So soon as they came on land, the folk
they slew; the churls they drove off, that tilled the earth there; the
knights they hung, that defended the land, all the good wives they
sticked with knives; all the maidens they killed with murder; and all
the learned men (clerics) they laid on embers. All the domestics (or
baser sort) they killed with clubs; they felled the castles, the land
they ravaged; the churches they consumed--grief was among the
folk!--the sucking children they drowned in the water. The cattle that
they took, all they slaughtered; to their inns they carried it, and
boiled it and roasted; all they it took, that they came nigh. All day
they sung of Arthur the king, and said that they had won homes, that
they should hold in their power; and there they would dwell winter and
summer. And if Arthur were so keen, that he would come to fight with
Childric, the strong and the rich, they would of his back make a
bridge, and take all the bones of the noble king, and tie them
together with golden ties, and lay them in the hall door, where each
man should go forth, to the worship of Childric, the strong and the
rich! This was all their game, for Arthur the king's shame; but all it
happened in otherwise, soon thereafter; their boast and their game
befell to themselves to shame; and so doth well everywhere the man
that so acteth.
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