“The rats have set a trap for themselves,” he said to his men, “and we shall be fools to break it up till the rats are safe inside.”
So there the huge sow lay, black and silent, showing nothing to the enemy but a side of strong plank, covered with hide to prevent its being burned. It lay there for three hours, and Hereward let it lie.
He had never been so cheerful, so confident. “Play the man this day, every one of you, and ere nightfall you will have taught the Norman once more the lesson of York. He seems to have forgotten that. It is me to remind him of it.”
And he looked to his bow and to his arrows, and prepared to play the man himself,—as was the fashion in those old days, when a general proved his worth by hitting harder and more surely than any of his men.
At last the army was in motion, and Willingham field opposite was like a crawling ants’ nest. Brigade after brigade moved down to the reed beds, and the assault began.
And now advanced along the causeway and along the bridge a dark column of men, surmounted by glittering steel. Knights in complete mail, footmen in leather coats and quilted jerkins; at first orderly enough, each under the banner of his lord; but more and more mingled and crowded as they hurried forward, each eager for his selfish share of the inestimable treasures of Ely. They pushed along the bridge. The mass became more and more crowded; men stumbled over each other, and fell off into the mire and the water, calling vainly for help, while their comrades hurried on unheeding, in the mad thirst for spoil.
On they came in thousands; and fresh thousands streamed out of the fields, as if the whole army intended to pour itself into the isle at once.
“They are numberless,” said Torfrida, in a serious and astonished voice, as she stood by Hereward’s side.
“Would they were!” said Hereward. “Let them come on, thick and threefold. The more their numbers the fatter will the fish below be before to-morrow morning. Look there, already!”
And already the bridge was swaying, and sinking beneath their weight. The men in places were ankle deep in water. They rushed on all the more eagerly, and filled the sow, and swarmed up to its roof.