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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Roots of the Mountains, by William Morris
+(#14 in our series by William Morris)
+
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+Title: The Roots of the Mountains
+
+Author: William Morris
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6050]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 24, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ROOTS OF THE MOUNTAINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1896 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
+Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+THE ROOTS OF THE MOUNTAINS WHEREIN IS TOLD SOMEWHAT OF THE LIVES OF
+THE MEN OF BURGDALE THEIR FRIENDS THEIR NEIGHBOURS THEIR FOEMEN AND
+THEIR FELLOWS IN ARMS
+BY WILLIAM MORRIS
+
+
+
+
+Whiles carried o'er the iron road,
+We hurry by some fair abode;
+The garden bright amidst the hay,
+The yellow wain upon the way,
+The dining men, the wind that sweeps
+Light locks from off the sun-sweet heaps -
+The gable grey, the hoary roof,
+Here now--and now so far aloof.
+How sorely then we long to stay
+And midst its sweetness wear the day,
+And 'neath its changing shadows sit,
+And feel ourselves a part of it.
+Such rest, such stay, I strove to win
+With these same leaves that lie herein.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  OF BURGSTEAD AND ITS FOLK AND ITS NEIGHBOURS
+
+
+
+Once upon a time amidst the mountains and hills and falling streams
+of a fair land there was a town or thorp in a certain valley.  This
+was well-nigh encompassed by a wall of sheer cliffs; toward the East
+and the great mountains they drew together till they went near to
+meet, and left but a narrow path on either side of a stony stream
+that came rattling down into the Dale:  toward the river at that end
+the hills lowered somewhat, though they still ended in sheer rocks;
+but up from it, and more especially on the north side, they swelled
+into great shoulders of land, then dipped a little, and rose again
+into the sides of huge fells clad with pine-woods, and cleft here and
+there by deep ghylls:  thence again they rose higher and steeper, and
+ever higher till they drew dark and naked out of the woods to meet
+the snow-fields and ice-rivers of the high mountains.  But that was
+far away from the pass by the little river into the valley; and the
+said river was no drain from the snow-fields white and thick with the
+grinding of the ice, but clear and bright were its waters that came
+from wells amidst the bare rocky heaths.
+
+The upper end of the valley, where it first began to open out from
+the pass, was rugged and broken by rocks and ridges of water-borne
+stones, but presently it smoothed itself into mere grassy swellings
+and knolls, and at last into a fair and fertile plain swelling up
+into a green wave, as it were, against the rock-wall which
+encompassed it on all sides save where the river came gushing out of
+the strait pass at the east end, and where at the west end it poured
+itself out of the Dale toward the lowlands and the plain of the great
+river.
+
+Now the valley was some ten miles of our measure from that place of
+the rocks and the stone-ridges, to where the faces of the hills drew
+somewhat anigh to the river again at the west, and then fell aback
+along the edge of the great plain; like as when ye fare a-sailing
+past two nesses of a river-mouth, and the main-sea lieth open before
+you.
+
+Besides the river afore-mentioned, which men called the Weltering
+Water, there were other waters in the Dale.  Near the eastern pass,
+entangled in the rocky ground was a deep tarn full of cold springs
+and about two acres in measure, and therefrom ran a stream which fell
+into the Weltering Water amidst the grassy knolls.  Black seemed the
+waters of that tarn which on one side washed the rocks-wall of the
+Dale; ugly and aweful it seemed to men, and none knew what lay
+beneath its waters save black mis-shapen trouts that few cared to
+bring to net or angle:  and it was called the Death-Tarn.
+
+Other waters yet there were:  here and there from the hills on both
+sides, but especially from the south side, came trickles of water
+that ran in pretty brooks down to the river; and some of these sprang
+bubbling up amidst the foot-mounds of the sheer-rocks; some had cleft
+a rugged and strait way through them, and came tumbling down into the
+Dale at diverse heights from their faces.  But on the north side
+about halfway down the Dale, one stream somewhat bigger than the
+others, and dealing with softer ground, had cleft for itself a wider
+way; and the folk had laboured this way wider yet, till they had made
+them a road running north along the west side of the stream.  Sooth
+to say, except for the strait pass along the river at the eastern
+end, and the wider pass at the western, they had no other way (save
+one of which a word anon) out of the Dale but such as mountain goats
+and bold cragsmen might take; and even of these but few.
+
+This midway stream was called the Wildlake, and the way along it
+Wildlake's Way, because it came to them out of the wood, which on
+that north side stretched away from nigh to the lip of the valley-
+wall up to the pine woods and the high fells on the east and north,
+and down to the plain country on the west and south.
+
+Now when the Weltering Water came out of the rocky tangle near the
+pass, it was turned aside by the ground till it swung right up to the
+feet of the Southern crags; then it turned and slowly bent round
+again northward, and at last fairly doubled back on itself before it
+turned again to run westward; so that when, after its second double,
+it had come to flowing softly westward under the northern crags, it
+had cast two thirds of a girdle round about a space of land a little
+below the grassy knolls and tofts aforesaid; and there in that fair
+space between the folds of the Weltering Water stood the Thorp
+whereof the tale hath told.
+
+The men thereof had widened and deepened the Weltering Water about
+them, and had bridged it over to the plain meads; and athwart the
+throat of the space left clear by the water they had built them a
+strong wall though not very high, with a gate amidst and a tower on
+either side thereof.  Moreover, on the face of the cliff which was
+but a stone's throw from the gate they had made them stairs and
+ladders to go up by; and on a knoll nigh the brow had built a watch-
+tower of stone strong and great, lest war should come into the land
+from over the hills.  That tower was ancient, and therefrom the Thorp
+had its name and the whole valley also; and it was called Burgstead
+in Burgdale.
+
+So long as the Weltering Water ran straight along by the northern
+cliffs after it had left Burgstead, betwixt the water and the cliffs
+was a wide flat way fashioned by man's hand.  Thus was the water
+again a good defence to the Thorp, for it ran slow and deep there,
+and there was no other ground betwixt it and the cliffs save that
+road, which was easy to bar across so that no foemen might pass
+without battle, and this road was called the Portway.  For a long
+mile the river ran under the northern cliffs, and then turned into
+the midst of the Dale, and went its way westward a broad stream
+winding in gentle laps and folds here and there down to the out-gate
+of the Dale.  But the Portway held on still underneath the rock-wall,
+till the sheer-rocks grew somewhat broken, and were cumbered with
+certain screes, and at last the wayfarer came upon the break in them,
+and the ghyll through which ran the Wildlake with Wildlake's Way
+beside it, but the Portway still went on all down the Dale and away
+to the Plain-country.
+
+That road in the ghyll, which was neither wide nor smooth, the
+wayfarer into the wood must follow, till it lifted itself out of the
+ghyll, and left the Wildlake coming rattling down by many steps from
+the east; and now the way went straight north through the woodland,
+ever mounting higher, (because the whole set of the land was toward
+the high fells,) but not in any cleft or ghyll.  The wood itself
+thereabout was thick, a blended growth of diverse kinds of trees, but
+most of oak and ash; light and air enough came through their boughs
+to suffer the holly and bramble and eglantine and other small wood to
+grow together into thickets, which no man could pass without hewing a
+way.  But before it is told whereto Wildlake's Way led, it must be
+said that on the east side of the ghyll, where it first began just
+over the Portway, the hill's brow was clear of wood for a certain
+space, and there, overlooking all the Dale, was the Mote-stead of the
+Dalesmen, marked out by a great ring of stones, amidst of which was
+the mound for the Judges and the Altar of the Gods before it.  And
+this was the holy place of the men of the Dale and of other folk
+whereof the tale shall now tell.
+
+For when Wildlake's Way had gone some three miles from the Mote-
+stead, the trees began to thin, and presently afterwards was a
+clearing and the dwellings of men, built of timber as may well be
+thought.  These houses were neither rich nor great, nor was the folk
+a mighty folk, because they were but a few, albeit body by body they
+were stout carles enough.  They had not affinity with the Dalesmen,
+and did not wed with them, yet it is to be deemed that they were
+somewhat akin to them.  To be short, though they were freemen, yet as
+regards the Dalesmen were they well-nigh their servants; for they
+were but poor in goods, and had to lean upon them somewhat.  No
+tillage they had among those high trees; and of beasts nought save
+some flocks of goats and a few asses.  Hunters they were, and
+charcoal-burners, and therein the deftest of men, and they could
+shoot well in the bow withal:  so they trucked their charcoal and
+their smoked venison and their peltries with the Dalesmen for wheat
+and wine and weapons and weed; and the Dalesmen gave them main good
+pennyworths, as men who had abundance wherewith to uphold their
+kinsmen, though they were but far-away kin.  Stout hands had these
+Woodlanders and true hearts as any; but they were few-spoken and to
+those that needed them not somewhat surly of speech and grim of
+visage:  brown-skinned they were, but light-haired; well-eyed, with
+but little red in their cheeks:  their women were not very fair, for
+they toiled like the men, or more.  They were thought to be wiser
+than most men in foreseeing things to come.  They were much given to
+spells, and songs of wizardry, and were very mindful of the old
+story-lays, wherein they were far more wordy than in their daily
+speech.  Much skill had they in runes, and were exceeding deft in
+scoring them on treen bowls, and on staves, and door-posts and roof-
+beams and standing-beds and such like things.  Many a day when the
+snow was drifting over their roofs, and hanging heavy on the tree-
+boughs, and the wind was roaring through the trees aloft and rattling
+about the close thicket, when the boughs were clattering in the wind,
+and crashing down beneath the weight of the gathering freezing snow,
+when all beasts and men lay close in their lairs, would they sit long
+hours about the house-fire with the knife or the gouge in hand, with
+the timber twixt their knees and the whetstone beside them,
+hearkening to some tale of old times and the days when their banner
+was abroad in the world; and they the while wheedling into growth out
+of the tough wood knots and blossoms and leaves and the images of
+beasts and warriors and women.
+
+They were called nought save the Woodland-Carles in that day, though
+time had been when they had borne a nobler name:  and their abode was
+called Carlstead.  Shortly, for all they had and all they had not,
+for all they were and all they were not, they were well-beloved by
+their friends and feared by their foes.
+
+Now when Wildlake's Way was gotten to Carlstead, there was an end of
+it toward the north; though beyond it in a right line the wood was
+thinner, because of the hewing of the Carles.  But the road itself
+turned west at once and went on through the wood, till some four
+miles further it first thinned and then ceased altogether, the ground
+going down-hill all the way:  for this was the lower flank of the
+first great upheaval toward the high mountains.  But presently, after
+the wood was ended, the land broke into swelling downs and winding
+dales of no great height or depth, with a few scattered trees about
+the hillsides, mostly thorns or scrubby oaks, gnarled and bent and
+kept down by the western wind:  here and there also were yew-trees,
+and whiles the hillsides would be grown over with box-wood, but none
+very great; and often juniper grew abundantly.  This then was the
+country of the Shepherds, who were friends both of the Dalesmen and
+the Woodlanders.  They dwelt not in any fenced town or thorp, but
+their homesteads were scattered about as was handy for water and
+shelter.  Nevertheless they had their own stronghold; for amidmost of
+their country, on the highest of a certain down above a bottom where
+a willowy stream winded, was a great earthwork:  the walls thereof
+were high and clean and overlapping at the entering in, and amidst of
+it was a deep well of water, so that it was a very defensible place:
+and thereto would they drive their flocks and herds when war was in
+the land, for nought but a very great host might win it; and this
+stronghold they called Greenbury.
+
+These Shepherd-Folk were strong and tall like the Woodlanders, for
+they were partly of the same blood, but burnt they were both ruddy
+and brown:  they were of more words than the Woodlanders but yet not
+many-worded.  They knew well all those old story-lays, (and this
+partly by the minstrelsy of the Woodlanders,) but they had scant
+skill in wizardry, and would send for the Woodlanders, both men and
+women, to do whatso they needed therein.  They were very hale and
+long-lived, whereas they dwelt in clear bright air, and they mostly
+went light-clad even in the winter, so strong and merry were they.
+They wedded with the Woodlanders and the Dalesmen both; at least
+certain houses of them did so.  They grew no corn; nought but a few
+pot-herbs, but had their meal of the Dalesmen; and in the summer they
+drave some of their milch-kine into the Dale for the abundance of
+grass there; whereas their own hills and bents and winding valleys
+were not plenteously watered, except here and there as in the bottom
+under Greenbury.  No swine they had, and but few horses, but of sheep
+very many, and of the best both for their flesh and their wool.  Yet
+were they nought so deft craftsmen at the loom as were the Dalesmen,
+and their women were not very eager at the weaving, though they
+loathed not the spindle and rock.  Shortly, they were merry folk
+well-beloved of the Dalesmen, quick to wrath, though it abode not
+long with them; not very curious in their houses and halls, which
+were but little, and were decked mostly with the handiwork of the
+Woodland-Carles their guests; who when they were abiding with them,
+would oft stand long hours nose to beam, scoring and nicking and
+hammering, answering no word spoken to them but with aye or no,
+desiring nought save the endurance of the daylight.  Moreover, this
+shepherd-folk heeded not gay raiment over-much, but commonly went
+clad in white woollen or sheep-brown weed.
+
+But beyond this shepherd-folk were more downs and more, scantily
+peopled, and that after a while by folk with whom they had no kinship
+or affinity, and who were at whiles their foes.  Yet was there no
+enduring enmity between them; and ever after war and battle came
+peace; and all blood-wites were duly paid and no long feud followed:
+nor were the Dalesmen and the Woodlanders always in these wars,
+though at whiles they were.  Thus then it fared with these people.
+
+But now that we have told of the folks with whom the Dalesmen had
+kinship, affinity, and friendship, tell we of their chief abode,
+Burgstead to wit, and of its fashion.  As hath been told, it lay upon
+the land made nigh into an isle by the folds of the Weltering Water
+towards the uppermost end of the Dale; and it was warded by the deep
+water, and by the wall aforesaid with its towers.  Now the Dale at
+its widest, to wit where Wildlake fell into it, was but nine furlongs
+over, but at Burgstead it was far narrower; so that betwixt the wall
+and the wandering stream there was but a space of fifty acres, and
+therein lay Burgstead in a space of the shape of a sword-pommel:  and
+the houses of the kinships lay about it, amidst of gardens and
+orchards, but little ordered into streets and lanes, save that a way
+went clean through everything from the tower-warded gate to the
+bridge over the Water, which was warded by two other towers on its
+hither side.
+
+As to the houses, they were some bigger, some smaller, as the
+housemates needed.  Some were old, but not very old, save two only,
+and some quite new, but of these there were not many:  they were all
+built fairly of stone and lime, with much fair and curious carved
+work of knots and beasts and men round about the doors; or whiles a
+wale of such-like work all along the house-front.  For as deft as
+were the Woodlanders with knife and gouge on the oaken beams, even so
+deft were the Dalesmen with mallet and chisel on the face of the hewn
+stone; and this was a great pastime about the Thorp.  Within these
+houses had but a hall and solar, with shut-beds out from the hall on
+one side or two, with whatso of kitchen and buttery and out-bower men
+deemed handy.  Many men dwelt in each house, either kinsfolk, or such
+as were joined to the kindred.
+
+Near to the gate of Burgstead in that street aforesaid and facing
+east was the biggest house of the Thorp; it was one of the two
+abovesaid which were older than any other.  Its door-posts and the
+lintel of the door were carved with knots and twining stems fairer
+than other houses of that stead; and on the wall beside the door
+carved over many stones was an image wrought in the likeness of a man
+with a wide face, which was terrible to behold, although it smiled:
+he bore a bent bow in his hand with an arrow fitted to its string,
+and about the head of him was a ring of rays like the beams of the
+sun, and at his feet was a dragon, which had crept, as it were, from
+amidst of the blossomed knots of the door-post wherewith the tail of
+him was yet entwined.  And this head with the ring of rays about it
+was wrought into the adornment of that house, both within and
+without, in many other places, but on never another house of the
+Dale; and it was called the House of the Face.  Thereof hath the tale
+much to tell hereafter, but as now it goeth on to tell of the ways of
+life of the Dalesmen.
+
+In Burgstead was no Mote-hall or Town-house or Church, such as we wot
+of in these days; and their market-place was wheresoever any might
+choose to pitch a booth:  but for the most part this was done in the
+wide street betwixt the gate and the bridge.  As to a meeting-place,
+were there any small matters between man and man, these would the
+Alderman or one of the Wardens deal with, sitting in Court with the
+neighbours on the wide space just outside the Gate:  but if it were
+to do with greater matters, such as great manslayings and blood-
+wites, or the making of war or ending of it, or the choosing of the
+Alderman and the Wardens, such matters must be put off to the Folk-
+mote, which could but be held in the place aforesaid where was the
+Doom-ring and the Altar of the Gods; and at that Folk-mote both the
+Shepherd-Folk and the Woodland-Carles foregathered with the Dalesmen,
+and duly said their say.  There also they held their great casts and
+made offerings to the Gods for the Fruitfulness of the Year, the
+ingathering of the increase, and in Memory of their Forefathers.
+Natheless at Yule-tide also they feasted from house to house to be
+glad with the rest of Midwinter, and many a cup drank at those feasts
+to the memory of the fathers, and the days when the world was wider
+to them, and their banners fared far afield.
+
+But besides these dwellings of men in the field between the wall and
+the water, there were homesteads up and down the Dale whereso men
+found it easy and pleasant to dwell:  their halls were built of much
+the same fashion as those within the Thorp; but many had a high
+garth-wall cast about them, so that they might make a stout defence
+in their own houses if war came into the Dale.
+
+As to their work afield; in many places the Dale was fair with growth
+of trees, and especially were there long groves of sweet chestnut
+standing on the grass, of the fruit whereof the folk had much gain.
+Also on the south side nigh to the western end was a wood or two of
+yew-trees very great and old, whence they gat them bow-staves, for
+the Dalesmen also shot well in the bow.  Much wheat and rye they
+raised in the Dale, and especially at the nether end thereof.  Apples
+and pears and cherries and plums they had in plenty; of which trees,
+some grew about the borders of the acres, some in the gardens of the
+Thorp and the homesteads.  On the slopes that had grown from the
+breaking down here and there of the Northern cliffs, and which faced
+the South and the Sun's burning, were rows of goodly vines, whereof
+the folk made them enough and to spare of strong wine both white and
+red.
+
+As to their beasts; swine they had a many, but not many sheep, since
+herein they trusted to their trucking with their friends the
+Shepherds; they had horses, and yet but a few, for they were stout in
+going afoot; and, had they a journey to make with women big with
+babes, or with children or outworn elders, they would yoke their oxen
+to their wains, and go fair and softly whither they would.  But the
+said oxen and all their neat were exceeding big and fair, far other
+than the little beasts of the Shepherd-Folk; they were either dun of
+colour, or white with black horns (and those very great) and black
+tail-tufts and ear-tips.  Asses they had, and mules for the paths of
+the mountains to the east; geese and hens enough, and dogs not a few,
+great hounds stronger than wolves, sharp-nosed, long-jawed, dun of
+colour, shag-haired.
+
+As to their wares; they were very deft weavers of wool and flax, and
+made a shift to dye the thrums in fair colours; since both woad and
+madder came to them good cheap by means of the merchants of the plain
+country, and of greening weeds was abundance at hand.  Good smiths
+they were in all the metals:  they washed somewhat of gold out of the
+sands of the Weltering Water, and copper and tin they fetched from
+the rocks of the eastern mountains; but of silver they saw little,
+and iron they must buy of the merchants of the plain, who came to
+them twice in the year, to wit in the spring and the late autumn just
+before the snows.  Their wares they bought with wool spun and in the
+fleece, and fine cloth, and skins of wine and young neat both steers
+and heifers, and wrought copper bowls, and gold and copper by weight,
+for they had no stamped money.  And they guested these merchants
+well, for they loved them, because of the tales they told them of the
+Plain and its cities, and the manslayings therein, and the fall of
+Kings and Dukes, and the uprising of Captains.
+
+Thus then lived this folk in much plenty and ease of life, though not
+delicately nor desiring things out of measure.  They wrought with
+their hands and wearied themselves; and they rested from their toil
+and feasted and were merry:  to-morrow was not a burden to them, nor
+yesterday a thing which they would fain forget:  life shamed them
+not, nor did death make them afraid.
+
+As for the Dale wherein they dwelt, it was indeed most fair and
+lovely, and they deemed it the Blessing of the Earth, and they trod
+its flowery grass beside its rippled streams amidst its green tree-
+boughs proudly and joyfully with goodly bodies and merry hearts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  OF FACE-OF-GOD AND HIS KINDRED
+
+
+
+Tells the tale, that on an evening of late autumn when the weather
+was fair, calm, and sunny, there came a man out of the wood hard by
+the Mote-stead aforesaid, who sat him down at the roots of the
+Speech-mound, casting down before him a roe-buck which he had just
+slain in the wood.  He was a young man of three and twenty summers;
+he was so clad that he had on him a sheep-brown kirtle and leggings
+of like stuff bound about with white leather thongs; he bore a short-
+sword in his girdle and a little axe withal; the sword with fair
+wrought gilded hilts and a dew-shoe of like fashion to its sheath.
+He had his quiver at his back and bare in his hand his bow unstrung.
+He was tall and strong, very fair of fashion both of limbs and face,
+white-skinned, but for the sun's tanning, and ruddy-cheeked:  his
+beard was little and fine, his hair yellow and curling, cut somewhat
+close, but for its length so plenteous, and so thick, that none could
+fail to note it.  He had no hat nor hood upon his head, nought but a
+fillet of golden beads.
+
+As he sat down he glanced at the dale below him with a well-pleased
+look, and then cast his eyes down to the grass at his feet, as though
+to hold a little longer all unchanged the image of the fair place he
+had just seen.  The sun was low in the heavens, and his slant beams
+fell yellow all up the dale, gilding the chestnut groves grown dusk
+and grey with autumn, and the black masses of the elm-boughs, and
+gleaming back here and there from the pools of the Weltering Water.
+Down in the midmost meadows the long-horned dun kine were moving
+slowly as they fed along the edges of the stream, and a dog was
+bounding about with exceeding swiftness here and there among them.
+At a sharply curved bight of the river the man could see a little
+vermilion flame flickering about, and above it a thin blue veil of
+smoke hanging in the air, and clinging to the boughs of the willows
+anear; about it were a dozen menfolk clear to see, some sitting, some
+standing, some walking to and fro, but all in company together:  four
+of were brown-clad and short-skirted like himself, and from above the
+hand of one came a flash of light as the sun smote upon the steel of
+his spear.  The others were long-skirted and clad gayer, and amongst
+them were red and blue and green and white garments, and they were
+clear to be seen for women.  Just as the young man looked up again,
+those of them who were sitting down rose up, and those that were
+strolling drew nigh, and they joined hands together, and fell to
+dancing on the grass, and the dog and another one with him came up to
+the dancers and raced about and betwixt them; and so clear to see
+were they all and so little, being far away, that they looked like
+dainty well-wrought puppets.
+
+The young man sat smiling at it for a little, and then rose up and
+shouldered his venison, and went down into Wildlake's Way, and
+presently was fairly in the Dale and striding along the Portway
+beside the northern cliffs, whose greyness was gilded yet by the last
+rays of the sun, though in a minute or two it would go under the
+western rim.  He went fast and cheerily, murmuring to himself
+snatches of old songs; none overtook him on the road, but he overtook
+divers folk going alone or in company toward Burgstead; swains and
+old men, mothers and maidens coming from the field and the acre, or
+going from house to house; and one or two he met but not many.  All
+these greeted him kindly, and he them again; but he stayed not to
+speak with any, but went as one in haste.
+
+It was dusk by then he passed under the gate of Burgstead; he went
+straight thence to the door of the House of the Face, and entered as
+one who is at home, and need go no further, nor abide a bidding.
+
+The hall he came into straight out of the open air was long and
+somewhat narrow and not right high; it was well-nigh dark now within,
+but since he knew where to look, he could see by the flicker that
+leapt up now and then from the smouldering brands of the hearth
+amidmost the hall under the luffer, that there were but three men
+therein, and belike they were even they whom he looked to find there,
+and for their part they looked for his coming, and knew his step.
+
+He set down his venison on the floor, and cried out in a cheery
+voice:  'Ho, Kettel!  Are all men gone without doors to sleep so near
+the winter-tide, that the Hall is as dark as a cave?  Hither to me!
+Or art thou also sleeping?'
+
+A voice came from the further side of the hearth:  'Yea, lord, asleep
+I am, and have been, and dreaming; and in my dream I dealt with the
+flesh-pots and the cake-board, and thou shalt see my dream come true
+presently to thy gain.'
+
+Quoth another voice:  'Kettel hath had out that share of his dream
+already belike, if the saw sayeth sooth about cooks.  All ye have
+been away, so belike he hath done as Rafe's dog when Rafe ran away
+from the slain buck.'
+
+He laughed therewith, and Kettel with him, and a third voice joined
+the laughter.  The young man also laughed and said:  'Here I bring
+the venison which my kinsman desired; but as ye see I have brought it
+over-late:  but take it, Kettel.  When cometh my father from the
+stithy?'
+
+Quoth Kettel:  'My lord hath been hard at it shaping the Yule-tide
+sword, and doth not lightly leave such work, as ye wot, but he will
+be here presently, for he has sent to bid us dight for supper
+straightway.'
+
+Said the young man:  'Where are there lords in the dale, Kettel, or
+hast thou made some thyself, that thou must be always throwing them
+in my teeth?'
+
+'Son of the Alderman,' said Kettel, 'ye call me Kettel, which is no
+name of mine, so why should I not call thee lord, which is no dignity
+of thine, since it goes well over my tongue from old use and wont?
+But here comes my mate of the kettle, and the women and lads.  Sit
+down by the hearth away from their hurry, and I will fetch thee the
+hand-water.'
+
+The young man sat down, and Kettel took up the venison and went his
+ways toward the door at the lower end of the hall; but ere he reached
+it it opened, and a noisy crowd entered of men, women, boys, and
+dogs, some bearing great wax candles, some bowls and cups and dishes
+and trenchers, and some the boards for the meal.
+
+The young man sat quiet smiling and winking his eyes at the sudden
+flood of light let into the dark place; he took in without looking at
+this or the other thing the aspect of his Fathers' House, so long
+familiar to him; yet to-night he had a pleasure in it above his wont,
+and in all the stir of the household; for the thought of the wood
+wherein he had wandered all day yet hung heavy upon him.  Came one of
+the girls and cast fresh brands on the smouldering fire and stirred
+it into a blaze, and the wax candles were set up on the dais, so that
+between them and the mew-quickened fire every corner of the hall was
+bright.  As aforesaid it was long and narrow, over-arched with stone
+and not right high, the windows high up under the springing of the
+roof-arch and all on the side toward the street; over against them
+were the arches of the shut-beds of the housemates.  The walls were
+bare that evening, but folk were wont to hang up hallings of woven
+pictures thereon when feasts and high-days were toward; and all along
+the walls were the tenter-hooks for that purpose, and divers weapons
+and tools were hanging from them here and there.  About the dais
+behind the thwart-table were now stuck for adornment leavy boughs of
+oak now just beginning to turn with the first frosts.  High up on the
+gable wall above the tenter-hooks for the hangings were carven fair
+imagery and knots and twining stems; for there in the hewn atone was
+set forth that same image with the rayed head that was on the outside
+wall, and he was smiting the dragon and slaying him; but here inside
+the house all this was stained in fair and lively colours, and the
+sun-like rays round the head of the image were of beaten gold.  At
+the lower end of the hall were two doors going into the butteries,
+and kitchen, and other out-bowers; and above these doors was a loft
+upborne by stone pillars, which loft was the sleeping chamber of the
+goodman of the house; but the outward door was halfway between the
+said loft and the hearth of the hall.
+
+So the young man took the shoes from his feet and then sat watching
+the women and lads arraying the boards, till Kettel came again to him
+with an old woman bearing the ewer and basin, who washed his feet and
+poured the water over his hands, and gave him the towel with fair-
+broidered ends to dry them withal.
+
+Scarce had he made an end of this ere through the outer door came in
+three men and a young woman with them; the foremost of these was a
+man younger by some two years than the first-comer, but so like him
+that none might misdoubt that he was his brother; the next was an old
+man with a long white beard, but hale and upright; and lastly came a
+man of middle-age, who led the young woman by the hand.  He was
+taller than the first of the young men, though the other who entered
+with him outwent him in height; a stark carle he was, broad across
+the shoulders, thin in the flank, long-armed and big-handed; very
+noble and well-fashioned of countenance, with a straight nose and
+grey eyes underneath a broad brow:  his hair grown somewhat scanty
+was done about with a fillet of golden beads like the young men his
+sons.  For indeed this was their father, and the master of the House.
+
+His name was Iron-face, for he was the deftest of weapon-smiths, and
+he was the Alderman of the Dalesmen, and well-beloved of them; his
+kindred was deemed the noblest of the Dale, and long had they dwelt
+in the House of the Face.  But of his sons the youngest, the new-
+comer, was named Hall-face, and his brother the elder Face-of-god;
+which name was of old use amongst the kindred, and many great men and
+stout warriors had borne it aforetime:  and this young man, in great
+love had he been gotten, and in much hope had he been reared, and
+therefore had he been named after the best of the kindred.  But his
+mother, who was hight the Jewel, and had been a very fair woman, was
+dead now, and Iron-face lacked a wife.
+
+Face-of-god was well-beloved of his kindred and of all the Folk of
+the Dale, and he had gotten a to-name, and was called Gold-mane
+because of the abundance and fairness of his hair.
+
+As for the young woman that was led in by Iron-face, she was the
+betrothed of Face-of-god, and her name was the Bride.  She looked
+with such eyes of love on him when she saw him in the hall, as though
+she had never seen him before but once, nor loved him but since
+yesterday; though in truth they had grown up together and had seen
+each other most days of the year for many years.  She was of the
+kindred with whom the chiefs and great men of the Face mostly wedded,
+which was indeed far away kindred of them.  She was a fair woman and
+strong:  not easily daunted amidst perils she was hardy and handy and
+light-foot:  she could swim as well as any, and could shoot well in
+the bow, and wield sword and spear:  yet was she kind and
+compassionate, and of great courtesy, and the very dogs and kine
+trusted in her and loved her.  Her hair was dark red of hue, long and
+fine and plenteous, her eyes great and brown, her brow broad and very
+fair, her lips fine and red:  her cheek not ruddy, yet nowise sallow,
+but clear and bright:  tall she was and of excellent fashion, but
+well-knit and well-measured rather than slender and wavering as the
+willow-bough.  Her voice was sweet and soft, her words few, but
+exceeding dear to the listener.  In short, she was a woman born to be
+the ransom of her Folk.
+
+Now as to the names which the menfolk of the Face bore, and they an
+ancient kindred, a kindred of chieftains, it has been said that in
+times past their image of the God of the Earth had over his treen
+face a mask of beaten gold fashioned to the shape of the image; and
+that when the Alderman of the Folk died, he to wit who served the God
+and bore on his arm the gold-ring between the people and the altar,
+this visor or face of God was laid over the face of him who had been
+in a manner his priest, and therewith he was borne to mound; and the
+new Alderman and priest had it in charge to fashion a new visor for
+the God; and whereas for long this great kindred had been chieftains
+of the people, they had been, and were all so named, that the word
+Face was ever a part of their names.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  THEY TALK OF DIVERS MATTERS IN THE HALL
+
+
+
+Now Face-of-god, who is also called Gold-mane, rose up to meet the
+new-comers, and each of them greeted him kindly, and the Bride kissed
+him on the cheek, and he her in likewise; and he looked kindly on
+her, and took her hand, and went on up the hall to the dais,
+following his father and the old man; as for him, he was of the
+kindred of the House, and was foster-father of Iron-face and of his
+sons both; and his name was Stone-face:  a stark warrior had he been
+when he was young, and even now he could do a man's work in the
+battlefield, and his understanding was as good as that of a man in
+his prime.  So went these and four others up on to the dais and sat
+down before the thwart-table looking down the hall, for the meat was
+now on the board; and of the others there were some fifty men and
+women who were deemed to be of the kindred and sat at the endlong
+tables.
+
+So then the Alderman stood up and made the sign of the Hammer over
+the meat, the token of his craft and of his God.  Then they fell to
+with good hearts, for there was enough and to spare of meat and
+drink.  There was bread and flesh (though not Gold-mane's venison),
+and leeks and roasted chestnuts of the grove, and red-cheeked apples
+of the garth, and honey enough of that year's gathering, and medlars
+sharp and mellow:  moreover, good wine of the western bents went up
+and down the hall in great gilded copper bowls and in mazers girt and
+lipped with gold.
+
+But when they were full of meat, and had drunken somewhat, they fell
+to speech, and Iron-face spake aloud to his son, who had but been
+speaking softly to the Bride as one playmate to the other:  but the
+Alderman said:  'Scarce are the wood-deer grown, kinsman, when I must
+needs eat sheep's flesh on a Thursday, though my son has lain abroad
+in the woods all night to hunt for me.'
+
+And therewith he smiled in the young man's face; but Gold-mane
+reddened and said:  'So is it, kinsman, I can hit what I can see; but
+not what is hidden.'
+
+Iron-face laughed and said:  'Hast thou been to the Woodland-Carles?
+are their women fairer than our cousins?'
+
+Face-of-god took up the Bride's hand in his and kissed it and laid it
+to his cheek; and then turned to his father and said:  'Nay, father,
+I saw not the Wood-carles, nor went to their abode; and on no day do
+I lust after their women.  Moreover, I brought home a roebuck of the
+fattest; but I was over-late for Kettel, and the flesh was ready for
+the board by then I came.'
+
+'Well, son,' quoth Iron-face, for he was merry, 'a roebuck is but a
+little deer for such big men as are thou and I.  But I rede thee take
+the Bride along with thee the next time; and she shall seek whilest
+thou sleepest, and hit when thou missest.'
+
+Then Face-of-god smiled, but he frowned somewhat also, and he said:
+'Well were that, indeed!  But if ye must needs drag a true tale out
+of me:  that roebuck I shot at the very edge of the wood nigh to the
+Mote-stead as I was coming home:  harts had I seen in the wood and
+its lawns, and boars, and bucks, and loosed not at them:  for indeed
+when I awoke in the morning in that wood-lawn ye wot of, I wandered
+up and down with my bow unbent.  So it was that I fared as if I were
+seeking something, I know not what, that should fill up something
+lacking to me, I know not what.  Thus I felt in myself even so long
+as I was underneath the black boughs, and there was none beside me
+and before me, and none to turn aback to:  but when I came out again
+into the sunshine, and I saw the fair dale, and the happy abode lying
+before me, and folk abroad in the meads merry in the eventide; then
+was I full fain of it, and loathed the wood as an empty thing that
+had nought to give me; and lo you! all that I had been longing for in
+the wood, was it not in this House and ready to my hand?--and that is
+good meseemeth.'
+
+Therewith he drank of the cup which the Bride put into his hand after
+she had kissed the rim, but when he had set it down again he spake
+once more:
+
+'And yet now I am sitting honoured and well-beloved in the House of
+my Fathers, with the holy hearth sparkling and gleaming down there
+before me; and she that shall bear my children sitting soft and kind
+by my side, and the bold lads I shall one day lead in battle drinking
+out of my very cup:  now it seems to me that amidst all this, the
+dark cold wood, wherein abide but the beasts and the Foes of the
+Gods, is bidding me to it and drawing me thither.  Narrow is the Dale
+and the World is wide; I would it were dawn and daylight, that I
+might be afoot again.'
+
+And he half rose up from his place.  But his father bent his brow on
+him and said:  'Kinsman, thou hast a long tongue for a half-trained
+whelp:  nor see I whitherward thy mind is wandering, but if it be on
+the road of a lad's desire to go further and fare worse.  Hearken
+then, I will offer thee somewhat!  Soon shall the West-country
+merchants be here with their winter truck.  How sayest thou? hast
+thou a mind to fare back with them, and look on the Plain and its
+Cities, and take and give with the strangers?  To whom indeed thou
+shalt be nothing save a purse with a few lumps of gold in it, or
+maybe a spear in the stranger's band on the stricken field, or a bow
+on the wall of an alien city.  This is a craft which thou mayst well
+learn, since thou shalt be a chieftain; a craft good to learn,
+however grievous it be in the learning.  And I myself have been
+there; for in my youth I desired sore to look on the world beyond the
+mountains; so I went, and I filled my belly with the fruit of my own
+desires, and a bitter meat was that; but now that it has passed
+through me, and I yet alive, belike I am more of a grown man for
+having endured its gripe.  Even so may it well be with thee, son; so
+go if thou wilt; and thou shalt go with my blessing, and with gold
+and wares and wain and spearmen.'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'I thank thee, for it is well offered; but I
+will not go, for I have no lust for the Plain and its Cities; I love
+the Dale well, and all that is round about it; therein will I live
+and die.'
+
+Therewith he fell a-musing; and the Bride looked at him anxiously,
+but spake not.  Sooth to say her heart was sinking, as though she
+foreboded some new thing, which should thrust itself into their merry
+life.
+
+But the old man Stone-face took up the word and said:
+
+'Son Gold-mane, it behoveth me to speak, since belike I know the
+wild-wood better than most, and have done for these three-score and
+ten years; to my cost.  Now I perceive that thou longest for the wood
+and the innermost of it; and wot ye what?  This longing will at
+whiles entangle the sons of our chieftains, though this Alderman that
+now is hath been free therefrom, which is well for him.  For, time
+was this longing came over me, and I went whither it led me:
+overlong it were to tell of all that befell me because of it, and how
+my heart bled thereby.  So sorry were the tidings that came of it,
+that now meseemeth my heart should be of stone and not my face, had
+it not been for the love wherewith I have loved the sons of the
+kindred.  Therefore, son, it were not ill if ye went west away with
+the merchants this winter, and learned the dealings of the cities,
+and brought us back tales thereof.'
+
+But Gold-mane cried out somewhat angrily, 'I tell thee, foster-
+father, that I have no mind for the cities and their men and their
+fools and their whores and their runagates.  But as for the wood and
+its wonders, I have done with it, save for hunting there along with
+others of the Folk.  So let thy mind be at ease; and for the rest, I
+will do what the Alderman commandeth, and whatso my father craveth of
+me.'
+
+'And that is well, son,' said Stone-face, 'if what ye say come to
+pass, as sore I misdoubt me it will not.  But well it were, well it
+were!  For such things are in the wood, yea and before ye come to its
+innermost, as may well try the stoutest heart.  Therein are Kobbolds,
+and Wights that love not men, things unto whom the grief of men is as
+the sound of the fiddle-bow unto us.  And there abide the ghosts of
+those that may not rest; and there wander the dwarfs and the
+mountain-dwellers, the dealers in marvels, the givers of gifts that
+destroy Houses; the forgers of the curse that clingeth and the murder
+that flitteth to and fro.  There moreover are the lairs of Wights in
+the shapes of women, that draw a young man's heart out of his body,
+and fill up the empty place with desire never to be satisfied, that
+they may mock him therewith and waste his manhood and destroy him.
+Nor say I much of the strong-thieves that dwell there, since thou art
+a valiant sword; or of them who have been made Wolves of the Holy
+Places; or of the Murder-Carles, the remnants and off-scourings of
+wicked and wretched Folks--men who think as much of the life of a man
+as of the life of a fly.  Yet happiest is the man whom they shall
+tear in pieces, than he who shall live burdened by the curse of the
+Foes of the Gods.'
+
+The housemaster looked on his son as the old carle spake, and a cloud
+gathered on his face a while; and when Stone-face had made an end he
+spake:
+
+'This is long and evil talk for the end of a merry day, O fosterer!
+Wilt thou not drink a draught, O Redesman, and then stand up and set
+thy fiddle-bow a-dancing, and cause it draw some fair words after it?
+For my cousin's face hath grown sadder than a young maid's should be,
+and my son's eyes gleam with thoughts that are far away from us and
+abroad in the wild-wood seeking marvels.'
+
+Then arose a man of middle-age from the top of the endlong bench on
+the east side of the hall:  a man tall, thin and scant-haired, with a
+nose like an eagle's neb:  he reached out his hand for the bowl, and
+when they had given to him he handled it, and raised it aloft and
+cried:
+
+'Here I drink a double health to Face-of-god and the Bride, and the
+love that lieth between them, and the love betwixt them twain and
+us.'
+
+He drank therewith, and the wine went up and down the hall, and all
+men drank, both carles and queens, with shouting and great joy.  Then
+Redesman put down the cup (for it had come into his hands again), and
+reached his hand to the wall behind him, and took down his fiddle
+hanging there in its case, and drew it out and fell to tuning it,
+while the hall grew silent to hearken:  then he handled the bow and
+laid it on the strings till they wailed and chuckled sweetly, and
+when the song was well awake and stirring briskly, then he lifted up
+his voice and sang:
+
+
+The Minstrel saith:
+
+'O why on this morning, ye maids, are ye tripping
+   Aloof from the meadows yet fresh with the dew,
+Where under the west wind the river is lipping
+   The fragrance of mint, the white blooms and the blue?
+
+For rough is the Portway where panting ye wander;
+   On your feet and your gown-hems the dust lieth dun;
+Come trip through the grass and the meadow-sweet yonder,
+   And forget neath the willows the sword of the sun.
+
+The Maidens answer:
+
+Though fair are the moon-daisies down by the river,
+   And soft is the grass and the white clover sweet;
+Though twixt us and the rock-wall the hot glare doth quiver,
+   And the dust of the wheel-way is dun on our feet;
+
+Yet here on the way shall we walk on this morning
+   Though the sun burneth here, and sweet, cool is the mead;
+For here when in old days the Burg gave its warning,
+   Stood stark under weapons the doughty of deed.
+
+Here came on the aliens their proud words a-crying,
+   And here on our threshold they stumbled and fell;
+Here silent at even the steel-clad were lying,
+   And here were our mothers the story to tell.
+
+Here then on the morn of the eve of the wedding
+   We pray to the Mighty that we too may bear
+Such war-walls for warding of orchard and steading,
+   That the new days be merry as old days were dear.'
+
+
+Therewith he made an end, and shouts and glad cries arose all about
+the hall; and an old man arose and cried:  'A cup to the memory of
+the Mighty of the Day of the Warding of the Ways.'  For you must know
+this song told of a custom of the Folk, held in memory of a time of
+bygone battle, wherein they had overthrown a great host of aliens on
+the Portway betwixt the river and the cliffs, two furlongs from the
+gate of Burgstead.  So now two weeks before Midsummer those maidens
+who were presently to be wedded went early in the morning to that
+place clad in very fair raiment, swords girt to their sides and
+spears in their hands, and abode there on the highway from morn till
+even as though they were a guard to it.  And they made merry there,
+singing songs and telling tales of times past:  and at the sunsetting
+their grooms came to fetch them away to the Feast of the Eve of the
+Wedding.
+
+While the song was a-singing Face-of-god took the Bride's hand in his
+and caressed it, and was soft and blithe with her; and she reddened
+and trembled for pleasure, and called to mind wedding feasts that had
+been, and fair brides that she had seen thereat, and she forgot her
+fears and her heart was at peace again.
+
+And Iron-face looked well-pleased on the two from time to time, and
+smiled, but forbore words to them.
+
+But up and down the hall men talked with one another about things
+long ago betid:  for their hearts were high and they desired deeds;
+but in that fair Dale so happy were the years from day to day that
+there was but little to tell of.  So deepened the night and waned,
+and Gold-mane and the Bride still talked sweetly together, and at
+whiles kindly to the others; and by seeming he had clean forgotten
+the wood and its wonders.
+
+Then at last the Alderman called for the cup of good-night, and men
+drank thereof and went their ways to bed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  FACE-OF-GOD FARETH TO THE WOOD AGAIN
+
+
+
+When it was the earliest morning and dawn was but just beginning,
+Face-of-god awoke and rose up from his bed, and came forth into the
+hall naked in his shirt, and stood by the hearth, wherein the piled-
+up embers were yet red, and looked about and could see nothing
+stirring in the dimness:  then he fetched water and washed the night-
+tide off him, and clad himself in haste, and was even as he was
+yesterday, save that he left his bow and quiver in their place and
+took instead a short casting-spear; moreover he took a leathern scrip
+and went therewith to the buttery, and set therein bread and flesh
+and a little gilded beaker; and all this he did with but little
+noise; for he would not be questioned, lest he should have to answer
+himself as well as others.
+
+Thus he went quietly out of doors, for the door was but latched,
+since no bolts or bars or locks were used in Burgstead, and through
+the town-gate, which stood open, save when rumours of war were about.
+He turned his face straight towards Wildlake's Way, walking briskly,
+but at whiles looking back over his shoulder toward the East to note
+what way was made by the dawning, and how the sky lightened above the
+mountain passes.
+
+By then he was come to the place where the Maiden Ward was held in
+the summer the dawn was so far forward that all things had their due
+colours, and were clear to see in the shadowless day.  It was a
+bright morning, with an easterly air stirring that drave away the
+haze and dried the meadows, which had otherwise been rimy; for it was
+cold.  Gold-mane lingered on the place a little, and his eyes fell on
+the road, as dusty yet as in Redesman's song; for the autumn had been
+very dry, and the strip of green that edged the outside of the way
+was worn and dusty also.  On the edge of it, half in the dusty road,
+half on the worn grass, was a long twine of briony red-berried and
+black-leaved; and right in the midst of the road were two twigs of
+great-leaved sturdy pollard oak, as though they had been thrown aside
+there yesterday by women or children a-sporting; and the deep white
+dust yet held the marks of feet, some bare, some shod, crossing each
+other here and there.  Face-of-god smiled as he passed on, as a man
+with a happy thought; for his mind showed him a picture of the Bride
+as she would be leading the Maiden Ward next summer, and singing
+first among the singers, and he saw her as clearly as he had often
+seen her verily, and before him was the fashion of her hands and all
+her body, and the little mark on her right wrist, and the place where
+her arm whitened, because the sleeve guarded it against the sun,
+which had long been pleasant unto him, and the little hollow in her
+chin, and the lock of red-brown hair waving in the wind above her
+brow, and shining in the sun as brightly as the Alderman's cunningest
+work of golden wire.  Soft and sweet seemed that picture, till he
+almost seemed to hear her sweet voice calling to him, and desire of
+her so took hold of the youth, that it stirred him up to go swiftlier
+as he strode on, the day brightening behind him.
+
+Now was it nigh sunrise, and he began to meet folk on the way, though
+not many; since for most their way lay afield, and not towards the
+Burg.  The first was a Woodlander, tall and gaunt, striding beside
+his ass, whose panniers were laden with charcoal.  The carle's
+daughter, a little maiden of seven winters, riding on the ass's back
+betwixt the panniers, and prattling to herself in the cold morning;
+for she was pleased with the clear light in the east, and the smooth
+wide turf of the meadows, as one who had not often been far from the
+shadow of the heavy trees of the wood, and their dark wall round
+about the clearing where they dwelt.  Face-of-god gave the twain the
+sele of the day in merry fashion as he passed them by, and the sober
+dark-faced man nodded to him but spake no word, and the child stayed
+her prattle to watch him as he went by.
+
+Then came the sound of the rattle of wheels, and, as he doubled an
+angle of the rock-wall, he came upon a wain drawn by four dun kine,
+wherein lay a young woman all muffled up against the cold with furs
+and cloths; beside the yoke-beasts went her man, a well-knit trim-
+faced Dalesman clad bravely in holiday raiment, girt with a goodly
+sword, bearing a bright steel helm on his head, in his hand a long
+spear with a gay red and white shaft done about with copper bands.
+He looked merry and proud of his wain-load, and the woman was smiling
+kindly on him from out of her scarlet and fur; but now she turned a
+weary happy face on Gold-mane, for they knew him, as did all men of
+the Dale.
+
+So he stopped when they met, for the goodman had already stayed his
+slow beasts, and the goodwife had risen a little on her cushions to
+greet him, yet slowly and but a little, for she was great with child,
+and not far from her time.  That knew Gold-mane well, and what was
+toward, and why the goodman wore his fine clothes, and why the wain
+was decked with oak-boughs and the yoke-beasts with their best gilded
+bells and copper-adorned harness.  For it was a custom with many of
+the kindreds that the goodwife should fare to her father's house to
+lie in with her first babe, and the day of her coming home was made a
+great feast in the house.  So then Face-of-god cried out:  'Hail to
+thee, O Warcliff!  Shrewd is the wind this morning, and thou dost
+well to heed it carefully, this thine orchard, this thy garden, this
+thy fair apple-tree!  To a good hall thou wendest, and the Wine of
+Increase shall be sweet there this even.'
+
+Then smiled Warcliff all across his face, and the goodwife hung her
+head and reddened.  Said the goodman:  'Wilt thou not be with us, son
+of the Alderman, as surely thy father shall be?'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'though I were fain of it:  my own matters
+carry me away.'
+
+'What matters?' said Warcliff; 'perchance thou art for the cities
+this autumn?'
+
+Face-of-god answered somewhat stiffly:  'Nay, I am not;' and then
+more kindly, and smiling, 'All roads lead not down to the Plain,
+friend.'
+
+'What road then farest thou away from us?' said the goodwife.
+
+'The way of my will,' he answered.
+
+'And what way is that?' said she; 'take heed, lest I get a longing to
+know.  For then must thou needs tell me, or deal with the carle there
+beside thee.'
+
+'Nay, goodwife,' said Face-of-god, 'let not that longing take thee;
+for on that matter I am even as wise as thou.  Now good speed to thee
+and to the new-comer!'
+
+Therewith he went close up to the wain, and reached out his hand to
+her, and she gave him hers and he kissed it, and so went his ways
+smiling kindly on them.  Then the carle cried to his kine, and they
+bent down their heads to the yoke; and presently, as he walked on, he
+heard the rumble of the wain mingling with the tinkling of their
+bells, which in a little while became measured and musical, and
+sounded above the creaking of the axles and the rattle of the gear
+and the roll of the great wheels over the road:  and so it grew
+thinner and thinner till it all died away behind him.
+
+He was now come to where the river turned away from the sheer rock-
+wall, which was not so high there as in most other places, as there
+had been in old time long screes from the cliff, which had now grown
+together, with the waxing of herbs and the washing down of the earth
+on to them, and made a steady slope or low hill going down riverward.
+Over this the road lifted itself above the level of the meadows,
+keeping a little way from the cliffs, while on the other side its
+bank was somewhat broken and steep here and there.  As Face-of-god
+came up to one of these broken places, the sun rose over the eastern
+pass, and the meadows grew golden with its long beams.  He lingered,
+and looked back under his hand, and as he did so heard the voices and
+laughter of women coming up from the slope below him, and presently a
+young woman came struggling up the broken bank with hand and knee,
+and cast herself down on the roadside turf laughing and panting.  She
+was a long-limbed light-made woman, dark-faced and black-haired:
+amidst her laughter she looked up and saw Gold-mane, who had stopped
+at once when he saw her; she held out her hands to him, and said
+lightly, though her face flushed withal:
+
+'Come hither, thou, and help the others to climb the bank; for they
+are beaten in the race, and now must they do after my will; that was
+the forfeit.'
+
+He went up to her, and took her hands and kissed them, as was the
+custom of the Dale, and said:
+
+'Hail to thee, Long-coat! who be they, and whither away this morning
+early?'
+
+She looked hard at him, and fondly belike, as she answered slowly:
+'They be the two maidens of my father's house, whom thou knowest; and
+our errand, all three of us, is to Burgstead, the Feast of the Wine
+of Increase which shall be drunk this even.'
+
+As she spake came another woman half up the bank, to whom went Face-
+of-god, and, taking her hands, drew her up while she laughed merrily
+in his face:  he saluted her as he had Long-coat, and then with a
+laugh turned about to wait for the third; who came indeed, but after
+a little while, for she had abided, hearing their voices.  Her also
+Gold-mane drew up, and kissed her hands, and she lay on the grass by
+Long-coat, but the second maiden stood up beside the young man.  She
+was white-skinned and golden-haired, a very fair damsel, whereas the
+last-comer was but comely, as were well-nigh all the women of the
+Dale.
+
+Said Face-of-god, looking on the three:  'How comes it, maidens, that
+ye are but in your kirtles this sharp autumn morning? or where have
+ye left your gowns or your cloaks?'
+
+For indeed they were clad but in close-fitting blue kirtles of fine
+wool, embroidered about the hems with gold and coloured threads.
+
+The last-comer laughed and said:  'What ails thee, Gold-mane, to be
+so careful of us, as if thou wert our mother or our nurse?  Yet if
+thou must needs know, there hang our gowns on the thorn-bush down
+yonder; for we have been running a match and a forfeit; to wit, that
+she who was last on the highway should go down again and bring them
+up all three; and now that is my day's work:  but since thou art
+here, Alderman's son, thou shalt go down instead of me and fetch them
+up.'
+
+But he laughed merrily and outright, and said:  'That will I not, for
+there be but twenty-four hours in the day, and what between eating
+and drinking and talking to fair maidens, I have enough to do in
+every one of them.  Wasteful are ye women, and simple is your
+forfeit.  Now will I, who am the Alderman's son, give forth a doom,
+and will ordain that one of you fetch up the gowns yourselves, and
+that Long-coat be the one; for she is the fleetest-footed and ablest
+thereto.  Will ye take my doom? for later on I shall not be wiser.'
+
+'Yea,' said the fair woman, 'not because thou art the Alderman's son,
+but because thou art the fairest man of the Dale, and mayst bid us
+poor souls what thou wilt.'
+
+Face-of-god reddened at her words, and the speaker and the last-comer
+laughed; but Long-coat held her peace:  she cast one very sober look
+on him, and then ran lightly down the bent; he drew near the edge of
+it, and watched her going; for her light-foot slimness was fair to
+look on:  and he noted that when she was nigh the thorn-bush whereon
+hung the bright-broidered gowns, and deemed belike that she was not
+seen, she kissed both her hands where he had kissed them erst.
+
+Thereat he drew aback and turned away shyly, scarce looking at the
+other twain, who smiled on him with somewhat jeering looks; but he
+bade them farewell and departed speedily; and if they spoke, it was
+but softly, for he heard their voices no more.
+
+He went on under the sunlight which was now gilding the outstanding
+stones of the cliffs, and still his mind was set upon the Bride; and
+his meeting with the mother of the yet unborn baby, and with the
+three women with their freshness and fairness, did somehow turn his
+thought the more upon her, since she was the woman who was to be his
+amongst all women, for she was far fairer than any one of them; and
+through all manner of life and through all kinds of deeds would he be
+with her, and know more of her fairness and kindness than any other
+could:  and him-seemed he could see pictures of her and of him amidst
+all these deeds and ways.
+
+Now he went very swiftly; for he was eager, though he knew not for
+what, and he thought but little of the things on which his eyes fell.
+He met none else on the road till he was come to Wildlake's Way,
+though he saw folk enough down in the meadows; he was soon amidst the
+first of the trees, and without making any stay set his face east and
+somewhat north, that is, toward the slopes that led to the great
+mountains.  He said to himself aloud, as he wended the wood:
+'Strange! yestereven I thought much of the wood, and I set my mind on
+not going thither, and this morning I thought nothing of it, and here
+am I amidst its trees, and wending towards its innermost.'
+
+His way was easy at first, because the wood for a little space was
+all of beech, so that there was no undergrowth, and he went lightly
+betwixt the tall grey and smooth boles; albeit his heart was nought
+so gay as it was in the dale amidst the sunshine.  After a while the
+beech-wood grew thinner, and at last gave out altogether, and he came
+into a space of rough broken ground with nought but a few scrubby
+oaks and thorn-bushes growing thereon here and there.  The sun was
+high in the heavens now, and shone brightly down on the waste, though
+there were a few white clouds high up above him.  The rabbits
+scuttled out of the grass before him; here and there he turned aside
+from a stone on which lay coiled an adder sunning itself; now and
+again both hart and hind bounded away from before him, or a sounder
+of wild swine ran grunting away toward closer covert.  But nought did
+he see but the common sights and sounds of the woodland; nor did he
+look for aught else, for he knew this part of the woodland
+indifferent well.
+
+He held on over this treeless waste for an hour or more, when the
+ground began to be less rugged, and he came upon trees again, but
+thinly scattered, oak and ash and hornbeam not right great, with
+thickets of holly and blackthorn between them.  The set of the ground
+was still steadily up to the east and north-east, and he followed it
+as one who wendeth an assured way.  At last before him seemed to rise
+a wall of trees and thicket; but when he drew near to it, lo! an
+opening in a certain place, and a little path as if men were wont to
+thread the tangle of the wood thereby; though hitherto he had noted
+no slot of men, nor any sign of them, since he had plunged into the
+deep of the beech-wood.  He took the path as one who needs must, and
+went his ways as it led.  In sooth it was well-nigh blind, but he was
+a deft woodsman, and by means of it skirted many a close thicket that
+had otherwise stayed him.  So on he went, and though the boughs were
+close enough overhead, and the sun came through but in flecks, he
+judged that it was growing towards noon, and he wotted well that he
+was growing aweary.  For he had been long afoot, and the more part of
+the time on a rough way, or breasting a slope which was at whiles
+steep enough.
+
+At last the track led him skirting about an exceeding close thicket
+into a small clearing, through which ran a little woodland rill
+amidst rushes and dead leaves:  there was a low mound near the
+eastern side of this wood-lawn, as though there had been once a
+dwelling of man there, but no other sign or slot of man was there.
+
+So Face-of-god made stay in that place, casting himself down beside
+the rill to rest him and eat and drink somewhat.  Whatever thoughts
+had been with him through the wood (and they been many) concerning
+his House and his name, and his father, and the journey he might make
+to the cities of the Westland, and what was to befall him when he was
+wedded, and what war or trouble should be on his hands--all this was
+now mingled together and confused by this rest amidst his weariness.
+He laid down his scrip, and drew his meat from it and ate what he
+would, and dipping his gilded beaker into the brook, drank water
+smacking of the damp musty savour of the woodland; and then his head
+sank back on a little mound in the short turf, and he fell asleep at
+once.  A long dream he had in short space; and therein were blent his
+thoughts of the morning with the deeds of yesterday; and other
+matters long forgotten in his waking hours came back to his slumber
+in unordered confusion:  all which made up for him pictures clear,
+but of little meaning, save that, as oft befalls in dreams, whatever
+he was a-doing he felt himself belated.
+
+When he awoke, smiling at something strange in his gone-by dream, he
+looked up to the heavens, thinking to see signs of the even at hand,
+for he seemed to have been dreaming so long.  The sky was thinly
+overcast by now, but by his wonted woodcraft he knew the whereabouts
+of the sun, and that it was scant an hour after noon.  He sat there
+till he was wholly awake, and then drank once more of the woodland
+water; and he said to himself, but out loud, for he was fain of the
+sound of a man's voice, though it were but his own:
+
+'What is mine errand hither?  Whither wend I?  What shall I have done
+to-morrow that I have hitherto left undone?  Or what manner of man
+shall I be then other than I am now?'
+
+Yet though he said the words he failed to think the thought, or it
+left him in a moment of time, and he thought but of the Bride and her
+kindness.  Yet that abode with him but a moment, and again he saw
+himself and those two women on the highway edge, and Long-coat
+lingering on the slope below, kissing his kisses on her hands; and he
+was sorry that she desired him over-much, for she was a fair woman
+and a friendly.  But all that also flowed from him at once, and he
+had no thought in him but that he also desired something that he
+lacked:  and this was a burden to him, and he rose up frowning, and
+said to himself, 'Am I become a mere sport of dreams, whether I sleep
+or wake?  I will go backward--or forward, but will think no more.'
+
+Then he ordered his gear again, and took the path onward and upward
+toward the Great Mountains; and the track was even fainter than
+before for a while, so that he had to seek his way diligently.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  FACE-OF-GOD FALLS IN WITH MENFOLK ON THE MOUNTAIN
+
+
+
+Now he plodded on steadily, and for a long time the forest changed
+but little, and of wild things he saw only a few of those that love
+the closest covert.  The ground still went up and up, though at
+whiles were hollows, and steeper bents out of them again, and the
+half-blind path or slot still led past the close thickets and fallen
+trees, and he made way without let or hindrance.  At last once more
+the wood began to thin, and the trees themselves to be smaller and
+gnarled and ill-grown:  therewithal the day was waning, and the sky
+was quite clear again as the afternoon grew into a fair autumn
+evening.
+
+Now the trees failed altogether, and the slope grown steeper was
+covered with heather and ling; and looking up, he saw before him
+quite near by seeming in the clear even (though indeed they were yet
+far away) the snowy peaks flushed with the sinking sun against the
+frosty dark-grey eastern sky; and below them the dark rock-mountains,
+and below these again, and nigh to him indeed, the fells covered with
+pine-woods and looking like a wall to the heaths he trod.
+
+He stayed a little while and turned his head to look at the way
+whereby he had come; but that way a swell of the oak-forest hid
+everything but the wood itself, making a wall behind him as the pine-
+wood made a wall before.  There came across him then a sharp memory
+of the boding words which Stone-face had spoken last night, and he
+felt as if he were now indeed within the trap.  But presently he
+laughed and said:  'I am a fool:  this comes of being alone in the
+dark wood and the dismal waste, after the merry faces of the Dale had
+swept away my foolish musings of yesterday and the day before.  Lo!
+here I stand, a man of the Face, sword and axe by my side; if death
+come, it can but come once; and if I fear not death, what shall make
+me afraid?  The Gods hate me not, and will not hurt me; and they are
+not ugly, but beauteous.'
+
+Therewith he strode on again, and soon came to a place where the
+ground sank into a shallow valley and the ling gave place to grass
+for a while, and there were tall old pines scattered about, and
+betwixt them grey rocks; this he passed through, climbing a steep
+bent out of it, and the pines were all about him now, though growing
+wide apart, till at last he came to where they thickened into a wood,
+not very close, wherethrough he went merrily, singing to himself and
+swinging his spear.  He was soon through this wood, and came on to a
+wide well-grassed wood-lawn, hedged by the wood aforesaid on three
+sides, but sloping up slowly toward the black wall of the thicker
+pine-wood on the fourth side, and about half a furlong overthwart and
+endlong.  The sun had set while he was in the last wood, but it was
+still broad daylight on the wood-lawn, and as he stood there he was
+ware of a house under the pine-wood on the other side, built long and
+low, much like the houses of the Woodland-Carles, but rougher
+fashioned and of unhewn trees.  He gazed on it, and said aloud to
+himself as his wont was:
+
+'Marvellous! here is a dwelling of man, scarce a day's journey from
+Burgstead; yet have I never heard tell of it:  may happen some of the
+Woodland-Carles have built it, and are on some errand of hunting
+peltries up in the mountains, or maybe are seeking copper and tin
+among the rocks.  Well, at least let us go see what manner of men
+dwell there, and if they are minded for a guest to-night; for fain
+were I of a bed beneath a roof, and of a board with strong meat and
+drink on it.'
+
+Therewith he set forward, not heeding much that the wood he had
+passed through was hard on his left hand; but he had gone but twenty
+paces when he saw a red thing at the edge of the wood, and then a
+glitter, and a spear came whistling forth, and smote his own spear so
+hard close to the steel that it flew out of his hand; then came a
+great shout, and a man clad in a scarlet kirtle ran forth on him.
+Face-of-god had his axe in his hand in a twinkling, and ran at once
+to meet his foe; but the man had the hill on his side as he rushed on
+with a short-sword in his hand.  Axe and sword clashed together for a
+moment of time, and then both the men rolled over on the grass
+together, and Face-of-god as he fell deemed that he heard the shrill
+cry of a woman.  Now Face-of-god found that he was the nethermost,
+for if he was strong, yet was his foe stronger; the axe had flown out
+of his hand also, while the strange man still kept a hold of his
+short-sword; and presently, though he still struggled all he could,
+he saw the man draw back his hand to smite with the said sword; and
+at that nick of time the foeman's knee was on his breast, his left
+hand was doubled back behind him, and his right wrist was gripped
+hard in the stranger's left hand.  Even therewith his ears, sharpened
+by the coming death, heard the sound of footsteps and fluttering
+raiment drawing near; something dark came between him and the sky;
+there was the sound of a great stroke, and the big man loosened his
+grip and fell off him to one side.
+
+Face-of-god leapt up and ran to his axe and got hold of it; but
+turning round found himself face to face with a tall woman holding in
+her hand a stout staff like the limb of a tree.  She was calm and
+smiling, though forsooth it was she who had stricken the stroke and
+stayed the sword from his throat.  His hand and axe dropped down to
+his side when he saw what it was that faced him, and that the woman
+was young and fair; so he spake to her and said:
+
+'What aileth, maiden? is this man thy foe? doth he oppress thee?
+shall I slay him?'
+
+She laughed and said:  'Thou art open-handed in thy proffers:  he
+might have asked the like concerning thee but a minute ago.'
+
+'Yea, yea,' said Gold-mane, laughing also, 'but he asked it not of
+thee.'
+
+'That is sooth,' she said, 'but since thou hast asked me, I will tell
+thee that if thou slay him it will be my harm as well as his; and in
+my country a man that taketh a gift is not wont to break the giver's
+head with it straightway.  The man is my brother, O stranger, and
+presently, if thou wilt, thou mayst be eating at the same board with
+him.  Or if thou wilt, thou mayst go thy ways unhurt into the wood.
+But I had liefer of the twain that thou wert in our house to-night;
+for thou hast a wrong against us.'
+
+Her voice was sweet and clear, and she spake the last words kindly,
+and drew somewhat nigher to Gold-mane.  Therewithal the smitten man
+sat up, and put his hand to his head, and quoth he:
+
+'Angry is my sister! good it is to wear the helm abroad when she
+shaketh the nut-trees.'
+
+' Nay,' said she, 'it is thy luck that thou wert bare-headed, else
+had I been forced to smite thee on the face.  Thou churl, since when
+hath it been our wont to thrust knives into a guest, who is come of
+great kin, a man of gentle heart and fair face?  Come hither and
+handsel him self-doom for thy fool's onset!'
+
+The man rose to his feet and said:  'Well, sister, least said,
+soonest mended.  A clout on the head is worse than a woman's chiding;
+but since ye have given me one, ye may forbear the other.'
+
+Therewith he drew near to them.  He was a very big-made man, most
+stalwarth, with dark red hair and a thin pointed beard; his nose was
+straight and fine, his eyes grey and well-opened, but somewhat fierce
+withal.  Yet was he in nowise evil-looking; he seemed some thirty
+summers old.  He was clad in a short scarlet kirtle, a goodly
+garment, with a hood of like web pulled off his head on to his
+shoulders:  he bore a great gold ring on his left arm, and a collar
+of gold came down on to his breast from under his hood.
+
+As for the woman, she was clad in a long white linen smock, and over
+it a short gown of dark blue woollen, and she had skin shoes on her
+feet.
+
+Now the man came up to Face-of-god, and took his hand and said:  'I
+deemed thee a foe, and I may not have over-many foes alive:  but it
+seems that thou art to be a friend, and that is well and better; so
+herewith I handsel thee self-doom in the matter of the onslaught.'
+
+Then Face-of-god laughed and said:  'The doom is soon given forth;
+against the tumble on the grass I set the clout on the head; there is
+nought left over to pay to any man's son.'
+
+Said the scarlet-clad man:  'Belike by thine eyes thou art a true
+man, and wilt not bewray me.  Now is there no foeman here, but rather
+maybe a friend both now and in time to come.'  Therewith he cast his
+arms about Face-of-god and kissed him.  But Face-of-god turned about
+to the woman and said:  'Is the peace wholly made?'
+
+She shook her head and said soberly:  'Nay, thou art too fair for a
+woman to kiss.'
+
+He flushed red, as his wont was when a woman praised him; yet was his
+heart full of pleasure and well-liking.  But she laid her hand on his
+shoulder and said:  'Now is it for thee to choose betwixt the wild-
+wood and the hall, and whether thou wilt be a guest or a wayfarer
+this night.'
+
+As she touched him there took hold of him a sweetness of pleasure he
+had never felt erst, and he answered:  'I will be thy guest and not
+thy stranger.'
+
+'Come then,' she said, and took his hand in hers, so that he scarce
+felt the earth under his feet, as they went all three together toward
+the house in the gathering dusk, while eastward where the peaks of
+the great mountains dipped was a light that told of the rising of the
+moon.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.  OF FACE-OF-GOD AND THOSE MOUNTAIN-DWELLERS
+
+
+
+A yard or two from the threshold Gold-mane hung back a moment,
+entangled in some such misgiving as a man is wont to feel when he is
+just about to do some new deed, but is not yet deep in the story; his
+new friends noted that, for they smiled each in their own way, and
+the woman drew her hand away from his.  Face-of-god held out his
+still as though to take hers again, and therewithal he changed
+countenance and said as though he had stayed but to ask that
+question:
+
+'Tell me thy name, tall man; and thou, fair woman, tell me thine; for
+how can we talk together else?'
+
+The man laughed outright and said:  'The young chieftain thinks that
+this house also should be his!  Nay, young man, I know what is in thy
+thought, be not ashamed that thou art wary; and be assured!  We shall
+hurt thee no more than thou hast been hurt.  Now as to my name; the
+name that was born with me is gone:  the name that was given me hath
+been taken from me:  now I belike must give myself a name, and that
+shall be Wild-wearer; but it may be that thou thyself shalt one day
+give me another, and call me Guest.'
+
+His sister gazed at him solemnly as he spoke, and Face-of-god
+beholding her the while, deemed that her beauty grew and grew till
+she seemed as aweful as a Goddess; and into his mind it came that
+this over-strong man and over-lovely woman were nought mortal, and
+they withal dealing with him as father and mother deal with a wayward
+child:  then for a moment his heart failed him, and he longed for the
+peace of Burgdale, and even the lonely wood.  But therewith she
+turned to him and let her hand come into his again, and looked kindly
+on him and said:  'And as for me, call me the Friend; the name is
+good and will serve for many things.'
+
+He looked down from her face and his eyes lighted on her hand, and
+when he noted even amid the evening dusk how fair and lovely it was
+fashioned, and yet as though it were deft in the crafts that the
+daughters of menfolk use, his fear departed, and the pleasure of his
+longing filled his heart, and he drew her hand to him to kiss it; but
+she held it back.  Then he said:  'It is the custom of the Dale to
+all women.'
+
+So she let him kiss her hand, heeding the kiss nothing, and said
+soberly:
+
+'Then art thou of Burgdale, and if it were lawful to guess, I would
+say that thy name is Face-of-god, of the House of the Face.'
+
+'Even so it is,' said he, 'but in the Dale those that love me do
+mostly call me Gold-mane.'
+
+'It is well named,' she said, 'and seldom wilt thou be called
+otherwise, for thou wilt be well-beloved.  But come in now, Gold-
+mane, for night is at hand, and here have we meat and lodging such as
+an hungry and weary man may take; though we be broken people,
+dwellers in the waste.'
+
+Therewith she led him gently over the threshold into the hall, and it
+seemed to him as if she were the fairest and the noblest of all the
+Queens of ancient story.
+
+When he was in the house he looked and saw that, rough as it was
+without it lacked not fairness within.  The floor was of hard-trodden
+earth strewn with pine-twigs, and with here and there brown bearskins
+laid on it:  there was a standing table near the upper end athwart
+the hall, and a days beyond that, but no endlong table.  Gold-mane
+looked to the shut-beds, and saw that they were large and fair,
+though there were but a few of them; and at the lower end was a loft
+for a sleeping chamber dight very fairly with broidered cloths.  The
+hangings on the walls, though they left some places bare which were
+hung with fresh boughs, were fairer than any he had ever seen, so
+that he deemed that they must come from far countries and the City of
+Cities:  therein were images wrought of warriors and fair women of
+old time and their dealings with the Gods and the Giants, and
+Wondrous wights; and he deemed that this was the story of some great
+kindred, and that their token and the sign of their banner must needs
+be the Wood-wolf, for everywhere was it wrought in these pictured
+webs.  Perforce he looked long and earnestly at these fair things,
+for the hall was not dark yet, because the brands on the hearth were
+flaming their last, and when Wild-wearer beheld him so gazing, he
+stood up and looked too for a moment, and then smote his right hand
+on the hilt of his sword, and turned away and strode up and down the
+hall as one in angry thought.
+
+But the woman, even the Friend, bestirred herself for the service of
+the guest, and brought water for his hands and feet, and when she had
+washed him, bore him the wine of Welcome and drank to him and bade
+him drink; and he all the while was shamefaced; for it was to him as
+if one of the Ladies of the Heavenly Burg were doing him service.
+Then she went away by a door at the lower end of the hall, and Wild-
+wearer came and sat down by Gold-mane, and fell a-talking with him
+about the ways of the Dalesmen, and their garths, and the pastures
+and growths thereof; and what temper the carles themselves were of;
+which were good men, which were ill, which was loved and which
+scorned; no otherwise than if he had been the goodman of some
+neighbouring dale; and Gold-mane told him whatso he knew, for he saw
+no harm therein.
+
+After a while the outer door opened, and there came in a woman of
+some five-and-twenty winters, trimly and strongly built; short-
+skirted she was and clad as a hunter, with a bow in her hand and a
+quiver at her back:  she unslung a pouch, which she emptied at Wild-
+wearer's feet of a leash of hares and two brace of mountain grouse;
+of Face-of-god she took but little heed.
+
+Said Wild-wearer:  'This is good for to-morrow, not for to-day; the
+meat is well-nigh on the board.'
+
+Then Gold-mane smiled, for he called to mind his home-coming of
+yesterday.  But the woman said:
+
+'The fault is not mine; she told me of the coming guest but three
+hours agone.'
+
+'Ay?' said Wild-wearer, 'she looked for a guest then?'
+
+'Yea, certes,' said the woman, 'else why went I forth this afternoon,
+as wearied as I was with yesterday?'
+
+'Well, well,' said Wild-wearer, 'get to thy due work or go play; I
+meddle not with meat! and for thee all jests are as bitter earnest.'
+
+'And with thee, chief,' she said, 'it is no otherwise; surely I am
+made on thy model.'
+
+'Thy tongue is longer, friend,' said he; 'now tarry if thou wilt, and
+if the supper's service craveth thee not.'
+
+She turned away with one keen look at Face-of-god, and departed
+through the door at the lower end of the hall.
+
+By this time the hall was dusk, for there were no candles there, and
+the hearth-fire was but smouldering.  Wild-wearer sat silent and
+musing now, and Face-of-god spake not, for he was deep in wild and
+happy dreams.  At last the lower door opened and the fair woman came
+into the hall with a torch in either hand, after whom came the
+huntress, now clad in a dark blue kirtle, and an old woman yet
+straight and hale; and these twain bore in the victuals and the
+table-gear.  Then the three fell to dighting the board, and when it
+was all ready, and Gold-mane and Wild-wearer were set down to it, and
+with them the fair woman and the huntress, the old woman threw good
+store of fresh brands on the hearth, so that the light shone into
+every corner; and even therewith the outer door opened, and four more
+men entered, whereof one was old, but big and stalwarth, the other
+three young:  they were all clad roughly in sheep-brown weed, but had
+helms upon their heads and spears in their hands and great swords
+girt to their sides; and they seemed doughty men and ready for
+battle.  One of the young men cast down by the door the carcass of a
+big-horned mountain sheep, and then they all trooped off to the out-
+bower by the lower door, and came back presently fairly clad and
+without their weapons.  Wild-wearer nodded to them kindly, and they
+sat at table paying no more heed to Face-of-god than to cast him a
+nod for salutation.
+
+Then said the old woman to them:  'Well, lads, have ye been doing or
+sleeping?'
+
+'Sleeping, mother,' said one of the young men, 'as was but due after
+last night was, and to-morrow shall be.'
+
+Said the huntress:  'Hold thy peace, Wood-wise, and let thy tongue
+help thy teeth to deal with thy meat; for this is not the talking
+hour.'
+
+'Nay, Bow-may,' said another of the swains, 'since here is a new man,
+now is the time to talk to him.'
+
+Said the huntress:  ''Tis thine hands that talk best, Wood-wont; it
+is not they that shall bring thee to shame.'
+
+Spake the third:  'What have we to do with shame here, far away from
+dooms and doomers, and elders, and wardens, and guarded castles?  If
+the new man listeth to speak, let him speak; or to fight, then let
+him; it shall ever be man to man.'
+
+Then spake the old woman:  'Son Wood-wicked, hold thy peace, and
+forget the steel that ever eggeth thee on to draw.'
+
+Therewith she set the last matters on the board, while the three
+swains sat and eyed Gold-mane somewhat fiercely, now that words had
+stirred them, and he had sat there saying nothing, as one who was
+better than they, and contemned them; but now spake Wild-wearer:
+
+'Whoso hungreth let him eat!  Whoso would slumber, let him to bed.
+But he who would bicker, it must needs be with me.  Here is a man of
+the Dale, who hath sought the wood in peace, and hath found us.  His
+hand is ready and his heart is guileless:  if ye fear him, run away
+to the wood, and come back when he is gone; but none shall mock him
+while I sit by:  now, lads, be merry and blithe with the guest.'
+
+Then the young men greeted Gold-mane, and the old man said:  'Art
+thou of Burgstead? then wilt thou be of the House of the Face, and
+thy name will be Face-of-god; for that man is called the fairest of
+the Dale, and there shall be none fairer than thou.'
+
+Face-of-god laughed and said:  'There be but few mirrors in Burgdale,
+and I have no mind to journey west to the cities to see what manner
+of man I be:  that were ill husbandry.  But now I have heard the
+names of the three swains, tell me thy name, father!'
+
+Spake the huntress:  'This is my father's brother, and his name is
+Wood-father; or ye shall call him so:  and I am called Bow-may
+because I shoot well in the bow:  and this old carline is my eme's
+wife, and now belike my mother, if I need one.  But thou, fair-faced
+Dalesman, little dost thou need a mirror in the Dale so long as women
+abide there; for their faces shall be instead of mirrors to tell thee
+whether thou be fair and lovely.'
+
+Thereat they all laughed and fell to their victual, which was
+abundant, of wood-venison and mountain-fowl, but of bread was no
+great plenty; wine lacked not, and that of the best; and Gold-mane
+noted that the cups and the apparel of the horns and mazers were not
+of gold nor gilded copper, but of silver; and he marvelled thereat,
+for in the Dale silver was rare.
+
+So they ate and drank, and Gold-mane looked ever on the Friend, and
+spake much with her, and he deemed her friendly indeed, and she
+seemed most pleased when he spoke best, and led him on to do so.
+Wild-wearer was but of few words, and those somewhat harsh; yet was
+he as a man striving to be courteous and blithe; but of the others
+Bow-may was the greatest speaker.
+
+Wild-wearer called healths to the Sun, and the Moon, and the Hosts of
+Heaven; to the Gods of the Earth; to the Woodwights; and to the
+Guest.  Other healths also he called, the meaning of which was dark
+to Gold-mane; to wit, the Jaws of the Wolf; the Silver Arm; the Red
+Hand; the Golden Bushel; and the Ragged Sword.  But when he asked the
+Friend concerning these names what they might signify, she shook her
+head and answered not.
+
+At last Wild-wearer cried out:  'Now, lads, the night weareth and the
+guest is weary:  therefore whoso of you hath in him any minstrelsy,
+now let him make it, for later on it shall be over-late.'
+
+Then arose Wood-wont and went to his shut-bed and groped therein, and
+took from out of it a fiddle in its case; and he opened the case and
+drew from it a very goodly fiddle, and he stood on the floor amidst
+of the hall and Bow-may his cousin with him; and he laid his bow on
+the fiddle and woke up song in it, and when it was well awake she
+fell a-singing, and he to answering her song, and at the last all
+they of the house sang together; and this is the meaning of the words
+which they sang:
+
+
+She singeth.
+
+Now is the rain upon the day,
+   And every water's wide;
+Why busk ye then to wear the way,
+   And whither will ye ride?
+
+He singeth.
+
+Our kine are on the eyot still,
+   The eddies lap them round;
+All dykes the wind-worn waters fill,
+   And waneth grass and ground.
+
+She singeth.
+
+O ride ye to the river's brim
+   In war-weed fair to see?
+Or winter waters will ye swim
+   In hauberks to the knee?
+
+He singeth.
+
+Wild is the day, and dim with rain,
+   Our sheep are warded ill;
+The wood-wolves gather for the plain,
+   Their ravening maws to fill.
+
+She singeth.
+
+Nay, what is this, and what have ye,
+   A hunter's band, to bear
+The Banner of our Battle-glee
+   The skulking wolves to scare?
+
+He singeth.
+
+O women, when we wend our ways
+   To deal with death and dread,
+The Banner of our Fathers' Days
+   Must flap the wind o'erhead.
+
+She singeth.
+
+Ah, for the maidens that ye leave!
+   Who now shall save the hay?
+What grooms shall kiss our lips at eve,
+   When June hath mastered May?
+
+He singeth.
+
+The wheat is won, the seed is sown,
+   Here toileth many a maid,
+And ere the hay knee-deep hath grown
+   Your grooms the grass shall wade.
+
+They sing all together.
+
+Then fair befall the mountain-side
+   Whereon the play shall be!
+And fair befall the summer-tide
+   That whoso lives shall see.
+
+
+Face-of-god thought the song goodly, but to the others it was well
+known.  Then said Wood-father:
+
+'O foster-son, thy foster-brother hath sung well for a wood abider;
+but we are deeming that his singing shall be but as a starling to a
+throstle matched against thy new-come guest.  Therefore, Dalesman,
+sing us a song of the Dale, and if ye will, let it be of gardens and
+pleasant houses of stone, and fair damsels therein, and swains with
+them who toil not over-much for a scant livelihood, as do they of the
+waste, whose heads may not be seen in the Holy Places.'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'Father, it is ill to set the words of a lonely man
+afar from his kin against the song that cometh from the heart of a
+noble house; yet may I not gainsay thee, but will sing to thee what I
+may call to mind, and it is called the Song of the Ford.'
+
+Therewith he sang in a sweet and clear voice:  and this is the
+meaning of his words:
+
+
+In hay-tide, through the day new-born,
+   Across the meads we come;
+Our hauberks brush the blossomed corn
+   A furlong short of home.
+
+Ere yet the gables we behold
+   Forth flasheth the red sun,
+And smites our fallow helms and cold
+   Though all the fight be done.
+
+In this last mend of mowing-grass
+   Sweet doth the clover smell,
+Crushed neath our feet red with the pass
+   Where hell was blent with hell.
+
+And now the willowy stream is nigh,
+   Down wend we to the ford;
+No shafts across its fishes fly,
+   Nor flasheth there a sword.
+
+But lo! what gleameth on the bank
+   Across the water wan,
+As when our blood the mouse-ear drank
+   And red the river ran?
+
+Nay, hasten to the ripple clear,
+   Look at the grass beyond!
+Lo ye the dainty band and dear
+   Of maidens fair and fond!
