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WILLIAM, TO HIS TROOPS:
"Now you must prove with your hands the stuff of which you are made, the spirit that inspires you. Now it is no longer a matter of living and ruling but of escaping with your lives from imminent danger. If you fight manfully, victory, honour and riches will be yours; otherwise you will be slain, or as captives you will serve the whims of a most cruel enemy, and you will be remembered forever with shame. There is no way of escape: on the one hand, an army and an unknown and hostile countryside bar the way; on the other, a navy and the sea". WILLIAM OF POITIERS Gesta Willelmi ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum Circa 1071 |
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