The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 141 (Color Image)

0141	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

BATTLE WITH TIZE KING OF MIEN I03

CHAP. LII.

against the trees, bursting their harness and smashing

and destroying everything that was on them.

So when the Tartars saw that the elephants had

turned tail and could not be brought to face the fight

again, they got to horse at once and charged the enemy.

And then the battle began to rage furiously with sword

and mace. Right fiercely did the two hosts rush together,

and deadly were the blows exchanged. The king's

troops were far more in number than the Tartars, but

they were not of such metal, nor so inured to war ;

otherwise the Tartars who were so few in number could

never have stood against them. Then might you see

swashing blows dealt and taken from sword and mace ;

then might you see knights and horses and men-at-arms

go down ; then might you see arms and hands and legs

and heads hewn off: and besides the dead that fell,

many a wounded man, that never rose again, for the

sore press there was. The din and uproar were so

great from this side and from that, that God might have

thundered and no man would have heard it ! Great was

the medley, and dire and parlous was the fight that was

fought on both sides ; but the Tartars had the best of it.3

In an ill hour indeed, for the king and his people, was

that battle begun, so many of them were slain therein.

And when they had continued fighting till midday the

king's troops could stand against the Tartars no longer ;

but felt that they were defeated, and turned and fled.

And when the Tartars saw them routed they gave

chase, and hacked and slew so mercilessly that it was a

piteous sight to see. But after pursuing a while they

gave up, and returned to the wood to catch the elephants

that had run away, and to manage this they had to cut

down great trees to bar their passage. Even then they

would not have been able to take them without the help

of the king's own men who had been taken, and who

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