+
+Lo how they needs must take the stream!
+   The water hides their feet;
+On fair kind arms the gold doth gleam,
+   And midst the ford we meet.
+
+Up through the garden two and two,
+   And on the flowers we drip;
+Their wet feet kiss the morning dew
+   As lip lies close to lip.
+
+Here now we sing; here now we stay:
+   By these grey walls we tell
+The love that lived from out the fray,
+   The love that fought and fell.
+
+
+When he was done they all said that he had sung well, and that the
+song was sweet.  Yet did Wild-wearer smile somewhat; and Bow-may said
+outright:  'Soft is the song, and hath been made by lads and
+minstrels rather than by warriors.'
+
+'Nay, kinswoman,' said Wood-father, 'thou art hard to please; the
+guest is kind, and hath given us that I asked for, and I give him all
+thanks therefor.'
+
+Face-of-god smiled, but he heeded little what they said, for as he
+sang he had noted that the Friend looked kindly on him; and he
+thought he saw that once or twice she put out her hand as if to touch
+him, but drew it back again each time.  She spake after a little and
+said:
+
+'Here now hath been a stream of song running betwixt the Mountain and
+the Dale even as doth a river; and this is good to come between our
+dreams of what hath been and what shall be.'  Then she turned to
+Gold-mane, and said to him scarce loud enough for all to hear:
+
+'Herewith I bid thee good-night, O Dalesman; and this other word I
+have to thee:  heed not what befalleth in the night, but sleep thy
+best, for nought shall be to thy scathe.  And when thou wakest in the
+morning, if we are yet here, it is well; but if we are not, then
+abide us no long while, but break thy fast on the victual thou wilt
+find upon the board, and so depart and go thy ways home.  And yet
+thou mayst look to it to see us again before thou diest.'
+
+Therewith she held out her hand to him, and he took it and kissed it;
+and she went to her chamber-aloft at the lower end of the hall.  And
+when she was gone, once more he had a deeming of her that she was of
+the kindred of the Gods.  At her departure him-seemed that the hall
+grew dull and small and smoky, and the night seemed long to him and
+doubtful the coming of the day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE FRIEND ON THE MOUNTAIN
+
+
+
+So now went all men to bed; and Face-to-god's shut-bed was over
+against the outer door and toward the lower end of the hall, and on
+the panel about it hung the weapons and shields of men.  Fair was
+that chamber and roomy, and the man was weary despite his eagerness,
+so that he went to sleep as soon as his head touched the pillow; but
+within a while (he deemed about two hours after midnight) he was
+awaked by the clattering of the weapons against the panel, and the
+sound of men's hands taking them down; and when he was fully awake,
+he heard withal men going up and down the house as if on errands:
+but he called to mind what the Friend had said to him, and he did not
+so much as turn himself toward the hall; for he said:  'Belike these
+men are outlaws and Wolves of the Holy Places, yet by seeming they
+are good fellows and nought churlish, nor have I to do with taking up
+the feud against them.  I will abide the morning.  Yet meseemeth that
+she drew me hither:  for what cause?'
+
+Therewith he fell asleep again, and dreamed no more.  But when he
+awoke the sun was shining broad upon the hall-floor, and he sat up
+and listened, but could hear no sound save the moaning of the wind in
+the pine-boughs and the chatter of the starlings about the gables of
+the house; and the place seemed so exceeding lonely to him that he
+was in a manner feared by that loneliness.
+
+Then he arose and clad himself, and went forth into the hall and
+gazed about him, and at first he deemed indeed that there was no one
+therein.  But at last he looked and beheld the upper gable and there
+underneath a most goodly hanging was the glorious shape of a woman
+sitting on a bench covered over with a cloth of gold and silver; and
+he looked and looked to see if the woman might stir, and if she were
+alive, and she turned her head toward him, and lo it was the Friend;
+and his heart rose to his mouth for wonder and fear and desire.  For
+now he doubted whether the other folk were aught save shows and
+shadows, and she the Goddess who had fashioned them out of nothing
+for his bewilderment, presently to return to nothing.
+
+Yet whatever he might fear or doubt, he went up the hall towards her
+till he was quite nigh to her, and there he stood silent, wondering
+at her beauty and desiring her kindness.
+
+Grey-eyed she was like her brother; but her hair the colour of red
+wheat:  her lips full and red, her chin round, her nose fine and
+straight.  Her hands and all her body fashioned exceeding sweetly and
+delicately; yet not as if she were an image of which the like might
+be found if the craftsman were but deft enough to make a perfect
+thing, but in such a way that there was none like to her for those
+that had eyes to behold her as she was; and none could ever be made
+like to her, even by such a master-craftsman as could fashion a body
+without a blemish.
+
+She was clad in a white smock, whose hems were broidered with gold
+wire and precious gems of the Mountains, and over that a gown woven
+of gold and silver:  scarce hath the world such another.  On her head
+was a fillet of gold and gems, and there were wondrous gold rings on
+her arms:  her feet lay bare on the dark grey wolf-skin that was
+stretched before her.
+
+She smiled kindly upon his solemn and troubled face, and her voice
+sounded strangely familiar to him coming from all that loveliness, as
+she said:  'Hail, Face-of-god! here am I left alone, although I
+deemed last night that I should be gone with the others.  Therefore
+am I fain to show myself to thee in fairer array than yesternight;
+for though we dwell in the wild-wood, from the solace of folk, yet
+are we not of thralls' blood.  But come now, I bid thee break thy
+fast and talk with me a little while; and then shalt thou depart in
+peace.'
+
+Spake Face-of-god, and his voice trembled as he spake:  'What art
+thou?  Last night I deemed at whiles once and again that thou wert of
+the Gods; and now that I behold thee thus, and it is broad daylight,
+and of those others is no more to be seen than if they had never
+lived, I cannot but deem that it is even so, and that thou comest
+from the City that shall never perish.  Now if thou be a goddess, I
+have nought to pray thee, save to slay me speedily if thou hast a
+mind for my death.  But if thou art a woman--'
+
+She broke in:  'Gold-mane, stay thy prayer and hold thy peace for
+this time, lest thou repent when repentance availeth not.  And this I
+say because I am none of the Gods nor akin to them, save far off
+through the generations, as art thou also, and all men of goodly
+kindred.  Now I bid thee eat thy meat, since 'tis ill talking betwixt
+a full man and a fasting; and I have dight it myself with mine own
+hands; for Bow-may and the Wood-mother went away with the rest three
+hours before dawn.  Come sit and eat as thou hast a hardy heart; as
+forsooth thou shouldest do if I were a very goddess.  Take heed,
+friend, lest I take thee for some damsel of the lower Dale arrayed in
+Earl's garments.'
+
+She laughed therewith, and leaned toward him and put forth her hand
+to him, and he took it and caressed it; and the exceeding beauty of
+her body and of the raiment which was as it were a part of her and
+her loveliness, made her laughter and her friendly words strange to
+him, as if one did not belong to the other; as in a dream it might
+be.  Nevertheless he did as she bade him, and sat at the board and
+ate, while she leaned forward on the arm of her chair and spake to
+him in friendly wise.  And he wondered as she spake that she knew so
+much of him and his:  and he kept saying to himself:  'She drew me
+hither; wherefore did she so?'
+
+But she said:  'Gold-mane, how fareth thy father the Alderman? is he
+as good a wright as ever?'
+
+He told her:  Yea, that ever was his hammer on the iron, the copper,
+and the gold, and that no wright in the Dale was as deft as he.
+
+Said she:  'Would he not have had thee seek to the Cities, to see the
+ways of the outer world?'
+
+'Yea,' said he.
+
+She said:  'Thou wert wise to naysay that offer; thou shalt have
+enough to do in the Dale and round about it in twelve months' time.'
+
+'Art thou foresighted?' said he.
+
+'Folk have called me so,' she said, 'but I wot not.  But thy brother
+Hall-face, how fareth he?'
+
+'Well;' said he, 'to my deeming he is the Sword of our House, and the
+Warrior of the Dale, if the days were ready for him.'
+
+'And Stone-face, that stark ancient,' she said, 'doth he still love
+the Folk of the Dale, and hate all other folks?'
+
+'Nay,' he said, 'I know not that, but I know that he loveth as, and
+above all me and my father.'
+
+Again she spake:  'How fareth the Bride, the fair maid to whom thou
+art affianced?'
+
+As she spake, it was to him as if his heart was stricken cold; but he
+put a force upon himself, and neither reddened nor whitened, nor
+changed countenance in any way; so he answered:
+
+'She was well the eve of yesterday.'  Then he remembered what she
+was, and her beauty and valour, and he constrained himself to say:
+'Each day she groweth fairer; there is no man's son and no daughter
+of woman that does not love her; yea, the very beasts of field and
+fold love her.'
+
+The Friend looked at him steadily and spake no word, but a red flush
+mounted to her cheeks and brow and changed her face; and he marvelled
+thereat; for still he misdoubted that she was a Goddess.  But it
+passed away in a moment, and she smiled and said:
+
+'Guest, thou seemest to wonder that I know concerning thee and the
+Dale and thy kindred.  But now shalt thou wot that I have been in the
+Dale once and again, and my brother oftener still; and that I have
+seen thee before yesterday.'
+
+'That is marvellous,' quoth he, 'for sure am I that I have not seen
+thee.'
+
+'Yet thou hast seen me,' she said; 'yet not altogether as I am now;'
+and therewith she smiled on him friendly.
+
+'How is this?' said he; 'art thou a skin-changer?'
+
+'Yea, in a fashion,' she said.  'Hearken! dost thou perchance
+remember a day of last summer when there was a market holden in
+Burgstead; and there stood in the way over against the House of the
+Face a tall old carle who was trucking deer-skins for diverse gear;
+and with him was a queen, tall and dark-skinned, somewhat well-
+liking, her hair bound up in a white coif so that none of it could be
+seen; by the token that she had a large stone of mountain blue set in
+silver stuck in the said coif?'
+
+As she spoke she set her hand to her bosom and drew something from
+it, and held forth her hand to Gold-mane, and lo amidst the palm the
+great blue stone set in silver.
+
+'Wondrous as a dream is this,' said Face-of-god, 'for these twain I
+remember well, and what followed.'
+
+She said:  'I will tell thee that.  There came a man of the Shepherd-
+Folk, drunk or foolish, or both, who began to chaffer with the big
+carle; but ever on the queen were his eyes set, and presently he put
+forth his hand to her to clip her, whereon the big carle hove up his
+fist and smote him, so that he fell to earth noseling.  Then ran the
+folk together to hale off the stranger and help the shepherd, and it
+was like that the stranger should be mishandled.  Then there thrust
+through the press a young man with yellow hair and grey eyes, who
+cried out, "Fellows, let be!  The stranger had the right of it; this
+is no matter to make a quarrel or a court case of.  Let the market go
+on!  This man and maid are true folk."  So when the folk heard the
+young man and his bidding, they forebore and let the carle and the
+queen be, and the shepherd went his ways little hurt.  Now then, who
+was this young man?'
+
+Quoth Gold-mane:  'It was even I, and meseemeth it was no great deed
+to do.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'and the big carle was my brother, and the tall
+queen, it was myself.'
+
+'How then,' said he, 'for she was as dark-skinned as a dwarf, and
+thou so bright and fair?'
+
+She said:  'Well, if the woods are good for nothing else, yet are
+they good for the growing of herbs, and I know the craft of simpling;
+and with one of these herbs had I stained my skin and my brother's
+also.  And it showed the darker beneath the white coif.'
+
+'Yea,' said he, 'but why must ye needs fare in feigned shapes?  Ye
+would have been welcome guests in the Dale howsoever ye had come.'
+
+'I may not tell thee hereof as now,' said she.
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'Yet thou mayst belike tell me wherefore was that
+thy brother desired to slay me yesterday, if he knew me, who I was.'
+
+'Gold-mane,' she said, 'thou art not slain, so little story need be
+made of that:  for the rest, belike he knew thee not at that moment.
+So it falls with us, that we look to see foes rather than friends in
+the wild-woods.  Many uncouth things are therein.  Moreover, I must
+tell thee of my brother that whiles he is as the stalled bull late
+let loose, and nothing is good to him save battle and onset; and then
+is he blind and knows not friend from foe.'  Said Face-of-god:  'Thou
+hast asked of me and mine; wilt thou not tell me of thee and thine?'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'not as now; thou must betake thee to the way.
+Whither wert thou wending when thou happenedst upon us?'
+
+He said:  'I know not; I was seeking something, but I knew not what--
+meseemeth that now I have found it.'
+
+'Art thou for the great mountains seeking gems?' she said.  'Yet go
+not thither to-day:  for who knoweth what thou shalt meet there that
+shall be thy foe?'
+
+He said:  'Nay, nay; I have nought to do but to abide here as long as
+I may, looking upon thee and hearkening to thy voice.'
+
+Her eyes were upon his, but yet she did not seem to see him, and for
+a while she answered not; and still he wondered that mere words
+should come from so fair a thing; for whether she moved foot, or
+hand, or knee, or turned this way or that, each time she stirred it
+was a caress to his very heart.
+
+He spake again:  'May I not abide here a while?  What scathe may be
+in that?'
+
+'It is not so,' she said; 'thou must depart, and that straightway:
+lo, there lieth thy spear which the Wood-mother hath brought in from
+the waste.  Take thy gear to thee and wend thy ways.  Have patience!
+I will lead thee to the place where we first met and there give thee
+farewell.'
+
+Therewith she arose and he also perforce, and when they came to the
+doorway she stepped across the threshold and then turned back and
+gave him her hand and so led him forth, the sun flashing back from
+her golden raiment.  Together they went over the short grey grass of
+that hillside till they came to the place where he had arisen from
+that wrestle with her brother.  There she stayed him and said:
+
+'This is the place; here must we part.'
+
+But his heart failed him and he faltered in his speech as he said:
+
+'When shall I see thee again?  Wilt thou slay me if I seek to thee
+hither once more?'
+
+'Hearken,' she said, 'autumn is now a-dying into winter:  let winter
+and its snows go past:  nor seek to me hither; for me thou should'st
+not find, but thy death thou mightest well fall in with; and I would
+not that thou shouldest die.  When winter is gone, and spring is on
+the land, if thou hast not forgotten us thou shalt meet us again.
+Yet shalt thou go further than this Woodland Hall.  In Shadowy Vale
+shalt thou seek to me then, and there will I talk with thee.'
+
+'And where,' said he, 'is Shadowy Vale? for thereof have I never
+heard tell.'
+
+She said:  'The token when it cometh to thee shall show thee thereof
+and the way thither.  Art thou a babbler, Gold-mane?'
+
+He said:  'I have won no prize for babbling hitherto.'
+
+She said:  'If thou listest to babble concerning what hath befallen
+thee on the Mountain, so do, and repent it once only, that is, thy
+life long.'
+
+'Why should I say any word thereof?' said he.  'Dost thou not know
+the sweetness of such a tale untold?'
+
+He spake as one who is somewhat wrathful, and she answered humbly and
+kindly:
+
+'Well is that.  Bide thou the token that shall lead thee to Shadowy
+Vale.  Farewell now.'
+
+She drew her hand from his, and turned and went her ways swiftly to
+the house:  he could not choose but gaze on her as she went
+glittering-bright and fair in that grey place of the mountains, till
+the dark doorway swallowed up her beauty.  Then he turned away and
+took the path through the pine-woods, muttering to himself as he
+went:
+
+'What thing have I done now that hitherto I had not done?  What
+manner of man am I to-day other than the man I was yesterday?'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.  FACE-OF-GOD COMETH HOME AGAIN TO BURGSTEAD
+
+
+
+Face-of-God went back through the wood by the way he had come, paying
+little heed to the things about him.  For whatever he thought of
+strayed not one whit from the image of the Fair Woman of the
+Mountain-side.
+
+He went through the wood swiftlier than yesterday, and made no stay
+for noon or aught else, nor did he linger on the road when he was
+come into the Dale, either to speak to any or to note what they did.
+So he came to the House of the Face about dusk, and found no man
+within the hall either carle or queen.  So he cried out on the folk,
+and there came in a damsel of the house, whom he greeted kindly and
+she him again.  He bade her bring the washing-water, and she did so
+and washed his feet and his hands.  She was a fair maid enough, as
+were most in the Dale, but he heeded her little; and when she was
+done he kissed not her cheek for her pains, as his wont was, but let
+her go her ways unthanked.  But he went to his shut-bed and opened
+his chest, and drew fair raiment from it, and did off his wood-gear,
+and did on him a goodly scarlet kirtle fairly broidered, and a collar
+with gems of price therein, and other braveries.  And when he was so
+attired he came out into the hall, and there was old Stone-face
+standing by the hearth, which was blazing brightly with fresh brands,
+so that things were clear to see.
+
+Stone-face noted Gold-mane's gay raiment, for he was not wont to wear
+such attire, save on the feasts and high days when he behoved to.  So
+the old man smiled and said:
+
+'Welcome back from the Wood!  But what is it?  Hast thou been wedded
+there, or who hath made thee Earl and King?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Foster-father, sooth it is that I have been to
+the wood, but there have I seen nought of manfolk worse than myself.
+Now as to my raiment, needs must I keep it from the moth.  And I am
+weary withal, and this kirtle is light and easy to me.  Moreover, I
+look to see the Bride here again, and I would pleasure her with the
+sight of gay raiment upon me.'
+
+'Nay,' said Stone-face, 'hast thou not seen some woman in the wood
+arrayed like the image of a God? and hath she not bidden thee thus to
+worship her to-night?  For I know that such wights be in the wood,
+and that such is their wont.'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'I worship nought save the Gods and the Fathers.
+Nor saw I in the wood any such as thou sayest.'
+
+Therewith Stone-face shook his head; but after a while he said:
+
+'Art thou for the wood to-morrow?'
+
+'Nay,' said Gold-mane angrily, knitting his brows.
+
+'The morrow of to-morrow,' said Stone-face, 'is the day when we look
+to see the Westland merchants:  after all, wilt thou not go hence
+with them when they wend their ways back before the first snows
+fall?'
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'I have no mind to it, fosterer; cease egging me on
+hereto.'
+
+Then Stone-face shook his head again, and looked on him long, and
+muttered:  'To the wood wilt thou go to-morrow or next day; or some
+day when doomed is thine undoing.'
+
+Therewith entered the service and torches, and presently after came
+the Alderman with Hall-face; and Iron-face greeted his son and said
+to him:  'Thou hast not hit the time to do on thy gay raiment, for
+the Bride will not be here to-night; she bideth still at the Feast at
+the Apple-tree House:  or wilt thou be there, son?'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'I am over-weary.  And as for my raiment, it
+is well; it is for thine honour and the honour of the name.'
+
+So to table they went, and Iron-face asked his son of his ways again,
+and whether he was quite fixed in his mind not to go down to the
+Plain and the Cities:  'For,' said he, 'the morrow of to-morrow shall
+the merchants be here, and this were great news for them if the son
+of the Alderman should be their faring-fellow back.'
+
+But Face-of-god answered without any haste or heat:  'Nay, father, it
+may not be:  fear not, thou shalt see that I have a good will to work
+and live in the Dale.'
+
+And in good sooth, though he was a young man and loved mirth and the
+ways of his own will, he was a stalwarth workman, and few could mow a
+match with him in the hay-month and win it; or fell trees as
+certainly and swiftly, or drive as straight and clean a furrow
+through the stiff land of the lower Dale; and in other matters also
+was he deft and sturdy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.  THOSE BRETHREN FARE TO THE YEWWOOD WITH THE BRIDE
+
+
+
+Next morning Face-of-god dight himself for work, and took his axe;
+for his brother Hall-face had bidden him go down with him to the Yew-
+wood and cut timber there, since he of all men knew where to go
+straight to the sticks that would quarter best for bow-staves;
+whereas the Alderman had the right of hewing in that wood.  So they
+went forth, those brethren, from the House of the Face, but when they
+were gotten to the gate, who should be there but the Bride awaiting
+them, and she with an ass duly saddled for bearing the yew-sticks.
+Because Hall-face had told her that he and belike Gold-mane were
+going to hew in the wood, and she thought it good to be of the
+company, as oft had befallen erst.  When they met she greeted Face-
+of-god and kissed him as her wont was; and he looked upon her and saw
+how fair she was, and how kind and friendly were her eyes that beheld
+him, and how her whole face was eager for him as their lips parted.
+Then his heart failed him, when he knew that he no longer desired her
+as she did him, and he said within himself:
+
+'Would that she had been of our nighest kindred!  Would that I had
+had a sister and that this were she!'
+
+So the three went along the highway down the Dale, and Hall-face and
+the Bride talked merrily together and laughed, for she was happy,
+since she knew that Gold-mane had been to the wood and was back safe
+and much as he had been before.  So indeed it seemed of him; for
+though at first he was moody and of few words, yet presently he
+cursed himself for a mar-sport, and so fell into the talk, and
+enforced himself to be merry; and soon he was so indeed; for he
+thought:  'She drew me thither:  she hath a deed for me to do.  I
+shall do the deed and have my reward.  Soon will the spring-tide be
+here, and I shall be a young man yet when it comes.'
+
+So came they to the place where he had met the three maidens
+yesterday; there they also turned from the highway; and as they went
+down the bent, Gold-mane could not but turn his eyes on the beauty of
+the Bride and the lovely ways of her body:  but presently he
+remembered all that had betid, and turned away again as one who is
+noting what it behoves him not to note.  And he said to himself:
+'Where art thou, Gold-mane?  Whose art thou?  Yea, even if that had
+been but a dream that I have dreamed, yet would that this fair woman
+were my sister!'
+
+So came they to the Yew-wood, and the brethren fell to work, and the
+Bride with them, for she was deft with the axe and strong withal.
+But at midday they rested on the green slope without the Yew-wood;
+and they ate bread and flesh and onions and apples, and drank red
+wine of the Dale.  And while they were resting after their meat, the
+Bride sang to them, and her song was a lay of time past; and here ye
+have somewhat of it:
+
+
+'Tis over the hill and over the dale
+   Men ride from the city fast and far,
+If they may have a soothfast tale,
+   True tidings of the host of war.
+
+And first they hap on men-at-arms,
+   All clad in steel from head to foot:
+Now tell true tale of the new-come harms,
+   And the gathered hosts of the mountain-root.
+
+Fair sirs, from murder-carles we flee,
+   Whose fashion is as the mountain-trolls';
+No man can tell how many they be,
+   And the voice of their host as the thunder rolls.
+
+They were weary men at the ending of day,
+   But they spurred nor stayed for longer word.
+Now ye, O merchants, whither away?
+   What do ye there with the helm and the sword?
+
+O we must fight for life and gear,
+   For our beasts are spent and our wains are stayed,
+And the host of the Mountain-men draws near,
+   That maketh all the world afraid.
+
+They left the chapmen on the hill,
+   And through the eve and through the night
+They rode to have true tidings still,
+   And were there on the way when the dawn was bright.
+
+O damsels fair, what do ye then
+   To loiter thus upon the way,
+And have no fear of the Mountain-men,
+   The host of the carles that strip and slay?
+
+O riders weary with the road,
+   Come eat and drink on the grass hereby!
+And lay you down in a fair abode
+   Till the midday sun is broad and high;
+
+Then unto you shall we come aback,
+   And lead you forth to the Mountain-men,
+To note their plenty and their lack,
+   And have true tidings there and then.
+
+'Tis over the hill and over the dale
+   They ride from the mountain fast and far;
+And now have they learned a soothfast tale,
+   True tidings of the host of war.
+
+It was summer-tide and the Month of Hay,
+   And men and maids must fare afield;
+But we saw the place were the bow-staves lay,
+   And the hall was hung with spear and shield.
+
+When the moon was high we drank in the hall,
+   And they drank to the guests and were kind and blithe,
+And they said:  Come back when the chestnuts fall,
+   And the wine-carts wend across the hythe.
+
+Come oft and o'er again, they said;
+   Wander your ways; but we abide
+For all the world in the little stead;
+   For wise are we, though the world be wide.
+
+Yea, come in arms if ye will, they said;
+   And despite your host shall we abide
+For life or death in the little stead;
+   For wise are we, though the world be wide.
+
+
+So she made an end and looked at the fairness of the dale spreading
+wide before her, and a robin came nigh from out of a thorn-bush and
+sung his song also, the sweet herald of coming winter; and the
+lapwings wheeled about, black and white, above the meadow by the
+river, sending forth their wheedling pipe as they hung above the soft
+turf.
+
+She felt the brothers near her, and knew their friendliness from of
+old, and she was happy; nor had she looked closer at Gold-mane would
+she have noted any change in him belike; for the meat and the good
+wine, and the fair sunny time, and the Bride's sweet voice, and the
+ancient song softened his heart while it fed the desire therein.
+
+So in a while they arose from their rest and did what was left them
+of their work, and so went back to Burgstead through the fair
+afternoon; by seeming all three in all content.  But yet Gold-mane,
+as from time to time he looked upon the Bride, kept saying to
+himself:  'O if she had been but my sister! sweet had the kinship
+been!'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.  NEW TIDINGS IN THE DALE
+
+
+
+It was three days thereafter that Gold-mane, leading an ass, went
+along the highway to fetch home certain fleeces which were needed for
+the house from a stead a little west of Wildlake; but he had gone
+scant half a mile ere he fell in with a throng of folk going to
+Burgstead.  They were of the Shepherds; they had weapons with them,
+and some were clad in coats of fence.  They went along making a great
+noise, for they were all talking each to each at the same time, and
+seemed very hot and eager about some matter.  When they saw Gold-mane
+anigh, they stopped, and the throng opened as if to let him into
+their midmost; so he mingled with them, and they stood in a ring
+about him and an old man more ill-favoured than it was the wont of
+the Dalesmen to be.
+
+For he was long, stooping, gaunt and spindle-shanked, his hands big
+and crippled with gout:  his cheeks were red after an old man's
+fashion, covered with a crimson network like a pippin; his lips thin
+and not well hiding his few teeth; his nose long like a snipe's neb.
+In short, a shame and a laughing-stock to the Folk, and a man whom
+the kindreds had in small esteem, and that for good reasons.
+
+Face-of-god knew him at once for a notable close-fist and starve-all
+fool of the Shepherds; and his name was now become Penny-thumb the
+Lean, whatever it might once have been.
+
+So Face-of-god greeted all men, and they him again; and he said:
+'What aileth you, neighbours?  Your weapons, are bare, but I see not
+that they be bloody.  What is it, goodman Penny-thumb?'
+
+Penny-thumb did but groan for all answer; but a stout carle who stood
+by with a broad grin on his face answered and said:
+
+'Face-of-god, evil tidings be abroad; the strong-thieves of the wood
+are astir; and some deem that the wood-wights be helping them.'
+
+'Yea, and what is the deed they have done?' said Gold-mane.
+
+Said the carle:  'Thou knowest Penny-thumb's abode?'
+
+'Yea surely,' said Face-of-god; 'fair are the water-meadows about it;
+great gain of cheese can be gotten thence.'
+
+'Hast thou been within the house?' said the carle.
+
+'Nay,' said Gold-mane.
+
+Then spake Penny-thumb:  'Within is scant gear:  we gather for others
+to scatter; we make meat for others' mouths.'
+
+The carle laughed:  'Sooth is that,' said he, 'that there is little
+gear therein now; for the strong-thieves have voided both hall and
+bower and byre.'
+
+'And when was that?' said Face-of-god.
+
+'The night before last night,' said the carle, 'the door was smitten
+on, and when none answered it was broken down.'
+
+'Yea,' quoth Penny-thumb, 'a host entered, and they in arms.'
+
+'No host was within,' said the carle, 'nought but Penny-thumb and his
+sister and his sister's son, and three carles that work for him; and
+one of them, Rusty to wit, was the worst man of the hill-country.
+These then the host whereof the goodman telleth bound, but without
+doing them any scathe; and they ransacked the house, and took away
+much gear; yet left some.'
+
+'Thou liest,' said Penny-thumb; 'they took little and left none.'
+
+Thereat all men laughed, for this seemed to them good game, and
+another man said:  'Well, neighbour Penny-thumb, if it was so little,
+thou hast done unneighbourly in giving us such a heap of trouble
+about it.'
+
+And they laughed again, but the first carle said:  'True it is,
+goodman, that thou wert exceeding eager to raise the hue and cry
+after that little when we happed upon thee and thy housemates bound
+in your chairs yesterday morning.  Well, Alderman's son, short is the
+tale to tell:  we could not fail to follow the gear, and the slot led
+us into the wood, and ill is the going there for us shepherds, who
+are used to the bare downs, save Rusty, who was a good woodsman and
+lifted the slot for us; so he outwent us all, and ran out of sight of
+us, so presently we came upon him dead-slain, with the manslayer's
+spear in his breast.  What then could we do but turn back again, for
+now was the wood blind now Rusty was dead, and we knew not whither to
+follow the fray; and the man himself was but little loss:  so back we
+turned, and told goodman Penny-thumb of all this, for we had left him
+alone in his hall lamenting his gear; so we bided to-day's morn, and
+have come out now, with our neighbour and the spear, and the dead
+corpse of Rusty.  Stand aside, neighbours, and let the Alderman's son
+see it.'
+
+They did so, and there was the corpse of a thin-faced tall wiry man,
+somewhat foxy of aspect, lying on a hand-bier covered with black
+cloth.
+
+'Yea, Face-of-god,' said the carle, 'he is not good to see now he is
+dead, yet alive was he worser:  but, look you, though the man was no
+good man, yet was he of our people, and the feud is with us; so we
+would see the Alderman, and do him to wit of the tidings, that he may
+call the neighbours together to seek a blood-wite for Rusty and
+atonement for the ransacking.  Or what sayest thou?'
+
+'Have ye the spear that ye found in Rusty?' quoth Gold-mane.
+
+'Yea verily,' said the carle.  'Hither with it, neighbours; give it
+to the Alderman's son.'
+
+So the spear came into his hand, and he looked at it and said:
+
+'This is no spear of the smiths' work of the Dale, as my father will
+tell you.  We take but little keep of the forging of spearheads here,
+so that they be well-tempered and made so as to ride well on the
+shaft; but this head, daintily is it wrought, the blood-trench as
+clean and trim as though it were an Earl's sword.  See you withal
+this inlaying of runes on the steel?  It is done with no tin or
+copper, but with very silver; and these bands about the shaft be of
+silver also.  It is a fair weapon, and the owner hath a loss of it
+greater than his gain in the slaying of Rusty; and he will have left
+it in the wound so that he might be known hereafter, and that he
+might be said not to have murdered Rusty but to have slain him.  Or
+how think ye?'
+
+They all said that this seemed like to be; but that if the man who
+had slain Rusty were one of the ransackers they might have a blood-
+wite of him, if they could find him.  Gold-mane said that so it was,
+and therewithal he gave the shepherds good-speed and went on his way.
+
+But they came to Burgstead and found the Alderman, and in due time
+was a Court held, and a finding uttered, and outlawry given forth for
+the manslaying and the ransacking against certain men unknown.  As
+for the spear, it was laid up in the House of the Face.
+
+But Face-of-god pondered these matters in his mind, for such
+ransackings there had been none of in late years; and he said to
+himself that his friends of the Mountain must have other folk, of
+which the Dalesmen knew nought, whose gear they could lift, or how
+could they live in that place.  And he marvelled that they should
+risk drawing the Dalesmen's wrath upon them; whereas they of the Dale
+were strong men not easily daunted, albeit peaceable enough if not
+stirred to wrath.  For in good sooth he had no doubt concerning that
+spear, whose it was and whence it came:  for that very weapon had
+been leaning against the panel of his shut-bed the night he slept on
+the Mountain, and all the other spears that he saw there were more or
+less of the same fashion, and adorned with silver.
+
+Albeit all that he knew, and all that he thought of, he kept in his
+own heart and said nothing of it.
+
+So wore the autumn into early winter; and the Westland merchants came
+in due time, and departed without Face-of-god, though his father made
+him that offer one last time.  He went to and fro about his work in
+the Dale, and seemed to most men's eyes nought changed from what he
+had been.  But the Bride noted that he saw her less often than his
+wont was, and abode with her a lesser space when he met her; and she
+could not think what this might mean; nor had she heart to ask him
+thereof, though she was sorry and grieved, but rather withdrew her
+company from him somewhat; and when she perceived that he noted it
+not, and made no question of it, then was she the sorrier.
+
+But the first winter-snow came on with a great storm of wind from the
+north-east, so that no man stirred abroad who was not compelled
+thereto, and those who went abroad risked life and limb thereby.
+Next morning all was calm again, and the snow was deep, but it did
+not endure long, for the wind shifted to the southwest and the thaw
+came, and three days after, when folk could fare easily again up and
+down the Dale, came tidings to Burgstead and the Alderman from the
+Lower Dale, how a house called Greentofts had been ransacked there,
+and none knew by whom.  Now the goodman of Greentofts was little
+loved of the neighbours:  he was grasping and overbearing, and had
+often cowed others out of their due:  he was very cross-grained, both
+at home and abroad:  his wife had fled from his hand, neither did his
+sons find it good to abide with him:  therewithal he was wealthy of
+goods, a strong man and a deft man-at-arms.  When his sons and his
+wife departed from him, and none other of the Dalesmen cared to abide
+with him, he went down into the Plain, and got thence men to be with
+him for hire, men who were not well seen to in their own land.  These
+to the number of twelve abode with him, and did his bidding whenso it
+pleased them.  Two more had he had who had been slain by good men of
+the Dale for their masterful ways; and no blood-wite had been paid
+for them, because of their ill-doings, though they had not been made
+outlaws.  This man of Greentofts was called Harts-bane after his
+father, who was a great hunter.
+
+Now the full tidings of the ransacking were these:  The storm began
+two hours before sunset, and an hour thereafter, when it was quite
+dark, for without none could see because the wind was at its height
+and the drift of the snow was hard and full, the hall-door flew open;
+and at first men thought it had been the wind, until they saw in the
+dimness (for all lights but the fire on the hearth had been quenched)
+certain things tumbling in which at first they deemed were wolves;
+but when they took swords and staves against them, lo they were met
+by swords and axes, and they saw that the seeming wolves were men
+with wolf-skins drawn over them.  So the new-comers cowed them that
+they threw down their weapons, and were bound in their places; but
+when they were bound, and had had time to note who the ransackers
+were, they saw that there were but six of them all told, who had
+cowed and bound Harts-bane and his twelve masterful men; and this
+they deemed a great shaming to them, as might well be.
+
+So then the stead was ransacked, and those wolves took away what they
+would, and went their ways through the fierce storm, and none could
+tell whether they had lived or died in it; but at least neither the
+men nor their prey were seen again; nor did they leave any slot, for
+next morning the snow lay deep over everything.
+
+No doubt had Gold-mane but that these ransackers were his friends of
+the Mountain; but he held his peace, abiding till the winter should
+be over.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.  MEN MAKE OATH AT BURGSTEAD ON THE HOLY BOAR
+
+
+
+A week after the ransacking at Greentofts the snow and the winter
+came on in earnest, and all the Dale lay in snow, and men went on
+skids when they fared up and down the Dale or on the Mountain.
+
+All was now tidingless till Yule over, and in Burgstead was there
+feasting and joyance enough; and especially at the House of the Face
+was high-tide holden, and the Alderman and his sons and Stone-face
+and all the kindred and all their men sat in glorious attire within
+the hall; and many others were there of the best of the kindreds of
+Burgstead who had been bidden.
+
+Face-of-god sat between his father and Stone-face; and he looked up
+and down the tables and the hall and saw not the Bride, and his heart
+misgave him because she was not there, and he wondered what had
+befallen and if she were sick of sorrow.
+
+But Iron-face beheld him how he gazed about, and he laughed; for he
+was exceeding merry that night and fared as a young man.  Then he
+said to his son:  'Whom seekest thou, son? is there someone lacking?'
+
+Face-of-god reddened as one who lies unused to it, and said:
+
+'Yea, kinsman, so it is that I was seeking the Bride my kinswoman.'
+
+'Nay,' said Iron-face, 'call her not kinswoman:  therein is ill-luck,
+lest it seem that thou art to wed one too nigh thine own blood.  Call
+her the Bride only:  to thee and to me the name is good.  Well, son,
+desirest thou sorely to see her?'
+
+'Yea, yea, surely,' said Face-of-god; but his eyes went all about the
+hall still, as though his mind strayed from the place and that home
+of his.
+
+Said Iron-face:  'Have patience, son, thou shalt see her anon, and
+that in such guise as shall please thee.'
+
+Therewithal came the maidens with the ewers of wine, and they filled
+all horns and beakers, and then stood by the endlong tables on either
+side laughing and talking with the carles and the older women; and
+the hall was a fair sight to see, for the many candles burned bright
+and the fire on the hearth flared up, and those maids were clad in
+fair raiment, and there was none of them but was comely, and some
+were fair, and some very fair:  the walls also were hung with goodly
+pictured cloths, and the image of the God of the Face looked down
+smiling terribly from the gable-end above the high-seat.
+
+Thus as they sat they heard the sound of a horn winded close outside
+the hall door, and the door was smitten on.  Then rose Iron-face
+smiling merrily, and cried out:
+
+'Enter ye, whether ye be friends or foes:  for if ye be foemen, yet
+shall ye keep the holy peace of Yule, unless ye be the foes of all
+kindreds and nations, and then shall we slay you.'
+
+Thereat some who knew what was toward laughed; but Gold-mane, who had
+been away from Burgstead some days past, marvelled and knit his
+brows, and let his right hand fall on his sword-hilt.  For this folk,
+who were of merry ways, were wont to deal diversely with the Yule-
+tide customs in the manner of shows; and he knew not that this was
+one of them.
+
+Now was the Outer door thrown open, and there entered seven men,
+whereof two were all-armed in bright war-gear, and two bore slug-
+horns, and two bore up somewhat on a dish covered over with a piece
+of rich cloth, and the seventh stood before them all wrapped up in a
+dark fur mantle.
+
+Thus they stood a moment; and when he saw their number, back to Gold-
+mane's heart came the thought of those folk on the Mountain:  for
+indeed he was somewhat out of himself for doubt and longing, else
+would he have deemed that all this was but a Yule-tide play.
+
+Now the men with the slug-horns set them to their mouths and blew a
+long blast; while the first of the new-comers set hand to the clasps
+of the fur cloak and let it fall to the ground, and lo! a woman
+exceeding beauteous, clad in glistering raiment of gold and fine web;
+her hair wreathed with bay, and in her hand a naked sword with
+goodly-wrought golden hilt and polished blue-gleaming blade.
+
+Face-of-god started up in his sear, and stared like a man new-wakened
+from a strange dream:  because for one moment he deemed verily that
+it was the Woman of the Mountain arrayed as he had last seen her, and
+he cried aloud 'The Friend, the Friend!'
+
+His father brake out into loud laughter thereat, and clapped his son
+on the shoulder and said:  'Yea, yea, lad, thou mayst well say the
+Friend; for this is thine old playmate whom thou hast been looking
+round the hall for, arrayed this eve in such fashion as is meet for
+her goodliness and her worthiness.  Yea, this is the Friend indeed!'
+
+Then waxed Face-of-god as red as blood for shame, and he sat him down
+in his place again:  for now he wotted what was toward, and saw that
+this fair woman was the Bride.
+
+But Stone-face from the other side looked keenly on him.
+
+Then blew the horns again, and the Bride stepped daintily up the
+hall, and the sweet odour of her raiment went from her about the
+fire-warmed dwelling, and her beauty moved all hearts with love.  So
+stood she at the high-table; and those two who bore the burden set it
+down thereon and drew off the covering, and lo! there was the Holy
+Boar of Yule on which men were wont to make oath of deeds that they
+would do in the coming year, according to the custom of their
+forefathers.  Then the Bride laid the goodly sword beside the dish,
+and then went round the table and sat down betwixt Face-of-god and
+Stone-face, and turned kindly to Gold-mane, and was glad; for now was
+his fair face as its wont was to be.  He in turn smiled upon her, for
+she was fair and kind and his fellow for many a day.
+
+Now the men-at-arms stood each side the Boar, and out from them on
+each side stood the two hornsmen:  then these blew up again, whereon
+the Alderman stood up and cried:
+
+'Ye sons of the brave who have any deed that ye may be desirous of
+doing, come up, come lay your hand on the sword, and the point of the
+sword to the Holy Beast, and swear the oath that lieth on your
+hearts.'
+
+Therewith he sat down, and there strode a man up the hall, strong-
+built and sturdy, but short of stature; black-haired, red-bearded,
+and ruddy-faced:  and he stood on the dais, and took up the sword and
+laid its point on the Boar, and said:
+
+'I am Bristler, son of Brightling, a man of the Shepherds.  Here by
+the Holy Boar I swear to follow up the ransackers of Penny-thumb and
+the slayers of Rusty.  And I take this feud upon me, although they be
+no good men, because I am of the kin and it falleth to me, since
+others forbear; and when the Court was hallowed hereon I was away out
+of the Dale and the Downs.  So help me the Warrior, and the God of
+the Earth.'
+
+Then the Alderman nodded his head to him kindly, and reached him out
+a cup of wine, and as he drank there went up a rumour of praise from
+the hall; and men said that his oath was manly and that he was like
+to keep it; for he was a good man-at-arms and a stout heart.
+
+Then came up three men of the Shepherds and two of the Dale and swore
+to help Bristler in his feud, and men thought it well sworn.
+
+After that came a braggart, a man very gay of his raiment, and swore
+with many words that if he lived the year through he would be a
+captain over the men of the Plain, and would come back again with
+many gifts for his friends in the Dale.  This men deemed foolishly
+sworn, for they knew the man; so they jeered at him and laughed as he
+went back to his place ashamed.
+
+Then swore three others oaths not hard to be kept, and men laughed
+and were merry.
+
+At last uprose the Alderman, and said:  'Kinsmen, and good fellows,
+good days and peaceable are in the Dale as now; and of such days
+little is the story, and little it availeth to swear a deed of
+derring-do:  yet three things I swear by this Beast; and first to
+gainsay no man's asking if I may perform it; and next to set right
+above law and mercy above custom; and lastly, if the days change and
+war cometh to us or we go to meet it, I will be no backwarder in the
+onset than three fathoms behind the foremost.  So help me the
+Warrior, and the God of the Face and the Holy Earth!'
+
+Therewith he sat down, and all men shouted for joy of him, and said
+that it was most like that he would keep his oath.
+
+Last of all uprose Face-of-god and took up the sword and looked at
+it; and so bright was the blade that he saw in it the image of the
+golden braveries which the Bride bore, and even some broken image of
+her face.  Then he handled the hilt and laid the point on the Boar,
+and cried:
+
+'Hereby I swear to wed the fairest woman of the Earth before the year
+is worn to an end; and that whether the Dalesmen gainsay me or the
+men beyond the Dale.  So help me the Warrior, and the God of the Face
+and the Holy Earth!'
+
+Therewith he sat down; and once more men shouted for the love of him
+and of the Bride, and they said he had sworn well and like a
+chieftain.
+
+But the Bride noted him that neither were his eyes nor his voice like
+to their wont as he swore, for she knew him well; and thereat was she
+ill at ease, for now whatever was new in him was to her a threat of
+evil to come.
+
+Stone-face also noted him, and he knew the young man better than all
+others save the Bride, and he saw withal that she was ill-pleased,
+and he said to himself:  'I will speak to my fosterling to-morrow if
+I may find him alone.'
+
+So came the swearing to an end, and they fell to on their meat and
+feasted on the Boar of Atonement after they had duly given the Gods
+their due share, and the wine went about the hall and men were merry
+till they drank the parting cup and fared to rest in the shut-beds,
+and whereso else they might in the Hall and the House, for there were
+many men there.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.  STONE-FACE TELLETH CONCERNING THE WOOD-WIGHTS
+
+
+
+Early on the morrow Gold-mane arose and clad himself and went out-a-
+doors and over the trodden snow on to the bridge over the Weltering
+Water, and there betook himself into one of the coins of safety built
+over the up-stream piles; there he leaned against the wall and turned
+his face to the Thorp, and fell to pondering on his case.  And first
+he thought about his oath, and how that he had sworn to wed the
+Mountain Woman, although his kindred and her kindred should gainsay
+him, yea and herself also.  Great seemed that oath to him, yet at
+that moment he wished he had made it greater, and made all the
+kindred, yea and the Bride herself, sure of the meaning of the words
+of it:  and he deemed himself a dastard that he had not done so.
+Then he looked round him and beheld the winter, and he fell into mere
+longing that the spring were come and the token from the Mountain.
+Things seemed too hard for him to deal with, and he between a mighty
+folk and two wayward women; and he went nigh to wish that he had
+taken his father's offer and gone down to the Cities; and even had he
+met his bane:  well were that!  And, as young folk will, he set to
+work making a picture of his deeds there, had he been there.  He
+showed himself the stricken fight in the plain, and the press, and
+the struggle, and the breaking of the serried band, and himself
+amidst the ring of foemen doing most valiantly, and falling there at
+last, his shield o'er-heavy with the weight of foemen's spears for a
+man to uphold it.  Then the victory of his folk and the lamentation
+and praise over the slain man of the Mountain Dales, and the burial
+of the valiant warrior, the praising weeping folk meeting him at the
+City-gate, laid stark and cold in his arms on the gold-hung garlanded
+bier.
+
+There ended his dream, and he laughed aloud and said:  'I am a fool!
+All this were good and sweet if I should see it myself; and forsooth
+that is how I am thinking of it, as if I still alive should see
+myself dead and famous!'
+
+Then he turned a little and looked at the houses of the Thorp lying
+dark about the snowy ways under the starlit heavens of the winter
+morning:  dark they were indeed and grey, save where here and there
+the half-burned Yule-fire reddened the windows of a hall, or where,
+as in one place, the candle of some early waker shone white in a
+chamber window.  There was scarce a man astir, he deemed, and no
+sound reached him save the crowing of the cocks muffled by their
+houses, and a faint sound of beasts in the byres.
+
+Thus he stood a while, his thoughts wandering now, till presently he
+heard footsteps coming his way down the street and turned toward
+them, and lo it was the old man Stone-face.  He had seen Gold-mane go
+out, and had risen and followed him that he might talk with him
+apart.  Gold-mane greeted him kindly, though, sooth to say, he was
+but half content to see him; since he doubted, what was verily the
+case, that his foster-father would give him many words, counselling
+him to refrain from going to the wood, and this was loathsome to him;
+but he spake and said:
+
+'Meseems, father, that the eastern sky is brightening toward dawn.'
+
+'Yea,' quoth Stone-face.
+
+'It will be light in an hour,' said Face-of-god.
+
+'Even so,' said Stone-face.
+
+'And a fair day for the morrow of Yule,' said the swain.
+
+'Yea,' said Stone-face, 'and what wilt thou do with the fair day?
+Wilt thou to the wood?'
+
+'Maybe, father,' said Gold-mane; 'Hall-face and some of the swains
+are talking of elks up the fells which may be trapped in the drifts,
+and if they go a-hunting them, I may go in their company.'
+
+'Ah, son,' quoth Stone-face, 'thou wilt look to see other kind of
+beasts than elks.  Things may ye fall in with there who may not be
+impounded in the snow like to elks, but can go light-foot on the top
+of the soft drift from one place to another.'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'Father, fear me not; I shall either refrain me from
+the wood, or if I go, I shall go to hunt the wood-deer with other
+hunters.  But since thou hast come to me, tell me more about the
+wood, for thy tales thereof are fair.'
+
+'Yea,' said Stone-face, 'fair tales of foul things, as oft it
+befalleth in the world.  Hearken now! if thou deemest that what thou
+seekest shall come readier to thine hand because of the winter and
+the snow, thou errest.  For the wights that waylay the bodies and
+souls of the mighty in the wild-wood heed such matters nothing; yea
+and at Yule-tide are they most abroad, and most armed for the fray.
+Even such an one have I seen time agone, when the snow was deep and
+the wind was rough; and it was in the likeness of a woman clad in
+such raiment as the Bride bore last night, and she trod the snow
+light-foot in thin raiment where it would scarce bear the skids of a
+deft snow-runner.  Even so she stood before me; the icy wind blew her
+raiment round about her, and drifted the hair from her garlanded head
+toward me, and she as fair and fresh as in the midsummer days.  Up
+the fell she fared, sweetest of all things to look on, and beckoned
+on me to follow; on me, the Warrior, the Stout-heart; and I followed,
+and between us grief was born; but I it was that fostered that child
+and not she.  Always when she would be, was she merry and lovely; and
+even so is she now, for she is of those that be long-lived.  And I
+wot that thou hast seen even such an one!'
+
+'Tell me more of thy tales, foster-father,' said Gold-mane, 'and fear
+not for me!'
+
+'Ah, son,' he said, 'mayst thou have no such tales to tell to those
+that shall be young when thou art old.  Yet hearken!  We sat in the
+hall together and there was no third; and methought that the birds
+sang and the flowers bloomed, and sweet was their savour, though it
+was midwinter.  A rose-wreath was on her head; grapes were on the
+board, and fair unwrinkled summer apples on the day that we feasted
+together.  When was the feast? sayst thou.  Long ago.  What was the
+hall, thou sayest, wherein ye feasted?  I know not if it were on the
+earth or under it, or if we rode the clouds that even.  But on the
+morrow what was there but the stark wood and the drift of the snow,
+and the iron wind howling through the branches, and a lonely man, a
+wanderer rising from the ground.  A wanderer through the wood and up
+the fell, and up the high mountain, and up and up to the edges of the
+ice-river and the green caves of the ice-hills.  A wanderer in
+spring, in summer, autumn and winter, with an empty heart and a
+burning never-satisfied desire; who hath seen in the uncouth places
+many an evil unmanly shape, many a foul hag and changing ugly
+semblance; who hath suffered hunger and thirst and wounding and
+fever, and hath seen many things, but hath never again seen that fair
+woman, or that lovely feast-hall.
+
+'All praise and honour to the House of the Face, and the bounteous
+valiant men thereof! and the like praise and honour to the fair women
+whom they wed of the valiant and goodly House of the Steer!'
+
+'Even so say I,' quoth Gold-mane calmly; 'but now wend we aback to
+the House, for it is morning indeed, and folk will be stirring
+there.'
+
+So they turned from the bridge together; and Stone-face was kind and
+fatherly, and was telling his foster-son many wise things concerning
+the life of a chieftain, and the giving-out of dooms and the
+gathering for battle; to all which talk Face-of-god seemed to hearken
+gladly, but indeed hearkened not at all; for verily his eyes were
+beholding that snowy waste, and the fair woman upon it; even such an
+one as Stone-face had told of.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.  THEY FARE TO THE HUNTING OF THE ELK
+
+
+
+When they came into the Hall, the hearth-fire had been quickened, and
+the sleepers on the floor had been wakened, and all folk were astir.
+So the old man sat down by the hearth while Gold-mane busied himself
+in fetching wood and water, and in sweeping out the Hall, and other
+such works of the early morning.  In a little while Hall-face and the
+other young men and warriors were afoot duly clad, and the Alderman
+came from his chamber and greeted all men kindly.  Soon meat was set
+upon the boards, and men broke their fast; and day dawned while they
+were about it, and ere it was all done the sun rose clear and golden,
+so that all men knew that the day would be fair, for the frost seemed
+hard and enduring.
+
+Then the eager young men and the hunters, and those who knew the
+mountain best drew together about the hearth, and fell to talking of
+the hunting of the elk; and there were three there who knew both the
+woods and also the fells right up to the ice-rivers better than any
+other; and these said that they who were fain of the hunting of the
+elk would have no likelier time than that day for a year to come.
+Short was the rede betwixt them, for they said they would go to the
+work at once and make the most of the short winter daylight.  So they
+went each to his place, and some outside that House to their fathers'
+houses to fetch each man his gear.  Face-of-god for his part went to
+his shut-bed, and stood by his chest, and opened it, and drew out of
+it a fine hauberk of ring-mail which his father had made for him:
+for though Face-of-god was a deft wright, he was not by a long way so
+deft as his father, who was the deftest of all men of that time and
+country; so that the alien merchants would give him what he would for
+his hauberks and helms, whenso he would chaffer with them, which was
+but seldom.  So Face-of-god did on this hauberk over his kirtle, and
+over it he cast his foul-weather weed, so that none might see it:  he
+girt a strong war-sword to his side, cast his quiver over his
+shoulder, and took his bow in his hand, although he had little lust
+to shoot elks that day, even as Stone-face had said; therewithal he
+took his skids, and went forth of the hall to the gate of the Burg;
+whereto gathered the whole company of twenty-three, and Gold-mane the
+twenty-fourth.  And each man there had his skids and his bow and
+quiver, and whatso other weapon, as short-sword, or wood-knife, or
+axe, seemed good to him.
+
+So they went out-a-gates, and clomb the stairway in the cliff which
+led to the ancient watch-tower:  for it was on the lower slopes of
+the fells which lay near to the Weltering Water that they looked to
+find the elks, and this was the nighest road thereto.  When they had
+gotten to the top they lost no time, but went their ways nearly due
+east, making way easily where there were but scattered trees close to
+the lip of the sheer cliffs.
+
+They went merrily on their skids over the close-lying snow, and were
+soon up on the great shoulders of the fells that went up from the
+bank of the Weltering Water:  at noon they came into a little dale
+wherein were a few trees, and there they abided to eat their meat,
+and were very merry, making for themselves tables and benches of the
+drifted snow, and piling it up to windward as a defence against the
+wind, which had now arisen, little but bitter from the south-east; so
+that some, and they the wisest, began to look for foul weather:
+wherefore they tarried the shorter while in the said dale or hollow.
+
+But they were scarcely on their way again before the aforesaid south-
+east wind began to grow bigger, and at last blew a gale, and brought
+up with it a drift of fine snow, through which they yet made their
+way, but slowly, till the drift grew so thick that they could not see
+each other five paces apart.
+
+Then perforce they made stay, and gathered together under a bent
+which by good luck they happened upon, where they were sheltered from
+the worst of the drift.  There they abode, till in less than an
+hour's space the drift abated and the wind fell, and in a little
+while after it was quite clear, with the sun shining brightly and the
+young waxing moon white and high up in the heavens; and the frost was
+harder than ever.
+
+This seemed good to them; but now that they could see each other's
+faces they fell to telling over their company, and there was none
+missing save Face-of-god.  They were somewhat dismayed thereat, but
+knew not what to do, and they deemed he might not be far off, either
+a little behind or a little ahead; and Hall-face said:
+
+'There is no need to make this to-do about my brother; he can take
+good care of himself; neither does a warrior of the Face die because
+of a little cold and frost and snow-drift.  Withal Gold-mane is a
+wilful man, and of late days hath been wilful beyond his wont; let us
+now find the elks.'
+
+So they went on their ways hoping to fall in with him again.  No long
+story need be made of their hunting, for not very far from where they
+had taken shelter they came upon the elks, many of them, impounded in
+the drifts, pretty much where the deft hunters looked to find them.
+There then was battle between the elks and the men, till the beasts
+were all slain and only one man hurt:  then they made them sleighs
+from wood which they found in the hollows thereby, and they laid the
+carcasses thereon, and so turned their faces homeward, dragging their
+prey with them.  But they met not Face-of-god either there or on the
+way home; and Hall-face said:  'Maybe Gold-mane will lie on the fell
+to-night; and I would I were with him; for adventures oft befall such
+folk when they abide in the wilds.'
+
+Now it was late at night by then they reached Burgstead, so laden as
+they were with the dead beasts; but they heeded the night little, for
+the moon was well-nigh as bright as day for them.  But when they came
+to the gate of the Thorp, there were assembled the goodmen and swains
+to meet them with torches and wine in their honour.  There also was
+Gold-mane come back before them, yea for these two hours; and he
+stood clad in his holiday raiment and smiled on them.
+
+Then was there some jeering at him that he was come back empty-handed
+from the hunting, and that he was not able to abide the wind and the
+drift; but he laughed thereat, for all this was but game and play,
+since men knew him for a keen hunter and a stout woodsman; and they
+had deemed it a heavy loss of him if he had been cast away, as some
+feared he had been:  and his brother Hall-face embraced him and
+kissed him, and said to him:  'Now the next time that thou farest to
+the wood will I be with thee foot to foot, and never leave thee, and
+then meseemeth I shall wot of the tale that hath befallen thee, and
+belike it shall be no sorry one.'
+
+Face-of-god laughed and answered but little, and they all betook them
+to the House of the Face and held high feast therein, for as late as
+the night was, in honour of this Hunting of the Elk.
+
+No man cared to question Face-of-god closely as to how or where he
+had strayed from the hunt; for he had told his own tale at once as
+soon as he came home, to wit, that his right-foot skid-strap had
+broken, and even while he stopped to mend it came on that drift and
+weather; and that he could not move from that place without losing
+his way, and that when it had cleared he knew not whither they had
+gone because the snow had covered their slot.  So he deemed it not
+unlike that they had gone back, and that he might come up with one or
+two on the way, and that in any case he wotted well that they could
+look after themselves; so he turned back, not going very swiftly.
+All this seemed like enough, and a little matter except to jest
+about, so no man made any question concerning it:  only old Stone-
+face said to himself:
+
+'Now were I fain to have a true tale out of him, but it is little
+likely that anything shall come of my much questioning; and it is ill
+forcing a young man to tell lies.'
+
+So he held his peace, and the feast went on merrily and blithely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.  CONCERNING FACE-OF-GOD AND THE MOUNTAIN
+
+
+
+But it must be told of Gold-mane that what had befallen him was in
+this wise.  His skid-strap brake in good sooth, and he stayed to mend
+it; but when he had done what was needful, he looked up and saw no
+man nigh, what for the drift, and that they had gone on somewhat; so
+he rose to his feet, and without more delay, instead of keeping on
+toward the elk-ground and the way his face had been set, he turned
+himself north-and-by-east, and went his ways swiftly towards that
+airt, because he deemed that it might lead him to the Mountain-hall
+where he had guested.  He abode not for the storm to clear, but swept
+off through the thick of it; and indeed the wind was somewhat at his
+back, so that he went the swiftlier.  But when the drift was gotten
+to its very worst, he sheltered himself for a little in a hollow
+behind a thorn-bush he stumbled upon.  As soon as it began to abate
+he went on again, and at last when it was quite clear, and the sun
+shone out, he found himself on a long slope of the fells covered deep
+with smooth white snow, and at the higher end a great crag rising
+bare fifty feet above the snow, and more rocks, but none so great,
+and broken ground as he judged (the snow being deep) about it on the
+hither side; and on the further, three great pine-trees all bent down
+and mingled together by their load of snow.
+
+Thitherward he made, as a man might, seeing nothing else to note
+before him; but he had not made many strides when forth from behind
+the crag by the pine-trees came a man; and at first Face-of-god
+thought it might be one of his hunting-fellows gone astray, and he
+hailed him in a loud voice, but as he looked he saw the sun flash
+back from a bright helm on the new-comer's head; albeit he kept on
+his way till there was but a space of two hundred yards between them;
+when lo! the helm-bearer notched a shaft to his bent bow and loosed
+at Face-of-god, and the arrow came whistling and passed six inches by
+his right ear.  Then Face-of-god stopped perplexed with his case; for
+he was on the deep snow in his skids, with his bow unbent, and he
+knew not how to bend it speedily.  He was loth to turn his back and
+flee, and indeed he scarce deemed that it would help him.  Meanwhile
+of his tarrying the archer loosed again at him, and this time the
+shaft flew close to his left ear.  Then Face-of-god thought to cast
+himself down into the snow, but he was ashamed; till there came a
+third shaft which flew over his head amidmost and close to it.  'Good
+shooting on the Mountain!' muttered he; 'the next shaft will be
+amidst my breast, and who knows whether the Alderman's handiwork will
+keep it out.'
+
+So he cried aloud:  'Thou shootest well, brother; but art thou a foe?
+If thou art, I have a sword by my side, and so hast thou; come hither
+to me, and let us fight it out friendly if we must needs fight.'
+
+A laugh came down the wind to him clear but somewhat shrill, and the
+archer came swiftly towards him on his skids with no weapon in his
+hand save his bow; so that Face-of-god did not draw his sword, but
+stood wondering.
+
+As they drew nearer he beheld the face of the new-comer, and deemed
+that he had seen it before; and soon, for all that it was hooded
+close by the ill-weather raiment, he perceived it to be the face of
+Bow-may, ruddy and smiling.
+
+She laughed out loud again, as she stopped herself within three feet
+of him, and said:
+
+'Yea, friend Yellow-hair, we heard of the elks and looked to see thee
+hereabouts, and I knew thee at once when I came out from behind the
+crag and saw thee stand bewildered.'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'Hail to thee, Bow-may! and glad am I to see thee.
+But thou liest in saying that thou knewest me; else why didst thou
+shoot those three shafts at me?  Surely thou art not so quick as that
+with all thy friends:  these be sharp greetings of you Mountain-
+folk.'
+
+'Thou lad with the sweet mouth,' she said, 'I like to see thee and
+hear thee talk, but now must I hasten thy departure; so stand we here
+no longer.  Let us get down into the wood where we can do off our
+skids and sit down, and then will I tell thee the tidings.  Come on!'
+
+And she caught his hand in hers, and they went speedily down the
+slopes toward the great oak-wood, the wind whistling past their ears.
+
+'Whither are we going?' said he.
+
+Said she:  'I am to show thee the way back home, which thou wilt not
+know surely amidst this snow.  Come, no words! thou shalt not have my
+tale from me till we are in the wood:  so the sooner we are there the
+sooner shalt thou be pleased.'
+
+So Face-of-god held his peace, and they went on swiftly side by side.
+But it was not Bow-may's wont to be silent for long, so presently she
+said:
+
+'Thou art good so do as I bid thee; but see thou, sweet playmate, for
+all thou art a chieftain's son, thou wert but feather-brained to ask
+me why I shot at thee.  I shoot at thee! that were a fine tale to
+tell her this even!  Or dost thou think that I could shoot at a big
+man on the snow at two hundred paces and miss him three times?
+Unless I aimed to miss.'
+
+'Yea, Bow-may,' said he, 'art thou so deft a Bow-may?  Thou shalt be
+in my company whenso I fare to battle.'
+
+'Indeed,' she said, 'therein thou sayest but the bare truth:  nowhere
+else shall I be, and thou shalt find my bow no worse than a good
+shield.'
+
+He laughed somewhat lightly; but she looked on him soberly and said:
+'Laugh in that fashion on the day of battle, and we shall be well
+content with thee!'
+
+So on they sped very swiftly, for their way was mostly down hill, so
+that they were soon amongst the outskirting trees of the wood, and
+presently after reached the edge of the thicket, beyond which the
+ground was but thinly covered with snow.
+
+There they took off their skids, and went into the thick wood and sat
+down under a hornbeam tree; and ere Gold-mane could open his mouth to
+speak Bow-may began and said:
+
+'Well it was that I fell in with thee, Dalesman, else had there been
+murders of men to tell of; but ever she ordereth all things wisely,
+though unwisely hast thou done to seek to her.  Hearken! dost thou
+think that thou hast done well that thou hast me here with my tale?
+Well, hadst thou busied thyself with the slaying of elks, or with
+sitting quietly at home, yet shouldest thou have heard my tale, and
+thou shouldest have seen me in Burgstead in a day or two to tell thee
+concerning the flitting of the token.  And ill it is that I have
+missed it, for fain had I been to behold the House of the Face, and
+to have seen thee sitting there in thy dignity amidst the kindred of
+chieftains.'
+
+And she sighed therewith.  But he said:  'Hold up thine heart, Bow-
+may!  On the word of a true man that shall befall thee one day.  But
+come, playmate, give me thy tale!'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'I must now tell thee in the wild-wood what else I
+had told thee in the Hall.  Hearken closely, for this is the message:
+
+'Seek not to me again till thou hast the token; else assuredly wilt
+thou be slain, and I shall be sorry for many a day.  Thereof as now I
+may not tell thee more.  Now as to the token:  When March is worn two
+weeks fail not to go to and fro on the place of the Maiden Ward for
+an hour before sunrise every day till thou hear tidings.'
+
+'Now,' quoth Bow-may, 'hast thou hearkened and understood?'
+
+'Yea,' said he.
+
+She said:  'Then tell me the words of my message concerning the
+token.'  And he did so word for word.  Then she said:
+
+'It is well, there is no more to say.  Now must I lead thee till thou
+knowest the wood; and then mayst thou get on to the smooth snow
+again, and so home merrily.  Yet, thou grey-eyed fellow, I will have
+my pay of thee before I do that last work.'
+
+Therewith she turned about to him and took his head between her
+hands, and kissed him well favouredly both cheeks and mouth; and she
+laughed, albeit the tears stood in her eyes as she said:  'Now
+smelleth the wood sweeter, and summer will come back again.  And even
+thus will I do once more when we stand side by side in battle array.'
+
+He smiled kindly on her and nodded as they both rose up from the
+earth:  she had taken off her foul-weather gloves while they spake,
+and he kissed her hand, which was shapely of fashion albeit somewhat
+brown, and hard of palm, and he said in friendly wise:
+
+'Thou art a merry faring-fellow, Bow-may, and belike shalt be withal
+a true fighting-fellow.  Come now, thou shalt be my sister and I thy
+brother, in despite of those three shafts across the snow.'
+
+He laughed therewith; she laughed not, but seemed glad, and said
+soberly:
+
+'Yea, I may well be thy sister; for belike I also am of the people of
+the Gods, who have come into these Dales by many far ways.  I am of
+the House of the Ragged Sword of the Kindred of the Wolf.  Come,
+brother, let us toward Wildlake's Way.'
+
+Therewith she went before him and led through the thicket as by an
+assured and wonted path, and he followed hard at heel; but his
+thought went from her for a while; for those words of brother and
+sister that he had spoken called to his mind the Bride, and their
+kindness of little children, and the days when they seemed to have
+nought to do but to make the sun brighter, and the flowers fairer,
+and the grass greener, and the birds happier each for the other; and
+a hard and evil thing it seemed to him that now he should be making
+all these things nought and dreary to her, now when he had become a
+man and deeds lay before him.  Yet again was he solaced by what Bow-
+may had said concerning battle to come; for he deemed that she must
+have had this from the Friend's foreseeing; and he longed sore for
+deeds to do, wherein all these things might be cleared up and washen
+clean as it were.
+
+So passed they through the wood a long way, and it was getting dark
+therein, and Gold-mane said:
+
+'Hold now, Bow-may, for I am at home here.'
+
+She looked around and said:  'Yea, so it is:  I was thinking of many
+things.  Farewell and live merrily till March comes and the token!'
+
+Therewith she turned and went her ways and was soon out of sight, and
+he went lightly through the wood, and then on skids over the hard
+snow along the Dale's edge till he was come to the watch-tower, when
+the moon was bright in heaven.
+
+Thus was he at Burgstead and the House of the Face betimes, and
+before the hunters were gotten back.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.  MURDER AMONGST THE FOLK OF THE WOODLANDERS
+
+
+
+So wore away midwinter tidingless.  Stone-face spake no more to Face-
+of-god about the wood and its wights, when he saw that the young man
+had come back hale and merry, seemed not to crave over-much to go
+back thither.  As for the Bride, she was sad, and more than
+misdoubted all; but dauntless as she was in matters that try men's
+hardihood, she yet lacked heart to ask of Face-of-god what had
+befallen him since the autumn-tide, or where he was with her.  So she
+put a force upon herself not to look sad or craving when she was in
+his company, as full oft she was; for he rather sought her than
+shunned her.  For when he saw her thus, he deemed things were
+changing with her as they had changed with him, and he bethought him
+of what he had spoken to Bow-may, and deemed that even so he might
+speak with the Bride when the time came, and that she would not be
+grieved beyond measure, and all would be well.
+
+Now came on the thaw, and the snow went, and the grass grew all up
+and down the Dale, and all waters were big.  And about this time
+arose rumours of strange men in the wood, uncouth, vile, and
+murderous, and many of the feebler sort were made timorous thereby.
+
+But a little before March was born came new tidings from the
+Woodlanders; to wit:  There came on a time to the house of a woodland
+carle, a worthy goodman well renowned of all, two wayfarers in the
+first watch of the night; and these men said that they were wending
+down to the Plain from a far-away dale, Rose-dale to wit, which all
+men had heard of, and that they had strayed from the way and were
+exceeding weary, and they craved a meal's meat and lodging for the
+night.
+
+This the goodman might nowise gainsay, and he saw no harm in it,
+wherefore he bade them abide and be merry.
+
+These men, said they who told the tidings, were outlanders, and no
+man had seen any like them before:  they were armed, and bore short
+bows made of horn, and round targets, and coats-of-fence done over
+with horn scales; they had crooked swords girt to their sides, and
+axes of steel forged all in one piece, right good weapons.  They were
+clad in scarlet and had much silver on their raiment and about their
+weapons, and great rings of the same on their arms; and all this
+silver seemed brand-new.
+
+Now the Woodland Carle gave them of such things as he had, and was
+kind and blithe to them:  there were in his house besides himself
+five men of his sons and kindred, and his wife and three daughters
+and two other maids.  So they feasted after the Woodlanders' fashion,
+and went to bed a little before midnight.  Two hours after, the carle
+awoke and heard a little stir, and he looked and saw the guests on
+their feet amidst the hall clad in all their war-gear; and they had
+betwixt them his two youngest daughters, maids of fifteen and twelve
+winters, and had bound their hands and done clouts over their mouths,
+so that they might not cry out; and they were just at point to carry
+them off.  Thereat the goodman, naked as he was, caught up his sword
+and made at these murder-carles, and or ever they were ware of him he
+had hewn down one and turned to face the other, who smote at him with
+his steel axe and gave him a great wound on the shoulder, and
+therewithal fled out at the open door and forth into the wood.
+
+The Woodlander made no stay to raise the cry (there was no need, for
+the hall was astir now from end to end, and men getting to their
+weapons), but ran out after the felon even as he was; and, in spite
+of his grievous hurt, overran him no long way from the house before
+he had gotten into the thicket.  But the man was nimble and strong,
+and the goodman unsteady from his wound, and by then the others of
+the household came up with the hue and cry he had gotten two more
+sore wounds and was just making an end of throttling the felon with
+his bare hands.  So he fell into their arms fainting from weakness,
+and for all they could do he died in two hours' time from that axe-
+wound in his shoulder, and another on the side of the head, and a
+knife-thrust in his side; and he was a man of sixty winters.
+
+But the stranger he had slain outright; and the one whom he had
+smitten in the hall died before the dawn, thrusting all help aside,
+and making no sound of speech.
+
+When these tidings came to Burgstead they seemed great to men, and to
+Gold-mane more than all.  So he and many others took their weapons
+and fared up to Wildlake's Way, and so came to the Woodland Carles.
+But the Woodlanders had borne out the carcasses of those felons and
+laid them on the green before Wood-grey's door (for that was the name
+of the dead goodman), and they were saying that they would not bury
+such accursed folk, but would bear them a little way so that they
+should not be vexed with the stink of them, and cast them into the
+thicket for the wolf and the wild-cat and the stoat to deal with; and
+they should lie there, weapons and silver and all; and they deemed it
+base to strip such wretches, for who would wear their raiment or bear
+their weapons after them.
+
+There was a great ring of folk round about them when they of
+Burgstead drew near, and they shouted for joy to see their
+neighbours, and made way before them.  Then the Dalesmen cursed these
+murderers who had slain so good a man, and they all praised his
+manliness, whereas he ran out into the night naked and wounded after
+his foe, and had fallen like his folk of old time.
+
+It was a bright spring afternoon in that clearing of the Wood, and
+they looked at the two dead men closely; and Gold-mane, who had been
+somewhat silent and moody till then, became merry and wordy; for he
+beheld the men and saw that they were utterly strange to him:  they
+were short of stature, crooked-legged, long-armed, very strong for
+their size:  with small blue eyes, snubbed-nosed, wide-mouthed, thin-
+lipped, very swarthy of skin, exceeding foul of favour.  He and all
+others wondered who they were, and whence they came, for never had
+they seen their like; and the Woodlanders, who often guested
+outlanders strayed from the way of divers kindreds and nations, said
+also that none such had they ever seen.  But Stone-face, who stood by
+Gold-mane, shook his head and quoth he:
+
+'The Wild-wood holdeth many marvels, and these be of them:  the spawn
+of evil wights quickeneth therein, and at other whiles it melteth
+away again like the snow; so may it be with these carcasses.'
+
+And some of the older folk of the Woodlanders who stood by hearkened
+what he said, and deemed his words wise, for they remembered their
+ancient lore and many a tale of old time.
+
+Thereafter they of Burgstead went into Wood-grey's hall, or as many
+of them as might, for it was but a poor place and not right great.
+There they saw the goodman laid on the dais in all his war-gear,
+under the last tie-beam of his hall, whereon was carved amidst much
+goodly work of knots and flowers and twining stems the image of the
+Wolf of the Waste, his jaws open and gaping:  the wife and daughters
+of the goodman and other women of the folk stood about the bier
+singing some old song in a low voice, and some sobbing therewithal,
+for the man was much beloved:  and much people of the Woodlanders was
+in the hall, and it was somewhat dusk within.
+
+So the Burgstead men greeted that folk kindly and humbly, and again
+they fell to praising the dead man, saying how his deed should long
+be remembered in the Dale and wide about; and they called him a
+fearless man and of great worth.  And the women hearkened, and ceased
+their crooning and their sobbing, and stood up proudly and raised
+their heads with gleaming eyes; and as the words of the Burgstead men
+ended, they lifted up their voices and sang loudly and clearly,
+standing together in a row, ten of them, on the dais of that poor
+hall, facing the gable and the wolf-adorned tie-beam, heeding nought
+as they sang what was about or behind them.
+
+And this is some of what they sang:
+
+
+Why sit ye bare in the spinning-room?
+Why weave ye naked at the loom?
+
+Bare and white as the moon we be,
+That the Earth and the drifting night may see.
+
+Now what is the worst of all your work?
+What curse amidst the web shall lurk?
+
+The worst of the work our hands shall win
+Is wrack and ruin round the kin.
+
+Shall the woollen yarn and the flaxen thread
+Be gear for living men or dead?
+
+The woollen yarn and the flaxen thread
+Shall flare 'twixt living men and dead.
+
+O what is the ending of your day?
+When shall ye rise and wend away?
+
+Our day shall end to-morrow morn,
+When we hear the voice of the battle-horn.
+
+Where first shall eyes of men behold
+This weaving of the moonlight cold?
+
+There where the alien host abides
+The gathering on the Mountain-sides.
+
+How long aloft shall the fair web fly
+When the bows are bent and the spears draw nigh?
+
+From eve to morn and morn till eve
+Aloft shall fly the work we weave.
+
+What then is this, the web ye win?
+What wood-beast waxeth stark therein?
+
+We weave the Wolf and the gift of war
+From the men that were to the men that are.
+
+
+So sang they:  and much were all men moved at their singing, and
+there was none but called to mind the old days of the Fathers, and
+the years when their banner went wide in the world.
+
+But the Woodlanders feasted them of Burgstead what they might, and
+then went the Dalesmen back to their houses; but on the morrow's
+morrow they fared thither again, and Wood-grey was laid in mound
+amidst a great assemblage of the Folk.
+
+Many men said that there was no doubt that those two felons were of
+the company of those who had ransacked the steads of Penny-thumb and
+Harts-bane; and so at first deemed Bristler the son of Brightling:
+but after a while, when he had had time to think of it, he changed
+his mind; for he said that such men as these would have slain first
+and ransacked afterwards:  and some who loved neither Penny-thumb nor
+Harts-bane said that they would not have been at the pains to choose
+for ransacking the two worst men about the Dale, whose loss was no
+loss to any but themselves.
+
+As for Gold-mane he knew not what to think, except that his friends
+of the Mountain had had nought to do with it.
+
+So wore the days awhile.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.  THE BRIDE SPEAKETH WITH FACE-OF-GOD
+
+
+
+February had died into March, and March was now twelve days old, on a
+fair and sunny day an hour before noon; and Face-of-god was in a
+meadow a scant mile down the Dale from Burgstead.  He had been
+driving a bull into a goodman's byre nearby, and had had to spend
+toil and patience both in getting him out of the fields and into the
+byre; for the beast was hot with the spring days and the new grass.
+So now he was resting himself in happy mood in an exceeding pleasant
+place, a little meadow to wit, on one side whereof was a great
+orchard or grove of sweet chestnuts, which went right up to the feet
+of the Southern Cliffs:  across the meadow ran a clear brook towards
+the Weltering Water, free from big stones, in some places dammed up
+for the flooding of the deep pasture-meadow, and with the grass
+growing on its lips down to the very water.  There was a low bank
+just outside the chestnut trees, as if someone had raised a dyke
+about them when they were young, which had been trodden low and
+spreading through the lapse of years by the faring of many men and
+beasts.  The primroses bloomed thick upon it now, and here and there
+along it was a low blackthorn bush in full blossom; from the mid-
+meadow and right down to the lip of the brook was the grass well nigh
+hidden by the blossoms of the meadow-saffron, with daffodils
+sprinkled about amongst them, and in the trees and bushes the birds,
+and chiefly the blackbirds, were singing their loudest.
+
+There sat Face-of-god on the bank resting after his toil, and happy
+was his mood; since in two days' wearing he should be pacing the
+Maiden Ward awaiting the token that was to lead him to Shadowy Vale;
+so he sat calling to mind the Friend as he had last seen her, and
+striving as it were to set her image standing on the flowery grass
+before him, till all the beauty of the meadow seemed bare and empty
+to him without her.  Then it fell into his mind that this had been a
+beloved trysting-place betwixt him and the Bride, and that often when
+they were little would they come to gather chestnuts in the grove,
+and thereafter sit and prattle on the old dyke; or in spring when the
+season was warm would they go barefoot into the brook, seeking its
+treasures of troutlets and flowers and clean-washed agate pebbles.
+Yea, and time not long ago had they met here to talk as lovers, and
+sat on that very bank in all the kindness of good days without a
+blemish, and both he and she had loved the place well for its wealth
+of blossoms and deep grass and goodly trees and clear running stream.
+
+As he thought of all this, and how often there he had praised to
+himself her beauty, which he scarce dared praise to her, he frowned
+and slowly rose to his feet, and turned toward the chestnut-grove, as
+though he would go thence that way; but or ever he stepped down from
+the dyke he turned about again, and even therewith, like the very
+image and ghost of his thought, lo! the Bride herself coming up from
+out the brook and wending toward him, her wet naked feet gleaming in
+the sun as they trod down the tender meadow-saffron and brushed past
+the tufts of daffodils.  He stood staring at her discomforted, for on
+that day he had much to think of that seemed happy to him, and he
+deemed that she would now question him, and his mind pondered divers
+ways of answering her, and none seemed good to him.  She drew near
+and let her skirts fall over her feet, and came to him, her gown hem
+dragging over the flowers:  then she stood straight up before him and
+greeted him, but reached not forth her hand to him nor touched him.
+Her face was paler that its wont, and her voice trembled as she spake
+to him and said:
+
+'Face-of-god, I would ask thee a gift.'
+
+'All gifts,' he said, 'that thou mayest ask, and I may give, lie open
+to thee.'
+
+She said:  'If I be alive when the time comes this gift thou mayst
+well give me.'
+
+'Sweet kinswoman,' said he, 'tell me what it is that thou wouldest
+have of me.'  And he was ill-at-ease as he waited for her answer.
+
+She said:  'Ah, kinsman, kinsman!  Woe on the day that maketh kinship
+accursed to me because thou desirest it!'
+
+He held his peace and was exceeding sorry; and she said:
+
+'This is the gift that I ask of thee, that in the days to come when
+thou art wedded, thou wilt give me the second man-child whom thou
+begettest.'
+
+He said:  'This shalt thou have, and would that I might give thee
+much more.  Would that we were little children together other again,
+as when we played here in other days.'
+
+She said:  'I would have a token of thee that thou shalt show to the
+God, and swear on it to give me the gift.  For the times change.'
+
+'What token wilt thou have?' said he.
+
+She said:  'When next thou farest to the Wood, thou shalt bring me
+back, it maybe a flower from the bank ye sit upon, or a splinter from
+the dais of the hall wherein ye feast, or maybe a ring or some matter
+that the strangers are wont to wear.  That shall be the token.'
+
+She spoke slowly, hanging her head adown, but she lifted it presently
+and looked into his face and said:
+
+'Woe's me, woe's me, Gold-mane!  How evil is this day, when bewailing
+me I may not bewail thee also!  For I know that thine heart is glad.
+All through the winter have I kept this hidden in my heart, and durst
+not speak to thee.  But now the spring-tide hath driven me to it.
+Let summer come, and who shall say?'
+
+Great was his grief, and his shame kept him silent, and he had no
+word to say; and again she said:
+
+'Tell me, Gold-mane, when goest thou thither?'
+
+He said:  'I know not surely, may happen in two days, may happen in
+ten.  Why askest thou?'
+
+'O friend!' she said, 'is it a new thing that I should ask thee
+whither thou goest and whence thou comest, and the times of thy
+coming and going.  Farewell to-day!  Forget not the token.  Woe's me,
+that I may not kiss thy fair face!'
+
+She spread her arms abroad and lifted up her face as one who waileth,
+but no sound came from her lips; then she turned about and went away
+as she had come.
+
+But as for him he stood there after she was gone in all confusion, as
+if he were undone:  for he felt his manhood lessened that he should
+thus and so sorely have hurt a friend, and in a manner against his
+will.  And yet he was somewhat wroth with her, that she had come upon
+him so suddenly, and spoken to him with such mastery, and in so few
+words, and he with none to make answer to her, and that she had so
+marred his pleasure and his hope of that fair day.  Then he sat him
+down again on the flowery bank, and little by little his heart
+softened, and he once more called to mind many a time when they had
+been there before, and the plays and the games they had had together
+there when they were little.  And he bethought him of the days that
+were long to him then, and now seemed short to him, and as if they
+were all grown together into one story, and that a sweet one.  Then
+his breast heaved with a sob, and the tears rose to his eyes and
+burned and stung him, and he fell a-weeping for that sweet tale, and
+wept as he had wept once before on that old dyke when there had been
+some child's quarrel between them, and she had gone away and left
+him.
+
+Then after a while he ceased his weeping, and looked about him lest
+anyone might be coming, and then he arose and went to and fro in the
+chestnut-grove for a good while, and afterwards went his ways from
+that meadow, saying to himself:  'Yet remaineth to me the morrow of
+to-morrow, and that is the first of the days of the watching for the
+token.'
+
+But all that day he was slow to meet the eyes of men; and in the hall
+that eve he was silent and moody; for from time to time it came over
+him that some of his manhood had departed from him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.  THE TOKEN COMETH FROM THE MOUNTAIN
+
+
+
+The next day wore away tidingless; and the day after Face-of-god
+arose betimes; for it was the first day of his watch, and he was at
+the Maiden Ward before the time appointed on a very fair and bright
+morning, and he went to and fro on that place, and had no tidings.
