This, therefore, made
them yet far more desirous to be engaging the enemy; for 'You shall
see the Prince in the field to-morrow' was like oil to a flaming
fire, for of a long time they had been at a distance: they
therefore were for this the more earnest and desirous of the work.
So, as I said, the hour being come, Captain Credence, with the rest
of the men of war, drew out their forces before it was day by the
sally-port of the town. And, being all ready, Captain Credence
went up to the head of the army, and gave to the rest of the
captains the word, and so they to their under-officers and
soldiers: the word was 'The sword of the Prince Emmanuel, and the
shield of Captain Credence;' which is, in the Mansoulian tongue,
'The word of God and faith.' Then the captains fell on, and began
roundly to front, and flank, and rear Diabolus's camp.
Now, they left Captain Experience in the town, because he was yet
ill of his wounds, which the Diabolonians had given him in the last
fight. But when he perceived that the captains were at it, what
does he but, calling for his crutches with haste, gets up, and away
he goes to the battle, saying, 'Shall I lie here, when my brethren
are in the fight, and when Emmanuel, the Prince, will show himself
in the field to his servants?' But when the enemy saw the man come
with his crutches, they were daunted yet the more; 'for,' thought
they, 'what spirit has possessed these Mansoulians, that they fight
us upon their crutches?' Well, the captains, as I said, fell on,
and did bravely handle their weapons, still crying out and
shouting, as they laid on blows, 'The sword of the Prince Emmanuel,
and the shield of Captain Credence!'
Now, when Diabolus saw that the captains were come out, and that so
valiantly they surrounded his men, he concluded that, for the
present, nothing from them was to be looked for but blows, and the
dints of their 'two-edged sword.
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