Combats extreme points occupied by the besiegers, before Genetz and before Arderon, the knights on both sides met every day in various feats of arms, feats, it would seem, savouring rather of the bravado of the tourney than of any rational military purpose.[1]
Personal anecdotes.
William compared to Alexander.
We now get, in the shape of those personal anecdotes
in which this reign is so rich, pictures of more than one
side of the strangely mixed character of the Red King.
At the other end of Normandy William had won lands
and castles without dealing a single blow with his own
sword, and with a singularly small outlay of blows
from the swords of others. At Eu, at Aumale, and at
Gournay, the work had been done with gold far more
than with steel. Beneath Saint Michael's Mount steel
was to have its turn; and, when steel was the metal to be
used, William Rufus was sure to be in his own person the
foremost among those who used it. The change of scene
seemed to have turned the wary trafficker into the most
reckless of knights errant. Amidst such scenes he became,
in the eyes of his own age, the peer of the most
renowned of those Nine Worthies the tale of whom was
made up only in his own day. We shall see at a later
stage how the question was raised whether the soul of
the Dictator Cæsar had not passed into the body of the
Red King; by the sands of Saint Michael's bay he was
held to have placed himself on a level with the Macedonian
Alexander. The likeness could hardly be carried
on through the general military character of the two
princes; for Alexander, when he began an enterprise,
commonly carried it on to the end. And it may be
doubted whether Alexander ever jeoparded his own life
- ↑ Wace, 14666;
"Mult véissiez joster sovent,
E tornéier espessement
Entre li Munt et Ardenon
E la rivière de Coisnon.
Chescun jor al flo retraiant
Vint chevaliers jostes menant."
