ow we were overborne
by numbers, and we began to go back. That was the worst part of the
whole fight, and the hardest hour of all the battle, as may be supposed,
for the wedge grew closer, as it was forced together by sheer weight.
None ever broke into it.

Presently our rear was on the water's edge, and it seemed likely that in
crossing there might be a breaking of the line; and when he saw that,
Havelok called to me, and he went to the front with the courtmen round
him. It was good to hear the cheers of our men as they saw the dancing
banner above the fight, and beneath it, in the bright sun, the
gold-circled helm of their king. The Lindseymen drew back a foot's pace
as they saw the giant who came on them, and I heard some call that this
was Curan of Grimsby, as if in wonder. Then we had to fight hard, and
Sigurd fell back past me, with a wound on his shoulder where Alsi's
sword had glanced from the helm. No life had been left to Sigurd had a
better hand wielded the weapon; but he was not badly hurt. I could not
see Alsi anywhere, nor Eglaf.

Steadily the numbers drove us back, though before Havelok was always a
space into which men hardly dared to come. The wedge was pushed away
from us, and we had to fall back with it, until we crossed the stream;
and there Sigurd swung the massed men into line, and then came the first
pause in the fight. The two hosts stood, with the narrow water between
them, and glared on each other, silent now. And then the bowmen began to
get to work from either side, until the arrows were all gone.

Now Havelok called to the foe, and they were silent while he spoke to them.

"Is Alsi yet alive?" he said; "for if not, I have no war with his men.
If he is, let me speak with him."

None answered for a while, and the men looked at each other as if they
knew not if the man they were fighting for lived or not.

Then one came forward and said, "Alsi lives, and we have not done with
you yet. Get you back to your home beyond the sea!"

And then they charged us again; but the water was a better front for us
than it had been for them, and across it they could not win. We drove
them back once and twice; and again came a time when both sides were
wearied and must needs rest.

So it went on until night fell. We never stirred from that water's edge,
and the stream was choked with valiant English and hardy Danes; and yet
the attacks came with the shout of "Out! out!" and the answer from us of
"Havelo