So Then, As They Were Thus Singing And Playing, Though Ordered And Ready
For Battle, The Great Naccara Of The Great Khan Began To Sound.
And that
of Nayan also began to sound.
And thenceforward the din of battle began to
be heard loudly from this side and from that. And they rushed to work so
doughtily with their bows and their maces, with their lances and swords,
and with the arblasts of the footmen, that it was a wondrous sight to see.
Now might you behold such flights of arrows from this side and from that,
that the whole heaven was canopied with them and they fell like rain. Now
might you see on this side and on that full many a cavalier and man-at-
arms fall slain, insomuch that the whole field seemed covered with them.
From this side and from that such cries arose from the crowds of the
wounded and dying that had God thundered, you would not have heard Him!
For fierce and furious was the battle, and quarter there was none
given.[NOTE 4]
But why should I make a long story of it? You must know that it was the
most parlous and fierce and fearful battle that ever has been fought in
our day. Nor have there ever been such forces in the field in actual
fight, especially of horsemen, as were then engaged - for, taking both
sides, there were not fewer than 760,000 horsemen, a mighty force! and
that without reckoning the footmen, who were also very numerous.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 1032 of 1256
Words from 280822 to 281080
of 342071
