Et s'il se fussent bien tenu,
Ia ne fussent le ior vencu.
In his first edition, writing, I believe, under the influence of Taylor's version, Mr Freeman gave these lines in a footnote to his narrative of the battle, and appears to have then looked on them as describing his palisade.[21] But in his 'second edition, revised', in preparing which he went 'minutely through every line, and corrected or improved whatever seemed to need correction or improvement' (p. v), he transferred these lines to his appendix on the battle, where he wrote concerning them as follows:
[(At Maldon) the English stood, as at Senlac, in the array common to them and their enemies—a strong line, or rather wedge, of infantry, forming a wall with their shields (i. 271).][22]
Of the array of the shield-wall we have often heard already, as at Maldon (see vol. i. p. 271), but it is at Senlac that we get the fullest descriptions of it [sic] all the better for coming in the mouths of enemies. Wace gives his description, 12941:
'Fet orent devant els escuz
De fenestres è d'altres fuz;
Devant els les orent levez.
. . . . .
Et s'il se fussent bien tenu