesitate (for men not consulted will vacillate),
yet the time for discussion must be limited.
The burden of this day may not be heavy for us to bear;
today shall bring peace to the weary.
While the vanquished are indecisive, while they rest their exhausted backs,
while the remnant of their army wanders without a king,
Let us tackle the march and come up0n their cities by surprise.
let the Almighty have the souls of the dead.
Therefore, let us also abstain from plunder
lest many spoils weigh us down.
But let tomorrow be given to rejoicing over rich booty;
I shall add very great gifts to the spoils.'