his soul from his body; and the house remains without a tenant.
After these two Alexander picks a quarrel with a third: he
strikes a right noble court knight through both flanks in such
wise that the blood gushes out of the wound on the opposite side;
and the soul takes leave of the body, for the foe man has
breathed it forth. Many a one he kills; many a one he maims; for
like the forked lightning he attacks all those that he seeks out.
Him whom he strikes with lance or sword, neither corselet nor
shield protects. His comrades also are very lavish in spilling
blood and brains; well do they know how to deal their blows. And
the king's men cut down so many that they break and scatter them
like common folk distraught. So many dead lie o'er the fields and
so long has the scour lasted, that the battle-array was broken up
a long while before it was day; and the line of dead down along
the river extended five leagues. Count Engres leaves his standard
in the battle and steals away; and he has taken seven of his
companions together with him. He has returned towards his castle
by so hidden a way that he thinks that no one sees; but Alexander
marks him; for he sees them flee from the host, and thinks to
steal away and meet them, so that no one will know where he has
gone. But before he was in the valley he saw as many as thirty
knights coming after him along a path, six of whom were Greeks,
and the other four-and-twenty Welsh; for they thought that they
would follow him at a distance until it should come to the pinch.
When Alexander perceived them he stopped to wait, and marks which
way those who are returning to the castle take until he sees them
enter. Then he begins to meditate on a very hazardous venture and
on a very wondrous stratagem. And when he had finished all his
thinking, he turns towards his comrades, and thus has related and
said to them: "Lords," quoth he, "without gainsaying me, if ye