CHAPTER XIV.
A FATAL DAY.
Peter Szirmay and Paul HA(C)dervAiry were arming the King with all speed,while his charger, magnificently caparisoned, was brought round,neighing with excitement.
BA(C)la had never appeared more cool and collected than on that eventfulmorning. As already remarked, he was without military experience, andthough his expectations were not extravagant, and he did not make themistake of underrating the enemy, he had much confidence in the valourof his army.
"We must get the troops outside, without an instant's delay!" shoutedBishop Ugrin, galloping up his face aglow with pleasurable excitement,for he was never happier than when astride his war-horse and amid theblare of trumpets.
"Sequere!" (follow) cried the King, who usually spoke Latin to theecclesiastical dignitaries.
They rode through the camp, finding the ways everywhere crowded withmen, whom some of the officers were trying to reduce to order, whileothers, still busy attiring themselves, were of opinion that they wouldbe in plenty of time if they made their appearance when the whole armywas mounted.
The Templars were first on horseback.
Their white mantles, with the large red cross upon them, were blowingabout in the keen wind, and displaying the steel breastplates beneath,their martial appearance being enhanced by their heavy helmets, whichcovered the whole head and face, with the exception of narrow slitsthrough which they breathed and saw. As the King rode up to them, thewind blew out the folds of their white banner, and showed itsdouble-armed cross of blood-red.
All this time the Mongols had been drawing nearer and nearer, like anadvancing wall, so close were their ranks. And now like a storm of hailthe arrows began to fall upon the half-asleep, half-tipsy, and whollybewildered men in camp. Most were mounted now, but the confusion wasindescribable. There were grooms with led horses looking for theirmasters, masters looking for chargers and servants, and generals lookingfor their banderia.
There was shouting, running to and fro, and such confusion andhurly-burly that the King had great difficulty in making his ordersunderstood.
He galloped from one squadron to another, amid a cloud of falling arrowsand spears, doing all that in him lay to organise the troops. Men werefalling on all sides around him, more than one arrow had struck his ownarmour; the battle had begun, and blood was flowing in streams beforethe army had been able so much as to get out of camp.
At last a dash was made down the narrow ways between the tents and thehastily uncoupled waggons; and then with the rage, not the courage, ofdespair, every leader wanted to rush upon the enemy straight awaywithout waiting for orders, or heeding any but his own followers.
"Stop!" cried BA(C)la, hurrying up to them with the Palatine, and a few menwho were hardly able to force their way after him. "Stop! Wait for theword of command!"
But no one even saw, no one heard him.
Leaders and men had most of them lost their heads, and the fewdisorderly squadrons which succeeded in reaching the Mongols wereimmediately surrounded and overwhelmed.
The great black crescent was growing more and more dense and solid;there was no way of eluding it, no hope of escape.
Bishop Ugrin was well-nigh beside himself; and he poured forth nowblessings, now execrations, as the distracted troops rushed aimlesslyhither and thither, between the tents and their ropes, and down thenarrow passages.
They were completely entangled as in a net; to form them up in order wasan impossibility; and a deadly cloud of spears and arrows wascontinuously poured upon them by the Mongols.
To add to the general horror and terror, the waggons took fire, and soonthe tents nearest them were in flames. The tumult and confusion waxedgreater and greater.
Batu's main object was to capture the King, and already BA(C)la had had atleast one narrow escape, which he owed to the devotion of one of hisguard; but now both he and they were all wounded.