As I was not a fighter at the time, I did not directly participate in the battle. Most of what I am about to relate was told to me by others, chiefly Sir Esteban.
Prior to the battle, rumors circulated around both camps. Among Bordermarch and its allies, it was rumored that Stargate was employing ninja to enter Bordermarch tents and "slay" fighters in their sleep by pinning a red ribbon to them. These "dead" fighters would then not be allowed to participate in the morning’s battle.
In the Stargate camp, it was rumored that the best fighters of Meridies were exchanging their armor in order to confuse the enemy. Most notably it was said that Sir Beorn and His Majesty Francois had exchanged armor.
At one point during the battle, Sir Beorn reports that a Stargate fighter jumped in to engage him shouting, "Ha! Francois!" Sir Beorn quickly cut this rash fellow down but he wonders to this day if the fellow really thought he was engaging Francois.
Baroness Tessa, being a dutiful wife, was much concerned for the safety of her husband in the upcoming battle. Sir Simon had recently been ill and was not quite fully recovered. When Baroness Tessa gave unto Sir Beorn his yellow sash, she requested that he do all he could to see that no harm came to Baron Simon during the fight. Baron Sir Beorn passed Tessa's request on to the rest of the Axemoor fighters.
As a result of Mistress Tessa's request, Baron Simon reported that he could not engage a Stargate fighter without an Axemoorian jumping in and slaying him first. During the entire war that he helped spawn, Baron Simon did not get to strike one blow in earnest.
When the Stargate fighters took the field, they held about one fifth of their fighters, chiefly belts, in reserve. The duty of these reserves was to plug up any hole that might develop in the shield wall as a result of a fighter in the line being killed. These reserves were used to a battle developing in a leisurely fashion, and as they waited behind the Stargate lines, some of them had not even bothered to put their helms on.
When the Axemoor wedge cleft the Stargate shield wall, the reserves had to scramble to somehow try to close the gaping hole that had suddenly appeared before their unbelieving eyes. As the reserves threw on their helms and rushed to the fray, they failed to notice that the lone gules clad figure between them and the breach was wearing a yellow sash. Squire Phelan calmly stood his ground and killed several Ansteorran reserves as they ran past him.
At the battle's end, there was but a lone fighter left on the Stargate side. This was the Ansteorran King, Lloyd, who had lost a leg and was totally surrounded by Axemoorians. Sir Beorn, knowing that it would not be seemly for a King to fall to a lesser man, forbade his fighters from engaging King Lloyd and waited until His Majesty Francois could be found.
Meanwhile, James des Wolfe, who had been separated from his comrades by the swirl of battle, was walking back to where the rest of the Axemoor fighters stood. James was at this time a very young and enthusiastic fighter and had not gotten nearly his fill of fighting. It was therefore with much delight that he saw that there was still one Ansteorran knight alive in the midst of the Axemoorians. With the boundless exuberance of youth, he rushed in to engage King Lloyd before anyone could warn him off.
Had King Lloyd had the use of his legs, I'm sure that he would have made short work of James, but down on his knees, there was little more he could do than block James' blows and hope for an opening. James attacked Lloyd with vigor, but when he failed to get around King Lloyd's guard, James broke off and tried to figure out some new tactic.
Unnoticed by either fighter, the Bordermarch trebuchet crew had wheeled their engine up about twenty yards behind Lloyd. As the fight between James and King Lloyd continued, the trebuchet crew lined up their weapon, found the range, and started pinging projectiles (tennis balls) off the back of Lloyd's helm.
Once again, James broke off his attack to catch his breath and try to figure out some way around the knight's intractable defense. His Majesty Lloyd was furious. "Tell that idiot behind me that his blows don't count unless he engages my sight," Lloyd hissed to the marshals. "Your Majesty," replied the marshal, "that is not a fighter, it is a trebuchet." King Lloyd, somewhat chagrined, cried out "It counts!" and fell over dead.
James, thinking that the knight was calling a blow that he had been unsure of, was ecstatic at having slain a knight. He was even more joyous to learn that the knight had actually been the King of Ansteorra! It was a long time before anyone had the heart to tell him what had really happened.
At the feast that evening, Baron Simon returned to the Baron of Stargate the anvil that had started it all. Both barons swore perpetual friendship between their two baronies, and so the Anvil War ended.