I know that my arms grew tired and that my axe seemed to grow
heavier, that horse and foot swept up to us, and there was occasionally
breathing time; that the royal brothers' voices rose ever cheeringly and
encouragingly until Gurth and Leofwin fell, and after that Harold's alone
was heard, though I think it came to my ears as from a distance, so great
was the tumult, so great our exertions. When Harold died I knew that all
was lost, but even that did not seem to affect me. I had become a sort of
machine, and fought almost mechanically, with a dim consciousness that the
end was close at hand. It was only at the last, when Beorn and I stood back
to back, that I seemed myself again, and was animated with new strength
that came, I suppose, from despair."
"It was an awful day," De Burg said. "I have fought in many battles under
the duke's banner, but the sternest of them were but paltry skirmishes in
comparison to this. Half of the nobles of Normandy lie dead, half the army
that filled the mighty fleet that sailed from St. Valery have fallen.
William is King of England, but whether that will in the end repay Normandy
for the loss she has suffered seems to me very doubtful. And now let us to
bed. I sleep not well on shipboard, and in truth I had such dreams of death
and slaughter that I ever awoke bathed with sweat, and in such fear that I
dared not go to sleep again."
At the end of a week the baron sailed again for England.
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