Desperately they threw themselves upon the pike-heads and died there bravely, but they were powerless to break a passage.
The archers on the mound still shot fast among them, while those on the wall, turning round, smote them in the back, where, unprotected by their shields, they offered a sure and fatal mark.

Soon the narrow semicircle inside the gate became heaped high with dead, impeding the efforts of those still pressing in.

Several of the bravest of the Danish leaders had fallen.

The crowd in the fosse, unaware of the obstacle which prevented the advance of the head of the column and harassed by the missiles from above, grew impatient, and after half an hour of desperate efforts, and having lost upwards of three hundred of his best men, the Danish king, furious with rage and disappointment, called off his men.
On the other three sides the attack equally failed.

The Danes suffered heavily while climbing the steep side of the inner mound.