+So he came away somewhat cast down, and said within himself:  'Is it
+but a lie and a mocking when all is said?'
+
+On the morrow he went thither again, and the morn was wild and stormy
+with drift of rain, and low clouds hurrying over the earth, though
+for the sunrise they lifted a little in the east, and the sun came up
+over the passes, amidst the red and angry rack of clouds.  This morn
+also gave him no tidings of the token, and he was wroth and perturbed
+in spirit:  but towards evening he said:
+
+'It is well:  ten days she gave me, so that she might be able to send
+without fail on one of them; she will not fail me.'
+
+So again on the morrow he was there betimes, and the morn was windy
+as on the day before, but the clouds higher and of better promise for
+the day.  Face-of-god walked to and fro on the Maiden Ward, and as he
+turned toward Burgstead for the tenth time, he heard, as he deemed, a
+bow-string twang afar off, and even therewith came a shaft flying
+heavily like a winged bird, which smote a great standing stone on the
+other side of the way, where of old some chieftain had been buried,
+and fell to earth at its foot.  He went up to it and handled it, and
+saw that there was a piece of thin parchment wrapped about it, which
+indeed he was eager to unwrap at once, but forebore; because he was
+on the highway, and people were already astir, and even then passed
+by him a goodman of the Dale with a man of his going afield together,
+and they gave him the sele of the day.  So he went along the highway
+a little till he came to a place where was a footbridge over into the
+meadow.  He crossed thereby and went swiftly till he reached a rising
+ground grown over with hazel-trees; there he sat down among the
+rabbit-holes, the primrose and wild-garlic blooming about him, and
+three blackbirds answering one another from the edges of the coppice.
+Straightway when he had looked and seen none coming he broke the
+threads that were wound about the scroll and the arrow, and unrolled
+the parchment; and there was writing thereon in black ink of small
+letters, but very fair, and this is what he read therein:
+
+
+Come thou to the Mountain Hall by the path which thou knowest of, on
+the morrow of the day whereon thou readest this.  Rise betimes and
+come armed, for there are other men than we in the wood; to whom thy
+death should be a gain.  When thou art come to the Hall, thou shalt
+find no man therein; but a great hound only, tied to a bench nigh the
+dais.  Call him by his name, Sure-foot to wit, and give him to eat
+from the meat upon the board, and give him water to drink.  If the
+day is then far spent, as it is like to be, abide thou with the hound
+in the hall through the night, and eat of what thou shalt find there;
+but see that the hound fares not abroad till the morrow's morn:  then
+lead him out and bring him to the north-east corner of the Hall, and
+he shall lift the slot for thee that leadeth to the Shadowy Yale.
+Follow him and all good go with thee.
+
+
+Now when he had read this, earth seemed fair indeed about him, and he
+scarce knew whither to turn or what to do to make the most of his
+joy.  He presently went back to Burgstead and into the House of the
+Face, where all men were astir now, and the day was clearing.  He hid
+the shaft under his kirtle, for he would not that any should see it;
+so he went to his shut-bed and laid it up in his chest, wherein he
+kept his chiefest treasures; but the writing on the scroll he set in
+his bosom and so hid it.  He went joyfully and proudly, as one who
+knoweth more tidings and better than those around him.  But Stone-
+face beheld him, and said 'Foster-son, thou art happy.  Is it that
+the spring-tide is in thy blood, and maketh thee blithe with all
+things, or hast thou some new tidings?  Nay, I would not have an
+answer out of thee; but here is good rede:  when next thou goest into
+the wood, it were nought so ill for thee to have a valiant old carle
+by thy side; one that loveth thee, and would die for thee if need
+were; one who might watch when thou wert seeking.  Or else beware!
+for there are evil things abroad in the Wood, and moreover the
+brethren of those two felons who were slain at Carlstead.'
+
+Then Gold-mane constrained himself to answer the old carle softly;
+and he thanked him kindly for his offer, and said that so it should
+be before long.  So the talk between them fell, and Stone-face went
+away somewhat well-pleased.
+
+And now was Face-of-god become wary; and he would not draw men's eyes
+and speech on him; so he went afield with Hall-face to deal with the
+lambs and the ewes, and did like other men.  No less wary was he in
+the hall that even, and neither spake much nor little; and when his
+father spake to him concerning the Bride, and made game of him as a
+somewhat sluggish groom, he did not change countenance, but answered
+lightly what came to hand.
+
+On the morrow ere the earliest dawn he was afoot, and he clad himself
+and did on his hauberk, his father's work, which was fine-wrought and
+a stout defence, and reached down to his knees; and over that he did
+on a goodly green kirtle well embroidered:  he girt his war-sword to
+his side, and it was the work of his father's father, and a very good
+sword:  its name was Dale-warden.  He did a good helm on his head,
+and slung a targe at his back, and took two spears in his hand, short
+but strong-shafted and well-steeled.  Thus arrayed he left Burgstead
+before the dawn, and came to Wildlake's Way and betook him to the
+Woodland.  He made no stop or stay on the path, but ate his meat
+standing by an oak-tree close by the half-blind track.  When he came
+to the little wood-lawn, where was the toft of the ancient house, he
+looked all round about him, for he deemed that a likely place for
+those ugly wood-wights to set on him; but nought befell him, though
+he stooped and drank of the woodland rill warily enough.  So he
+passed on; and there were other places also where he fared warily,
+because they seemed like to hold lurking felons; though forsooth the
+whole wood might well serve their turn.  But no evil befell him, and
+at last, when it yet lacked an hour to sunset, he came to the wood-
+lawn where Wild-wearer had made his onset that other eve.
+
+He went straight up to the house, his heart beating, and he scarce
+believing but that he should find the Friend abiding him there:  but
+when he pushed the door it gave way before him at once, and he
+entered and found no man therein, and the walls stripped bare and no
+shield or weapon hanging on the panels.  But the hound he saw tied to
+a bench nigh the dais, and the bristles on the beast's neck arose,
+and he snarled on Face-of-god, and strained on his leathern leash.
+Then Face-of-god went up to him and called him by his name, Sure-
+foot, and gave him his hand to lick, and he brought him water, and
+fed him with flesh from the meat on the board; so the beast became
+friendly and wagged his tail and whined and slobbered his hand.
+
+Then he went all about the house, and saw and heard no living thing
+therein save the mice in the panels and Sure-foot.  So he came back
+to the dais, and sat him down at the board and ate his fill, and
+thought concerning his case.  And it came into his mind that the
+Woman of the Mountain had some deed for him to do which would try his
+manliness and exalt his fame; and his heart rose high and he was
+glad, and he saw himself sitting beside her on the dais of a very
+fair hall beloved and honoured of all the folk, and none had aught to
+say against him or owed him any grudge.  Thus he pleased himself in
+thinking of the good days to come, sitting there till the hall grew
+dusk and dark and the night-wind moaned about it.
+
+Then after a while he arose and raked together the brands on the
+hearth, and made light in the hall and looked to the door.  And he
+found there were bolts and bars thereto, so he shot the bolts and
+drew the bars into their places and made all as sure as might be.
+Then he brought Sure-foot down from the dais, and tied him up so that
+he might lie down athwart the door, and then lay down his hauberk
+with his naked sword ready to his hand, and slept long while.
+
+When he awoke it was darker than when he had lain him for the moon
+had set; yet he deemed that the day was at point of breaking.  So he
+fetched water and washed the night off him, and saw a little glimmer
+of the dawn.  Then he ate somewhat of the meat on the board, and did
+on his helm and his other gear, and unbarred the door, and led Sure-
+foot without, and brought him to the north-east corner of the house,
+and in a little while he lifted the slot and they departed, the man
+and the hound, just as broke dawn from over the mountains.
+
+Sure-foot led right into the heart of the pine-wood, and it was dark
+enough therein, with nought but a feeble glimmer for some while, and
+long was the way therethrough; but in two hours' space was there
+something of a break, and they came to the shore of a dark deep tarn
+on whose windless and green waters the daylight shone fully.  The
+hound skirted the water, and led on unchecked till the trees began to
+grow smaller and the air colder for all that the sun was higher; for
+they had been going up and up all the way.
+
+So at last after a six hours' journey they came clean out of the
+pine-wood, and before them lay the black wilderness of the bare
+mountains, and beyond them, looking quite near now, the great ice-
+peaks, the wall of the world.  It was but an hour short of noon by
+this time, and the high sun shone down on a barren boggy moss which
+lay betwixt them and the rocky waste.  Sure-foot made no stay, but
+threaded the ways that went betwixt the quagmires, and in another
+hour led Face-of-god into a winding valley blinded by great rocks,
+and everywhere stony and rough, with a trickle of water running
+amidst of it.  The hound fared on up the dale to where the water was
+bridged by a great fallen stone, and so over it and up a steep bent
+on the further side, on to a marvellously rough mountain-neck, whiles
+mere black sand cumbered with scattered rocks and stones, whiles
+beset with mires grown over with the cottony mire-grass; here and
+there a little scanty grass growing; otherwhere nought but dwarf
+willow ever dying ever growing, mingled with moss or red-blossomed
+sengreen; and all blending together into mere desolation.
+
+Few living things they saw there; up on the neck a few sheep were
+grazing the scanty grass, but there was none to tend them; yet Face-
+of-god deemed the sight of them good, for there must be men anigh who
+owned them.  For the rest, the whimbrel laughed across the mires;
+high up in heaven a great eagle was hanging; once and again a grey
+fox leapt up before them, and the heath-fowl whirred up from under
+Face-of-god's feet.  A raven who was sitting croaking on a rock in
+that first dale stirred uneasily on his perch as he saw them, and
+when they were passed flapped his wings and flew after them croaking
+still.
+
+Now they fared over that neck somewhat east, making but slow way
+because the ground was so broken and rocky; and in another hour's
+space Sure-foot led down-hill due east to where the stony neck sank
+into another desolate miry heath still falling toward the east, but
+whose further side was walled by a rampart of crags cleft at their
+tops into marvellous-shapes, coal-black, ungrassed and unmossed.
+Thitherward the hound led straight, and Gold-mane followed wondering:
+as he drew near them he saw that they were not very high, the tallest
+peak scant fifty feet from the face of the heath.
+
+They made their way through the scattered rocks at the foot of these
+crags, till, just where the rock-wall seemed the closest, the way
+through the stones turned into a path going through it skew-wise; and
+it was now so clear a path that belike it had been bettered by men's
+hands.  Down thereby Face-of-god followed the hound, deeming that he
+was come to the gates of the Shadowy Vale, and the path went down
+steeply and swiftly.  But when he had gone down a while, the rocks on
+his right hand sank lower for a space, so that he could look over and
+see what lay beneath.
+
+There lay below him a long narrow vale quite plain at the bottom,
+walled on the further side as on the hither by sheer rocks of black
+stone.  The plain was grown over with grass, but he could see no tree
+therein:  a deep river, dark and green, ran through the vale,
+sometimes through its midmost, sometimes lapping the further rock-
+wall:  and he thought indeed that on many a day in the year the sun
+would never shine on that valley.
+
+Thus much he saw, and then the rocks rose again and shut it from his
+sight; and at last they drew so close together over head that he was
+in a way going through a cave with little daylight coming from above,
+and in the end he was in a cave indeed and mere darkness:  but with
+the last feeble glimmer of light he thought he saw carved on a smooth
+space of the living rock at his left hand the image of a wolf.
+
+This cave lasted but a little way, and soon the hound and the man
+were going once more between sheer black rocks, and the path grew
+steeper yet and was cut into steps.  At last there was a sharp turn,
+and they stood on the top of a long stony scree, down which Sure-foot
+bounded eagerly, giving tongue as he went; but Face-of-god stood
+still and looked, for now the whole Dale lay open before him.
+
+That river ran from north to south, and at the south end the cliffs
+drew so close to it that looking thence no outgate could be seen; but
+at the north end there was as it were a dreary street of rocks, the
+river flowing amidmost and leaving little foothold on either side,
+somewhat as it was with the pass leading from the mountains into
+Burgdale.
+
+Amidmost of the Dale a little toward the north end he saw a doom-ring
+of black stones, and hard by it an ancient hall builded of the same
+black stone both wall and roof, and thitherward was Sure-foot now
+running.  Face-of-god looked up and down the Dale and could see no
+break in the wall of sheer rock:  toward the southern end he saw a
+few booths and cots built roughly of stone and thatched with turf;
+thereabout he saw a few folk moving about, the most of whom seemed to
+be women and children; there were some sheep and lambs near these
+cots, and a herd of fifty or so of somewhat goodly mountain-kine were
+feeding higher up the valley.  He could look down into the river from
+where he stood, and he saw that it ran between rocky banks going
+straight down from the face of the meadow, which was rather high
+above the water, so that it seemed little likely that the water
+should rise over its banks, either in summer or winter; and in summer
+was it like to be highest, because the vale was so near to the high
+mountains and their snows.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE FRIEND IN SHADOWY VALE
+
+
+
+It was now about two hours after noon, and a broad band of sunlight
+lay upon the grass of the vale below Gold-mane's feet; he went
+lightly down the scree, and strode forward over the level grass
+toward the Doom-ring, his helm and war-gear glittering bright in the
+sun.  He must needs go through the Doom-ring to come to the Hall, and
+as he stepped out from behind the last of the big upright-stones, he
+saw a woman standing on the threshold of the Hall-door, which was but
+some score of paces from him, and knew her at once for the Friend.
+
+She was clad like himself in a green kirtle gaily embroidered and
+fitting close to her body, and had no gown or cloak over it; she had
+a golden fillet on her head beset with blue mountain stones, and her
+hair hung loose behind her.
+
+Her beauty was so exceeding, and so far beyond all memory of her that
+his mind had held, that once more fear of her fell upon Face-of-god,
+and he stood still with beating heart till she should speak to him.
+But she came forward swiftly with both her hands held out, smiling
+and happy-faced, and looking very kindly on him, and she took his
+hands and said to him:
+
+'Now welcome, Gold-mane, welcome, Face-of-god! and twice welcome art
+thou and threefold.  Lo! this is the day that thou asked for:  art
+thou happy in it?'
+
+He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them timorously, but said
+nought; and therewithal Sure-foot came running forth from the Hall,
+and fell to bounding round about them, barking noisily after the
+manner of dogs who have met their masters again; and still she held
+his hands and beheld him kindly.  Then she called the hound to her,
+and patted him on the neck and quieted him, and then turned to Face-
+of-god and laughed happily and said:
+
+'I do not bid thee hold thy peace; yet thou sayest nought.  Is well
+with thee?'
+
+'Yea,' he said, 'and more than well.'
+
+'Thou seemest to me a goodly warrior,' she said; 'hast thou met any
+foemen yesterday or this morning?'
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'none hindered me; thou hast made the ways easy to
+me.'
+
+She said soberly, 'Such as I might do, I did.  But we may not wield
+everything, for our foes are many, and I feared for thee.  But come
+thou into our house, which is ours, and far more ours than the booth
+before the pine-wood.'
+
+She took his hand again and led him toward the door, but Face-of-god
+looked up, and above the lintel he saw carved on the dark stone that
+image of the Wolf, even as he had seen it carved on Wood-grey's tie-
+beam; and therewith such thoughts came into his mind that he stopped
+to look, pressing the Friend's hand hard as though bidding her note
+it.  The stone wherein the image was carved was darker than the other
+building stones, and might be called black; the jaws of the wood-
+beast were open and gaping, and had been painted with cinnabar, but
+wind and weather had worn away the most of the colour.
+
+Spake the Friend:  'So it is:  thou beholdest the token of the God
+and Father of out Fathers, that telleth the tale of so many days,
+that the days which now pass by us be to them but as the drop in the
+sea of waters.  Thou beholdest the sign of our sorrow, the memory of
+our wrong; yet is it also the token of our hope.  Maybe it shall lead
+thee far.'
+
+'Whither?' said he.  But she answered not a great while, and he
+looked at her as she stood a-gazing on the image, and saw how the
+tears stole out of her eyes and ran adown her cheeks.  Then again
+came the thought to him of Wood-grey's hall, and the women of the
+kindred standing before the Wolf and singing of him; and though there
+was little comeliness in them and she was so exceeding beauteous, he
+could not but deem that they were akin to her.
+
+But after a while she wiped the tears from her face and turned to him
+and said:  'My friend, the Wolf shall lead thee no-whither but where
+I also shall be, whatsoever peril or grief may beset the road or lurk
+at the ending thereof.  Thou shalt be no thrall, to labour while I
+look on.'
+
+His heart swelled within him as she spoke, and he was at point to
+beseech her love that moment; but now her face had grown gay and
+bright again, and she said while he was gathering words to speak
+withal:
+
+'Come in, Gold-mane, come into our house; for I have many things to
+say to thee.  And moreover thou art so hushed, and so fearsome in thy
+mail, that I think thou yet deemest me to be a Wight of the Waste,
+such as Stone-face thy Fosterer told thee tales of, and forewarned
+thee.  So would I eat before thee, and sign the meat with the sign of
+the Earth-god's Hammer, to show thee that he is in error concerning
+me, and that I am a very woman flesh and fell, as my kindred were
+before me.'
+
+He laughed and was exceeding glad, and said:  'Tell me now, kind
+friend, dost thou deem that Stone-face's tales are mere mockery of
+his dreams, and that he is beguiled by empty semblances or less?  Or
+are there such Wights in the Waste.'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'the man is a true man; and of these things are
+there many ancient tales which we may not doubt.  Yet so it is that
+such wights have I never yet seen, nor aught to scare me save evil
+men:  belike it is that I have been over-much busied in dealing with
+sorrow and ruin to look after them:  or it may be that they feared me
+and the wrath-breeding grief of the kindred.'
+
+He looked at her earnestly, and the wisdom of her heart seemed to
+enter into his; but she said:  'It is of men we must talk, and of me
+and thee.  Come with me, my friend.'
+
+And she stepped lightly over the threshold and drew him in.  The Hall
+was stern and grim and somewhat dusky, for its windows were but
+small:  it was all of stone, both walls and roof.  There was no
+timber-work therein save the benches and chairs, a little about the
+doors at the lower end that led to the buttery and out-bowers; and
+this seemed to have been wrought of late years; yea, the chairs
+against the gable on the dais were of stone built into the wall,
+adorned with carving somewhat sparingly, the image of the Wolf being
+done over the midmost of them.  He looked up and down the Hall, and
+deemed it some seventy feet over all from end to end; and he could
+see in the dimness those same goodly hangings on the wall which he
+had seen in the woodland booth.
+
+She led him up to the dais, and stood there leaning up against the
+arm of one of those stone seats silent for a while; then she turned
+and looked at him, and said:
+
+'Yea, thou lookest a goodly warrior; yet am I glad that thou camest
+hither without battle.  Tell me, Gold-mane,' she said, taking one of
+his spears from his hand, 'art thou deft with the spear?'
+
+'I have been called so,' said he.
+
+She looked at him sweetly and said:  'Canst thou show me the feat of
+spear-throwing in this Hall, or shall we wend outside presently that
+I may see thee throw?'
+
+'The Hall sufficeth,' he said.  'Shall I set this steel in the lintel
+of the buttery door yonder?'
+
+'Yea, if thou canst,' she said.
+
+He smiled and took the spear from her, and poised it and shook it
+till it quivered again, then suddenly drew back his arm and cast, and
+the shaft sped whistling down the dim hall, and smote the aforesaid
+door-lintel and stuck there quivering:  then he sprang down from the
+dais, and ran down the hall, and put forth his hand and pulled it
+forth from the wood, and was on the dais again in a trice, and cast
+again, and the second time set the spear in the same place, and then
+took his other spear from the board and cast it, and there stood the
+two staves in the wood side by side; then he went soberly down the
+hall and drew them both out of the wood and came back to her, while
+she stood watching him, her cheek flushed, her lips a little parted.
+
+She said:  'Good spear-casting, forsooth! and far above what our folk
+can do, who be no great throwers of the spear.'
+
+Gold-mane laughed:  'Sooth is that,' said he, 'or hardly were I here
+to teach thee spear-throwing.'
+
+'Wilt thou NEVER be paid for that simple onslaught?' she said.
+
+'Have I been paid then?' said he.
+
+She reddened, for she remembered her word to him on the mountain; and
+he put his hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek, but timorously;
+nor did she withstand him or shrink aback, but said soberly:
+
+'Good indeed is thy spear-throwing, and meseems my brother will love
+thee when he hath seen thee strike a stroke or two in wrath.  But,
+fair warrior, there be no foemen here:  so get thee to the lower end
+of the Hall, and in the bower beyond shalt thou find fresh water;
+there wash the waste from off thee, and do off thine helm and
+hauberk, and come back speedily and eat with me; for I hunger, and so
+dost thou.'
+
+He did as she bade him, and came back presently bearing in his hand
+both helm and hauberk, and he looked light-limbed and trim and
+lissome, an exceeding goodly man.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  THE FAIR WOMAN TELLETH FACE-OF-GOD OF HER KINDRED
+
+
+
+When he came back to the dais he saw that there was meat upon the
+board, and the Friend said to him:
+
+'Now art thou Gold-mane indeed:  but come now, sit by me and eat,
+though the Wood-woman giveth thee but a sorry banquet, O guest; but
+from the Dale it is, and we be too far now from the dwellings of men
+to have delicate meat on the board, though to-night when they come
+back thy cheer shall be better.  Yet even then thou shalt have no
+such dainties as Stone-face hath imagined for thee at the hands of
+the Wood-wight.'
+
+She laughed therewith, and he no less; and in sooth the meat was but
+simple, of curds and new cheese, meat of the herdsmen.  But Face-of-
+god said gaily:  'Sweet it shall be to me; good is all that the
+Friend giveth.'
+
+Then she raised her hand and made the sign of the Hammer over the
+board, and looked up at him and said:
+
+'Hath the Earth-god changed my face, Gold-mane, to what I verily am?'
+
+He held his face close to hers and looked into it, and him-seemed it
+was as pure as the waters of a mountain lake, and as fine and well-
+wrought every deal of it as when his father had wrought in his stithy
+many days and fashioned a small piece of great mastery.  He was
+ashamed to kiss her again, but he said to himself, 'This is the
+fairest woman of the world, whom I have sworn to wed this year.'
+Then he spake aloud and said:
+
+'I see the face of the Friend, and it will not change to me.'
+
+Again she reddened a little, and the happy look in her face seemed to
+grow yet sweeter, and he was bewildered with longing and delight.
+
+But she stood up and went to an ambrye in the wall and brought forth
+a horn shod and lipped with silver of ancient fashion, and she poured
+wine into it and held it forth and said:
+
+'O guest from the Dale, I pledge thee! and when thou hast drunk to me
+in turn we will talk of weighty matters.  For indeed I bear hopes in
+my hands too heavy for the daughters of men to bear; and thou art a
+chieftain's son, and mayst well help me to bear them; so let us talk
+simply and without guile, as folk that trust one another.'
+
+So she drank and held out the horn to him, and he took the horn and
+her hand both, and he kissed her hand and said:
+
+'Here in this Hall I drink to the Sons of the Wolf, whosoever they
+be.'  Therewith he drank and he said:  'Simply and guilelessly indeed
+will I talk with thee; for I am weary of lies, and for thy sake have
+I told a many.'
+
+'Thou shalt tell no more,' she said; 'and as for the health thou hast
+drunk, it is good, and shall profit thee.  Now sit we here in these
+ancient seats and let us talk.'
+
+So they sat them down while the sun was westering in the March
+afternoon, and she said:
+
+'Tell me first what tidings have been in the Dale.'
+
+So he told her of the ransackings and of the murder at Carlstead.
+
+She said:  'These tidings have we heard before, and some deal of them
+we know better than ye do, or can; for we were the ransackers of
+Penny-thumb and Harts-bane.  Thereof will I say more presently.  What
+other tidings hast thou to tell of?  What oaths were sworn upon the
+Boar last Yule?'
+
+So he told her of the oath of Bristler the son of Brightling.  She
+smiled and said:  'He shall keep his oath, and yet redden no blade.'
+
+Then he told of his father's oath, and she said:
+
+'It is good; but even so would he do and no oath sworn.  All men may
+trust Iron-face.  And thou, my friend, what oath didst thou swear?'
+
+His face grew somewhat troubled as he said:  'I swore to wed the
+fairest woman in the world, though the Dalesmen gainsaid me, and they
+beyond the Dale.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'and there is no need to ask thee whom thou didst
+mean by thy "fairest woman," for I have seen that thou deemest me
+fair enough.  My friend, maybe thy kindred will be against it, and
+the kindred of the Bride; and it might be that my kindred would have
+gainsaid it if things were not as they are.  But though all men
+gainsay it, yet will not I.  It is meet and right that we twain wed.'
+
+She spake very soberly and quietly, but when she had spoken there was
+nothing in his heart but joy and gladness:  yet shame of her
+loveliness refrained him, and he cast down his eyes before hers.
+Then she said in a kind voice:
+
+'I know thee, how glad thou art of this word of mine, because thou
+lookest on me with eyes of love, and thinkest of me as better than I
+am; though I am no ill woman and no beguiler.  But this is not all
+that I have to say to thee, though it be much; for there are more
+folk in the world than thou and I only.  But I told thee this first,
+that thou mightest trust me in all things.  So, my friend, if thou
+canst, refrain thy joy and thy longing a little, and hearken to what
+concerneth thee and me, and thy people and mine.'
+
+'Fair woman and sweet friend,' he said, 'thou knowest of a gladness
+which is hard to bear if one must lay it aside for a while; and of a
+longing which is hard to refrain if it mingle with another longing--
+knowest thou not?'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'I know it.'
+
+'Yet,' said Face-of-god, 'I will forbear as thou biddest me.  Tell
+me, then, what were the felons who were slain at Carlstead?  Knowest
+thou of them?'
+
+'Over well,' she said, 'they are our foes this many a year; and since
+we met last autumn they have become foes of you Dalesmen also.  Soon
+shall ye have tidings of them; and it was against them that I bade
+thee arm yesterday.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Is it against them that thou wouldst have us do
+battle along with thy folk?'
+
+'So it is,' she said; 'no other foemen have we.  And now, Gold-mane,
+thou art become a friend of the Wolf, and shalt before long be of
+affinity with our House; that other day thou didst ask me to tell
+thee of me and mine, and now will I do according to thine asking.
+Short shall my tale be; because maybe thou shalt hear it told again,
+and in goodly wise, before thine whole folk.
+
+'As thou wottest we be now outlaws and Wolves' Heads; and whiles we
+lift the gear of men, but ever if we may of ill men and not of good;
+there is no worthy goodman of the Dale from whom we would take one
+hoof, or a skin of wine, or a cake of wax.
+
+'Wherefore are we outlaws?  Because we have been driven from our own,
+and we bore away our lives and our weapons, and little else; and for
+our lands, thou seest this Vale in the howling wilderness and how
+narrow and poor it is, though it hath been the nurse of warriors in
+time past.
+
+'Hearken!  Time long ago came the kindred of the Wolf to these
+Mountains of the World; and they were in a pass in the stony maze and
+the utter wilderness of the Mountains, and the foe was behind them in
+numbers not to be borne up against.  And so it befell that the pass
+forked, and there were two ways before our Folk; and one part of them
+would take the way to the north and the other the way to the south;
+and they could not agree which way the whole Folk should take.  So
+they sundered into two companies, and one took one way and one
+another.  Now as to those who fared by the southern road, we knew not
+what befell them, nor for long and long had we any tale of them.
+
+'But we who took the northern road, we happened on this Vale amidst
+the wilderness, and we were weary of fleeing from the over-mastering
+foe; and the dale seemed enough, and a refuge, and a place to dwell
+in, and no man was there before us, and few were like to find it, and
+we were but a few.  So we dwelt here in this Vale for as wild as it
+is, the place where the sun shineth never in the winter, and scant is
+the summer sunshine therein.  Here we raised a Doom-ring and builded
+us a Hall, wherein thou now sittest beside me, O friend, and we dwelt
+here many seasons.
+
+'We had a few sheep in the wilderness, and a few neat fed down the
+grass of the Vale; and we found gems and copper in the rocks about us
+wherewith at whiles to chaffer with the aliens, and fish we drew from
+our river the Shivering Flood.  Also it is not to be hidden that in
+those days we did not spare to lift the goods of men; yea, whiles
+would our warriors fare down unto the edges of the Plain and lie in
+wait there till the time served, and then drive the spoil from under
+the very walls of the Cities.  Our men were not little-hearted, nor
+did our women lament the death of warriors over-much, for they were
+there to bear more warriors to the Folk.
+
+'But the seasons passed, and the Folk multiplied in Shadowy Vale, and
+livelihood seemed like to fail them, and needs must they seek wider
+lands.  So by ways which thou wilt one day wot of, we came into a
+valley that lieth north-west of Shadowy Vale:  a land like thine of
+Burgdale, or better; wide it was, plenteous of grass and trees, well
+watered, full of all things that man can desire.
+
+'Were there men before us in this Dale? sayest thou.  Yea, but not
+very many, and they feeble in battle, weak of heart, though strong of
+body.  These, when they saw the Sons of the Wolf with weapons in
+their hands, felt themselves puny before us, and their hearts failed
+them; and they came to us with gifts, and offered to share the Dale
+between them and us, for they said there was enough for both folks.
+So we took their offer and became their friends; and some of our
+Houses wedded wives of the strangers, and gave them their women to
+wife.  Therein they did amiss; for the blended Folk as the
+generations passed became softer than our blood, and many were
+untrusty and greedy and tyrannous, and the days of the whoredom fell
+upon us, and when we deemed ourselves the mightiest then were we the
+nearest to our fall.  But the House whereof I am would never wed with
+these Westlanders, and other Houses there were who had affinity with
+us who chiefly wedded with us of the Wolf, and their fathers had come
+with ours into that fruitful Dale; and these were called the Red
+Hand, and the Silver Arm, and the Golden Bushel, and the Ragged
+Sword.  Thou hast heard those names once before, friend?'
+
+'Yea,' he said, and as he spoke the picture of that other day came
+back to him, and he called to mind all that he had said, and his
+happiness of that hour seemed the more and the sweeter for that
+memory.
+
+She went on:  'Fair and goodly is that Dale as mine own eyes have
+seen, and plentiful of all things, and up in its mountains to the
+east are caves and pits whence silver is digged abundantly; therefore
+is the Dale called Silver-dale.  Hast thou heard thereof, my friend?'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'though I have marvelled whence ye gat such
+foison of silver.'
+
+He looked on her and marvelled, for now she seemed as if it were
+another woman:  her eyes were gleaming bright, her lips were parted;
+there was a bright red flush on the pommels of her two cheeks as she
+spake again and said:
+
+'Happy lived the Folk in Silver-dale for many and many winters and
+summers:  the seasons were good and no lack was there:  little
+sickness there was and less war, and all seemed better than well.  It
+is strange that ye Dalesmen have not heard of Silver-dale.'
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'but I have not; of Rose-dale have I heard, as a land
+very far away:  but no further do we know of toward that airt.  Lieth
+Silver-dale anywhere nigh to Rose-dale?'
+
+She said:  'It is the next dale to it, yet is it a far journey
+betwixt the two, for the ice-sea pusheth a horn in betwixt them; and
+even below the ice the mountain-neck is passable to none save a bold
+crag-climber, and to him only bearing his life in his hands.  But, my
+friend, I am but lingering over my tale, because it grieveth me sore
+to have to tell it.  Hearken then!  In the days when I had seen but
+ten summers, and my brother was a very young man, but exceeding
+strong, and as beautiful as thou art now, war fell on us without
+rumour or warning; for there swarmed into Silver-dale, though not by
+the ways whereby we had entered it, a host of aliens, short of
+stature, crooked of limb, foul of aspect, but fierce warriors and
+armed full well:  they were men having no country to go back to,
+though they had no women or children with them, as we had when we
+were young in these lands, but used all women whom they took as their
+beastly lust bade them, making them their thralls if they slew them
+not.  Soon we found that these foemen asked no more of us than all we
+had, and therewithal our lives to be cast away or used for their
+service as beasts of burden or pleasure.  There then we gathered our
+fighting-men and withstood them; and if we had been all of the
+kindreds of the Wolf and the fruit of the wives of warriors, we
+should have driven back these felons and saved the Dale, though it
+maybe more than half ruined:  but the most part of us were of that
+mingled blood, or of the generations of the Dalesmen whom we had
+conquered long ago, and stout as they were of body their hearts
+failed them, and they gave themselves up to the aliens to be as their
+oxen and asses.
+
+'Why make a long tale of it?  We who were left, and could brook death
+but not thraldom, fought it out together, women as well as men, till
+the sweetness of life and a happy chance for escape bid us flee,
+vanquished but free men.  For at the end of three days' fight we had
+been driven up to the easternmost end of the Dale, and up anigh to
+the jaws of the pass whereby the Folk had first come into Silver-
+dale, and we had those with us who knew every cranny of that way,
+while to strangers who knew it not it was utterly impassable; night
+was coming on also, and even those murder-carles were weary with
+slaying; and, moreover, on this last day, when they saw that they had
+won all, they were fighting to keep, and not to slay, and a few
+stubborn carles and queens, of what use would they be, or where was
+the gain of risking life to win them?
+
+'So they forbore us, and night came on moonless and dark; and it was
+the early spring season, when the days are not yet long, and so by
+night and cloud we fled away, and back again to Shadowy Vale.
+
+'Forsooth, we were but a few; for when we were gotten into this Vale,
+this strip of grass and water in the wilderness, and had told up our
+company, we were but two hundred and thirty and five of men and women
+and children.  For there were an hundred and thirty and three grown
+men of all ages, and of women grown seventy and five, and one score
+and seven children, whereof I was one; for, as thou mayst deem, it
+was easier for grown men with weapons in their hands to escape from
+that slaughter than for women and children.
+
+'There sat we in yonder Doom-ring and took counsel, and to some it
+seemed good that we should all dwell together in Shadowy Vale, and
+beset the skirts of the foemen till the days should better; but
+others deemed that there was little avail therein; and there was a
+mighty man of the kindred, Stone-wolf by name, a man of middle-age,
+and he said, that late in life had he tasted of war, and though the
+banquet was made bitter with defeat, yet did the meat seem wholesome
+to him.  "Come down with me to the Cities of the Plain," said he,
+"all you who are stout warriors; and leave we here the old men and
+the swains and the women and children.  Hateful are the folk there,
+and full of malice, but soft withal and dastardly.  Let us go down
+thither and make ourselves strong amongst them, and sell our valour
+for their wealth till we come to rule them, and they make us their
+kings, and we establish the Folk of the Wolf amongst the aliens; then
+will we come back hither and bring away that which we have left."
+
+'So he spake, and the more part of the warriors yea said his rede,
+and they went with him to the Westland, and amongst these was my
+brother Folk-might (for that is his name in the kindred).  And I
+sorrowed at his departure, for he had borne me thither out of the
+flames and the clash of swords and the press of battle, and to me had
+he ever been kind and loving, albeit he hath had the Words of hard
+and froward used on him full oft.
+
+'So in this Vale abode we that were left, and the seasons passed;
+some of the elders died, and some of the children also; but more
+children were born, for amongst us were men and women to whom it was
+lawful to wed with each other.  Even with this scanty remnant was
+left some of the life of the kindred of old days; and after we had
+been here but a little while, the young men, yea and the old also,
+and even some of the women, would steal through passes that we, and
+we only, knew of, and would fall upon the Aliens in Silver-dale as
+occasion served, and lift their goods both live and dead; and this
+became both a craft and a pastime amongst us.  Nor may I hide that we
+sometimes went lifting otherwhere; for in the summer and autumn we
+would fare west a little and abide in the woods the season through,
+and hunt the deer thereof, and whiles would we drive the spoil from
+the scattered folk not far from your Shepherd-Folk; but with the
+Shepherds themselves and with you Dalesmen we meddled not.
+
+'Now that little wood-lawn with the toft of an ancient dwelling in
+it, wherein, saith Bow-may, thou didst once rest, was one of our
+summer abodes; and later on we built the hall under the pine-wood
+that thou knowest.
+
+'Thus then grew up our young men; and our maids were little softer;
+e'en such as Bow-may is (and kind is she withal), and it seemed in
+very sooth as if the Spirit of the Wolf was with us, and the
+roughness of the Waste made us fierce; and law we had not and heeded
+not, though love was amongst us.'
+
+She stopped awhile and fell a-musing, and her face softened, and she
+turned to him with that sweet happy look upon it and said:
+
+'Desolate and dreary is the Dale, thou deemest, friend; and yet for
+me I love it and its dark-green water, and it is to me as if the
+Fathers of the kindred visit it and hold converse with us; and there
+I grew up when I was little, before I knew what a woman was, and
+strange communings had I with the wilderness.  Friend, when we are
+wedded, and thou art a great chieftain, as thou wilt be, I shall ask
+of thee the boon to suffer me to abide here at whiles that I may
+remember the days when I was little and the love of the kindred waxed
+in me.'
+
+'This is but a little thing to ask,' said Face-of-god; 'I would thou
+hadst asked me more.'
+
+'Fear not,' she said, 'I shall ask thee for much and many things; and
+some of them belike thou shalt deny me.'
+
+He shook his head; but she smiled in his face and said:
+
+'Yea, so it is, friend; but hearken.  The seasons passed, and six
+years wore, and I was grown a tall slim maiden, fleet of foot and
+able to endure toil enough, though I never bore weapons, nor have
+done.  So on a fair even of midsummer when we were together, the most
+of us, round about this Hall and the Doom-ring, we saw a tall man in
+bright war-gear come forth into the Dale by the path that thou
+camest, and then another and another till there were two score and
+seven men-at-arms standing on the grass below the scree yonder; by
+that time had we gotten some weapons in our hands, and we stood
+together to meet the new-comers, but they drew no sword and notched
+no shaft, but came towards us laughing and joyous, and lo! it was my
+brother Folk-might and his men, those that were left of them, come
+back to us from the Westland.
+
+'Glad indeed was I to behold him; and for him when he had taken me in
+his arms and looked up and down the Dale, he cried out:  'In many
+fair places and many rich dwellings have I been; but this is the hour
+that I have looked for.'
+
+'Now when we asked him concerning Stone-wolf and the others who were
+missing (for ten tens of stalwarth men had fared to the Westland), he
+swept out his hand toward the west and said with a solemn face:
+"There they lie, and grass groweth over their bones, and we who have
+come aback, and ye who have abided, these are now the children of the
+Wolf:  there are no more now on the earth."
+
+'Let be!  It was a fair even and high was the feast in the Hall that
+night, and sweet was the converse with our folk come back.  A glad
+man was my brother Folk-might when he heard that for years past we
+had been lifting the gear of men, and chiefly of the Aliens in
+Silver-dale:  and he himself was become learned in war and a deft
+leader of men.
+
+'So the days passed and the seasons, and we lived on as we might; but
+with Folk-might's return there began to grow up in all our hearts
+what had long been flourishing in mine, and that was the hope of one
+day winning back our own again, and dying amidst the dear groves of
+Silver-dale.  Within these years we had increased somewhat in number;
+for if we had lost those warriors in the Westland, and some old men
+who had died in the Dale, yet our children had grown up (I have now
+seen twenty and one summers) and more were growing up.  Moreover,
+after the first year, from the time when we began to fall upon the
+Dusky Men of Silver-dale, from time to time they who went on such
+adventures set free such thralls of our blood as they could fall in
+with and whom they could trust in, and they dwelt (and yet dwell)
+with us in the Dale:  first and last we have taken in three score and
+twelve of such men, and a score of women-thralls withal.
+
+'Now during these seasons, and not very long ago, after I was a woman
+grown, the thought came to me, and to Folk-might also, that there
+were kindreds of the people dwelling anear us whom we might so deal
+with that they should become our friends and brothers in arms, and
+that through them we might win back Silver-dale.
+
+'Of Rose-dale we wotted already that the Folk were nought of our
+blood, feeble in the field, cowed by the Dusky Men, and at last made
+thralls to them; so nought was to do there.  But Folk-might went to
+and fro to gather tidings:  at whiles I with him, at whiles one or
+more of Wood-father's children, who with their father and mother and
+Bow-may have abided in the Vale ever since the Great Undoing.
+
+'Soon he fell in with thy Folk, and first of all with the
+Woodlanders, and that was a joy to him; for wot ye what?  He got to
+know that these men were the children of those of our Folk who had
+sundered from us in the mountain passes time long and long ago; and
+he loved them, for he saw that they were hardy and trusty, and
+warriors at heart.
+
+'Then he went amongst the Shepherd-Folk, and he deemed them good men
+easily stirred, and deemed that they might soon be won to friendship;
+and he knew that they were mostly come from the Houses of the
+Woodlanders, so that they also were of the kindred.
+
+'And last he came into Burgdale, and found there a merry and happy
+Folk, little wont to war, but stout-hearted, and nowise puny either
+of body or soul; he went there often and learned much about them, and
+deemed that they would not be hard to win to fellowship.  And he
+found that the House of the Face was the chiefest house there; and
+that the Alderman and his sons were well beloved of all the folk, and
+that they were the men to be won first, since through them should all
+others be won.  I also went to Burgstead with him twice, as I told
+thee erst; and I saw thee, and I deemed that thou wouldest lightly
+become our friend; and it came into my mind that I myself might wed
+thee, and that the House of the Face thereby might have affinity
+thenceforth with the Children of the Wolf.'
+
+He said:  'Why didst thou deem thus of me, O friend?'
+
+She laughed and said:  'Dost thou long to hear me say the words when
+thou knowest my thought well?  So be it.  I saw thee both young and
+fair; and I knew thee to be the son of a noble, worthy, guileless man
+and of a beauteous woman of great wits and good rede.  And I found
+thee to be kind and open-handed and simple like thy father, and like
+thy mother wiser than thou thyself knew of thyself; and that thou
+wert desirous of deeds and fain of women.'
+
+She was silent for a while, and he also:  then he said:  'Didst thou
+draw me to the woods and to thee?'
+
+She reddened and said:  'I am no spell-wife:  but true it is that
+Wood-mother made a waxen image of thee, and thrust through the heart
+thereof the pin of my girdle-buckle, and stroked it every morning
+with an oak-bough over which she had sung spells.  But dost thou not
+remember, Gold-mane, how that one day last Hay-month, as ye were
+resting in the meadows in the cool of the evening, there came to you
+a minstrel that played to you on the fiddle, and therewith sang a
+song that melted all your hearts, and that this song told of the
+Wild-wood, and what was therein of desire and peril and beguiling and
+death, and love unto Death itself?  Dost thou remember, friend?'
+
+'Yea,' he said, 'and how when the minstrel was done Stone-face fell
+to telling us more tales yet of the woodland, and the minstrel sang
+again and yet again, till his tales had entered into my very heart.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'and that minstrel was Wood-wont; and I sent him to
+sing to thee and thine, deeming that if thou didst hearken, thou
+would'st seek the woodland and happen upon us.'
+
+He laughed and said:  'Thou didst not doubt but that if we met, thou
+mightest do with me as thou wouldest?'
+
+'So it is,' she said, 'that I doubted it little.'
+
+'Therein wert thou wise,' said Face-of-god; 'but now that we are
+talking without guile to each other, mightest thou tell me wherefore
+it was that Folk-might made that onslaught upon me?  For certain it
+is that he was minded to slay me.'
+
+She said:  'It was sooth what I told thee, that whiles he groweth so
+battle-eager that whatso edge-tool he beareth must needs come out of
+the scabbard; but there was more in it than that, which I could not
+tell thee erst.  Two days before thy coming he had been down to
+Burgstead in the guise of an old carle such as thou sawest him with
+me in the market-place.  There was he guested in your Hall, and once
+more saw thee and the Bride together; and he saw the eyes of love
+wherewith she looked on thee (for so much he told me), and deemed
+that thou didst take her love but lightly.  And he himself looked on
+her with such love (and this he told me not) that he deemed nought
+good enough for her, and would have had thee give thyself up wholly
+to her; for my brother is a generous man, my friend.  So when I told
+him on the morn of that day whereon we met that we looked to see thee
+that eve (for indeed I am somewhat foreseeing), he said:  "Look thou,
+Sun-beam, if he cometh, it is not unlike that I shall drive a spear
+through him."  "Wherefore?" said I; "can he serve our turn when he is
+dead?"  Said he:  "I care little.  Mine own turn will I serve.  Thou
+sayest WHEREFORE?  I tell thee this stripling beguileth to her
+torment the fairest woman that is in the world--such an one as is
+meet to be the mother of chieftains, and to stand by warriors in
+their day of peril.  I have seen her; and thus have I seen her."
+Then said I:  "Greatly forsooth shalt thou pleasure her by slaying
+him!"  And he answered:  "I shall pleasure myself.  And one day she
+shall thank me, when she taketh my hand in hers and we go together to
+the Bride-bed."  Therewith came over me a clear foresight of the
+hours to come, and I said to him:  "Yea, Folk-might, cast the spear
+and draw the sword; but him thou shalt not slay:  and thou shalt one
+day see him standing with us before the shafts of the Dusky Men."  So
+I spake; but he looked fiercely at me, and departed and shunned me
+all that day, and by good hap I was hard at hand when thou drewest
+nigh our abode.  Nay, Gold-mane, what would'st thou with thy sword?
+Why art thou so red and wrathful?  Would'st thou fight with my
+brother because he loveth thy friend, thine old playmate, thy
+kinswoman, and thinketh pity of her sorrow?'
+
+He said, with knit brow and gleaming eyes:  'Would the man take her
+away from me perforce?'
+
+'My friend,' she said, 'thou art not yet so wise as not to be a fool
+at whiles.  Is it not so that she herself hath taken herself from
+thee, since she hath come to know that thou hast given thyself to
+another?  Hath she noted nought of thee this winter and spring?  Is
+she well pleased with the ways of thee?'
+
+He said:  'Thou hast spoken simply with me, and I will do no less
+with thee.  It was but four days agone that she did me to wit that
+she knew of me how I sought my love on the Mountain; and she put me
+to sore shame, and afterwards I wept for her sorrow.'
+
+Therewith he told her all that the Bride had said to him, as he well
+might, for he had forgotten no word of it.
+
+Then said the Friend:  'She shall have the token that she craveth,
+and it is I that shall give it to her.'
+
+Therewith she took from her finger a ring wherein was set a very fair
+changeful mountain-stone, and gave it to him, and said:
+
+'Thou shalt give her this and tell her whence thou hadst it; and tell
+her that I bid her remember that To-morrow is a new day.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.  THOSE TWO TOGETHER HOLD THE RING OF THE EARTH-GOD
+
+
+
+And now they fell silent both of them, and sat hearkening the sounds
+of the Dale, from the whistle of the plover down by the water-side to
+the far-off voices of the children and maidens about the kine in the
+lower meadows.  At last Gold-mane took up the word and said:
+
+'Sweet friend, tell me the uttermost of what thou would'st have of
+me.  Is it not that I should stand by thee and thine in the Folk-mote
+of the Dalesmen, and speak for you when ye pray us for help against
+your foemen; and then again that I do my best when ye and we are
+arrayed for battle against the Dusky Men?  This is easy to do, and
+great is the reward thou offerest me.'
+
+'I look for this service of thee,' she said, 'and none other.'
+
+'And when I go down to the battle,' said he, 'shalt thou be sorry for
+our sundering?'
+
+She said:  'There shall be no sundering; I shall wend with thee.'
+
+Said he:  'And if I were slain in the battle, would'st thou lament
+me?'
+
+'Thou shalt not be slain,' she said.
+
+Again was there silence betwixt them, till at last he said:
+
+'This then is why thou didst draw me to thee in the Wild-wood?'
+
+'Yea,' said she.
+
+Again for a while no word was spoken, and Face-of-god looked on her
+till she cast her eyes down before him.
+
+Then at last he spake, and the colour came and went in his face as he
+said:  'Tell me thy name what it is.'
+
+She said:  'I am called the Sun-beam.'
+
+Then he said, and his voice trembled therewith:  'O Sun-beam, I have
+been seeking pleasant and cunning words, and can find none such.  But
+tell me this if thou wilt:  dost thou desire me as I desire thee? or
+is it that thou wilt suffer me to wed thee and bed thee at last as
+mere payment for the help that I shall give to thee and thine?  Nay,
+doubt it not that I will take the payment, if this is what thou wilt
+give me and nought else.  Yet tell me.'
+
+Her face grew troubled, and she said:
+
+'Gold-mane, maybe that thou hast now asked me one question too many;
+for this is no fair game to be played between us.  For thee, as I
+deem, there are this day but two people in the world, and that is
+thou and I, and the earth is for us two alone.  But, my friend,
+though I have seen but twenty and one summers, it is nowise so with
+me, and to me there are many in the world; and chiefly the Folk of
+the Wolf, amidst whose very heart I have grown up.  Moreover, I can
+think of her whom I have supplanted, the Bride to wit; and I know
+her, and how bitter and empty her days shall be for a while, and how
+vain all our redes for her shall seem to her.  Yea, I know her
+sorrow, and see it and grieve for it:  so canst not thou, unless thou
+verily see her before thee, her face unhappy, and her voice changed
+and hard.  Well, I will tell thee what thou askest.  When I drew thee
+to me on the Mountain I thought but of the friendship and brotherhood
+to be knitted up between our two Folks, nor did I anywise desire thy
+love of a young man.  But when I saw thee on the heath and in the
+Hall that day, it pleased me to think that a man so fair and
+chieftain-like should one day lie by my side; and again when I saw
+that the love of me had taken hold of thee, I would not have thee
+grieved because of me, but would have thee happy.  And now what shall
+I say?--I know not; I cannot tell.  Yet am I the Friend, as erst I
+called myself.
+
+'And, Gold-mane, I have seen hitherto but the outward show and image
+of thee, and though that be goodly, how would it be if thou didst
+shame me with little-heartedness and evil deeds?  Let me see thee in
+the Folk-mote and the battle, and then may I answer thee.'
+
+Then she held her peace, and he answered nothing; and she turned her
+face from him and said:
+
+'Out on it! have I beguiled myself as well as thee?  These are but
+empty words I have been saying.  If thou wilt drag the truth out of
+me, this is the very truth:  that to-day is happy to me as it is to
+thee, and that I have longed sore for its coming.  O Gold-mane, O
+speech-friend, if thou wert to pray me or command me that I lie in
+thine arms to-night, I should know not how to gainsay thee.  Yet I
+beseech thee to forbear, lest thy death and mine come of it.  And why
+should we die, O friend, when we are so young, and the world lies so
+fair before us, and the happy days are at hand when the Children of
+the Wolf and the kindreds of the Dale shall deliver the Folk, and all
+days shall be good and all years?'
+
+They had both risen up as she spake, and now he put forth his hands
+to her and took her in his arms, wondering the while, as he drew her
+to him, how much slenderer and smaller and weaker she seemed in his
+embrace than he had thought of her; and when their lips met, he felt
+that she kissed him as he her.  Then he held her by the shoulders at
+arms' length from him, and beheld her face how her eyes were closed
+and her lips quivering.  But before him, in a moment of time, passed
+a picture of the life to be in the fair Dale, and all she would give
+him there, and the days good and lovely from morn to eve and eve to
+morn; and though in that moment it was hard for him to speak, at last
+he spoke in a voice hoarse at first, and said:
+
+'Thou sayest sooth, O friend; we will not die, but live; I will not
+drag our deaths upon us both, nor put a sword in the hands of Folk-
+might, who loves me not.'
+
+Then he kissed her on the brow and said:  'Now shalt thou take me by
+the hand and lead me forth from the Hall.  For the day is waxing old,
+and here meseemeth in this dim hall there are words crossing in the
+air about us--words spoken in days long ago, and tales of old time,
+that keep egging me on to do my will and die, because that is all
+that the world hath for a valiant man; and to such words I would not
+hearken, for in this hour I have no will to die, nor can I think of
+death.'
+
+She took his hand and led him forth without more words, and they went
+hand in hand and paced slowly round the Doom-ring, the light air
+breathing upon them till their faces were as calm and quiet as their
+wont was, and hers especially as bright and happy as when he had
+first seen her that day.
+
+The sun was sinking now, and only sent one golden ray into the valley
+through a cleft in the western rock-wall, but the sky overhead was
+bright and clear; from the meadows came the sound of the lowing of
+kine and the voices of children a-sporting, and it seemed to Gold-
+mane that they were drawing nigher, both the children and the kine,
+and somewhat he begrudged it that he should not be alone with the
+Friend.
+
+Now when they had made half the circuit of the Doom-ring, the Sun-
+beam stopped him, and then led him through the Ring of Stones, and
+brought him up to the altar which was amidst of it; and the altar was
+a great black stone hewn smooth and clean, and with the image of the
+Wolf carven on the front thereof; and on its face lay the gold ring
+which the priest or captain of the Folk bore on his arm between the
+God and the people at all folk-motes.
+
+So she said:  'This is the altar of the God of Earth, and often hath
+it been reddened by mighty men; and thereon lieth the Ring of the
+Sons of the Wolf; and now it were well that we swore troth on that
+ring before my brother cometh; for now will he soon be here.'
+
+Then Gold-mane took the Ring and thrust his right hand through it,
+and took her right hand in his; so that the Ring lay on both their
+hands, and therewith he spake aloud:
+
+'I am Face-of-god of the House of the Face, and I do thee to wit, O
+God of the Earth, that I pledge my troth to this woman, the Sun-beam
+of the Kindred of the Wolf, to beget my offspring on her, and to live
+with her, and to die with her:  so help me, thou God of the Earth,
+and the Warrior and the God of the Face!'
+
+Then spake the Sun-beam:  'I, the Sun-beam of the Children of the
+Wolf, pledge my troth to Face-of-god to lie in his bed and to bear
+his children and none other's, and to be his speech-friend till I
+die:  so help me the Wolf and the Warrior and the God of the Earth!'
+
+Then they laid the Ring on the altar again, and they kissed each
+other long and sweetly, and then turned away from the altar and
+departed from the Doom-ring, going hand in hand together down the
+meadow, and as they went, the noise of the kine and the children grew
+nearer and nearer, and presently came the whole company of them round
+a ness of the rock-wall; there were some thirty little lads and
+lasses driving on the milch-kine, with half a score of older maids
+and grown women, one of whom was Bow-may, who was lightly and
+scantily clad, as one who heeds not the weather, or deems all months
+midsummer.
+
+The children came running up merrily when they saw the Sun-beam, but
+stopped short shyly when they noted the tall fair stranger with her.
+They were all strong and sturdy children, and some very fair, but
+brown with the weather, if not with the sun.  Bow-may came up to
+Gold-mane and took his hand and greeted him kindly and said:
+
+'So here thou art at last in Shadowy Vale; and I hope that thou art
+content therewith, and as happy as I would wish thee to be.  Well,
+this is the first time; and when thou comest the second time it may
+well be that the world shall be growing better.'
+
+She held the distaff which she bore in her hand (for she had been
+spinning) as if it were a spear; her limbs were goodly and shapely,
+and she trod the thick grass of the Vale with a kind of wary
+firmness, as though foemen might be lurking nearby.  The Sun-beam
+smiled upon her kindly and said:
+
+'That shall not fail to be, Bow-may:  ye have won a new friend to-
+day.  But tell me, when dost thou look to see the men here, for I was
+down by the water when they went away yesterday?'
+
+'They shall come into the Dale a little after sunset,' said Bow-may.
+
+'Shall I abide them, my friend?' said Gold-mane, turning to the Sun-
+beam.
+
+'Yea,' she said; 'for what else art thou come hither? or art thou so
+pressed to depart from us?  Last time we met thou wert not so hasty
+to sunder.'
+
+They smiled on each other; and Bow-may looked on them and laughed
+outright; then a flush showed in her cheeks through the tan of them,
+and she turned toward the children and the other women who were
+busied about the milking of the kine.
+
+But those two sat down together on a bank amidst the plain meadow,
+facing the river and the eastern rock-wall, and the Sun-beam said:
+
+'I am fain to speak to thee and to see thine eyes watching me while I
+speak; and now, my friend, I will tell thee something unasked which
+has to do with what e'en now thou didst ask me; for I would have thee
+trust me wholly, and know me for what I am.  Time was I schemed and
+planned for this day of betrothal; but now I tell thee it has become
+no longer needful for bringing to pass our fellowship in arms with
+thy people.  Yea yesterday, ere he went on a hunt, whereof he shall
+tell thee, Folk-might was against it, in words at least; and yet as
+one who would have it done if he might have no part in it.  So, in
+good sooth, this hand that lieth in thine is the hand of a wilful
+woman, who desireth a man, and would keep him for her speech-friend.
+Now art thou fond and happy; yet bear in mind that there are deeds to
+be done, and the troth we have just plighted must be paid for.  So
+hearken, I bid thee.  Dost thou care to know why the wheedling of
+thee is no longer needful to us?'
+
+He said:  'A little while ago I should have said, Yea, If thy lips
+say the words.  But now, O friend, it seemeth as if thine heart were
+already become a part of mine, and I feel as if the chieftain were
+growing up in me and the longing for deeds:  so I say, Tell me, for I
+were fain to hear what toucheth the welfare of thy Folk and their
+fellowship with my Folk; for on that also have I set my heart?'
+
+She said gravely and with solemn eyes:
+
+'What thou sayest is good:  full glad am I that I have not plighted
+my troth to a mere goodly lad, but rather to a chieftain and a
+warrior.  Now then hearken!  Since I saw thee first in the autumn
+this hath happened, that the Dusky Men, increasing both in numbers
+and insolence, have it in their hearts to win more than Silver-dale,
+and it is years since they have fallen upon Rose-dale and conquered
+it, rather by murder than by battle, and made all men thralls there,
+for feeble were the Folk thereof; and doubt it not but that they will
+look into Burgdale before long.  They are already abroad in the
+woods, and were it not for the fear of the Wolf they would be thicker
+therein, and faring wider; for we have slain many of them, coming
+upon them unawares; and they know not where we dwell, nor who we be:
+so they fear to spread about over-much and pry into unknown places
+lest the Wolf howl on them.  Yet beware! for they will gather in
+numbers that we may not meet, and then will they swarm into the Dale;
+and if ye would live your happy life that ye love so well, ye must
+now fight for it; and in that battle must ye needs join yourselves to
+us, that we may help each other.  Herein have ye nought to choose,
+for now with you it is no longer a thing to talk of whether ye will
+help certain strangers and guests and thereby win some gain to
+yourselves, but whether ye have the hearts to fight for yourselves,
+and the wits to be the fellows of tall men and stout warriors who
+have pledged their lives to win or die for it.'
+
+She was silent a little and then turned and looked fondly on Face-of-
+god and said:
+
+'Therefore, Gold-mane, we need thee no longer; for thou must needs
+fight in our battle.  I have no longer aught to do to wheedle thee to
+love me.  Yet if thou wilt love me, then am I a glad woman.'
+
+He said:  'Thou wottest well that thou hast all my love, neither will
+I fail thee in the battle.  I am not little-hearted, though I would
+have given myself to thee for no reward.'
+
+'It is well,' said the Sun-beam; 'nought is undone by that which I
+have done.  Moreover, it is good that we have plighted troth to-day.
+For Folk-might will presently hear thereof, and he must needs abide
+the thing which is done.  Hearken! he cometh.'
+
+For as she spoke there came a glad cry from the women and children,
+and those two stood up and turned toward the west and beheld the
+warriors of the Wolf coming down into the Dale by the way that Gold-
+mane had come.
+
+'Come,' said the Sun-beam, 'here are your brethren in arms, let us go
+greet them; they will rejoice in thee.'
+
+So they went thither, and there stood eighty and seven men on the
+grass below the scree and Folk-might their captain; and besides some
+valiant women, and a few carles who were on watch on the waste, and a
+half score who had been left in the Dale, these were all the warriors
+of the Wolf.  They were clad in no holiday raiment, not even Folk-
+might, but were in sheep-brown gear of the coarsest, like to
+husbandmen late come from the plough, but armed well and goodly.
+
+But when the twain drew near, the men clashed their spears on their
+shields, and cried out for joy of them, for they all knew what Face-
+of-god's presence there betokened of fellowship with the kindreds;
+but Folk-might came forward and took Face-of-god's hand and greeted
+him and said:
+
+'Hail, son of the Alderman!  Here hast thou come into the ancient
+abode of chieftains and warriors, and belike deeds await thee also.'
+
+Yet his brow was knitted as he said these words, and he spake slowly,
+as one that constraineth himself; but presently his face cleared
+somewhat and he said:
+
+'Dalesman, it behoveth thy people to bestir them if ye would live and
+see good days.  Hath my sister told thee what is toward?  Or what
+sayest thou?'
+
+'Hail to thee, son of the Wolf!' said Face-of-god.  'Thy sister hath
+told me all; and even if these Dusky Felons were not our foe-men
+also, yet could I have my way, we should have given thee all help,
+and should have brought back peace and good days to thy folk.'
+
+Then Folk-might flushed red and spake, as he cast out his hand
+towards the warriors and up and down toward the Dale:
+
+'These be my folk, and these only:  and as to peace, only those of us
+know of it who are old men.  Yet is it well; and if we and ye
+together be strong enough to bring back good days to the feeble men
+whom the Dusky Ones torment in Silver-dale it shall be better yet.'
+
+Then he turned about to his sister, and looked keenly into her eyes
+till she reddened, and took her hand and looked at the wrist and
+said:
+
+'O sister, see I not the mark on thy wrist of the Ring of the God of
+the Earth?  Have not oaths been sworn since yesterday?'
+
+'True it is,' she said, 'that this man and I have plighted troth
+together at the altar of the Doom-ring.'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Thou wilt have thy will, and I may not amend it.'
+Therewith he turned about to Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Thou must look to it to keep this oath, whatever other one thou hast
+failed in.'
+
+Said Face-of-god somewhat wrathfully:  'I shall keep it, whether thou
+biddest me to keep it or break it.'
+
+'That is well,' said Folk-might, 'and then for all that hath gone
+before thou mayest in a manner pay, if thou art dauntless before the
+foe.'
+
+'I look to be no blencher in the battle,' said Face-of-god; 'that is
+not the fashion of our kindred, whosoever may be before us.  Yea, and
+even were it thy blade, O mighty warrior of the Wolf, I would do my
+best to meet it in manly fashion.'
+
+As he spake he half drew forth Dale-warden from his sheath, looking
+steadily into the eyes of Folk-might; and the Sun-beam looked upon
+him happily.  But Folk-might laughed and said:
+
+'Thy sword is good, and I deem that thine heart will not fail thee;
+but it is by my side and not in face of me that thou shalt redden the
+good blade:  I see not the day when we twain shall hew at each
+other.'
+
+Then in a while he spake again:
+
+'Thou must pardon us if our words are rough; for we have stood in
+rough places, where we had to speak both short and loud, whereas
+there was much to do.  But now will we twain talk of matters that
+concern chieftains who are going on a hard adventure.  And ye women,
+do ye dight the Hall for the evening feast, which shall be the feast
+of the troth-plight for you twain.  This indeed we owe thee, O guest;
+for little shall be thine heritage which thou shalt have with my
+sister, over and above that thy sword winneth for thee.'
+
+But the Sun-beam said:  'Hast thou any to-night?'
+
+'Yea,' he said; 'Spear-god, how many was it?'
+
+There came forward a tall man bearing an axe in his right hand, and
+carrying over his shoulder by his left hand a bundle of silver arm-
+rings just such as Gold-mane had seen on the felons who were slain by
+Wood-grey's house.  The carle cast them on the ground and then knelt
+down and fell to telling them over; and then looked up and said:
+'Twelve yesterday in the wood where the battle was going on; and this
+morning seven by the tarn in the pine-wood and six near this eastern
+edge of the wood:  one score and five all told.  But, Folk-might,
+they are coming nigh to Shadowy Vale.'
+
+'Sooth is that,' said Folk-might; 'but it shall be looked to.  Come
+now apart with me, Face-of-god.'
+
+So the others went their ways toward the Hall, while Folk-might led
+the Burgdaler to a sheltered nook under the sheer rocks, and there
+they sat down to talk, and Folk-might asked Gold-mane closely of the
+muster of the Dalesmen and the Shepherds and the Woodland Caries, and
+he was well pleased when Face-of-god told him of how many could march
+to a stricken field, and of their archery, and of their weapons and
+their goodness.
+
+All this took some time in the telling, and now night was coming on
+apace, and Folk-might said:
+
+'Now will it be time to go to the Hall; but keep in thy mind that
+these Dusky Men will overrun you unless ye deal with them betimes.
+These are of the kind that ye must cast fear into their hearts by
+falling on them; for if ye abide till they fall upon you, they are
+like the winter wolves that swarm on and on, how many soever ye slay.
+And this above all things shall help you, that we shall bring you
+whereas ye shall fall on them unawares and destroy them as boys do
+with a wasp's nest.  Yet shall many a mother's son bite the dust.
+
+'Is it not so that in four weeks' time is your spring-feast and
+market at Burgstead, and thereafter the great Folk-mote?'
+
+'So it is,' said Gold-mane.
+
+'Thither shall I come then,' said Folk-might, 'and give myself out
+for the slayer of Rusty and the ransacker of Harts-bane and Penny-
+thumb; and therefor shall I offer good blood-wite and theft-wite; and
+thy father shall take that; for he is a just man.  Then shall I tell
+my tale.  Yet it may be thou shalt see us before if battle betide.
+And now fair befall this new year; for soon shall the scabbards be
+empty and the white swords be dancing in the air, and spears and axes
+shall be the growth of this spring-tide.'
+
+And he leaped up from his seat and walked to and fro before Gold-
+mane, and now was it grown quite dark.  Then Folk-might turned to
+Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Come, guest, the windows of the Hall are yellow; let us to the
+feast.  To-morrow shalt thou get thee to the beginning of this work.
+I hope of thee that thou art a good sword; else have I done a folly
+and my sister a worse one.  But now forget that, and feast.'
+
+Gold-mane arose, not very well at ease, for the man seemed
+overbearing; yet how might he fall upon the Sun-beam's kindred, and
+the captain of these new brethren in arms?  So he spake not.  But
+Folk-might said to him:
+
+'Yet I would not have thee forget that I was wroth with thee when I
+saw thee to-day; and had it not been for the coming battle I had
+drawn sword upon thee.'
+
+Then Face-of-god's wrath was stirred, and he said:
+
+'There is yet time for that! but why art thou wroth with me?  And I
+shall tell thee that there is little manliness in thy chiding.  For
+how may I fight with thee, thou the brother of my plighted speech-
+friend and my captain in this battle?'
+
+'Therein thou sayest sooth,' said Folk-might; 'but hard it was to see
+you two standing together; and thou canst not give the Bride to me as
+I give my sister to thee.  For I have seen her, and I have seen her
+looking at thee; and I know that she will not have it so.'
+
+Then they went on together toward the Hall, and Face-of-god was
+silent and somewhat troubled; and as they drew near to the Hall,
+Folk-might spake again:
+
+'Yet time may amend it; and if not, there is the battle, and maybe
+the end.  Now be we merry!'
+
+So they went into the Hall together, and there was the Sun-beam
+gloriously arrayed, as erst in the woodland bower, and Face-of-god
+sat on the dais beside her, and the uttermost sweetness of desire
+entered into his soul as he noted her eyes and her mouth, that were
+grown so kind to him, and her hand that strayed toward his.
+
+The Hall was full of folk, and all those warriors were there with
+Wood-father and his sons, and Wood-mother, and Bow-may and many other
+women; and Gold-mane looked down the Hall and deemed that he had
+never seen such stalwarth bodies of men, or so bold and meet for
+battle:  as for the women he had seen fairer in Burgdale, but these
+were fair of their own fashion, shapely and well-knit, and strong-
+armed and large-limbed, yet sweet-voiced and gentle withal.  Nay, the
+very lads of fifteen winters or so, whereof a few were there, seemed
+bold and bright-eyed and keen of wit, and it seemed like that if the
+warriors fared afield these would be with them.
+
+So wore the feast; and Folk-might as aforetime amongst the healths
+called on men to drink to the Jaws of the Wolf, and the Red Hand, and
+the Silver Arm, and the Golden Bushel, and the Ragged Sword.  But now
+had Face-of-god no need to ask what these meant, since he knew that
+they were the names of the kindreds of the Wolf.  They drank also to
+the troth-plight and to those twain, and shouted aloud over the
+health and clashed their weapons:  and Gold-mane wondered what echo
+of that shout would reach to Burgstead.
+
+Then sang men songs of old time, and amongst them Wood-wont stood
+with his fiddle amidst the Hall and Bow-may beside him, and they sang
+in turn to it sweetly and clearly; and this is some of what they
+sang:
+
+
+She singeth.
+
+Wild is the waste and long leagues over;
+   Whither then wend ye spear and sword,
+Where nought shall see your helms but the plover,
+   Far and far from the dear Dale's sward?
+
+He singeth.
+
+Many a league shall we wend together
+   With helm and spear and bended bow.
+Hark! how the wind blows up for weather:
+   Dark shall the night be whither we go.
+
+Dark shall the night be round the byre,
+   And dark as we drive the brindled kine;
+Dark and dark round the beacon-fire,
+   Dark down in the pass round our wavering line.
+
+Turn on thy path, O fair-foot maiden,
+   And come our ways by the pathless road;
+Look how the clouds hang low and laden
+   Over the walls of the old abode!
+
+She singeth.
+
+Bare are my feet for the rough waste's wending,
+   Wild is the wind, and my kirtle's thin;
+Faint shall I be ere the long way's ending
+   Drops down to the Dale and the grief therein.
+
+He singeth.
+
+Do on the brogues of the wild-wood rover,
+   Do on the byrnies' ring-close mail;
+Take thou the staff that the barbs hang over,
+   O'er the wind and the waste and the way to prevail.
+
+Come, for how from thee shall I sunder?
+   Come, that a tale may arise in the land;
+Come, that the night may be held for a wonder,
+   When the Wolf was led by a maiden's hand!
+
+She singeth.
+
+Now will I fare as ye are faring,
+   And wend no way but the way ye wend;
+And bear but the burdens ye are bearing,
+   And end the day as ye shall end.
+
+And many an eve when the clouds are drifting
+   Down through the Dale till they dim the roof,
+Shall they tell in the Hall of the Maiden's Lifting,
+   And how we drave the spoil aloof.
+
+They sing together.
+
+Over the moss through the wind and the weather,
+   Through the morn and the eve and the death of the day,
+Wend we man and maid together,
+   For out of the waste is born the fray.
+
+
+Then the Sun-beam spake to Gold-mane softly, and told him how this
+song was made by a minstrel concerning a foray in the early days of
+their first abode in Shadowy Vale, and how in good sooth a maiden led
+the fray and was the captain of the warriors:
+
+'Erst,' she said, 'this was counted as a wonder; but now we are so
+few that it is no wonder though the women will do whatsoever they
+may.'
+
+So they talked, and Gold-mane was very happy; but ere the good-night
+cup was drunk, Folk-might spake to Face-of-god and said:
+
+'It were well that ye rose betimes in the morning:  but thou shalt
+not go back by the way thou camest.  Wood-wise and another shall go
+with thee, and show thee a way across the necks and the heaths, which
+is rough enough as far as toil goes, but where thy life shall be
+safer; and thereby shalt thou hit the ghyll of the Weltering Water,
+and so come down safely into Burgdale.  Now that we are friends and
+fellows, it is no hurt for thee to know the shortest way to Shadowy
+Vale.  What thou shalt tell concerning us in Burgdale I leave the
+tale thereof to thee; yet belike thou wilt not tell everything till I
+come to Burgstead at the spring market-tide.  Now must I presently to
+bed; for before daylight to-morrow must I be following the hunt along
+with two score good men of ours.'
+
+'What beast is afield then?' said Gold-mane.
+
+Said Folk-might:  'The beasts that beset our lives, the Dusky Men.
+In these days we have learned how to find companies of them; and
+forsooth every week they draw nigher to this Dale; and some day they
+should happen upon us if we were not to look to it, and then would
+there be a murder great and grim; therefore we scour the heaths round
+about, and the skirts of the woodland, and we fall upon these felons
+in divers guises, so that they may not know us for the same men;
+whiles are we clad in homespun, as to-day, and seem like to field-
+working carles; whiles in scarlet and gold, like knights of the
+Westland; whiles in wolf-skins; whiles in white glittering gear, like
+the Wights of the Waste:  and in all guises these felons, for all
+their fierce hearts, fear us, and flee from us, and we follow and
+slay them, and so minish their numbers somewhat against the great day
+of battle.'
+
+'Tell me,' said Gold-mane; 'when we fall upon Silver-dale shall their
+thralls, the old Dale-dwellers, fight for them or for us?'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'The Dusky Men will not dare to put weapons into
+the hands of their thralls.  Nay, the thralls shall help us; for
+though they have but small stomach for the fight, yet joyfully when
+the fight is over shall they cut their masters' throats.'
+
+'How is it with these thralls?' said Gold-mane.  'I have never seen a
+thrall.'
+
+'But I,' said Folk-might, 'have seen a many down in the Cities.  And
+there were thralls who were the tyrants of thralls, and held the whip
+over them; and of the others there were some who were not very hardly
+entreated.  But with these it is otherwise, and they all bear
+grievous pains daily; for the Dusky Men are as hogs in a garden of
+lilies.  Whatsoever is fair there have they defiled and deflowered,
+and they wallow in our fair halls as swine strayed from the dunghill.
+No delight in life, no sweet days do they have for themselves, and
+they begrudge the delight of others therein.  Therefore their thralls
+know no rest or solace; their reward of toil is many stripes, and the
+healing of their stripes grievous toil.  To many have they appointed
+to dig and mine in the silver-yielding cliffs, and of all the tasks
+is that the sorest, and there do stripes abound the most.  Such
+thralls art thou happy not to behold till thou hast set them free; as
+we shall do.'
+
+'Tell me again,' said Face-of-god; 'Is there no mixed folk between
+these Dusky Men and the Dalesmen, since they have no women of their
+own, but lie with the women of the Dale?  Moreover, do not the poor
+folk of the Dale beget and bear children, so that there are thralls
+born of thralls?'
+
+'Wisely thou askest this,' said Folk-might, 'but thereof shall I tell
+thee, that when a Dusky Carle mingles with a woman of the Dale, the
+child which she beareth shall oftenest favour his race and not hers;
+or else shall it be witless, a fool natural.  But as for the children
+of these poor thralls; yea, the masters cause them to breed if so
+their masterships will, and when the children are born, they keep
+them or slay them as they will, as they would with whelps or calves.
+To be short, year by year these vile wretches grow fiercer and more
+beastly, and their thralls more hapless and down-trodden; and now at
+last is come the time either to do or to die, as ye men of Burgdale
+shall speedily find out.  But now must I go sleep if I am to be where
+I look to be at sunrise to-morrow.'
+
+Therewith he called for the sleeping-cup, and it was drunk, and all
+men fared to bed.  But the Sun-beam took Gold-mane's hand ere they
+parted, and said:
+
+'I shall arise betimes on the morrow; so I say not farewell to-night;
+yea, and after to-morrow it shall not be long ere we meet again.'
+
+So Gold-mane lay down in that ancient hall, and it seemed to him ere
+he slept as if his own kindred were slipping away from him and he
+were becoming a child of the Wolf.  'And yet,' said he to himself, 'I
+am become a man; for my Friend, now she no longer telleth me to do or
+forbear, and I tremble.  Nay, rather she is fain to take the word
+from me; and this great warrior and ripe man, he talketh with me as
+if I were a chieftain meet for converse with chieftains.  Even so it
+is and shall be.'
+
+And soon thereafter he fell asleep in the Hall in Shadowy Vale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.  FACE-OF-GOD LOOKETH ON THE DUSKY MEN
+
+
+
+When he awoke again he saw a man standing over him, and knew him for
+Wood-wise:  he was clad in his war-gear, and had his quiver at his
+back and his bow in his hand, for Wood-father's children were all
+good bowmen, though not so sure as Bow-may.  He spake to Face-of-god:
+
+'Dawn is in the sky, Dalesman; there is yet time for thee to wash the
+night off of thee in our bath of the Shivering Flood and to put thy
+mouth to the milk-bowl; but time for nought else:  for I and Bow-may
+are appointed thy fellows for the road, and it were well that we were
+back home speedily.'
+
+So Face-of-god leapt up and went forth from the Hall, and Wood-wise
+led to where was a pool in the river with steps cut down to it in the
+rocky bank.
+
+'This,' said Wood-wise, 'is the Carle's Bath; but the Queen's is
+lower down, where the water is wider and shallower below the little
+mid-dale force.'
+
+So Gold-mane stripped off his raiment and leapt into the ice-cold
+pool; and they had brought his weapons and war-gear with them; so
+when he came out he clad and armed himself for the road, and then
+turned with Wood-wise toward the outgate of the Dale; and soon they
+saw two men coming from lower down the water in such wise that they
+would presently cross their path, and as yet it was little more than
+twilight, so that they saw not at first who they were, but as they
+drew nearer they knew them for the Sun-beam and Bow-may.  The Sun-
+beam was clad but in her white linen smock and blue gown as he had
+first seen her, her hair was wet and dripping with the river, her
+face fresh and rosy:  she carried in her two hands a great bowl of
+milk, and stepped delicately, lest she should spill it.  But Bow-may
+was clad in her war-gear with helm and byrny, and a quiver at her
+back, and a bended bow in her hand.  So they greeted each other
+kindly, and the Sun-beam gave the bowl to Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Drink, guest, for thou hast a long and thirsty road before thee.'
+
+So Face-of-god drank, and gave her the bowl back again, and she
+smiled on him and drank, and the others after her till the bowl was
+empty:  then Bow-may put her hand on Wood-wise's shoulder, and they
+led on toward the outgate, while those twain followed them hand in
+hand.  But the Sun-beam said:
+
+'This then is the new day I spoke of, and lo! it bringeth our
+sundering with it; yet shall it be no longer than a day when all is
+said, and new days shall follow after.  And now, my friend, I shall
+see thee no later than the April market; for doubt not that I shall
+go thither with Folk-might, whether he will or not.  Also as I led
+thee out of the house when we last met, so shall I lead thee out of
+the Dale to-day, and I will go with thee a little way on the waste;
+and therefore am I shod this morning, as thou seest, for the ways on
+the waste are rough.  And now I bid thee have courage while my hand
+holdeth thine.  For afterwards I need not bid thee anything; for thou
+wilt have enough to do when thou comest to thy Folk, and must needs
+think more of warriors then than of maidens.'
+
+He looked at her and longed for her, but said soberly:  'Thou art
+kind, O friend, and thinkest kindly of me ever.  But methinks it were
+not well done for thee to wend with me over a deal of the waste, and
+come back by thyself alone, when ye have so many foemen nearby.'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'they be nought so near as that yet, and I wot that
+Folk-might hath gone forth toward the north-west, where he looketh to
+fall in with a company of the foemen.  His battle shall be a guard
+unto us.'
+
+'I pray thee turn back at the top of the outgate,' said he, 'and be
+not venturesome.  Thou wottest that the pitcher is not broken the
+first time it goeth to the well, nor maybe the twentieth, but at last
+it cometh not back.'
+
+She said:  'Nevertheless I shall have my will herein.  And it is but
+a little way I will wend with thee.'
+
+Therewith were they come to the scree, and talk fell down between
+them as they clomb it; but when they were in the darksome passage of
+the rocks, and could scarce see one another, Face-of-god said:
+
+'Where then is another outgate from the Dale?  Is it not up the
+water?'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'and there is none other:  at the lower end the
+rocks rise sheer from out the water, and a little further down is a
+great force thundering betwixt them; so that by no boat or raft may
+ye come out of the Dale.  But the outgate up the water is called the
+Road of War, as this is named the Path of Peace.  But now are all
+ways ways of war.'
+
+'There is peace in my heart,' said Gold-mane.
+
+She answered not for a while, but pressed his hand, and he felt her
+breath on his cheek; and even therewithal they came out of the dark,
+and Gold-mane saw that her cheek was flushed; and now she spake:
+
+'One thing would I say to thee, my friend.  Thou hast seen me amongst
+men of war, amongst outlaws who seek violence; thou hast heard me bid
+my brother to count the slain, and I shrinking not; thou knowest (for
+I have told thee) how I have schemed and schemed for victorious
+battle.  Yet I would not have thee think of me as a Chooser of the
+Slain, a warrior maiden, or as of one who hath no joy save in the
+battle whereto she biddeth others.  O friend, the many peaceful hours
+that I have had on the grass down yonder, sitting with my rock and
+spindle in hand, the children round about my knees hearkening to some
+old story so well remembered by me! or the milking of the kine in the
+dewy summer even, when all was still but for the voice of the water
+and the cries of the happy children, and there round about me were
+the dear and beauteous maidens with whom I had grown up, happy amidst
+all our troubles, since their life was free and they knew no guile.
+In such times my heart was at peace indeed, and it seemed to me as if
+we had won all we needed; as if war and turmoil were over, after they
+had brought about peace and good days for our little folk.
+
+'And as for the days that be, are they not as that rugged pass, full
+of bitter winds and the voice of hurrying waters, that leadeth yonder
+to Silver-dale, as thou hast divined? and there is nought good in it
+save that the breath of life is therein, and that it leadeth to
+pleasant places and the peace and plenty of the fair dale.'
+
+'Sweet friend,' he said, 'what thou sayest is better than well:  for
+time shall be, if we come alive out of this pass of battle and bitter
+strife, when I shall lead thee into Burgdale to dwell there.  And
+thou wottest of our people that there is little strife and grudging
+amongst them, and that they are merry, and fair to look on, both men
+and women; and no man there lacketh what the earth may give us, and
+it is a saying amongst us that there may a man have that which he
+desireth save the sun and moon in his hands to play with:  and of
+this gladness, which is made up of many little matters, what story
+may be told?  Yet amongst it shall I live and thou with me; and ill
+indeed it were if it wearied thee and thou wert ever longing for some
+day of victorious strife, and to behold me coming back from battle
+high-raised on the shields of men and crowned with bay; if thine ears
+must ever be tickled with the talk of men and their songs concerning
+my warrior deeds.  For thus it shall not be.  When I drive the herds
+it shall be at the neighbours' bidding whereso they will; not necks
+of men shall I smite, but the stalks of the tall wheat, and the boles
+of the timber-trees which the woodreeve hath marked for felling; the
+stilts of the plough rather than the hilts of the sword shall harden
+my hands; my shafts shall be for the deer, and my spears for the
+wood-boar, till war and sorrow fall upon us, and I fight for the
+ceasing of war and trouble.  And though I be called a chief and of
+the blood of chiefs, yet shall I not be masterful to the goodman of
+the Dale, but rather to my hound; for my chieftainship shall be that
+I shall be well beloved and trusted, and that no man shall grudge
+against me.  Canst thou learn to love such a life, which to me
+seemeth lovely?  And thou? of whom I say that thou art as if thou
+wert come down from the golden chairs of the Burg of the Gods.'
