with the men of Surrey and Sussex, had alone kept their ground,
but they were now compelled to advance to the aid of their scattered
comrades; and coming up in close order, they not only awhile stayed the
slaughter, but again half turned the day. Knowing the country
thoroughly, Gurth lured the foe into the ditches concealed within a
hundred yards of their own ambush, and there the havoc of the foreigners
was so great, that the hollows are said to have been literally made level
with the plain by their corpses. Yet this combat, however fierce, and
however skill might seek to repair the former error, could not be long
maintained against such disparity of numbers. And meanwhile, the whole
of the division under Geoffroi Martel, and his co-captains, had by a
fresh order of William's occupied the space between the entrenchments and
the more distant engagement; thus when Harold looked up, he saw the foot
of the hillocks so lined with steel, as to render it hopeless that he
himself could win to the aid of his vanguard. He set his teeth firmly,
looked on, and only by gesture and smothered exclamations showed his
emotions of hope and fear. At length he cried:

"Gallant Gurth! brave Leofwine, look to their pennons; right, right; well
fought, sturdy Vebba! Ha! they are moving this way. The wedge cleaves
on--it cuts its path through the heart of the foe." And indeed, the
chiefs now drawing off the shattered remains of their countrymen, still
disunited, but still each section shaping itself wedge-like,--on came the
English, with their shields over their head, through the tempest of
missiles, against the rush of the steeds, here and there, through the
plains, up the slopes, towards the entrenchment, in the teeth of the
formidable array of Martel, and harassed behind by hosts that seemed
numberless. The King could restrain himself no longer. He selected five
hundred of his bravest and most practised veterans, yet comparatively
fresh, and commanding the rest to stay firm, descended the hills, and
charged unexpectedly into the rear of the mingled Normans and Bretons.

This sortie, well-timed though desperate, served to cover and favour the
retreat of the straggling Saxons. Many, indeed, were cut off, but Gurth,
Leofwine, and Vebba hewed the way for their followers to the side of
Harold, and entered the entrenchments, close followed by the nearer foe,
who were again repulsed amidst the shouts of the English.

But, alas! small