31 



him thro' the breast. Then shouted Arthur : " Now at them ; it 

 is well begun !" The Britons smote as the wicked ought to be 

 smitten ; and there fell of Childric's men two thousand ; while 

 Arthur lost not one ! The king was enraged as is the wild boar, 

 when in the beechwood he meeteth many swine. Tliis Childric 

 saw, and began to move over Avon, to hide him in the Bury. 

 Arthur sped at them, as it were a lion, and hurried them to the 

 flood. Many perished there — there sank to the bottom five-and- 

 twenty hundred ; insomuch, that the stream of Avon was aU a 

 bridge of steel. Cliildric fled over the water with one thousand 

 five hundred knights ; he thought to get away and sail o'er the 

 sea. Arthur saw Colgrim climbing the mount, retreating to the 

 hill that standeth over Bath. After him hied Baldulf with seven 

 thousand knights. They thought on that liill to find a secure 

 standing ground, where they might defend themselves and damage 

 Arthur. Then Arthur, the princehest of kings, beheld Colgrim 

 halting, and beginning to work at a camping place. Then he 

 shouted loud and keen : " Oh, my bold fellows, march on that 

 hiU : for yesterday Colgrim was keenest of men, but now he is like 

 the goat on the liill butting with his horns, when the wolf cometh 

 wildly wending towards liim. So wiU I to-day be Colgrim's 

 doom ; I am the wolf and he is the goat — ^the man shall die." 



Again exclaimed Arthur, the most regal of kings, " Yesterday 

 was Baldulf the boldest of knights, but now he standeth on the 

 hill and beholdeth the Avon, how there he in the stream fishes 

 of steel— sword-begirdled fishes, with red water to swim in ; 

 their scales they look pretty like gold-spangled war shields ! 

 Their fins how they flutter, just as if it were spears. Now this is 

 uncommon ; such cattle above and such fishes below." 



" Yesterday Kaiser Childric was the most warlike of kings, but 

 now he's gone a hunting and horns go with him ; and away he 

 scampers over the broad weald to the barking of hounds. But he 

 hath left his hunting-party beliind — left it beside Bath ; and the 

 deer that he flies from shaU be a dinner for us." 



The king's deed was even with his words. Gripping his spear 

 he put spurs to his horse, and like a bird he flew up the hiU with. 

 twenty-five thousand men mad for action. Colgrim received 

 them and felled Britons to ground ; in the first rush five hundred 

 fell. In high wrath exclaimed Arthur, " Where be ye Britons, 

 my barons bold ? Here be our foes, handy to reach : goodmen 



