And still the others
came tearing down the hill, more and more, faster and faster, as if no
earthly power could stop their rush. First a score and then a hundred,
and then the torn remnants of a vanquished host, blown, as it were like
fallen leaves by the whirlwind of the death they had but just escaped.
Many of them, not knowing and not caring what they did, and remembering
only the wrath from which they fled, did not even try to rein in their
horses, and the beasts themselves, mad with fright and pain, charged
right at the ranks of people on foot and reared their full height at
the last bound rather than override a living man; and many were crushed
in the press, and many fell from their jaded mounts, too weary to rise
and too much exhausted to utter any words save a cry for water.
Nevertheless, two or three who had more life in them than the rest were
able to stand, and were presently led round the close-packed crowd to
the edge of the lake, where the King was quietly waiting with his
courtiers until the confusion should end itself, saying a prayer or two
for the welfare of every one concerned, but making not the slightest
attempt to restrain the panic nor to restore order. But the Queen and
her ladies were in danger of being crushed to death in the very midst
of the seething, bruising, stifling mass of humanity.
Gilbert was near the King, and sitting high on his great horse he saw
farther than most men above the wild confusion. It was as if some
frightful, unseen monster were gathering a hundred thousand men in iron
coils, always inward, as great snakes crush their prey, thousands upon
thousands, the bodies of horses and men upon men and horses, with
resistless force, till the human beings could struggle no longer, and
the beasts themselves could neither kick nor plunge, but only trample
all that was near them, while they moved slowly towards the centre.
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