HL 5.40

English

Cunincpert dispatched a messenger to him, sending him word that he would engage with him in single combat; that there was no need of using up the army of either. To these words Alahis did not at all agree. When one of his followers, a Tuscan by race, calling him a warlike and brave man, advised him to go forth boldly against Cunincpert, Alahis replied to these words: "Cunincpert, although ];e is a drunkard and of a stupid heart, is nevertheless quite bold and of wonderful strength. For in his father's time when we were boys there were in the palace wethers of great size which he seized by the wool of the back and lifted from the ground with outstretched arm, which, indeed, I was not able to do." That Tuscan hearing these things said to him: " If you do not dare to go into a fight with Cunincpert in single combat you will not have me any longer as a companion in your support." And saying this he broke away and straightway betook himself to Cunincpert and reported these things to him. Then, as we said, both lines came together in the field of Coronate. And when they were already near, so that they were bound to join in battle, Seno, a deacon of the church of Ticinum, who was the guardian of the church of St. John the Baptist (which was situated within that city and which queen Gundiperga had formerly built), since he loved the king very much, and feared lest his sovereign should perish in war, said to the king: " My lord king, our whole life lies in your welfare. If you perish in battle that tyrant Alahis will destroy us by various punishments; therefore may my counsel please you. Give me a suit of your armor and I will go and fight with that tyrant. If I shall die, you may still re-establish your cause, but if I shall win, a greater glory will be ascribed to you, because you will have conquered by your servant." And when the king refused to do this, his few faithful ones who were present began to beg him with tears that he would give his consent to those things the deacon had said. Overcome at last, since he was of a tender heart, by their prayers and tears, he handed his cuirass and his helmet, and his greaves and his other arms to the deacon, and dispatched him to the battle to play the part of the king. For this deacon was of the same stature and bearing, so that when he had gone armed out of the tent he was taken for king Cunincpert by all. The battle then was joined and they struggled with all their might. And when Alahis pressed the harder there where he thought the king was, he killed Seno the deacon, and imagined that Cunincpert had been slain. And when he had ordered his head cut off so that after it was lifted upon a pike they should cry out "Thanks to God," when the helmet was removed, he learned that he had killed a churchman. Then crying out in his rage he said: "'vVoe is me! We have done nothing when we have brought the battle to this point that we have killed a churchman! Therefore, I now make this kind of a vow that if God shall give me the victory I will fill a whole well with the members of churchmen."

Latin