Paradise, "For whoso," he said, "shall in this holy war be slain, the
angels shall forthwith receive him; for death in this cause shall be
penance and absolution for all sins."

At these words every man in the whole army raged with hatred, and pressed
eagerly to rush upon those savages.

Anon King Arthur, dressed in armour shining with gold and jewels, and
wearing on his head a helmet with a golden dragon, took a shield painted
with the likeness of the blessed Mary. Then girding on Excalibur and
taking in his right hand his great lance Ron, he placed his men in order
and led them out against the enemy, who stood for battle on the slope of
Badon Hill, ranged in the form of a wedge, as their custom was. And they,
resisting all the onslaughts of King Arthur and his host, made that day a
stout defence, and at night lay down upon the hill.

But on the next day Arthur led his army once again to the attack, and with
wounds and slaughter such as no man had ever seen before, he drove the
heathen step by step before him, backwards and upwards, till he stood with
all his noblest knights upon the summit of the hill.

And then men saw him, "red as the rising sun from spur to plume," lift up
his sword, and, kneeling, kiss the cross of it; and after, rising to his
feet, set might and main with all his fellowship upon the foe, till, as a
troop of lions roaring for their prey, they drove them like a scattered
herd along the plains, and cut them down till they could cut no more for
weariness.

That day King Arthur by himself alone slew with his word Excalibur four
hundred and seventy heathens. Colgrin also, and his brother Baldulph, were