Page 2093 - les-miserables

beneath the blood, and one would have said that his face
was covered with a red kerchief.
Enjolras alone was not struck. When he had no longer
any weapon, he reached out his hands to right and left and
an insurgent thrust some arm or other into his fist. All he
had left was the stumps of four swords; one more than Fran-
cois I. at Marignan. Homer says: ‘Diomedes cuts the throat
of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba;
Euryalus, son of Mecistaeus, exterminates Dresos and Oph-
eltios, Esepius, and that Pedasus whom the naiad Abarbarea
bore to the blameless Bucolion; Ulysses overthrows Pidytes
of Percosius; Antilochus, Ablerus; Polypaetes, Astyalus;
Polydamas, Otos, of Cyllene; and Teucer, Aretaon. Megan-
thios dies under the blows of Euripylus’ pike. Agamemnon,
king of the heroes, flings to earth Elatos, born in the rocky
city which is laved by the sounding river Satnois.’ In our
old poems of exploits, Esplandian attacks the giant mar-
quis Swantibore with a cobbler’s shoulder-stick of fire, and
the latter defends himself by stoning the hero with tow-
ers which he plucks up by the roots. Our ancient mural
frescoes show us the two Dukes of Bretagne and Bour-
bon, armed, emblazoned and crested in war-like guise, on
horseback and approaching each other, their battle-axes in
hand, masked with iron, gloved with iron, booted with iron,
the one caparisoned in ermine, the other draped in azure:
Bretagne with his lion between the two horns of his crown,
Bourbon helmeted with a monster fleur de lys on his visor.
But, in order to be superb, it is not necessary to wear, like
Yvon, the ducal morion, to have in the fist, like Esplandian,

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