" The
words were decisive, and the Normans turned aside their horses to attack
other foes.
"Thank God I arrived in time, Wulf," Baron de Burg said. "I knew you would
be near the standard, but I was fighting elsewhere when the news reached me
that the line was broken and the standard on the point of capture. Are you
badly hurt, Beorn?"
"I am dizzy and faint," Beorn, who had risen to his feet, replied
unsteadily, "but I think not badly wounded."
"Walk by me one on each side holding my stirrup-leathers. I would place
you on my horse, but it were best that I myself should be seen."
He removed his helmet, and bareheaded moved off with the young thanes
walking beside him. Many Normans stopped as he made his way down the hill,
but to their questions he replied, "The duke has himself guaranteed the
safety of these thanes," and as he was well known to stand high in the
duke's favour his word was at once accepted.
In the meantime Harold's standard, whose emblem was a fighting man, and the
golden dragon, the national banner, had been carried off in triumph. Four
of the Normans whose names were long held in infamy by the English
discovered the body of the dying king, for it is said that he still
breathed. One of these was Eustace of Boulogne, the only man in the two
armies who had during the engagement shown signs of craven fear. Another
was the son of that Count of Ponthieu, who had once held Harold prisoner.
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