+
+They were well-nigh out of the steep path by now, and the daylight
+was bright about them; there she stayed her feet a moment and turned
+to him and said:
+
+'All this should I love even now, if the grief of our Folk were but
+healed, and hereafter shall I learn yet more of thy well-beloved
+face.'
+
+Therewith she laid her face to his and kissed him fondly, and put his
+hand to her side and held it there, saying:  'Soon shall we be one in
+body and in soul.'
+
+And he laughed with joy and pride of life, and took her hand and led
+her on again, and said:
+
+'Yet feel the cold rings of my hauberk, my friend; look at the spears
+that cumber my hand, and at Dale-warden hanging by my side.  Thou
+shalt yet see me as the Slain's Chooser would see her speech-friend;
+for there is much to do ere we win wheat-harvest in Burgdale.'
+
+Therewith they stepped together on to the level ground of the waste,
+and saw Bow-may sitting on a stone hard by, and Wood-wise standing
+beside her bending his bow.  Bow-may smiled on Gold-mane and rose up,
+and they all went on together, turning so that they went nearly
+alongside the wall of the Vale, but westering a little; then the Sun-
+beam said:
+
+'Many a time have I trodden this heath alongside our rock-wall; for
+if ye wend a little further as our faces are turned, ye come to the
+crags over the place where the Shivering Flood goeth out of Shadowy
+Vale.  There when ye have clomb a little may'st thou stand on the
+edge of the rock-wall, and look down and behold the Flood swirling
+and eddying in the black gorge of the rocks, and see presently the
+reek of the force go up, and hear the thunder of the waters as they
+pour over it:  and all this about us now is as the garden of our
+house--is it not so, Bow-may?'
+
+'Yea,' said she, 'and there are goodly cluster-berries to be gotten
+hereabout in the autumn; many a time have the Sun-beam and I reddened
+our lips with them.  Yet is it best to be wary when war is abroad and
+hot withal.'
+
+'Yea,' said the Sun-beam, 'and all this place comes into the story of
+our House:  lo!  Gold-mane, two score paces before us a little on our
+right hand those five grey stones.  They are called the Rocks of the
+Elders:  for there in the first days of our abiding in Shadowy Vale
+the Elders were wont to come together to talk privily upon our
+matters.'
+
+Face-of-god looked thither as she spoke, but therewith saw Bow-may,
+who went on the left hand of the Sun-beam, as Face-of-god on her
+right hand, notch a shaft on her bent bow, and Wood-wise, who was on
+his right hand, saw it also and did the like, and therewithal Face-
+of-god got his target on to his arm, and even as he did so Bow-may
+cried out suddenly:
+
+'Yea, yea!  Cast thyself on to the ground, Sun-beam!  Gold-mane,
+targe and spear, targe and spear!  For I see steel gleaming yonder
+out from behind the Elders' Rocks.'
+
+Scarce were the words out of her mouth ere three shafts came flying,
+and the bow-strings twanged.  Gold-mane felt that one smote his helm
+and glanced from it.  Therewithal he saw the Sun-beam fall to earth,
+though he knew not if she had but cast herself down as Bow-may bade.
+Bow-may's string twanged at once, and a yell came from the foemen:
+but Wood-wise loosed not, but set his hand to his mouth and gave a
+loud wild cry--Ha! ha! ha! ha!  How-ow-ow!--ending in a long and
+exceeding great whoop like nought but the wolf's howl.  Now Gold-mane
+thinking swiftly, in a moment of time, as war-meet men do, judged
+that if the Sun-beam were hurt (and she had made no cry), it were yet
+wiser to fall on the foe before turning to tend her, or else all
+might be lost; so he rushed forward spear in hand and target on arm,
+and saw, as he opened up the flank of the Elders' Rocks, six men,
+whereof one leaned aback on the rock with Bow-may's shaft in his
+shoulder, and two others were just in act of loosing at him.  In a
+moment, as he rushed at them, one shaft went whistling by him, and
+the other glanced from off his target; he cast a spear as he bounded
+on, and saw it smite one of the shooters full in the naked face, and
+saw the blood spout out and change his face and the man roll over,
+and then in another moment four men were hewing at him with their
+short steel axes.  He thrust out his target against them, and then
+let the weight of his body come on his other spear, and drave it
+through the second shooter's throat, and even therewith was smitten
+on the helm so hard that, though the Alderman's work held out, he
+fell to his knees, holding his target over his head and striving to
+draw forth Dale-warden; in that nick of time a shaft whistled close
+by his ear, and as he rose to his feet again he saw his foeman
+rolling over and over, clutching at the ling with both hands.  Then
+rang out again the terrible wolf-whoop from Wood-wise's mouth, and
+both he and Bow-may loosed a shaft, for the two other foes had turned
+their backs and were fleeing fast.  Again Bow-may hit the clout, and
+the Dusky Man fell dead at once, but Wood-wise's arrow flew over the
+felon's shoulder as he ran.  Then in a trice was Gold-mane bounding
+after him like the hare just roused from her form; for it came into
+his head that these felons had beheld them coming up out of the Vale,
+and that if even this one man escaped, he would bring his company
+down upon the Vale-dwellers.
+
+Strong and light-foot as any was Face-of-god, and though he was
+cumbered with his hauberk, yet was Iron-face's handiwork far lighter
+than the war-coat of the Dusky Man, and the race was soon over.  The
+felon turned breathless to meet Gold-mane, who drave his target
+against him and cast him to earth, and as he strove to rise smote off
+his head at one stroke; for Dale-warden was a good sword and the
+Dalesman as fierce of mood as might be.  There he let the felon lie,
+and, turning, walked back swiftly toward the Elders' Rocks, and found
+there Wood-wise and the dead foemen, for the carle had slain the
+wounded, and he was now drawing the silver arm-rings off the slain
+men; for all these Dusky Felons bore silver arm-rings.  But Bow-may
+was walking towards the Sun-beam, and thitherward followed Gold-mane
+speedily.
+
+He found her sitting on a tussock of grass close by where she had
+fallen, her face pale, her eyes eager and gleaming; she looked up at
+him as he drew nigher and said:
+
+'Friend, art thou hurt?'
+
+'Nay,' he said, 'and thou?  Thou art pale.'
+
+'I am not hurt,' she said.  Then she smiled and said again:
+
+'Did I not tell thee that I am no warrior like Bow-may here?  Such
+deeds make maidens pale.'
+
+Said Bow-may:  'If ye will have the truth, Gold-mane, she is not wont
+to grow pale when battle is nigh her.  Look you, she hath had the
+gift of a new delight, and findeth it sweeter and softer than she had
+any thought of; and now hath she feared lest it should be taken from
+her.'
+
+'Bow-may saith but the sooth,' said the Sun-beam simply, 'and kind it
+is of her to say it.  I saw thee, Bow-may, and good was thy shooting,
+and I love thee for it.'
+
+Said Bow-may:  'I never shoot otherwise than well.  But those idle
+shooters of the Dusky Ones, whereabouts nigh to thee went their
+shafts?'
+
+Said the Sun-beam:  'One just lifted the hair by my left ear, and
+that was not so ill-aimed; as for the other, it pierced my raiment by
+my right knee, and pinned me to the earth, so that I tottered and
+fell, and my gown and smock are grievously wounded, both of them.'
+
+And she took the folds of the garments in her hands to show the rents
+therein; and her colour was come again, and she was glad.
+
+'What were best to do now?' she said.
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Let us tarry a little; for some of thy carles
+shall surely come up from the Vale:  because they will have heard
+Wood-wise's whoop, since the wind sets that way.'
+
+'Yea, they will come,' said the Sun-beam.
+
+'Good is that,' said Face-of-god; 'for they shall take the dead
+felons and cast them where they be not seen if perchance any more
+stray hereby.  For if they wind them, they may well happen on the
+path down to the Vale.  Also, my friend, it were well if thou wert to
+bid a good few of the carles that are in the Vale to keep watch and
+ward about here, lest there be more foemen wandering about the
+waste.'
+
+She said:  'Thou art wise in war, Gold-mane; I will do as thou
+biddest me.  But soothly this is a perilous thing that the Dusky Men
+are gotten so close to the Vale.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'This will Folk-might look to when he cometh home;
+and it is most like that he will deem it good to fall on them
+somewhere a good way aloof, so as to draw them off from wandering
+over the waste.  Also I will do my best to busy them when I am home
+in Burgdale.'
+
+Therewith came up Wood-wise, and fell to talk with them; and his mind
+it was that these foemen were but a band of strayers, and had had no
+inkling of Shadowy Vale till they had heard them talking together as
+they came up the path from the Vale, and that then they had made that
+ambush behind the Elders' Rocks, so that they might slay the men, and
+then bear off the woman.  He said withal that it would be best to
+carry their corpses further on, so that they might be cast over the
+cliffs into the fierce stream of the Shivering Flood.
+
+Amidst this talk came up men from the Vale, a score of them, well
+armed; and they ran to meet the wayfarers; and when they heard what
+had befallen, they rejoiced exceedingly, and were above all glad that
+Face-of-god had shown himself doughty and deft; and they deemed his
+rede wise, to set a watch thereabouts till Folk-might came home, and
+said that they would do even so.
+
+Then spake the Sun-beam and said:
+
+'Now must ye wayfarers depart; for the road is but rough, and the day
+not over-long.'
+
+Then she turned to Face-of-god and put her hand on his shoulder, and
+brought her face close to his and spake to him softly:
+
+'Doth this second parting seem at all strange to thee, and that I am
+now so familiar to thee, I whom thou didst once deem to be a very
+goddess?  And now thou hast seen me redden before thine eyes because
+of thee; and thou hast seen me grow pale with fear because of thee;
+and thou hast felt my caresses which I might not refrain; even as if
+I were altogether such a maiden as ye warriors hang about for a nine
+days' wonder, and then all is over save an aching heart--wilt thou do
+so with me?  Tell me, have I not belittled myself before thee as if I
+asked thee to scorn me?  For thus desire dealeth both with maid and
+man.'
+
+He said:  'In all this there is but one thing for me to say, and that
+is that I love thee; and surely none the less, but rather the more,
+because thou lovest me, and art of my kind, and mayest share in my
+deeds and think well of them.  Now is my heart full of joy, and one
+thing only weigheth on it; and that is that my kinswoman the Bride
+begrudgeth our love together.  For this is the thing that of all
+things most misliketh me, that any should bear a grudge against me.'
+
+She said:  'Forget not the token, and my message to her.'
+
+'I will not forget it,' said he.  'And now I bid thee to kiss me even
+before all these that are looking on; for there is nought to belittle
+us therein, since we be troth-plight.'
+
+And indeed those folk stood all round about them gazing on them, but
+a little aloof, that they might not hear their words if they were
+minded to talk privily.  For they had long loved the Sun-beam, and
+now the love of Face-of-god had begun to spring up in their hearts.
+
+So the twain embraced and kissed one another, and made no haste
+thereover; and those men deemed that but meet and right, and clashed
+their weapons on their shields in token of their joy.
+
+Then Face-of-god turned about and strode out of the ring of men, with
+Bow-may and Wood-wise beside him, and they went on their journey over
+the necks towards Burgstead.  But the Sun-beam turned slowly from
+that place toward the Vale, and two of the stoutest carles went along
+with her to guard her from harm, and she went down into the Vale
+pondering all these things in her heart.
+
+Then the other carles dragged off the corpses of the Dusky Men till
+they had brought them to the sheer rocks above the Shivering Flood,
+and there they tossed them over into the boiling caldron of the
+force, and so departed taking with them the silver arm-rings of the
+slain to add to the tale.
+
+But when they came back into the Vale the Sun-beam duly ordered that
+watch and ward to keep the ingate thereto, and note all that should
+befall till Folk-might came home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.  FACE-OF-GOD COMETH HOME TO BURGSTEAD
+
+
+
+But Face-of-god with Bow-may and Wood-wise fared over the waste,
+going at first alongside the cliffs of the Shivering Flood, and then
+afterwards turning somewhat to the west.  They soon had to climb a
+very high and steep bent going up to a mountain-neck; and the way
+over the neck was rough indeed when they were on it, and they toiled
+out of it into a barren valley, and out of the valley again on to a
+rough neck; and such-like their journey the day long, for they were
+going athwart all those great dykes that went from the ice-mountains
+toward the lower dales like the outspread fingers of a hand or the
+roots of a great tree.  And the ice-mountains they had on their left
+hands and whiles at their backs.
+
+They went very warily, with their bows bended and spear in hand, but
+saw no man, good or bad, and but few living things.  At noon they
+rested in a valley where was a stream, but no grass, nought but
+stones and sand; but where they were at least sheltered from the
+wind, which was mostly very great in these high wastes; and there
+Bow-may drew meat and wine from a wallet she bore, and they ate and
+drank, and were merry enough; and Bow-may said:
+
+'I would I were going all the way with thee, Gold-mane; for I long
+sore to let my eyes rest a while on the land where I shall one day
+live.'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, 'art thou minded to dwell there?  We shall
+be glad of that.'
+
+'Whither are thy wits straying?' said she; 'whether I am minded to it
+or not, I shall dwell there.'
+
+And Wood-wise nodded a yea to her.  But Face-of-god said:
+
+'Good will be thy dwelling; but wherefore must it be so?'
+
+Then Wood-wise laughed and said:  'I shall tell thee in fewer words
+than she will, and time presses now:  Wood-father and Wood-mother,
+and I and my two brethren and this woman have ever been about and
+anigh the Sun-beam; and we deem that war and other troubles have made
+us of closer kin to her than we were born, whether ye call it
+brotherhood or what not, and never shall we sunder from her in life
+or in death.  So when thou goest to Burgdale with her, there shall we
+be.'
+
+Then was Face-of-god glad when he found that they deemed his wedding
+so settled and sure; but Wood-wise fell to making ready for the road.
+And Face-of-god said to him:
+
+'Tell me one thing, Wood-wise; that whoop that thou gavest forth when
+we were at handy-strokes e'en now--is it but a cry of thine own or is
+it of thy Folk, and shall I hear it again?'
+
+'Thou may'st look to hear it many a time,' said Wood-wise, 'for it is
+the cry of the Wolf.  Seldom indeed hath battle been joined where men
+of our blood are, but that cry is given forth.  Come now, to the
+road!'
+
+So they went their ways and the road worsened upon them, and toilsome
+was the climbing up steep bents and the scaling of doubtful paths in
+the cliff-sides, so that the journey, though the distance of it were
+not so long to the fowl flying, was much eked out for them, and it
+was not till near nightfall that they came on the ghyll of the
+Weltering Water some six miles above Burgstead.  Forsooth Wood-wise
+said that the way might be made less toilsome though far longer by
+turning back eastward a little past the vale where they had rested at
+midday; and that seemed good to Gold-mane, in case they should be
+wending hereafter in a great company between Burgdale and Shadowy
+Vale.
+
+But now those two went with Face-of-god down a path in the side of
+the cliff whereby him-seemed he had gone before; and they came down
+into the ghyll and sat down together on a stone by the water-side,
+and Face-of-god spake to them kindly, for he deemed them good and
+trusty faring-fellows.
+
+'Bow-may,' said he, 'thou saidst a while ago that thou wouldst be
+fain to look on Burgdale; and indeed it is fair and lovely, and ye
+may soon be in it if ye will.  Ye shall both be more than welcome to
+the house of my father, and heartily I bid you thither.  For night is
+on us, and the way back is long and toilsome and beset with peril.
+Sister Bow-may, thou wottest that it would be a sore grief to me if
+thou camest to any harm, and thou also, fellow Wood-wise.  Daylight
+is a good faring-fellow over the waste.'
+
+Said Bow-may:  'Thou art kind, Gold-mane, and that is thy wont, I
+know; and fain were I to-night of the candles in thine hall.  But we
+may not tarry; for thou wottest how busy we be at home; and Sun-beam
+needeth me, if it were only to make her sure that no Dusky Man is
+bearing off thine head by its lovely locks.  Neither shall we journey
+in the mirk night; for look you, the moon yonder.'
+
+'Well,' said Face-of-god, 'parting is ill at the best, and I would I
+could give you twain a gift, and especially to thee, my sister Bow-
+may.'
+
+Said Wood-wise:  'Thou may'st well do that; or at least promise the
+gift; and that is all one as if we held it in our hands.'
+
+'Yea,' said Bow-may, 'Wood-wise and I have been thinking in one way
+belike; and I was at point to ask a gift of thee.'
+
+'What is it?' said Gold-mane.  'Surely it is thine, if it were but a
+guerdon for thy good shooting.'
+
+She laughed and handled the skirts of his hauberk as she said:
+
+'Show us the dint in thine helm that the steel axe made this
+morning.'
+
+'There is no such great dint,' said he; 'my father forged that helm,
+and his work is better than good.'
+
+'Yea,' said Bow-may, 'and might I have hauberk and helm of his
+handiwork, and Wood-wise a good sword of the same, then were I a glad
+woman, and this man a happy carle.'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'I am well pleased at thine asking, and so shall
+Iron-face be when he heareth of thine archery; and how that Hall-face
+were now his only son but for thy close shooting.  But now must I to
+the way; for my heart tells me that there may have been tidings in
+Burgstead this while I have been aloof.'
+
+So they rose all three, and Bow-may said:
+
+'Thou art a kind brother, and soon shall we meet again; and that will
+be well.'
+
+Then he put his hands on her shoulders and kissed both her cheeks;
+and he kissed Wood-wise, and turned and went his ways, threading the
+stony tangle about the Weltering Water, which was now at middle
+height, and running clear and strong; so turning once he beheld Wood-
+wise and Bow-may climbing the path up the side of the ghyll, and Bow-
+may turned to him also and waved her bow as token of farewell.  Then
+he went upon his way, which was rough enough to follow by night,
+though the moon was shining brightly high aloft.  Yet as he knew his
+road he made but little of it all, and in somewhat more than an hour
+and a half was come out of the pass into the broken ground at the
+head of the Dale, and began to make his way speedily under the bright
+moonlight toward the Gate, still going close by the water.  But as he
+went he heard of a sudden cries and rumour not far from him, unwonted
+in that place, where none dwelt, and where the only folk he might
+look to see were those who cast an angle into the pools and eddies of
+the Water.  Moreover, he saw about the place whence came the cries
+torches moving swiftly hither and thither; so that he looked to hear
+of new tidings, and stayed his feet and looked keenly about him on
+every side; and just then, between his rough path and the shimmer of
+the dancing moonlit water, he saw the moon smite on something
+gleaming; so, as quietly as he could, he got his target on his arm,
+and shortened his spear in his right hand, and then turned sharply
+toward that gleam.  Even therewith up sprang a man on his right hand,
+and then another in front of him just betwixt him and the water; an
+axe gleamed bright in the moon, and he caught a great stroke on his
+target, and therewith drave his left shoulder straight forward, so
+that the man before him fell over into the water with a mighty
+splash; for they were at the very edge of the deepest eddy of the
+Water.  Then he spun round on his heel, heeding not that another
+stroke had fallen on his right shoulder, yet ill-aimed, and not with
+the full edge, so that it ran down his byrny and rent it not.  So he
+sent the thrust of his spear crashing through the face and skull of
+the smiter, and looked not to him as he fell, but stood still,
+brandishing his spear and crying out, 'For the Burg and the Face!
+For the Burg and the Face!'
+
+No other foe came against him, but like to the echo of his cry rose a
+clear shout not far aloof, 'For the Face, for the Face!  For the Burg
+and the Face!'  He muttered, 'So ends the day as it begun,' and
+shouted loud again, 'For the Burg and the Face!'  And in a minute
+more came breaking forth from the stone-heaps into the moonlit space
+before the water the tall shapes of the men of Burgstead, the red
+torchlight and the moonlight flashing back from their war-gear and
+weapons; for every man had his sword or spear in hand.
+
+Hall-face was the first of them, and he threw his arms about his
+brother and said:  'Well met, Gold-mane, though thou comest amongst
+us like Stone-fist of the Mountain.  Art thou hurt?  With whom hast
+thou dealt?  Where be they?  Whence comest thou?'
+
+'Nay, I am not hurt,' said Face-of-god.  'Stint thy questions then,
+till thou hast told me whom thou seekest with spear and sword and
+candle.'
+
+'Two felons were they,' said Hall-face, 'even such as ye saw lying
+dead at Wood-grey's the other day.'
+
+'Then may ye sheathe your swords and go home,' said Gold-mane, 'for
+one lieth at the bottom of the eddy, and the other, thy feet are
+well-nigh treading on him, Hall-face.'
+
+Then arose a rumour of praise and victory, and they brought the
+torches nigh and looked at the fallen man, and found that he was
+stark dead; so they even let him lie there till the morrow, and all
+turned about toward the Thorp; and many looked on Face-of-god and
+wondered concerning him, whence he was and what had befallen him.
+Indeed, they would have asked him thereof, but could not get at him
+to ask; but whoso could, went as nigh to Hall-face and him as they
+might, to hearken to the talk between the brothers.
+
+So as they went along Hall-face did verily ask him whence he came:
+'For was it not so,' said he, 'that thou didst enter into the wood
+seeking some adventure early in the morning the day before
+yesterday?'
+
+'Sooth is that,' said Face-of-god, 'and I came to Shadowy Vale, and
+thence am I come this morning.'
+
+Said Hall-face:  'I know not Shadowy Vale, nor doth any of us.  This
+is a new word.  How say ye, friends, doth any man here know of
+Shadowy Vale?'
+
+They all said, 'Nay.'
+
+Then said Hall-face:  'Hast thou been amongst mere ghosts and
+marvels, brother, or cometh this tale of thy minstrelsy?'
+
+'For all your words,' said Gold-mane, 'to that Vale have I been; and,
+to speak shortly (for I desire to have your tale, and am waiting for
+it), I will tell thee that I found there no marvels or strange
+wights, but a folk of valiant men; a folk small in numbers, but great
+of heart; a folk come, as we be, from the Fathers and the Gods.  And
+this, moreover, is to be said of them, that they are the foes of
+these felons of whom ye were chasing these twain.  And these same
+Dusky Men of Silver-dale would slay them every man if they might; and
+if we look not to it they will soon be doing the same by us; for they
+are many, and as venomous as adders, as fierce as bears, and as foul
+as swine.  But these valiant men, who bear on their banner the image
+of the Wolf, should be our fellows in arms, and they have good will
+thereto; and they shall show us the way to Silver-dale by blind
+paths, so that we may fall upon these felons while they dwell there
+tormenting the poor people of the land, and thus may we destroy them
+as lads a hornet's nest.  Or else the days shall be hard for us.'
+
+The men who hung about them drank in his words greedily.  But Hall-
+face was silent a little while, and then he said:  'Brother Gold-
+mane, these be great tidings.  Time was when we might have deemed
+them but a minstrel's tale; for Silver-dale we know not, of which
+thou speakest so glibly, nor the Dusky Men, any more than the Shadowy
+Vale.  Howbeit, things have befallen these two last days so strange
+and new, that putting them together with the murder at Wood-grey's,
+and thy words which seem somewhat wild, it may well seem to us that
+tidings unlooked for are coming our way.'
+
+'Come, then,' said Face-of-god, 'give me what thou hast in thy scrip,
+and trust me, I shall not jeer at thy tale.'
+
+Said Hall-face:  'I also will be short with the tale; and that the
+more, as meseemeth it is not yet done, and that thou thyself shalt
+share in the ending of it.  It was the day before yesterday, that is
+the day when thou departedst into the woods on that adventure whereof
+thou shalt one day tell me more, wilt thou not?'
+
+'Yea, in good time,' said Face-of-god.
+
+'Well,' quoth Hall-face, 'we went into the woods that day and in the
+morning, but after sunrise, to the number of a score:  we looked to
+meet a bear and a she-bear with cubs in a certain place; for one of
+the Woodlanders, a keen hunter, had told us of their lair.  Also we
+were wishful to slay some of the wild-swine, the yearlings, if we
+might.  Therefore, though we had no helms or shields or coats of
+fence, we had bowshot a plenty, and good store of casting-weapons,
+besides our wood-knives and an axe or so; and some of us, of whom I
+was one, bore our battle-swords, as we are wont ever to do, be the
+foe beast or man.
+
+'Thus armed we went up Wildlake's Way and came to Carlstead, where
+half-a-score Woodlanders joined themselves to us, so that we became a
+band.  We went up the half-cleared places past Carlstead for a mile,
+and then turned east into the wood, and went I know not how far, for
+the Woodlanders led us by crooked paths, but two hours wore away in
+our going, till we came to the place where they looked to find the
+bears.  It is a place that may well be noted, for it is unlike the
+wood round about.  There is a close thicket some two furlongs about
+of thorn and briar and ill-grown ash and oak and other trees, planted
+by the birds belike; and it stands as it were in an island amidst of
+a wide-spreading woodlawn of fine turf, set about in the most goodly
+fashion with great tall straight-boled oak-trees, that seem to have
+been planted of set purpose by man's hand.  Yea, dost thou know the
+place?'
+
+'Methinks I do,' said Gold-mane, 'and I seem to have heard the
+Woodlanders give it a name and call it Boars-bait.'
+
+'That may be,' said Hall-face.  'Well, there we were, the dogs and
+the men, and we drew nigh the thicket and beset it, and doubted not
+to find prey therein:  but when we would set the dogs at the thicket
+to enter it, they were uneasy, and would not take up the slot, but
+growled and turned about this way and that, so that we deemed that
+they winded some fierce beast at our flanks or backs.
+
+'Even so it was, and fierce enough and deadly was the beast; for
+suddenly we heard bow-strings twang, and shafts came flying; and
+Iron-shield of the Upper Dale, who was close beside me, leapt up into
+the air and fell down dead with an arrow through his back.  Then I
+bethought me in the twinkling of an eye, and I cried out, "The foe
+are on us! take the cover of the tree-boles and be wary!  For the
+Burg and the Face!  For the Burg and the Face!"
+
+'So we scattered and covered ourselves with the oak-boles, but
+besides Iron-shield, who was slain outright, two goodmen were sorely
+hurt, to wit Bald-face, a man of our house, and Stonyford of the
+Lower Dale.
+
+'I looked from behind my tree-bole, a great one; and far off down the
+glades I saw men moving, clad in gay raiment; but nearer to me, not a
+hundred yards from my cover, I saw an arm clad in scarlet come out
+from behind a tree-bole, so I loosed at it, and missed not; for
+straight there tottered out from behind the tree one of those dusky
+foul-favoured men like to those that were slain by Wood-grey.  I had
+another shaft ready notched, so I loosed and set the shaft in his
+throat, and he fell.
+
+'Straightway was a yelling and howling about us like the cries of
+scalded curs, and the oak-wood swarmed thick with these felons
+rushing on us; for it seems that the man whom I had slain was a chief
+amongst them, or we judged so by his goodly raiment.
+
+'Methought then our last day was come.  What could we do but run
+together again after we had loosed at a venture, and so withstand
+them sword and spear in hand?  Some fell beneath our shot, but not
+many, for they came on very swiftly.
+
+'So they fell on us; but for all their fierceness and their numbers
+they might not break our array, and we slew four and hurt many by
+sword-hewing and spear-casting and push of spear; and five of us were
+hurt and one slain by their dart-casting.  So they drew off from us a
+little, and strove to spread out and fall to shooting at us again;
+but this we would not suffer, but pushed on as they fell back,
+keeping as close together as we might for the trees.  For we said
+that we would all die together if needs must; and verily the stour
+was hard.
+
+'Yet hearken!  In that nick of time rose up a strange cry not far
+from us, Ha! ha! ha! ha!  How-ow-ow! ending like the howl of a wolf,
+and then another and another and another, till the whole wood rang
+again.
+
+'At first we deemed that here were come fresh foemen, and that we
+were undone indeed; but when they heard it, the foe-men before us
+faltered and gave way, and at last turned their backs and fled, and
+we followed, keeping well together still:  thereby the more part of
+these men escaped us, for they fled wildly here and there from those
+who bore that cry with them; so we knew that our work was being done
+for us; therefore we stood, and saw tall men clad in sheep-brown weed
+running through the glades pursuing those felons and smiting them
+down, till both fleers and pursuers passed out of our sight like men
+in a dream, or as when ye roll up a pictured cloth to lay it in the
+coffer.
+
+'But to Stone-face's mind those brown-clad men were the Wights of the
+Wood that be of the Fathers' blood, and our very friends; and when
+some of us would yet have gone forward and foregathered with them,
+and followed the chase along with them, Stone-face gainsaid it,
+bidding us not to run into the arms of a second death, when we had
+but just escaped from the first.  Sooth to say, moreover, we had
+divers hurt men that needed looking to.
+
+'So what with one thing, what with another, we turned back:  but War-
+cliff's brother, a tall man, had felled two of those felons with an
+oak sapling which he had torn from the thicket; but he had not slain
+them, and by now they were just awakening from their swoon, and were
+sitting up looking round them with fierce rolling eyes, expecting the
+stroke, for Raven of Longscree was standing over them with a naked
+war-sword in his hand.  But now that our blood was cool, we were loth
+to slay them as they lay in our hands; so we bound them and brought
+them away with us; and our own dead we carried also on such biers as
+we might lightly make there, and with them three that were so
+grievously hurt that they might not go afoot, these we left at
+Carlstead:  they were Tardy the Son of the Untamed, and Swan of Bull-
+meadow, both of the Lower Dale, and a Woodlander, Undoomed to wit.
+But the dead were Iron-shield aforesaid, and Wool-sark, and the
+Hewer, a Woodlander.
+
+'So came we sadly at eventide to Burgstead with the two dead
+Burgdalers, and the captive felons, and the wounded of us that might
+go afoot; and ye may judge that they of Burgdale and our father
+deemed these tidings great enough, and wotted not what next should
+befall.  Stone-face would have had those two felons slain there and
+then; for no true tale could we get out of them, nor indeed any word
+at all.  But the Alderman would not have it so; and he deemed they
+might serve our turn as hostages if any of our folk should be taken:
+for one and all we deemed, and still deem, that war is on us and that
+new folk have gathered on our skirts.
+
+'So the captives were shut up in the red out-bower of our house; and
+our father was minded that thou mightest tell us somewhat of them
+when thou wert come home.  But about dusk to-day the word went that
+they had broken out and gotten them weapons and fled up the Dale; and
+so it was.
+
+'But to-morrow morning will a Gate-thing be holden, and there it will
+be looked for of thee that thou tell us a true tale of thy goings.
+For it is deemed, and it is my deeming especially, that thou may'st
+tell us more of these men than thou hast yet told us.  Is it not so?'
+
+'Yea, surely,' said Gold-mane, 'I can make as many words as ye will
+about it; yet when all is said, it will come to much the same tale as
+I have already told thee.  Yet belike, if ye are minded to take up
+the sword to defend you, I may tell you in what wise to lay hold on
+the hilts.'
+
+'And that is well,' said Hall-face, 'and no less do I look for of
+thee.  But lo! here are we come to the Gate of the Burg that abideth
+battle.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.  TALK IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF THE FACE
+
+
+
+In sooth they were come to the very Gate of Burgstead, and the great
+gates were shut, and only a wicket was open, and a half score of
+stout men in all their war-gear were holding ward thereby.  They gave
+place to Hall-face and his company, albeit some of the warders
+followed them through the wicket that they might hear the story told.
+
+The street was full of folk, both men and women, talking together
+eagerly concerning all these tidings, and when they saw the men of
+the Hue-and-cry they came thronging about them, so that they might
+scarce get to the door of the House of the Face because of the press;
+so Hall-face (who was a very tall man) cried out:
+
+'Good people, all is well! the runaways are slain, and Face-of-god is
+come back with us; give place a little, that we may come into our
+house.'
+
+Then the throng set up a shout, and made way a little, so that Hall-
+face and Gold-mane and the others could get to the door.  And they
+entered into the Hall, and saw much folk therein; and men were
+sitting at table, for supper was not yet over.  But when they saw the
+new-comers they mostly rose up from the board and stood silent to
+hear the tale, for they had been talking many together each to each,
+so that the Hall was full of confused noise.
+
+So Hall-face again cried out:  'Men in this hall, good is the
+tidings.  The runaways are slain; and it was Face-of-god who slew
+them as he came back safe from the waste.'
+
+Then they shouted for joy, and the brethren and Stone-face with them
+(for he had entered with them from the street) went up on to the
+dais, while the others of the Hue-and-cry gat them seats where they
+might at the endlong tables.
+
+But when Face-of-god came up on to the dais, there sat Iron-face
+looking down on the thronged Hall with a ruddy cheerful countenance,
+and beside him sat the Bride; for he had caused her to be brought
+thither when he had heard of the tidings of battle.  She was daintily
+clad in a flame-coloured kirtle embroidered with gold about the bosom
+and sleeves, and there was a fillet of golden roses on her ruddy
+hair.  Her eyes shone bright and eager, and the pommels of her cheeks
+were flushed and red contrary to their wont.  Needs must Gold-mane
+sit by her, and when he came close to her he knew not what to do, but
+he put forth his hand to her, yet with a troubled countenance; for he
+feared her grief mingled with her beauty:  as for her, she wavered in
+her mind whether she should forbear to touch him or not; but she saw
+that men about were looking at them, and especially was Iron-face
+looking on her:  therefore she stood up and took Gold-mane's hand and
+kissed his face as she had been wont to do, and by then was her face
+as white as paper; and her anguish pierced his heart, so that he
+well-nigh groaned for grief of her.  But Iron-face looked on her and
+said kindly:
+
+'Kinswoman, thou art pale; thou hast feared for thy mate amidst all
+these tidings of war, and still fearest for him.  But pluck up a
+heart; for the man is a deft warrior for all his fair face, which
+thou lovest as a woman should, and his hands may yet save his head.
+And if he be slain, yet are there other men of the kindred, and the
+earth will not be a desert to thee even then.'
+
+She looked at Iron-face, and the colour was come back to her face
+somewhat, and she said:
+
+'It is true; I have feared for him; for he goeth into perilous
+places.  But for thee, thou art kind, and I thank thee for it.'
+
+And therewith she kissed Iron-face and sat down in her place, and
+strove to overmaster her grief, that her face might not be changed by
+it; for now were thoughts of battle, and valiant hopes arising in
+men's hearts; and it seemed to her too grievous if she should mar
+that feast on the eve of battle.
+
+But Iron-face kissed and embraced his son and said:  'Art thou late
+come from the waste?  Hast thou seen new things?  We look to have a
+notable tale from thee; though here also have been tidings, and it is
+not unlike that we shall presently have new work on our hands.'
+
+'Father,' quoth Face-of-god, 'I deem that when thou hast heard my
+tale thou wilt think no less of it than that there are valiant folk
+to be holpen, poor folk to be delivered, and evil folk to be swept
+from off the face of the earth.'
+
+'It is well, son,' said Iron-face.  'I see that thy tale is long; let
+it alone for to-night.  To-morrow shall we hold a Gate-thing, and
+then shall we hear all that thou hast to tell.  Now eat thy meat and
+drink a bowl of wine, and comfort thy troth-plight maiden.'
+
+So Gold-mane sat down by the Bride, and ate and drank as he needs
+must; but he was ill at ease and he durst not speak to her.  For, on
+the one hand, he thought concerning his love for the Sun-beam, and
+how sweet and good a thing it was that she should take him by the
+hand and lead him into noble deeds and great fame, caressing him so
+softly and sweetly the while; and, on the other hand, there sat the
+Bride beside him, sorrowful and angry, begrudging all that sweetness
+of love, as though it were something foul and unseemly; and heavy on
+him lay the weight of that grudge, for he was a man of a friendly
+heart.
+
+Stone-face sat outward from him on the other side of the Bride; and
+he leaned across her towards Gold-mane and said:
+
+'Fair shall be thy tale to-morrow, if thou tellest us all thine
+adventure.  Or wilt thou tell us less than all?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'In good time shalt thou know it all, foster-
+father; but it is not unlike that by the time that thou hast heard
+it, there shall be so many other things to tell of, that my tale
+shall seem of little account to thee--even as the saw saith that one
+nail driveth out the other.'
+
+'Yea,' said Stone-face, 'but one tale belike shall be knit up with
+the others, as it fareth with the figures that come one after other
+on the weaver's cloth; though one maketh not the other, yet one
+cometh of the other.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Wise art thou now, foster-father, but thou shalt
+be wiser yet in this matter by then a month hath worn:  and to-morrow
+shalt thou know enough to set thine hands a-work.'
+
+So the talk fell between them; and the night wore, and the men of
+Burgdale feasted in their ancient hall with merry hearts, little
+weighed down by thought of the battle that might be and the trouble
+to come; for they were valorous and kindly folk.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.  FACE-OF-GOD GIVETH THAT TOKEN TO THE BRIDE
+
+
+
+Now on the morrow, when Face-of-god arose and other men with him, and
+the Hall was astir and there was no little throng therein, the Bride
+came up to him; for she had slept in the House of the Face by the
+bidding of the Alderman; and she spake to him before all men, and
+bade him come forth with her into the garden, because she would speak
+to him apart.  He yeasaid her, though with a heavy heart; and to the
+folk about that seemed meet and due, since those twain were deemed to
+be troth-plight, and they smiled kindly on them as they went out of
+the Hall together.
+
+So they came into the garden, where the pear-trees were blossoming
+over the spring lilies, and the cherries were showering their flowers
+on the deep green grass, and everything smelled sweetly on the warm
+windless spring morning.
+
+She led the way, going before him till they came by a smooth grass
+path between the berry bushes, to a square space of grass about which
+were barberry trees, their first tender leaves bright green in the
+sun against the dry yellowish twigs.  There was a sundial amidmost of
+the grass, and betwixt the garden-boughs one could see the long grey
+roof of the ancient hall; and sweet familiar sounds of the nesting
+birds and men and women going on their errands were all about in the
+scented air.  She turned about at the sundial and faced Face-of-god,
+her hand lightly laid on the scored brass, and spake with no anger in
+her voice:
+
+'I ask thee if thou hast brought me the token whereon thou shalt
+swear to give me that gift.'
+
+'Yea,' said he; and therewith drew the ring from his bosom, and held
+it out to her.  She reached out her hand to him slowly and took it,
+and their fingers met as she did so, and he noted that her hand was
+warm and firm and wholesome as he well remembered it.
+
+She said:  'Whence hadst thou this fair finger-ring?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'My friend there in the mountain-valley drew it
+from off her finger for thee, and bade me bear thee a message.'
+
+Her face flushed red:  'Yea,' she said, 'and doth she send me a
+message?  Then doth she know of me, and ye have talked of me
+together.  Well, give the message!'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'She saith, that thou shalt bear in mind, That to-
+morrow is a new day.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'for her it is so, and for thee; but not for me.
+But now I have brought thee here that thou mightest swear thine oath
+to me; lay thine hand on this ring and on this brazen plate whereby
+the sun measures the hours of the day for happy folk, and swear by
+the spring-tide of the year and all glad things that find a mate, and
+by the God of the Earth that rejoiceth in the life of man.'
+
+Then he laid his hand on the finger-ring as it lay on the dial-plate
+and said:
+
+'By the spring-tide and the live things that long to multiply their
+kind; by the God of the Earth that rejoiceth in the life of man, I
+swear to give to my kinswoman the Bride the second man-child that I
+beget; to be hers, to leave or cherish, to love or hate, as her will
+may bid her.'  Then he looked on her soberly and said:  'It is duly
+sworn; is it enough?'
+
+'Yea,' she said; but he saw how the tears ran out of her eyes and
+wetted the bosom of her kirtle, and she hung her head for shame of
+her grief.  And Gold-mane was all abashed, and had no word to say;
+for he knew that no word of his might comfort her; and he deemed it
+ill done to stay there and behold her sorrow; and he knew not how to
+get him gone, and be glad elsewhere, and leave her alone.
+
+Then, as if she had read his thought, she looked up at him and said
+smiling a little amidst of her tears:
+
+'I bid thee stay by me till the flood is over; for I have yet a word
+to say to thee.'
+
+So he stood there gazing down on the grass in his turn, and not
+daring to raise his eyes to her face, and the minutes seemed long to
+him:  till at last she said in a voice scarcely yet clear of weeping:
+
+'Wilt thou say anything to me, and tell me what thou hast done, and
+why, and what thou deemest will come of it?'
+
+He said:  'I will tell the truth as I know it, because thou askest it
+of me, and not because I would excuse myself before thee.  What have
+I done?  Yesterday I plighted my troth to wed the woman that I met
+last autumn in the wood.  And why?  I wot not why, but that I longed
+for her.  Yet I must tell thee that it seemed to me, and yet seemeth,
+that I might do no otherwise--that there was nothing else in the
+world for me to do.  What do I deem will come of it, sayest thou?
+This, that we shall be happy together, she and I, till the day of our
+death.'
+
+She said:  'And even so long shall I be sorry:  so far are we
+sundered now.  Alas! who looked for it?  And whither shall I turn to
+now?'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'She bade me tell thee that to-morrow is a new day:
+meseemeth I know her meaning.'
+
+'No word of hers hath any meaning to me,' said the Bride.
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'but hast thou not heard these rumours of war that
+are in the Dale?  Shall not these things avail thee?  Much may grow
+out of them; and thou with the mighty heart, so faithful and
+compassionate!'
+
+She said:  'What sayest thou?  What may grow out of them?  Yea, I
+have heard those rumours as a man sick to death heareth men talk of
+their business down in the street while he lieth on his bed; and
+already he hath done with it all, and hath no world to mend or mar.
+For me nought shall grow out of it.  What meanest thou?'
+
+Said Gold-mane:  'Is there nought in the fellowship of Folks, and the
+aiding of the valiant, and the deliverance of the hapless?'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'there is nought to me.  I cannot think of it to-day
+nor yet to-morrow belike.  Yet true it is that I may mingle in it,
+though thinking nought of it.  But this shall not avail me.'
+
+She was silent a little, but presently spake and said:  'Thou sayest
+right; it is not thou that hast done this, but the woman who sent me
+the ring and the message of an old saw.  O that she should be born to
+sunder us!  How hath it befallen that I am now so little to thee and
+she so much?'
+
+And again she was silent; and after a while Face-of-god spake kindly
+and softly and said:  'Kinswoman, wilt thou for ever begrudge our
+love? this grudge lieth heavy on my soul, and it is I alone that have
+to bear it.'
+
+She said:  'This is but a light burden for thee to bear, when thou
+hast nought else to bear!  But do I begrudge thee thy love, Gold-
+mane?  I know not that.  Rather meseemeth I do not believe in it--nor
+shall do ever.'
+
+Then she held her peace a long while, nor did he speak one word:  and
+they were so still, that a robin came hopping about them, close to
+the hem of her kirtle, and a starling pitched in the apple-tree hard
+by and whistled and chuckled, turning about and about, heeding them
+nought.  Then at last she lifted up her face from looking on the
+grass and said:  'These are idle words and avail nothing:  one thing
+only I know, that we are sundered.  And now it repenteth me that I
+have shown thee my tears and my grief and my sickness of the earth
+and those that dwell thereon.  I am ashamed of it, as if thou hadst
+smitten me, and I had come and shown thee the stripes, and said, See
+what thou hast done! hast thou no pity?  Yea, thou pitiest me, and
+wilt try to forget thy pity.  Belike thou art right when thou sayest,
+To-morrow is a new day; belike matters will arise that will call me
+back to life, and I shall once more take heed of the joy and sorrow
+of my people.  Nay, it is most like that this I shall feign to do
+even now.  But if to-morrow be a new day, it is to-day now and not
+to-morrow, and so shall it be for long.  Hereof belike we shall talk
+no more, thou and I.  For as the days wear, the dealings between us
+shall be that thou shalt but get thee away from my life, and I shall
+be nought to thee but the name of a kinswoman.  Thus should it be
+even wert thou to strive to make it otherwise; and thou shalt NOT
+strive.  So let all this be; for this is not the word I had to say to
+thee.  But hearken! now are we sundered, and it irketh me beyond
+measure that folk know it not, and are kind, and rejoice in our love,
+and deem it a happy thing for the folk; and this burden I may bear no
+longer.  So I shall declare unto men that I will not wed thee; and
+belike they may wonder why it is, till they see thee wedded to the
+Woman of the Mountain.  Art thou content that so it shall be?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Nay, thou shalt not take this all upon thyself; I
+also shall declare unto the Folk that I will wed none but her, the
+Mountain-Woman.'
+
+She said:  'This shalt thou not do; I forbid it thee.  And I WILL
+take it all upon myself.  Shall I have it said of me that I am unmeet
+to wed thee, and that thou hast found me out at last and at latest?
+I lay this upon thee, that wheresoever I declare this and whatsoever
+I may say, thou shalt hold thy peace.  This at least thou may'st do
+for me.  Wilt thou?'
+
+'Yea,' he said, 'though it shall put me to shame.'
+
+Again she was silent for a little; then she said:
+
+'O Gold-mane, this would I take upon myself not soothly for any shame
+of seeming to be thy cast-off; but because it is I who needs must
+bear all the sorrow of our sundering; and I have the will to bear it
+greater and heavier, that I may be as the women of old time, and they
+that have come from the Gods, lest I belittle my life with malice and
+spite and confusion, and it become poisonous to me.  Be at peace! be
+at peace!  And leave all to the wearing of the years; and forget not
+that which thou hast sworn!'
+
+Therewith she turned and went from that green place toward the House
+of the Face, walking slowly through the garden amongst the sweet
+odours, beneath the fair blossoms, a body most dainty and beauteous
+of fashion, but the casket of grievous sorrow, which all that
+goodliness availed not.
+
+But Face-of-god lingered in that place a little, and for that little
+while the joy of his life was dulled and overworn; and the days
+before his wandering on the mountain seemed to him free and careless
+and happy days that he could not but regret.  He was ashamed,
+moreover, that this so unquenchable grief should come but of him, and
+the pleasure of his life, which he himself had found out for himself,
+and which was but such a little portion of the Earth and the deeds
+thereof.  But presently his thought wandered from all this, and as he
+turned away from the sundial and went his ways through the garden, he
+called to mind his longing for the day of the spring market, when he
+should see the Sun-beam again and be cherished by the sweetness of
+her love.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.  OF THE GATE-THING AT BURGSTEAD
+
+
+
+But now must he hasten, for the Gate-thing was to be holden two hours
+before noon; so he betook him speedily to the Hall, and took his
+shield and did on a goodly helm and girt his sword to his side, for
+men must needs go to all folk-motes with their weapons and clad in
+war-gear.  Thus he went forth to the Gate with many others, and there
+already were many folk assembled in the space aforesaid betwixt the
+Gate of the Burg and the sheer rocks on the face of which were the
+steps that led up to the ancient Tower on the height.  The Alderman
+was sitting on the great stone by the Gate-side which was his
+appointed place, and beside him on the stone bench were the six
+Wardens of the Burg; but of the six Wardens of the Dale there were
+but three, for the others had not yet heard tell of the battle or had
+got the summons to the Thing, since they had been about their
+business down the Dale.
+
+Face-of-god took his place silently amongst the neighbours, but men
+made way for him, so that he must needs stand in front, facing his
+father and the Wardens; and there went up a murmur of expectation
+round about him, both because the word had gone about that he had a
+tale of new tidings to tell, and also because men deemed him their
+best and handiest man, though he was yet so young.
+
+Now the Alderman looked around and beheld a great throng gathered
+together, and he looked on the shadow of the Gate which the
+southering sun was casting on the hard white ground of the Thing-
+stead, and he saw that it had just taken in the standing-stone which
+was in the midst of the place.  On the face of the said stone was
+carven the image of a fighting man with shield on arm and axe in
+hand; for it had been set there in old time in memory of the man who
+had bidden the Folk build the Gate and its wall, and had showed them
+how to fashion it:  for he was a deft house-smith as well as a great
+warrior; and his name was Iron-hand.  So when the Alderman saw that
+this stone was wholly within the shadow of the Gate he knew that it
+was the due time for the hallowing-in of the Thing.  So he bade one
+of the wardens who sat beside him and had a great slug-horn slung
+about him, to rise and set the horn to his mouth.
+
+So that man arose and blew three great blasts that went bellowing
+about the towers and down the street, and beat back again from the
+face of the sheer rocks and up them and over into the wild-wood; and
+the sound of it went on the light west-wind along the lips of the
+Dale toward the mountain wastes.  And many a goodman, when he heard
+the voice of the horn in the bright spring morning, left spade or axe
+or plough-stilts, or the foddering of the ewes and their younglings,
+and turned back home to fetch his sword and helm and hasten to the
+Thing, though he knew not why it was summoned:  and women wending
+over the meadows, who had not yet heard of the battle in the wood,
+hearkened and stood still on the green grass or amidst the ripples of
+the ford, and the threat of coming trouble smote heavy on their
+hearts, for they knew that great tidings must be towards if a Thing
+must needs be summoned so close to the Great Folk-mote.
+
+But now the Alderman stood up and spake amidst the silence that
+followed the last echoes of the horn:
+
+'Now is hallowed in this Gate-thing of the Burgstead Men and the Men
+of the Dale, wherein they shall take counsel concerning matters late
+befallen, that press hard upon them.  Let no man break the peace of
+the Holy Thing, lest he become a man accursed in holy places from the
+plain up to the mountain, and from the mountain down to the plain; a
+man not to be cherished of any man of good will, not be holpen with
+victuals or edge-tool or draught-beast; a man to be sheltered under
+no roof-tree, and warmed at no hearth of man:  so help us the Warrior
+and the God of the Earth, and Him of the Face, and all the Fathers!'
+
+When he had spoken men clashed their weapons in token of assent; and
+he sat down again, and there was silence for a space.  But presently
+came thrusting forward a goodman of the Dale, who seemed as if he had
+come hurriedly to the Thing; for his face was running down with
+sweat, his wide-rimmed iron cap sat awry over his brow, and he was
+girt with a rusty sword without a scabbard, and the girdle was ill-
+braced up about his loins.  So he said:
+
+'I am Red-coat of Waterless of the Lower Dale.  Early this morning as
+I was going afield I met on the way a man akin to me, Fox of Upton to
+wit, and he told me that men were being summoned to a Gate-thing.  So
+I turned back home, and caught up any weapon that came handy, and
+here I am, Alderman, asking thee of the tidings which hath driven
+thee to call this Thing so hard on the Great Folk-mote, for I know
+them nothing so.'
+
+Then stood up Iron-face the Alderman and said:  'This is well asked,
+and soon shall ye be as wise as I am on this matter.  Know ye, O men
+of Burgstead and the Dale, that we had not called this Gate-thing so
+hard on the Great Folk-mote had not great need been to look into
+troublous matters.  Long have ye dwelt in peace, and it is years on
+years now since any foeman hath fallen on the Dale:  but, as ye will
+bear in mind, last autumn were there ransackings in the Dale and
+amidst of the Shepherds after the manner of deeds of war; and it
+troubleth us that none can say who wrought these ill deeds.  Next,
+but a little while agone, was Wood-grey, a valiant goodman of the
+Woodlanders, slain close to his own door by evil men.  These men we
+took at first for mere gangrel felons and outcasts from their own
+folk:  though there were some who spoke against that from the
+beginning.
+
+'But thirdly are new tidings again:  for three days ago, while some
+of the folk were hunting peaceably in the Wild-wood and thinking no
+evil, they were fallen upon of set purpose by a host of men-at-arms,
+and nought would serve but mere battle for dear life, so that many of
+our neighbours were hurt, and three slain outright; and now mark
+this, that those who there fell upon our folk were clad and armed
+even as the two felons that slew Wood-grey, and moreover were like
+them in aspect of body.  Now stand forth Hall-face my son, and answer
+to my questions in a loud voice, so that all may hear thee.'
+
+So Hall-face stood forth, clad in gleaming war-gear, with an axe over
+his shoulder, and seemed a doughty warrior.  And Iron-face said to
+him:
+
+'Tell me, son, those whom ye met in the wood, and of whom ye brought
+home two captives, how much like were they to the murder-carles at
+Wood-grey's?'
+
+Said Hall-face:  'As like as peas out of the same cod, and to our
+eyes all those whom we saw in the wood might have been sons of one
+father and one mother, so much alike were they.'
+
+'Yea,' said the Alderman; 'now tell me how many by thy deeming fell
+upon you in the wood?'
+
+Said Hall-face:  'We deemed that if they were any less than
+threescore, they were little less.'
+
+'Great was the odds,' said the Alderman.  'Or how many were ye?'
+
+'One score and seven,' said Hall-face.
+
+Said the Alderman:  'And yet ye escaped with life all save those
+three?'
+
+Hall-face said:  'I deem that scarce one should have come back alive,
+had it not been that as we fought came a noise like the howling of
+wolves, and thereat the foemen turned and fled, and there followed on
+the fleers tall men clad in sheep-brown raiment, who smote them down
+as they fled.'
+
+'Here then is the story, neighbours,' said the Alderman, 'and ye may
+see thereby that if those slayers of Wood-grey were outcast, their
+band is a great one; but it seemeth rather that they were men of a
+folk whose craft it is to rob with the armed hand, and to slay the
+robbed; and that they are now gathering on our borders for war.  Yet,
+moreover, they have foemen in the woods who should be fellows-in-arms
+of us.  How sayest thou, Stone-face?  Thou art old, and hast seen
+many wars in the Dale, and knowest the Wild-wood to its innermost.
+
+'Alderman,' said Stone-face, 'and ye neighbours of the Dale, maybe
+these foes whom ye have met are not of the race of man, but are
+trolls and wood-wights.  Now if they be trolls it is ill, for then is
+the world growing worser, and the wood shall be right perilous for
+those who needs must fare therein.  Yet if they be men it is a worse
+matter; for the trolls would not come out of the waste into the
+sunlight of the Dale.  But these foes, if they be men, are lusting
+after our fair Dale to eat it up, and it is most like that they are
+gathering a huge host to fall upon us at home.  Such things I have
+heard of when I was young, and the aspect of the evil men who overran
+the kindreds of old time, according to all tales and lays that I have
+heard, is even such as the aspect of those whom we have seen of late.
+As to those wolves who saved the neighbours and chased their foemen,
+there is one here who belike knoweth more of all this than we do, and
+that, O Alderman, is thy son whom I have fostered, Face-of-god to
+wit.  Bid him answer to thy questioning, and tell us what he hath
+seen and heard of late; then shall we verily know the whole story as
+far as it can be known.'
+
+Then men pressed round, and were eager to hear what Face-of-god would
+be saying.  But or ever the Alderman could begin to question him, the
+throng was cloven by new-comers, and these were the men who had been
+sent to bring home the corpses of the Dusky Men:  so they had cast
+loaded hooks into the Weltering Water, and had dragged up him whom
+Face-of-god had shoved into the eddy, and who had sunk like a stone
+just where he fell, and now they were bringing him on a bier along
+with him who had been slain a-land.  They were set down in the place
+before the Alderman, and men who had not seen them before looked
+eagerly on them that they might behold the aspect of their foemen;
+and nought lovely were they to look on; for the drowned man was
+already bleached and swollen with the water, and the other, his face
+was all wryed and twisted with that spear-thrust in the mouth.
+
+Then the Alderman said:  'I would question my son Face-of-god.  Let
+him stand forth!'
+
+And therewith he smiled merrily in his son's face, for he was
+standing right in front of him; and he said:
+
+'Ask of me, Alderman, and I will answer.'
+
+'Kinsman,' said Iron-face, 'look at these two dead men, and tell me,
+if thou hast seen any such besides those two murder-carles who were
+slain at Carlstead; or if thou knowest aught of their folk?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Yesterday I saw six others like to these both in
+array and of body, and three of them I slew, for we were in battle
+with them early in the morning.'
+
+There was a murmur of joy at this word, since all men took these
+felons for deadly foemen; but Iron-face said:  'What meanest thou by
+"we"?'
+
+'I and the men who had guested me overnight,' said Face-of-god, 'and
+they slew the other three; or rather a woman of them slew the
+felons.'
+
+'Valiant she was; all good go with her hand!' said the Alderman.
+'But what be these people, and where do they dwell?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'As to what they are, they are of the kindred of
+the Gods and the Fathers, valiant men, and guest-cherishing:  rich
+have they been, and now are poor:  and their poverty cometh of these
+same felons, who mastered them by numbers not to be withstood.  As to
+where they dwell:  when I say the name of their dwelling-place men
+mock at me, as if I named some valley in the moon:  yet came I to
+Burgdale thence in one day across the mountain-necks led by sure
+guides, and I tell thee that the name of their abode is Shadowy
+Vale.'
+
+'Yea,' said Iron-face, 'knoweth any man here of Shadowy Vale, or
+where it is?'
+
+None answered for a while; but there was an old man who was sitting
+on the shafts of a wain on the outskirts of the throng, and when he
+heard this word he asked his neighbour what the Alderman was saying,
+and he told him.  Then said that elder:
+
+'Give me place; for I have a word to say hereon.'  Therewith he
+arose, and made his way to the front of the ring of men, and said:
+'Alderman, thou knowest me?'
+
+'Yea,' said Iron-face, 'thou art called the Fiddle, because of thy
+sweet speech and thy minstrelsy; whereof I mind me well in the time
+when I was young and thou no longer young.'
+
+'So it is,' said the Fiddle.  'Now hearken!  When I was very young I
+heard of a vale lying far away across the mountain-necks; a vale
+where the sun shone never in winter and scantily in summer; for my
+sworn foster-brother, Fight-fain, a bold man and a great hunter, had
+happened upon it; and on a day in full midsummer he brought me
+thither; and even now I see the Vale before me as in a picture; a
+marvellous place, well grassed, treeless, narrow, betwixt great
+cliff-walls of black stone, with a green river running through it
+towards a yawning gap and a huge force.  Amidst that Vale was a doom-
+ring of black stones, and nigh thereto a feast-hall well builded of
+the like stones, over whose door was carven the image of a wolf with
+red gaping jaws, and within it (for we entered into it) were stone
+benches on the dais.  Thence we came away, and thither again we went
+in late autumn, and so dusk and cold it was at that season, that we
+knew not what to call it save the valley of deep shade.  But its real
+name we never knew; for there was no man there to give us a name or
+tell us any tale thereof; but all was waste there; the wimbrel
+laughed across its water, the raven croaked from its crags, the eagle
+screamed over it, and the voices of its waters never ceased; and thus
+we left it.  So the seasons passed, and we went thither no more:  for
+Fight-fain died, and without him wandering over the waste was irksome
+to me; so never have I seen that valley again, or heard men tell
+thereof.
+
+'Now, neighbours, have I told you of a valley which seemeth to be
+Shadowy Vale; and this is true and no made-up story.'
+
+The Alderman nodded kindly to him, and then said to Face-of-god:
+'Kinsman, is this word according with what thou knowest of Shadowy
+Vale?'
+
+'Yea, on all points,' said Face-of-god; 'he hath put before me a
+picture of the valley.  And whereas he saith, that in his youth it
+was waste, this also goeth with my knowledge thereof.  For once was
+it peopled, and then was waste, and now again is it peopled.'
+
+'Tell us then more of the folk thereof,' said the Alderman; 'are they
+many?'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'they are not.  How might they be many,
+dwelling in that narrow Vale amid the wastes?  But they are valiant,
+both men and women, and strong and well-liking.  Once they dwelt in a
+fair dale called Silver-dale, the name whereof will be to you as a
+name in a lay; and there were they wealthy and happy.  Then fell upon
+them this murderous Folk, whom they call the Dusky Men; and they
+fought and were overcome, and many of them were slain, and many
+enthralled, and the remnant of them escaped through the passes of the
+mountains and came back to dwell in Shadowy Vale, where their
+forefathers had dwelt long and long ago; and this overthrow befell
+them ten years agone.  But now their old foemen have broken out from
+Silver-dale and have taken to scouring the wood seeking prey; so they
+fall upon these Dusky Men as occasion serves, and slay them without
+pity, as if they were adders or evil dragons; and indeed they be
+worse.  And these valiant men know for certain that their foemen are
+now of mind to fall upon this Dale and destroy it, as they have done
+with others nigher to them.  And they will slay our men, and lie with
+our women against their will, and enthrall our children, and torment
+all those that lie under their hands till life shall be worse than
+death to them.  Therefore, O Alderman and Wardens, and ye neighbours
+all, it behoveth you to take counsel what we shall do, and that
+speedily.'
+
+There was again a murmur, as of men nothing daunted, but intent on
+taking some way through the coming trouble.  But no man said aught
+till the Alderman spake:
+
+'When didst thou first happen upon this Earl-folk, son?'
+
+'Late last autumn,' said Face-of-god.
+
+Said Iron-face:  'Then mightest thou have told us of this tale
+before.'
+
+'Yea,' said his son, 'but I knew it not, or but little of it, till
+two days agone.  In the autumn I wandered in the woodland, and on the
+fell I happened on a few of this folk dwelling in a booth by the
+pine-wood; and they were kind and guest-fain with me, and gave me
+meat and drink and lodging, and bade me come to Shadowy Vale in the
+spring, when I should know more of them.  And that was I fain of; for
+they are wise and goodly men.  But I deemed no more of those that I
+saw there save as men who had been outlawed by their own folk for
+deeds that were unlawful belike, but not shameful, and were biding
+their time of return, and were living as they might meanwhile.  But
+of the whole Folk and their foemen knew I no more than ye did, till
+two days agone, when I met them again in Shadowy Vale.  Also I think
+before long ye shall see their chieftain in Burgstead, for he hath a
+word for us.  Lastly, my mind it is that those brown-clad men who
+helped Hall-face and his company in the wood were nought but men of
+this Earl-kin seeking their foemen; for indeed they told me that they
+had come upon a battle in the woodland wherein they had slain their
+foemen.  Now have I told you all that ye need to know concerning
+these matters.'
+
+Again was there silence as Iron-face sat pondering a question for his
+son; then a goodman of the Upper Dale, Gritgarth to wit, spake and
+said:
+
+'Gold-mane mine, tell us how many is this folk; I mean their
+fighting-men?'
+
+'Well asked, neighbour,' said Iron-face.
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Their fighting-men of full age may be five score;
+but besides that there shall be some two or three score of women that
+will fight, whoever says them nay; and many of these are little worse
+in the field than men; or no worse, for they shoot well in the bow.
+Moreover, there will be a full score of swains not yet twenty winters
+old whom ye may not hinder to fight if anything is a-doing.'
+
+'This is no great host,' said the Alderman; 'yet if they deem there
+is little to lose by fighting, and nought to gain by sitting still,
+they may go far in winning their desire; and that more especially if
+they may draw into their quarrel some other valiant Folk more in
+number than they be.  I marvel not, though, they were kind to thee,
+son Gold-mane, if they knew who thou wert.'
+
+'They knew it,' said Face-of-god.
+
+'Neighbours,' said the Alderman, 'have ye any rede hereon, and aught
+to say to back your rede?'
+
+Then spake the Fiddle:  'As ye know and may see, I am now very old,
+and, as the word goes, unmeet for battle:  yet might I get me to the
+field, either on mine own legs or on the legs of some four-foot
+beast, I would strike, if it were but one stroke, on these pests of
+the earth.  And, Alderman, meseemeth we shall do amiss if we bid not
+the Earl-folk of Shadowy Vale to be our fellows in arms in this
+adventure.  For look you, how few soever they be, they will be sure
+to know the ways of our foemen, and the mountain passes, and the
+surest and nighest roads across the necks and the mires of the waste;
+and though they be not a host, yet shall they be worth a host to us?'
+
+When men heard his words they shouted for joy of them; for hatred of
+the Dusky Men who should so mar their happy life in the Dale was
+growing up in them, and the more that hatred waxed, the more waxed
+their love of those valiant ones.
+
+Now Red-coat of Waterless spake again:  he was a big man, both tall
+and broad, ruddy-faced and red-haired, some forty winters old.  He
+said:
+
+'Life hath been well with us of the Lower Dale, and we deem that we
+have much to lose in losing it.  Yet ill would the bargain be to buy
+life with thralldom:  we have been over-merry hitherto for that.
+Therefore I say, to battle!  And as to these men, these well-wishers
+of Face-of-god, if they also are minded for battle with our foes, we
+were fools indeed if we did not join them to our company, were they
+but one score instead of six.'
+
+Men shouted again, and they said that Red-coat had spoken well.  Then
+one after other the goodmen of the Dale came and gave their word for
+fellowship in arms with the Men of Shadowy Vale, if there were such
+as Face-of-god had said, which they doubted not; and amongst them
+that spake were Fox of Nethertown, and Warwell, and Gritgarth, and
+Bearswain, and Warcliff, and Hart of Highcliff, and Worm of
+Willowholm, and Bullsbane, and Highneb of the Marsh:  all these were
+stout men-at-arms and men of good counsel.
+
+Last of all the Alderman spake and said:
+
+'As to the war, that must we needs meet if all be sooth that we have
+heard, and I doubt it not.
+
+'Now therefore let us look to it like wise men while time yet serves.
+Ye shall know that the muster of the Dalesmen will bring under shield
+eight long hundreds of men well-armed, and of the Shepherd-Folk four
+hundreds, and of the Woodlanders two hundreds; and this is a goodly
+host if it be well ordered and wisely led.  Now am I your Alderman
+and your Doomster, and I can heave up a sword as well as another
+maybe, nor do I think that I shall blench in the battle; yet I
+misdoubt me that I am no leader or orderer of men-of-war:  therefore
+ye will do wisely to choose a wiser man-at-arms than I be for your
+War-leader; and if at the Great Folk-mote, when all the Houses and
+Kindreds are gathered, men yeasay your choosing, then let him abide;
+but if they naysay it, let him give place to another.  For time
+presses.  Will ye so choose?'
+
+'Yea, yea!' cried all men.
+
+'Good is that, neighbours,' said the Alderman.  'Whom will ye have
+for War-leader?  Consider well.'
+
+Short was their rede, for every man opened his mouth and cried out
+'Face-of-god!'  Then said the Alderman:
+
+'The man is young and untried; yet though he is so near akin to me, I
+will say that ye will do wisely to take him; for he is both deft of
+his hands and brisk; and moreover, of this matter he knoweth more
+than all we together.  Now therefore I declare him your War-leader
+till the time of the Great Folk-mote.'
+
+Then all men shouted with great glee and clashed their weapons; but
+some few put their heads together and spake apart a little while, and
+then one of them, Red-coat of Waterless to wit, came forward and
+said:  'Alderman, some of us deem it good that Stone-face, the old
+man wise in war and in the ways of the Wood, should be named as a
+counsellor to the War-leader; and Hall-face, a very brisk and strong
+young man, to be his right hand and sword-bearer.'
+
+'Good is that,' said Iron-face.  'Neighbours, will ye have it so?'
+This also they yeasaid without delay, and the Alderman declared
+Stone-face and Hall-face the helpers of Face-of-god in this business.
+Then he said:
+
+'If any hath aught to say concerning what is best to be done at once,
+it were good that he said it now before all and not to murmur and
+grudge hereafter.'
+
+None spake save the Fiddle, who said:  'Alderman and War-leader, one
+thing would I say:  that if these foemen are anywise akin to those
+overrunners of the Folks of whom the tales went in my youth (for I
+also as well as Stone-face mind me well of those tales concerning
+them), it shall not avail us to sit still and await their onset.  For
+then may they not be withstood, when they have gathered head and
+burst out and over the folk that have been happy, even as the waters
+that overtop a dyke and cover with their muddy ruin the deep green
+grass and the flower-buds of spring.  Therefore my rede is, as soon
+as may be to go seek these folk in the woodland and wheresoever else
+they may be wandering.  What sayest thou, Face-of-god?'
+
+'My rede is as thine,' said he; 'and to begin with, I do now call
+upon ten tens of good men to meet me in arms at the beginning of
+Wildlake's Way to-morrow morning at daybreak; and I bid my brother
+Hall-face to summon such as are most meet thereto.  For this I deem
+good, that we scour the wood daily at present till we hear fresh
+tidings from them of Shadowy Vale, who are nigher than we to the
+foemen.  Now, neighbours, are ye ready to meet me?'
+
+Then all shouted, 'Yea, we will go, we will go!'
+
+Said the Alderman:  'Now have we made provision for the war in that
+which is nearest to our hands.  Yet have we to deal with the matter
+of the fellowship with the Folk whom Face-of-god hath seen.  This is
+a matter for thee, son, at least till the Great Folk-mote is holden.
+Tell me then, shall we send a messenger to Shadowy Vale to speak with
+this folk, or shall we abide the chieftain's coming?'
+
+'By my rede,' said Face-of-god, 'we shall abide his coming:  for
+first, though I might well make my way thither, I doubt if I could
+give any the bearings, so that he could come there without me; and
+belike I am needed at home, since I am become War-leader.  Moreover,
+when your messenger cometh to Shadowy Vale, he may well chance to
+find neither the chieftain there, nor the best of his men; for whiles
+are they here, and whiles there, as they wend following after the
+Dusky Men.'
+
+'It is well, son,' said the Alderman, 'let it be as thou sayest:
+soothly this matter must needs be brought before the Great Folk-mote.
+Now will I ask if any other hath any word to say, or any rede to give
+before this Gate-thing sundereth?'
+
+But no man came forward, and all men seemed well content and of good
+heart; and it was now well past noontide.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.  THE ENDING OF THE GATE-THING
+
+
+
+But just as the Alderman was on the point of rising to declare the
+breaking-up of the Thing, there came a stir in the throng and it
+opened, and a warrior came forth into the innermost of the ring of
+men, arrayed in goodly glittering War-gear; clad in such wise that a
+tunicle of precious gold-wrought web covered the hauberk all but the
+sleeves thereof, and the hem of it beset with blue mountain-stones
+smote against the ankles and well-nigh touched the feet, shod with
+sandals gold-embroidered and gemmed.  This warrior bore a goodly
+gilded helm on the head, and held in hand a spear with gold-garlanded
+shaft, and was girt with a sword whose hilts and scabbard both were
+adorned with gold and gems:  beardless, smooth-cheeked, exceeding
+fair of face was the warrior, but pale and somewhat haggard-eyed:
+and those who were nearby beheld and wondered; for they saw that
+there was come the Bride arrayed for war and battle, as if she were a
+messenger from the House of the Gods, and the Burg that endureth for
+ever.
+
+Then she fell to speech in a voice which at first was somewhat hoarse
+and broken, but cleared as she went on, and she said:
+
+'There sittest thou, O Alderman of Burgdale!  Is Face-of-god thy son
+anywhere nigh, so that he can hear me?'
+
+But Iron-face wondered at her word, and said:  'He is beside thee, as
+he should be.'  For indeed Face-of-god was touching her, shoulder to
+shoulder.  But she looked not to the right hand nor the left, but
+said:
+
+'Hearken, Iron-face!  Chief of the House of the Face, Alderman of the
+Dale, and ye also, neighbours and goodmen of the Dale:  I am a woman
+called the Bride, of the House of the Steer, and ye have heard that I
+have plighted my troth to Face-of-god to wed with him, to love him,
+and lie in his bed.  But it is not so:  we are not troth-plight; nor
+will I wed with him, nor any other, but will wend with you to the
+war, and play my part therein according to what might is in me; nor
+will I be worser than the wives of Shadowy Vale.'
+
+Face-of-god heard her words with no change of countenance; but Iron-
+face reddened over all his face, and stared at her, and knit his
+brows and said:
+
+'Maiden, what are these words?  What have we done to thee?  Have I
+not been to thee as a father, and loved thee dearly?  Is not my son
+goodly and manly and deft in arms?  Hath it not ever been the wont of
+the House of the Face to wed in the House of the Steer? and in these
+two Houses there hath never yet been a goodlier man and a lovelier
+maiden than are ye two.  What have we done then?'
+
+'Ye have done nought against me,' she said, 'and all that thou sayest
+is sooth; yet will I not wed with Face-of-god.'
+
+Yet fiercer waxed the face of the Alderman, and he said in a loud
+voice:
+
+'But how if I tell thee that I will speak with thy kindred of the
+Steer, and thou shalt do after my bidding whether thou wilt or
+whether thou wilt not?'
+
+'And how will ye compel me thereto?' she said.  'Are there thralls in
+the Dale?  Or will ye make me an outlaw?  Who shall heed it?  Or I
+shall betake me to Shadowy Vale and become one of their warrior-
+maidens.'
+
+Now was the Alderman's face changing from red to white, and belike he
+forgat the Thing, and what he was doing there, and he cried out:
+
+'This is an evil day, and who shall help me?  Thou, Face-of-god, what
+hast thou to say?  Wilt thou let this woman go without a word?  What
+hath bewitched thee?'
+
+But never a word spake his son, but stood looking straight forward,
+cold and calm by seeming.  Then turned Iron-face again to the Bride,
+and said in a softer voice:
+
+'Tell me, maiden, whom I erst called daughter, what hath befallen,
+that thou wilt leave my son; thou who wert once so kind and loving to
+him; whose hand was always seeking his, whose eyes were ever
+following his; who wouldst go where he bade, and come when he called.
+What hath betid that ye have cast him out, and flee from our House?'
+
+She flushed red beneath her helm and said:
+
+'There is war in the land, and I have seen it coming, and that things
+shall change around us.  I have looked about me and seen men happy
+and women content, and children weary for mere mirth and joy.  And I
+have thought, in a day, or two days or three, all this shall be
+changed, and the women shall be, some anxious and wearied with
+waiting, some casting all hope away; and the men, some shall come
+back to the garth no more, and some shall come back maimed and
+useless, and there shall be loss of friends and fellows, and mirth
+departed, and dull days and empty hours, and the children wandering
+about marvelling at the sorrow of the house.  All this I saw before
+me, and grief and pain and wounding and death; and I said:  Shall I
+be any better than the worst of the folk that loveth me?  Nay, this
+shall never be; and since I have learned to be deft with mine hands
+in all the play of war, and that I am as strong as many a man, and as
+hardy-hearted as any, I will give myself to the Warrior and the God
+of the Face; and the battle-field shall be my home, and the after-
+grief of the fight my banquet and holiday, that I may bear the burden
+of my people, in the battle and out of it; and know every sorrow that
+the Dale hath; and cast aside as a grievous and ugly thing the bed of
+the warrior that the maiden desires, and the toying of lips and hands
+and soft words of desire, and all the joy that dwelleth in the Castle
+of Love and the Garden thereof; while the world outside is sick and
+sorry, and the fields lie waste and the harvest burneth.  Even so
+have I sworn, even so will I do.'
+
+Her eyes glittered and her cheek was flushed, and her voice was clear
+and ringing now; and when she ended there arose a murmur of praise
+from the men round about her.  But Iron-face said coldly:
+
+'These are great words; but I know not what they mean.  If thou wilt
+to the field and fight among the carles (and that I would not naysay,
+for it hath oft been done and praised aforetime), why shouldest thou
+not go side by side with Face-of-god and as his plighted maiden?'
+
+The light which the sweetness of speech had brought into her face had
+died out of it now, and she looked weary and hapless as she answered
+him slowly:
+
+'I will not wed with Face-of-god, but will fare afield as a virgin of
+war, as I have sworn to the Warrior.'
+
+Then waxed Iron-face exceeding wroth, and he rose up before all men
+and cried loudly and fiercely:
+
+'There is some lie abroad, that windeth about us as the gossamers in
+the lanes of an autumn morning.'
+
+And therewith he strode up to Face-of-god as though he had nought to
+do with the Thing; and he stood before him and cried out at him while
+all men wondered:
+
+'Thou! what hast thou done to turn this maiden's heart to stone?  Who
+is it that is devising guile with thee to throw aside this worthy
+wedding in a worthy House, with whom our sons are ever wont to wed?
+Speak, tell the tale!'
+
+But Face-of-god held his peace and stood calm and proud before all
+men.
+
+Then the blood mounted to Iron-face's head, and he forgat folk and
+kindred and the war to come, and he cried so that all the place rang
+with the words of his anger:
+
+'Thou dastard!  I see thee now; it is thou that hast done this, and
+not the maiden; and now thou hast made her bear a double burden, and
+set her on to speak for thee, whilst thou standest by saying nought,
+and wilt take no scruple's weight of her shame upon thee!'
+
+But his son spake never a word, and Iron-face cried:  'Out on thee!
+I know thee now, and why thou wouldest not to the West-land last
+winter.  I am no fool; I know thee.  Where hast thou hidden the
+stranger woman?'
+
+Therewith he drew forth his sword and hove it aloft as if to hew down
+Face-of-god, who spake not nor flinched nor raised a hand from his
+side.  But the Bride threw herself in front of Gold-mane, while there
+arose an angry cry of 'The Peace of the Holy Thing!  Peace-breaking,
+peace-breaking!' and some cried, 'For the War-leader, the War-
+leader!' and as men could for the press they drew forth their swords,
+and there was tumult and noise all over the Thing-stead.
+
+But Stone-face caught hold of the Alderman's right arm and dragged
+down the sword, and the big carle, Red-coat of Waterless, came up
+behind him and cast his arms about his middle and drew him back; and
+presently he looked around him, and slowly sheathed his sword, and
+went back to his place and sat him down; and in a little while the
+noise abated and swords were sheathed, and men waxed quiet again, and
+the Alderman arose and said in a loud voice, but in the wonted way of
+the head man of the Thing:
+
+'Here hath been trouble in the Holy Thing; a violent man hath
+troubled it, and drawn sword on a neighbour; will the neighbours give
+the dooming hereof into the hands of the Alderman?'
+
+Now all knew Iron-face, and they cried out, 'That will we.'  So he
+spake again:
+
+'I doom the troubler of the Peace of the Holy Thing to pay a fine, to
+wit double the blood-wite that would be duly paid for a full-grown
+freeman of the kindreds.'
+
+Then the cry went up and men yeasaid his doom, and all said that it
+was well and fairly doomed; and Iron-face sat still.
+
+But Stone-face stood forth and said:
+
+'Here have been wild words in the air; and dreams have taken shape
+and come amongst us, and have bewitched us, so that friends and kin
+have wrangled.  And meseemeth that this is through the wizardry of
+these felons, who, even dead as they are, have cast spells over us.
+Good it were to cast them into the Death Tarn, and then to get to our
+work; for there is much to do.'
+
+All men yeasaid that; and Forkbeard of Lea went with those who had
+borne the corpses thither to cast them into the black pool.
+
+But the Fiddle spake and said:
+
+'Stone-face sayeth sooth.  O Alderman, thou art no young man, yet am
+I old enough to be thy father; so will I give thee a rede, and say
+this:  Face-of-god thy son is no liar or dastard or beguiler, but he
+is a young man and exceeding goodly of fashion, well-spoken and kind;
+so that few women may look on him and hear him without desiring his
+kindness and love, and to such men as this many things happen.
+Moreover, he hath now become our captain, and is a deft warrior with
+his hands, and as I deem, a sober and careful leader of men;
+therefore we need him and his courage and his skill of leading.  So
+rage not against him as if he had done an ill deed not to be
+forgiven--whatever he hath done, whereof we know not--for life is
+long before him, and most like we shall still have to thank him for
+many good deeds towards us.  As for the maiden, she is both lovely
+and wise.  She hath a sorrow at her heart, and we deem that we know
+what it is.  Yet hath she not lied when she said that she would bear
+the burden of the griefs of the people.  Even so shall she do; and
+whether she will, or whether she will not, that shall heal her own
+griefs.  For to-morrow is a new day.  Therefore, if thou do after my
+rede, thou wilt not meddle betwixt these twain, but wilt remember all
+that we have to do, and that war is coming upon us.  And when that is
+over, we shall turn round and behold each other, and see that we are
+not wholly what we were before; and then shall that which were hard
+to forgive, be forgotten, and that which is remembered be easy to
+forgive.'
+
+So he spake; and Iron-face sat still and put his left hand to his
+beard as one who pondereth; but the Bride looked in the face of the
+old man the Fiddle, and then she turned and looked at Gold-mane, and
+her face softened, and she stood before the Alderman, and bent down
+before him and held out both her hands to him the palms upward.  Then
+she said:  'Thou hast been wroth with me, and I marvel not; for thy
+hope, and the hope which we all had, hath deceived thee.  But kind
+indeed hast thou been to me ere now:  therefore I pray thee take it
+not amiss if I call to thy mind the oath which thou swearedst on the
+Holy Boar last Yule, that thou wouldst not gainsay the prayer of any
+man if thou couldest perform it; therefore I bid thee naysay not
+mine:  and that is, that thou wilt ask me no more about this matter,
+but wilt suffer me to fare afield like any swain of the Dale, and to
+deal so with my folk that they shall not hinder me.  Also I pray thee
+that thou wilt put no shame upon Face-of-god my playmate and my
+kinsman, nor show thine anger to him openly, even if for a little
+while thy love for him be abated.  No more than this will I ask of
+thee.'
+
+All men who heard her were moved to the heart by her kindness and the
+sweetness of her voice, which was like to the robin singing suddenly
+on a frosty morning of early winter.  But as for Gold-mane, his heart
+was smitten sorely by it, and her sorrow and her friendliness grieved
+him out of measure.
+
+But Iron-face answered after a little while, speaking slowly and
+hoarsely, and with the shame yet clinging to him of a man who has
+been wroth and has speedily let his wrath run off him.  So he said:
+
+'It is well, my daughter.  I have no will to forswear myself; nor
+hast thou asked me a thing which is over-hard.  Yet indeed I would
+that to-day were yesterday, or that many days were worn away.'
+
+Then he stood up and cried in a loud voice over the throng:
+
+'Let none forget the muster; but hold him ready against the time that
+the Warden shall come to him.  Let all men obey the War-leader, Face-
+of-god, without question or delay.  As to the fine of the peace-
+breaker, it shall be laid on the altar of the God at the Great Folk-
+mote.  Herewith is the Thing broken up.'
+
+Then all men shouted and clashed their weapons, and so sundered, and
+went about their business.
+
+And the talk of men it was that the breaking of the troth-plight
+between those twain was ill; for they loved Face-of-god, and as for
+the Bride they deemed her the Dearest of the kindreds and the Jewel
+of the Folk, and as if she were the fairest and the kindest of all
+the Gods.  Neither did the wrath of Iron-face mislike any; but they
+said he had done well and manly both to be wroth and to let his wrath
+run off him.  As to the war which was to come, they kept a good heart
+about it, and deemed it as a game to be played, wherein they might
+show themselves deft and valiant, and so get back to their merry life
+again.
