Our wedge held steady. Men fell, but we closed up; and there grew a barrier of slain before us. I had not seen Hubba since we first closed in, and then he had been a little to the right of where we struck his line, under a golden banner, whereon was a raven broidered, that hung motionless in the still morning air.
Presently the Danish onslaught slackened. Men were getting away from their line to the rear, worn out or wounded, and the hill beyond them was covered with those who had fallen out. They had beaten against our lines as one beats on a wall—hewing out stones, indeed, but without stirring it. They had more hurt than we.
Odda pushed to my side, and said to me:
"What if we advance towards the hill crest?"
"Slowly, then," I said.
He passed the word, and we began to move, and the D
