As soon
as he saw her forbidding a further advance, he took it for granted that
she intended to come back and go up the valley, and he gave the signal
to his own knights and men to advance in that direction, away from the
place where the Seljuks were fighting. Indeed, there were always many
who were ready to turn their backs on danger, especially of the poorer
sort, who were ill-armed; and immediately, with great confusion and
much shouting and pressing, the main body began to move on quickly,
spreading out as they went, and completely filling up the valley; but
then they were crowded again, as they went higher, where the valley
narrowed to the pass, and at last they were so squeezed and jammed
together that the horses could hardly move at all.
The Queen's ladies, with their great throng of attendants and servants,
had drawn aside at the beginning of the valley, protected by two or
three thousand men-at-arms, to wait the end of the fighting, but she
herself was still on the spur of the hill before the woods. Before long
came Sir Gaston de Castignac, on foot and covered with blood, his mail
hacked in many places by the crooked Seljuk swords, and his three-
cornered shield dinted and battered. He came to the Queen's side and
made a grand bow, waving his right hand towards the trees, and he spoke
in a loud voice.
"The Duchess's highway is clear," he said. "The way is open and the
road is swept. But the broom--"
He turned livid and reeled.
"The broom is broken!" he cried, as he fell at full length almost under
the Arab mare's feet.
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