people; after which
to return, but not without booty and spoils." He put on his armor, took
a javelin in each hand, and mounted his horse. "Thou seest," said he to
his wife, "these javelins I brandish: I will bring them back to thee this
very day dyed with the blood of Franks. Farewell." Setting out he
pierced, followed by his men, through the thickness of the forest, and
advanced to meet the Franks.

The battle began. The large numbers of the Franks, who covered the
ground for some distance, dismayed the Britons, and many of them fled,
seeking where they might hide themselves. Morvan, beside himself with
rage, and at the head of his most devoted followers, rushed down upon the
Franks as if to demolish them at a single stroke; and many fell beneath
his blows. He singled out a warrior of inferior grade, towards whom he
made at a gallop, and, insulting him by word of mouth, after the ancient
fashion of the Celtic warriors, cried, "Frank, I am going to give thee my
first present, a present which I have been keeping for thee a long while,
and which I hope thou wilt bear in mind;" and launched at him a javelin,
which the other received on his shield. "Proud Briton," replied the
Frank, "I have received thy present, and I am going to give thee mine."
He dug both spurs into his horse's sides, and galloped down upon Morvan,
who, clad though he was in a coat of mail, fell pierced by the thrust of
a lance. The Frank had but time to dismount and cut off his head, when
he fell himself, mortally wounded by one of Morvan's young warriors, but
not without having, in his turn, dealt the other his death-blow.

It spreads on all sides that Morvan is dead; and the Franks come
thronging to the scene of the encounter. There is picked up and passed
from hand to hand a head all bloody and fearfully disfigured. Ditcar the
monk is called to see it, and to say whether it is that of Morvan; but he
has to wash the mass of disfigurement, and to partially adjust the hair,
before he can pronounce that it is really Morvan's. There is then no
more doubt; resistance is now impossible; the widow, the family, and the
servants of Morvan arrive, are brought before Louis the Debonnair, accept
all the conditions imposed upon them, and the Franks withdraw with the
boast that Brittany is henceforth their tributary. (_Faits et testes de
Louis le Picux,_ a poem by Ermold le Noir, in M. Guizot's _Collection des
Memoires relatifs L'Histoire de France,_