+
+So wore the day through afternoon to even and night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.  FACE-OF-GOD LEADETH A BAND THROUGH THE WOOD
+
+
+
+Next morning tryst was held faithfully, and an hundred and a half
+were gathered together on Wildlake's Way; and Face-of-god ordered
+them into three companies.  He made Hall-face leader over the first
+one, and bade him hold on his way northward, and then to make for
+Boars-bait and see if he should meet with anything thereabout where
+the battle had been.  Red-coat of Waterless he made captain of the
+second band; and he had it in charge to wend eastward along the edge
+of the Dale, and not to go deep into the wood, but to go as far as he
+might within the time appointed, toward the Mountains.  Furthermore,
+he bade both Hall-face and Red-coat to bring their bands back to
+Wildlake's Way by the morrow at sunset, where other goodmen should be
+come to take the places of their men; and then if he and his company
+were back again, he would bid them further what to do; but if not, as
+seemed likely, then Hall-face's band to go west toward the Shepherd
+country half a day's journey, and so back, and Red-coat's east along
+the Dale's lip again for the like time, and then back, so that there
+might be a constant watch and ward of the Dale kept against the
+Felons.
+
+All being ordered Gold-mane led his own company north-east through
+the thick wood, thinking that he might so fare as to come nigh to
+Silver-dale, or at least to hear tidings thereof.  This intent he
+told to Stone-face, but the old man shook his head and said:
+
+'Good is this if it may be done; but it is not for everyone to go
+down to Hell in his lifetime and come back safe with a tale thereof.
+However, whither thou wilt lead, thither will I follow, though
+assured death waylayeth us.'
+
+And the old carle was joyous and proud to be on this adventure, and
+said, that it was good indeed that his foster-son had with him a man
+well stricken in years, who had both seen many things, and learned
+many, and had good rede to give to valiant men.
+
+So they went on their ways, and fared very warily when they were
+gotten beyond those parts of the wood which they knew well.  By this
+time they were strung out in a long line; and they noted their road
+carefully, blazing the trees on either side when there were trees,
+and piling up little stone-heaps where the trees failed them.  For
+Stone-face said that oft it befell men amidst the thicket and the
+waste to be misled by wights that begrudged men their lives, so that
+they went round and round in a ring which they might not depart from
+till they died; and no man doubted his word herein.
+
+All day they went, and met no foe, nay, no man at all; nought but the
+wild things of the wood; and that day the wood changed little about
+them from mile to mile.  There were many thickets across their road
+which they had to go round about; so that to the crow flying over the
+tree-tops the journey had not been long to the place where night came
+upon them, and where they had to make the wood their bedchamber.
+
+That night they lighted no fire, but ate such cold victual as they
+might carry with them; nor had they shot any venison, since they had
+with them more than enough; they made little noise or stir therefore
+and fell asleep when they had set the watch.
+
+On the morrow they arose betimes, and broke their fast and went their
+ways till noon:  by then the wood had thinned somewhat, and there was
+little underwood betwixt the scrubby oak and ash which were pretty
+nigh all the trees about:  the ground also was broken, and here and
+there rocky, and they went into and out of rough little dales, most
+of which had in them a brook of water running west and southwest; and
+now Face-of-god led his men somewhat more easterly; and still for
+some while they met no man.
+
+At last, about four hours after noon, when they were going less
+warily, because they had hitherto come across nothing to hinder them,
+rising over the brow of a somewhat steep ridge, they saw down in the
+valley below them a half score of men sitting by the brook-side
+eating and drinking, their weapons lying beside them, and along with
+them stood a woman with her hands tied behind her back.
+
+They saw at once that these men were of the Felons, so they that had
+their bows bent, loosed at them without more ado, while the others
+ran in upon them with sword and spear.  The felons leapt up and ran
+scattering down the dale, such of them as were not smitten by the
+shafts; but he who was nighest to the woman, ere he ran, turned and
+caught up a sword from the ground and thrust it through her, and the
+next moment fell across the brook with an arrow in his back.
+
+No one of the felons was nimble enough to escape from the fleet-foot
+hunters of Burgdale, and they were all slain there to the number of
+eleven.
+
+But when they came back to the woman to tend her, she breathed her
+last in their hands:  she was a young and fair woman, black-haired
+and dark-eyed.  She had on her body a gown of rich web, but nought
+else:  she had been bruised and sore mishandled, and the Burgdale
+carles wept for pity of her, and for wrath, as they straightened her
+limbs on the turf of the little valley.  They let her lie there a
+little, whilst they searched round about, lest there should be any
+other poor soul needing their help, or any felon lurking thereby; but
+they found nought else save a bundle wherein was another rich gown
+and divers woman's gear, and sundry rings and jewels, and therewithal
+the weapons and war-gear of a knight, delicately wrought after the
+Westland fashion:  these seemed to them to betoken other foul deeds
+of these murder-carles.  So when they had abided a while, they laid
+the dead woman in mould by the brook-side, and buried with her the
+other woman's attire and the knight's gear, all but his sword and
+shield, which they had away with them:  then they cast the carcasses
+of the felons into the brake, but brought away their weapons and the
+silver rings from their arms, which they wore like all the others of
+them whom they had fallen in with; and so went on their way to the
+north-east, full of wrath against those dastards of the Earth.
+
+It was hard on sunset when they left the valley of murder, and they
+went no long way thence before they must needs make stay for the
+night; and when they had arrayed their sleeping-stead the moon was
+up, and they saw that before them lay the close wood again, for they
+had made their lair on the top of a little ridge.
+
+There then they lay, and nought stirred them in the night, and
+betimes on the morrow they were afoot, and entered the abovesaid
+thicket, wherein two of them, keen hunters, had been aforetime, but
+had not gone deep into it.  Through this wood they went all day
+toward the north-east, and met nought but the wild things therein.
+At last, when it was near sunset, they came out of the thicket into a
+small plain, or shallow dale rather, with no great trees in it, but
+thorn-brakes here and there where the ground sank into hollows; a
+little river ran through the midst of it, and winded round about a
+height whose face toward the river went down sheer into the water,
+but away from it sank down in a long slope to where the thick wood
+began again:  and this height or burg looked well-nigh west.
+
+Thitherward they went; but as they were drawing nigh to the river,
+and were on the top of a bent above a bushy hollow between them and
+the water, they espied a man standing in the river near the bank, who
+saw them not, because he was stooping down intent on something in the
+bank or under it:  so they gat them speedily down into the hollow
+without noise, that they might get some tidings of the man.
+
+Then Face-of-god bade his men abide hidden under the bushes and stole
+forward quietly up the further bank of the hollow, his target on his
+arm and his spear poised.  When he was behind the last bush on the
+top of the bent he was within half a spear-cast of the water and the
+man; so he looked on him and saw that he was quite naked except for a
+clout about his middle.
+
+Face-of-god saw at once that he was not one of the Dusky Men; he was
+a black-haired man, but white-skinned, and of fair stature, though
+not so tall as the Burgdale folk.  He was busied in tickling trouts,
+and just as Face-of-god came out from the bush into the westering
+sunlight, he threw up a fish on to the bank, and looked up
+therewithal, and beheld the weaponed man glittering, and uttered a
+cry, but fled not when he saw the spear poised for casting.
+
+Then Face-of-god spake to him and said:  'Come hither, Woodsman! we
+will not harm thee, but we desire speech of thee:  and it will not
+avail thee to flee, since I have bowmen of the best in the hollow
+yonder.'
+
+The man put forth his hands towards him as if praying him to forbear
+casting, and looked at him hard, and then came dripping from out the
+water, and seemed not greatly afeard; for he stooped down and picked
+up the trouts he had taken, and came towards Face-of-god stringing
+the last-caught one through the gills on to the withy whereon were
+the others:  and Face-of-god saw that he was a goodly man of some
+thirty winters.
+
+Then Face-of-god looked on him with friendly eyes and said:
+
+'Art thou a foemen? or wilt thou be helpful to us?'
+
+He answered in the speech of the kindreds with the hoarse voice of a
+much weather-beaten man:
+
+'Thou seest, lord, that I am naked and unarmed.'
+
+'Yet may'st thou bewray us,' said Face-of-god.  'What man art thou?'
+
+Said the man:  'I am the runaway thrall of evil men; I have fled from
+Rose-dale and the Dusky Men.  Hast thou the heart to hurt me?'
+
+'We are the foemen of the Dusky Men,' said Face-of-God; 'wilt thou
+help us against them?'
+
+The man knit his brows and said:  'Yea, if ye will give me your word
+not to suffer me to fall into their hands alive.  But whence art
+thou, to be so bold?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'We are of Burgdale; and I will swear to thee on
+the edge of the sword that thou shalt not fall alive into the hands
+of the Dusky Men.'
+
+'Of Burgdale have I heard,' said the man; 'and in sooth thou seemest
+not such a man as would bewray a hapless man.  But now had I best
+bring you to some lurking-place where ye shall not be easily found of
+these devils, who now oft-times scour the woods hereabout.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Come first and see my fellows; and then if thou
+thinkest we have need to hide, it is well.'
+
+So the man went side by side with him towards their lair, and as they
+went Gold-mane noted marks of stripes on his back and sides, and
+said:  'Sorely hast thou been mishandled, poor man!'
+
+Then the man turned on him and said somewhat fiercely:  'Said I not
+that I had been a thrall of the Dusky Men? how then should I have
+escaped tormenting and scourging, if I had been with them for but
+three days?'
+
+As he spake they came about a thorn-bush, and there were the Burgdale
+men down in the hollow; and the man said:  'Are these thy fellows?
+Call to mind that thou hast sworn by the edge of the sword not to
+hurt me.'
+
+'Poor man!' said Face-of-god; 'these are thy friends, unless thou
+bewrayest us.'
+
+Then he cried aloud to his folk:  'Here is now a good hap! this is a
+runaway thrall of the Dusky Men; of him shall we hear tidings; so
+cherish him all ye may.'
+
+So the carles thronged about him and bestirred themselves to help
+him, and one gave him his surcoat for a kirtle, and another cast a
+cloak about him; and they brought him meat and drink, such as they
+had ready to hand:  and the man looked as if he scarce believed in
+all this, but deemed himself to be in a dream.  But presently he
+turned to Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Now I see so many men and weapons I deem that ye have no need to
+skulk in caves to-night, though I know of good ones:  yet shall ye do
+well not to light a fire till moon-setting; for the flame ye may
+lightly hide, but the smoke may be seen from far aloof.'
+
+But they bade him to meat, and he needed no second bidding but ate
+lustily, and they gave him wine, and he drank a great draught and
+sighed as for joy.  Then he said in a trembling voice, as though he
+feared a naysay:
+
+'If ye are from Burgdale ye shall be faring back again presently; and
+I pray you to take me with you.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Yea surely, friend, that will we do, and rejoice
+in thee.'
+
+Then he drank another cup which Warcliff held out to him, and spake
+again:  'Yet if ye would abide here till about noon to-morrow, or
+mayhappen a little later, I would bring other runaways to see you;
+and them also might ye take with you:  ye may think when ye see them
+that ye shall have small gain of their company; for poor wretched
+folk they be, like to myself.  Yet since ye seek for tidings, herein
+might they do you more service than I; for amongst them are some who
+came out of the hapless Dale within this moon; and it is six months
+since I escaped.  Moreover, though they may look spent and outworn
+now, yet if ye give them a little rest, and feed them well, they
+shall yet do many a day's work for you:  and I tell you that if ye
+take them for thralls, and put collars on their necks, and use them
+no worse than a goodman useth his oxen and his asses, beating them
+not save when they are idle or at fault, it shall be to them as if
+they were come to heaven out of hell, and to such goodhap as they
+have not thought of, save in dreams, for many and many a day.  And
+thus I entreat you to do because ye seem to me to be happy and
+merciful men, who will not begrudge us this happiness.'
+
+The carles of Burgdale listened eagerly to what he said, and they
+looked at him with great eyes and marvelled; and their hearts were
+moved with pity towards him; and Stone-face said:
+
+'Herein, O War-leader, need I give thee no rede, for thou mayst see
+clearly that all we deem that we should lose our manhood and become
+the dastards of the Warrior if we did not abide the coming of these
+poor men, and take them back to the Dale, and cherish them.'
+
+'Yea,' said Wolf of Whitegarth, 'and great thanks we owe to this man
+that he biddeth us this:  for great will be the gain to us if we
+become so like the Gods that we may deliver the poor from misery.
+Now must I needs think how they shall wonder when they come to
+Burgdale and find out how happy it is to dwell there.'
+
+'Surely,' said Face-of-god, 'thus shall we do, whatever cometh of it.
+But, friend of the wood, as to thralls, there be none such in the
+Dale, but therein are all men friends and neighbours, and even so
+shall ye be.'
+
+And he fell a-musing, when he bethought him of how little he had
+known of sorrow.
+
+But that man, when he beheld the happy faces of the Burgdalers, and
+hearkened to their friendly voices, and understood what they said,
+and he also was become strong with the meat and drink, he bowed his
+head adown and wept a long while; and they meddled not with him, till
+he turned again to them and said:
+
+'Since ye are in arms, and seem to be seeking your foemen, I suppose
+ye wot that these tyrants and man-quellers will fall upon you in
+Burgdale ere the summer is well worn.'
+
+'So much we deem indeed,' said Face-of-god, 'but we were fain to hear
+the certainty of it, and how thou knowest thereof.'
+
+Said the man:  'It was six moons ago that I fled, as I have told you;
+and even then it was the common talk amongst our masters that there
+were fair dales to the south which they would overrun.  Man would say
+to man:  We were over many in Silver-dale, and we needed more
+thralls, because those we had were lessening, and especially the
+women; now are we more at ease in Rose-dale, though we have sent
+thralls to Silver-dale; but yet we can bear no more men from thence
+to eat up our stock from us:  let them fare south to the happy dales,
+and conquer them, and we will go with them and help therein, whether
+we come back to Rose-dale or no.  Such talk did I hear then with mine
+own ears:  but some of those whom I shall bring to you to-morrow
+shall know better what is doing, since they have fled from Rose-dale
+but a few days.  Moreover, there is a man and a woman who have fled
+from Silver-dale itself, and are but a month from it, journeying all
+the time save when they must needs hide; and these say that their
+masters have got to know the way to Burgdale, and are minded for it
+before the winter, as I said; and nought else but the ways thither do
+they desire to know, since they have no fear.'
+
+By then was night come, and though the moon was high in heaven, and
+lighted all that waste, the Burgdalers must needs light a fire for
+cooking their meat, whatsoever that woodsman might say; moreover, the
+night was cold and somewhat frosty.  A little before they had come to
+that place they had shot a fat buck and some smaller deer, but of
+other meat they had no great store, though there was wine enough.  So
+they lit their fire in the thickest of the thorn-bush to hide it all
+they might, and thereat they cooked their venison and the trouts
+which the runaway had taken, and they fell to, and ate and drank and
+were merry, making much of that poor man till him-seemed he was
+gotten into the company of the kindest of the Gods.
+
+But when they were full, Face-of-god spake to him, and asked him his
+name; and he named himself Dallach; but said he:  'Lord, this is
+according to the naming of men in Rose-dale before we were
+enthralled:  but now what names have thralls?  Also I am not
+altogether of the blood of them of Rose-dale, but of better and more
+warrior-like kin.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Thou hast named Silver-dale; knowest thou it?'
+
+Dallach answered:  'I have never seen it.  It is far hence; in a
+week's journey, making all diligence, and not being forced to hide
+and skulk like those runaways, ye shall come to the mouth thereof
+lying west, where its rock-walls fall off toward the plain.'
+
+'But,' said Face-of-god, 'is there no other way into that Dale?'
+
+'Nay, none that folk wot of,' said Dallach, 'except to bold cragsmen
+with their lives in their hands.'
+
+'Knowest thou aught of the affairs of Silver-dale?' said Face-of-god.
+
+Said Dallach:  'Somewhat I know:  we wot that but a few years ago
+there was a valiant folk dwelling therein, who were lords of the
+whole dale, and that they were vanquished by the Dusky Men:  but
+whether they were all slain and enthralled we wot not; but we deem it
+otherwise.  As for me it is of their blood that I am partly come; for
+my father's father came thence to settle in Rose-dale, and wedded a
+woman of the Dale, who was my father's mother.'
+
+'When was it that ye fell under the Dusky Men?' said Face-of-god.
+
+Said Dallach:  'It was five years ago.  They came into the Dale a
+great company, all in arms.'
+
+'Was there battle betwixt you?' said Face-of-god.
+
+'Alas! not so,' said Dallach.  'We were a happy folk there; but soft
+and delicate:  for the Dale is exceeding fertile, and beareth wealth
+in abundance, both corn and oil and wine and fruit, and of beasts for
+man's service the best that may be.  Would that there had been
+battle, and that I had died therein with those that had a heart to
+fight; and even so saith now every man, yea, every woman in the Dale.
+But it was not so when the elders met in our Council-House on the day
+when the Dusky Men bade us pay them tribute and give them houses to
+dwell in and lands to live by.  Then had we weapons in our hands, but
+no hearts to use them.'
+
+'What befell then?' said the goodman of Whitegarth.
+
+Said Dallach:  'Look ye to it, lords, that it befall not in Burgdale!
+We gave them all they asked for, and deemed we had much left.  What
+befell, sayst thou?  We sat quiet; we went about our work in fear and
+trembling, for grim and hideous were they to look on.  At first they
+meddled not much with us, save to take from our houses what they
+would of meat and drink, or raiment, or plenishing.  And all this we
+deemed we might bear, and that we needed no more than to toil a
+little more each day so as to win somewhat more of wealth.  But soon
+we found that it would not be so; for they had no mind to till the
+teeming earth or work in the acres we had given them, or to sit at
+the loom, or hammer in the stithy, or do any manlike work; it was we
+that must do all that for their behoof, and it was altogether for
+them that we laboured, and nought for ourselves; and our bodies were
+only so much our own as they were needful to be kept alive for
+labour.  Herein were our tasks harder than the toil of any mules or
+asses, save for the younger and goodlier of the women, whom they
+would keep fair and delicate to be their bed-thralls.
+
+'Yet not even so were our bodies safe from their malice:  for these
+men were not only tyrants, but fools and madmen.  Let alone that
+there were few days without stripes and torments to satiate their
+fury or their pleasure, so that in all streets and nigh any house
+might you hear wailing and screaming and groaning; but moreover,
+though a wise man would not willingly slay his own thrall any more
+than his own horse or ox, yet did these men so wax in folly and
+malice, that they would often hew at man or woman as they met them in
+the way from mere grimness of soul; and if they slew them it was
+well.  Thereof indeed came quarrels enough betwixt master and master,
+for they are much given to man-slaying amongst themselves:  but what
+profit to us thereof?  Nay, if the dead man were a chieftain, then
+woe betide the thralls! for thereof must many an one be slain on his
+grave-mound to serve him on the hell-road.  To be short:  we have
+heard of men who be fierce, and men who be grim; but these we may
+scarce believe us to be men at all, but trolls rather; and ill will
+it be if their race waxeth in the world.'
+
+The Burgdale men hearkened with all their ears, and wondered that
+such things could befall; and they rejoiced at the work that lay
+before them, and their hearts rose high at the thought of battle in
+that behalf, and the fame that should come of it.  As for the
+runaway, they made so much of him that the man marvelled; for they
+dealt with him like a woman cherishing a son, and knew not how to be
+kind enough to him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.  THE MEN OF BURGDALE MEET THE RUNAWAYS
+
+
+
+Now ere the night was far spent, Dallach arose and said:
+
+'Kind folk, ye will presently be sleeping; but I bid you keep a good
+watch, and if ye will be ruled by me, ye will kindle no fire on the
+morrow, for the smoke riseth thick in the morning air, and is as a
+beacon.  As for me, I shall leave you here to rest, and I myself will
+fare on mine errand.'
+
+They bade him sleep and rest him after so many toils and hardships,
+saying that they were not tied to an hour to be back in Burgdale; but
+he said:  'Nay, the moon is high, and it is as good as daylight to
+me, who could find my way even by starlight; and your tarrying here
+is nowise safe.  Moreover, if I could find those folk and bring them
+part of the way by night and cloud it were well; for if we were taken
+again, burning quick would be the best death by which we should die.
+As for me, now am I strong with meat and drink and hope; and when I
+come to Burgdale there will be time enough for resting and slumber.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Shall I not wend with thee to see these people
+and the lairs wherein they hide?'
+
+The man smiled:  'Nay, earl,' said he, 'that shall not be.  For wot
+ye what?  If they were to see me in company of a man-at-arms they
+would deem that I was bringing the foe upon them, and would flee, or
+mayhappen would fall upon us.  For as for me, when I saw thee, thou
+wert close anigh me, so I knew thee to be no Dusky Man; but they
+would see the glitter of thine arms from afar, and to them all
+weaponed men are foemen.  Thou, lord, knowest not the heart of a
+thrall, nor the fear and doubt that is in it.  Nay, I myself must
+cast off these clothes that ye have given me, and fare naked, lest
+they mistrust me.  Only I will take a spear in my hand, and sling a
+knife round my neck, if ye will give them to me; for if the worst
+happen, I will not be taken alive.'
+
+Therewith he cast off his raiment, and they gave him the weapons and
+wished him good speed, and he went his way twixt moonlight and
+shadow; but the Burgdalers went to sleep when they had set a watch.
+
+Early in the morning they awoke, and the sun was shining and the
+thrushes singing in the thorn-brake, and all seemed fair and
+peaceful, and a little haze still hung about the face of the burg
+over the river.  So they went down to the water and washed the night
+from off them; and thence the most part of them went back to their
+lair among the thorn-bushes:  but four of them went up the dale into
+the oak-wood to shoot a buck, and five more they sent out to watch
+their skirts around them; and Face-of-god with old Stone-face went
+over a ford of the stream, and came on to the lower slope of the
+burg, and so went up it to the top.  Thence they looked about to see
+if aught were stirring, but they saw little save the waste and the
+wood, which on the north-east was thick of big trees stretching out a
+long way.  Their own lair was clear to see over its bank and the
+bushes thereof, and that misliked Face-of-god, lest any foe should
+climb the burg that day.  The morning was clear, and Face-of-god
+looking north-and-by-west deemed he saw smoke rising into the air
+over the tree-covered ridges that hid the further distance toward
+that airt, though further east uphove the black shoulders of the
+Great that Waste and the snowy peaks behind them.  The said smoke was
+not such as cometh from one great fire, but was like a thin veil
+staining the pale blue sky, as when men are burning ling on the
+heath-side and it is seen aloof.
+
+He showed that smoke to Stone-face, who smiled and said:
+
+'Now will they be lighting the cooking fires in Rose-dale:  would I
+were there with a few hundreds of axes and staves at my back!'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, smiling in his face, 'but where I pray thee
+are these elves and wood-wights, that we meet them not?  Grim things
+there are in the woods, and things fair enough also:  but meseemeth
+that the trolls and the elves of thy young years have been frighted
+away.'
+
+Said Stone-face:  'Maybe, foster-son; that hath been seen ere now,
+that when one race of man overrunneth the land inhabited by another,
+the wights and elves that love the vanquished are seen no more, or
+get them away far off into the outermost wilds, where few men ever
+come.'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, 'that may well be.  But deemest thou by that
+token that we shall be vanquished?'
+
+'As for us, I know not,' said Stone-face; 'but thy friends of Shadowy
+Vale have been vanquished.  Moreover, concerning these felons whom
+now we are hunting, are we all so sure that they be men?  Certain it
+is, that when I go into battle with them, I shall smite with no more
+pity than my sword, as if I were smiting things that may not feel the
+woes of man.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Yea, even so shall it be with me.  But what
+thinkest thou of these runaways?  Shall we have tidings of them, or
+shall Dallach bring the foe upon us?  It was for the sake of that
+question that I have clomb the burg:  and that we might watch the
+land about us.'
+
+'Nay,' said Stone-face, 'I have seen many men, and I deem of Dallach
+that he is a true man.  I deem we shall soon have tidings of his
+fellows; and they may have seen the elves and wood-wights:  I would
+fain ask them thereof, and am eager to see them.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'And I somewhat dread to see them, and their rags
+and their misery and the weals of their stripes.  It irked me to see
+Dallach when he first fell to his meat last night, how he ate like a
+dog for fear and famine.  How shall it be, moreover, when we have
+them in the Dale, and they fall to the deed of kind there, as they
+needs must.  Will they not bear us evil and thrall-like men?'
+
+'Maybe,' said Stone-face, 'and maybe not; for they have been thralls
+but for a little while:  and I deem that in no long time shall ye see
+them much bettered by plenteous meat and rest.  And after all is
+said, this Dallach bore him like a valiant man; also it was valiant
+of him to flee; and of the others may ye say the like.  But look you!
+there are men going down yonder towards our lair:  belike those shall
+be our guests, and there be no Dusky Men amongst them.  Come, let us
+home!'
+
+So Face-of-god looked and beheld from the height of the burg shapes
+of men grey and colourless creeping toward the lair from sunshine to
+shadow, like wild creatures shy and fearful of the hunter, or so he
+deemed of them.
+
+So he turned away, angry and sad of heart, and the twain went down
+the burg and across the water to their camp, having seen little to
+tell of from the height.
+
+When they came to their campment there were their folk standing in a
+ring round about Dallach and the other runaways.  They made way for
+the War-leader and Stone-face, who came amongst them and beheld the
+Runaways, that they were many more than they looked to see; for they
+were of carles one score and three, and of women eighteen, all told
+save Dallach.  When they saw those twain come through the ring of men
+and perceived that they were chieftains, some of them fell down on
+their knees before them and held out their joined hands to them, and
+kissed the Burgdalers' feet and the hems of their garments, while the
+tears streamed out of their eyes:  some stood moving little and
+staring before them stupidly:  and some kept glancing from face to
+face of the well-liking happy Burgdale carles, though for a while
+even their faces were sad and downcast at the sight of the poor men:
+some also kept murmuring one or two words in their country tongue,
+and Dallach told Face-of-god that these were crying out for victual.
+
+It must be said of these poor folk that they were of divers
+conditions, and chiefly of three:  and first there were seven of
+Rose-dale and five of Silver-dale late come to the wood (of these
+Silver-dalers Dallach had told but of two, for the other three were
+but just come).  Of these twelve were seven women, and all, save two
+of the women, were clad in one scanty kirtle or shirt only; for such
+was the wont of the Dusky Men with their thralls.  They had brought
+away weapons, and had amongst them six axes and a spear, and a sword,
+and five knives, and one man had a shield.
+
+Yet though these were clad and armed, yet in some wise were they the
+worst of all; they were so timorous and cringing, and most of them
+heavy-eyed and sullen and down-looking.  Many of them had been
+grievously mishandled:  one man had had his left hand smitten off;
+another was docked of three of his toes, and the gristle of his nose
+slit up; one was halt, and four had been ear-cropped, nor did any
+lack weals of whipping.  Of the Silver-dale new-comers the three men
+were the worst of all the Runaways, with wild wandering eyes, but
+sullen also, and cringing if any drew nigh, and would not look anyone
+in the face, save presently Face-of-god, on whom they were soon fond
+to fawn, as a dog on his master.  But the women who were with them,
+and who were well-nigh as timorous as the men, were those two gaily-
+dad ones, and they were soft-handed and white-skinned, save for the
+last days of weather in the wood; for they had been bed-thralls of
+the Dusky Men.
+
+Such were the new-comers to the wood.  But others had been, like
+Dallach, months therein; it may be said that there were eighteen of
+these, carles and queens together.  Little raiment they had amongst
+them, and some were all but stark naked, so that on these might well
+be seen as on Dallach the marks of old stripes, and of these also
+were there men who had been shorn of some member or other, and they
+were all burnt and blackened by the weather of the woodland; yet for
+all their nakedness, they bore themselves bolder and more manlike
+than the later comers, nor did they altogether lack weapons taken
+from their foemen, and most of them had some edge-tool or another.
+Of these folk were four from Silver-dale, though Dallach knew it not.
+
+Besides these were a half score and one who had been years in the
+wood instead of months; weather-beaten indeed were these, shaggy and
+rough-skinned like wild men of kind.  Some of them had made
+themselves skin breeches or clouts, some went stark naked; of weapons
+of the Dale had they few, but they bore bows of hazel or wych-elm
+strung with deer-gut, and shafts headed with flint stones; staves
+also of the same fashion, and great clubs of oak or holly:  some of
+them also had made them targets of skin and willow-twigs, for these
+were the warriors of the Runaways:  they had a few steel knives
+amongst them, but had mostly learned the craft of using sharp flints
+for knives:  but four of these were women.
+
+Three of these men were of the kindreds of the Wolf from Silver-dale,
+and had been in the wood for hard upon ten years, and wild as they
+were, and without hope of meeting their fellows again, they went
+proudly and boldly amongst the others, overtopping them by the head
+and more.  For the greater part of these men were somewhat short of
+stature, though by nature strong and stout of body.
+
+It must be told that though Dallach had thus gotten all these many
+Runaways together, yet had they not been dwelling together as one
+folk; for they durst not, lest the Dusky Men should hear thereof and
+fall upon them, but they had kept themselves as best they could in
+caves and in brakes three together or two, or even faring alone as
+Dallach did:  only as he was a strong and stout-hearted man, he went
+to and fro and wandered about more than the others, so that he
+foregathered with most of them and knew them.  He said also that he
+doubted not but that there were more Runaways in the wood, but these
+were all he could come at.  Divers who had fled had died from time to
+time, and some had been caught and cruelly slain by their masters.
+They were none of them old; the oldest, said Dallach, scant of forty
+winters, though many from their aspect might have been old enough.
+
+So Face-of-god looked and beheld all these poor people; and said to
+himself, that he might well have dreaded that sight.  For here was he
+brought face to face with the Sorrow of the Earth, whereof he had
+known nought heretofore, save it might be as a tale in a minstrel's
+song.  And when he thought of the minutes that had made the hours,
+and the hours that had made the days that these men had passed
+through, his heart failed him, and he was dumb and might not speak,
+though he perceived that the men of Burgdale looked for speech from
+him; but he waved his hand to his folk, and they understood him, for
+they had heard Dallach say that some of them were crying for victual.
+So they set to work and dighted for them such meat as they had, and
+they set them down on the grass and made themselves their carvers and
+serving-men, and bade them eat what they would of such as there was.
+Yet, indeed, it grieved the Burgdalers again to note how these folk
+were driven to eat; for they themselves, though they were merry folk,
+were exceeding courteous at table, and of great observance of
+manners:  whereas these poor Runaways ate, some of them like hungry
+dogs, and some hiding their meat as if they feared it should be taken
+from them, and some cowering over it like falcons, and scarce any
+with a manlike pleasure in their meal.  And, their eating over, the
+more part of them sat dull and mopish, and as if all things were
+forgotten for the time present.
+
+Albeit presently Dallach bestirred him and said to Face-of-god:
+'Lord of the Earl-folk, if I might give thee rede, it were best to
+turn your faces to Burgdale without more tarrying.  For we are over-
+nigh to Rose-dale, being but thus many in company.  But when we come
+to our next resting-place, then shall bring thee to speech with the
+last-comers from Silver-dale; for there they talk with the tongue of
+the kindreds; but we of Rose-dale for the more part talk otherwise;
+though in my house it came down from father to son.'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, gazing still on that unhappy folk, as they
+sat or lay upon the grass at rest for a little while:  but him-seemed
+as he gazed that some memories of past time stirred in some of them;
+for some, they hung their heads and the tears stole out of their eyes
+and rolled down their cheeks.  But those older Runaways of Silver-
+dale were not crouched down like most of the others, but strode up
+and down like beasts in a den; yet were the tears on the face of one
+of these.  Then Face-of-god constrained himself, and spake to the
+folk, and said:  'We are now over-nigh to our foes of Rose-dale to
+lie here any longer, being too few to fall upon them.  We will come
+hither again with a host when we have duly questioned these men who
+have sought refuge with us:  and let us call yonder height the Burg
+of the Runaways, and it shall be a landmark for us when we are on the
+road to Rose-dale.'
+
+Then the Burgdalers bade the Runaways courteously and kindly to arise
+and take the road with them; and by that time were their men all come
+in; and four of them had venison with them, which was needful, if
+they were to eat that night or the morrow, as the guests had eaten
+them to the bone.
+
+So they tarried no more, but set out on the homeward way; and Face-
+of-god bade Dallach walk beside him, and asked him such concerning
+Rose-dale and its Dusky Men.  Dallach told him that these were not so
+many as they were masterful, not being above eight hundreds of men,
+all fighting-men.  As to women, they had none of their own race, but
+lay with the Daleswomen at their will, and begat children of them;
+and all or most of the said children favoured the race of their
+begetters.  Of the men-children they reared most, but the women-
+children they slew at once; for they valued not women of their own
+blood:  but besides the women of the Dale, they would go at whiles in
+bands to the edges of the Plain and beguile wayfarers, and bring back
+with them thence women to be their bed-thralls; albeit some of these
+were bought with a price from the Westland men.
+
+As to the number of the folk of Rose-dale, its own folk, he said they
+would number some five thousand souls, one with another; of whom some
+thousand might be fit to bear arms if they had the heart thereto, as
+they had none.  Yet being closely questioned, he deemed that they
+might fall on their masters from behind, if battle were joined.
+
+He said that the folk of Rose-dale had been a goodly folk before they
+were enthralled, and peaceable with one another, but that now it was
+a sport of the Dusky Men to set a match between their thralls to
+fight it out with sword and buckler or otherwise; and the vanquished
+man, if he were not sore hurt, they would scourge, or shear some
+member from him, or even slay him outright, if the match between the
+owners were so made.  And many other sad and grievous tales he told
+to Face-of-god, more than need be told again; so that the War-leader
+went along sorry and angry, with his teeth set, and his hand on the
+sword-hilt.
+
+Thus they went till night fell on them, and they could scarce see the
+signs they had made on their outward journey.  Then they made stay in
+a little valley, having set a watch duly; and since they were by this
+time far from Rose-dale, and were a great company as regarded
+scattered bands of the foe, they lighted their fires and cooked their
+venison, and made good cheer to the Runaways, and so went to sleep in
+the wild-wood.
+
+When morning was come they gat them at once to the road; and if the
+Burgdalers were eager to be out of the wood, their eagerness was as
+nought to the eagerness of the Runaways, most of whom could not be
+easy now, and deemed every minute lost unless they were wending on to
+the Dale; so that this day they were willing to get over the more
+ground, whereas they had not set out on their road till afternoon
+yesterday.
+
+Howsoever, they rested at noontide, and Face-of-god bade Dallach
+bring him to speech with others of the Runaways, and first that he
+might talk with those three men of the kindreds who had fled from
+Silver-dale in early days.  So Dallach brought them to him; but he
+found that though they spake the tongue, they were so few-spoken from
+wildness and loneliness, at least at first, that nought could come
+from them that was not dragged from them.
+
+These men said that they had been in the wood more than nine years,
+so that they knew but little of the conditions of the Dale in that
+present day.  However, as to what Dallach had said concerning the
+Dusky Men, they strengthened his words; and they said that the Dusky
+Men took no delight save in beholding torments and misery, and that
+they doubted if they were men or trolls.  They said that since they
+had dwelt in the wood they had slain not a few of the foemen,
+waylaying them as occasion served, but that in this warfare they had
+lost two of their fellows.  When Face-of-god asked them of their
+deeming of the numbers of the Dusky Men, they said that before those
+bands had broken into Rose-dale, they counted them, as far as they
+could call to mind, at about three thousand men, all warriors; and
+that somewhat less than one thousand had gone up into Rose-dale, and
+some had died, and many had been cast away in the wild-wood, their
+fellows knew not how.  Yet had not their numbers in Silver-dale
+diminished; because two years after they (the speakers) had fled,
+came three more Dusky Companies or Tribes into Silver-dale, and each
+of these tribes was of three long hundreds; and with their coming had
+the cruelty and misery much increased in the Dale, so that the
+thralls began to die fast; and that drave the Dusky Men beyond the
+borders of Silver-dale, so that they fell upon Rose-dale.  When asked
+how many of the kindreds might yet be abiding in Silver-dale, their
+faces clouded, and they seemed exceeding wroth, and answered, that
+they would willingly hope that most of those that had not been slain
+at the time of the overthrow were now dead, yet indeed they feared
+there were yet some alive, and mayhappen not a few women.
+
+By then must they get on foot again, and so the talk fell between
+them; but when they made stay for the night, after they had done
+their meat, Face-of-god prayed Dallach bring to him some of the
+latest-come folk from Silver-dale, and he brought to him the man and
+the woman who had been in the Dale within that moon.  As to the man,
+if those of the Earl-folk had been few-spoken from fierceness and
+wildness, he was no less so from mere dulness and weariness of
+misery; but the woman's tongue went glibly enough, and it seemed to
+pleasure her to talk about her past miseries.  As aforesaid, she was
+better clad than most of those of Rose-dale, and indeed might be
+called gaily clad, and where her raiment was befouled or rent, it was
+from the roughness of the wood and its weather, and not from the
+thralldom.  She was a young and fair woman, black-haired and grey-
+eyed.  She had washed herself that day in a woodland stream which
+they had crossed on the road, and had arrayed her garments as trimly
+as she might, and had plucked some fumitory, wherewith she had made a
+garland for her head.  She sat down on the grass in front of Face-of-
+god, while the man her mate stood leaning against a tree and looked
+on her greedily.  The Burgdale carles drew near to her to hearken her
+story, and looked kindly on the twain.  She smiled on them, but
+especially on Face-of-god, and said:
+
+'Thou hast sent for me, lord, and I wot well thou wouldst hear my
+tale shortly, for it would be long to tell if I were to tell it
+fully, and bring into it all that I have endured, which has been
+bitter enough, for all that ye see me smooth of skin and well-liking
+of body.  I have been the bed-thrall of one of the chieftains of the
+Dusky Men, at whose house many of their great men would assemble, so
+that ye may ask me whatso ye will; as I have heard much talk and may
+call it to mind.  Now if ye ask me whether I have fled because of the
+shame that I, a free woman come of free folk, should be a mere thrall
+in the bed of the foes of my kin, and with no price paid for me, I
+must needs say it is not so; since over long have we of the Dale been
+thralls to be ashamed of such a matter.  And again, if ye deem that I
+have fled because I have been burdened with grievous toil and been
+driven thereto by the whip, ye may look on my hands and my body and
+ye will see that I have toiled little therewith:  nor again did I
+flee because I could not endure a few stripes now and again; for such
+usage do thralls look for, even when they are delicately kept for the
+sake of the fairness of their bodies, and this they may well endure;
+yea also, and the mere fear of death by torment now and again.  But
+before me lay death both assured and horrible; so I took mine own
+counsel, and told none for fear of bewrayal, save him who guarded me;
+and that was this man; who fled not from fear, but from love of me,
+and to him I have given all that I might give.  So we got out of the
+house and down the Dale by night and cloud, and hid for one whole day
+in the Dale itself, where I trembled and feared, so that I deemed I
+should die of fear; but this man was well pleased with my company,
+and with the lack of toil and beating even for the day.  And in the
+night again we fled and reached the wild-wood before dawn, and well-
+nigh fell into the hands of those who were hunting us, and had
+outgone us the day before, as we lay hid.  Well, what is to say?
+They saw us not, else had we not been here, but scattered piece-meal
+over the land.  This carle knew the passes of the wood, because he
+had followed his master therein, who was a great hunter in the
+wastes, contrary to the wont of these men, and he had lain a night on
+the burg yonder; therefore he brought me thither, because he knew
+that thereabout was plenty of prey easy to take, and he had a bow
+with him; and there we fell in with others of our folk who had fled
+before, and with Dallach; who e'en now told us what was hard to
+believe, that there was a fair young man like one of the Gods leading
+a band of goodly warriors, and seeking for us to bring us into a
+peaceful and happy land; and this man would not have gone with him
+because he feared that he might fall into thralldom of other folk,
+who would take me away from him; but for me, I said I would go in any
+case, for I was weary of the wood and its roughness and toil, and
+that if I had a new master he would scarcely be worse than my old one
+was at his best, and him I could endure.  So I went, and glad and
+glad I am, whatever ye will do with me.  And now will I answer whatso
+ye may ask of me.'
+
+She laid her limbs together daintily and looked fondly on Face-of-
+god, and the carle scowled at her somewhat at first, but presently,
+as he watched her, his face smoothed itself out of its wrinkles.
+
+But Face-of-god pondered a little while, and then asked the woman if
+she had heard any words to remember of late days concerning the
+affairs of the Dusky Men and their intent; and he said:
+
+'I pray thee, sister, be truthful in thine answer, for somewhat lieth
+on it.'
+
+She said:  'How could I speak aught but the sooth to thee, O lovely
+lord?  The last word spoken hereof I mind me well:  for my master had
+been mishandling me, and I was sullen to him after the smart, and he
+mocked and jeered me, and said:  Ye women deem we cannot do without
+you, but ye are fools, and know nothing; we are going to conquer a
+new land where the women are plenty, and far fairer than ye be; and
+we shall leave you to fare afield like the other thralls, or work in
+the digging of silver; and belike ye wot what that meaneth.  Also he
+said that they would leave us to the new tribe of their folk, far
+wilder than they, whom they looked for in the Dale in about a moon's
+wearing; so that they needs must seek to other lands.  Also this same
+talk would we hear whenever it pleased any of them to mock us their
+bed-thralls.  Now, my sweet lord, this is nought but the very sooth.'
+
+Again spake Face-of-god after a while:
+
+'Tell me, sister, hast thou heard of any of the Dusky Men being slain
+in the wood?'
+
+'Yea,' she said, and turned pale therewith and caught her breath as
+one choking; but said in a little while:
+
+'This alone was it hard for me to tell thee amongst all the I griefs
+I have borne, whereof I might have told thee many tales, and will do
+one day if thou wilt suffer it; but fear makes this hard for me.  For
+in very sooth this was the cause of my fleeing, that my master was
+brought in slain by an arrow in the wood; and he was to be borne to
+bale and burned in three days' wearing; and we three bed-thralls of
+his, and three of the best of the men-thralls, were to be burned
+quick on his bale-fire after sore torments; therefore I fled, and hid
+a knife in my bosom, that I might not be taken alive; but sweet was
+life to me, and belike I should not have smitten myself.'
+
+And she wept sore for pity of herself before them all.  But Face-of-
+god said:
+
+'Knowest thou, sister, by whom the man was slain?'
+
+'Nay,' she said, still sobbing; 'but I heard nought thereof, nor had
+I noted it in my terror.  The death of others, who were slain before
+him, and the loss of many, we knew not how, made them more bitterly
+cruel with us.'
+
+And again was she weeping; but Face-of-god said kindly to her:  'Weep
+no more, sister, for now shall all thy troubles be over; I feel in my
+heart that we shall overcome these felons, and make an end of them,
+and there then is Burgdale for thee in its length and breadth, or
+thine own Dale to dwell in freely.'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'never will I go back thither!' and she turned round
+to him and kissed his feet, and then arose and turned a little toward
+her mate; and the carle caught her by the hand and led her away, and
+seemed glad so to do.
+
+So once again they fell asleep in the woods, and again the next
+morning fared on their way early that they might come into Burgdale
+before nightfall.  When they stayed a while at noontide and ate,
+Face-of-god again had talk with the Runaways, and this time with
+those of Rose-dale, and he heard much the same story from them that
+he had heard before, told in divers ways, till his heart was sick
+with the hearing of it.
+
+On this last day Face-of-god led his men well athwart the wood, so
+that he hit Wildlake's Way without coming to Carl-stead; and he came
+down into the Dale some four hours after noon on a bright day of
+latter March.  At the ingate to the Dale he found watches set, the
+men whereof told him that the tidings were not right great.  Hall-
+face's company had fallen in with a band of the Felons three score in
+number in the oak-wood nigh to Boars-bait, and had slain some and
+chased the rest, since they found it hard to follow them home as they
+ran for the tangled thicket:  of the Burgdalers had two been slain
+and five hurt in this battle.
+
+As for Red-coat's company, they had fallen in with no foemen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.  THEY BRING THE RUNAWAYS TO BURGSTEAD
+
+
+
+So now being out of the wood, they went peaceably and safely along
+the Portway, the Runaways mingling with the Dalesmen.  Strange showed
+amidst the health and wealth of the Dale the rags and misery and
+nakedness of the thralls, like a dream amidst the trim gaiety of
+spring; and whomsoever they met, or came up with on the road, whatso
+his business might be, could not refrain himself from following them,
+but mingled with the men-at-arms, and asked them of the tidings; and
+when they heard who these poor people were, even delivered thralls of
+the Foemen, they were glad at heart and cried out for joy; and many
+of the women, nay, of the men also, when they first came across that
+misery from out the heart of their own pleasant life, wept for pity
+and love of the poor folk, now at last set free, and blessed the
+swords that should do the like by the whole people.
+
+They went slowly as men began to gather about them; yea, some of the
+good folk that lived hard by must needs fare home to their houses to
+fetch cakes and wine for the guests; and they made them sit down and
+rest on the green grass by the side of the Portway, and eat and drink
+to cheer their hearts; others, women and young swains, while they
+rested went down into the meadows and plucked of the spring flowers,
+and twined them hastily with deft and well-wont fingers into chaplets
+and garlands for their heads and bodies.  Thus indeed they covered
+their nakedness, till the lowering faces and weather-beaten skins of
+those hardly-entreated thralls looked grimly out from amidst the
+knots of cowslip and oxlip, and the branches of the milk-white
+blackthorn bloom, and the long trumpets of the daffodils, of the hue
+that wrappeth round the quill which the webster takes in hand when
+she would pleasure her soul with the sight of the yellow growing upon
+the dark green web.
+
+So they went on again as the evening was waning, and when they were
+gotten within a furlong of the Gate, lo! there was come the
+minstrelsy, the pipe and the tabor, the fiddle and the harp, and the
+folk that had learned to sing the sweetest, both men and women, and
+Redesman at the head of them all.
+
+Then fell the throng into an ordered company; first went the music,
+and then a score of Face-of-god's warriors with drawn swords and
+uplifted spears; and then the flower-bedecked misery of the Runaways,
+men and women going together, gaunt, befouled, and hollow-eyed, with
+here and there a flushed cheek or gleaming eye, or tear-bedewed face,
+as the joy and triumph of the eve pierced through their wonted
+weariness of grief; then the rest of the warriors, and lastly the
+mingled crowd of Dalesfolk, tall men and fair women gaily arrayed,
+clean-faced, clear-skinned, and sleek-haired, with glancing eyes and
+ruddy lips.
+
+And now Redesman turned about to the music and drew his bow across
+his fiddle, and the other bows ran out in concert, and the harps
+followed the story of them, and he lifted up his voice and sang the
+words of an old song, and all the singers joined him and blended
+their voices with his.  And these are some of the words which they
+sang:
+
+
+Lo! here is Spring, and all we are living,
+   We that were wan with Winter's fear;
+Reach out your hands to her hands that are giving,
+   Lest ye lose her love and the light of the year.
+
+Many a morn did we wake to sorrow,
+   When low on the land the cloud-wrath lay;
+Many an eve we feared to-morrow,
+   The unbegun unfinished day.
+
+Ah we--we hoped not, and thou wert tardy;
+   Nought wert thou helping; nought we prayed.
+Where was the eager heart, the hardy?
+   Where was the sweet-voiced unafraid?
+
+But now thou lovest, now thou leadest,
+   Where is gone the grief of our minds?
+What was the word of the tale, that thou heedest
+   E'en as the breath of the bygone winds?
+
+Green and green is thy garment growing
+   Over thy blossoming limbs beneath;
+Up o'er our feet rise the blades of thy sowing,
+   Pierced are our hearts with thine odorous breath.
+
+But where art thou wending, thou new-comer?
+   Hurrying on to the Courts of the Sun?
+Where art thou now in the House of the Summer?
+   Told are thy days and thy deed is done.
+
+Spring has been here for us that are living
+   After the days of Winter's fear;
+Here in our hands is the wealth of her giving,
+   The Love of the Earth, and the Light of the Year.
+
+
+Thus came they to the Gate, and lo! the Bride thereby, leaning
+against a buttress, gazing with no dull eyes at the coming throng.
+She was now clad in her woman's attire again, to wit a light flame-
+coloured gown over a green kirtle; but she yet bore a gilded helm on
+her head and a sword girt to her side in token of her oath to the
+God.  She had been in Hall-face's company in that last battle, and
+had done a man's service there, fighting very valiantly, but had not
+been hurt, and had come back to Burgstead when the shift of men was.
+
+Now she drew herself up and stood a little way before the Gate and
+looked forth on the throng, and when her eyes beheld the Runaways
+amidst of the weaponed carles of Burgdale, her face flushed, and her
+eyes filled with tears as she stood, partly wondering, partly deeming
+what they were.  She waited till Stone-face came by her, and then she
+took the old man by the sleeve, and drew him apart a little and said
+to him:  'What meaneth this show, my friend?  Who hath clad these
+folk thus strangely; and who be these three naked tall ones, so
+fierce-looking, but somewhat noble of aspect?'
+
+For indeed those three men of the kindreds, when they had gotten into
+the Dale, and had rested them, and drunk a cup of wine, and when they
+had seen the chaplets and wreaths of the spring-flowers wherewith
+they were bedecked, and had smelt the sweet savour of them, fell to
+walking proudly, heeding not their nakedness; for no rag had they
+upon them save breech-clouts of deer-skin:  they had changed weapons
+with the Burgdale carles; and one had gotten a great axe, which he
+bore over his shoulder, and the shaft thereof was all done about with
+copper; and another had shouldered a long heavy thrusting-spear, and
+the third, an exceeding tall man, bore a long broad-bladed war-sword.
+Thus they went, brown of skin beneath their flower-garlands, their
+long hair bleached by the sun falling about their shoulders; high
+they strode amongst the shuffling carles and tripping women of the
+later-come thralls.  But when they heard the music, and saw that they
+were coming to the Gate in triumph, strange thoughts of old memories
+swelled up in their hearts, and they refrained them not from weeping,
+for they felt that the joy of life had come back to them.
+
+Nor must it be deemed that these were the only ones amongst the
+Runaways whose hearts were cheered and softened:  already were many
+of them coming back to life, as they felt their worn bodies caressed
+by the clear soft air of Burgdale, and the sweetness of the flowers
+that hung about them, and saw all round about the kind and happy
+faces of their well-willers.
+
+So Stone-face looked on the Bride as she stood with face yet tear-
+bedewed, awaiting his answer, and said:
+
+'Daughter, thou sayest who clad these folk thus?  It was misery that
+hath so dight them; and they are the images of what we shall be if we
+love foul life better than fair death, and so fall into the hands of
+the Felons, who were the masters of these men.  As for the tall naked
+men, they are of our own blood, and kinsmen to Face-of-god's new
+friends; and they are of the best of the vanquished:  it was in early
+days that they fled from thralldom; as we may have to do.  Now,
+daughter, I bid thee be as joyous as thou art valiant, and then shall
+all be well.'
+
+Therewith she smiled on him, and he departed, and she stood a little
+while, as the throng moved on and was swallowed by the Gate, and
+looked after them; and for all her pity for the other folk, she
+thought chiefly of those fearless tall men who were of the blood of
+those with whom it was lawful to wed.
+
+There she stood as the wind dried the tears upon her cheeks, thinking
+of the sorrow which these folk had endured, and their stripes and
+mocking, their squalor and famine; and she wondered and looked on her
+own fair and shapely hands with the precious finger-rings thereon,
+and on the dainty cloth and trim broidery of her sleeve; and she
+touched her smooth cheek with the back of her hand, and smiled, and
+felt the spring sweet in her mouth, and its savour goodly in her
+nostrils; and therewith she called to mind the aspect of her lovely
+body, as whiles she had seen it imaged, all its full measure, in the
+clear pool at midsummer, or piece-meal, in the shining steel of the
+Westland mirror.  She thought also with what joy she drew the breath
+of life, yea, even amidst of grief, and of how sweet and pure and
+well-nurtured she was, and how well beloved of many friends and the
+whole folk, and she set all this beside those woeful bodies and
+lowering faces, and felt shame of her sorrow of heart, and the pain
+it had brought to her; and ever amidst shame and pity of all that
+misery rose up before her the images of those tall fierce men, and it
+seemed to her as if she had seen something like to them in some dream
+or imagination of her mind.
+
+So came the Burgdalers and their guests into the street of Burgstead
+amidst music and singing; and the throng was great there.  Then Face-
+of-god bade make a ring about the strangers, and they did so, and he
+and the Runaways alone were in the midst of it; and he spake in a
+loud voice and said:
+
+'Men of the Dale and the Burg, these folk whom here ye see in such a
+sorry plight are they whom our deadly foes have rejoiced to torment;
+let us therefore rejoice to cherish them.  Now let those men come
+forth who deem that they have enough and more, so that they may each
+take into their houses some two or three of these friends such as
+would be fain to be together.  And since I am War-leader, and have
+the right hereto, I will first choose them whom I will lead into the
+House of the Face.  And lo you! will I have this man (and he laid his
+hand on Dallach),who is he whom I first came across, and who found us
+all these others, and next I will have yonder tall carles, the three
+of them, because I perceive them to be men meet to be with a War-
+leader, and to follow him in battle.'
+
+Therewith he drew the three Men of the Wolf towards him, but Dallach
+already was standing beside him.  And folk rejoiced in Face-of-god.
+
+But the Bride came forward next, and spake to him meekly and simply:
+
+'War-leader, let me have of the women those who need me most, that I
+may bring them to the House of the Steer, and try if there be not
+some good days yet to be found for them, wherein they shall but
+remember the past grief as an ugly dream.'
+
+Then Face-of-god looked on her, and him-seemed he had never seen her
+so fair; and all the shame wherewith he had beheld her of late was
+gone from him, and his heart ran over with friendly love towards her
+as she looked into his face with kindly eyes; and he said:
+
+'Kinswoman, take thy choice as thy kindness biddeth, and happy shall
+they be whom thou choosest.'
+
+She bowed her head soberly, and chose from among the guests four
+women of the saddest and most grievous, and no man of their kindred
+spake for going along with them; then she went her ways home, leading
+one of them by the hand, and strange was it to see those twain going
+through sun and shade together, that poor wretch along with the
+goodliest of women.
+
+Then came forward one after other of the worthy goodmen of the Dale,
+and especially such as were old, and they led away one one man, and
+another two, and another three, and often would a man crave to go
+with a woman or a woman with a man, and it was not gainsaid them.  So
+were all the guests apportioned, and ill-content were those goodmen
+that had to depart without a guest; and one man would say to another:
+'Such-an-one, be not downcast; this guest shall be between us, if he
+will, and shall dwell with thee and me month about; but this first
+month with me, since I was first comer.'  And so forth was it said.
+
+Now to prevent the time to come, it may be said about the Runaways,
+that when they had been a little while amongst the Burgdalers, well
+fed and well clad and kindly cherished, it was marvellous how they
+were bettered in aspect of body, and it began to be seen of them that
+they were well-favoured people, and divers of the women exceeding
+goodly, black-haired and grey-eyed, and very clear-skinned and white-
+skinned; most of them were young, and the oldest had not seen above
+forty winters.  They of Rose-dale, and especially such as had first
+fled away to the wood, were very soon seen to be merry and kindly
+folk; but they who had been longest in captivity, and notably those
+from Silver-dale who were not of the kindreds, were for a long time
+sullen and heavy, and it availed little to trust to them for the
+doing of work; albeit they would follow about their friends of
+Burgdale with the love of a dog; also they were, divers of them,
+somewhat thievish, and if they lacked anything would liefer take it
+by stealth than ask for it; which forsooth the Burgdale men took not
+amiss, but deemed of it as a jest rather.
+
+Very few of the Runaways had any will to fare back to their old
+homes, or indeed could be got to go into the wood, or, after a day or
+two, to say any word of Rose-dale or Silver-dale.  In this and other
+matters the Burgdalers dealt with them as with children who must have
+their way; for they deemed that their guests had much time to make
+up; also they were well content when they saw how goodly they were,
+for these Dalesmen loved to see men goodly of body and of a cheerful
+countenance.
+
+As for Dallach and the three Silver-dale men of the kindred, they
+went gladly whereas the Burgdale men would have them; and half a
+score others took weapons in their hands when the war was foughten:
+concerning which more hereafter.
+
+But on the even whereof the tale now tells, Face-of-god and Stone-
+face and their company met after nightfall in the Hall of the Face
+clad in glorious raiment, and therewith were Dallach and the men of
+Silver-dale, washen and docked of their long hair, after the fashion
+of warriors who bear the helm; and they were clad in gay attire, with
+battle-swords girt to their sides and gold rings on their arms.
+Somewhat stern and sad-eyed were those Silver-dalers yet, though they
+looked on those about them kindly and courteously when they met their
+eyes; and Face-of-god yearned towards them when he called to mind the
+beauty and wisdom and loving-kindness of the Sun-beam.  They were, as
+aforesaid, strong men and tall, and one of them taller than any
+amidst that house of tall men.  Their names were Wolf-stone, the
+tallest, and God-swain, and Spear-fist; and God-swain the youngest
+was of thirty winters, and Wolf-stone of forty.  They came into the
+Hall in such wise, that when they were washed and attired, and all
+men were assembled in the Hall, and the Alderman and the chieftains
+sitting on the dais, Face-of-god brought them in from the out-bower,
+holding Dallach by the right hand and Wolf-stone by the left; and he
+looked but a stripling beside that huge man.
+
+And when the men in the Hall beheld such goodly warriors, and
+remembered their grief late past, they all stood up and shouted for
+joy of them.  But Face-of-god passed up the Hall with them, and stood
+before the dais and said:
+
+'O Alderman of the Dale and Chief of the House of the Face, here I
+bring to you the foes of our foemen, whom I have met in the Wild-
+wood, and bidden to our House; and meseemeth they will be our
+friends, and stand beside us in the day of battle.  Therefore I say,
+take these guests and me together, or put us all to the door
+together; and if thou wilt take them, then show them to such places
+as thou deemest meet.'
+
+Then stood up the Alderman and said:
+
+'Men of Silver-dale and Rose-dale, I bid you welcome!  Be ye our
+friends, and abide here with us as long as seemeth good to you, and
+share in all that is ours.  Son Face-of-god, show these warriors to
+seats on the dais beside thee, and cherish them as well as thou
+knowest how.'
+
+Then Face-of-god brought them up on to the dais and sat down on the
+right hand of his father, with Dallach on his right hand, and then
+Wolf-stone out from him; then sat Stone-face, that there might be a
+man of the Dale to talk with them and serve them; and on his right
+hand first Spear-fist and then God-swain.  And when they were all sat
+down, and the meat was on the board, Iron-face turned to his son
+Face-of-god and took his hand, and said in a loud voice, so that many
+might hear him:
+
+'Son Face-of-god, son Gold-mane, thou bearest with thee both ill luck
+and good.  Erewhile, when thou wanderedst out into the Wild-wood,
+seeking thou knewest not what from out of the Land of Dreams, thou
+didst but bring aback to us grief and shame; but now that thou hast
+gone forth with the neighbours seeking thy foemen, thou hast come
+aback to us with thine hands full of honour and joy for us, and we
+thank thee for thy gifts, and I call thee a lucky man.  Herewith,
+kinsman, I drink to thee and the lasting of thy luck.'
+
+Therewith he stood up and drank the health of the War-leader and the
+Guests:  and all men were exceeding joyous thereat, when they called
+to mind his wrath at the Gate-thing, and they shouted for gladness as
+they drank that health, and the feast became exceeding merry in the
+House of the Face; and as to the war to come, it seemed to them as if
+it were over and done in all triumph.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.  HALL-FACE GOETH TOWARD ROSE-DALE
+
+
+
+On the morrow Face-of-god took counsel with Hall-face and Stone-face
+as to what were best to be done, and they sat on the dais in the Hall
+to talk it over.
+
+Short was the time that had worn since that day in Shadowy Vale, for
+it was but eight days since then; yet so many things had befallen in
+that time, and, to speak shortly, the outlook for the Burgdalers had
+changed so much, that the time seemed long to all the three, and
+especially to Face-of-god.
+
+It was yet twenty days till the Great Folk-mote should beholden, and
+to Hall-face the time seemed long enough to do somewhat, and he
+deemed it were good to gather force and fall on the Dusky Men in
+Rose-dale, since now they had gotten men who could lead them the
+nighest way and by the safest passes, and who knew all the ways of
+the foemen.  But to Stone-face this rede seemed not so good; for they
+would have to go and come back, and fight and conquer, in less time
+than twenty days, or be belated of the Folk-mote, and meanwhile much
+might happen.
+
+'For,' said Stone-face, 'we may deem the fighting-men of Rose-dale to
+be little less than one thousand, and however we fall on them, even
+if it be unawares at first, they shall fight stubbornly; so that we
+may not send against them many less than they be, and that shall
+strip Burgdale of its fighting-men, so that whatever befalls, we that
+be left shall have to bide at home.'
+
+Now was Face-of-god of the same mind as Stone-face; and he said
+moreover:  'When we go to Rose-dale we must abide there a while
+unless we be overthrown.  For if ye conquer it and come away at once,
+presently shall the tidings come to the ears of the Dusky Men in
+Silver-dale, and they shall join themselves to those of Rose-dale who
+have fled before you, and between them they shall destroy the unhappy
+people therein; for ye cannot take them all away with you:  and that
+shall they do all the more now, when they look to have new thralls in
+Burgdale, both men and women.  And this we may not suffer, but must
+abide till we have met all our foemen and have overcome them, so that
+the poor folk there shall be safe from them till they have learned
+how to defend their dale.  Now my rede is, that we send out the War-
+arrow at once up and down the Dale, and to the Shepherds and
+Woodlanders, and appoint a day for the Muster and Weapon-show of all
+our Folk, and that day to be the day before the Spring Market, that
+is to say, four days before the Great Folk-mote, and meantime that we
+keep sure watch about the border of the wood, and now and again scour
+the wood, so as to clear the Dale of their wandering bands.'
+
+'Yea,' said Hall-face; 'and I pray thee, brother, let me have an
+hundred of men and thy Dallach, and let us go somewhat deep into the
+wood towards Rose-dale, and see what we may come across; peradventure
+it might be something better than hart or wild-swine.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'I see no harm therein, if Dallach goeth with thee
+freely; for I will have no force put on him or any other of the
+Runaways.  Yet meseemeth it were not ill for thee to find the road to
+Rose-dale; for I have it in my mind to send a company thither to give
+those Rose-dale man-quellers somewhat to do at home when we fall upon
+Silver-dale.  Therefore go find Dallach, and get thy men together at
+once; for the sooner thou art gone on thy way the better.  But this I
+bid thee, go no further than three days out, that ye may be back home
+betimes.'
+
+At this word Hall-face's eyes gleamed with joy, and he went out from
+the Hall straightway and sought Dallach, and found him at the Gate.
+Iron-face had given him a new sword, a good one, and had bidden him
+call it Thicket-clearer, and he would not leave it any moment of the
+day or night, but would lay it under his pillow at night as a child
+does with a new toy; and now he was leaning against a buttress and
+drawing the said sword half out of the scabbard and poring over its
+blade, which was indeed fair enough, being wrought with dark grey
+waving lines like the eddies of the Weltering Water.
+
+So Hall-face greeted him, and smiled and said:
+
+'Guest, if thou wilt, thou may'st take that new blade of my father's
+work which thou lovest so, a journey which shall rejoice it.'
+
+'Yea,' said Dallach, 'I suppose that thou wouldest fare on thy
+brother's footsteps, and deemest that I am the man to lead thee on
+the road, and even farther than he went; and though it might be
+thought by some that I have seen enough of Rose-dale and the parts
+thereabout for one while, yet will I go with thee; for now am I a man
+again, body and soul.'
+
+And therewith he drew Thicket-clearer right out of his sheath and
+waved him in the air.  And Hall-face was glad of him and said he was
+well apaid of his help.  So they went away together to gather men,
+and on the morrow Hall-face departed and went into the Wild-wood with
+Dallach and an hundred and two score men.
+
+But as for Face-of-god, he fared up and down the Dale following the
+War-arrow, and went into all houses, and talked with the folk, both
+young and old, men and women, and told them closely all that had
+betid and all that was like to betide; and he was well pleased with
+that which he saw and heard; for all took his words well, and were
+nought afeard or dismayed by the tidings; and he saw that they would
+not hang aback.  Meantime the days wore, and Hall-face came not back
+till the seventh day, and he brought with him twelve more Runaways,
+of whom five were women.  But he had lost four men, and had with him
+Dallach and five others of the Dalesmen borne upon litters sore hurt;
+and this was his story:
+
+They got to the Burg of the Runaways on the forenoon of the third
+day, and thereby came on five carles of the Runaways--men who had
+missed meeting Dallach that other day, but knew what had been done;
+for one of them had been sick and could not come with him, and he had
+told the others:  so now they were hanging about the Burg of the
+Runaways hoping somewhat that he might come again; and they met the
+Burgdalers full of joy, and brought them trouts that they had caught
+in the river.
+
+As for the other runaways, namely, five women and two more carles--
+they had gotten them close to the entrance into Silver-dale, where by
+night and cloud they came on a campment of the Dusky Men, who were
+leading home these seven poor wretches, runaways whom they had
+caught, that they might slay them most evilly in Rose-stead.  So
+Hall-face fell on the Dusky Men, and delivered their captives, but
+slew not all the foe, and they that fled brought pursuers on them who
+came up with them the next day, so near was Rose-dale, though they
+made all diligence homeward.  The Burgdalers must needs turn and
+fight with those pursuers, and at last they drave them aback so that
+they might go on their ways home.  They let not the grass grow
+beneath their feet thereafter, till they were assured by meeting a
+band of the Woodlanders, who had gone forth to help them, and with
+whom they rested a little.  But neither so were they quite done with
+the foemen, who came upon them next day a very many:  these however
+they and the Woodlanders, who were all fresh and unwounded and very
+valiant, speedily put to the worse; and so they came on to Burgstead,
+leaving those of them who were sorest hurt to be tended by the
+Woodlanders at Carlstead, who, as might be looked for, deal with them
+very lovingly.
+
+It was in the first fight that they suffered that loss of slain and
+wounded; and therein the newly delivered thralls fought valiantly
+against their masters:  as for Dallach, it was no marvel, said Hall-
+face, that he was hurt; but rather a marvel that he was not slain, so
+little he recked of point and edge, if he might but slay the foemen.
+
+Such was Hall-face's-tale; and Face-of-god deemed that he had done
+unwisely to let him go that journey; for the slaying of a few Dusky
+Men was but a light gain to set against the loss of so many
+Burgdalers; yet was he glad of the deliverance of those Runaways, and
+deemed it a gain indeed.  But henceforth would he hold all still till
+he should have tidings of Folk-might; so nought was done thereafter
+save the warding of the Dale, from the country of the Shepherds to
+the Waste above the Eastern passes.
+
+But Face-of-god himself went up amongst the Shepherds, and abode with
+a goodman hight Hound-under-Greenbury, who gathered to him the folk
+from the country-side, and they went up on to Greenbury, and sat on
+the green grass while he spoke with them and told them, as he had
+told the others, what had been done and what should be done.  And
+they heard him gladly, and he deemed that there would be no blenching
+in them, for they were all in one tale to live and die with their
+friends of Burgdale, and they said that they would have no other word
+save that to bear to the Great Folk-mote.
+
+So he went away well-pleased, and he fared on thence to the
+Woodlanders, and guested at the house of a valiant man hight
+Wargrove, who on the morrow morn called the folk together to a green
+lawn of the Wild-wood, so that there was scarce a soul of them that
+was not there.  Then he laid the whole matter before them; and if the
+Dalesmen had been merry and ready, and the Shepherds stout-hearted
+and friendly, yet were the Wood-landers more eager still, so that
+every hour seemed long to them till they stood in their war-gear; and
+they told him that now at last was the hour drawing nigh which they
+had dreamed of, but had scarce dared to hope for, when the lost way
+should be found, and the crooked made straight, and that which had
+been broken should be mended; that their meat and drink, and sleeping
+and waking, and all that they did were now become to them but the
+means of living till the day was come whereon the two remnants of the
+children of the Wolf should meet and become one Folk to live or die
+together.
+
+Then went Face-of-god back to Burgstead again, and as he stood anigh
+the Thing-stead once more, and looked down on the Dale as he had
+beheld it last autumn, he bethought him that with all that had been
+done and all that had been promised, the earth was clearing of her
+trouble, and that now there was nought betwixt him and the happy days
+of life which the Dale should give to the dwellers therein, save the
+gathering hosts of the battle-field and the day when the last word
+should be spoken and the first stroke smitten.  So he went down on to
+the Portway well content.
+
+Thereafter till the day of the Weapon-show there is nought to tell
+of, save that Dallach and the other wounded men began to grow whole
+again; and all men sat at home, or went on the woodland ward,
+expecting great tidings after the holding of the Folk-mote.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.  OF THE WEAPON-SHOW OF THE MEN OF BURGDALE AND THEIR
+NEIGHBOURS
+
+
+
+Now on the day appointed for the Weapon-show came the Folk flock-meal
+to the great and wide meadow that was cleft by Wildlake as it ran to
+join the Weltering Water.  Early in the morning, even before sunrise,
+had the wains full of women and children begun to come thither.  Also
+there came little horses and asses from the Shepherd country with one
+or two or three damsels or children sitting on each, and by wain-side
+or by beast strode the men of the house, merry and fair in their war-
+gear.  The Woodlanders, moreover, man and woman, elder and swain and
+young damsel, streamed out of the wood from Carlstead, eager to make
+the day begin before the sunrise, and end before his setting.
+
+Then all men fell to pitching of tents and tilting over of wains; for
+the April sun was hot in the Dale, and when he arose the meads were
+gay with more than the spring flowers; for the tents and the tilts
+were stained and broidered with many colours, and there was none who
+had not furbished up his war-gear so that all shone and glittered.
+And many wore gay surcoats over their armour, and the women were clad
+in all their bravery, and the Houses mostly of a suit; for one bore
+blue and another corn-colour, and another green, and another brazil,
+and so forth, and all gleaming and glowing with broidery of gold and
+bright hues.  But the women of the Shepherds were all clad in white,
+embroidered with green boughs and red blossoms, and the Woodland
+women wore dark red kirtles.  Moreover, the women had set garlands of
+flowers on their heads and the helms of the men, and for the most
+part they were slim of body and tall and light-limbed, and as dainty
+to look upon as the willow-boughs that waved on the brook-side.
+
+Thither had the goodmen who were guesting the Runaways brought their
+guests, even now much bettered by their new soft days; and much the
+poor folk marvelled at all this joyance, and they scarce knew where
+they were; but to some it brought back to their minds days of joyance
+before the thralldom and all that they had lost, so that their hearts
+were heavy a while, till they saw the warriors of the kindreds
+streaming into the mead and bethought them why they carried steel.
+
+Now by then the sun was fully up there was a great throng on the
+Portway, and this was the folk of the Burg on their way to the
+Weapon-mead.  The men-at-arms were in the midst of the throng, and at
+the head of them was the War-leader, with the banner of the Face
+before him, wherein was done the image of the God with the ray-ringed
+head.  But at the rearward of the warriors went the Alderman and the
+Burg-wardens, before whom was borne the banner of the Burg pictured
+with the Gate and its Towers; but in the midst betwixt those two was
+the banner of the Steer, a white beast on a green field.
+
+So when the Dale-wardens who were down in the meadow heard the music
+and beheld who were coming, they bade the companies of the Dale and
+the Shepherds and the Woodlanders who were down there to pitch their
+banners in a half circle about the ingle of the meadow which was made
+by the streams of Wildlake and the Weltering Water, and gather to
+them to be ordered there under their leaders of scores and half-
+hundreds and hundreds; and even so they did.  But the banners of the
+Dale without the Burg were the Bridge, and the Bull, and the Vine,
+and the Sickle.  And the Shepherds had three banners, to wit
+Greenbury, and the Fleece, and the Thorn.
+
+As for the Woodlanders, they said that they were abiding their great
+banner, but it should come in good time; 'and meantime,' said they,
+'here are the war-tokens that we shall fight under; for they are good
+enough banners for us poor men, the remnant of the valiant of time
+past.'  Therewith they showed two great spears, and athwart the one
+was tied an arrow, its point dipped in blood, its feathers singed
+with fire; and they said, 'This is the banner of the War-shaft.'
+
+On the other spear there was nought; but the head thereof was great
+and long, and they had so burnished the steel that the sun smote out
+a ray of light from it, so that it might be seen from afar.  And they
+said:  'This is the Banner of the Spear!  Down yonder where the
+ravens are gathering ye shall see a banner flying over us.  There
+shall fall many a mother's son.'
+
+Smiled the Dale-wardens, and said that these were good banners to
+fight under; and those that stood nearby shouted for the valiancy of
+the Woodland Carles.
+
+Now the Dale-wardens went to the entrance from the Portway to the
+meadow, and there met the Men of the Burg, and two of them went one
+on either side of the War-leader to show him to his seat, and the
+others abode till the Alderman and Burg-wardens came up, and then
+joined themselves to them, and the horns blew up both in the meadow
+and on the road, and the new-comers went their ways to their
+appointed places amidst the shouts of the Dalesmen; and the women and
+children and old men from the Burg followed after, till all the mead
+was covered with bright raiment and glittering gear, save within the
+ring of men at the further end.
+
+So came the War-leader to his seat of green turf raised in the ingle
+aforesaid; and he stood beside it till the Alderman and Wardens had
+taken their places on a seat behind him raised higher than his; below
+him on the step of his seat sat the Scrivener with his pen and ink-
+horn and scroll of parchment, and men had brought him a smooth shield
+whereon to write.
+
+On the left side of Face-of-god stood the men of the Face all
+glittering in their arms, and amongst them were Wolf-stone and his
+two fellows, but Dallach was not yet whole of his hurts.  On his
+right were the folk of the House of the Steer:  the leader of that
+House was an old white-bearded man, grandfather of the Bride, for her
+father was dead; and who but the Bride herself stood beside him in
+her glorious war-gear, looking as if she were new come from the City
+of the Gods, thought most men; but those who beheld her closely
+deemed that she looked heavy-eyed and haggard, as if she were aweary.
+Nevertheless, wheresoever she passed, and whosoever looked on her
+(and all men looked on her), there arose a murmur of praise and love;
+and the women, and especially the young ones, said how fair her deed
+was, and how meet she was for it; and some of them were for doing on
+war-gear and faring to battle with the carles; and of these some were
+sober and solemn, as was well seen afterwards, and some spake
+lightly:  some also fell to boasting of how they could run and climb
+and swim and shoot in the bow, and fell to baring of their arms to
+show how strong they were:  and indeed they were no weaklings, though
+their arms were fair.
+
+There then stood the ring of men, each company under its banner; and
+beyond them stood the women and children and men unmeet for battle;
+and beyond them again the tilted wains and the tents.
+
+Now Face-of-god sat him down on the turf-seat with his bright helm on
+his head and his naked sword across his knees, while the horns blew
+up loudly, and when they had done, the elder of the Dale-wardens
+cried out for silence.  Then again arose Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Men of the Dale, and ye friends of the Shepherds, and ye, O valiant
+Woodlanders; we are not assembled here to take counsel, for in three
+days' time shall the Great Folk-mote be holden, whereat shall be
+counsel enough.  But since I have been appointed your Chief and War-
+leader, till such time as the Folk-mote shall either yeasay or naysay
+my leadership, I have sent for you that we may look each other in the
+face and number our host and behold our weapons, and see if we be
+meet for battle and for the dealing with a great host of foemen.  For
+now no longer can it be said that we are going to war, but rather
+that war is on our borders, and we are blended with it; as many have
+learned to their cost; for some have been slain and some sorely hurt.
+Therefore I bid you now, all ye that are weaponed, wend past us that
+the tale of you may be taken.  But first let every hundred-leader and
+half-hundred-leader and score-leader make sure that he hath his tale
+aright, and give his word to the captain of his banner that he in
+turn may give it out to the Scrivener with his name and the House and
+Company that he leadeth.'
+
+So he spake and sat him adown; and the horns blew again in token that
+the companies should go past; and the first that came was Hall-ward
+of the House of the Steer, and the first of those that went after him
+was the Bride, going as if she were his son.
+
+So he cried out his name, and the name of his House, and said, 'An
+hundred and a half,' and passed forth, his men following him in most
+goodly array.  Each man was girt with a good sword and bore a long
+heavy spear over his shoulder, save a score who bare bows; and no man
+lacked a helm, a shield, and a coat of fence.
+
+Then came a goodly man of thirty winters, and stayed before the
+Scrivener and cried out:
+
+'Write down the House of the Bridge of the Upper Dale at one hundred,
+and War-well their leader.'
+
+And he strode on, and his men followed clad and weaponed like those
+of the Steer, save that some had axes hanging to their girdles
+instead of swords; and most bore casting-spears instead of the long
+spears, and half a score were bowmen.
+
+Then came Fox of Upton leading the men of the Bull of Middale, an
+hundred and a half lacking two; very great and tall were his men, and
+they also bore long spears, and one score and two were bowmen.
+
+Then Fork-beard of Lea, a man well on in years, led on the men of the
+Vine, an hundred and a half and five men thereto; two score of them
+bare bow in hand and were girt with sword; the rest bore their swords
+naked in their right hands, and their shields (which were but small
+bucklers) hanging at their backs, and in the left hand each bore two
+casting-spears.  With these went two doughty women-at-arms among the
+bowmen, tall and well-knit, already growing brown with the spring
+sun, for their work lay among the stocks of the vines on the
+southward-looking bents.
+
+Next came a tall young man, yellow-haired, with a thin red beard, and
+gave himself out for Red-beard of the Knolls; he bore his father's
+name, as the custom of their house was, but the old man, who had long
+been head man of the House of the Sickle, was late dead in his bed,
+and the young man had not seen twenty winters.  He bade the Scrivener
+write the tale of the Men of the Sickle at an hundred and a half, and
+his folk fared past the War-leader joyously, being one half of them
+bowmen; and fell shooters they were; the other half were girt with
+swords, and bore withal long ashen staves armed with great blades
+curved inwards, which weapon they called heft-sax.
+
+All these bands, as the name and the tale of them was declared were
+greeted with loud shouts from their fellows and the bystanders; but
+now arose a greater shout still, as Stone-face, clad in goodly
+glittering array, came forth and said:
+
+'I am Stone-face of the House of the Face, and I bring with me two
+hundreds of men with their best war-gear and weapons:  write it down,
+Scrivener!'
+
+And he strode on like a young man after those who had gone past, and
+after him came the tall Hall-face and his men, a gallant sight to
+see:  two score bowmen girt with swords, and the others with naked
+swords waving aloft, and each bearing two casting-spears in his left
+hand.
+
+Then came a man of middle age, broad-shouldered, yellow-haired, blue-
+eyed, of wide and ruddy countenance, and after him a goodly company;
+and again great was the shout that went up to the heavens; for he
+said:
+
+'Scrivener, write down that Hound-under-Greenbury, from amongst the
+dwellers in the hills where the sheep feed, leadeth the men who go
+under the banner of Greenbury, to the tale of an hundred and four
+score.'
+
+Therewith he passed on, and his men followed, stout, stark, and
+merry-faced, girt with swords, and bearing over their shoulders long-
+staved axes, and spears not so long as those which the Dalesmen bore;
+and they had but a half score of arrow-shot with them.
+
+Next came a young man, blue-eyed also, with hair the colour of flax
+on the distaff, broad-faced and short-nosed, low of stature, but very
+strong-built, who cried out in a loud, cheerful voice:
+
+'I am Strongitharm of the Shepherds, and these valiant men are of the
+Fleece and the Thorn blended together, for so they would have it; and
+their tale is one hundred and two score and ten.'
+
+Then the men of those kindreds went past merry and shouting, and they
+were clad and weaponed like to them of Greenbury, but had with them a
+score of bowmen.  And all these Shepherd-folk wore over their
+hauberks white woollen surcoats broidered with green and red.
+
+Now again uprose the cry, and there stood before the War-leader a
+very tall man of fifty winters, dark-faced and grey-eyed, and he
+spake slowly and somewhat softly, and said:
+
+'War-leader, this is Red-wolf of the Woodlanders leading the men who
+go under the sign of the War-shaft, to the number of an hundred and
+two.'
+
+Then he passed on, and his men after him, tall, lean, and silent
+amidst the shouting.  All these men bare bows, for they were keen
+hunters; each had at his girdle a little axe and a wood-knife, and
+some had long swords withal.  They wore, everyone of the carles,
+short green surcoats over their coats of fence; but amongst them were
+three women who bore like weapons to the men, but were clad in red
+kirtles under their hauberks, which were of good ring-mail gleaming
+over them from throat to knee.
+
+Last came another tall man, but young, of twenty-five winters, and
+spake:
+
+'Scrivener, I am Bears-bane of the Woodlanders, and these that come
+after me wend under the sign of the Spear, and they are of the tale
+of one hundred and seven.'
+
+And he passed by at once, and his men followed him, clad and weaponed
+no otherwise than they of the War-shaft, and with them were two
+women.
+
+Now went all those companies back to their banners, and stood there;
+and there arose among the bystanders much talk concerning the Weapon-
+show, and who were the best arrayed of the Houses.  And of the old
+men, some spake of past weapon-shows which they had seen in their
+youth, and they set them beside this one, and praised and blamed.  So
+it went on a little while till the horns blew again, and once more
+there was silence.  Then arose Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Men of Burgdale, and ye Shepherd-folk, and ye of the Woodland, now
+shall ye wot how many weaponed men we may bring together for this
+war.  Scrivener, arise and give forth the tale of the companies, as
+they have been told unto you.'
+
+Then the Scrivener stood up on the turf-bench beside Face-of-god, and
+spake in a loud voice, reading from his scroll:
+
+'Of the Men of Burgdale there have passed by me nine hundreds and
+six; of the Shepherds three hundreds and eight and ten; and of the
+Woodlanders two hundreds and nine; so that all told our men are
+fourteen hundreds and thirty and three.'
+
+Now in those days men reckoned by long hundreds, so that the whole
+tale of the host was one thousand, five hundred, and four score and
+one, telling the tale in short hundreds.
+
+When the tale had been given forth and heard, men shouted again, and
+they rejoiced that they were so many.  For it exceeded the reckoning
+which the Alderman had given out at the Gate-thing.  But Face-of-god
+said:
+
+'Neighbours, we have held our Weapon-show; but now hold you ready,
+each man, for the Hosting toward very battle; for belike within seven
+days shall the leaders of hundreds and twenties summon you to be
+ready in arms to take whatso fortune may befall.  Now is sundered the
+Weapon-show.  Be ye as merry to-day as your hearts bid you to be.'
+
+Therewith he came down from his seat with the Alderman and the
+Wardens, and they mingled with the good folk of the Dale and the
+Shepherds and the Woodlanders, and merry was their converse there.
+It yet lacked an hour of noon; so presently they fell to and feasted
+in the green meadow, drinking from wain to wain and from tent to
+tent; and thereafter they played and sported in the meads, shooting
+at the butts and wrestling, and trying other masteries.  Then they
+fell to dancing one and all, and so at last to supper on the green
+grass in great merriment.  Nor might you have known from the
+demeanour of any that any threat of evil overhung the Dale.  Nay, so
+glad were they, and so friendly, that you might rather have deemed
+that this was the land whereof tales tell, wherein people die not,
+but live for ever, without growing any older than when they first
+come thither, unless they be born into the land itself, and then they
+grow into fair manhood, and so abide.  In sooth, both the land and
+the folk were fair enough to be that land and the folk thereof.
