een _checked_, so as
to be put in personal danger! "While there is life there is hope,"
said the surviving Bishop[223] on the side of Narcottus: who now
taking upon him the command of the army, and perceiving Sir Launcelot
to be pretty nearly exhausted with fatigue, and wantonly exposing
his person, ordered the men at arms to charge him briskly on all
sides; while his own two castles kept a check upon the remaining
castle, knight, and bishop of the opposite army: also, he exhorted the
king to make a feint, as if about to march onwards. Sir Launcelot, on
perceiving the movement of the monarch, sprang forward to make him a
prisoner; but he was surprised by an elephant in ambuscade, from whose
castle-bearing back a well-shot arrow pierced his corslet, and
inflicted a mortal wound. He fell; but, in falling, he seemed to smile
even sweetly, as he thought upon the noble speech of Sir Bohort[224]
over the dead body of his illustrious ancestor, of the same name; and,
exhorting his gallant men to revenge his fall, he held the handle of
his sword firmly, till his whole frame was stiffened in death. And now
the battle was renewed with equal courage and equal hopes of victory
on both sides: but the loss of the flower of their armies, and
especially of their beloved spouses, had heavily oppressed the adverse
monarchs: who, retiring to a secured spot, bemoaned in secret the
hapless deaths of their queens, and bitterly bewailed that injudicious
law which, of necessity, so much exposed their fair persons, by giving
them such an unlimited power. The fortune of the day, therefore,
remained in the hands of the respective commanders; and if the knight
and bishop, on Philemon's side, had not contested about superiority of
rule, the victory had surely been with Philemon. But the strife of
these commanders threw every thing into confusion. The men, after
being trampled upon by the elephants of Narcottus, left their king
exposed, without the power of being aided by his castle. An error so
fatal was instantly perceived by the bishop of Narcottus's shattered
army; who, like another Ximenes,[225] putting himself at the head of
his forces, and calling upon his men resolutely to march onwards, gave
orders for the elephants to be moved cautiously at a distance, and to
lose no opportunity of making the opposite monarch prisoner. Thus,
while he charged in front, and captured, with his own hands, the
remaining adverse knight, his men kept the adverse bi