But as the Emperor drew nearer and
nearer, the gleam of arms caused to shine on the people shut up within
the city a day more gloomy than any kind of night. And then appeared
Charles himself, that man of steel, with his head encased in a helmet of
steel, his hands garnished with gauntlets of steel, his heart of steel
and his shoulders of marble protected by a cuirass of steel, and his
left hand armed with a lance of steel which he held aloft in the air,
for as to his right hand he kept that continually on the hilt of his
invincible sword. The outside of his thighs, which the rest, for their
greater ease in mounting a-horseback, were wont to leave unshackled even
by straps, he wore encircled by plates of steel. What shall I say
concerning his boots? All the army were wont to have them invariably of
steel; on his buckler there was naught to be seen but steel; his horse
was of the color and the strength of steel. All those who went before
the monarch, all those who marched at his side, all those who followed
after, even the whole mass of the army had armor of the like sort, so
far as the means of each permitted.
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