But a fresh body of thirty thousand Saracens now poured furiously down
upon the Christians, already faint and exhausted with fighting so long,
and smote them from high to low, so that scarcely one escaped. Some were
transpierced with lances; some killed with clubs; others beheaded,
burnt, flayed alive, or suspended on trees: only Orlando, Baldwin, and
Theodoric, were left; the two last gained the woods, and finally
escaped. After this terrible slaughter the Saracens retreated a league
from the field of battle.

And here it may be asked, why God permitted those to perish who in no
wise had defiled themselves with women? It was, indeed, to prevent them
from committing fresh sins at their return home and to give them a
crown of glory in reward for their toils. However neither is it to be
doubted but those who were guilty of this fault amply atoned for it by
their death. In that awful hour they confessed his name, bewailing their
sins, and the all-merciful God forgot not their past labours for the
sake of Christ, for whose faith they lost their lives. The company of
women is evidently baneful to the warrior: those earthly Princes Darius
and Mark Antony were attended by their women, and perished; for lust at
once enervates the soul and the body.

Those who fell into intoxication and lasciviousness typify the priests
that war against vice, but suffer themselves to be overcome by wine and
sensual appetites till they are slain by their enemy the devil, and
punished with eternal death.

CHAPTER XXII.

_Of the Death of Marsir, and the Flight of Beligard._

As Orlando was returning after the battle was over to view the Saracen
army, he met a certain black Saracen, who had fled from the field, and
concealed himself in the woods, whom he seized and bound to a tree with
four bands. Then, ascending a lofty hill, he surveyed the Moorish army,
and seeing likewise many Christians retreating by the Ronceval road he
blew his horn, and was joined by about a hundred of them, with whom he
returned to the Saracen, and promised to give him his life if he would
show him Marsir; which having performed, he set him at liberty.
Animating his little band, Orlando was soon amidst the thickest of the
enemy, and finding one of larger stature than the rest, he hewed him and
his horse in twain, so that the halves fell different ways. Marsir and
his companions then fled in all directions, but Orlando, trusting in the
divine aid, rushed forward