+
+But a little after sunset they sundered, and some fared home; but
+many of them abode in the tents and tilted wains, because the morrow
+was the first day of the Spring Market:  and already were some of the
+Westland chapmen come; yea, two of them were with the bystanders in
+the meadow; and more were looked for ere the night was far spent.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.  THE MEN OF SHADOWY VALE COME TO THE SPRING MARKET AT
+BURGSTEAD
+
+
+
+On the morrow betimes in the morning the Westland chapmen, who were
+now all come, went out from the House of the Face, where they were
+ever wont to be lodged, and set up their booths adown the street
+betwixt gate and bridge.  Gay was the show; for the booths were
+tilted over with painted cloths, and the merchants themselves were
+clad in long gowns of fine cloth; scarlet, and blue, and white, and
+green, and black, with broidered welts of gold and silver; and their
+knaves were gaily attired in short coats of divers hues, with silver
+rings about their arms, and short swords girt to their sides.  People
+began to gather about these chapmen at once when they fell to opening
+their bales and their packs, and unloading their wains.  There had
+they iron, both in pigs and forged scrap and nails; steel they had,
+and silver, both in ingots and vessel; pearls from over sea; cinnabar
+and other colours for staining, such as were not in the mountains:
+madder from the marshes, and purple of the sea, and scarlet grain
+from the holm-oaks by its edge, and woad from the deep clayey fields
+of the plain; silken thread also from the outer ocean, and rare webs
+of silk, and jars of olive oil, and fine pottery, and scented woods,
+and sugar of the cane.  But gold they had none with them, for that
+they took there; and for weapons, save a few silver-gilt toys, they
+had no market.
+
+So presently they fell to chaffer; for the carles brought them little
+bags of the river-borne gold, so that the weights and scales were at
+work; others had with them scrolls and tallies to tell the number of
+the beasts which they had to sell, and the chapmen gave them wares
+therefor without beholding the beasts; for they wotted that the
+Dalesmen lied not in chaffer.  While the day was yet young withal
+came the Dalesmen from the mid and nether Dale with their wares and
+set up their booths; and they had with them flasks and kegs of the
+wine which they had to sell; and bales of the good winter-woven
+cloth, some grey, some dyed, and pieces of fine linen; and blades of
+swords, and knives, and axes of such fashion as the Westland men
+used; and golden cups and chains, and fair rings set with mountain-
+blue stones, and copper bowls, and vessels gilt and parcel-gilt, and
+mountain-blue for staining.  There were men of the Shepherds also
+with such fleeces as they could spare from the daily chaffer with the
+neighbours.  And of the Woodlanders were four carles and a woman with
+peltries and dressed deer-skins, and a few pieces of well-carven
+wood-work for bedsteads and chairs and such like.
+
+Soon was the Burg thronged with folk in all its open places, and all
+were eager and merry, and it could not have been told from their
+demeanour and countenance that the shadow of a grievous trouble hung
+over them.  True it was that every man of the Dale and the neighbours
+was girt with his sword, or bore spear or axe or other weapon in his
+hand, and that most had their bucklers at their backs and their helms
+on their heads; but this was ever their custom at all meetings of
+men, not because they dreaded war or were fain of strife, but in
+token that they were free men, from whom none should take the weapons
+without battle.
+
+Such were the folk of the land:  as for the chapmen, they were well-
+spoken and courteous, and blithe with the folk, as they well might
+be, for they had good pennyworths of them; yet they dealt with them
+without using measureless lying, as behoved folk dealing with simple
+and proud people; and many was the tale they told of the tidings of
+the Cities and the Plain.
+
+There amongst the throng was the Bride in her maiden's attire, but
+girt with the sword, going from booth to booth with her guests of the
+Runaways, and doing those poor people what pleasure she might, and
+giving them gifts from the goods there, such as they set their hearts
+on.  And the more part of the Runaways were about among the people of
+the Fair; but Dallach, being still weak, sat on a bench by the door
+of the House of the Face looking on well-pleased at all the stir of
+folk.
+
+Hall-face was gone on the woodland ward; while Face-of-god went among
+the folk in his most glorious attire; but he soon betook him to the
+place of meeting without the Gate, where Stone-face and some of the
+elders were sitting along with the Alderman, beside whom sat the head
+man of the merchants, clad in a gown of fine scarlet embroidered with
+the best work of the Dale, with a golden chaplet on his head, and a
+good sword, golden-hilted, by his side, all which the Alderman had
+given to it him that morning.  These chiefs were talking together
+concerning the tidings of the Plain, and many a tale the guest told
+to the Dalesmen, some true, some false.  For there had been battles
+down there, and the fall of kings, and destruction of people, as oft
+befalleth in the guileful Cities.  He told them also, in answer to
+their story of the Dusky Men, of how men even such-like, but riding
+on horses, or drawn in wains, an host not to be numbered, had
+erewhile overthrown the hosts of the Cities of the Plain, and had
+wrought evils scarce to be told of; and how they had piled up the
+skulls of slaughtered folk into great hills beside the city-gates, so
+that the sun might no longer shine into the streets; and how because
+of the death and the rapine, grass had grown in the kings' chambers,
+and the wolves had chased deer in the Temples of the Gods.
+
+'But,' quoth he, 'I know you, bold tillers of the soil, valiant
+scourers of the Wild-wood, that the worst that can befall you will be
+to die under shield, and that ye shall suffer no torment of the
+thrall.  May the undying Gods bless the threshold of this Gate, and
+oft may I come hither to taste of your kindness!  May your race, the
+uncorrupt, increase and multiply, till your valiant men and clean
+maidens make the bitter sweet and purify the earth!'
+
+He spake smooth-tongued and smiling, handling the while the folds of
+his fine scarlet gown, and belike he meant a full half of what he
+said; for he was a man very eloquent of speech, and had spoken with
+kings, uncowed and pleased with his speaking; and for that cause and
+his riches had he been made chief of the chapmen.  As he spake the
+heart of Face-of-god swelled within him, and his cheek flushed; but
+Iron-face sat up straight and proud, and a light smile played about
+his face, as he said gravely:
+
+'Friend of the Westland, I thank thee for the blessing and the kind
+word.  Such as we are, we are; nor do I deem that the very Gods shall
+change us.  And if they will be our friends, it is well; for we
+desire nought of them save their friendship; and if they will be our
+foes, that also shall we bear; nor will we curse them for doing that
+which their lives bid them to do.  What sayest thou, Face-of-god, my
+son?'
+
+'Yea, father,' said Face-of-god, 'I say that the very Gods, though
+they slay me, cannot unmake my life that has been.  If they do deeds,
+yet shall we also do.'
+
+The Outlander smiled as they spake, and bowed his head to Iron-face
+and Face-of-god, and wondered at their pride of heart, marvelling
+what they would say to the great men of the Cities if they should
+meet them.
+
+But as they sat a-talking, there came two men running to them from
+the Portway, their weapons all clattering upon them, and they heard
+withal the sound of a horn winded not far off very loud and clear;
+and the Chapman's cheek paled:  for in sooth he doubted that war was
+at hand, after all he had heard of the Dalesmen's dealings with the
+Dusky Men.  And all battle was loathsome to him, nor for all the gain
+of his chaffer had he come into the Dale, had he known that war was
+looked for.
+
+But the chiefs of the Dalesmen stirred not, nor changed countenance;
+and some of the goodmen who were in the street nigh the Gate came
+forth to see what was toward; for they also had heard the voice of
+the horn.
+
+Then one of those messengers came up breathless, and stood before the
+chiefs, and said:
+
+'New tidings, Alderman; here be weaponed strangers come into the
+Dale.'
+
+The Alderman smiled on him and said:  'Yea, son, and are they a great
+host of men?'
+
+'Nay,' said the man, 'not above a score as I deem, and there is a
+woman with them.'
+
+'Then shall we abide them here,' said the Alderman, 'and thou
+mightest have saved thy breath, and suffered them to bring tidings of
+themselves; since they may scarce bring us war.  For no man desireth
+certain and present death; and that is all that such a band may win
+at our hands in battle to-day; and all who come in peace are welcome
+to us.  What like are they to behold?'
+
+Said the man:  'They are tall men gloriously attired, so that they
+seem like kinsmen of the Gods; and they bear flowering boughs in
+their hands.'
+
+The Alderman laughed, and said:  'If they be Gods they are welcome
+indeed; and they shall grow the wiser for their coming; for they
+shall learn how guest-fain the Burgdale men may be.  But if, as I
+deem, they be like unto us, and but the children of the Gods, then
+are they as welcome, and it may be more so, and our greeting to them
+shall be as their greeting to us would be.'
+
+Even as he spake the horn was winded nearer yet, and more loudly, and
+folk came pouring out of the Gate to learn the tidings.  Presently
+the strangers came from off the Portway into the space before the
+Gate; and their leader was a tall and goodly man of some thirty
+winters, in glorious array, helm on head and sword by side, his
+surcoat green and flowery like the spring meads.  In his right hand
+he held a branch of the blossomed black-thorn (for some was yet in
+blossom), and his left had hold of the hand of an exceeding fair
+woman who went beside him:  behind him was a score of weaponed men in
+goodly attire, some bearing bows, some long spears, but each bearing
+a flowering bough in hand.
+
+The tall man stopped in the midst of the space, and the Alderman and
+they with him stirred not; though, as for Face-of-god, it was to him
+as if summer had come suddenly into the midst of winter, and for the
+very sweetness of delight his face grew pale.
+
+Then the new-comer drew nigh to the Alderman and said:
+
+'Hail to the Gate and the men of the Gate!  Hail to the kindred of
+the children of the Gods!'
+
+But the Alderman stood up and spake:  'And hail to thee, tall man!
+Fair greeting to thee and thy company!  Wilt thou name thyself with
+thine own name, or shall I call thee nought save Guest?  Welcome art
+thou, by whatsoever name thou wilt be called.  Here may'st thou and
+thy folk abide as long as ye will.'
+
+Said the new-comer:  'Thanks have thou for thy greeting and for thy
+bidding!  And that bidding shall we take, whatsoever may come of it;
+for we are minded to abide with thee for a while.  But know thou, O
+Alderman of the Dalesmen, that I am not sackless toward thee and
+thine.  My name is Folk-might of the Children of the Wolf, and this
+woman is the Sun-beam, my sister, and these behind me are of my
+kindred, and are well beloved and trusty.  We are no evil men or
+wrong-doers; yet have we been driven into sore straits, wherein men
+must needs at whiles do deeds that make their friends few and their
+foes many.  So it may be that I am thy foeman.  Yet, if thou doubtest
+of me that I shall be a baneful guest, thou shalt have our weapons of
+us, and then mayest thou do thy will upon us without dread; and here
+first of all is my sword!'
+
+Therewith he cast down the flowering branch he was bearing, and
+pulled his sword from out his sheath, and took it by the point, and
+held out the hilt to Iron-face.
+
+But the Alderman smiled kindly on him and said:
+
+'The blade is a good one, and I say it who know the craft of sword-
+forging; but I need it not, for thou seest I have a sword by my side.
+Keep your weapons, one and all; for ye have come amongst many and
+those no weaklings:  and if so be that thy guilt against us is so
+great that we must needs fall on you, ye will need all your war-gear.
+But hereof is no need to speak till the time of the Folk-mote, which
+will be holden in three days' wearing; so let us forbear this matter
+till then; for I deem we shall have enough to say of other matters.
+Now, Folk-might, sit down beside me, and thou also, Sun-beam, fairest
+of women.'
+
+Therewith he looked into her face and reddened, and said:
+
+'Yet belike thou hast a word of greeting for my son, Face-of-god,
+unless it be so that ye have not seen him before?'
+
+Then Face-of-god came forward, and took Folk-might by the hand and
+kissed him; and he stood before the Sun-beam and took her hand, and
+the world waxed a wonder to him as he kissed her cheeks; and in no
+wise did she change countenance, save that her eyes softened, and she
+gazed at him full kindly from the happiness of her soul.
+
+Then Face-of-god said:  'Welcome, Guests, who erewhile guested me so
+well:  now beginneth the day of your well-doing to the men of
+Burgdale; therefore will we do to you as well as we may.'
+
+Then Folk-might and the Sun-beam sat them down with the chieftains,
+one on either side of the Alderman, but Face-of-god passed forth to
+the others, and greeted them one by one:  of them was Wood-father and
+his three sons, and Bow-may; and they rejoiced exceedingly to see
+him, and Bow-may said:
+
+'Now it gladdens my heart to look upon thee alive and thriving, and
+to remember that day last winter when I met thee on the snow, and
+turned thee back from the perilous path to thy pleasure, which the
+Dusky Men were besetting, of whom thou knewest nought.  Yea, it was
+merry that tide; but this is better.  Nay, friend,' she said, 'it
+availeth thee nought to strive to look out of the back of thine head:
+let it be enough to thee that she is there.  Thou art now become a
+great chieftain, and she is no less; and this is a meeting of
+chieftains, and the folk are looking on and expecting demeanour of
+them as of the Gods; and she is not to be dealt with as if she were
+the daughter of some little goodman with whom one hath made tryst in
+the meadows.  There! hearken to me for a while; at least till I tell
+thee that thou seemest to me to hold thine head higher than when last
+I saw thee; though that is no long time either.  Hast thou been in
+battle again since that day?'
+
+'Nay,' he said, 'I have stricken no stroke since I slew two felons
+within the same hour that we parted.  And thou, sister, what hast
+thou done?'
+
+She said:  'The grey goose hath been on the wing thrice since that,
+bearing on it the bane of evil things.'
+
+Then said Wood-wise:  'Kinswoman, tell him of that battle, since thou
+art deft with thy tongue.'
+
+She said:  'Weary on battles! it is nought save this:  twelve days
+agone needs must every fighting-man of the Wolf, carle or of queen,
+wend away from Shadowy Vale, while those unmeet for battle we hid
+away in the caves at the nether end of the Dale:  but Sun-beam would
+not endure that night, and fared with us, though she handled no
+weapon.  All this we had to do because we had learned that a great
+company of the Dusky Men were over-nigh to our Dale, and needs must
+we fall upon them, lest they should learn too much, and spread the
+story.  Well, so wise was Folk-might that we came on them unawares by
+night and cloud at the edge of the Pine-wood, and but one of our men
+was slain, and of them not one escaped; and when the fight was over
+we counted four score and ten of their arm-rings.'
+
+He said:  'Did that or aught else come of our meeting with them that
+morning?'
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'nought came of it:  those we slew were but a
+straying band.  Nay, the four score and ten slain in the Pine-wood
+knew not of Shadowy Vale belike, and had no intent for it:  they were
+but scouring the wood seeking their warriors that had gone out from
+Silver-dale and came not aback.'
+
+'Thou art wise in war, Bow-may,' said Face-of-god, and he smiled
+withal.
+
+Bow-may reddened and said:  'Friend Gold-mane, dost thou perchance
+deem that there is aught ill in my warring?  And the Sun-beam, she
+naysayeth the bearing of weapons; though I deem that she hath little
+fear of them when they come her way.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Nay, I deem no ill of it, but much good.  For I
+suppose that thou hast learned overmuch of the wont of the Dusky Men,
+and hast seen their thralls?'
+
+She knitted her brows, and all the merriment went out of her face at
+that word, and she answered:  'Yea, thou hast it; for I have both
+seen their thralls and been in the Dale of thralldom; and how then
+can I do less than I do?  But for thee, I perceive that thou hast
+been nigh unto our foes and hast fallen in with their thralls; and
+that is well; for whatso tales we had told thee thereof it is like
+thou wouldst not have trowed in, as now thou must do, since thou
+thyself hast seen these poor folk.  But now I will tell thee, Gold-
+mane, that my soul is sick of these comings and goings for the
+slaughter of a few wretches; and I long for the Great Day of Battle,
+when it will be seen whether we shall live or die; and though I laugh
+and jest, yet doth the wearing of the days wear me.'
+
+He looked kindly on her and said:  'I am War-leader of this Folk, and
+trust me that the waiting-tide shall not be long; wherefore now,
+sister, be merry to-day, for that is but meet and right; and cast
+aside thy care, for presently shalt thou behold many new friends.
+But now meseemeth overlong have ye been standing before our Gate, and
+it is time that ye should see the inside of our Burg and the inside
+of our House.'
+
+Indeed by this time so many men had come out of the street that the
+place before the Gate was all thronged, and from where he stood Face-
+of-god could scarce see his father, or Folk-might and the Sun-beam
+and the chieftains.
+
+So he took Wood-father by the hand, and close behind him came Wood-
+wise and Bow-may, and he cried out for way that he might speak with
+the Alderman, and men gave way to them, and he led those new-comers
+close up to the gate-seats of the Elders, and as he clove the press
+smiling and bright-eyed and happy, all gazed on him; but the Sun-
+beam, who was sitting between Iron-face and the Westland Chapman, and
+who heretofore had been agaze with eyes beholding little, past whose
+ears the words went unheard, and whose mind wandered into thoughts of
+things unfashioned yet, when she beheld him close to her again, then,
+taken unawares, her eyes caressed him, and she turned as red as a
+rose, as she felt all the sweetness of desire go forth from her to
+meet him.  So that, he perceiving it, his voice was the clearer and
+sweeter for the inward joy he felt, as he said:
+
+'Alderman, meseemeth it is now time that we bring our Guests into the
+House of our Fathers; for since they are in warlike array, and we are
+no longer living in peace, and I am now War-leader of the Dale, I
+deem it but meet that I should have the guesting of them.  Moreover,
+when we are come into our House, I will bid thee look into thy
+treasury, that thou may'st find therein somewhat which it may
+pleasure us to give to our Guests.'
+
+Said Iron-face:  'Thou sayest well, son, and since the day is now
+worn past noon, and these folk are but just come from the Waste,
+therefore such as we have of meat and drink abideth them.  And surely
+there is within our house a coffer which belongeth to thee and me;
+and forsooth I know not why we keep the treasures hoarded therein,
+save that it be for this cause:  that if we were to give to our
+friends that which we ourselves use and love, which would be of all
+things pleasant to us, if we gave them such goods, they would be worn
+and worsened by our use of them.  For this reason, therefore, do we
+keep fair things which we use not, so that we may give them to our
+friends.
+
+'Now, Guests, both of the Waste and the Westland, since here is no
+Gate-thing or meeting of the Dale-wardens, and we sit here but for
+our pleasure, let us go take our pleasure within doors for a while,
+if it seem good to you.'
+
+Therewith he arose, and the folk made way for him and his Guests; and
+Folk-might went on the right hand of Iron-face, and beside him went
+the Chapman, who looked on him with a half-smile, as though he knew
+somewhat of him.  But on the other side of Iron-face went the Sun-
+beam, whose hand he held, and after these came Face-of-god, leading
+in the rest of the New-comers, who yet held the flowery branches in
+their hands.
+
+Now so much had Face-of-god told the Dalesmen, that they deemed they
+all knew these men for their battle-fellows of whom they had heard
+tell; and this the more as the men were so goodly and manly of
+aspect, especially Folk-might, so that they seemed as if they were
+nigh akin to the Gods.  As for the Sun-beam, they knew not how to
+praise her beauty enough, but they said that they had never known
+before how fair the Gods might be.  So they raised a great shout of
+welcome as the men came through the Gate into the Burg, and all men
+turned their backs on the booths, so eager were they to behold
+closely these new friends.
+
+But as the Guests went from the Gate to the House of the Face, going
+very slowly because of the press, there in the front of the throng
+stood the Bride with the women of the Runaways, whom she had caused
+to be clad very fairly; and she was fain to do them a pleasure by
+bringing them to sight of these new-comers, of whom she had not heard
+who they were, though she had heard the cry that strangers were at
+hand.  So there she stood smiling a little with the pleasure of
+showing a fair sight to the poor people, as folk do with children.
+But when she saw those twain going on each side of the Alderman she
+knew them at once; and when the Sun-beam, who was on his left side,
+passed so close to her that she could see the very smoothness and
+dainty fashion of her skin, then was she astonied, and the world
+seemed strange to her, and till they were gone by, and for a while
+afterwards, she knew not where she was nor what she did, though it
+seemed to her as if she still saw the face of that fair woman as in a
+picture.
+
+But the Sun-beam had noted her at first, even amongst the fair women
+of Burgstead, and she so steady and bright beside the wandering
+timorous eyes and lowering faces of the thralls.  But suddenly, as
+eye met eye, she saw her face change; she saw her cheek whiten, her
+eyes stare, and her lips quiver, and she knew at once who it was; for
+she had not seen her before as Folk-might had.  Then the Sun-beam
+cast her eyes adown, lest her compassion might show in her face, and
+be a fresh grief to her that had lost the wedding and the love; and
+so she passed on.
+
+As for Folk-might, he had seen her at once amongst all that folk as
+he came into the street, and in sooth he was looking for her; and
+when he saw her face change, as the sight of the Sun-beam smote upon
+her heart, his own face burned with shame and anger, and he looked
+back at her as he went toward the House.  But she saw him not, nor
+noted him; and none deemed it strange that he looked long on the
+Bride, the treasure of Burgstead.  But for some while Folk-might was
+few-spoken and sharp-spoken amongst the chieftains; for he was slow
+to master his longing and his wrath.
+
+So when all the Guests had entered the door of the House of the Face,
+the Alderman turned back, and, standing on the threshold of his
+House, spake unto the throng:
+
+'Men of the Dale, and ye Outlanders who may be here, know that this
+is a happy day; for hither have come to us Guests, men of the kindred
+of the Gods, and they are even those of whom Face-of-god my son hath
+told you.  And they are friends of our friends and foes of our foes.
+These men are now in my House, as is but right; but when they come
+forth I look to you to cherish them in the best way ye know, and make
+much of them, as of those who may help us and who may by us be
+holpen.'
+
+Therewith he went in again and into the Hall, and bade show the New-
+comers to the dais; and wine of the best, and meat such as was to
+hand, was set before them.  He bade men also get ready high feast as
+great as might be against the evening; and they did his bidding
+straightway.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.  THE ALDERMAN GIVES GIFTS TO THEM OF SHADOWY VALE
+
+
+
+In the Hall of the Face Folk-might sat on the dais at the right hand
+of the Alderman, and the Sun-beam on his left hand.  But Iron-face
+also had beheld the Bride how her face changed, and he knew the
+cause, and was grieved and angry and ashamed thereof:  also he
+bethought him how this stranger was sitting in the very place where
+the Bride used to sit, and of all the love, as of a very daughter,
+that he had had for her; howbeit he constrained himself to talk
+courteously and kindly both to Folk-might and
+
+the Sun-beam, as behoved the Chief of the House and the Alderman of
+the Dale.  Moreover, he was not a little moved by the goodliness and
+wisdom of the Sun-beam and the manliness of Folk-might, who was the
+most chieftain-like of men.
+
+But while they sat there Face-of-god went from man to man of the
+Guests, and made much of each, but especially of Wood-father and his
+sons and Bow-may, and they loved him, and praised him, and deemed him
+the best of hall-mates.  Nor might the Sun-beam altogether refrain
+her from looking lovingly on him, and it could be seen of her that
+she deemed he was doing well, and like a wise leader and chieftain.
+
+So wore away awhile, and men were fulfilled of meat and drink; so
+then the Alderman arose and spake, and said:
+
+'Is it not so, Guests, that ye would now gladly behold our market,
+and the goodly wares which the chapmen have brought us from the
+Cities?'
+
+Then most men cried out:  'Yea, yea!' and Iron-face said:
+
+'Then shall ye go, nor be holden by me from your pleasure.  And ye
+kinsmen who are the most guest-fain and the wisest, go ye with our
+friends, and make all things easy and happy for them.  But first of
+all, Guests, I were well pleased if ye would take some small matters
+out of our abundance; for it were well that ye see them ere ye stand
+before the chapmen's booths, lest ye chaffer with them for what ye
+have already.'
+
+They all praised his bounty and thanked him for his goodwill:  so he
+arose to go to his treasury, and bade certain of his folk go along
+with him to bear in the gifts.  But ere he had taken three steps down
+the hall, Face-of-god prevented him and said:
+
+'Kinsman, if thou hast anywhere a hauberk somewhat better than folk
+are wont to bear, such as thine own hand fashioneth, and a sword of
+the like stuff, I would have thee give them, the sword to my brother-
+in-arms Wood-wise here, and the war-coat to my sister Bow-may, who
+shooteth so well in the bow that none may shoot closer, and very few
+as close; and her shaft it was that delivered me when my skull was
+amongst the axes of the Dusky Men:  else had I not been here.'
+
+Thereat Bow-may reddened and looked down, like a scholar who hath
+been over-praised for his learning and diligence; but the Alderman
+smiled on her and said:
+
+'I thank thee, son, that thou hast let me know what these our two
+friends may be fain of:  and as for this damsel-at-arms, it is a
+little thing that thou askest for her, and we might have found her
+something more worthy of her goodliness; yet forsooth, since we are
+all bound for the place where shafts and staves shall be good cheap,
+a greater treasure might be of less avail to her.'
+
+Thereat men laughed, and the Alderman went down the Hall with those
+bearers of gifts, and was away for a space while they drank and made
+merry:  but presently back they came from the treasury bearing loads
+of goodly things which were laid on one of the endlong boards.  Then
+began the gift-giving:  and first he gave unto Folk-might six golden
+cups marvellously fashioned, the work of four generations of wrights
+in the Dale, and he himself had wrought the last two thereof.  To
+Sun-beam he gave a girdle of gold, fashioned with great mastery,
+whereon were images of the Gods and the Fathers, and warriors, and
+beasts of the field and fowls of the air; and as he girt it about her
+loins, he said in a soft voice so that few heard:
+
+'Sun-beam, thou fair woman, time has been when thou wert to us as the
+edge of the poisonous sword or the midnight torch of the murderer;
+but now I know not how it will be, or if the grief which thou hast
+given me will ever wear out or not.  And now that I have beheld thee,
+I have little to do to blame my son; for indeed when I look on thee I
+cannot deem that there is any evil in thee.  Yea, however it may be,
+take thou this gift as the reward of thine exceeding beauty.'
+
+She looked on him with kind eyes, and said meekly:
+
+'Indeed, if I have hurt thee unwittingly, I grieve to have hurt so
+good a man.  Hereafter belike we may talk more of this, but now I
+will but say, that whereas at first I needed but to win thy son's
+goodwill, so that our Folk might come to life and thriving again, now
+it is come to this, that he holdeth my heart in his hand and may do
+what he will with it; therefore I pray thee withhold not thy love
+either from him or from me.'
+
+He looked on her wondering, and said:  'Thou art such an one as might
+make the old man young, and the boy grow into manhood suddenly; and
+thy voice is as sweet as the voice of the song-birds singing in the
+dawn of early summer soundeth to him who hath been sick unto death,
+but who hath escaped it and is mending.  And yet I fear thee.'
+
+Therewith he kissed her hand and turned unto the others, and he gave
+unto Bow-may a hauberk of ring-mail of his own fashioning, a sure
+defence and a wonderful work, and the collar thereof was done with
+gold and gems.
+
+But he said to her:  'Fair damsel-at-arms, faithful is thy face, and
+the fashion of thee is goodly:  now art thou become one of the best
+of our friends, and this is little enough to give thee; yet would we
+fain ward thy body against the foeman; so grieve us not by gainsaying
+us.'
+
+And Bow-may was exceeding glad, and scarce knew how to cease handling
+that marvel of ring-mail.
+
+Then to Wood-wise Iron-face gave a most goodly sword, the blade all
+marked with dark lines like the stream of an eddying river, the hilts
+of steel and gold marvellously wrought; and all the work of a smith
+who had dwelt in the house of his father's father, and was a great
+warrior.
+
+Unto Wood-father he gave a very goodly helm parcel-gilded; and to his
+sons and the other folk fair gifts of weapons and jewels and girdles
+and cups and other good things; so that their hearts were full of
+joy, and they all praised his open hand.
+
+Then some of the best and merriest of the kinsmen of the Face, and
+Face-of-god with them, brought the Guests out into the street and
+among the booths.  There Face-of-god beheld the Bride again; and she
+was standing by the booth of a chapman and dealing with him for a
+piece of goodly silken cloth to be a gown for one of her guests, and
+she was talking and smiling as she chaffered with him, as her wont
+was; for she was ever very friendly of demeanour with all men.  But
+he noted that she was yet exceeding pale, and he was right sorry
+thereof, for he loved her friendly; yet now had he no shame for all
+that had befallen, when he bethought him of the Sun-beam and the love
+she had for him.  And also he had a deeming that the Bride would
+better of her grief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.  THE CHIEFTAINS TAKE COUNSEL IN THE HALL OF THE FACE
+
+
+
+Then turned Face-of-god back into the Hall, and saw where Iron-face
+sat at the dais, and with him Folk-might and Stone-face and the Elder
+of the Dale-wardens, and Sun-beam withal; so he went soberly up to
+the board, and sat himself down thereat beside Stone-face, over
+against Folk-might and his father, beside whom sat the Sun-beam; and
+Folk-might looked on him gravely, as a man powerful and trustworthy,
+yet was his look somewhat sour.
+
+Then the Alderman said:  'My son, I said not to thee come back
+presently, because I wotted that thou wouldst surely do so, knowing
+that we have much to speak of.  For, whatever these thy friends may
+have done, or whatsoever thou hast done with them to grieve us, all
+that must be set aside at this present time, since the matter in hand
+is to save the Dale and its folk.  What sayest thou hereon?  Since,
+young as thou mayst be, thou art our War-leader, and doubtless shalt
+so be after the Folk-mote hath been holden.'
+
+Face-of-god answered not hastily:  indeed, as he sat thinking for a
+minute or two, the fair spring day seemed to darken about them or to
+glare into the light of flames amidst the night-tide; and the joyous
+clamour without doors seemed to grow hoarse and fearful as the sound
+of wailing and shrieking.  But he spake firmly and simply in a clear
+voice, and said:
+
+'There can be no two words concerning what we have to aim at; these
+Dusky Men we must slay everyone, though we be fewer than they be.'
+
+Folk-might smiled and nodded his head; but the others sat staring
+down the hall or into the hangings.
+
+Then spake Folk-might:  'Thou wert a boy methought when I cast my
+spear at thee last autumn, Face-of-god, but now hast thou grown into
+a man.  Now tell me, what deemest thou we must do to slay them all?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Once again it is clear that we must fall upon
+them at home in Rose-dale and Silver-dale.'
+
+Again Folk-might nodded:  but Iron-face said:
+
+'Needeth this?  May we not ward the Dale and send many bands into the
+wood to fall upon them when we meet them?  Yea, and so doing these
+our guests have already slain many, as this valiant man hath told me
+e'en now.  Will ye not slay so many at last, that they shall learn to
+fear us, and abide at home and leave us at peace?'
+
+But Face-of-god said:  'Meseemeth, father, that this is not thy rede,
+and that thou sayest this but to try me:  and perchance ye have been
+talking about me when I was without in the street e'en now.  Even if
+it might be that we should thus cow these felons into abiding at home
+and tormenting their own thralls at their ease, yet how then are our
+friends of the Wolf holpen to their own again?  And I shall tell thee
+that I have promised to this man and this woman that I will give them
+no less than a man's help in this matter.  Moreover, I have spoken in
+every house of the Dale, and to the Shepherds and the Woodlanders,
+and there is no man amongst them but will follow me in the quarrel.
+Furthermore, they have heard of the thralldom that is done on men no
+great way from their own houses; yea, they have seen it; and they
+remember the old saw, "Grief in thy neighbour's hall is grief in thy
+garth," and sure it is, father, that whether thou or I gainsay them,
+go they will to deliver the thralls of the Dusky Men, and will leave
+us alone in the Dale.'
+
+'This is no less than sooth,' said the Dale-warden, 'never have men
+gone forth more joyously to a merry-making than all men of us shall
+wend to this war.'
+
+'But,' said Face-of-god, 'of one thing ye may be sure, that these men
+will not abide our pleasure till we cut them all off in scattered
+bands, nor will they sit deedless at home.  Nor indeed may they; for
+we have heard from their thralls that they look to have fresh tribes
+of them come to hand to eat their meat and waste their servants, and
+these and they must find new abodes and new thralls; and they are now
+warned by the overthrows and slayings that they have had at our hands
+that we are astir, and they will not delay long, but will fall upon
+us with all their host; it might even be to-day or to-morrow.'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'In all this thou sayest sooth, brother of the
+Dale; and to cut this matter short, I will tell you all, that
+yesterday we had with us a runaway from Silver-dale (it is overlong
+to tell how we fell in with her; for it was a woman).  But she told
+us that this very moon is a new tribe come into the Dale, six long
+hundreds in number, and twice as many more are looked for in two
+eights of days, and that ere this moon hath waned, that is, in
+twenty-four days, they will wend their ways straight for Burgdale,
+for they know the ways thereto.  So I say that Face-of-god is right
+in all wise.  But tell me, brother, hast thou thought of how we shall
+come upon these men?'
+
+'How many men wilt thou lead into battle?' said Face-of-god.
+
+Folk-might reddened, and said:  'A few, a few; maybe two-hundreds all
+told.'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, 'but some special gain wilt thou be to us.'
+
+'So I deem at least,' said Folk-might.
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Good is that.  Now have we held our Weapon-show
+in the Dale, and we find that we together with you be sixteen long
+hundreds of men; and the tale of the foemen that be now in Silver-
+dale, new-comers and all, shall be three thousands or thereabout, and
+in Rose-dale hard on a thousand.'
+
+'Scarce so many,' said Folk-might; 'some of the felons have died; we
+told over our silver arm-rings yesterday, and the tale was three
+hundred and eighty and six.  Besides, they were never so many as thou
+deemest.'
+
+'Well,' said Face-of-god, 'yet at least they shall outnumber us
+sorely.  We may scarce leave the Dale unguarded when our host is
+gone; therefore I deem that we shall have but one thousand of men for
+our onslaught on Silver-dale.'
+
+'How come ye to that?' said Stone-face.
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Abide a while, fosterer!  Though the odds between
+us be great, it is not to be hidden that I wot how ye of the Wolf
+know of privy passes into Silver-dale; yea, into the heart thereof;
+and this is the special gain ye have to give us.  Therefore we, the
+thousand men, falling on the foe unawares, shall make a great
+slaughter of them; and if the murder be but grim enough, those
+thralls of theirs shall fear us and not them, as already they hate
+them and not us, so that we may look to them for rooting out these
+sorry weeds after the overthrow.  And what with one thing, what with
+another, we may cherish a good hope of clearing Silver-dale at one
+stroke with the said thousand men.
+
+'There remaineth Rose-dale, which will be easier to deal with,
+because the Dusky Men therein are fewer and the thralls as many:
+that also would I fall on at the same time as we fall on Silver-dale
+with the men that are left over from the Silver-dale onslaught.
+Wherefore my rede is, that we gather all those unmeet for battle in
+the field into this Burg, with ten tens of men to strengthen them;
+which shall be enough for them, along with the old men, and lads, and
+sturdy women, to defend themselves till help comes, if aught of evil
+befall, or to flee into the mountains, or at the worst to die
+valiantly.  Then let the other five hundreds fare up to Rose-dale,
+and fall on the Dusky Men therein about the same time, but not before
+our onslaught on Silver-dale:  thus shall hand help foot, so that
+stumbling be not falling; and we may well hope that our rede shall
+thrive.'
+
+Then was he silent, and the Sun-beam looked upon him with gleaming
+eyes and parted lips, waiting eagerly to hear what Folk-might would
+say.  He held his peace a while, drumming on the board with his
+fingers, and none else spake a word.  At last he said:
+
+'War-leader of Burgdale, all that thou hast spoken likes me well, and
+even so must it be done, saving that parting of our host and sending
+one part to fall upon Rose-dale.  I say, nay; let us put all our
+might into that one stroke on Silver-dale, and then we are undone
+indeed if we fail; but so shall we be if we fail anywise; but if we
+win Silver-dale, then shall Rose-dale lie open before us.'
+
+'My brother,' said Face-of-god, 'thou art a tried warrior, and I but
+a lad:  but dost thou not see this, that whatever we do, we shall not
+at one onslaught slay all the Dusky Men of Silver-dale, and those
+that flee before us shall betake them to Rose-dale, and tell all the
+tale, and what shall hinder them then from falling on Burgdale (since
+they are no great way from it) after they have murdered what they
+will of the unhappy people under their hands?'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'I say not but that there is a risk thereof, but in
+war we must needs run such risks, and all should be risked rather
+than that our blow on Silver-dale be light.  For we be the fewer; and
+if the foemen have time to call that to mind, then are we all lost.'
+
+Said Stone-face:  'Meseemeth, War-leader, that there is nought much
+to dread in leaving Rose-dale to itself for a while; for not only may
+we follow hard on the fleers if they flee to Rose-dale, and be there
+no long time after them, before they have time to stir their host but
+also after the overthrow we shall be free to send men back to
+Burgdale by way of Shadowy Vale.  I deem that herein Folk-might hath
+the right of it.'
+
+'Even so say I,' said the Alderman; 'besides, we might theft leave
+more folk behind us for the warding of the Dale.  So, son, the risk
+whereof thou speakest groweth the lesser the longer it is looked on.'
+
+Then spake the Dale-warden:  'Yet saving your wisdom, Alderman, the
+risk is there yet.  For if these felons come into the Dale at all,
+even if the folk left behind hold the Burg and keep themselves
+unmurdered, yet may they not hinder the foe from spoiling our
+homesteads; so that our folk coming back in triumph shall find ruin
+at home, and spend weary days in hunting their foemen, who shall,
+many of them, escape into the Wild-wood.'
+
+'Yea,' said the Sun-beam, 'sooth is that; and Face-of-god is wise to
+think of it and of other matters.  Yet one thing we must bear in
+mind, that all may not go smoothly in our day's work in Silver-dale;
+so we must have force there to fall back on, in case we miss our
+stroke at first.  Therefore, I say, send we no man to Rose-dale, and
+leave we no able man-at-arms behind in the Burg, so that we have with
+us every blade that may be gathered.'
+
+Iron-face smiled and said:  'Thou art wise, damsel; and I marvel that
+so fair-fashioned a thing as thou can think so hardly of the meeting
+of the fallow blades.  But hearken! will not the Dusky Men hear that
+we have stripped the Dale of fighting-men, and may they not then give
+our host the go-by and send folk to ruin us?'
+
+There was silence while Face-of-god looked down on the board; but
+presently he lifted up his face and said:
+
+'Folk-might was right when he said that all must be risked.  Let us
+leave Rose-dale till we have overcome them of Silver-dale.  Moreover,
+my father, thou must not deem of these felons as if they were of like
+wits to us, to forecast the deeds to come, and weigh the chances
+nicely, and unravel tangled clews.  Rather they move like to the
+stares in autumn, or the winter wild-geese, and will all be thrust
+forward by some sting that entereth into their imaginations.
+Therefore, if they have appointed one moon to wear before they fall
+upon us, they will not stir till then, and we have time enough to do
+what must be done.  Wherefore am I now of one mind with the rest of
+you.  Now meseemeth it were well that these things which we have
+spoken here, and shall speak, should not be noised abroad openly;
+nay, at the Folk-mote it would be well that nought be said about the
+day or the way of our onslaught on Silver-dale, lest the foe take
+warning and be on their guard.  Though, sooth to say, did I deem that
+if they had word of our intent they of Rose-dale would join
+themselves to them of Silver-dale, and that we should thus have all
+our foes in one net, then were I fain if the word would reach them.
+For my soul loathes the hunting that shall befall up and down the
+wood for the slaying of a man here, and two or three there, and the
+wearing of the days in wandering up and down with weapons in the
+hand, and the spinning out of hatred and delaying of peace.'
+
+Then Iron-face reached his hand across the board and took his son's
+hand, and said:
+
+'Hail to thee, son, for thy word!  Herein thou speakest as if from my
+very soul, and fain am I of such a War-leader.'
+
+And desire drew the eyes of the Sun-beam to Face-of-god, and she
+beheld him proudly.  But he said:
+
+'All hath been spoken that the others of us may speak; and now it
+falleth to the part of Folk-might to order our goings for the tryst
+for the onslaught, and the trysting-place shall be in Shadowy Vale.
+How sayest thou, Chief of the Wolf?'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'I have little to say; and it is for the War-leader
+to see to this closely and piecemeal.  I deem, as we all deem, that
+there should be no delay; yet were it best to wend not all together
+to Shadowy Vale, but in divers bands, as soon as ye may after the
+Folk-mote, by the sure and nigh ways that we shall show you.  And
+when we are gathered there, short is the rede, for all is ready there
+to wend by the passes which we know throughly, and whereby it is but
+two days' journey to the head of Silver-dale, nigh to the caves of
+the silver, where the felons dwell the thickest.'
+
+He set his teeth, and his colour came and went:  for as constantly as
+the onslaught had been in his mind, yet whenever he spake of the
+great day of battle, hope and joy and anger wrought a tumult in his
+soul; and now that it was so nigh withal, he could not refrain his
+joy.
+
+But he spake again:  'Now therefore, War-leader, it is for thee to
+order the goings of thy folk.  But I will tell thee that they shall
+not need to take aught with them save their weapons and victual for
+the way, that is, for thirty hours; because all is ready for them in
+Shadowy Vale, though it be but a poor place as to victual.  Canst
+thou tell us, therefore, what thou wilt do?'
+
+Face-of-god had knit his brows and become gloomy of countenance; but
+now his face cleared, and he set his hand to his pouch, and drew
+forth a written parchment, and said:
+
+'This is the order whereof I have bethought me.  Before the Folk-mote
+I and the Wardens shall speak to the leaders of hundreds, who be
+mostly here at the Fair, and give them the day and the hour whereon
+they shall, each hundred, take their weapons and wend to Shadowy
+Vale, and also the place where they shall meet the men of yours who
+shall lead them across the Waste.  These hundred-leaders shall then
+go straightway and give the word to the captains of scores, and the
+captains of scores to the captains of tens; and if, as is scarce
+doubtful, the Folk-mote yea-says the onslaught and the fellowship
+with you of the Wolf, then shall those leaders of tens bring their
+men to the trysting-place, and so go their ways to Shadowy Vale.  Now
+here I have the roll of our Weapon-show, and I will look to it that
+none shall be passed over; and if ye ask me in what order they had
+best get on the way, my rede is that a two hundred should depart on
+the very evening of the day of the Folk-mote, and these to be of our
+folk of the Upper Dale; and on the morning of the morrow of the Folk-
+mote another two hundreds from the Dale; and in the evening of the
+same day the folk of the Shepherds, three hundreds or more, and that
+will be easy to them; again on the next day two more bands of the
+Lower Dale, one in the morning, one in the evening.  Lastly, in the
+earliest dawn of the third day from the Folk-mote shall the
+Woodlanders wend their ways.  But one hundred of men let us leave
+behind for the warding of the Burg, even as we agreed before.  As for
+the place of tryst for the faring over the Waste, let it be the end
+of the knolls just by the jaws of the pass yonder, where the
+Weltering Water comes into the Dale from the East.  How say ye?'
+
+They all said, and Folk-might especially, that it was right well
+devised, and that thus it should be done.
+
+Then turned Face-of-god to the Dale-warden, and said:
+
+'It were good, brother, that we saw the other wardens as soon as may
+be, to do them to wit of this order, and what they have to do.'
+
+Therewith he arose and took the Elder of the Dale-wardens away with
+him, and the twain set about their business straight-way.  Neither
+did the others abide long in the Hall, but went out into the Burg to
+see the chapmen and their wares.  There the Alderman bought what he
+needed of iron and steel and other matters; and Folk-might cheapened
+him a dagger curiously wrought, and a web of gold and silk for the
+Sun-beam, for which wares he paid in silver arm-rings, new-wrought
+and of strange fashion.
+
+But amidst of the chaffer was now a great ring of men; and in the
+midst of the ring stood Redesman, fiddle and bow in hand, and with
+him were four damsels wondrously arrayed; for the first was clad in a
+smock so craftily wrought with threads of green and many colours,
+that it seemed like a piece of the green field beset with primroses
+and cowslips and harebells and windflowers, rather than a garment
+woven and sewn; and in her hand she bore a naked sword, with golden
+hilts and gleaming blade.  But the second bore on her roses done in
+like manner, both blossoms and green leaves, wherewith her body was
+covered decently, which else had been naked.  The third was clad as
+though she were wading the wheat-field to the waist, and above was
+wrapped in the leaves and bunches of the wine-tree.  And the fourth
+was clad in a scarlet gown flecked with white wool to set forth the
+winter's snow, and broidered over with the burning brands of the Holy
+Hearth; and she bore on her head a garland of mistletoe.  And these
+four damsels were clearly seen to image the four seasons of the year-
+-Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.  But amidst them stood a
+fountain or conduit of gilded work cunningly wrought, and full of the
+best wine of the Dale, and gilded cups and beakers hung about it.
+
+So now Redesman fell to caressing his fiddle with the bow till it
+began to make sweet music, and therewith the hearts of all danced
+with it; and presently words come into his mouth, and he fell to
+singing; and the damsels answered him:
+
+
+Earth-wielders, that fashion the Dale-dwellers' treasure,
+   Soft are ye by seeming, yet hardy of heart!
+No warrior amongst us withstandeth your pleasure;
+   No man from his meadow may thrust you apart.
+
+Fresh and fair are your bodies, but far beyond telling
+   Are the years of your lives, and the craft ye have stored.
+Come give us a word, then, concerning our dwelling,
+   And the days to befall us, the fruit of the sword.
+
+Winter saith:
+
+When last in the feast-hall the Yule-fire flickered,
+   The foot of no foeman fared over the snow,
+And nought but the wind with the ash-branches bickered:
+   Next Yule ye may deem it a long time ago.
+
+Autumn saith:
+
+Loud laughed ye last year in the wheat-field a-smiting;
+   And ye laughed as your backs drave the beam of the press.
+When the edge of the war-sword the acres are lighting
+   Look up to the Banner and laugh ye no less.
+
+Summer saith:
+
+Ye called and I came, and how good was the greeting,
+   When ye wrapped me in roses both bosom and side!
+Here yet shall I long, and be fain of our meeting,
+   As hidden from battle your coming I bide.
+
+Spring saith:
+
+I am here for your comfort, and lo! what I carry;
+   The blade with the bright edges bared to the sun.
+To the field, to the work then, that e'en I may tarry
+   For the end of the tale in my first days begun!
+
+
+Therewith the throng opened, and a young man stepped lightly into the
+ring, clad in very fair armour, with a gilded helm on his head; and
+he took the sword from the hand of the Maiden of Spring, and waved it
+in the air till the westering sun flashed back from it.  Then each of
+the four damsels went up to the swain and kissed his mouth; and
+Redesman drew the bow across the strings, and the four damsels sang
+together, standing round about the young warrior:
+
+
+It was but a while since for earth's sake we trembled,
+   Lest the increase our life-days had won for the Dale,
+All the wealth that the moons and the years had assembled,
+   Should be but a mock for the days of your bale.
+
+But now we behold the sun smite on the token
+   In the hand of the Champion, the heart of a man;
+We look down the long years and see them unbroken;
+   Forth fareth the Folk by the ways it began.
+
+So bid ye these chapmen in autumn returning,
+   To bring iron for ploughshares and steel for the scythe,
+And the over-sea oil that hath felt the sun's burning,
+   And fair webs for your women soft-spoken and blithe;
+
+And pledge ye your word in the market to meet them,
+   As many a man and as many a maid,
+As eager as ever, as guest-fain to greet them,
+   And bide till the booth from the waggon is made.
+
+Come, guests of our lovers! for we, the year-wielders,
+   Bid each man and all to come hither and take
+A cup from our hands midst the peace of our shielders,
+   And drink to the days of the Dale that we make.
+
+
+Then went the damsels to that wine-fountain, and drew thence cups of
+the best and brightest wine of the Dale, and went round about the
+ring, and gave drink to whomsoever would, both of the chapmen and the
+others; while the weaponed youth stood in the midst bearing aloft his
+sword and shield like an image in a holy place, and Redesman's bow
+still went up and down the strings, and drew forth a sweet and merry
+tune.
+
+Great game it was now to see the stark Burgdale carles dragging the
+Men of the Plain, little loth, up to the front of the ring, that they
+might stretch out their hands for a cup, and how many a one, as he
+took it, took as much as he might of the damsel's hand withal.  As
+for the damsels, they played the Holy Play very daintily, neither
+reddening nor laughing, but faring so solemnly, and withal so sweetly
+and bright-faced, that it might well have been deemed that they were
+in very sooth Maidens of the God of Earth sent from the ever-enduring
+Hall to cheer the hearts of men.
+
+So simply and blithely did the Men of Burgdale disport them after the
+manner of their fathers, trusting in their valour and beholding the
+good days to be.
+
+So wore the evening, and when night was come, men feasted throughout
+the Burg from house to house, and every hall was full.  But the
+Guests from Shadowy Vale feasted in the Hall of the Face in all glee
+and goodwill; and with them were the chief of the chapmen and two
+others; but the rest of them had been laid hold of by goodmen of the
+Burg, and dragged into their feast-halls, for they were fain of those
+guests and their tales.  One of the chapmen in the House of the Face
+knew Folk-might, and hailed him by the name he had borne in the
+Cities, Regulus to wit; indeed, the chief chapman knew him, and even
+somewhat over-well, for he had been held to ransom by Folk-might in
+those past days, and even yet feared him, because he, the chapman,
+had played somewhat of a dastard's part to him.  But the other was an
+open-hearted and merry fellow, and no weakling; and Folk-might was
+fain of his talk concerning times bygone, and the fields they had
+foughten in, and other adventures that had befallen them, both good
+and evil.
+
+As for Face-of-god, he went about the Hall soberly, and spake no more
+than behoved him, so as not to seem a mar-feast; for the image of the
+slaughter to be yet abode with him, and his heart foreboded the
+after-grief of the battle.  He had no speech with the Sun-beam till
+men were sundering after the feast, and then he came close to her
+amidst of the turmoil, and said:
+
+'Time presses on me these days; but if thou wouldest speak with me
+to-morrow as I would with thee, then mightest thou go on the Bridge
+of the Burg about sunrise, and I will be there, and we two only.'
+
+Her face, which had been somewhat sad that evening (for she had been
+watching his), brightened at that word, and she took his hand as folk
+came thronging round about them, and said:
+
+'Yea, friend, I shall be there, and fain of thee.'  And therewithal
+they sundered for that night.
+
+And all men went to sleep throughout the Burg:  howbeit they set a
+watch at the Burg-Gate; and Hall-face, when he was coming back from
+the woodland ward about sunset, fell in with Redcoat of Waterless and
+four score men on the Portway coming to meet him and take his place.
+All which was clean contrary to the wont of the Burgdalers, who at
+most whiles held no watch and ward, not even in Fair-time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.  FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE SUN-BEAM
+
+
+
+Face-of-God was at the Bridge on the morrow before sun-rising, and as
+he turned about at the Bridge-foot he saw the Sun-beam coming down
+the street; and his heart rose to his mouth at the sight of her, and
+he went to meet her and took her by the hand; and there were no words
+between them till they had kissed and caressed each other, for there
+was no one stirring about them.  So they went over the Bridge into
+the meadows, and eastward of the beaten path thereover.
+
+The grass was growing thick and strong, and it was full of flowers,
+as the cowslip and the oxlip, and the chequered daffodil, and the
+wild tulip:  the black-thorn was well-nigh done blooming, but the
+hawthorn was in bud, and in some places growing white.  It was a fair
+morning, warm and cloudless, but the night had been misty, and the
+haze still hung about the meadows of the Dale where they were
+wettest, and the grass and its flowers were heavy with dew, so that
+the Sun-beam went barefoot in the meadow.  She had a dark cloak cast
+over her kirtle, and had left her glittering gown behind her in the
+House.
+
+They went along hand in hand exceeding fain of each other, and the
+sun rose as they went, and the long beams of gold shone through the
+tops of the tall trees across the grass they trod, and a light wind
+rose up in the north, as Face-of-god stayed a moment and turned
+toward the Face of the Sun and prayed to Him, while the Sun-beam's
+hand left the War-leader's hand and stole up to his golden locks and
+lay amongst them.
+
+Presently they went on, and the feet of Face-of-god led him unwitting
+toward the chestnut grove by the old dyke where he had met the Bride
+such a little while ago, till he bethought whither he was going and
+stopped short and reddened; and the Sun-beam noted it, but spake not;
+but he said:  'Hereby is a fair place for us to sit and talk till the
+day's work beginneth.'
+
+So then he turned aside, and soon they came to a hawthorn brake out
+of which arose a great tall-stemmed oak, showing no green as yet save
+a little on its lower twigs; and anigh it, yet with room for its
+boughs to grow freely, was a great bird-cherry tree, all covered now
+with sweet-smelling white blossoms.  There they sat down on the trunk
+of a tree felled last year, and she cast off her cloak, and took his
+face between her two hands and kissed him long and fondly, and for a
+while their joy had no word.  But when speech came to them, it was
+she that spake first and said:
+
+'Gold-mane, my dear, sorely I wonder at thee and at me, how we are
+changed since that day last autumn when I first saw thee.  Whiles I
+think, didst thou not laugh when thou wert by thyself that day, and
+mock at me privily, that I must needs take such wisdom on myself, and
+lesson thee standing like a stripling before me.  Dost thou not call
+it all to mind and make merry over it, now that thou art become a
+great chieftain and a wise warrior, and I am yet what I always was, a
+young maiden of the kindred; save that now I abide no longer for my
+love?'
+
+Her face was exceeding bright and rippled with joyous smiles, and he
+looked at her and deemed that her heart was overflowing with
+happiness, and he wondered at her indeed that she was so glad of him,
+and he said:
+
+'Yea, indeed, oft do I see that morning in the woodland hall and thee
+and me therein, as one looketh on a picture; yea verily, and I laugh,
+yet is it for very bliss; neither do I mock at all.  Did I not deem
+thee a God then? and am I not most happy now when I can call it thus
+to mind?  And as to thee, thou wert wise then, and yet art thou wise
+now.  Yea, I thought thee a God; and if we are changed, is it not
+rather that thou hast lifted me up to thee, and not come down to me?'
+
+Yet therewithal he knit his brows somewhat and said:
+
+'Yet thou hast not to tell me that all thy love for thy Folk, and thy
+yearning hope for its recoverance, was but a painted show.  Else why
+shouldst thou love me the better now that I am become a chieftain,
+and therefore am more meet to understand thy hope and thy sorrow?
+Did I not behold thee as we stood before the Wolf of the Hall of
+Shadowy Vale, how the tears stood in thine eyes as thou beheldest
+him, and thine hand in mine quivered and clung to me, and thou wert
+all changed in a moment of time?  Was all this then but a seeming and
+a beguilement?'
+
+'O young man,' she said, 'hast thou not said it, that we stood there
+close together, and my hand in thine and desire growing up in me?
+Dost thou not know how this also quickeneth the story of our Folk,
+and our goodwill towards the living, and remembrance of the dead?
+Shall they have lived and desired, and we deny desire and life?  Or
+tell me:  what was it made thee so chieftain-like in the Hall
+yesterday, so that thou wert the master of all our wills, for as
+self-willed as some of us were?  Was it not that I, whom thou deemest
+lovely, was thereby watching thee and rejoicing in thee?  Did not the
+sweetness of thy love quicken thee?  Yet because of that was thy
+warrior's wisdom and thy foresight an empty show?  Heedest thou
+nought the Folk of the Dale?  Wouldest thou sunder from the children
+of the Fathers, and dwell amongst strangers?'
+
+He kissed her and smiled on her and said:  'Did I not say of thee
+that thou wert wiser than the daughters of men?  See how wise thou
+hast made me!'
+
+She spake again:  'Nay, nay, there was no feigning in my love for my
+people.  How couldest thou think it, when the Fathers and the kindred
+have made this body that thou lovest, and the voice of their songs is
+in the speech thou deemest sweet?'
+
+He said:  'Sweet friend, I deemed not that there was feigning in
+thee:  I was but wondering what I am and how I was fashioned, that I
+should make thee so glad that thou couldst for a while forget thy
+hope of the days before we met.'
+
+She said:  'O how glad, how glad!  Yet was I nought hapless.  In
+despite of all trouble I had no down-weighing grief, and I had the
+hope of my people before me.  Good were my days; but I knew not till
+now how glad a child of man may be.'
+
+Their words were hushed for a while amidst their caresses.  Then she
+said:
+
+'Gold-mane, my friend, I mocked not my past self because I deem that
+I was a fool then, but because I see now that all that my wisdom
+could do, would have come about without my wisdom; and that thou,
+deeming thyself something less than wise, didst accomplish the thing
+I craved, and that which thou didst crave also; and withal wisdom
+embraced thee, along with love.'
+
+Therewith she cast her arms about him and said:
+
+'O friend, I mock myself of this:  that erst thou deemedst me a God
+and fearedst me, but now thou seemest to me to be a God, and I fear
+thee.  Yea, though I have longed so sore to be with thee since the
+day of Shadowy Vale, and though I have wearied of the slow wearing of
+the days, and it hath tormented me; yet now that I am with thee, I
+bless the torment of my longing; for it is but my longing that
+compelleth me to cast away my fear of thee and caress thee, because I
+have learned how sweet it is to love thee thus.'
+
+He wound his arms about her, and sweeter was their longing than mere
+joy; and though their love was beyond measure, yet was therein no
+shame to aught, not even to the lovely Dale and that fair season of
+spring, so goodly they were among the children of men.
+
+In a while they arose and turned homeward, and went over the open
+meadow, and it was yet early, and the dew was as heavy on the grass
+as before, though the wide sunlight was now upon it, glittering on
+the wet blades, and shining through the bells of the chequered
+daffodils till they looked like gouts of blood.
+
+'Look,' said Sun-beam, as they went along by the same way whereas
+they came, 'deemest thou not that other speech-friends besides us
+have been abroad to talk together apart on this morning of the eve of
+battle.  It is nought unwonted, that we do, even though we forget the
+trouble of the people to think of our own joy for a while.'
+
+The smile died out of her face as she spoke, and she said:
+
+'O friend, this much may I say for myself in all sooth, that indeed I
+would die for the kindred and its good days, nor falter therein; but
+if I am to die, might I but die in thine arms!'
+
+He looked very lovingly on her, and put his arm about her and kissed
+her and said:  'What ails us to stand in the doom-ring and bear
+witness against ourselves before the kindred?  Now I will say, that
+whatsoever the kindred may or can call upon me to do, that will I do,
+nor grudge the deed:  I am sackless before them.  But that is true
+which I spake to thee when we came together up out of Shadowy Vale,
+to wit, that I am no strifeful man, but a peaceful; and I look to it
+to win through this war, and find on the other side either death, or
+life amongst a happy folk; and I deem that this is mostly the mind of
+our people.'
+
+She said:  'Thou shalt not die, thou shalt not die!'
+
+'Mayhappen not,' he said; 'yet yesterday I could not but look into
+the slaughter to come, and it seemed to me a grim thing, and darkened
+the day for me; and I grew acold as a man walking with the dead.  But
+tell me:  thou sayest I shall not die; dost thou say this only
+because I am become dear to thee, or dost thou speak it out of thy
+foresight of things to come?'
+
+She stopped and looked silently a while over the meadows towards the
+houses of the Thorp:  they were standing now on the border of a
+shallow brook that ran down toward the Weltering Water; it had a
+little strand of fine sand like the sea-shore, driven close together,
+and all moist, because that brook was used to flood the meadow for
+the feeding of the grass; and the last evening the hatches which held
+up the water had been drawn, so that much had ebbed away and left the
+strand aforesaid.
+
+After a while the Sun-beam turned to Face-of-god, and she was become
+somewhat pale; she said:
+
+'Nay, I have striven to see, and can see nought save the picture of
+hope and fear that I make for myself.  So it oft befalleth foreseeing
+women, that the love of a man cloudeth their vision.  Be content,
+dear friend; it is for life or death; but whichso it be, the same for
+me and thee together?'
+
+'Yea,' he said, 'and well content I am; so now let each of us trust
+in the other to be both good and dear, even as I trusted in thee the
+first hour that I looked on thee.'
+
+'It is well,' she said; 'it is well.  How fair thou art; and how fair
+is the morn, and this our Dale in the goodly season; and all this
+abideth us when the battle is over.'
+
+Once more her voice became sweet and wheedling, and the smile lit up
+her face again, and she pointed down to the sand with her finger, and
+said:
+
+'See thou!  Here indeed have other lovers passed by across the brook.
+Shall we wish them good luck?'
+
+He laughed and looked down on the sand, and said:
+
+'Thou art in haste to make a story up.  Indeed I see that these first
+footprints are of a woman, for no carle of the Dale has a foot as
+small; for we be tall fellows; and these others withal are a man's
+footprints; and if they showed that they had been walking side by
+side, simple had been thy tale; but so it is not.  I cannot say that
+these two pairs of feet went over the brook within five minutes of
+each other; but sure it is that they could not have been faring side
+by side.  Well, belike they were lovers bickering, and we may wish
+them luck out of that.  Truly it is well seen that Bow-may hath done
+thine hunting for thee, dear friend; or else wouldest thou have
+lacked venison; for thou hast no hunter's eye.'
+
+'Well,' she said, 'but wish them luck, and give me thine hand upon
+it.'
+
+He took her hand, and fondled it, and said:  'By this hand of my
+speech-friend, I wish these twain all luck, in love and in leisure,
+in faring and fighting, in sowing and samming, in getting and giving.
+Is it well enough wished?  If so it be, then come thy ways, dear
+friend; for the day's work is at hand.'
+
+'It is well wished,' she said.  'Now hearken:  by the valiant hand of
+the War-leader, by the hand that shall unloose my girdle, I wish
+these twain to be as happy as we be.'
+
+He made as if to draw her away, but she hung aback to set the print
+of her foot beside the woman's foot, and then they went on together,
+and soon crossed the Bridge, and came home to the House of the Face.
+
+When they had broken their fast, Face-of-god would straight get to
+his business of ordering matters for the warfare, and was wishful to
+speak with Folk-might; but found him not, either in the House or the
+street.  But a man said:
+
+'I saw the tall Guest come abroad from the House and go toward the
+Bridge very early in the morning.'
+
+The Sun-beam, who was anigh when that was spoken, heard it and
+smiled, and said:  'Gold-mane, deemest thou that it was my brother
+whom we blessed?'
+
+'I wot not,' he said; 'but I would he were here, for this gear must
+speedily be looked to.'
+
+Nevertheless it was nigh an hour before Folk-might came home to the
+House.  He strode in lightly and gaily, and shaking the crest of his
+war-helm as he went.  He looked friendly on Face-of-god, and said to
+him:
+
+'Thou hast been seeking me, War-leader; but grudge it not that I have
+caused thee to tarry.  For as things have gone, I am twice the man
+for thine helping that I was yester-eve; and thou art so ready and
+deft, that all will be done in due time.'
+
+He looked as if he would have had Face-of-god ask of him what made
+him so fain, but Face-of-god said only:
+
+'I am glad of thy gladness; but now let us dally no longer, for I
+have many folk to see to-day and much to set a-going.'
+
+So therewith they spake together a while, and then went their ways
+together toward Carlstead and the Woodlanders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.  FOLK-MIGHT SPEAKETH WITH THE BRIDE
+
+
+
+It must be told that those footprints which Face-of-god and the Sun-
+beam had blessed betwixt jest and earnest had more to do with them
+than they wotted of.  For Folk-might, who had had many thoughts and
+longings since he had seen the Bride again, rose up early about
+sunrise, and went out-a-doors, and wandered about the Burg, letting
+his eyes stray over the goodly stone houses and their trim gardens,
+yet noting them little, since the Bride was not there.
+
+At last he came to where there was an open place, straight-sided,
+longer than it was wide, with a wall on each side of it, over which
+showed the blossomed boughs of pear and cherry and plum-trees:  on
+either hand before the wall was a row of great lindens, now showing
+their first tender green, especially on their lower twigs, where they
+were sheltered by the wall.  At the nether end of this place Folk-
+might saw a grey stone house, and he went towards it betwixt the
+lindens, for it seemed right great, and presently was but a score of
+paces from its door, and as yet there was no man, carle or queen,
+stirring about it.
+
+It was a long low house with a very steep roof; but belike the hall
+was built over some undercroft, for many steps went up to the door on
+either hand; and the doorway was low, with a straight lintel under
+its arch.  This house, like the House of the Face, seemed ancient and
+somewhat strange, and Folk-might could not choose but take note of
+it.  The front was all of good ashlar work, but it was carven all
+over, without heed being paid to the joints of the stones, into one
+picture of a flowery meadow, with tall trees and bushes in it, and
+fowl perched in the trees and running through the grass, and sheep
+and kine and oxen and horses feeding down the meadow; and over the
+door at the top of the stair was wrought a great steer bigger than
+all the other neat, whose head was turned toward the sun-rising and
+uplifted with open mouth, as though he were lowing aloud.  Exceeding
+fair seemed that house to Folk-might, and as though it were the
+dwelling of some great kindred.
+
+But he had scarce gone over it with his eyes, and was just about to
+draw nigher yet to it, when the door at the top of those steps
+opened, and a woman came out of the house clad in a green kirtle and
+a gown of brazil, with a golden-hilted sword girt to her side.  Folk-
+might saw at once that it was the Bride, and drew aback behind one of
+the trees so that she might not see him, if she had not already seen
+him, as it seemed not that she had, for she stayed but for a moment
+on the top of the stair, looking out down the tree-rows, and then
+came down the stair and went soberly along the road, passing so close
+to Folk-might that he could see the fashion of her beauty closely, as
+one looks into the work of some deftest artificer.  Then it came
+suddenly into his head that he would follow her and see whither she
+was wending.  'At least,' said he to himself, 'if I come not to
+speech with her, I shall be nigh unto her, and shall see somewhat of
+her beauty.'
+
+So he came out quietly from behind the tree, and followed her softly;
+and he was clad in no garment save his kirtle, and bare no weapons to
+clash and jingle, though he had his helm on his head for lack of a
+softer hat.  He kept her well in sight, and she went straight onward
+and looked not back.  She went by the way whereas he had come, till
+they were in the main street, wherein as yet was no one afoot; she
+made her way to the Bridge, and passed over it into the meadows; but
+when she had gone but a few steps, she stayed a little and looked on
+the ground, and as she did so turned a little toward Folk-might, who
+had drawn back into the last of the refuges over the up-stream
+buttresses.  He saw that there was a half-smile on her face, but he
+could not tell whether she were glad or sorry.  A light wind was
+beginning to blow, that stirred her raiment and raised a lock of hair
+that had strayed from the golden fillet round about her head, and she
+looked most marvellous fair.
+
+Now she looked along the grass that glittered under the beams of the
+newly-risen sun, and noted belike how heavy the dew lay on it; and
+the grass was high already, for the spring had been hot, and haysel
+would be early in the Dale.  So she put off her shoes, that were of
+deerskin and broidered with golden threads, and turned somewhat from
+the way, and hung them up amidst the new green leaves of a hawthorn
+bush that stood nearby, and so went thwart the meadow somewhat
+eastward straight from that bush, and her feet shone out like pearls
+amidst the deep green grass.
+
+Folk-might followed presently, and she stayed not again, nor turned,
+nor beheld him; he recked not if she had, for then would he have come
+up with her and hailed her, and he knew that she was no foolish
+maiden to start at the sight of a man who was the friend of her Folk.
+
+So they went their ways till she came to the strand of the water-
+meadow brook aforesaid, and she went through the little ripples of
+the shallow without staying, and on through the tall deep grass of
+the meadow beyond, to where they met the brook again; for it swept
+round the meadow in a wide curve, and turned back toward itself; so
+it was some half furlong over from water to water.
+
+She stood a while on the brink of the brook here, which was brim-full
+and nigh running into the grass, because there was a dam just below
+the place; and Folk-might drew nigher to her under cover of the
+thorn-bushes, and looked at the place about her and beyond her.  The
+meadow beyond stream was very fair and flowery, but not right great;
+for it was bounded by a grove of ancient chestnut trees, that went on
+and on toward the southern cliffs of the Dale:  in front of the
+chestnut wood stood a broken row of black-thorn bushes, now growing
+green and losing their blossom, and he could see betwixt them that
+there was a grassy bank running along, as if there had once been a
+turf-wall and ditch round about the chestnut trees.  For indeed this
+was the old place of tryst between Gold-mane and the Bride, whereof
+the tale hath told before.
+
+The Bride stayed scarce longer than gave him time to note all this;
+but he deemed that she was weeping, though he could not rightly see
+her face; for her shoulders heaved, and she hung her face adown and
+put up her hands to it.  But now she went a little higher up the
+stream, where the water was shallower, and waded the stream and went
+up over the meadow, still weeping, as he deemed, and went between the
+black-thorn bushes, and sat her down on the grassy bank with her back
+to the chestnut trees.
+
+Folk-might was ashamed to have seen her weeping, and was half-minded
+to turn him back again at once; but love constrained him, and he said
+to himself, 'Where shall I see her again privily if I pass by this
+time and place?'  So he waited a little till he deemed she might have
+mastered the passion of tears, and then came forth from his bush, and
+went down to the water and crossed it, and went quietly over the
+meadow straight towards her.  But he was not half-way across, when
+she lifted up her face from between her hands and beheld the man
+coming.  She neither started nor rose up; but straightened herself as
+she sat, and looked right into Folk-might's eyes as he drew near,
+though the tears were not dry on her cheeks.
+
+Now he stood before her, and said:  'Hail to the Daughter of a mighty
+House!  Mayst thou live happy!'
+
+She answered:  'Hail to thee also, Guest of our Folk!  Hast thou been
+wandering about our meadows, and happened on me perchance?'
+
+'Nay,' he said; 'I saw thee come forth from the House of the Steer,
+and I followed thee hither.'
+
+She reddened a little, and knit her brow, and said:
+
+'Thou wilt have something to say to me?'
+
+'I have much to say to thee,' he said; 'yet it was sweet to me to
+behold thee, even if I might not speak with thee.'
+
+She looked on him with her deep simple eyes, and neither reddened
+again, nor seemed wroth; then she said:
+
+'Speak what thou hast in thine heart, and I will hearken without
+anger whatsoever it may be; even if thou hast but to tell me of the
+passing folly of a mighty man, which in a month or two he will not
+remember for sorrow or for joy.  Sit here beside me, and tell me thy
+thought.'
+
+So he sat him adown and said:  'Yea, I have much to say to thee, but
+it is hard to me to say it.  But this I will say:  to-day and
+yesterday make the third time I have seen thee.  The first time thou
+wert happy and calm, and no shadow of trouble was on thee; the second
+time thine happy days were waning, though thou scarce knewest it; but
+to-day and yesterday thou art constrained by the bonds of grief, and
+wouldest loosen them if thou mightest.'
+
+She said:  'What meanest thou?  How knowest thou this?  How may a
+stranger partake in my joy and my sorrow?'
+
+He said:  'As for yesterday, all the people might see thy grief and
+know it.  But when I beheld thee the first time, I saw thee that thou
+wert more fair and lovely than all other women; and when I was away
+from thee, the thought of thee and thine image were with me, and I
+might not put them away; and oft at such and such a time I wondered
+and said to myself, what is she doing now? though god wot I was
+dealing with tangles and troubles and rough deeds enough.  But the
+second time I beheld thee, when I had looked to have great joy in the
+sight of thee, my heart was smitten with a pang of grief; for I saw
+thee hanging on the words and the looks of another man, who was
+light-minded toward thee, and that thou wert troubled with the
+anguish of doubt and fear.  And he knew it not, nor saw it, though I
+saw it.'
+
+Her face grew troubled, and the tearful passion stirred within her.
+But she held it aback, and said, as anyone might have said it:
+
+'How wert thou in the Dale, mighty man?  We saw thee not.'
+
+He said:  'I came hither hidden in other semblance than mine own.
+But meddle not therewith; it availeth nought.  Let me say this, and
+do thou hearken to it.  I saw thee yesterday in the street, and thou
+wert as the ghost of thine old gladness; although belike thou hast
+striven with sorrow; for I see thee with a sword by thy side, and we
+have been told that thou, O fairest of women, hast given thyself to
+the Warrior to be his damsel.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'that is sooth.'
+
+He went on:  'But the face which thou bearedst yesterday against thy
+will, amidst all the people, that was because thou hadst seen my
+sister the Sun-beam for the first time, and Face-of-god with her,
+hand clinging to hand, lip longing for lip, desire unsatisfied, but
+glad with all hope.'
+
+She laid hand upon hand in the lap of her gown, and looked down, and
+her voice trembled as she said:
+
+'Doth it avail to talk of this?'
+
+He said:  'I know not:  it may avail; for I am grieved, and shall be
+whilst thou art grieved; and it is my wont to strive with my griefs
+till I amend them.'
+
+She turned to him with kind eyes and said:
+
+'O mighty man, canst thou clear away the tangle which besetteth the
+soul of her whose hope hath bewrayed her?  Canst thou make hope grow
+up in her heart?  Friend, I will tell thee that when I wed, I shall
+wed for the sake of the kindred, hoping for no joy therein.  Yea, or
+if by some chance the desire of man came again into my heart, I
+should strive with it to rid myself of it, for I should know of it
+that it was but a wasting folly, that should but beguile me, and
+wound me, and depart, leaving me empty of joy and heedless of life.'
+
+He shook his head and said:  'Even so thou deemest now; but one day
+it shall be otherwise.  Or dost thou love thy sorrow?  I tell thee,
+as it wears thee and wears thee, thou shalt hate it, and strive to
+shake it off.'
+
+'Nay, nay,' she said; 'I love it not; for not only it grieveth me,
+but also it beateth me down and belittleth me.'
+
+'Good is that,' said he.  'I know how strong thine heart is.  Now,
+wilt thou take mine hand, which is verily the hand of thy friend, and
+remember what I have told thee of my grief which cannot be sundered
+from thine?  Shall we not talk more concerning this?  For surely I
+shall soon see thee again, and often; since the Warrior, who loveth
+me belike, leadeth thee into fellowship with me.  Yea, I tell thee, O
+friend, that in that fellowship shalt thou find both the seed of
+hope, and the sun of desire that shall quicken it.'
+
+Therewith he arose and stood before her, and held out to her his hand
+all hardened with the sword-hilt, and she took it, and stood up
+facing him, and said:
+
+'This much will I tell thee, O friend; that what I have said to thee
+this hour, I thought not to have said to any man; or to talk with a
+man of the grief that weareth me, or to suffer him to see my tears;
+and marvellous I deem it of thee, for all thy might, that thou hast
+drawn this speech from out of me, and left me neither angry nor
+ashamed, in spite of these tears; and thou whom I have known not,
+though thou knewest me!
+
+'But now it were best that thou depart, and get thee home to the
+House of the Face, where I was once so frequent; for I wot that thou
+hast much to do; and as thou sayest, it will be in warfare that I
+shall see thee.  Now I thank thee for thy words and the thought thou
+hast had of me, and the pain which thou hast taken to heal my hurt:
+I thank thee, I thank thee, for as grievous as it is to show one's
+hurts even to a friend.'
+
+He said:  'O Bride, I thank thee for hearkening to my tale; and one
+day shall I thank thee much more.  Mayest thou fare well in the Field
+and amidst the Folk!'
+
+Therewith he kissed her hand, and turned away, and went across the
+meadow and the stream, glad at heart and blithe with everyone; for
+kindness grew in him as gladness grew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.  OF THE FOLK-MOTE OF THE DALESMEN, THE SHEPHERD-FOLK,
+AND THE WOODLAND CARLES:  THE BANNER OF THE WOLF DISPLAYED
+
+
+
+Now came the day of the Great Folk-mote, and there was much thronging
+from everywhere to the Mote-stead, but most from Burgstead itself,
+whereas few of the Dale-dwellers who had been at the Fair had gone
+back home.  Albeit some of the Shepherds and of the Dalesmen of the
+westernmost Dale had brought light tents, and tilted themselves in in
+the night before the Mote down in the meadows below the Mote-stead.
+From early morning there had been a stream of folk on the Portway
+setting westward; and many came thus early that they might hold
+converse with friends and well-wishers; and some that they might
+disport them in the woods.  Men went in no ordered bands, as the
+Burgstead men at least had done on the day of the Weapon-show, save
+that a few of them who were arrayed the bravest gathered about the
+banners, and went with them to the Mote-stead; for all the banners
+must needs be there.
+
+The Folk-mote was to be hallowed-in three hours before noon, as all
+men knew; therefore an hour before that time were all men of the Dale
+and the Shepherds assembled that might be looked for, save the
+Alderman and the chieftains with the banner of the Burg, and these
+were not like to come many minutes before the Hallowing.  Folk were
+gathered on the Field in such wise, that the men-at-arms made a great
+ring round about the Doom-ring, (albeit there were many old men
+there, girt with swords that they should never heave up again in
+battle), so that without that ring there was nought save women and
+children.  But when all the other Houses were assembled, men looked
+around, and beheld the place of the Woodlanders that it was empty;
+and they marvelled that they were thus belated.  For now all was
+ready, and a watcher had gone up to the Tower on the height, and had
+with him the great Horn of Warning, which could be heard past the
+Mote-stead and a great way down the Dale:  and if he saw foes coming
+from the East he should blow one blast; if from the South, two; if
+from the West, three; if from the North, four.
+
+So half an hour from the appointed time of Hallowing rose the rumour
+that the Alderman was on the road, and presently they of the women
+who were on the outside of the throng, by drawing nigh to the edge of
+the sheer rock, could behold the Banner of the Burg on the Portway,
+and soon after could see the wain, done about with green boughs,
+wherein sat the chieftains in their glittering war-gear.  Speedily
+they spread the tidings, and a confused shout went up into the air;
+and in a little while the wain stayed on Wildlake's Way at the bottom
+of the steep slope that went up to the Mote-stead, and the banner of
+the Burg came on proudly up the hill.  Soon all men beheld it, and
+saw that the tall Hall-face bore it in front of his brother Face-of-
+god, who came on gleaming in war-gear better than most men had seen;
+which was indeed of his father's fashioning, and his father's gift to
+him that morning.
+
+After Face-of-god came the Alderman, and with him Folk-might leading
+the Sun-beam by the hand, and then Stone-face and the Elder of the
+Dale-wardens; and then the six Burg-wardens:  as to the other Dale-
+wardens, they were in their places on the Field.
+
+So now those who had been standing up turned their faces toward the
+Altar of the Gods, and those who had been sitting down sprang to
+their feet, and the confused rumour of the throng rose into a clear
+shout as the chieftains went to their places, and sat them down on
+the turf-seats amidst the Doom-ring facing the Speech-hill and the
+Altar of the Gods.  Amidmost sat the Alderman, on his right hand
+Face-of-god, and out from him Hall-face, and then Stone-face and
+three of the Wardens; but on his left hand sat first the two Guests,
+then the Elder of the Dale-wardens, and then the other three Burg-
+wardens; as for the Banner of the Burg, its staff was stuck into the
+earth behind them, and the Banner raised itself in the morning wind
+and flapped and rippled over their heads.
+
+There then they sat, and folk abided, and it still lacked some
+minutes of the due time, as the Alderman wotted by the shadow of the
+great standing-stone betwixt him and the Altar.  Therewithal came the
+sound of a great horn from out of the wood on the north side, and men
+knew it for the horn of the Woodland Carles, and were glad; for they
+could not think why they should be belated; and now men stood up a-
+tiptoe and on other's shoulders to look over the heads of the women
+and children to behold their coming; but their empty place was at the
+southwest corner of the ring of men.
+
+So presently men beheld them marching toward their place, cleaving
+the throng of the women and children, a great company; for besides
+that they had with them two score more of men under weapons than on
+the day of the Weapon-show, all their little ones and women and
+outworn elders were with them, some on foot, some riding on oxen and
+asses.  In their forefront went the two signs of the Battle-shaft and
+the War-spear.  But moreover, in front of all was borne a great staff
+with the cloth of a banner wrapped round about it, and tied up with a
+hempen yarn that it might not be seen.
+
+Stark and mighty men they looked; tall and lean, broad-shouldered,
+dark-faced.  As they came amongst the throng the voice of their horn
+died out, and for a few moments they fared on with no sound save the
+tramp of their feet; then all at once the man who bare the hidden
+banner lifted up one hand, and straightway they fell to singing, and
+with that song they came to their place.  And this is some of what
+they sang:
+
+
+O white, white Sun, what things of wonder
+   Hast thou beheld from thy wall of the sky!
+All the Roofs of the Rich and the grief thereunder,
+   As the fear of the Earl-folk flitteth by!
+
+Thou hast seen the Flame steal forth from the Forest
+   To slay the slumber of the lands,
+As the Dusky Lord whom thou abhorrest
+   Clomb up to thy Burg unbuilt with hands.
+
+Thou lookest down from thy door the golden,
+   Nor batest thy wide-shining mirth,
+As the ramparts fall, and the roof-trees olden
+   Lie smouldering low on the burning earth.
+
+When flitteth the half-dark night of summer
+   From the face of the murder great and grim,
+'Tis thou thyself and no new-comer
+   Shines golden-bright on the deed undim.
+
+Art thou our friend, O Day-dawn's Lover?
+   Full oft thine hand hath sent aslant
+Bright beams athwart the Wood-bear's cover,
+   Where the feeble folk and the nameless haunt.
+
+Thou hast seen us quail, thou hast seen us cower,
+   Thou hast seen us crouch in the Green Abode,
+While for us wert thou slaying slow hour by hour,
+   And smoothing down the war-rough road.
+
+Yea, the rocks of the Waste were thy Dawns upheaving,
+   To let the days of the years go through;
+And thy Noons the tangled brake were cleaving
+   The slow-foot seasons' deed to do.
+
+Then gaze adown on this gift of our giving,
+   For the WOLF comes wending frith and ford,
+And the Folk fares forth from the dead to the living,
+   For the love of the Lief by the light of the Sword.
+
+
+Then ceased the song, and the whole band of the Woodlanders came
+pouring tumultuously into the space allotted them, like the waters
+pouring over a river-dam, their white swords waving aloft in the
+morning sunlight; and wild and strange cries rose up from amidst
+them, with sobbing and weeping of joy.  But soon their troubled front
+sank back into ordered ranks, their bright blades stood upright in
+their hands before them, and folk looked on their company, and deemed
+it the very Terror of battle and Render of the ranks of war.  Right
+well were they armed; for though many of their weapons were ancient
+and somewhat worn, yet were they the work of good smiths of old days;
+and moreover, if any of them lacked good war-gear of his own, that
+had the Alderman and his sons made good to them.
