bacuum confortat pueros; "Here Bishop Odo, holding his baton, exhorts or encourages the varlets."
Thus reanimated, these men stood to their post; while Odo (who throughout the battle showed himself—though not exactly in the clerical sense of the term—a good "espiscopus") returned at a hand gallop to the barricades, holding aloft his mace, and urging on the knights, wherever he saw most need, to assault and strike the enemy.[1]
And so continued the main battle. "From nine in the morning, when the conflict began, till three o'clock came," says Wace, "the battle was up and down, this way and that, and no one knew who would conquer and win the land." In one of the fluctuations in favour of Harold, William's chances appeared so desperate, that even Eustace of Boulogne, who elsewhere conducted himself so courageously, seriously advised him to escape from the field, since the battle was lost beyond recovery.
"Morz est por veir, sens faille,
Sil ne se part de la bataille;
Nul recovrer n'a mais ès suens."[2]
Harold's personal bravery throughout was unimpeachable. Not content with the functions of a general in exhorting his followers, he was assiduous, we are told, in every soldier-like duty; often would he strike the enemy when coming to close quarters, so that none came within his reach with impunity; for in an instant he brought down at one blow both horse and rider.[3] On his part, William was equally intrepid, everywhere ready to encourage his chevaliers by his voice, his presence, and his example. "He lost," says Malmesbury, "three choice horses[4] that were pierced under him that day." Yet he does not appear to have suffered the loss from his person of a single drop of blood.
The discharge of archery, though incessant, took but little effect: the wooden shields of the Saxons were so many targets, which received, but were not penetrated by, the Norman arrows. At length the archers, at the suggestion, it
