A Second Saracen Army
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ebbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
While they sought in tears the bodies of their friends, the main army of the Saracens, under King Marsile in person, came upon them; for the one fugitive who had escaped had urged Marsile to attack again at once, while the Franks were still weary. The advice seemed good to Marsile, and he advanced at the head of a hundred thousand men, whom he now hurled against the French in columns of fifty thousand at a time; and they came on right valiantly, with clarions sounding and trumpets blowing.
“‘Soldiers of the Lord,’ cried Turpin, ‘Be ye valiant and steadfast, For this day shall crowns be given you Midst the flowers of Paradise. In the name of God our Saviour, Be ye not dismayed nor frighted, Lest of you be shameful legends Chanted by the tongue of minstrels. Rather let us die victorious, Since this eve shall see us lifeless!— Heaven has no room for cowards! Knights, who nobly fight, and vainly, Ye shall sit amid the holy In the blessed fields of Heaven. On then, Friends of God, to glory!’”
And the battle raged anew, with all the odds against the small handful of French, who knew they were doomed, and fought as though they were “fey.”[13]