+
+But before the hedge of steel stood the two tall men who held in
+their hands the war-tokens of the Battle-shaft and the War-spear, and
+betwixt them stood one who was indeed the tallest man of the whole
+assembly, who held the great staff of the hidden banner.  And now he
+reached up his hand, and plucked at the yarn that bound it, which of
+set purpose was but feeble, and tore it off, and then shook the staff
+aloft with both hands, and shouted, and lo! the Banner of the Wolf
+with the Sun-burst behind him, glittering-bright, new-woven by the
+women of the kindred, ran out in the fresh wind, and flapped and
+rippled before His warriors there assembled.
+
+Then from all over the Mote-stead arose an exceeding great shout, and
+all men waved aloft their weapons; but the men of Shadowy Vale who
+were standing amidst the men of the Face knew not how to demean
+themselves, and some of them ran forth into the Field and leapt for
+joy, tossing their swords into the air, and catching them by the
+hilts as they fell:  and amidst it all the Woodlanders now stood
+silent, unmoving, as men abiding the word of onset.
+
+As for that brother and sister:  the Sun-beam flushed red all over
+her face, and pressed her hands to her bosom, and then the passion of
+tears over-mastered her, and her breast heaved, and the tears gushed
+out of her eyes, and her body was shaken with weeping.  But Folk-
+might sat still, looking straight before him, his eyes glittering,
+his teeth set, his right hand clutching hard at the hilts of his
+sword, which lay naked across his knees.  And the Bride, who stood
+clad in her begemmed and glittering war-array in the forefront of the
+Men of the Steer, nigh unto the seats of the chieftains, beheld Folk-
+might, and her face flushed and brightened, and still she looked upon
+him.  The Alderman's face was as of one pleased and proud; yet was
+its joy shadowed as it were by a cloud of compassion.  Face-of-god
+sat like the very image of the War-god, and stirred not, nor looked
+toward the Sun-beam; for still the thought of the after-grief of
+battle, and the death of friends and folk that loved him, lay heavy
+on his heart, for all that it beat wildly at the shouting of the men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.  OF THE GREAT FOLK-MOTE:  ATONEMENTS GIVEN, AND MEN
+MADE SACKLESS
+
+
+
+Amidst the clamour uprose the Alderman; for it was clear to all men
+that the Folk-mote should be holden at once, and the matters of the
+War, and the Fellowship, and the choosing of the War-leader, speedily
+dealt with.  So the Alderman fell to hallowing in the Folk-mote:  he
+went up to the Altar of the Gods, and took the Gold-ring off it, and
+did it on his arm; then he drew his sword and waved it toward the
+four airts, and spake; and the noise and shouting fell, and there was
+silence but for him:
+
+'Herewith I hallow in this Folk-mote of the Men of the Dale and the
+Sheepcotes and the Woodland, in the name of the Warrior and the
+Earth-god and the Fathers of the kindreds.  Now let not the peace of
+the Mote be broken.  Let not man rise against man, or bear blade or
+hand, or stick or stone against any.  If any man break the Peace of
+the Holy Mote, let him be a man accursed, a wild-beast in the Holy
+Places; an outcast from home and hearth, from bed and board, from
+mead and acre; not to be holpen with bread, nor flesh, nor wine; nor
+flax, nor wool, nor any cloth; nor with sword, nor shield, nor axe,
+nor plough-share; nor with horse, nor ox, nor ass; with no saddle-
+beast nor draught-beast; nor with wain, nor boat, nor way-leading;
+nor with fire nor water; nor with any world's wealth.  Thus let him
+who hath cast out man be cast out by man.  Now is hallowed-in the
+Folk-mote of the Men of the Dale and the Sheepcotes and the
+Woodlands.'
+
+Therewith he waved his sword again toward the four airts, and went
+and sat down in his place.  But presently he arose again, and said:
+
+'Now if man hath aught to say against man, and claimeth boot of any,
+or would lay guilt on any man's head, let him come forth and declare
+it; and the judges shall be named, and the case shall be tried this
+afternoon or to-morrow.  Yet first I shall tell you that I, the
+Alderman of the Dalesmen, doomed one Iron-face of the House of the
+Face to pay a double fine, for that he drew a sword at the Gate-thing
+of Burgstead with the intent to break the peace thereof.  Thou,
+Green-sleeve, bring forth the peace-breaker's fine, that Iron-face
+may lay the same on the Altar.'
+
+Then came forth a man from the men of the Face bearing a bag, and he
+brought it to Iron-face, who went up to the Altar and poured forth
+weighed gold from the bag thereon, and said:
+
+'Warden of the Dale, come thou and weigh it!'
+
+'Nay,' quoth the Warden, 'it needeth not, no man here doubteth thee,
+Alderman Iron-face.'
+
+A murmur of yeasay went up, and none had a word to say against the
+Alderman, but they praised him rather:  also men were eager to hear
+of the war, and the fellowship, and to be done with these petty
+matters.  Then the Alderman rose again and said:
+
+'Hath any man a grief against any other of the Kindreds of the Dale,
+or the Sheepcotes, or the Woodlands?'
+
+None answered or stirred; so after he had waited a while, he said:
+
+'Is there any who hath any guilt to lay against a Stranger, an
+Outlander, being such a man as he deems we can come at?'
+
+Thereat was a stir amongst the Men of the Fleece of the Shepherds,
+and their ranks opened, and there came forth an ill-favoured lean old
+man, long-nebbed, blear-eyed, and bent, girt with a rusty old sword,
+but not otherwise armed.  And all men knew Penny-thumb, who had been
+ransacked last autumn.  As he came forth, it seemed as if his
+neighbours had been trying to hold him back; but a stout, broad-
+shouldered man, black-haired and red-bearded, made way for the old
+man, and led him out of the throng, and stood by him; and this man
+was well armed at all points, and looked a doughty carle.  He stood
+side by side with Penny-thumb, right in front of the men of his
+house, and looked about him at first somewhat uneasily, as though he
+were ashamed of his fellow; but though many smiled, none laughed
+aloud; and they forbore, partly because they knew the man to be a
+good man, partly because of the solemn tide of the Folk-mote, and
+partly in sooth because they wished all this to be over, and were as
+men who had no time for empty mirth.
+
+Then said the Alderman:  'What wouldest thou, Penny-thumb, and thou,
+Bristler, son of Brightling?'
+
+Then Penny-thumb began to speak in a high squeaky voice:
+
+'Alderman, and Lord of the Folk!'  But therewithal Bristle, pulled
+him back, and said:
+
+'I am the man who hath taken this quarrel upon me, and have sworn
+upon the Holy Boar to carry this feud through; and we deem, Alderman,
+that if they who slew Rusty and ransacked Penny-thumb be not known
+now, yet they soon may be.'
+
+As he spake, came forth those three men of the Shepherds and the two
+Dalesmen who had sworn with him on the Holy Boar.  Then up stood
+Folk-might, and came forth into the field, and said:
+
+'Bristler, son of Brightling, and ye other good men and true, it is
+but sooth that the ransackers and the slayer may soon be known; and
+here I declare them unto you:  I it was and none other who slew
+Rusty; and I was the leader of those who ransacked Penny-thumb, and
+cowed Harts-bane of Greentofts.  As for the slaying of Rusty, I slew
+him because he chased me, and would not forbear, so that I must
+either slay or be slain, as hath befallen me erewhile, and will
+befall again, methinks.  As for the ransacking of Penny-thumb, I
+needed the goods that I took, and he needed them not, since he
+neither used them, nor gave them away, and, they being gone, he hath
+lived no worser than aforetime.  Now I say, that if ye will take the
+outlawry off me, which, as I hear, ye laid upon me, not knowing me,
+then will I handsel self-doom to thee, Bristler, if thou wilt bear
+thy grief to purse, and I will pay thee what thou wilt out of hand;
+or if perchance thou wilt call me to Holm, thither will I go, if thou
+and I come unslain out of this war.  As to the ransacking and cowing
+of Harts-bane, I say that I am sackless therein, because the man is
+but a ruffler and a man of violence, and hath cowed many men of the
+Dale; and if he gainsay me, then do I call him to the Holm after this
+war is over; either him or any man who will take his place before my
+sword.'
+
+Then he held his peace, and man spake to man, and a murmur arose, as
+they said for the more part that it was a fair and manly offer.  But
+Bristler called his fellows and Penny-thumb to him, and they spake
+together; and sometimes Penny-thumb's shrill squeak was heard above
+the deep-voiced talk of the others; for he was a man that harboured
+malice.  But at last Bristler spake out and said:
+
+'Tall man, we know that thou art a chieftain and of good will to the
+men of the Dale and their friends, and that want drave thee to the
+ransacking, and need to the manslaying, and neither the living nor
+the dead to whom thou art guilty are to be called good men; therefore
+will I bring the matter to purse, if thou wilt handsel me self-doom.'
+
+'Yea, even so let it be,' quoth Folk-might; and stepped forward and
+took Bristler by the hand, and handselled him self-doom.  Then said
+Bristler:
+
+'Though Rusty was no good man, and though he followed thee to slay
+thee, yet was he in his right therein, since he was following up his
+goodman's gear; therefore shalt thou pay a full blood-wite for him,
+that is to say, the worth of three hundreds in weed-stuff in whatso
+goods thou wilt.  As for the ransacking of Penny-thumb, he shall deem
+himself well paid if thou give him our hundreds in weed-stuff for
+that which thou didst borrow of him.'
+
+Then Penny-thumb set up his squeak again, but no man hearkened to
+him, and each man said to his neighbour that it was well doomed of
+Bristler, and neither too much nor too little.  But Folk-might bade
+Wood-wont to bring thither to him that which he had borne to the
+Mote; and he brought forth a big sack, and Folk-might emptied it on
+the earth, and lo! the silver rings of the slain felons, and they lay
+in a heap on the green field, and they were the best of silver.  Then
+the Elder of the Dale-wardens weighed out from the heap the blood-
+wite for Rusty, according to the due measure of the hundred in weed-
+stuff, and delivered it unto Bristler.  And Folk-might said:
+
+'Draw nigh now, Penny-thumb, and take what thou wilt of this gear,
+which I need not, and grudge not at me henceforward.'
+
+But Penny-thumb was afraid, and abode where he was; and Bristler
+laughed, and said:  'Take it, goodman, take it; spare not other men's
+goods as thou dost thine own.'
+
+And Folk-might stood by, smiling faintly:  so Penny-thumb plucked up
+a heart, and drew nigh trembling, and took what he durst from that
+heap; and all that stood by said that he had gotten a full double of
+what had been awarded to him.  But as for him, he went his ways
+straight from the Mote-stead, and made no stay till he had gotten him
+home, and laid the silver up in a strong coffer; and thereafter he
+bewailed him sorely that he had not taken the double of that which he
+took, since none would have said him nay.
+
+When he was gone, the Alderman arose and said:
+
+'Now, since the fines have been paid duly and freely, according to
+the dooming of Bristler, take we off the outlawry from Folk-might and
+his fellows, and account them to be sackless before us.'
+
+Then he called for other cases; but no man had aught more to bring
+forward against any man, either of the kindreds or the Strangers.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.  OF THE GREAT FOLK-MOTE:  MEN TAKE REDE OF THE WAR-
+FARING, THE FELLOWSHIP, AND THE WAR-LEADER.  FOLK-MIGHT TELLETH
+WHENCE HIS PEOPLE CAME.  THE FOLK-MOTE SUNDERED
+
+
+
+Now a great silence fell upon the throng, and they stood as men
+abiding some new matter.  Unto them arose the Alderman, and said:
+
+'Men of the Dale, and ye Shepherds and Woodlanders; it is well known
+to you that we have foemen in the wood and beyond it; and now have we
+gotten sure tidings, that they will not abide at home or in the wood,
+but are minded to fall upon us at home.  Now therefore I will not ask
+you whether ye will have peace or war; for with these foemen ye may
+have peace no otherwise save by war.  But if ye think with me, three
+things have ye to determine:  first, whether ye will abide your foes
+in your own houses, or will go meet them at theirs; next, whether ye
+will take to you as fellows in arms a valiant folk of the children of
+the Gods, who are foemen to our foemen; and lastly, what man ye will
+have to be your War-leader.  Now, I bid all those here assembled, to
+speak hereof, any man of them that will, either what they may have
+conceived in their own minds, or what their kindred may have put into
+their mouths to speak.'
+
+Therewith he sat down, and in a little while came forth old Hall-ward
+of the House of the Steer, and stood before the Alderman, and said:
+'O Alderman, all we say:  Since war is awake we will not tarry, but
+will go meet our foes while it is yet time.  The valiant men of whom
+thou tellest shall be our fellows, were there but three of them.  We
+know no better War-leader than Face-of-god of the House of the Face.
+Let him lead us.'
+
+Therewith he went his ways; and next came forth War-well, and said:
+'The House of the Bridge would have Face-of-god for War-leader, these
+tall men for fellows, and the shortest way to meet the foe.'  And he
+went back to his place.
+
+Next came Fox of Upton, and said:  'Time presses, or much might be
+spoken.  Thus saith the House of the Bull:  Let us go meet the foe,
+and take these valiant strangers for way-leaders, and Face-of-god for
+War-leader.'  And he also went back again.
+
+Then came forth two men together, an old man and a young, and the old
+man spake as soon as he stood still:  'The Men of the Vine bid me say
+their will:  They will not stay at home to have their houses burned
+over their heads, themselves slain on their own hearths, and their
+wives haled off to thralldom.  They will take any man for their
+fellow in arms who will smite stark strokes on their side.  They know
+Face-of-god, and were liefer of him for War-leader than any other,
+and they will follow him wheresoever he leadeth.  Thus my kindred
+biddeth me say, and I hight Fork-beard of Lea.  If I live through
+this war, I shall have lived through five.'
+
+Therewith he went back to his place; but the young man lifted up his
+voice and said:  'To all this I say yea, and so am I bidden by the
+kindred of the Sickle.  I am Red-beard of the Knolls, the son of my
+father.'  And he went to his place again.
+
+Then came forth Stone-face, and said:  'The House of the Face saith:
+Lead us through the wood, O Face-of-god, thou War-leader, and ye
+warriors of the Wolf.  I am Stone-face, as men know, and this word
+hath been given to me by the kindred.'  And he took his place again.
+
+Then came forth together the three chiefs of the Shepherds, to wit
+Hound-under-Greenbury, Strongitharm, and the Hyllier; and
+Strongitharm spake for all three, and said:
+
+'The Men of Greenbury, and they of the Fleece and the Thorn, are of
+one accord, and bid us say that they are well pleased to have Face-
+of-god for War-leader; and that they will follow him and the warriors
+of the Wolf to live or die with them; and that they are ready to go
+meet the foe at once, and will not skulk behind the walls of
+Greenbury.'
+
+Therewith the three went back again to their places.
+
+Then came forth that tall man that bare the Banner of the Wolf, when
+he had given the staff into the hands of him who stood next.  He came
+and stood over against the seat of the chieftains; and for a while he
+could say no word, but stood struggling with the strong passion of
+his joy; but at last he lifted his hands aloft, and cried out in a
+loud voice:
+
+'O war, war!  O death!  O wounding and grief!  O loss of friends and
+kindred! let all this be rather than the drawing back of meeting
+hands and the sundering of yearning hearts!' and he went back hastily
+to his place.  But from the ranks of the Woodlanders ran forth a
+young man, and cried out:
+
+'As is the word of Red-wolf, so is my word, Bears-bane of Carlstead;
+and this is the word which our little Folk hath put into our mouths;
+and O! that our hands may show the meaning of our mouths; for nought
+else can.'
+
+Then indeed went up a great shout, though many forebore to cry out;
+for now were they too much moved for words or sounds.  And in special
+was Face-of-god moved; and he scarce knew which way to look, lest he
+should break out into sobs and weeping; for of late he had been much
+among the Woodlanders, and loved them much.
+
+Then all the noise and clamour fell, and it was to men as if they who
+had come thither a folk, had now become an host of war.
+
+But once again the Alderman rose up and spake:
+
+'Now have ye yeasaid three things:  That we take Face-of-god of the
+House of the Face for our War-leader; that we fare under weapons at
+once against them who would murder us; and that we take the valiant
+Folk of the Wolf for our fellows in arms.'
+
+Therewith he stayed his speech, and this time the shout arose clear
+and most mighty, with the tossing up of swords and the clashing of
+weapons on shields.
+
+Then he said:  'Now, if any man will speak, here is the War-leader,
+and here is the chief of our new friends, to answer to whatso any of
+the kindred would have answered.'
+
+Thereon came forth the Fiddle from amongst the Men of the Sickle, and
+drew somewhat nigh to the Alderman, and said:
+
+'Alderman, we would ask of the War-leader if he hath devised the
+manner of our assembling, and the way of our war-faring, and the day
+of our hosting.  More than this I will not ask of him, because we wot
+that in so great an assembly it may be that the foe may have some spy
+of whom we wot not; and though this be not likely, yet some folk may
+babble; therefore it is best for the wise to be wise everywhere and
+always.  Therefore my rede it is, that no man ask any more concerning
+this, but let it lie with the War-leader to bring us face to face
+with the foe as speedily as he may.'
+
+All men said that this was well counselled.  But Face-of-god arose
+and said:  'Ye Men of the Dale, ye Shepherds and Woodlanders,
+meseemeth the Fiddle hath spoken wisely.  Now therefore I answer him
+and say, that I have so ordered everything since the Gate-thing was
+holden at Burgstead, that we may come face to face with the foemen by
+the shortest of roads.  Every man shall be duly summoned to the
+Hosting, and if any man fail, let it be accounted a shame to him for
+ever.'
+
+A great shout followed on his words, and he sat down again.  But Fox
+of Upton came forth and said:
+
+'O Alderman, we have yeasaid the fellowship of the valiant men who
+have come to us from out of the waste; but this we have done, not
+because we have known them, otherwise than by what our kinsman Face-
+of-god hath told us concerning them, but because we have seen clearly
+that they will be of much avail to us in our warfare.  Now,
+therefore, if the tall chieftain who sitteth beside thee were to do
+us to wit what he is, and whence he and his are come, it were well,
+and fain were we thereof; but if he listeth not to tell us, that also
+shall be well.'
+
+Then arose Folk-might in his place; but or ever he could open his
+mouth to speak, the tall Red-wolf strode forward bearing with him the
+Banner of the Wolf and the Sun-burst, and came and stood beside him;
+and the wind ran through the folds of the banner, and rippled it out
+above the heads of those twain.  Then Folk-might spake and said:
+
+
+'O Men of the Dale and the Sheepcotes, I will do as ye bid me do;
+And fain were ye of the story if every deal ye knew.
+But long, long were its telling, were I to tell it all:
+Let it bide till the Cup of Deliverance ye drink from hall to hall.
+
+'Like you we be of the kindreds, of the Sons of the Gods we come,
+Midst the Mid-earth's mighty Woodland of old we had our home;
+But of older time we abided 'neath the mountains of the Earth,
+O'er which the Sun ariseth to waken woe and mirth.
+
+Great were we then and many; but the long days wore us thin,
+And war, wherein the winner hath weary work to win.
+And the woodland wall behind us e'en like ourselves was worn,
+And the tramp of the hosts of the foemen adown its glades was borne
+On the wind that bent our wheat-fields.  So in the morn we rose,
+And left behind the stubble and the autumn-fruited close,
+And went our ways to the westward, nor turned aback to see
+The glare of our burning houses rise over brake and tree.
+But the foe was fierce and speedy, nor long they tarried there,
+And through the woods of battle our laden wains must fare;
+And the Sons of the Wolf were minished, and the maids of the Wolf
+waxed few,
+As amidst the victory-singing we fared the wild-wood through.
+
+'So saith the ancient story, that west and west we went,
+And many a day of battle we had in brake, on bent;
+Whilst here a while we tarried, and there we hastened on,
+And still the battle-harvest from many a folk we won.
+
+'Of the tale of the days who wotteth?  Of the years what man can
+tell,
+While the Sons of the Wolf were wandering, and knew not where to
+dwell?
+But at last we clomb the mountains, and mickle was our toil,
+As high the spear-wood clambered of the drivers of the spoil;
+And tangled were the passes and the beacons flared behind,
+And the horns of gathering onset came up upon the wind.
+So saith the ancient story, that we stood in a mountain-cleft,
+Where the ways and the valleys sundered to the right hand and the
+left.
+There in the place of sundering all woeful was the rede;
+We knew no land before us, and behind was heavy need.
+As the sword cleaves through the byrny, so there the mountain flank
+Cleft through the God-kin's people; and ne'er again we drank
+The wine of war together, or feasted side by side
+In the Feast-hall of the Warrior on the fruit of the battle-tide.
+For there we turned and sundered; unto the North we went
+And up along the waters, and the clattering stony bent;
+And unto the South and the Sheepcotes down went our sister's sons;
+And O for the years passed over since we saw those valiant ones!'
+
+
+He ceased, and laid his right hand on the banner-staff a little below
+the left hand of Red-wolf; and men were so keen to hear each word
+that he spake, that there was no cry nor sound of voices when he had
+done, only the sound of the rippling banner of the Wolf over the
+heads of those twain.  The Sun-beam bowed her head now, and wept
+silently.  But the Bride, she had drawn her sword, and held it
+upright in her hand before her, and the sun smote fire from out of
+it.
+
+Then it was but a little while before Red-wolf lifted up his voice,
+and sang:
+
+
+'Hearken a wonder, O Folk of the Field,
+How they that did sunder stand shield beside shield!
+
+Lo! the old wont and manner by fearless folk made,
+On the Bole of the Banner the brothers' hands laid.
+
+Lo! here the token of what hath betid!
+Grown whole is the broken, found that which was hid.
+
+Now one way we follow whate'er shall befall;
+As seeketh the swallow his yesteryear's hall.
+
+Seldom folk fewer to fight-stead hath fared;
+Ne'er have men truer the battle-reed bared.
+
+Grey locks now I carry, and old am I grown,
+Nor looked I to tarry to meet with mine own.
+
+For we who remember the deeds of old days
+Were nought but the ember of battle ablaze.
+
+For what man might aid us? what deed and what day
+Should come where Weird laid us aloof from the way?
+
+What man save that other of Twain rent apart,
+Our war-friend, our Brother, the piece of our heart.
+
+Then hearken the wonder how shield beside shield
+The twain that did sunder wend down to the Field!'
+
+
+Now when he had made an end, men could no longer forebear the shout;
+and it went up into the heavens, and was borne by the west-wind down
+the Dale to the ears of the stay-at-home women and men unmeet to go
+abroad, and it quickened their blood and the spirits within them as
+they heard it, and they smiled and were fain; for they knew that
+their kinsfolk were glad.
+
+But when there was quiet on the Mote-field again, Folk-might spake
+again and said;
+
+
+'It is sooth that my Brother sayeth, and that now again we wend,
+All the Sons of the Wolf together, till the trouble hath an end.
+But as for that tale of the Ancients, it saith that we who went
+To the northward, climbed and stumbled o'er many a stony bent,
+Till we happed on that isle of the waste-land, and the grass of
+Shadowy Vale,
+Where we dwelt till we throve a little, and felt our might avail.
+Then we fared abroad from the shadow and the little-lighted hold,
+And the increase fell to the valiant, and the spoil to the battle-
+bold,
+And never a man gainsaid us with the weapons in our hands;
+And in Silver-dale the happy we gat us life and lands.
+
+'So wore the years o'er-wealthy; and meseemeth that ye know
+How we sowed and reaped destruction, and the Day of the overthrow:
+How we leaned on the staff we had broken, and put our lives in the
+hand
+Of those whom we had vanquished and the feeble of the land;
+And these were the stone of stumbling, and the burden not to be
+borne,
+When the battle-blast fell on us and our day was over-worn.
+Thus then did our wealth bewray us, and left us wise and sad;
+And to you, bold men, it falleth once more to make us glad,
+If so your hearts are bidding, and ye deem the deed of worth.
+Such were we; what we shall be, 'tis yours to say henceforth.'
+
+
+He said furthermore:  'How great we have been I have told you
+already; and ye shall see for yourselves how little we be now.  Is it
+enough, and will ye have us for friends and brothers?  How say ye?'
+
+They answered with shout upon shout, so that all the place and the
+wild-wood round about was full of the voice of their crying; but when
+the clamour fell, then spake the Alderman and said:
+
+'Friend, and chieftain of the Wolf, thou mayst hear by this shouting
+of the people that we have no mind to naysay our yea-say.  And know
+that it is not our use and manner to seek the strong for friends, and
+to thrust aside the weak; but rather to choose for our friends them
+who are of like mind to us, men in whom we put our trust.  From
+henceforth then there is brotherhood between us; we are yours, and ye
+are ours; and let this endure for ever!'
+
+Then were all men full of joy; and now at last the battle seemed at
+hand, and the peace beyond the battle.
+
+Then men brought the hallowed beasts all garlanded with flowers into
+the Doom-ring, and there were they slain and offered up unto the
+Gods, to wit the Warrior, the Earth-god, and the Fathers; and
+thereafter was solemn feast holden on the Field of the Folk-mote, and
+all men were fain and merry.  Nevertheless, not all men abode there
+the feast through; for or ever the afternoon was well worn, were many
+men wending along the Portway eastward toward the Upper Dale, each
+man in his war-gear and with a scrip hung about him; and these were
+they who were bound for the trysting-place and the journey over the
+waste.
+
+So the Folk-mote was sundered; and men went to their houses, and
+there abode in peace the time of their summoning; since they wotted
+well that the Hosting was afoot.
+
+But as for the Woodlanders, who were at the Mote-stead with all their
+folk, women, children, and old men, they went not back again to
+Carlstead; but prayed the neighbours of the Middle Dale to suffer
+them to abide there awhile, which they yeasaid with a good will.  So
+the Woodlanders tilted themselves in, the more part of them, down in
+the meadows below the Mote-stead, along either side of Wildlake's
+Way; but their ancient folk, and some of the women and children, the
+neighbours would have into their houses, and the rest they furnished
+with victual and all that they needed without price, looking upon
+them as their very guests.  For indeed they deemed that they could
+see that these men would never return to Carlstead, but would abide
+with the Men of the Wolf in Silver-dale, once it were won.  And this
+they deemed but meet and right, yet were they sorry thereof; for the
+Woodlanders were well beloved of all the Dalesmen; and now that they
+had gotten to know that they were come of so noble a kindred, they
+were better beloved yet, and more looked upon.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.  OF THE HOSTING IN SHADOWY VALE
+
+
+
+It was on the evening of the fourth day after the Folk-mote that
+there came through the Waste to the rocky edge of Shadowy Vale a band
+of some fifteen score of men-at-arms, and with them a multitude of
+women and children and old men, some afoot, some riding on asses and
+bullocks; and with them were sumpter asses and neat laden with
+household goods, and a few goats and kine.  And this was the whole
+folk of the Woodlanders come to the Hosting in Shadowy Vale and the
+Home of the Children of the Wolf.  Their leaders of the way were
+Wood-father and Wood-wont and two other carles of Shadowy Vale; and
+Red-wolf the tall, and Bears-bane and War-grove were the captains and
+chieftains of their company.
+
+Thus then they entered into the narrow pass aforesaid, which was the
+ingate to the Vale from the Waste, and little by little its dimness
+swallowed up their long line.  As they went by the place where the
+lowering of the rock-wall gave a glimpse of the valley, they looked
+down into it as Face-of-god had done, but much change was there in
+little time.  There was the black wall of crags on the other side
+stretching down to the ghyll of the great Force; there ran the deep
+green waters of the Shivering Flood; but the grass which Face-of-god
+had seen naked of everything but a few kine, thereon now the tents of
+men stood thick.  Their hearts swelled within them as they beheld it,
+but they forebore the shout and the cry till they should be well
+within the Vale, and so went down silently into the darkness.  But as
+their eyes caught that dim image of the Wolf on the wall of the pass,
+man pointed it out to man, and not a few turned and kissed it
+hurriedly; and to them it seemed that many a kiss had been laid on
+that dear token since the days of old, and that the hard stone had
+been worn away by the fervent lips of men, and that the air of the
+mirk place yet quivered with the vows sworn over the sword-blade.
+
+But down through the dark they went, and so came on to the stony
+scree at the end of the pass and into the Vale; and the whole Folk
+save the three chieftains flowed over it and stood about it down on
+the level grass of the Vale.  But those three stood yet on the top of
+the scree, bearing the war-signs of the Shaft and the Spear, and
+betwixt them the banner of the Wolf and the Sunburst newly displayed
+to the winds of Shadowy Vale.
+
+Up and down the Vale they looked, and saw before the tents of men the
+old familiar banners of Burgdale rising and falling in the evening
+wind.  But amidst of the Doom-ring was pitched a great banner,
+whereon was done the image of the Wolf with red gaping jaws on a
+field of green; and about him stood other banners, to wit, The Silver
+Arm on a red field, the Red Hand on a white field, and on green
+fields both, the Golden Bushel and the Ragged Sword.
+
+All about the plain shone glittering war-gear of men as they moved
+hither and thither, and a stream of folk began at once to draw toward
+the scree to look on those new-comers; and amidst the helmed
+Burgdalers and the white-coated Shepherds went the tall men of the
+Wolf, bare-headed and unarmed save for their swords, mingled with the
+fair strong women of the kindred, treading barefoot the soft grass of
+their own Vale.
+
+Presently there was a great throng gathered round about the
+Woodlanders, and each man as he joined it waved hand or weapon toward
+them, and the joy of their welcome sent a confused clamour through
+the air.  Then forth from the throng stepped Folk-might, unarmed save
+his sword, and behind him was Face-of-god, in his war-gear save his
+helm, hand in hand with the Sun-beam, who was clad in her goodly
+flowered green kirtle, her feet naked like her sisters of the
+kindred.
+
+Then Folk-might cried aloud:  'A full and free greeting to our
+brothers!  Well be ye, O Sons of our Ancient Fathers!  And to-day are
+ye the dearer to us because we see that ye have brought us a gift, to
+wit, your wives and children, and your grandsires unmeet for war.  By
+this token we see how great is your trust in us, and that it is your
+meaning never to sunder from us again.  O well be ye; well be ye!'
+
+Then spake Red-wolf, and said:  'Ye Sons of the Wolf, who parted from
+us of old time in that cleft of the mountains, it is our very selves
+that we give unto you; and these are a part of ourselves; how then
+should we leave them behind us?  Bear witness, O men of Burgdale and
+the Sheepcotes, that we have become one Folk with the men of Shadowy
+Vale, never to be sundered again!'
+
+Then all that multitude shouted with a loud voice; and when the shout
+had died away, Folk-might spake again:
+
+'O Warriors of the Sundering, here shall your wives and children
+abide, while we go a little journey to rejoice our hearts with the
+hard handplay, and take to us that which we have missed:  and to-
+morrow morn is appointed for this same journey, unless ye be over
+foot-weary with the ways of the Waste.'
+
+Red-wolf smiled as he answered:  'This ye say in jest, brother; for
+ye may see that our day's journey hath not been over-much for our old
+men; how then should it weary those who may yet bear sword?  We are
+ready for the road and eager for the handplay.'
+
+'This is well,' said Folk-might, 'and what was to be looked for.
+Therefore, brother, do ye and your counsel-mates come straightway to
+the Hall of the Wolf; wherein, after ye have eaten and drunken, shall
+we take counsel with our brethren of Burgdale and the Sheepcotes, so
+that all may be ordered for battle!'
+
+Said Red-wolf:  'Good is that, if we must needs abide till to-morrow;
+for verily we came not hither to eat and drink and rest our bodies;
+but it must be as ye will have it.'
+
+Then the Sun-beam left the hand of Face-of-god and came forward, and
+held out both her palms to the Woodland-folk, and spake in a voice
+that was heard afar, though it were a woman's, so clear and sweet it
+was; and she said:
+
+'O Warriors of the Sundering, ye who be not needed in the Hall, and
+ye our sisters with your little ones and your fathers, come now to us
+and down to the tents which we have arrayed for you, and there think
+for a little that we are all at our very home that we long for and
+have yet to win, and be ye merry with us and make us merry.'
+
+Therewith she stepped forward daintily and entered into their throng,
+and took an old man of the Woodlanders by the hand, and kissed his
+cheek and led him away, and the coming rest seemed sweet to him.  And
+then came other women of the Vale, kind and fair and smiling, and led
+away, some an old mother of the Wood-landers, some a young wife, some
+a pair of lads; and not a few forsooth kissed and embraced the stark
+warriors, and went away with them toward the tents, which stood along
+the side of the Shivering Flood where it was at its quietest; for
+there was the grass the softest and most abundant.  There on the
+green grass were tables arrayed, and lamps were hung above them on
+spears, to be litten when the daylight should fail.  And the best of
+the victual which the Vale could give was spread on the boards, along
+with wine and dainties, bought in Silver-dale, or on the edges of the
+Westland with sword-strokes and arrow-flight.
+
+There then they feasted and were merry; and the Sun-beam and Bow-may
+and the other women of the Vale served them at table, and were very
+blithe with them, caressing them with soft words, and with clipping
+and kissing, as folk who were grown exceeding dear to them; so that
+that eve of battle was softer and sweeter to them than any hour of
+their life.  With these feasters were God-swain and Spear-fist of the
+delivered thralls of Silver-dale as glad as glad might be; but Wolf-
+stone their eldest was gone with Dallach to the Council in the Hall.
+
+The men of Burgdale and the Shepherds feasted otherwhere in all
+content, nor lacked folk of the Vale to serve them.  Amongst the men
+of the Face were the ten delivered thralls who had heart to meet
+their masters in arms:  seven of them were of Rose-dale and three of
+Silver-dale.
+
+The Bride was with her kindred of the Steer, with whom were many men
+of Shadowy Vale, and she served her friends and fellows clad in her
+war-gear, save helm and hauberk, bearing herself as one who is
+serving dear guests.  And men equalled her for her beauty to the Gods
+of the High Place and the Choosers of the Slain; and they who had not
+beheld her before marvelled at her, and her loveliness held all men's
+hearts in a net of desire, so that they forebore their meat to gaze
+upon her; and if perchance her hand touched some young man, or her
+cheek or sweet-breathed mouth came nigh to his face, he became
+bewildered and wist not where he was, nor what to do.  Yet was she as
+lowly and simple of speech and demeanour as if she were a gooseherd
+of fourteen winters.
+
+In the Hall was a goodly company, and all the leaders of the Folk
+were therein, and Folk-might and the War-leader sitting in the midst
+of those stone seats on the days.  There then they agreed on the
+whole ordering of the battle and the wending of the host, as shall be
+told later on; and this matter was long a-doing, and when it was
+done, men went to their places to sleep, for the night was well worn.
+
+But when men had departed and all was still, Folk-might, light-clad
+and without a weapon, left the Hall and walked briskly toward the
+nether end of the Vale.  He passed by all the tents, the last whereof
+were of the House of the Steer, and came to a place where was a great
+rock rising straight up from the plain like sheaves of black staves
+standing close together; and it was called Staff-stone, and tales of
+the elves had been told concerning it, so that Stone-face had beheld
+it gladly the day before.
+
+The moon was just shining into Shadowy Vale, and the grass was bright
+wheresoever the shadows of the high cliffs were not, and the face of
+Staff-stone shone bright grey as Folk-might came within sight of it,
+and he beheld someone sitting at the base of the rock, and as he drew
+nigher he saw that it was a woman, and knew her for the Bride; for he
+had prayed her to abide him there that night, because it was nigh to
+the tents of the House of the Steer; and his heart was glad as he
+drew nigh to her.
+
+She sat quietly on a fragment of the black rock, clad as she had been
+all day, in her glittering kirtle, but without hauberk or helm, a
+wreath of wind-flowers about her head, her feet crossed over each
+other, her hands laid palm uppermost in her lap.  She moved not as he
+drew nigh, but said in a gentle voice when he was close to her:
+
+'Chief of the Wolf, great warrior, thou wouldest speak with me; and
+good it is that friends should talk together on the eve of battle,
+when they may never meet alive again.'
+
+He said:  'My talk shall not be long; for thou and I both must sleep
+to-night, since there is work to hand to-morrow.  Now since, as thou
+sayest, O fairest of women, we may never meet again alive, I ask thee
+now at this hour, when we both live and are near to one another, to
+suffer me to speak to thee of my love of thee and desire for thee.
+Surely thou, who art the sweetest of all things the Gods and the
+kindreds have made, wilt not gainsay me this?'
+
+She said very sweetly, yet smiling:  'Brother of my father's sons,
+how can I gainsay thee thy speech?  Nay, hast thou not said it?  What
+more canst thou add to it that will have fresh meaning to mine ears?'
+
+He said:  'Thou sayest sooth:  might I then but kiss thine hand?'
+
+She said, no longer smiling:  'Yea surely, even so may all men do who
+can be called my friends--and thou art much my friend.'
+
+He took her hand and kissed it, and held it thereafter; nor did she
+draw it away.  The moon shone brightly on them; but by its light he
+could not see if she reddened, but he deemed that her face was
+troubled.  Then he said:  'It were better for me if I might kiss thy
+face, and take thee in mine arms.'
+
+Then said she:  'This only shall a man do with me when I long to do
+the like with him.  And since thou art so much my friend, I will tell
+thee that as for this longing, I have it not.  Bethink thee what a
+little while it is since the lack of another man's love grieved me
+sorely.'
+
+'The time is short,' said Folk-might, 'if we tell up the hours
+thereof; but in that short space have a many things betid.'
+
+She said:  'Dost thou know, canst thou guess, how sorely ashamed I
+went amongst my people?  I durst look no man in the face for the
+aching of mine heart, which methought all might see through my face.'
+
+'I knew it well,' he said; 'yet of me wert thou not ashamed but a
+little while ago, when thou didst tell me of thy grief.'
+
+She said:  'True it is; and thou wert kind to me.  Thou didst become
+a dear friend to me, methought.'
+
+'And wilt thou hurt a dear friend?' said he.
+
+'O no,' she said, 'if I might do otherwise.  Yet how if I might not
+choose?  Shall there be no forgiveness for me then?'
+
+He answered nothing; and still he held her hand that strove not to be
+gone from his, and she cast down her eyes.  Then he spake in a while:
+
+'My friend, I have been thinking of thee and of me; and now hearken:
+if thou wilt declare that thou feelest no sweetness embracing thine
+heart when I say that I desire thee sorely, as now I say it; or when
+I kiss thine hand, as now I kiss it; or when I pray thee to suffer me
+to cast mine arms about thee and kiss thy face, as now I pray it:  if
+thou wilt say this, then will I take thee by the hand straightway,
+and lead thee to the tents of the House of the Steer, and say
+farewell to thee till the battle is over.  Canst thou say this out of
+the truth of thine heart?'
+
+She said:  'What then if I cannot say this word?  What then?'
+
+But he answered nothing; and she sat still a little while, and then
+arose and stood before him, looking him in the eyes, and said:
+
+'I cannot say it.'
+
+Then he caught her in his arms and strained her to him, and then
+kissed her lips and her face again and again, and she strove not with
+him.  But at last she said:
+
+'Yet after all this shalt thou lead me back to my folk straight-way;
+and when the battle is done, if both we are living, then shall we
+speak more thereof.'
+
+So he took her hand and led her on toward the tents of the Steer, and
+for a while he spake nought; for he doubted himself, what he should
+say; but at last he spake:
+
+'Now is this better for me than if it had not been, whether I live or
+whether I die.  Yet thou hast not said that thou lovest me and
+desirest me.'
+
+'Wilt thou compel me?' she said.  'To-night I may not say it.  Who
+shall say what words my lips shall fashion when we stand together
+victorious in Silver-dale; then indeed may the time seem long from
+now.'
+
+He said:  'Yea, true is that; yet once again I say that so measured
+long and long is the time since first I saw thee in Burgdale before
+thou knewest me.  Yet now I will not bicker with thee, for be sure
+that I am glad at heart.  And lo you! our feet have brought us to the
+tents of thy people.  All good go with thee!'
+
+'And with thee, sweet friend,' she said.  Then she lingered a little,
+turning her head toward the tents, and then turned her face toward
+him and laid her hand on his neck, and drew his head adown to her and
+kissed his cheek, and therewith swiftly and lightly departed from
+him.
+
+Now the night wore and the morning came; and Face-of-god was abroad
+very early in the morning, as his custom was; and he washed the night
+from off him in the Carles' Bath of the Shivering Flood, and then
+went round through the encampment of the host, and saw none stirring
+save here and there the last watchmen of the night.  He spake with
+one or two of these, and then went up to the head of the Vale, where
+was the pass that led to Silver-dale; and there he saw the watch, and
+spake with them, and they told him that none had as yet come forth
+from the pass, and he bade them to blow the horn of warning to rouse
+up the Host as soon as the messengers came thence.  For forerunners
+had been sent up the pass, and had been set to hold watch at divers
+places therein to pass on the word from place to place.
+
+Thence went Face-of-god back toward the Hall; but when he was yet
+some way from it, he saw a slender glittering warrior come forth from
+the door thereof, who stood for a moment looking round about, and
+then came lightly and swiftly toward him; and lo! it was the Sun-
+beam, with a long hauberk over her kirtle falling below her knees, a
+helm on her head and plated shoes on her feet.  She came up to him,
+and laid her hand to his cheek and the golden locks of his head (for
+he was bare-headed), and said to him, smiling:
+
+'Gold-mane! thou badest me bear arms, and Folk-might also constrained
+me thereto.  Lo thou!'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Folk-might is wise then, even as I am; and
+forsooth as thou art.  For bethink thee if the bow drawn at a venture
+should speed the eyeless shaft against thy breast, and send me forth
+a wanderer from my Folk!  For how could I bear the sight of the fair
+Dale, and no hope to see thee again therein?'
+
+She said:  'The heart is light within me to-day.  Deemest thou that
+this is strange?  Or dost thou call to mind that which thou spakest
+the other day, that it was of no avail to stand in the Doom-ring of
+the Folk and bear witness against ourselves?  This will I not.  This
+is no light-mindedness that thou beholdest in me, but the valiancy
+that the Fathers have set in mine heart.  Deem not, O Gold-mane, fear
+not, that we shall die before they dight the bride-bed for us.'
+
+He would have kissed her mouth, but she put him away with her hand,
+and doffed her helm and laid it on the grass, and said:
+
+'This is not the last time that thou shalt kiss me, Gold-mane, my
+dear; and yet I long for it as if it were, so high as the Fathers
+have raised me up this morn above fear and sadness.'
+
+He said nought, but drew her to him, and wonder so moved him, that he
+looked long and closely at her face before he kissed her; and
+forsooth he could find no blemish in it:  it was as if it were but
+new come from the smithy of the Gods, and exceeding longing took hold
+of him.  But even as their lips met, from the head of the Vale came
+the voice of the great horn; and it was answered straightway by the
+watchers all down the tents; and presently arose the shouts of men
+and the clash of weapons as folk armed themselves, and laughter
+therewith, for most men were battle-merry, and the cries of women
+shrilly-clear as they hastened about, busy over the morning meal
+before the departure of the Host.  But Face-of-god said softly, still
+caressing the Sun-beam, and she him:
+
+'Thus then we depart from this Valley of the Shadows, but as thou
+saidst when first we met therein, there shall be no sundering of thee
+and me, but thou shalt go down with me to the battle.'
+
+And he led her by the hand into the Hall of the Wolf, and there they
+ate a morsel, and thereafter Face-of-god tarried not, but busied
+himself along with Folk-might and the other chieftains in arraying
+the Host for departure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.  THE HOST DEPARTETH FROM SHADOWY VALE:  THE FIRST DAY'S
+JOURNEY
+
+
+
+It was about three hours before noon that the Host began to enter
+into the pass out of Shadowy Vale by the river-side; and the women
+and children, and men unfightworthy, stood on the higher ground at
+the foot of the cliffs to see the Host wend on the way.  Of these a
+many were of the Woodlanders, who were now one folk with them of
+Shadowy Vale.  And all these had chosen to abide tidings in the Vale,
+deeming that there was little danger therein, since that last
+slaughter which Folk-might had made of the Dusky Men; albeit Face-of-
+god had offered to send them all to Burgstead with two score and ten
+men-at-arms to guard them by the way and to eke out the warders of
+the Burg.
+
+Now the fighting-men of Shadowy Vale were two long hundreds lacking
+five; of whom two score and ten were women, and three score and ten
+lads under twenty winters; but the women, though you might scarce see
+fairer of face and body, were doughty in arms, all good shooters in
+the bow; and the swains were eager and light-foot, cragsmen of the
+best, wont to scaling the cliffs of the Vale in search of the nests
+of gerfalcons and such-like fowl, and swimming the strong streams of
+the Shivering Flood; tough bodies and wiry, stronger than most grown
+men, and as fearless as the best.
+
+The order of the Departure of the Host was this:
+
+The Woodlanders went first into the pass, and with them were two
+score of the ripe Warriors of the Wolf.  Then came of the kindreds of
+Burgdale, the Men of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull; then the
+Men of the Vine and the Sickle; then the Shepherd-folk; and lastly,
+the Men of the Face led by Stone-face and Hall-face.  With these went
+another two score of the dwellers in Shadowy Vale, and the rest were
+scattered up and down the bands of the Host to guide them into the
+best paths and to make the way easier to them.  Face-of-god was
+sundered from his kindred, and went along with Folk-might in the
+forefront of the Host, while his father the Alderman went as a simple
+man-at-arms with his House in the rearward.  The Sun-beam followed
+her brother and Face-of-god amidst the Warriors of the Wolf, and with
+her were Bow-may clad in the Alderman's gift, and Wood-father and his
+children.  Bow-may had caused her to doff her hauberk for that day,
+whereon they looked to fall in with no foeman.  As for the Bride, she
+went with her kindred in all her war-gear; and the morning sun shone
+in the gems of her apparel, and her jewelled feet fell like flowers
+upon the deep grass of the upper Vale, and shone strange and bright
+amongst the black stones of the pass.  She bore a quiver at her back
+and a shining yew bow in her hand, and went amongst the bowmen, for
+she was a very deft archer.
+
+So fared they into the pass, leaving peace behind them, with all
+their banners displayed, and the banner of the Red-mouthed Wolf went
+with the Wolf and the Sun-burst in the forefront of their battle next
+after the two captains.
+
+As for their road, the grassy space between the rock-wall and the
+water was wide and smooth at first, and the cliffs rose up like
+bundles of spear-shafts high and clear from the green grass with no
+confused litter of fallen stones; so that the men strode on briskly,
+their hearts high-raised and full of hope.  And as they went, the
+sweetness of song stirred in their souls, and at last Bow-may fell to
+singing in a loud clear voice, and her cousin Wood-wise answered her,
+and all the warriors of the Wolf who were in their band fell into the
+song at the ending, and the sound of their melody went down the water
+and reached the ears of those that were entering the pass, and of
+those who were abiding till the way should be clear of them:  and
+this is some of what they sang:
+
+
+Bow-may singeth:
+
+Hear ye never a voice come crying
+   Out from the waste where the winds fare wide?
+'Sons of the Wolf, the days are dying,
+   And where in the clefts of the rocks do ye hide?
+
+'Into your hands hath the Sword been given,
+   Hard are the palms with the kiss of the hilt;
+Through the trackless waste hath the road been riven
+   For the blade to seek to the heart of the guilt.
+
+'And yet ye bide and yet ye tarry;
+   Dear deem ye the sleep 'twixt hearth and board,
+And sweet the maiden mouths ye marry,
+   And bright the blade of the bloodless sword.'
+
+Wood-wise singeth:
+
+Yea, here we dwell in the arms of our Mother
+   The Shadowy Queen, and the hope of the Waste;
+Here first we came, when never another
+   Adown the rocky stair made haste.
+
+Far is the foe, and no sword beholdeth
+   What deed we work and whither we wend;
+Dear are the days, and the Year enfoldeth
+   The love of our life from end to end.
+
+Voice of our Fathers, why will ye move us,
+   And call up the sun our swords to behold?
+Why will ye cry on the foeman to prove us?
+   Why will ye stir up the heart of the bold?
+
+Bow-may singeth:
+
+Purblind am I, the voice of the chiding;
+   Then tell me what is the thing ye bear?
+What is the gift that your hands are hiding,
+   The gold-adorned, the dread and dear?
+
+Wood-wise singeth:
+
+Dark in the sheath lies the Anvil's Brother,
+   Hid is the hammered Death of Men.
+Would ye look on the gift of the green-clad Mother?
+   How then shall ye ask for a gift again?
+
+The Warriors sing:
+
+Show we the Sunlight the Gift of the Mother,
+   As foot follows foot to the foeman's den!
+Gleam Sun, breathe Wind, on the Anvil's Brother,
+   For bare is the hammered Death of Men.
+
+
+Therewith they shook their naked swords in the air, and fared on
+eagerly, and as swiftly as the pass would have them fare.  But so it
+was, that when the rearward of the Host was entering the first of the
+pass, and was going on the wide smooth sward, the vanward was gotten
+to where there was but a narrow space clear betwixt water and cliff;
+for otherwhere was a litter of great rocks and small, hard to be
+threaded even by those who knew the passes well; so that men had to
+tread along the very verge of the Shivering Flood, and wary must they
+be, for the water ran swift and deep betwixt banks of sheer rock half
+a fathom below their very foot-soles, which had but bare space to go
+on the narrow a way.  So it held on for a while, and then got safer,
+and there was more space for going betwixt cliff and flood; albeit it
+was toilsome enough, since for some way yet there was a drift of
+stones to cumber their feet, some big and some little, and some very
+big.  After a while the way grew better, though here and there, where
+the cliffs lowered, were wide screes of loose stones that they must
+needs climb up and down.  Thereafter for a space was there an end of
+the stony cumber, but the way betwixt the river and the cliffs
+narrowed again, and the black crags grew higher, and at last so
+exceeding high, and the way so narrow, that the sky overhead was to
+them as though they were at the bottom of a well, and men deemed that
+thence they could see the stars at noontide.  For some time withal
+had the way been mounting up and up, though the cliffs grew higher
+over it; till at last they were but going on a narrow shelf, the
+Shivering Flood swirling and rattling far below them betwixt sheer
+rock-walls grown exceeding high; and above them the cliffs going up
+towards the heavens as black as a moonless starless night of winter.
+And as the flood thundered below, so above them roared the ceaseless
+thunder of the wind of the pass, that blew exceeding fierce down that
+strait place; so that the skirts of their garments were wrapped about
+their knees by it, and their feet were well-nigh stayed at whiles as
+they breasted the push thereof.
+
+But as they mounted higher and higher yet, the noise of the waters
+swelled into a huge roar that drowned the bellowing of the prisoned
+wind, and down the pass came drifting a fine rain that fell not from
+the sky, for between the clouds of that drift could folk see the
+heavens bright and blue above them.  This rain was but the spray of
+the great force up to whose steps they were climbing.
+
+Now the way got rougher as they mounted; but this toil was caused by
+their gain; for the rock-wall, which thrust out a buttress there as
+if it would have gone to the very edge of the gap where-through the
+flood ran, and so have cut the way off utterly, was here somewhat
+broken down, and its stones scattered down the steep bent, so that
+there was a passage, though a toilsome one.
+
+Thus then through the wind-borne drift of the great force, through
+which men could see the white waters tossing down below, amidst the
+clattering thunder of the Shivering Flood and the rumble of the wind
+of the gap, that tore through their garments and hair as if it would
+rend all to rags and bear it away, the banners of the Wolf won their
+way to the crest of the midmost height of the pass, and the long line
+of the Host came clambering after them; and each band of warriors as
+it reached the top cast an unheard shout from amidst the tangled fury
+of wind and waters.
+
+A little further on and all that turmoil was behind them; the sun,
+now grown low, smote the wavering column of spray from the force at
+their backs, till the rainbows lay bright across it; and the sunshine
+lay wide over a little valley that sloped somewhat steeply to the
+west right up from the edge of the river; and beyond these western
+slopes could men see a low peak spreading down on all sides to the
+plain, till it was like to a bossed shield, and the name of it was
+Shield-broad.  Dark grey was the valley everywhere, save that by the
+side of the water was a space of bright green-sward hedged about
+toward the mountain by a wall of rocks tossed up into wild shapes of
+spires and jagged points.  The river itself was spread out wide and
+shallow, and went rattling about great grey rocks scattered here and
+there amidst it, till it gathered itself together to tumble headlong
+over three slant steps into the mighty gap below.
+
+From the height in the pass those grey slopes seemed easy to
+traverse; but the warriors of the Wolf knew that it was far
+otherwise, for they were but the molten rock-sea that in time long
+past had flowed forth from Shield-broad and filled up the whole
+valley endlong and overthwart, cooling as it flowed, and the tumbled
+hedge of rock round about the green plain by the river was where the
+said rock-sea had been stayed by meeting with soft ground, and had
+heaped itself up round about the green-sward.  And that great rock-
+flood as it cooled split in divers fashions; and the rain and weather
+had been busy on it for ages, so that it was worn into a maze of
+narrow paths, most of which, after a little, brought the wayfarer to
+a dead stop, or else led him back again to the place whence he had
+started; so that only those who knew the passes throughly could
+thread that maze without immeasurable labour.
+
+Now when the men of the Host looked from the high place whereon they
+stood toward the green plain by the river, they saw on the top of
+that rock-wall a red pennon waving on a spear, and beside it three or
+four weaponed men gleaming bright in the evening sun; and they waved
+their swords to the Host, and made lightning of the sunbeams, and the
+men of the Host waved swords to them in turn.  For these were the
+outguards of the Host; and the place whereon they were was at whiles
+dwelt in by those who would drive the spoil in Silver-dale, and
+midmost of the green-sward was a booth builded of rough stones and
+turf, a refuge for a score of men in rough weather.
+
+So the men of the vanward gat them down the hill, and made the best
+of their way toward the grassy plain through that rocky maze which
+had once been as a lake of molten glass; and as short as the way
+looked from above, it was two hours or ever they came out of it on to
+the smooth turf, and it was moonlight and night ere the House of the
+Face had gotten on to the green-sward.
+
+There then the Host abode for that night, and after they had eaten
+lay down on the green grass and slept as they might.  Bow-may would
+have brought the Sun-beam into the booth with some others of the
+women, but she would not enter it, because she deemed that otherwise
+the Bride would abide without; and the Bride, when she came up, along
+with the House of the Steer, beheld the Sun-beam, that Wood-father's
+children had made a lair for her without like a hare's form; and
+forsooth many a time had she lain under the naked heaven in Shadowy
+Vale and the waste about it, even as the Bride had in the meadows of
+Burgdale.  So when the Bride was bidden thereto, she went meekly into
+the booth, and lay there with others of the damsels-at-arms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.  THE HOST COMETH TO THE EDGES OF SILVER-DALE
+
+
+
+So wore the night, and when the dawn was come were the two captains
+afoot, and they went from band to band to see that all was ready, and
+all men were astir betimes, and by the time that the sun smote the
+eastern side of Shield-broad ruddy, they had broken their fast and
+were dight for departure.  Then the horns blew up beside the banners,
+and rejoiced the hearts of men.  But by the command of the captains
+this was the last time that they should sound till they blew for
+onset in Silver-dale, because now would they be drawing nigher and
+nigher to the foemen, and they wotted not but that wandering bands of
+them might be hard on the lips of the pass, and might hear the horns'
+voice, and turn to see what was toward.
+
+Forth then went the banners of the Wolf, and the men of the vanward
+fell to threading the rock-maze toward the north, and in two hours'
+time were clear of the Dale under Shield-broad.  All went in the same
+order as yesterday; but on this day the Sun-beam would bear her
+hauberk, and had a sword girt to her side, and her heart was high and
+her speech merry.
+
+When they left the Dale under Shield-broad the way was easy and wide
+for a good way, the river flowing betwixt low banks, and the pass
+being more like a string of little valleys than a mere gap, as it had
+been on the other side of the Dale.  But when one third of the day
+was past, the way began to narrow on them again, and to rise up
+little by little; and at last the rock-walls drew close to the river,
+and when men looked toward the north they saw no way, and nought but
+a wall.  For the gap of the Shivering Flood turned now to the east,
+and the Flood came down from the east in many falls, as it were over
+a fearful stair, through a gap where there was no path between the
+cliffs and the water, nought but the boiling flood and its turmoil;
+so that they who knew not the road wondered what they should do.
+
+But Folk-might led the banners to where a great buttress of the
+cliffs thrust itself into the way, coming well-nigh down to the
+water, just at the corner where the river turned eastward, and they
+got them about it as they might, and on the other side thereof lo!
+another gap exceeding strait, scarce twenty foot over, wall-sided,
+rugged beyond measure, going up steeply from the great valley:  a
+little water ran through it, mostly filling up the floor of it from
+side to side; but it was but shallow.  This was now the battle-road
+of the Host, and the vanward entered it at once, turning their backs
+upon the Shivering Flood.
+
+Full toilsome and dreary was that strait way; often great stones hung
+above their heads, bridging the gap and hiding the sky from them; nor
+was there any path for them save the stream itself; so that whiles
+were they wading its waters to the knee or higher, and whiles were
+they striding from stone to stone amidst the rattle of the waters,
+and whiles were they stepping warily along the ledges of rock above
+the deeper pools, and in all wise labouring in overcoming the rugged
+road amidst the twilight of the gap.
+
+Thus they toiled till the afternoon was well worn, and so at last
+they came to where the rock-wall was somewhat broken down on the
+north side, and great rocks had fallen across the gap, and dammed up
+the waters, which fell scantily over the dam from stone to stone into
+a pool at the bottom of it.  Up this breach, then, below the force
+they scrambled and struggled, for rough indeed was the road for them;
+and so came they up out of the gap on to the open hill-side, a great
+shoulder of the heath sloping down from the north, and littered over
+with big stones, borne thither belike by some ice-river of the
+earlier days; and one great rock was in special as great as the hall
+of a wealthy goodman, and shapen like to a hall with hipped gables,
+which same the men of the Wolf called House-stone.
+
+There then the noise and clatter of the vanward rose up on the face
+of the heath, and men were exceeding joyous that they had come so far
+without mishap.  Therewith came weaponed men out from under House-
+stone, and they came toward the men of the vanward, and they were a
+half-score of the forerunners of the Wolf; therefore Folk-might and
+Face-of-god fell at once into speech with them, and had their
+tidings; and when they had heard them, they saw nought to hinder the
+host from going on their road to Silver-dale forthright; and there
+were still three hours of daylight before them.  So the vanward of
+the host tarried not, and the captains left word with the men from
+under House-stone that the rest of the Host should fare on after them
+speedily, and that they should give this word to each company, as men
+came up from out the gap.  Then they fared speedily up the hillside,
+and in an hour's wearing had come to the crest thereof, and to where
+the ground fell steadily toward the north, and hereabout the
+scattered stones ceased, and on the other side of the crest the heath
+began to be soft and boggy, and at last so soft, that if they had not
+been wisely led, they had been bemired oftentimes.  At last they came
+to where the flows that trickled through the mires drew together into
+a stream, so that men could see it running; and thereon some of the
+Woodlanders cried out joyously that the waters were running north;
+and then all knew that they were drawing nigh to Silver-dale.
+
+No man they met on the road, nor did they of Shadowy Vale look to
+meet any; because the Dusky Men were not great hunters for the more
+part, except it were of men, and especially of women; and, moreover,
+these hill-slopes of the mountain-necks led no-whither and were
+utterly waste and dreary, and there was nought to be seen there but
+snipes and bitterns and whimbrel and plover, and here and there a
+hill-fox, or the great erne hanging over the heath on his way to the
+mountain.
+
+When sunset came, they were getting clear of the miry ground, and the
+stream which they had come across amidst of the mires had got clearer
+and greater, and rattled down between wide stony sides over the
+heath; and here and there it deepened as it cleft its way through
+little knolls that rose out of the face of the mountain-neck.  As the
+Host climbed one of these and was come to its topmost (it was low
+enough not to turn the stream), Face-of-god looked and beheld dark-
+blue mountains rising up far off before him, and higher than these,
+but away to the east, the snowy peaks of the World-mountains.  Then
+he called to mind what he had seen from the Burg of the Runaways, and
+he took Folk-might by the arm, and pointed toward those far-off
+mountains.
+
+'Yea,' said Folk-might, 'so it is, War-leader.  Silver-dale lieth
+between us and yonder blue ridges, and it is far nigher to us than to
+them.'
+
+But the Sun-beam came close to those twain, and took Face-of-god by
+the hand and said:  'O Gold-mane, dost thou see?' and he turned about
+and beheld her, and saw how her cheeks flamed and her eyes glittered,
+and he said in a low voice:  'To-morrow for mirth or silence, for
+life or death.'
+
+But the whole vanward as they came up stayed to behold the sight of
+the mountains on the other side of Silver-dale, and the banners of
+the Folk hung over their heads, moving but little in the soft air of
+the evening:  so went they on their ways.
+
+The sun sank, and dusk came on them as they followed down the stream,
+and night came, and was clear and starlit, though the moon was not
+yet risen.  Now was the ground firm and the grass sweet and flowery,
+and wind-worn bushes were scattered round about them, as they began
+to go down into the ghyll that cleft the wall of Silver-dale, and the
+night-wind blew in their faces from the very Dale and place of the
+Battle to be.  The path down was steep at first, but the ghyll was
+wide, and the sides of it no longer straight walls, as in the gaps of
+their earlier journey, but broken, sloping back, and (as they might
+see on the morrow) partly of big stones and shaly grit, partly grown
+over with bushes and rough grass, with here and there a little stream
+trickling down their sides.  As they went, the ghyll widened out,
+till at last they were in a valley going down to the plain, in places
+steep, in places flat and smooth, the stream ever rattling down the
+midst of it, and they on the west side thereof.  The vale was well
+grassed, and oak-trees and ash and holly and hazel grew here and
+there about it; and at last the Host had before it a wood which
+filled the vale from side to side, not much tangled with undergrowth,
+and quite clear of it nigh to the stream-side.  Thereinto the vanward
+entered, but went no long way ere the leaders called a halt and bade
+pitch the banners, for that there should they abide the daylight.
+Thus it had been determined at the Council of the Hall of the Wolf;
+for Folk-might had said:  'With an Host as great as ours, and mostly
+of men come into a land of which they know nought at all, an
+onslaught by night is perilous:  yea, and our foes should be over-
+much scattered, and we should have to wander about seeking them.  Let
+us rather abide in the wood of Wood-dale till the morning, and then
+display our banners on the hill-side above Silver-dale, so that they
+may gather together to fall upon us:  in no case shall they keep us
+out of the Dale.'
+
+There then they stayed, and as each company came up to the wood, they
+were marshalled into their due places, so that they might set the
+battle in array on the edge of Silver-dale,
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.  FACE-OF-GOD LOOKETH ON SILVER-DALE:  THE BOWMEN'S
+BATTLE
+
+
+
+There then they rested, as folk wearied with the toilsome journey,
+when they had set sure watches round about their campment; and they
+ate quietly what meat they had with them, and so gat them to sleep in
+the wood on the eve of battle.
+
+But not all slept; for the two captains went about amongst the
+companies, Folk-might to the east, Face-of-god to the west, to look
+to the watches, and to see that all was ordered duly.  Also the Sun-
+beam slept not, but she lay beside Bow-may at the foot of an oak-
+tree; she watched Face-of-god as he went away amidst the men of the
+Host, and watched and waked abiding his returning footsteps.
+
+The night was well worn by then he came back to his place in the
+vanward, and on his way back he passed through the folk of the Steer
+laid along on the grass, all save those of the watch, and the light
+of the moon high aloft was mingled with the light of the earliest
+dawn; and as it happed he looked down, and lo! close to his feet the
+face of the Bride as she lay beside her grand-sire, her head pillowed
+on a bundle of bracken.  She was sleeping soundly like a child who
+has been playing all day, and whose sleep has come to him unsought
+and happily.  Her hands were laid together by her side; her cheek was
+as fair and clear as it was wont to be at her best; her face looked
+calm and happy, and a lock of her dark-red hair strayed from her
+uncovered head over her breast and lay across her wrists, so
+peacefully she slept.
+
+Face-of-god turned his eyes from her at once, and went by swiftly,
+and came to his own company.  The Sun-beam saw him coming, and rose
+straightway to her feet from beside Bow-may, who lay fast asleep, and
+she held out her hands to him; and he took them and kissed them, and
+he cast his arms about her and kissed her mouth and her face, and she
+his in likewise; and she said:
+
+'O Gold-mane, if this were but the morrow of to-morrow!  Yet shall
+all be well; shall it not?'
+
+Her voice was low, but it waked Bow-may, who sat up at once broad
+awake, after the manner of a hunter of the waste ever ready for the
+next thing to betide, and moreover the Sun-beam had been in her
+thoughts these two days, and she feared for her, lest she should be
+slain or maimed.  Now she smiled on the Sun-beam and said:
+
+'What is it?  Does thy mind forebode evil?  That needeth not.  I tell
+thee it is not so ill for us of the sword to be in Silver-dale.
+Thrice have I been there since the Overthrow, and never more than a
+half-score in company, and yet am I whole to-day.'
+
+'Yea, sister,' said Face-of-god, 'but in past times ye did your deed
+and then fled away; but now we come to abide here, and this night is
+the last of lurking.'
+
+'Ah,' she said, 'a little way from this I saw such things that we had
+good will to abide here longer, few as we were, but that we feared to
+be taken alive.'
+
+'What things were these?' said Face-of-god.
+
+'Nay,' she said, 'I will not tell thee now; but mayhap in the lighted
+winter feast-hall, when the kindred are so nigh us and about us that
+they seem to us as if they were all the world, I may tell it thee; or
+mayhap I never shall.'
+
+Said the Sun-beam, smiling:  'Thou wilt ever be talking, Bow-may.
+Now let the War-leader depart, for he will have much to do.'
+
+And she was well at ease that she had seen Face-of-god again; but he
+said:
+
+'Nay, not so much; all is well-nigh done; in an hour it will be broad
+day, and two hours thereafter shall the Banner be displayed on the
+edge of Silver-dale.'
+
+The cheek of the Sun-beam flushed, and paled again, as she said:
+'Yea, we shall stand even as our Fathers stood on the day when,
+coming from off the waste, they beheld it, and knew it would be
+theirs.  Ah me! how have I longed for this morn.  But now--Tell me,
+Gold-mane, dost thou deem that I am afraid?  And I whom thou hast
+deemed to be a God.'
+
+Quoth Bow-may:  'Thou shalt deem her twice a God ere noon-tide,
+brother Gold-mane.  But come now! the hour of deadly battle is at
+hand, and we may not laugh that away; and therefore I bid thee
+remember, Gold-mane, how thou didst promise to kiss me once more on
+the verge of deadly battle.'
+
+Therewith she stood up before him, and he tarried not, but kind and
+smiling took her face between his two hands and kissed her lips, and
+she cast her arms about him and kissed him, and then sank down on the
+grass again, and turned from him, and laid her face amongst the grass
+and the bracken, and they could see that she was weeping, and her
+body was shaken with sobs.  But the Sun-beam knelt down to her, and
+caressed her with her hand, and spake kind words to her softly, while
+Face-of-god went his ways to meet Folk-might.
+
+Now was the dawn fading into full daylight; and between dawn and
+sunrise were all men stirring; for the watch had waked the hundred-
+leaders, and they the leaders of scores and half-scores, and they the
+whole folk; and they sat quietly in the wood and made no noise.
+
+In the night the watch of the Sickle had fallen in with a thrall who
+had stolen up from the Dale to set gins for hares, and now in the
+early morning they brought him to the War-leader.  He was even such a
+man as those with whom Face-of-god had fallen in before, neither
+better nor worse than most of them:  he was sore afraid at first, but
+by then he was come to the captains he understood that he had
+happened upon friends; but he was dull of comprehension and slow of
+speech.  Albeit Folk-might gathered from him that the Dusky Men had
+some inkling of the onslaught; for he said that they had been
+gathering together in the marketplace of Silver-stead, and would do
+so again soon.  Moreover, the captains deemed from his speech that
+those new tribes had come to hand sooner than was looked for, and
+were even now in the Dale.  Folk-might smiled as one who is not best
+pleased when he heard these tidings; but Face-of-god was glad to hear
+thereof; for what he loathed most was that the war should drag out in
+hunting of scattered bands of the foe.  Herewith came Dallach to them
+as they talked (for Face-of-god had sent for him), and he fell to
+questioning the man further; by whose answers it seemed that many men
+also had come into the Dale from Rose-dale, so that they of the
+kindreds were like to have their hands full.  Lastly Dallach drew
+from the thrall that it was on that very morning that the great Folk-
+mote of the Dusky Men should be holden in the market-place of the
+Stead, which was right great, and about it were the biggest of the
+houses wherein the men of the kindred had once dwelt.
+
+So when they had made an end of questioning the thrall, and had given
+him meat and drink, they asked him if he would take weapons in his
+hand and lead them on the ways into the Dale, bidding him look about
+the wood and note how great and mighty an host they were.  And the
+carle yeasaid this, after staring about him a while, and they gave
+him spear and shield, and he went with the vanward as a way-leader.
+
+Again presently came a watch of the Shepherds, and they had found a
+man and a woman dead and stark naked hanging to the boughs of a great
+oak-tree deep in the wood.  This men knew for some vengeance of the
+Dusky Men, for it was clear to see that these poor people had been
+sorely tormented before they were slain.  Also the same watch had
+stumbled on the dead body of an old woman, clad in rags, lying
+amongst the rank grass about a little flow; she was exceeding lean
+and hunger-starved, and in her hand was a frog which she had half
+eaten.  And Dallach, when he heard of this, said that it was the wont
+of the Dusky Men to slay their thralls when they were past work, or
+to drive them into the wilderness to die.
+
+Lastly came a watch from the men of the Face, having with them two
+more thralls, lusty young men; these they had come upon in company of
+their master, who had brought them up into the wood to shoot him a
+buck, and therefore they bare bows and arrows.  The watch had slain
+the master straightway while the thralls stood looking on.  They were
+much afraid of the weaponed men, but answered to the questioning much
+readier than the first man; for they were household thralls, and
+better fed and clad than he, who was but a toiler in the fields.
+They yeasaid all his tale, and said moreover that the Folk-mote of
+the Dusky Men should be holden in the market-place that forenoon, and
+that most of the warriors should be there, both the new-comers and
+the Rose-dale lords, and that without doubt they should be under
+arms.
+
+To these men also they gave a good sword and a helm each, and bade
+them be brisk with their bows, and they said yea to marching with the
+Host; and indeed they feared nothing so much as being left behind;
+for if they fell into the hands of the Dusky Men, and their master
+missing, they should first be questioned with torments, and then
+slain in the evillest manner.
+
+Now whereas things had thus betid, and that they knew thus much of
+their foemen, Face-of-god called all the chieftains together, and
+they sat on the green grass and held counsel amongst them, and to one
+and all it seemed good that they should suffer the Dusky Men to
+gather together before they meddled with them, and then fall upon
+them in such order and such time as should seem good to the captains
+watching how things went; and this would be easy, whereas they were
+all lying in the wood in the same order as they would stand in
+battle-array if they were all drawn up together on the brow of the
+hill.  Albeit Face-of-god deemed it good, after he had heard all that
+they who had been in the Stead could tell him thereof, that the
+Shepherd-Folk, who were more than three long hundreds, and they of
+the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull, four hundreds in all, should
+take their places eastward of the Woodlanders who had led the
+vanward.
+
+Straightway the word was borne to these men, and the shift was made:
+so that presently the Woodlanders were amidmost of the Host, and had
+with them on their right hands the Men of the Steer, the Bridge, and
+the Bull, and beyond them the Shepherd-Folk.  But on their left hand
+lay the Men of the Vine, then they of the Sickle, and lastly the Men
+of the Face, and these three kindreds were over five hundreds of
+warriors:  as for the Men of the Wolf, they abode at first with those
+companies which they had led through the wastes, though this was
+changed afterwards.
+
+All this being done, Face-of-god gave out that all men should break
+their fast in peace and leisure; and while men were at their meat,
+Folk-might spake to Face-of-god and said:  'Come, brother, for I
+would show thee a goodly thing; and thou, Dallach, come with us.'
+
+Then he brought them by paths in the wood till Face-of-god saw the
+sky shine white between the tree-boles, and in a little while they
+were come well-nigh out of the thicket, and then they went warily;
+for before them was nought but the slopes of Wood-dale, going down
+steeply into Silver-dale, with nought to hinder the sight of it, save
+here and there bushes or scattered trees; and so fair and lovely it
+was that Face-of-god could scarce forbear to cry out.  He saw that it
+was only at the upper or eastern end, where the mountains of the
+Waste went round about it, that the Dale was narrow; it soon widened
+out toward the west, and for the most part was encompassed by no such
+straight-sided a wall as was Burgdale, but by sloping hills and
+bents, mostly indeed somewhat higher and steeper than the pass
+wherein they were, but such as men could well climb if they had a
+mind to, and there were any end to their journey.  The Dale went due
+west a good way, and then winded about to the southwest, and so was
+hidden from them thereaway by the bents that lay on their left hand.
+As it was wider, so it was not so plain a ground as was Burgdale, but
+rose in knolls and little hills here and there.  A river greater than
+the Weltering Water wound about amongst the said mounds; and along
+the side of it out in the open dale were many goodly houses and
+homesteads of stone.  The knolls were mostly covered over with vines,
+and there were goodly and great trees in groves and clumps, chiefly
+oak and sweet chestnut and linden; many were the orchards, now in
+blossom, about the homesteads; the pastures of the neat and horses
+spread out bright green up from the water-side, and deeper green
+showed the acres of the wheat on the lower slopes of the knolls, and
+in wide fields away from the river.
+
+Just below the pitch of the hill whereon they were, lay Silver-stead,
+the town of the Dale.  Hitherto it had been an unfenced place; but
+Folk-might pointed to where on the western side a new white wall was
+rising, and on which, young as the day yet was, men were busy laying
+the stones and spreading the mortar.  Fair seemed that town to Face-
+of-god:  the houses were all builded of stone, and some of the
+biggest were roofed with lead, which also as well as silver was dug
+out of the mountains at the eastern end of the Dale.  The market-
+place was clear to see from where they stood, though there were
+houses on all sides of it, so wide it was.  From their standing-place
+it was but three furlongs to this heart of Silver-dale; and Face-of-
+god could see brightly-clad men moving about in it already.  High
+above their heads he beheld two great clots of scarlet and yellow
+raised on poles and pitched in front of a great stone-built hall
+roofed with lead, which stood amidmost of the west end of the Place,
+and betwixt those poles he saw on a mound with long slopes at its
+sides somewhat of white stone, and amidmost of the whole Place a
+great stack of faggot-wood built up four-square.  Those red and
+yellow things on the poles he deemed would be the banners of the
+murder-carles; and Folk-might told him that even so it was, and that
+they were but big bunches of strips of woollen cloth, much like to
+great ragmops, save that the rags were larger and longer:  no other
+token of war, said Folk-might, did those folk carry, save a
+crookbladed sword, smeared with man's blood, and bigger than any man
+might wield in battle.
+
+'Art thou far-seeing, War-leader?' quoth he.  'What canst thou see in
+the market-place?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Far-seeing am I above most men, and I see in the
+Place a man in scarlet standing by the banner, which is pitched in
+front of the great stone hall, near to the mound with the white stone
+on it; and meseemeth he beareth a great horn in his hand.'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Yea, and that stone hall was our Mote-house when
+we were lords of the Dale, and thence it was that they who are now
+thralls of the Dusky Men sent to them their message and token of
+yielding.  And as for that white stone, it is the altar of their god;
+for they have but one, and he is that same crook-bladed sword.  And
+now that I look, I see a great stack of wood amidmost the market-
+place, and well I know what that betokeneth.'
+
+'Lo you!' said Face-of-god, 'the man with the horn is gone up on to
+the altar-mound, and meseemeth he is setting the little end of the
+horn to his mouth.'
+
+'Hearken then!' said Folk-might.  And in a moment came the hoarse
+tuneless sound of the horn down the wind towards them; and Folk-might
+said:
+
+'I deem I should know what that blast meaneth; and now is it time
+that the Host drew nigher to set them in array behind these very
+trees.  But if ye will, War-leader, we will abide here and watch the
+ways of the foemen, and send Dallach with the word to the Host; also
+I would have thee suffer me to bid hither at once two score and ten
+of the best of the bowmen of our folk and the Woodlanders, and Wood-
+wise to lead them, for he knoweth well the land hereabout, and what
+is good to do.'
+
+'It is good,' said Face-of-god.  'Be speedy, Dallach!'
+
+So Dallach departed, running lightly, and the two chiefs abode there;
+and the horn in Silver-stead blew at whiles for a little, and then
+stayed; and Folk-might said:
+
+'Lo you! they come flockmeal to the Mote-stead; the Place will be
+filled ere long.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Will they make offerings to their god at the
+hallowing in of their Folk-mote?  Where then are the slaughter-
+beasts?'
+
+'They shall not long be lacking,' said Folk-might.  'See you it is
+getting thronged about the altar and the Mote-house.'
+
+Now there were four ways into the Market-place of Silver-stead turned
+toward the four airts, and the midmost of the kindreds' battle looked
+right down the southern one, which went up to the wood, but stopped
+there in a mere woodland path, and the more part of the town lay
+north and west of this way, albeit there was a way from the east
+also.  But the hill-side just below the two captains lay two furlongs
+west of this southern way; and it went down softly till it was gotten
+quite near to the backs of the houses on the south side of the
+Market-place, and was sprinkled scantly with bushes and trees as
+aforesaid; but at last were there more bushes, which well-nigh made a
+hedge across it, reaching from the side of the southern way; and a
+foot or two beyond these bushes the ground fell by a steep and broken
+bent down to the level of the Market-place, and betwixt that fringe
+of bushes and the backs of the houses on the south side of the Place
+was less it maybe than a full furlong:  but the southern road
+aforesaid went down softly into the Market-place, since it had been
+fashioned so by men.
+
+Now the two chiefs heard a loud blast of horns come up from the town,
+and lo! a great crowd of men wending their ways down the road from
+the north, and they came into the market-place with spears and other
+weapons tossing in the air, and amidst of these men, who seemed to be
+all of the warriors, they saw as they drew nigher some two score and
+ten of men clad in long raiment of yellow and scarlet, with tall
+spiring hats of strange fashion on their heads, and in their hands
+long staves with great blades like scythes done on to them; and
+again, in the midst of these yellow and red glaive-bearers, in the
+very heart of the throng were some score of naked folk, they deemed
+both men and women, but were not sure, so close was the throng; nor
+could they see if they were utterly naked.
+
+'Lo you, brother!' quoth Folk-might, 'said I not that the beasts for
+the hewing should not tarry?  Yonder naked folk are even they:  and
+ye may well deem that they are the thralls of the Dusky Men; and
+meseemeth by the whiteness of their skins they be of the best of
+them.  For these felons, it is like, look to winning great plenty of
+thralls in Burgdale, and so set the less store on them they have, and
+may expend them freely.'
+
+As he spake they heard the sound of men marching in the wood behind
+them, and they turned about and saw that there was come Wood-wise,
+and with him upwards of two score and ten of the bowmen of the
+Woodlanders and the Wolf--huntsmen, cragsmen, and scourers of the
+Waste; men who could shoot the chaffinch on the twig a hundred yards
+aloof; who could make a hiding-place of the bennets of the wayside
+grass, or the stem of the slender birch-tree.  With these must needs
+be Bow-may, who was the closest shooter of all the kindreds.
+
+So then Wood-wise told the War-leader that Dallach had given the word
+to the Host, and that all men were astir and would be there presently
+in their ordered companies; and Face-of-god spake to Folk-might, and
+said:  'Chief of the Wolf, wilt thou not give command to these
+bowmen, and set them to the work; for thou wottest thereof.'
+
+'Yea, that will I,' said Folk-might, and turned to Wood-wise, and
+said:  'Wood-wise, get ye down the slope, and loose on these felons,
+who have a murder on hand, if so be ye have a chance to do it wisely.
+But in any case come ye all back; for all shall be needed yet to-day.
+So flee if they pursue, for ye shall have us to flee to.  Now be ye
+wary, nor let the curse of the Wolf and the Face lie on your
+slothfulness.'
+
+Wood-wise did but nod his head and lift his hand to his fellows, who
+set off after him down the slope without more tarrying.  They went
+very warily, as if they were hunting a quarry which would flee from
+them; and they crept amongst the grass and stones from bush to bush
+like serpents, and so, unseen by the Dusky Men, who indeed were
+busied over their own matters, they came to the fringe of bushes
+above the broken ground aforesaid, and there they took their stand,
+and before them below those steep banks was but the space at the back
+of the houses.  As to the houses, as aforesaid, they were not so high
+as elsewhere about the Market-place; and at the end of a long low
+hall there was a gap between its gable and the next house, whereby
+they had a clear sight of the Place about the god's altar and the
+banners, and the great hall of Silver-dale, with the double stair
+that went up to the door thereof.
+
+There then they made them ready, and Wood-wise set men to watch that
+none should come sidelong on them unawares; their bows were bent and
+their quivers open, and they were eager for the fray.
+
+Thus they beheld the Market-place from their cover, and saw that
+those folk who were to be hewn to the god were now standing facing
+the altar in a half-ring, and behind them in another half-ring the
+glaive-bearers who had brought them thither stood glaive in hand
+ready to hew them down when the token should be given; and these were
+indeed the priests of the god.
+
+There was clear space round about these poor slaughter-thralls, so
+that the bowmen could see them well, and they told up a score of
+them, half men, half women, and they were all stark naked save for
+wreaths of flowers about their middles and their necks; and they had
+shackles of lead about their wrists; which same lead should be taken
+out of the fire wherein they should be burned, and from the shape it
+should take after it had passed through the fire would the priests
+foretell the luck of the deed to be done.
+
+It was clear to be seen from thence that Folk-might was right when he
+said that these slaughter-thralls were of the best of the house-
+thralls and bed-mates of the Dusky Men, and that these felons were
+open-handed to their god, and would not cheat him, or withhold from
+him the best and most delicate of all they had.
+
+Now spake Wood-wise to those about him:  'It is sure that Folk-might
+would have us give these poor thralls a chance, and that we must
+loose upon the felons who would hew them down; and if we are to come
+back again, we can go no nigher.  What sayest thou, Bow-may?  Is it
+nigh enough?  Can aught be done?'
+
+'Yea, yea,' she said, 'nigh enough it is; but let Gold-ring be with
+me and half a score of the very best, whether they be of our folk or
+the Woodlanders, men who cannot miss such a mark; and when we have
+loosed, then let all loose, and stay not till our shot be spent.
+Haste, now haste! time presseth; for if the Host showeth on the brow
+of the hill, these felons will hew down their slaughter-beasts before
+they turn on their foemen.  Let the grey-goose wing speed trouble and
+confusion amongst them.'
