Next he grasped his sword and did with
it mighty deeds of valor. This, too, was broken in the stress of fight.
His shield was the only weapon left him, and this he used with such
vigor and skill that before he had done fifteen Normans lay dead upon
the floor.
Four of his enemies now got behind him and smote him in the back. The
great warrior was brought to his knees. A Breton knight, Ralph of Dol,
rushed upon him, but found the wounded lion dangerous still. With a last
desperate effort Hereward struck him a deadly blow with his buckler, and
Breton and Saxon fell dead together to the floor. Another of the
assailants, Asselin by name, now cut off the head of this last defender
of Saxon England, and holding it in the air, swore by God and his might
that he had never before seen a man of such valor and strength, and that
if there had been three more like him in the land the French would have
been driven out of England, or been slain on its soil.
And so ends the stirring story of Hereward the Wake, that mighty man of
old.
_THE DEATH OF THE RED KING._
William of Normandy, by the grace of God and his iron mace, had made
himself king of England. An iron king he proved, savage, ruthless, the
descendant of a few generations of pirate Norsemen, and himself a pirate
in blood and temper.
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