and the sword put in his mouth--such meat to him was strange--so
that the point of the sword went in the earth. Then said Uther,
'Pascent, lie now there; now thou hast Britain all won to thy hand! So
is now hap to thee; therein thou art dead; dwell ye shall here, thou,
and Gillomar thy companion, and possess well Britain! For now I
deliver it to you in hand, so that ye may presently dwell with us
here; ye need not ever dread who you shall feed.'" [14]

Arthur leads his men close to the hosts of Colgrim, the leader of the
Saxon invaders:--

"Thus said Arthur, noblest of kings: 'See ye, my Britons, here beside
us, our full foes,--Christ destroy them!--Colgrim the strong, out of
Saxonland? His kin in this land killed our ancestors; but now is the
day come, that the Lord hath appointed that he shall lose the life,
and lose his friends, or else we shall be dead; we may not see him
alive!....' Up caught Arthur his shield, before his breast, and he gan
to rush as the howling wolf, when he cometh from the wood, behung
with snow, and thinketh to bite such beasts as he liketh. Arthur then
called to his dear knights: 'Advance we quickly, brave thanes! all
together towards them; we all shall do well, and they forth fly, as
the high wood, when the furious wind heaveth it with strength.' Flew
over the [fields] thirty thousand shields, and smote on Colgrim's
knights, so that the earth shook again. Brake the broad spears,
shivered shields; the Saxish men fell to the ground.... Some they
gan wander as the wild crane doth in the moor-fen, when his flight is
impaired, and swift hawks pursue after him, and hounds with mischief
meet him in the reeds; then is neither good to him nor the land nor
the flood; the hawks him smite, the hounds him bite, then is the royal
fowl at his death-time." [15]

Layamon lets his imagination display itself not merely in the dramatic
speeches that he puts into the mouths of his actors; he occasionally
composes a long incident, as in the story of the coronation of
Constans,[16] of the announcement to Arthur of Mordred's treachery,[17]
and in the very striking account of Arthur's election to the throne of
Britain and his reception of the messengers who come for him. "Arthur
sate full still; one while he was wan, and in hue exceeding pale; one
while he was red, and was moved in heart. When it all brake forth, it
was good that he spake; thus said he then, forthright, Arthur, the
noble knight: 'Lord Christ, God'