calls out, "Barons, strike! I am Cliges whom you seek. On now,
bold freeborn knights! Let there be no coward, for ours is the
first shock. Let no craven taste of such a dainty dish."

The emperor greatly rejoiced when he heard his nephew, Cliges,
who thus addresses and exhorts them; right glad and comforted is
he thereof. And the duke is utterly dumfounded;, for now he knows
well that he is betrayed unless his force is the greater; he bids
his men close their ranks and keep together. And the Greeks, in
close array, have not gone far from them, for now they are
spurring and pricking. On both sides they couch their lances and
meet and receive each other as it behoved them to do in such a
fight. At the first encounter, they pierce shields and shatter
lances, cut girths, break stirrups; the steeds stand bereft of
those who fall upon the field. But no matter what the others do,
Cliges and the duke meet; they hold their lances couched; and
each strikes the other on his shield with so great valour that
the lances, which were strong and well wrought, break into
splinters. Cliges was a skilful horseman: he remained upright in
his saddle, never stumbling nor wavering. The duke has lost his
saddle, and in spite of himself has voided the saddle-bows.
Cliges thinks to take him and lead him away captive, and mightily
toils and strains; but the strength he needed was not his. For
the Saxons were all around, and they rescue their duke by force.
Nevertheless, Cliges leaves the field without injury; with a
prize; for he leads away the duke's steed which was whiter than
wool and which, for the use of a man of valour, was worth all the
possessions of Octavian of Rome: the steed was an Arab one. Great
joy manifest Greeks and Germans when they see Cliges mounted on
it; for they had seen the worth and the perfection of the Arab;