oak sih9

131

"They fought all that niffbt 'ncath thc pale yellow moon And thc din could be heard from ajdr;

Larjje mnltitudes ca me, for so jjreat was the famę Of Abdul, and Jvan Skavar,

Bembro and the "English" team got there first, but they did not have to wait long before Beaumanoir and his team - which included some of the great Lords of Brittany -arrived. When Bembro saw who he was up against, lic seems to have had second thoughts about the whole thing. He drew Beaumanoir aside, and said that perhaps after all, they oughtnh to fight without the permission of their respective monarchs. Beaumanoir replied that it was a bit late in the day to suggest that, and for his part he and his lords were going to fight anyway.

So they drew up in two lines facing each other, at about 10 o'clock in the forenoon. We are not told who fought wirh what weapon, cxcept in the case of an English man-at-arms named Thomalin Billefort, who wielded a colos-sal maul - a sort of vast sledgehammer with spikes on it, which was said to wcigh 25 pounds. This may seem an exag-geration, but in contemporary manuscript pictures, we ofren see such mauls depicted, great mallet-heads with a spike stick-ing out of each striking-surface, on a haft about 5 or 6 feet long; so maybe Billefort's Hammer was not a fairy tale.

There is not much description of the actual fighting, much morę attention being paid to the names of the men engaged, but they went at it hammer-and-tongs for about two hours, during which time the English seemed to be getting the bet-ter of it, for the French lost five of their men. Then they had a break for rest and refreshments. "That winę of Anjou," said the ballad, "had never tasted so good." WHiile they were rest-ing, Bembro called out to Beaumanoir, "I won't kill you: I'll send you borne as a gift for my mistress." This annoyed the French knights, and one of them got up and drove his spear into Bembro's face (for his visor was open), and when he struggled to his feet, another dispatched him. There was no holding them after that. Croquart rallied the English team, drawing them into a tight circle, back-to-back, where they fought like lions as the afternoon wore on. The noise cer-tainly could be heard from afar - spectators said it was audi-ble a mile off, clashing of Steel punctuated by the thud of Billefort's hammer.

At one point Beaumanoir, woundcd all over and des-perately thirsty, was seen sneaking off toward the wine-skins. One of his companions called him back. "Drink your own blood, Beaumanoir. Your thirst will pass off." By this time they were all so weary that they could hardly lift their arms. The few English who remained on their feet, still in their ser-

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