THE SCENE: Remember that time when Sir Bevis and his two sons — Sir Guy and Sir Miles — killed almost everybody in the city of London?
THE TEXT: ‘Bevis, you are shortly going to die!’ shouted the steward. ‘I can tell you this for certain, because I’m going to kill you myself.’
The steward spurred his horse, lowered his spear and galloped towards Bevis, hitting him so hard on the shield that it broke into two pieces with the impact. Sir Bevis came to a standstill and saw that his shield was now useless. ‘Now I’m ready to hit him hard!’ said Bevis, and galloped towards the steward, catching him a blow on the top of his head that toppled him from his horse. Bevis quickly forced two hundred men to the ground, but trying to make his escape through Goose Lane he found himself in difficulty; the way was so narrow that there was no space for him to defend himself. He had won many battles in his time but had never experienced so much doubt and anxiety as now. He drew the sword Morglay and killed many men with it, and managed to fight his way into Cheapside.
Bevis cried out to all those people around him who seemed to be so aggrieved: ‘Why don’t you undo the gate for me and let me escape?’
‘Give yourself up,’ they cried back, ‘or you shall die!’ Bevis now fought them with enthusiasm and bathed his sword in their blood. He cut seven thousand men to the ground, and afterwards there was not a mark or a scratch on him. He exerted himself to the limit, but as night fell, there was no let up. The Londoners redoubled their efforts to capture him. Arundel played a large part in protecting Bevis; he kicked out with his hind legs so violently that no one dared to come within forty feet of his side or his rear. In this way, the fight lasted for half a day and half a night.
A Lombard who lived in London gathered a large contingent of men and mounted another attack on Bevis with great confidence and much bravado. He was a noble and well-known individual and held a mace of heavy steel in his hand. He galloped at Sir Bevis, brandishing this mace.
‘Yield to me at once, you disgusting criminal!’ he cried, and gave Bevis such a blow that Bevis gave out a grunt – he didn’t know where he was for a moment and slumped forwards over his saddle.
Suddenly, Sir Guy appeared. Intent upon bringing some respite to his father, he swung the sword Randoney at the Lombard and hit him on the head with it, cutting through helmet and leather and raising sparks as the point of the blade carried on downwards and dashed against the stone pavement before coming to a halt. Both split man and horse fell heavily to the ground. Sir Bevis laughed with joy and relief and thanked omnipotent God that his children had arrived at last, to help their poor father!
Bevis quickly regained his composure and his agility. Arundel gave out a great neigh, in pride at bearing this mighty man and eager to help him to continue the fight. It was not long before Bevis caught sight of his other son, Sir Miles, approaching with a great body of armed men. Soon, heads were broken and corpses were strewn everywhere. The fighting was so fierce that the gutters of every street ran with blood. So many men lay dead that the waters of the Thames turned the colour of blood. The area from Saint Mary at Bow to the wall had no houses at this time, it was open ground and no one lived there; this was a long time ago, but the final battle took place in this area and the romance is quite clear about the number of people who met their end here: thirty-four thousand were killed in all.
– Sir Bevis of Hampton, 13th Century AD
