Assuming this, the eminence alluded to by Malmesbury must have been the ridge rising from Mount Street to Caldbeck Hill, and the Malfosse, some part of the stream which flowing at its foot, runs in the direction of Watlington, and becomes a tributary of the Rother. This rivulet still occasionally overflows its banks, and the primitive condition of the adjacent levels was doubtless that of a morass, overgrown with flags, reeds, and similar bog vegetables. Thanks, however, to good drainage, the "bad ditch" no longer remains. The name was corrupted, previously to 1279, to Manfosse, and a piece of land called Wincestrecroft, in Manfosse, was ceded to the abbey of Battel in that year. Now Wincestrecroft is still well known, and lies in the direction specified, west by north of the present town of Battel.[1]
To return to our narrative. A cry now ran through the Norman host that the duke had fallen in the disaster at Malfosse, and the varlets[2] who had been set to guard the harness, seeing the sad loss of life in the fosse, began to quit their post and to fly from the impending danger. But William having been apprised of the report, and seeing numbers running away, hastened to stop them. Brandishing a spear with his right hand in a menacing manner, and at the same time removing his helmet with his left, he cried out, "Look! I am alive, and with God's help I will yet conquer."[3] On this they returned to their charge. Bishop Odo at the same time galloped towards the varlets, and said to them: "Stand fast! stand fast! be quiet, and move not! Fear nothing; for, please God, we shall conquer yet!"[4]
"Estez, estez,
Seiez en paiz, ne vos movez;
N'aiez poor de nule rien,
Kar se Dex plaist, nos viencron bien!"
This scene is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, and the inscription accompanying it is: hic odo episcopus tenens
- ↑ See more on this subject in the notes to my translation of the Chron. Monast. de Bello, pp. 6, 7, in which I was assisted by the exact local knowledge of Mr. Vidler, an old inhabitant of the parish, and author of a little work called 'Battel and its Abbey.'
- ↑ The servants, attendants, grooms, or "gillies" of the Norman knights.
- ↑ Orderic. Vit. ii, 148. This incident is also represented in the Tapestry.
- ↑ Rom. de Rou, p. 194.
