They pushed along the bridge. The mass became more and more crowded;
men stumbled over each other, and fell off into the mire and the water,
calling vainly for help, while their comrades hurried on unheeding, in the
mad thirst for spoil.
On they came in thousands; and fresh thousands streamed out of the fields,
as if the whole army intended to pour itself into the isle at once.
"They are numberless," said Torfrida, in a serious and astonished voice,
as she stood by Hereward's side.
"Would they were!" said Hereward. "Let them come on, thick and threefold.
The more their numbers the fatter will the fish below be before to-morrow
morning. Look there, already!"
And already the bridge was swaying, and sinking beneath their weight. The
men in places were ankle deep in water. They rushed on all the more
eagerly, and filled the sow, and swarmed up to its roof.
Then, what with its own weight, what with the weight of the laden
bridge,--which dragged upon it from behind,--the huge sow began to tilt
backwards, and slide down the slimy bank.
The men on the top tried vainly to keep their footing, to hurl grapnels
into the rampart, to shoot off their quarrels and arrows.
"You must be quick, Frenchmen," shouted Hereward in derision, "if you mean
to come on board here."
The Normans knew that well; and as Hereward spoke two panels in the front
of the sow creaked on their hinges, and dropped landward, forming two
draw-bridges, over which reeled to the attack a close body of knights,
mingled with soldiers bearing scaling ladders.
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