And when the Tartars perceived how the case stood, they were in great wrath, and wist not what to say or do; for well enough they saw that unless they could get their horses to advance, all would be lost.  But their Captain acted like a wise leader who had considered everything beforehand.  He immediately gave orders that every man should dismount and tie his horse to the trees of the forest that stood hard by, and that then they should take to their bows, a weapon that they know how to handle better than any troops in the world.  They did as he bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so many shafts at the advancing elephants that in a short space they had wounded or slain the greater part of them as well as of the men they carried.  The enemy also shot at the Tartars, but the Tartars had the better weapons, and were the better archers to boot.

And what shall I tell you?  Understand that when the elephants felt the smart of those arrows that pelted them like rain, they turned tail and fled, and nothing on earth would have induced them to turn and face the Tartars.  So off they sped with such a noise and uproar that you would have trowed the world was coming to an end!  And then too they plunged into the wood and rushed this way and that, dashing their castles 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.[NOTE 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,