Torleus the king, and the king Dapamort;
Thirty columns most speedily they form.
They’ve chevaliers in marvellous great force;
Fifty thousand the smallest column holds.
The first is raised of men from Butenrot,3220
The next, after, Micenes, whose heads are gross;
Along their backs, above their spinal bones,
As they were hogs, great bristles on them grow.
The third is raised from Nubles and from Bios;
The fourth is raised from Bruns and Esclavoz;
The fifth is raised from Sorbres and from Sorz;3225
The sixth is raised from Ermines and from Mors;
The seventh is the men of Jericho;
Negroes are the eighth; the ninth are men of Gros;
The tenth is raised from Balide the stronghold,3230
That is a tribe no goodwill ever shews.
That admiral hath sworn, the way he knows,
By Mahumet, his virtues and his bones:
“Charlès of France is mad to canter so;
Battle he’ll have, unless he take him home;3235
No more he’ll wear on ’s head that crown of gold.”
CCXXXIII
Ten great columns they marshal thereafter:
Of Canelious, right ugly, is the first,
Who from Val-Fuit came across country there;
The next’s of Turks; of Persians is the third;3240
The fourth is raised of desperate Pinceners,
The fifth is raised from Soltras and Avers;
The sixth is from Ormaleus and Eugez;
The seventh is the tribe of Samuel;
The eighth is from Bruise; the ninth from Esclavers;3245
The tenth is from Occiant, the desert,
That is a tribe, do not the Lord God serve,
Of such felons you never else have heard;
Hard is their hide, as though it iron were,
Wherefore of helm or hauberk they’ve no care;3250
In the battle they’re felon murderers.
AOI.
104
