is said of William himself, shot into the air in such a manner that the arrows should fall upon the faces of the enemy.[1] Many were immediately blinded, and received frightful wounds in their faces. "Then it was," says Wace, "that an arrow that had been thus shot upwards, struck Harold above his right eye, and put it out. In his agony he drew the arrow, and threw it away, breaking it with his hands, and the pain to his head was so great that he leaned upon his shield. So the English," he adds, "were wont to say, and still say to the French, that the arrow was well shot, which was so sent up against their king; and that the archer won them great glory who thus put out Harold's eye."[2]
According to the Roman de Rou, the Normans now feigned a retreat: but I think it will be found that the incident is misplaced, and that it belongs to that earlier part of the day's proceedings which is connected with the disaster at Malfosse; we can hardly imagine that such a stratagem would be resorted to a second time. It would appear that the conflict sometimes degenerated into mere skirmishes and personal encounters; and the historians, particularly Wace, give us some very interesting episodes of this kind, which, from internal evidence, would seem to have been furnished to him by eye-witnesses. One of these may be quoted:—
"On the other side was an Englishman who much annoyed the French, continually assaulting them with a keen-edged hatchet. He had a helmet made of wood, which he fastened down to his coat, and laced round his neck, so that no blows could reach his head. The ravage he was making was seen by a gallant Norman knight, who rode a horse that neither fire nor water could stop in its course when its lord urged it on. The knight spurred, and his horse carried him on well till he charged the Englishman, striking him over the helmet, so that it fell down over his eyes; and as he stretched out his hand to raise it and uncover his face, the Norman cut off his right hand, so that his hatchet fell to the ground. Another Norman sprang forward, and eagerly seized the prize with both his hands, but he kept it little space, and paid dearly for it; for as he stooped to pick up the hatchet, an Englishman, with his long-handled axe, struck him over the back, breaking all his bones, so that his entrails and lungs gushed forth. The knight of the good horse meantime returned without injury; but on his way he met another English-
