At the same moment a club descended on his helmet,
bringing him for a moment to his knee. He sprang up again, Osgod
striking his opponent to the ground before he could repeat his blow.
For two or three minutes the fight went on. Wulf received more than
one stab from the Breton knives, as two or three of them often
rushed in upon him at once, but each time when he was hard pressed
Osgod's axe freed him from his assailants, for so terrible were the
blows dealt by the tall Saxon that the Bretons shrank from assailing
him, and thus left him free at times to render assistance to Wulf.
But the combat was too unequal to last long. A pike-thrust disabled
Wulf for a moment, and as his arm fell a blow from a club stretched
him beside Guy. Osgod had also received several wounds, but furious
at his master's fall he still defended himself with such vigour
that the Bretons again fell back. They were on the point of attacking
him anew, when there was a shout, and William and Harold, bareheaded
as they had leapt from the table, and followed by a score or two
of Norman barons and soldiers, fell upon the Bretons. The latter
with cries of alarm at once fled.
By this time the Norman trumpets were everywhere sounding, and the
troops hastening out to repel the attack, which a few minutes later
ceased as suddenly as it began, the Bretons flying into the forest,
where pursuit by the heavily-armed Normans was hopeless.
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