The boar was backed against a rock to avoid attack in the rear; then, bracing himself on his forepaws, he faced the dogs with his ensanguined eyes and enormous tusks.

They quivered around him like a moving carpet; five or six, more or less badly wounded, were staining the battlefield with their blood, though still attacking the boar with a fury and courage that might have served as an example to the bravest men.
Each hunter faced the scene with the characteristic signs of his age, nature and nation.

Edouard, at one and the same time, the most imprudent and the smallest, finding the path less difficult, owing to his small, stature, arrived first.

Roland, heedless of danger of any kind, seeking rather than avoiding it, followed.

Finally Sir John, slower, graver, more reflective, brought up the rear.