CCXLIV

　　Great are the hosts; the companies in pride

　　Come touching, all the breadth of either side;

　　And the pagans do marvellously strike.

　　So many shafts, by God!in pieces lie

　　And crumpled shields, and sarks with mail untwined!

　　So spattered all the earth there would you find

　　That through the field the grass so green and fine

　　With men's life-blood is all vermilion dyed.

　　That admiral rallies once more his tribe:

　　"Barons, strike on, shatter the Christian line."

　　Now very keen and lasting is the fight,

　　As never was, before or since that time;

　　The finish none shall reach, unless he die.

　　AOI. The Song of Roland