Then Sir Tristram turned upon Sir Andred, and
lifting high the sword with both hands tied, he smote him so terrible a
blow that the blade cut through his epulier and half through his body as
far as the paps. At that great terrible blow the breath fled out of Sir
Andred with a deep groan, and he fell down upon the ground and immediately
died.
Now all this had happened so suddenly that they who beheld it were
altogether amazed and stood staring as though bewitched by some spell. But
when they beheld Sir Tristram turn upon them and make at them with that
streaming sword lifted on high, the terror of his fury so seized upon them
that they everywhere broke from before him and fled, yelling, and with the
fear of death clutching them in the vitals. And Sir Tristram chased them
out of that place and into the courtyard of the castle, and some he smote
down and others escaped; but all who could do so scattered away before him
like chaff before the wind.
Then, when they were gone, Sir Tristram stood panting and glaring about him
like a lion at bay. Then he set the point of his sword upon the pavement of
the court and the pommel thereof he set against his breast, and he drew the
bonds that held his wrists across the edge of the sword so that they were
cut and he was free.
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