+
+But ere she had done her words Wood-wise had got to speaking quietly
+with the Woodlanders; and Bears-bane, who was amidst them, chose out
+eight of the best of his folk, men who doubted nothing of hitting
+whatever they could see in the Market-place; and they took their
+stand for shooting, and with them besides Bow-may were two women and
+four men of the Wolf, and Gold-ring withal, a carle of fifty winters,
+long, lean, and wiry, a fell shooter if ever anyone were.
+
+So all these notched their shafts and laid them on the yew, and each
+had between the two last fingers of the shaft-hand another shaft
+ready, and a half score more stuck into the ground before him.
+
+Now giveth Wood-wise the word to these sixteen as to which of the
+felons with the glaives they shall each one aim at; and he saith
+withal in a soft voice:  'Help cometh from the Hill; soon shall
+battle be joined in Silver-dale.'
+
+Thus stand they watching Bow-may and Gold-ring till they draw home
+the notches; and amidst their waiting the glaive-bearing felons fall
+a-singing a harsh and ugly hymn to their crooked-sword god, and the
+Market-stead is thronged endlong and overthwart with the tribes of
+the Dusky Men.
+
+There now standeth Bow-may far-sighted and keen-eyed, her face as
+pale as a linen sleeve, an awful smile on her glittering eyes and
+close-set lips, and she feeling the twisted string of the red yew and
+the polished sides of the notch, while the yelling song of the Dusky
+priests quavers now and ends with a wild shrill cry, and she noteth
+the midmost of the priests beginning to handle his weapon:  then
+swift and steady she draweth home the notches, while the yew bow
+standeth still as the oak-bole ere the summer storm ariseth, and the
+twang of the sixteen strings maketh but one fell sound as the
+feathered bane of men goeth on its way.
+
+There was silence for a moment of time in the Market of Silver-stead,
+as if the bolt of the Gods had fallen there; and then arose a huge
+wordless yell from those about the altar, and one of the priests who
+was left hove up his glaive two-handed to smite the naked slaughter-
+thralls; but or ever the stroke fell, Bow-may's second shaft was
+through his throat, and he rolled over amidst his dead fellows; and
+the other fifteen had loosed with her, and then even as they could
+Wood-wise and the others of their company; and all they notched and
+loosed without tarrying, and no shout, no word came from their lips,
+only the twanging strings spake for them; for they deemed the minutes
+that hurried by were worth much joy of their lives to be.  And few
+indeed were the passing minutes ere the dead men lay in heaps about
+the Altar of the Crooked Sword, and the wounded men wallowed amidst
+them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.  OF THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE MEN OF THE STEER, THE BRIDGE,
+AND THE BULL
+
+
+
+Wild was the turmoil and confusion in the Market-stead; for the more
+part of the men therein knew not what had befallen about the altar,
+though some clomb up to the top of that stack of faggots built for
+the burning of the thralls, and when they saw what was toward fell to
+yelling and cursing; and their fellows on the plain Place could not
+hear their story for the clamour, and they also fell to howling as if
+a wood full of wild dogs was there.
+
+And still the shafts rained down on that throng from the Bent of the
+Bowmen, for another two score men of the Woodlanders had crept down
+the hill to them, and shafts failed them not.  But the Dusky Men
+about the altar, for all their terror, or even maybe because of it,
+now began to turn upon the scarce-seen foemen, and to press up wildly
+toward the hill-side, though as it were without any order or aim.
+Every man of them had his weapons, and those no mere gilded toys, but
+their very tools of battle; and some, but no great number, had their
+bows with them and a few shafts; and these began to shoot at
+whatsoever they could see on the hill-side, but at first so wildly
+and hurriedly that they did no harm.
+
+It must be said of them that at first only those about the altar fell
+on toward the hill; for those about the road that led southward knew
+not what had betided nor whither to turn.  So that at this beginning
+of the battle, of all the thousands in the great Place it was but a
+few hundreds that set on the Bent of the Bowmen, and at these the
+bowmen of the kindreds shot so close and so wholly together that they
+fell one over another in the narrow ways between the houses whereby
+they must needs go to gather on the plain ground betwixt the backs of
+the houses and the break of the hill-side.  But little by little the
+archers of the Dusky Men gathered behind the corpses of the slain,
+and fell to shooting at what they could see of the men of the
+kindreds, which at that while was not much, for as bold as they were,
+they fought like wary hunters of the Wood and the Waste.
+
+But now at last throughout all that throng of Felons in the Market-
+place the tale began to spread of foemen come into the Dale and
+shooting from the Bents, and all they turned their faces to the hill,
+and the whole set of the throng was thitherward; though they fared
+but slowly, so evil was the order of them, each man hindering his
+neighbour as he went.  And not only did the Dusky Men come flockmeal
+toward the Bent of the Bowmen, but also they jostled along toward the
+road that led southward.  That beheld Wood-wise from the Bent, and he
+was minded to get him and his aback, now that they had made so great
+a slaughter of the foemen; and two or three of his fellows had been
+hurt by arrows, and Bow-may, she would have been slain thrice over
+but for the hammer-work of the Alderman.  And no marvel was that; for
+now she stood on a little mound not half covered by a thin thorn-
+bush, and notched and loosed at whatever was most notable, as though
+she were shooting at the mark on a summer evening in Shadowy Vale.
+But as Wood-wise was at point to give the word to depart, from behind
+them rang out the merry sound of the Burgdale horns, and he turned to
+look at the wood-side, and lo! thereunder was the hill bright and
+dark with men-at-arms, and over them floated the Banners of the Wolf,
+and the Banners of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull.  Then gave
+forth the bowmen of the kindreds their first shout, and they made no
+stay in their shooting; but shot the eagerer, for they deemed that
+help would come without their turning about to draw it to them:  and
+even so it was.  For straightway down the bent came striding Face-of-
+god betwixt the two Banners of the Wolf, and beside him were Red-wolf
+the tall and War-grove, and therewithal Wood-wont and Wood-wicked,
+and many other men of the Wolf; for now that the men of the kindreds
+had been brought face to face with the foe, and there was less need
+of them for way-leaders, the more part of them were liefer to fight
+under their own banner along with the Woodlanders; so that the
+company of those who went under the Wolves was more than three long
+hundreds and a half; and the bowmen on the edge of the bent shouted
+again and merrily, when they felt that their brothers were amongst
+them, and presently was the arrow-storm at its fiercest, and the
+twanging of bow-strings and the whistle of the shafts was as the wind
+among the clefts of the mountains; for all the new-comers were bowmen
+of the best.
+
+But the kindreds of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull, they hung
+yet a while longer on the hills' brow, their banners floating over
+them and their horns blowing; and the Dusky Felons in the Market-
+place beheld them, and fear and rage at once filled their hearts, and
+a fierce and dreadful yell brake out from them, and joyously did the
+Men of Burgdale answer them, and song arose amongst them even such as
+this:
+
+
+The Men of the Bridge sing:
+
+Why stand ye together, why bear ye the shield,
+Now the calf straineth tether at edge of the field?
+
+Now the lamb bleateth stronger and waters run clear,
+And the day groweth longer and glad is the year?
+
+Now the mead-flowers jostle so thick as they stand,
+And singeth the throstle all over the land?
+
+The Men of the Steer sing:
+
+No cloud the day darkened, no thunder we heard,
+But the horns' speech we hearkened as men unafeared.
+
+Yea, so merry it sounded, we turned from the Dale,
+Where all wealth abounded, to wot of its tale.
+
+The Men of the Bridge sing:
+
+What white boles then bear ye, what wealth of the woods?
+What chafferers hear ye bid loud for your goods?
+
+The Men of the Bull sing:
+
+O the bright beams we carry are stems of the steel;
+Nor long shall we tarry across them to deal.
+
+Hark the men of the cheaping, how loudly they cry
+On the hook for the reaping of men doomed to die!
+
+They all sing:
+
+Heave spear up! fare forward, O Men of the Dale!
+For the Warrior, our war-ward, shall hearken the tale.
+
+
+Therewith they ceased a moment, and then gave a great and hearty
+shout all together, and all their horns blew, and they moved on down
+the hill as one man, slowly and with no jostling, the spear-men
+first, and then they of the axe and the sword; and on their flanks
+the deft archers loosed on the stumbling jostling throng of the Dusky
+Men, who for their part came on drifting and surging up the road to
+the hill.
+
+But when those big spearmen of the Dale had gone a little way the
+horns' voice died out, and their great-staved spears rose up from
+their shoulders into the air, and stood so a moment, and then slowly
+fell forward, as the oars of the longship fall into the row-locks,
+and then over the shoulders of the foremost men showed the steel of
+the five ranks behind them, and their own spears cast long bars of
+shadow on the whiteness of the sunny road.  No sound came from them
+now save the rattle of their armour and the tramp of their steady
+feet; but from the Dusky Men rose up hideous confused yelling, and
+those that could free themselves from the tangle of the throng rushed
+desperately against the on-rolling hedge of steel, and the whole
+throng shoved on behind them.  Then met steel and men; here and there
+an ash-stave broke; here and there a Dusky Felon rolled himself
+unhurt under the ash-staves, and hewed the knees of the Dalesmen, and
+a tall man came tottering down; but what men or wood-wights could
+endure the push of spears of those mighty husbandmen?  The Dusky Ones
+shrunk back yelling, or turned their backs and rushed at their own
+folk with such fierce agony that they entered into the throng, till
+the terror of the spear reached to the midmost of it and swayed them
+back on the hindermost; for neither was there outgate for the felons
+on the flanks of the spearmen, since there the feathered death beset
+them, and the bowmen (and the Bride amongst the foremost) shot wholly
+together, and no shaft flew idly.  But the wise leaders of the
+Dalesmen would not that they should thrust in too far amongst the
+howling throng of the Dusky Men, lest they should be hemmed in by
+them; for they were but a handful in regard to them:  so there they
+stayed, barring the way to the Dusky Men, and the bowmen still loosed
+from the flanks of them, or aimed deftly from betwixt the ranks of
+the spearmen.
+
+And now was there a space of ten strides or more betwixt the Dalesmen
+and their foes, over which the spears hung terribly, nor durst the
+Dusky Men adventure there; and thereon was nought but men dead or
+sorely hurt.  Then suddenly a horn rang thrice shrilly over all the
+noise and clamour of the throng, and the ranks of the spearmen
+opened, and forth into that space strode two score of the swordsmen
+and axe-wielders of the Dale, their weapons raised in their hands,
+and he who led them was Iron-hand of the House of the Bull:  tall he
+was, wide-shouldered, exceeding strong, but beardless and fair-faced.
+He bore aloft a two-edged sword, broad-bladed, exceeding heavy, so
+that few men could wield it in battle, but not right long; it was an
+ancient weapon, and his father before him had called it the Barley-
+scythe.  With him were some of the best of the kindreds, as Wolf of
+Whitegarth, Long-hand of Oakholt, Hart of Highcliff, and War-well the
+captain of the Bridge.  These made no tarrying on that space of the
+dead, but cried aloud their cries:  'For the Burg and the Steer! for
+the Dale and the Bridge! for the Dale and the Bull!' and so fell at
+once on the Felons; who fled not, nor had room to flee; and also they
+feared not the edge-weapons so sorely as they feared those huge
+spears.  So they turned fiercely on the swordsmen, and chiefly on
+Iron-hand, as he entered in amongst them the first of all, hewing to
+the right hand and the left, and many a man fell before the Barley-
+scythe; for they were but little before him.  Yet as one fell another
+took his place, and hewed at him with the steel axe and the crooked
+sword; and with many strokes they clave his shield and brake his helm
+and rent his byrny, while he heeded little save smiting with the
+Barley-scythe, and the blood ran from his arm and his shoulder and
+his thigh.
+
+But War-well had entered in among the foe on his left hand, and
+unshielded hove up a great broad-bladed axe, that clave the iron
+helms of the Dusky Men, and rent their horn-scaled byrnies.  He was
+not very tall, but his shoulders were huge and his arms long, and
+nought could abide his stroke.  He cleared a ring round Iron-hand,
+whose eyes were growing dim as the blood flowed from him, and hewed
+three strokes before him; then turned and drew the champion out of
+the throng, and gave him into the arms of his fellows to stanch the
+blood that drained away the might of his limbs; and then with a great
+wordless roar leaped back again on the Dusky Men as the lion leapeth
+on the herd of swine; and they shrank away before him; and all the
+swordsmen shouted, 'For the Bridge, for the Bridge!' and pressed on
+the harder, smiting down all before them.  On his left hand now was
+Hart of Highcliff wielding a good sword hight Chip-driver, wherewith
+he had slain and hurt a many, fighting wisely with sword and shield,
+and driving the point home through the joints of the armour.  But
+even therewith, as he drave a great stroke at a lord of the Dusky
+Ones, a cast-spear came flying and smote him on the breast, so that
+he staggered, and the stroke fell flatlings on the shield-boss of his
+foe, and Chip-driver brake atwain nigh the hilts; but Hart closed
+with him, and smote him on the face with the pommel, and tore his axe
+from his hand and clave his skull therewith, and slew him with his
+own weapon, and fought on valiantly beside War-well.
+
+Now War-well had fought so fiercely that he had rent his own hauberk
+with the might of his strokes, and as he raised his arm to smite a
+huge stroke, a deft man of the Felons thrust the spike of his war-axe
+up under his arm; and when War-well felt the smart of the steel, he
+turned on that man, and, letting his axe fall down to his wrist and
+hang there by its loop, he caught the foeman up by the neck and the
+breech, and drave him against the other Dusky Ones before him, so
+that their weapons pierced and rent their own friend and fellow.
+Then he put forth the might of his arms and the pith of his body, and
+hove up that felon and cast him on to the heads of his fellow murder-
+carles, so that he rent them and was rent by them.  Then War-well
+fell on again with the axe, and all the champions of the Dale shouted
+and fell on with him, and the foe shrank away; and the Dalesmen
+cleared a space five fathoms' length before them, and the spearmen
+drew onward and stood on the space whereon the first onslaught had
+been.
+
+Then drew those hewers of the Dale together, and forth from the
+company came the man that bare the Banner of the Bridget and the
+champions gathered round him, and they ordered their ranks and strode
+with the Banner before them three times to and fro across the road
+athwart the front of the spearmen, and then with a great shout drew
+back within the spear-hedge.  Albeit five of the champions of the
+Dale had been slain outright there, and the more part of them hurt
+more or less.
+
+But when all were well within the ranks, once again blew the horn,
+and all the spears sank to the rest, and the kindreds drave the
+spear-furrow, and a space was swept clear before them, and the cries
+and yells of the Dusky Men were so fierce and wild that the rough
+voices of the Dalesmen were drowned amidst them.
+
+Forth then came every bowman of the kindred that was there and loosed
+on the Dusky Men; and they forsooth had some bowmen amongst them, but
+cooped up and jostled as they were they shot but wildly; whereas each
+shaft of the Dale went home truly.
+
+But amongst the bowmen forth came the Bride in her glittering war-
+gear, and stepped lightly to the front of the spearmen.  Her own yew
+bow had been smitten by a shaft and broken in her hand:  so she had
+caught up a short horn bow and a quiver from one of the slain of the
+Dusky Men; and now she knelt on one knee under the shadow of the
+spears nigh to her grandsire Hall-ward, and with a pale face and
+knitted brow notched and loosed, and notched and loosed on the throng
+of foemen, as if she were some daintily fashioned engine of war.
+
+So fared the battle on the road that went from the south into the
+Market-stead.  Valiantly had the kindred fought there, and no man of
+them had blenched, and much had they won; but the way was perilous
+before them, for the foe was many and many.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.  OF FACE-OF-GOD'S ONSLAUGHT
+
+
+
+Now the banners of the Wolf flapped and rippled over the heads of the
+Woodlanders and the Men of the Wolf; and the men shot all they might,
+nor took heed now to cover themselves against the shafts of the Dusky
+Men.  As for these, for all they were so many, their arrow-shot was
+no great matter, for they were in very evil order, as has been said;
+and moreover, their rage was so great to come to handy strokes with
+these foemen, that some of them flung away their bows to brandish the
+axe or the sword.  Nevertheless were some among the kindred hurt or
+slain by their arrows.
+
+Now stood Face-of-god with the foremost; and from where he stood he
+could see somewhat of the battle of the Dalesmen, and he wotted that
+it was thriving; therefore he looked before him and close around him,
+and noted what was toward there.  The space betwixt the houses and
+the break of the bent was crowded with the fury of the Dusky Men
+tossing their weapons aloft, crying to each other and at the kindred,
+and here and there loosing a bow-string on them; but whatever was
+their rage they might not come a many together past a line within ten
+fathom of the bent's end; for three hundred of the best of bowmen
+were shooting at them so ceaselessly that no Dusky man was safe of
+any bare place of his body, and they fell over one another in that
+penfold of slaughter, and for all their madness did but little.
+
+Yet was the heart of the War-leader troubled; for he wotted that it
+might not last for ever, and there seemed no end to the throng of
+murder-carles; and the time would come when the arrowshot would be
+spent, and they must needs come to handy strokes, and that with so
+many.
+
+Now a voice spake to him as he gazed with knitted brows and careful
+heart on that turmoil of battle:
+
+'What now hast thou done with the Sun-beam, and where is her brother?
+Is the Chief of the Wolf skulking when our work is so heavy?  And
+thou meseemeth art overlate on the field:  the mowing of this meadow
+is no sluggard's work.'
+
+He turned and beheld Bow-may, and gazed on her face for a moment, and
+saw her eyes how they glittered, and how the pommels of her cheeks
+were burning red and her lips dry and grey; but before he answered he
+looked all round about to see what was to note; and he touched Bow-
+may on the shoulder and pointed to down below where a man of the
+Felons had just come out of the court of one of the houses:  a man
+taller than most, very gaily arrayed, with gilded scales all over
+him, so that, with his dark face and blue eyes, he looked like some
+strange dragon.  Bow-may spake not, but stamped her foot with anger.
+Yet if her heart were hot, her hand was steady; for she notched a
+shaft, and just as the Dusky Chief raised his axe and brandished it
+aloft, she loosed, and the shaft flew and smote the felon in the
+armpit and the default of the armour, and he fell to earth.  But even
+as she loosed, Face-of-god cried out in a loud voice:
+
+'O lads of battle! shoot close and all together.  Tarry not, tarry
+not! for we need a little time ere sword meets sword, and the others
+of the kindreds are at work!'
+
+But Bow-may turned round to him and said:  'Wilt thou not answer me?
+Where is thy kindness gone?'
+
+Even as she was speaking she had notched and loosed another shaft,
+speaking as folk do who turn from busy work at loom or bench.
+
+Then said Face-of-god:  'Shoot on, sister Bow-may!  The Sun-beam is
+gone with her brother, and he is with the Men of the Face.'
+
+He broke off here, for a man fell beside him hurt in the neck, and
+Face-of-god took his bow from his hands and shot a shaft, while one
+of the women who had been hurt also tended the newly-wounded man.
+Then Face-of-god went on speaking:
+
+'She was unwilling to go, but Folk-might and I constrained her; for
+we knew that this is the most perilous place of the battle--hah! see
+those three felons, Bow-may! they are aiming hither.'
+
+And again he loosed and Bow-may also, but a shaft rattled on his helm
+withal and another smote a Woodlander beside him, and pierced through
+the calf of his leg, as he turned and stooped to take fresh arrows
+from a sheaf that lay there; but the carle took it by the notch and
+the point, and brake it and drew it out, and then stood up and went
+on shooting.  And Face-of-god spake again:
+
+'Folk-might skulketh not; nor the Men of the Vine, and the Sickle,
+and the Face, nor the Shepherd-Folk:  soon shall they be making our
+work easy to us, if we can hold our own till then.  They are on the
+other roads that lead into the square.  Now suffer me, and shoot on!'
+
+Therewith he looked round about him, and he saw on the left hand that
+all was quiet; and before him was the confused throng of the Dusky
+Men trampling their own dead and wounded, and not able as yet to
+cross that death-line of the arrow so near to them.  But on his right
+hand he saw how they of the kindreds held them firm on the way.  Then
+for a moment of time he considered and thought, till him-seemed he
+could see the whole battle yet to be foughten; and his face flushed,
+and he said sharply:  'Bow-may, abide here and shoot, and show the
+others where to shoot, while the arrows hold out; but we will go
+further for a while, and ye shall follow when we have made the rent
+great enough.'
+
+She turned to him and said:  'Why art thou not more joyous? thou art
+like an host without music or banners.'
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'heed not me, but my bidding!'
+
+She said hastily:  'I think I shall die here; since for all we have
+shot we minish them nowise.  Now kiss me this once amidst the battle,
+and say farewell.'
+
+He said:  'Nay, nay; it shall not go thus.  Abide a little while, and
+thou shalt see all this tangle open, as the sun cleaveth the clouds
+on the autumn morning.  Yet lo thou! since thou wilt have it so.'
+
+And he bent forward and kissed her face, and now the tears ran over
+it, and she said smiling somewhat:  'Now is this more than I looked
+for, whatso may betide.'
+
+But while she was yet speaking he cried in a great voice:
+
+'Ye who have spent your shot, or have nigh spent it, to axe and
+sword, and follow me to clear the ground 'twixt the bent and the
+halls.  Let each help each, but throng not each other.  Shoot wisely,
+ye bowmen, and keep our backs clear of the foe.  On, on! for the Burg
+and the Face, for the Burg and the Face!'
+
+Therewith he leapt down the steep of the hill, bounding like the
+hart, with Dale-warden naked in his hand; and they that followed were
+two score and ten; and the arrows of their bowmen rained over their
+heads on the Dusky Men, as they smote down the first of the foemen,
+and the others shrieked and shrank from them, or turned on them
+smiting wildly and desperately.
+
+But Face-of-god swept round the great sword and plunged into that sea
+of turmoil and noise and evil sights and savours, and even therewith
+he heard clearly a voice that said:  'Goldring, I am hurt; take my
+bow a while!' and knew it for Bow-may's; but it came to his ears like
+the song of a bird without meaning; for it was as if his life were
+changed at once; and in a minute or two he had cut thrice with the
+edge and thrust twice with the point, eager, but clear-eyed and deft;
+and he saw as in a picture the foe before him, and the grey roofs of
+Silver-stead, and through the gap in them the tops of the blue ridges
+far aloof.  And now had three fallen before him, and they feared him,
+and turned on him, and smote so many together that their strokes
+crossed each other, and one warded him from the other; and he laughed
+aloud and shielded himself, and drave the point of Dale-warden amidst
+the tangle of weapons through the open mouth of a captain of the
+Felons, and slashed a cheek with a back-stroke, and swept round the
+edge to his right hand and smote off a blue-eyed snub-nosed head; and
+therewith a pole-axe smote him on the left side of his helm, so that
+he tottered; but he swung himself round, and stood stark and upright,
+and gave a short hack with the edge, keeping Dale-warden well in
+hand, and a gold-clad felon, a champion of them, and their tallest on
+the ground, fell aback, his throat gaping more than the mouth of him.
+
+Then Face-of-god shouted and waved Dale-warden aloft to the Banner of
+the Wolf that floated behind and above him, and he cried out:  'As I
+have promised so have I done!'  And he looked about, and beheld how
+valiantly his fellows had been doing; for before him now was a space
+of earth with no man standing on his feet thereon, like the swathe of
+the mowers of June; and beyond that was the crowd of the Dusky Men
+wavering like the tall grass abiding the scythe.
+
+But a minute, and they fell to casting at Face-of-god and his fellows
+spears and knives and shields and whatsoever would fly; and a spear
+smote him on the breast, but entered not; and a bossed shield fell
+over his face withal, and a plummet of sling-lead smote his helm, and
+he fell to earth; but leapt up again straightway, and heard as he
+arose a great shout close to him, and a shrill cry, and lo! at his
+left side Bow-may, her sword in her hand, and the hand red with blood
+from a shaft-graze on her wrist, and a white cloth stained with blood
+about her neck; and on his right side Wood-wise bearing the banner
+and crying the Wolf-whoop; for the whole company was come down from
+the slope and stood around him.
+
+Then for a little while was there such a stilling of the tumult about
+him there, that he heard great and glad cries from the Road of the
+South of 'The Burg and the Steer!  The Dale and the Bridge!  The Dale
+and the Bull!'  And thereafter a terrible great shrieking cry, and a
+huge voice that cried:  'Death, death, death to the Dusky Men!'  And
+thereafter again fierce cries and great tumult of the battle.
+
+Then Face-of-god shook Dale-warden in the air, and strode forward
+fiercely, but not speedily, and the whole company went foot for foot
+along with him; and as he went, would he or would he not, song came
+into his mouth, a song of the meadows of the Dale, even such as this:
+
+
+The wheat is done blooming and rust's on the sickle,
+   And green are the meadows grown after the scythe.
+Come, hands for the dance!  For the toil hath been mickle,
+   And 'twixt haysel and harvest 'tis time to be blithe.
+
+And what shall the tale be now dancing is over,
+   And kind on the meadow sits maiden by man,
+And the old man bethinks him of days of the lover,
+   And the warrior remembers the field that he wan?
+
+Shall we tell of the dear days wherein we are dwelling,
+   The best days of our Mother, the cherishing Dale,
+When all round about us the summer is telling,
+   To ears that may hearken, the heart of the tale?
+
+Shall we sing of these hands and these lips that caress us,
+   And the limbs that sun-dappled lie light here beside,
+When still in the morning they rise but to bless us,
+   And oft in the midnight our footsteps abide?
+
+O nay, but to tell of the fathers were better,
+   And of how we were fashioned from out of the earth;
+Of how the once lowly spurned strong at the fetter;
+   Of the days of the deeds and beginning of mirth.
+
+And then when the feast-tide is done in the morning,
+   Shall we whet the grey sickle that bideth the wheat,
+Till wan grow the edges, and gleam forth a warning
+   Of the field and the fallow where edges shall meet.
+
+And when cometh the harvest, and hook upon shoulder
+   We enter the red wheat from out of the road,
+We shall sing, as we wend, of the bold and the bolder,
+   And the Burg of their building, the beauteous abode.
+
+As smiteth the sickle amid the sun's burning
+   We shall sing how the sun saw the token unfurled,
+When forth fared the Folk, with no thought of returning,
+   In the days when the Banner went wide in the world.
+
+
+Many saw that he was singing, but heard not the words of his mouth,
+for great was the noise and clamour.  But he heard Bow-may, how she
+laughed by his side, and cried out:
+
+'Gold-mane, dear-heart, now art thou merry indeed; and glad am I,
+though they told me that I am hurt.--Ah! now beware, beware!'
+
+For indeed the Dusky Men, seeing the wall of steel rolling down on
+them, and cooped up by the houses, so that they scarce knew how to
+flee, turned in the face of death, the foremost of them, and rushed
+furiously on the array of the Woodlanders, and all those behind
+pressed on them like the big wave of the ebbing sea when the gust of
+the wind driveth it landward.
+
+The Woodlanders met them, shouting out:  'The Greenwood and the Wolf,
+the Greenwood and the Wolf!'  But not a few of them fell there,
+though they gave not back a foot; for so fierce now were the Dusky
+Men, that hewing and thrusting at them availed nought, unless they
+were slain outright or stunned; and even if they fell they rolled
+themselves up against their tall foe-men, heeding not death or wounds
+if they might but slay or wound.  There then fell War-grove and ten
+others of the Woodlanders, and four men of the Wolf, but none before
+he had slain his foeman; and as each man fell or was hurt grievously,
+another took his place.
+
+Now a felon leapt up and caught Gold-ring by the neck and drew him
+down, while another strove to smite his head off; but the stout carle
+drave a wood-knife into the side of the first felon, and drew it out
+speedily and smote the other, the smiter, in the face with the same
+knife, and therewith they all three rolled together on the earth
+amongst the feet of men.  Even so did another felon by Bow-may, and
+dragged her down to the ground, and smote her with a long knife as
+she tumbled down; and this was a feat of theirs, for they were long-
+armed like apes.
+
+But as to this felon, Dale-warden's edge split his skull, and Face-
+of-god gathered his might together and bestrode Bow-may, till he had
+hewed a space round about him with great two-handed strokes; and yet
+the blade brake not.  Then he caught up Bow-may from the earth, and
+the felon's knife had not pierced her hauberk, but she was astonied,
+and might not stand upon her feet; and Face-of-god turned aside a
+little with her, and half bore her, half thrust her through the
+throng to the rearward of his folk, and left her there with two
+carlines of the Wolf who followed the host for leechcraft's sake, and
+then turned back shouting:  'For the Face, for the Face!' and there
+followed him back to the battle, a band of those who were fresh as
+yet, and their blades unbloodied, the young men of the Woodlands.
+
+The wearier fighters made way for them as they came on shouting, and
+Face-of-god was ahead of them all, and leapt at the foemen as a man
+unwearied and striking his first stroke, so wondrous hale he was; and
+they drave a wedge amidst of the Dusky Men, and then turned about and
+stood back to back hewing at all that drifted on them.  But as Face-
+of-god cleared a space about him, lo! almost within reach of his
+sword-point up rose a grim shape from the earth, tall, grey-haired,
+and bloody-faced, who uttered the Wolf-whoop from amidst the terror
+of his visage, and turned and swung round his head an axe of the
+Dusky Men, and fell to smiting them with their own weapon.  The Dusky
+Men shrieked in answer to his whoop, and all shrunk from him and
+Face-of-god; but a cry of joy went up from the kindred, for they knew
+Gold-ring, whom they deemed had been slain.  So they all pressed on
+together, smiting down the foe before them, and the Dusky Men, some
+turned their backs and drave those behind them, till they too turned
+and were strained through the passages and courts of the houses, and
+some were overthrown and trodden down as they strove to hold face to
+the Woodlanders, and some were hewn down where they stood; but the
+whole throng of those that were on their feet drifted toward the
+Market-place, the Woodlanders following them ever with point and
+edge, till betwixt the bent and the houses no foeman stood up against
+them.
+
+Then they stood together, and raised the whoop of victory, and blew
+their horns long and loud in token of their joy, and the Woodland men
+lifted up their voices and sang:
+
+
+   Now far, far aloof
+   Standeth lintel and roof,
+   The dwelling of days
+   Of the Woodland ways:
+   Now nought wendeth there
+   Save the wolf and the bear,
+   And the fox of the waste
+   Faring soft without haste.
+No carle the axe whetteth on oak-laden hill;
+No shaft the hart letteth to wend at his will;
+None heedeth the thunder-clap over the glade,
+And the wind-storm thereunder makes no man afraid.
+Is it thus then that endeth man's days on Mid-earth,
+For no man there wendeth in sorrow or mirth?
+
+   Nay, look down on the road
+   From the ancient abode!
+   Betwixt acre and field
+   Shineth helm, shineth shield.
+   And high over the heath
+   Fares the bane in his sheath;
+   For the wise men and bold
+   Go their ways o'er the wold.
+Now the Warrior hath given them heart and fair day,
+Unbidden, undriven, they fare to the fray.
+By the rock and the river the banners they bear,
+And their battle-staves quiver 'neath halbert and spear;
+On the hill's brow they gather, and hang o'er the Dale
+As the clouds of the Father hang, laden with bale.
+
+   Down shineth the sun
+   On the war-deed half done;
+   All the fore-doomed to die,
+   In the pale dust they lie.
+   There they leapt, there they fell,
+   And their tale shall we tell;
+   But we, e'en in the gate
+   Of the war-garth we wait,
+Till the drift of war-weather shall whistle us on,
+And we tread all together the way to be won,
+To the dear land, the dwelling for whose sake we came
+To do deeds for the telling of song-becrowned fame.
+Settle helm on the head then!  Heave sword for the Dale!
+Nor be mocked of the dead men for deedless and pale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.  MEN MEET IN THE MARKET OF SILVER-STEAD
+
+
+
+So sang they; but Face-of-god went with Red-wolf, who was hurt
+sorely, but not deadly, and led him back toward the place just under
+the break of the bent; and there he found Bow-may in the hands of the
+women who were tending her hurts.  She smiled on him from a pale face
+as he drew nigh, and he looked kindly at her, but he might not abide
+there, for haste was in his feet.  He left Red-wolf to the tending of
+the women, and clomb the bent hastily, and when he deemed he was high
+enough, he looked about him; and somewhat more than half an hour had
+worn since Bow-may had sped the first shaft against the Dusky Men.
+
+He looked down into the Market-stead, and deemed he could see that
+nigh the Mote-house the Dusky Men were gathering into some better
+order; but they were no longer drifting toward the southern bents,
+but were standing round about the altar as men abiding somewhat; and
+he deemed that they had gotten more bowshot than before, and that
+most of them bare bows.  Though so many had been slain in the battles
+of the southern bents, yet was the Market-stead full of them, so to
+say, for others had come thereto in place of those that had fallen.
+
+But now as he looked arose mighty clamour amongst them; and a little
+west of the Altar was a stir and a hurrying onward and around as in
+the eddies of a swift stream.  Face-of-god wotted not what was
+betiding there, but he deemed that they were now ware of the onfall
+of Folk-might and Hall-face and the men of Burgdale, for their faces
+were all turned to where that was to be looked for.
+
+So he turned and looked on the road to the east of him, where had
+been the battle of the Steer, but now it was all gone down toward the
+Market-place, and he could but hear the clamour of it; but nought he
+saw thereof, because of the houses that hid it.
+
+Then he cast his eyes on the road that entered the Market-stead from
+the north, and he saw thereon many men gathered; and he wotted not
+what they were; for though there were weapons amongst them, yet were
+they not all weaponed, as far as he could see.
+
+Now as he looked this way and that, and deemed that he must tarry no
+longer, but must enter into the courts of the houses before him and
+make his way into the Market-stead, lo! a change in the throng of
+Dusky Warriors nigh the Mote-house, and the ordered bands about the
+Altar fell to drifting toward the western way with one accord, with
+great noise and hurry and fierce cries of wrath.  Then made Face-of-
+god no delay, but ran down the bent at once, and at the break of it
+came upon Bow-may standing upright and sword in hand; and as he
+passed, she joined herself to him, and said:  'What new tidings now,
+Gold-mane?'
+
+'Tidings of battle!' he cried; 'tidings of victory!  Folk-might hath
+fallen on, and the Dusky Men run hastily to meet him.  Hark, hark!'
+
+For as he spoke came a great noise of horns, and Bow-may said:  'What
+horn is that blowing?'
+
+He stayed not, but shouted aloud:  'For the Face, for the Face!  Now
+will we fall upon their backs!'
+
+Therewith was he come to his company, and he cried out to them:
+'Heard ye the horn, heard ye the horn?  Now follow me into the
+Market-place; much is yet to do!'
+
+Even therewith came the sound of other horns, and all men were silent
+a moment, and then shouted all together, for the Wood-landers knew it
+for the horn of the Shepherds coming on by the eastward way.
+
+But Face-of-god waved his sword aloft and set on at once, and they
+followed and gat them through the courts of the houses and their
+passages into the Market-place.  There they found more room than they
+looked to find; for the foemen had drawn away on the left hand toward
+the battle of Folk-might, and on the right hand toward the battle of
+the Steer; and great was the noise and cry that came thence.
+
+Now stood Face-of-god under the two banners of the Wolf in the
+Market-place of Silver-stead, and scarce had he time to be high-
+hearted, for needs must he ponder in his mind what thing were best to
+do.  For on the left hand he deemed the foe was the strongest and
+best ordered; but there also were the kindreds the doughtiest, and it
+was little like that the felons should overcome the spear-casters of
+the Face and the glaive-bearers of the Sickle, and the bowmen of the
+Vine:  there also were the wisest leaders, as the stark elder Stone-
+face, and the tall Hall-face, and his father of the unshaken heart,
+and above all Folk-might, fierce in his wrath, but his anger burning
+steady and clear, like the oaken butt on the hearth of the hall.
+
+Then as his mind pictured him amongst the foe, it made therewith
+another picture of the slender warrior Sun-beam caught in the tangle
+of battle, and longing for him and calling for him amidst the hard
+hand-play.  And thereat his face flushed, and all his body waxed hot,
+and he was on the very point of leading the onset against the foe on
+the left.  But therewith he bethought him of the bold men of the
+Steer and the Bridge and the Bull weary with much fighting; and he
+remembered also that the Bride was amongst them and fighting, it
+might be, amidst the foremost, and if she were slain how should he
+ever hold up his head again.  He bethought him also that the
+Shepherds, who had fallen on by the eastern road, valiant as they
+were, were scarce so well armed or so well led as the others.
+Therewithal he bethought him (and again it came like a picture into
+his mind) of falling on the foemen by whom the southern battle was
+beset, and then the twain of them meeting the Shepherds, and lastly,
+all those three companies joined together clearing the Market-place,
+and meeting the men under Folk-might in the midst thereof.
+
+Therefore, scant had he been pondering these things in his mind for a
+minute ere he cried out:  'Blow up horns, blow up! forward banners,
+and follow me, O valiant men! to the helping of the Steer, the
+Bridge, and the Bull; deep have they thrust into the Dusky Throng,
+and belike are hard pressed.  Hark how the clamour ariseth from their
+besetters!  On now, on!'
+
+Therewith hung a star of sunlight on his sword as he raised it aloft,
+and the Wolf-whoop rang out terribly in the Market-place, for now had
+the Woodlanders also learned it, and the hearts of the foemen sank as
+they heard the might and the mass thereof.  Then the battle of the
+Woodlanders swept round and fell upon the flank of them who were
+besetting the kindreds, as an iron bar smiteth the soft fir-wood; and
+they of the kindreds heard their cry, but faintly and confusedly, so
+great was the turmoil of battle about them.
+
+Now once more was Bow-may by the side of Face-of-god; and if she had
+not the might of the mightiest, yet had she the deftness of the
+deftest.  And now was she calm and cool, shielding herself with a
+copper-bossed target, and driving home the point of her sharp sword;
+white was her face, and her eyes glittered amidst it, and she seemed
+to men like to those on whose heads the Warrior hath laid the Holy
+Bread.
+
+As to Wood-wise, he had given the Banner of the red-jawed Wolf to
+Stone-wolf, a huge and dreadful warrior some forty winters old, who
+had fought in the Great Overthrow, and now hewed down the Dusky Men,
+wielding a heavy short-sword left-handed.  But Wood-wise himself
+fought with a great sword, giving great strokes to the right hand and
+the left, and was no more hasty than is the hewer in the winter wood.
+
+Face-of-god fought wisely and coldly now, and looked more to warding
+his friends than destroying his foes, and both to Bow-may and Wood-
+wise his sword was a shield; for oft he took the life from the edge
+of the upraised axe, and stayed the point of the foeman in mid-air.
+
+Even so wisely fought the whole band of the Woodlanders and the
+Wolves, who got within smiting space of the foe; for they had no will
+to cast away their lives when assured victory was so nigh to them.
+Sooth to say, the hand-play was not so hard to them as it had been
+betwixt the bent and the houses; for the Dusky Men were intent on
+dealing with the men of the kindreds from the southern road, who
+stood war-wearied before them; and they were hewing and casting at
+them, and baying and yelling like dogs; and though they turned about
+to meet the storm of the Woodlanders, yet their hearts failed them
+withal, and they strove to edge away from betwixt those two fearful
+scythes of war, fighting as men fleeing, not as men in onset.  But
+still the Woodlanders and the Wolves came on, hewing and thrusting,
+smiting down the foemen in heaps, till the Dusky Throng grew thin,
+and the staves of the Dalesmen and their bright banners in the
+morning sun were clear to see, and at last their very faces, kindly
+and familiar, worn and strained with the stress of battle, or
+laughing wildly, or pale with the fury of the fight.  Then rose up to
+the heavens the blended shout of the Woodlanders and the Dalesmen,
+and now there was nought of foemen betwixt them save the dead and the
+wounded.
+
+Then Face-of-god thrust his sword into its sheath all bloody as it
+was, and strode over the dead men to where Hall-ward stood under the
+banner of the Steer, and cast his arms about the old carle, and
+kissed him for joy of the victory.  But Hall-ward thrust him aback
+and looked him in the face, and his cheeks were pale and his lips
+clenched, and his eyes haggard and staring, and he said in a harsh
+voice:
+
+'O young man, she is dead!  I saw her fall.  The Bride is dead, and
+thou hast lost thy troth-plight maiden. O death, death to the Dusky
+Men!'
+
+Then grew Face-of-god as pale as a linen sleeve, and all the new-
+comers groaned and cried out.  But a bystander said:  'Nay, nay, it
+is nought so bad as that; she is hurt, and sorely; but she liveth
+yet.'
+
+Face-of-god heard him not.  He forgot Dale-warden lying in his
+sheath, and he saw that the last speaker had a great wood-axe broad
+and heavy in his hand, so he cried:  'Man, man, thine axe!' and
+snatched it from him, and turned about to the foe again, and thrust
+through the ranks, suffering none to stay him till all his friends
+were behind and all his foes before him.  And as he burst forth from
+the ranks waving his axe aloft, bare-headed now, his yellow hair
+flying abroad, his mouth crying out, 'Death, death, death to the
+Dusky Men!' fear of him smote their hearts, and they howled and fled
+before him as they might; for they said that the Dalesmen had prayed
+their Gods into the battle.  But not so fast could they flee but he
+was presently amidst them, smiting down all about him, and they so
+terror-stricken that scarce might they raise a hand against him.  All
+that blended host followed him mad with wrath and victory, and as
+they pressed on, they heard behind them the horns and war-cries of
+the Shepherds falling on from the east.  Nought they heeded that now,
+but drave on a fearful storm of war, and terrible was the slaughter
+of the Felons.
+
+It was but a few minutes ere they had driven them up against that
+great stack of faggots that had been dight for the burnt-offering of
+men, and many of the felons had mounted up on to it, and now in their
+anguish of fear were shooting arrows and casting spears on all about
+them, heeding little if they were friend or foe.  Now were the men of
+the kindreds at point to climb this twiggen burg; but by this time
+the fury of Face-of-god had run clear, and he knew where he was and
+what he was doing; so he stayed his folk, and cried out to them:
+'Forbear, climb not! let the torch help the sword!'  And therewith he
+looked about and saw the fire-pot which had been set down there for
+the kindling of the bale-fire, and the coals were yet red in it; so
+he snatched up a dry brand and lighted it thereat, and so did divers
+others, and they thrust them among the faggots, and the fire caught
+at once, and the tongues of flame began to leap from faggot to faggot
+till all was in a light low; for the wood had been laid for that very
+end, and smeared with grease and oil so that the burning to the god
+might be speedy.
+
+But the fierceness of the kindreds heeded not the fire, nor overmuch
+the men who leapt down from the stack before it, but they left all
+behind them, faring straight toward the western outgate from the
+Market-stead; and Face-of-god still led them on; though by now he was
+wholly come to his right mind again, albeit the burden of sorrow yet
+lay heavy on his heart.  He had broken his axe, and had once more
+drawn Dale-warden from his sheath, and many felt his point and edge.
+
+But now, as they chased, came a rush of men upon them again, as
+though a new onset were at hand.  That saw Face-of-god and Hall-ward
+and War-well, and other wise leaders of men, and they bade their folk
+forbear the chase, and lock their ranks to meet the onfall of this
+new wave of foemen.  And they did so, and stood fast as a wall; but
+lo! the onrush that drave up against them was but a fleeing shrieking
+throng, and no longer an array of warriors, for many had cast away
+their weapons, and were rushing they knew not whither; for they were
+being thrust on the bitter edges of Face-of-god's companies by the
+terror of the fleers from the onset of the men of the Face, the
+Sickle, and the Vine, whom Hall-face and Stone-face were leading,
+along with Folk-might.  Then once again the men of Face-of-god gave
+forth the whoop of victory, and pressed forward again, hewing their
+way through the throng of fleers, but turning not to chase to the
+right or the left; while at their backs came on the Shepherd-folk,
+who had swept down all that withstood them; for now indeed was the
+Market-stead getting thinner of living men.
+
+So led the War-leader his ordered ranks, till at last over the
+tangled crowd of runaways he saw the banners of the Burg and the Face
+flashing against the sun, and heard the roar of the kindreds as they
+drave the chase towards them.  Then he lifted up his sword, and stood
+still, and all the host behind him stayed and cast a huge shout up to
+the heavens, and there they abode the coming of the other Dalesmen.
+
+But the War-leader sent a message to Hound-under-Greenbury, bidding
+him lead the Shepherds to the chase of the Dusky Men, who were now
+all fleeing toward the northern outgate of the Market.  Howbeit he
+called to mind the throng he had seen on the northern road before
+they were come into the Market-stead, and deemed that way also death
+awaited the foemen, even if the men of the kindreds forbore them.
+
+But presently the space betwixt the Woodlanders and the men of the
+Face was clear of all but the dead, so that friend saw the face of
+friend; and it could be seen that the warriors of the Face were ruddy
+and smiling for joy, because the battle had been easy to them, and
+but few of them had fallen; for the Dusky Men who had left the
+Market-stead to fall on them, had had room for fleeing behind them,
+and had speedily turned their backs before the spear-casting of the
+men of the Face and the onrush of the swordsmen.
+
+There then stood these victorious men facing one another, and the
+banner-bearers on either side came through the throng, and brought
+the banners together between the two hosts; and the Wolf kissed the
+Face, and the Sickle and the Vine met the Steer and the Bridge and
+the Bull:  but the Shepherds were yet chasing the fleers.
+
+There in the forefront stood Hall-face the tall, with the joy of
+battle in his eyes.  And Stone-face, the wise carle in war, stood
+solemn and stark beside him; and there was the goodly body and the
+fair and kindly visage of the Alderman smiling on the faces of his
+friends.  But as for Folk-might, his face was yet white and aweful
+with anger, and he looked restlessly up and down the front of the
+kindreds, though he spake no word.
+
+Then Face-of-god could no longer forbear, but he thrust Dale-warden
+into his sheath, and ran forward and cast his arms about his father's
+neck and kissed him; and the blood of himself and of the foemen was
+on him, for he had been hurt in divers places, but not sorely,
+because of the good hammer-work of the Alderman.
+
+Then he kissed his brother and Stone-face, and he took Folk-might by
+the hand, and was on the point of speaking some word to him, when the
+ranks of the Face opened, and lo! the Sun-beam in her bright war-
+gear, and the sword girt to her side, and she unhurt and unsullied.
+
+Then was it to him as when he met her first in Shadowy Vale, and he
+thought of little else than her; but she stepped lightly up to him,
+and unashamed before the whole host she kissed him on the mouth, and
+he cast his mailed arms about her, and joy made him forget many
+things and what was next to do, though even at that moment came
+afresh a great clamour of shrieks and cries from the northern outgate
+of the Market-stead:  and the burning pile behind them cast a great
+wavering flame into the air, contending with the bright sun of that
+fair day, now come hard on noontide.  But ere he drew away his face
+from the Sun-beam's, came memory to him, and a sharp pang shot
+through his heart, as he heard Folk-might say:  'Where then is the
+Shield-may of Burgstead? where is the Bride?'
+
+And Face-of-god said under his breath:  'She is dead, she is dead!'
+And then he stared out straight before him and waited till someone
+else should say it aloud.  But Bow-may stepped forward and said:
+'Chief of the Wolf, be of good cheer; our kinswoman is hurt, but not
+deadly.'
+
+The Alderman's face changed, and he said:  'Hast thou seen her, Bow-
+may?'
+
+'Nay,' she said.  'How should I leave the battle? but others have
+told me who have seen her.'
+
+Folk-might stared into the ranks of men before him, but said nothing.
+Said the Alderman:  'Is she well tended?'
+
+'Yea, surely,' said Bow-may, 'since she is amongst friends, and there
+are no foemen behind us.'
+
+Then came a voice from Folk-might which said:  'Now were it best to
+send good men and deft in arms, and who know Silver-dale, from house
+to house, to search for foemen who may be lurking there.'
+
+The Alderman looked kindly and sadly on him and said:
+
+'Kinsman Stone-face, and Hall-face my son, the brunt of the battle is
+now over, and I am but a simple man amongst you; therefore, if ye
+will give me leave, I will go see this poor kinswoman of ours, and
+comfort her.'
+
+They bade him go:  so he sheathed his sword, and went through the
+press with two men of the Steer toward the southern road; for the
+Bride had been brought into a house nigh the corner of the Market-
+place.
+
+But Face-of-god looked after his father as he went, and remembrance
+of past days came upon him, and such a storm of grief swept over him,
+as he thought of the Bride lying pale and bleeding and brought anigh
+to her death, that he put his hands to his face and wept as a child
+that will not be comforted; nor had he any shame of all those
+bystanders, who in sooth were men good and kindly, and had no shame
+of his grief or marvelled at it, for indeed their own hearts were
+sore for their lovely kinswoman, and many of them also wept with
+Face-of-god.  But the Sun-beam stood by and looked on her betrothed,
+and she thought many things of the Bride, and was sorry, albeit no
+tears came into her eyes; then she looked askance at Folk-might and
+trembled; but he said coldly, and in a loud voice:
+
+'Needs must we search the houses for the lurking felons, or many a
+man will yet be murdered.  Let Wood-wicked lead a band of men at once
+from house to house.'
+
+Then said a man of the Wolf hight Hardgrip:  'Wood-wicked was slain
+betwixt the bent and the houses.'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Let it be Wood-wise then.'
+
+But Bow-may said:  'Wood-wise is even now hurt in the leg by a
+wounded felon, and may not go afoot.'
+
+Then said Folk-might:  'Is Crow the Shaft-speeder anigh?'
+
+'Yea, here am I,' quoth a tall man of fifty winters, coming from out
+the ranks where stood the Wolves.
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Kinsman Crow, do thou take two score and ten of
+doughty men who are not too hot-headed, and search every house about
+the Market-place; but if ye come on any house that makes a stout
+defence, send ye word thereof to the Mote-house, where we will
+presently be, and we shall send you help.  Slay every felon that ye
+fall in with; but if ye find in the houses any of the poor folk
+crouching and afraid, comfort their hearts all ye may, and tell them
+that now is life come to them.'
+
+So Crow fell to getting his band together, and presently departed
+with them on his errand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.  THE KINDREDS WIN THE MOTE-HOUSE
+
+
+
+The din and tumult still came from the north side of the Market-
+place, so that all the air was full of noise; and Face-of-god deemed
+that the thralls had gotten weapons into their hands and were slaying
+their masters.
+
+Now he lifted up his face, and put his hand on Folk-might's shoulder,
+and said in a loud voice:
+
+'Kinsmen, it were well if our brother were to bid the banners into
+the Mote-house of the Wolf, and let all the Host set itself in array
+before the said house, and abide till the chasers of the foe come to
+us thither; for I perceive that they are now become many, and are
+more than those of our kindred.'
+
+Then Folk-might looked at him with kind eyes, and said:
+
+'Thou sayest well, brother; even so let it be!'
+
+And he lifted up his sword, and Face-of-god cried out in a loud
+voice:  'Forward, banners! blow up horns! fare we forth with
+victory!'
+
+So the Host drew its ranks together in good order, and they all set
+forward, and old Stone-face took the Sun-beam by the hand and led on
+behind Folk-might and the War-leader.  But when they came to the
+Hall, then saw they how the steps that led up to the door were high
+and double, going up from each side without any railing or fool-
+guard; and crowding the stairs and the platform thereof was a band of
+the Dusky Men, as many as could stand thereon, who shot arrows at the
+host of the kindreds, howling like dogs, and chattering like apes;
+and arrows and spears came from the windows of the Hall; yea, and on
+the very roof a score of these felons were riding the ridge and
+mocking like the trolls of old days.
+
+Now when they saw this they stayed a while, and men shielded them
+against the shafts; but the leaders drew together in front of the
+Host, and Folk-might fell to speech; and his face was very pale and
+stern; for now he had had time to think of the case of the Bride, and
+fierce wrath, and grief unholpen filled his soul.  So he said:
+
+'Brothers, this is my business to deal with; for I see before me the
+stair that leadeth to the Mote-house of my people, and now would I
+sit there whereas my fathers sat, when peace was on the Dale, as once
+more it shall be to-morrow.  Therefore up this stair will I go, and
+none shall hinder me; and let no man of the host follow me till I
+have entered into the Hall, unless perchance I fall dead by the way;
+but stand ye still and look on.'
+
+'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'this is partly the business of the War-
+leader.  There are two stairs.  Be content to take the southern one,
+and I will take the northern.  We shall meet on the plain stone at
+the top.'
+
+But Hall-face said:  'War-leader, may I speak?'
+
+'Speak, brother,' said Face-of-god.
+
+Said Hall-face:  'I have done but little to-day, War-leader.  I would
+stand by thee on the northern stair; so shall Folk-might be content,
+if he doeth two men's work who are not little-hearted.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'The doom of the War-leader is that Folk-might
+shall fall on by the southern stair to slake his grief and increase
+his glory, and Face-of-god and Hall-face by the northern.  Haste to
+the work, O brothers!'
+
+And he and Hall-face went to their places, while all looked on.  But
+the Sun-beam, with her hand still in Stone-face's, she turned white
+to the lips, and stared with wild eyes before her, not knowing where
+she was; for she had deemed that the battle was over, and Face-of-god
+saved from it.
+
+But Folk-might tossed up his head and laughed, and cried out, 'At
+last, at last!'  And his sword was in his hand, the Sleep-thorn to
+wit, a blade of ancient fame; so now he let it fall and hang to his
+wrist by the leash, while he clapped his hands together and uttered
+the Wolf-whoop mightily, and all the men of the Wolf that were in the
+host, and the Woodlanders withal, uttered it with him.  Then he put
+his shield over his head and stood before the first of the steps, and
+the Dusky Men laughed to see one man come against them, though there
+was death in their hearts.  But he laughed back at them in triumph,
+and set his foot on the step, and let Sleep-thorn's point go into the
+throat of a Dusky lord, and thrust amongst them, hewing right and
+left, and tumbling men over the edge of the stair, which was to them
+as the narrow path along the cliff-side that hangeth over the
+unfathomed sea.  They hewed and thrust at him in turn; but so close
+were they packed that their weapons crossed about him, and one
+shielded him from the other, and they swayed staggering on that
+fearful verge, while the Sleep-thorn crept here and there amongst
+them, lulling their hot fury.  For, as desperate as they were, and
+fighting for death and not for life, they had a horror of him and of
+the sea of hatred below them, and feared where to set their feet, and
+he feared nought at all, but from feet to sword-point was but an
+engine of slaughter, while the heart within him throbbed with fury
+long held back as he thought upon the Bride and her wounding, and all
+the wrongs of his people since their Great Undoing.
+
+So he smote and thrust, till him-seemed the throng of foes thinned
+before him:  with his sword-pommel he smote a lord of the Dusky Ones
+in the face, so that he fell over the edge amongst the spears of the
+kindred; then he thrust the point of Sleep-thorn towards the Hall-
+door through the breast of another, and then it seemed to him that he
+had but one before him; so he hove up the edges to cleave him down,
+but ere the stroke fell, close to his ears exceeding loud rang out
+the cry, 'For the Burg and the Face! for the Face, for the Face!' and
+he drew aback a little, and his eyes cleared, and lo! it was Hall-
+face the tall, his long sword all reddened with battle; and beside
+him stood Face-of-god, silent and panting, his face pale with the
+fierce anger of the fight, and the weariness which was now at last
+gaining upon him.  There stood those three with no other living man
+upon the plain of the stairs.
+
+Then Face-of-god turned shouting to the Folk, and cried:
+
+'Forth now with the banners!  For now is the Wolf come home.  On into
+the Hall, O Kindred of the Gods!'
+
+Then poured the Folk up over the stairs and into the Hall of the
+Wolf, the banners flapping over their heads; and first went the War-
+leader and Folk-might and Hall-face, and then the three delivered
+thralls, Wolf-stone, God-swain, and Spear-fist, and Dallach with
+them, though both he and Wolf-stone had been hurt in the battle; and
+then came blended together the Men of the Face along with them of the
+Wolf who had entered the Market-stead with them, and with these were
+Stone-face and Wood-wont and Bow-may, leading the Sun-beam betwixt
+them; and now was she come to herself again, though her face was yet
+pale, and her eyes gleamed as she stepped across the threshold of the
+Hall.
+
+But when a many were gotten in, and the first-comers had had time to
+handle their weapons and look about them, a cry of the utmost wrath
+broke from Folk-might and those others who remembered the Hall from
+of old.  For wretched and befouled was that well-builded house:  the
+hangings rent away; the goodly painted walls daubed and smeared with
+wicked tokens of the Alien murderers:  the floor, once bright with
+polished stones of the mountain, and strewn with sweet-smelling
+flowers, was now as foul as the den of the man-devouring troll of the
+heaths.  From the fair-carven roof of oak and chestnut-beams hung
+ugly knots of rags and shapeless images of the sorcery of the Dusky
+Men.  And furthermore, and above all, from the last tie-beam of the
+roof over the dais dangled four shapes of men-at-arms, whom the older
+men of the Wolf knew at once for the embalmed bodies of their four
+great chieftains, who had been slain on the day of the Great Undoing;
+and they cried out with horror and rage as they saw them hanging
+there in their weapons as they had lived.
+
+There was the Hostage of the Earth, his shield painted with the green
+world circled with the worm of the sea.  There was the older Folk-
+might, the uncle of the living man, bearing a shield with an oak and
+a lion done thereon.  There was Wealth-eker, on whose shield was done
+a golden sheaf of wheat.  There was he who bore a name great from of
+old, Folk-wolf to wit, bearing on his shield the axe of the hewer.
+There they hung, dusty, befouled, with sightless eyes and grinning
+mouths, in the dimmed sunlight of the Hall, before the eyes of that
+victorious Host, stricken silent at the sight of them.
+
+Underneath them on the dais stood the last remnant of the battle of
+the Dusky Men; and they, as men mad with coming death, shook their
+weapons, and with shrieking laughter mocked at the overcomers, and
+pointed to the long-dead chiefs, and called on them in the tongue of
+the kindreds to come down and lead their dear kinsmen to the high-
+seat; and then they cried out to the living warriors of the Wolf, and
+bade them better their deed of slaying, and set to work to make alive
+again, and cause their kinsmen to live merry on the earth.
+
+With that last mock they handled their weapons and rushed howling on
+the warriors to meet their death; nor was it long denied them; for
+the sword of the Wolf, the axe of the Woodland, and the spear of the
+Dale soon made an end of the dreadful lives of these destroyers of
+the Folks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.  MEN SING IN THE MOTE-HOUSE
+
+
+
+Then strode the Warriors of the Wolf over the bodies of the slain on
+to the dais of their own Hall; and Folk-might led the Sun-beam by the
+hand, and now was his sword in its sheath, and his face was grown
+calm, though it was stern and sad.  But even as he trod the dais
+comes a slim swain of the Wolves twisting himself through the throng,
+and so maketh way to Folk-might, and saith to him:
+
+'Chieftain, the Alderman of Burgdale sendeth me hither to say a word
+to thee; even this, which I am to tell to thee and the War-leader
+both:  It is most true that our kinswoman the Bride will not die, but
+live.  So help me, the Warrior and the Face!  This is the word of the
+Alderman.'
+
+When Folk-might heard this, his face changed and he hung his head;
+and Face-of-god, who was standing close by, beheld him and deemed
+that tears were falling from his eyes on to the hall-floor.  As for
+him, he grew exceeding glad, and he turned to the Sun-beam and met
+her eyes, and saw that she could scarce refrain her longing for him;
+and he was abashed for the sweetness of his love.  But she drew close
+up to him, and spake to him softly and said:
+
+'This is the day that maketh amends; and yet I long for another day.
+When I saw thee coming to me that first day in Shadowy Vale, I
+thought thee so goodly a warrior that my heart was in my mouth.  But
+now how goodly thou art!  For the battle is over, and we shall live.'
+
+'Yea,' said Face-of-god, 'and none shall begrudge us our love.
+Behold thy brother, the hard-heart, the warrior; he weepeth because
+he hath heard that the Bride shall live.  Be sure then that she shall
+not gainsay him.  O fair shall the world be to-morrow!'
+
+But she said:  'O Gold-mane, I have no words.  Is there no minstrelsy
+amongst us?'
+
+Now by this time were many of the men of the Wolf and the Woodlanders
+gathered on the dais of the Hall; and the Dalesmen noting this, and
+wotting that these men were now in their own Mote-house, withdrew
+them as they might for the press toward the nether end thereof.  That
+the Sun-beam noted, and that all those about her save the War-leader
+were of the kindreds of the Wolf and the Woodland, and, still
+speaking softly, she said to Face-of-god:
+
+'Gold-mane, meseemeth I am now in my wrong place; for now the Wolf
+raiseth up his head, but I am departing from him.  Surely I should
+now be standing amongst my people of the Face, whereto I am going ere
+long.'
+
+He said:  'Beloved, I am now become thy kindred and thine home, and
+it is meet for thee to stand beside me.'
+
+She cast her eyes adown and answered not; and she fell a-pondering of
+how sorely she had desired that fair dale, and now she would leave
+it, and be content and more than content.
+
+But now the kindreds had sundered, they upon the dais ranked
+themselves together there in the House which their fathers had
+builded; and when they saw themselves so meetly ordered, their hearts
+being full with the sweetness of hope accomplished and the joy of
+deliverance from death, song arose amongst them, and they fell to
+singing together; and this is somewhat of their singing:
+
+
+   Now raise we the lay
+   Of the long-coming day!
+   Bright, white was the sun
+   When we saw it begun:
+   O'er its noon now we live;
+   It hath ceased not to give;
+   It shall give, and give more
+   From the wealth of its store.
+O fair was the yesterday!  Kindly and good
+Was the wasteland our guester, and kind was the wood;
+Though below us for reaping lay under our hand
+The harvest of weeping, the grief of the land;
+Dumb cowered the sorrow, nought daring to cry
+On the help of to-morrow, the deed drawing nigh.
+
+   All increase throve
+   In the Dale of our love;
+   There the ox and the steed
+   Fed down the mead;
+   The grapes hung high
+   'Twixt earth and sky,
+   And the apples fell
+   Round the orchard well.
+Yet drear was the land there, and all was for nought;
+None put forth a hand there for what the year wrought,
+And raised it o'erflowing with gifts of the earth.
+For man's grief was growing beside of the mirth
+Of the springs and the summers that wasted their wealth;
+And the birds, the new-comers, made merry by stealth.
+
+   Yet here of old
+   Abode the bold;
+   Nor had they wailed
+   Though the wheat had failed,
+   And the vine no more
+   Gave forth her store.
+   Yea, they found the waste good
+   For the fearless of mood.
+Then to these, that were dwelling aloof from the Dale,
+Fared the wild-wind a-telling the worst of the tale;
+As men bathed in the morning they saw in the pool
+The image of scorning, the throne of the fool.
+The picture was gleaming in helm and in sword,
+And shone forth its seeming from cups of the board.
+
+   Forth then they came
+   With the battle-flame;
+   From the Wood and the Waste
+   And the Dale did they haste:
+   They saw the storm rise,
+   And with untroubled eyes
+   The war-storm they met;
+   And the rain ruddy-wet.
+O'er the Dale then was litten the Candle of Day,
+Night-sorrow was smitten, and gloom fled away.
+How the grief-shackles sunder!  How many to morn
+Shall awaken and wonder how gladness was born!
+O wont unto sorrow, how sweet unto you
+Shall be pondering to-morrow what deed is to do!
+
+   Fell many a man
+   'Neath the edges wan,
+   In the heat of the play
+   That fashioned the day.
+   Praise all ye then
+   The death of men,
+   And the gift of the aid
+   Of the unafraid!
+O strong are the living men mighty to save,
+And good is their giving, and gifts that we have!
+But the dead, they that gave us once, never again;
+Long and long shall they save us sore trouble and pain.
+O Banner above us, O God of the strong,
+Love them as ye love us that bore down our wrong!
+
+
+So they sang in the Hall; and there was many a man wept, as the song
+ended, for those that should never see the good days of the Dale, and
+all the joy that was to be; and men swore, by all that they loved,
+that they would never forget those that had fallen in the Winning of
+Silver-dale; and that when each year the Cups of Memory went round,
+they should be no mere names to them, but the very men whom they had
+known and loved.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.  DALLACH FARETH TO ROSE-DALE:  CROW TELLETH OF HIS
+ERRAND:  THE KINDREDS EAT THEIR MEAT IN SILVER-DALE
+
+
+
+Now Dallach, who had gone away for a while, came back again into the
+Hall; and at his back were a half score of men who bore ladders with
+them:  they were stout men, clad in scanty and ragged raiment, but
+girt with swords and bearing axes, those of them who were not
+handling the ladders.  Men looked on them curiously, because they saw
+them to be of the roughest of the thralls.  They were sullen and
+fierce-eyed to behold, and their hands and bare arms were flecked
+with blood; and it was easy to see that they had been chasing the
+fleers, and making them pay for their many torments of past days.
+
+But when Face-of-god beheld this he cried out:  'Ho, Dallach! is it
+so that thou hast bethought thee to bring in hither men to fall to
+the cleansing of the Hall, and to do away the defiling of the Dusky
+Men?'
+
+'Even so, War-leader,' said Dallach; 'also ye shall know that all
+battle is over in Silver-stead; for the thralls fell in numbers not
+to be endured on the Dusky Men who had turned their backs to us, and
+hindered them from fleeing north.  But though they have slain many,
+they have not slain all, and the remnant have fled by divers ways
+westaway, that they may gain the wood and the ways to Rose-dale; and
+the stoutest of the thralls are at their heels, and ever as they go
+fresh men from the fields join in the chase with great joy.  I have
+gathered together of the best of them two hundreds and a half well-
+armed; and if thou wilt give me leave, I will get to me yet more, and
+follow hard on the fleers, and so get me home to Rose-dale; for
+thither will these runaways to meet whatso of their kind may be left
+there.  Also I would fain be there to set some order amongst the poor
+folk of mine own people, whom this day's work hath delivered from
+torment.  And if thou wilt suffer a few men of the Dalesmen to come
+along with me, then shall all things be better done there.'
+
+'Luck go with thine hands!' said Face-of-god.  'Take whomso thou wilt
+of the Burgdalers that have a mind to fare with thee to the number of
+five score; and send word of thy thriving to Folk-might, the
+chieftain of the Dale; as for us, meseemeth that we shall abide here
+no long while.  How sayest thou, Folk-might, shall Dallach go?'
+
+Then Folk-might, who stood close beside him, looked up and reddened
+somewhat, as a man caught heedless when he should be heedful; but he
+looked kindly on Face-of-god, and said:
+
+'War-leader, so long as thou art in the Dale which ye kindreds have
+won back for us, thou art the chieftain, and no other, and I bid thee
+do as thou wilt in this matter, and in all things; and I hereby give
+command to all my kindred to do according to thy will everywhere and
+always, as they love me; and indeed I deem that thy will shall be
+theirs; since it is only fools who know not their well-wishers.  How
+say ye, kinsmen?'
+
+Then those about cried out:  'Hail to Face-of-god!  Hail to the
+Dalesmen!  Hail to our friends!'
+
+But Folk-might went up to Face-of-god, and threw his arms about him
+and kissed him, and he said therewithal, so that most men heard him:
+
+'Herewith I kiss not only thee, thou goodly and glorious warrior! but
+this kiss and embrace is for all the men of the kindreds of the Dale
+and the Shepherds; since I deem that never have men more valiant
+dwelt upon the earth.'
+
+Therewith all men shouted for joy of him, and were exceeding glad;
+but Folk-might spake apart to Face-of-god and said:
+
+'Brother, I suppose that thou wilt deem it good to abide in this Hall
+or anigh it; for hereabouts now is the heart of the Host.  But as for
+me, I would have leave to depart for a little; since I have an
+errand, whereof thou mayest wot.'
+
+Then Face-of-god smiled on him, and said:  'Go, and all good go with
+thee; and tell my father that I would have tidings, since I may not
+be there.'  So he spake; yet in his heart was he glad that he might
+not go to behold the Bride lying sick and sorry.  But Folk-might
+departed without more words; and in the door of the Hall he met Crow
+the Shaft-speeder, who would have spoken to him, and given him the
+tidings; but Folk-might said to him:  'Do thine errand to the War-
+leader, who is within the Hall.'  And so went on his way.
+
+Then came Crow up the Hall, and stood before Face-of-god and said:
+'War-leader, we have done that which was to be done, and have cleared
+all the houses about the Market-stead.  Moreover, by the rede of
+Dallach we have set certain men of the poor folk of the Dale, who are
+well looked to by the others, to the burying of the slain felons; and
+they be digging trenches in the fields on the north side of the
+Market-stead, and carry the carcasses thither as they may.  But the
+slain whom they find of the kindreds do they array out yonder before
+this Hall.  In all wise are these men tame and biddable, save that
+they rage against the Dusky Men, though they fear them yet.  As for
+us, they deem us Gods come down from heaven to help them.  So much
+for what is good:  now have I an ill word to say; to wit, that in the
+houses whereas we have found many thralls alive, yet also have we
+found many dead; for amongst these murder-carles were some of an evil
+sort, who, when they saw that the battle would go against them,
+rushed into the houses hewing down all before them--man, woman, and
+child; so that many of the halls and chambers we saw running blood
+like to shambles.  To be short:  of them whom they were going to hew
+to the Gods, we have found thirteen living and three dead, of which
+latter is one woman; and of the living, seven women; and all these,
+living and dead, with the leaden shackles yet on them wherein they
+should be burned.  To all these and others whom we have found, we
+have done what of service we could in the way of victual and clothes,
+so that they scarce believe that they are on this lower earth.
+Moreover, I have with me two score of them, who are men of some wits,
+and who know of the stores of victual and other wares which the
+felons had, and these will fetch and carry for you as much as ye
+will.  Is all done rightly, War-leader?'
+
+'Right well,' said Face-of-god, 'and we give thee our thanks
+therefor.  And now it were well if these thy folk were to dight our
+dinner for us in some green field the nighest that may be, and
+thither shall all the Host be bidden by sound of horn.  Meantime, let
+us void this Hall till it be cleansed of the filth of the Dusky Ones;
+but hereafter shall we come again to it, and light a fire on the Holy
+Hearth, and bid the Gods and the Fathers come back and behold their
+children sitting glad in the ancient Hall.'
+
+Then men shouted and were exceeding joyous; but Face-of-god said once
+more:  'Bear ye a bench out into the Market-place over against the
+door of this Hall:  thereon will I sit with other chieftains of the
+kindreds, that whoso will may have recourse to us.'
+
+So therewith all the men of the kindreds made their ways out of the
+Hall and into the Market-stead, which was by this time much cleared
+of the slaughtered felons; and the bale for the burnt-offering was
+now but smouldering, and a thin column of blue smoke was going up
+wavering amidst the light airs of the afternoon.  Men were somewhat
+silent now; for they were stiff and weary with the morning's battle;
+and a many had been hurt withal; and on many there yet rested the
+after-grief of battle, and sorrow for the loss of friends and well-
+wishers.
+
+For in the battle had fallen one long hundred and two of the men of
+the Host; and of these were two score and five of the kindreds of the
+Steer, the Bull, and the Bridge, who had made such valiant onslaught
+by the southern road.  Of the Shepherds died one score save three;
+for though they scattered the foe at once, yet they fell on with such
+headlong valour, rather than wisely, that many were trapped in the
+throng of the Dusky Men.  Of the Woodlanders were slain one score and
+nine; for hard had been the fight about them, and no man of them
+spared himself one whit.  Of the men of the Wolf, who were but a few,
+fell sixteen men, and all save two of these in Face-of-god's battle.
+Of the Burgdale men whom Folk-might led, to wit, them of the Face,
+the Vine, and the Sickle, were but seven men slain outright.  In this
+tale are told all those who died of their hurts after the day of
+battle.  Therewithal many others were sorely hurt who mended, and
+went about afterwards hale and hearty.
+
+So as the folk abode in the Market-place, somewhat faint and weary,
+they heard horns blow up merrily, and Crow the Shaft-speeder came
+forth and stood on the mound of the altar, and bade men fare to
+dinner, and therewith he led the way, bearing in his hand the banner
+of the Golden Bushel, of which House he was; and they followed him
+into a fair and great mead on the southwest of Silver-stead,
+besprinkled about with ancient trees of sweet chestnut.  There they
+found the boards spread for them with the best of victual which the
+poor down-trodden folk knew how to dight for them; and especially was
+there great plenty of good wine of the sun-smitten bents.
+
+So they fell to their meat, and the poor folk, both men and women,
+served them gladly, though they were somewhat afeard of these fierce
+sword-wielders, the Gods who had delivered them.  The said thralls
+were mostly not of those who had fallen so bitterly on their fleeing
+masters, but were men and women of the households, not so roughly
+treated as the others, that is to say, those who had been wont to
+toil under the lash in the fields and the silver-mines, and were as
+wild as they durst be.
+
+As for these waiting-thralls, the men of the kindreds were gentle and
+blithe with them, and often as they served them would they stay their
+hands (and especially if they were women), and would draw down their
+heads to put a morsel in their mouths, or set the wine-cup to their
+lips; and they would stroke them and caress them, and treat them in
+all wise as their dear friends.  Moreover, when any man was full, he
+would arise and take hold of one of the thralls, and set him in his
+place, and serve him with meat and drink, and talk with him kindly,
+so that the poor folk were much bewildered with joy.  And the first
+that arose from table were the Sun-beam and Bow-may and Hall-face,
+with many of the swains and the women of the Woodlanders; and they
+went from table to table serving the others.
+
+The Sun-beam had done off her armour, and went about exceeding fair
+and lovely in her kirtle; but Bow-may yet bore her hauberk, for she
+loved it, and indeed it was so fine and well-wrought that it was no
+great burden.  Albeit she had gone down with the Sun-beam and other
+women to a fair stream thereby, and there had they bathed and washed
+themselves; and Bow-may's hurts, which were not great, had been
+looked to and bound up afresh, and she had come to table unhelmed,
+with a wreath of wind-flowers round her head.
+
+There then they feasted; and their hearts were strengthened by the
+meat and drink; and if sorrow were blended with their joy, yet were
+they high-hearted through both joy and sorrow, looking forward to the
+good days to be in the Dales at the Roots of the Mountains, and the
+love and fellowship of Folks and of Houses.
+
+But as for Face-of-god, he went not to the meadow, but abode sitting
+on the bench in the Market-place, where were none else now of the
+kindreds save the appointed warders.  They had brought him a morsel
+and a cup of wine, and he had eaten and drunk; and now he sat there
+with Dale-warden lying sheathed across his knees, and seeming to gaze
+on the thralls of Silver-dale busied in carrying away the bodies of
+the slain felons, after they had stripped them of their raiment and
+weapons.  Yet indeed all this was before his eyes as a picture which
+he noted not.  Rather he sat pondering many things; wondering at his
+being there in Silver-dale in the hour of victory; longing for the
+peace of Burgdale and the bride-chamber of the Sun-beam.  Then went
+his thought out toward his old playmate lying hurt in Silver-dale;
+and his heart was grieved because of her, yet not for long, though
+his thought still dwelt on her; since he deemed that she would live
+and presently be happy--and happy thenceforward for many years.  So
+pondered Face-of-god in the Market-place of Silver-dale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.  FOLK-MIGHT SEETH THE BRIDE AND SPEAKETH WITH HER
+
+
+
+Now tells the tale of Folk-might, that he went his ways from the Hall
+to the house where the Bride lay; and the swain who had brought the
+message went along with him, and he was proud of walking beside so
+mighty a warrior, and he talked to Folk-might as they went; and the
+sound of his voice was irksome to the chieftain, but he made as
+though he hearkened.  Yet when they came to the door of the house,
+which was just out of the Place on the Southern road (for thereby had
+the Bride fallen to earth), he could withhold his grief no longer,
+but turned on the threshold and laid his head on the door-jamb, and
+sobbed and wept till the tears fell down like rain.  And the boy
+stood by wondering, and wishing that Folk-might would forbear
+weeping, but durst not speak to him.
+
+In a while Folk-might left weeping and went in, and found a fair hall
+sore befouled by the felons, and in the corner on a bed covered with
+furs the wounded woman; and at first sight he deemed her not so pale
+as he looked to see her, as she lay with her long dark-red hair
+strewed over the pillow, her head moving about wearily.  A linen
+cloth was thrown over her body, but her arms lay out of it before
+her.  Beside her sat the Alderman, his face sober enough, but not as
+one in heavy sorrow; and anigh him was another chair as if someone
+had but just got up from it.  There was no one else in the hall save
+two women of the Woodlanders, one of whom was cooking some potion on
+the hearth, and another was sweeping the floor anigh of bran or some
+such stuff, which had been thrown down to sop up the blood.
+
+So Folk-might went up to the Bride, sorely dreading the image of
+death which she had grown to be, and sorely loving the woman she was
+and would be.
+
+He knelt down by the bedside, heeding Iron-face little, though he
+nodded friendly to him, and he held his face close to hers; but she
+had her eyes shut and did not open them till he had been there a
+little while; and then they opened and fixed themselves on his
+without surprise or change.  Then she lifted her right hand (for it
+was in her left shoulder and side that she had been hurt) and slowly
+laid it on his head, and drew his face to hers and kissed it fondly,
+as she both smiled and let the tears run over from her eyes.  Then
+she spake in a weak voice:
+
+'Thou seest, chieftain and dear friend, that I may not stand by thy
+victorious side to-day.  And now, though I were fain if thou wouldst
+never leave me, yet needs must thou go about thy work, since thou art
+become the Alderman of the Folk of Silver-dale.  Yea, and even if
+thou wert not to go from me, yet in a manner should I go from thee.
+For I am grievously hurt, and I know by myself, and also the leeches
+have told me, that the fever is a-coming on me; so that presently I
+shall not know thee, but may deem thee to be a woman, or a hound, or
+the very Wolf that is the image of the Father of thy kindred; or
+even, it may be, someone else--that I have played with time agone.'
+
+Her voice faltered and faded out here, and she was silent a while;
+then she said:
+
+'So depart, kind friend and dear love, bearing this word with thee,
+that should I die, I call on Iron-face my kinsman to bear witness
+that I bid thee carry me to bale in Silver-dale, and lay mine ashes
+with the ashes of thy Fathers, with whom thine own shall mingle at
+the last, since I have been of the warriors who have helped to bring
+thee aback to the land of thy folk.'
+
+Then she smiled and shut her eyes and said:  'And if I live, as
+indeed I hope, and how glad and glad I shall be to live, then shalt
+thou bring me to thy house and thy bed, that I may not depart from
+thee while both our lives last.'
+
+And she opened her eyes and looked at him; and he might not speak for
+a while, so ravished as he was betwixt joy and sorrow.  But the
+Alderman arose and took a gold ring from off his arm, and spake:
+
+'This is the gold ring of the God of the Face, and I bear it on mine
+arm betwixt the Folk and the God in all man-motes, and I bore it
+through the battle to-day; and it is as holy a ring as may be; and
+since ye are plighting troth, and I am the witness thereof, it were
+good that ye held this ring together and called the God to witness,
+who is akin to the God of the Earth, as we all be.  Take the ring,
+Folk-might, for I trust thee; and of all women now alive would I have
+this woman happy.'
+
+So Folk-might took the ring and thrust his hand through it, and took
+her hand, and said:
+
+'Ye Fathers, thou God of the Face, thou Earth-god, thou Warrior, bear
+witness that my life and my body are plighted to this woman, the
+Bride of the House of the Steer!'
+
+His face was flushed and bright as he spoke, but as his words ceased
+he noted how feebly her hand lay in his, and his face fell, and he
+gazed on her timidly.  But she lay quiet, and said softly and slowly:
+
+'O Fathers of my kindred!  O Warrior and God of the Earth! bear
+witness that I plight my troth to this man, to lie in his grave if I
+die, and in his bed if I live.'
+
+And she smiled on him again, and then closed her eyes; but opened
+them presently once more, and said:
+
+'Dear friend, how fared it with Gold-mane to-day?'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'So well he did, that none might have done better.
+He fared in the fight as if he had been our Father the Warrior:  he
+is a great chieftain.'
+
+She said:  'Wilt thou give him this message from me, that in no wise
+he forget the oath which he swore upon the finger-ring as it lay on
+the sundial of the Garden of the Face?  And say, moreover, that I am
+sorry that we shall part, and have between us such breadth of wild-
+wood and mountain-neck.'
+
+'Yea, surely will I give thy message,' said Folk-might; and in his
+heart he rejoiced, because he heard her speak as if she were sure of
+life.  Then she said faintly:
+
+'It is now thy work to depart from me, and to do as it behoveth a
+chieftain of the people and the Alderman of Silver-dale.  Depart,
+lest the leeches chide me:  farewell, my dear!'
+
+So he laid his face to hers and kissed her, and rose up and embraced
+Iron-face, and went his ways without looking back.
+
+But just over the threshold he met old Hall-ward of the House of the
+Steer, who was at point to enter, and he greeted him kindly.  The old
+man looked on him steadily, and said:  'To-morrow or the day after I
+will utter a word to thee, O Chief of the Wolf.'
+
+'In a good hour,' said Folk-might, 'for all thy words are true.'
+Therewith he gat him away from the house, and came to Face-of-god,
+where he sat before the altar of the Crooked Sword; and now were the
+chiefs come back from their meat, and were sitting with him; there
+also were Wood-father and Wood-wont; but Bow-may was with the Sun-
+beam, who was resting softly in the fair meadow after all the
+turmoil.
+
+So men made place for Folk-might beside the War-leader, who looked
+upon his face, and saw that it was sober and unsmiling, but not heavy
+or moody with grief.  So he deemed that all was as well as it might
+be with the Bride, and with a good heart fell to taking counsel with
+the others; and kindly and friendly were the redes which they held
+there, with no gainsaying of man by man, for the whole folk was glad
+at heart.
+
+So there they ordered all matters duly for that present time, and by
+then they had made an end, it was past sunset, and men were lodged in
+the chief houses about the Market-stead.
+
+Albeit, though they ate their meat with all joy of heart, and were
+merry in converse one with the other, the men of the Wolf would by no
+means feast in their Hall again till it had been cleansed and
+hallowed anew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.  THE DEAD BORNE TO BALE:  THE MOTE-HOUSE RE-HALLOWED
+
+
+
+On the morrow they bore to bale their slain men, and there withal
+what was left of the bodies of the four chieftains of the Great
+Undoing.  They brought them into a most fair meadow to the west of
+Silver-stead, where they had piled up a very great bale for the
+burning.  In that meadow was the Doom-ring and Thing-stead of the
+Folk of the Wolf, and they had hallowed it when they had first
+conquered Silver-dale, and it was deemed far holier than the Mote-
+house aforesaid, wherein the men of the kindred might hold no due
+court; but rather it was a Feast-hall, and a house where men had
+converse together, and wherein precious things and tokens of the
+Fathers were stored up.
+
+The Thing-stead in the meadow was flowery and well-grassed, and a
+little stream winding about thereby nearly cast a ring around it; and
+beyond the stream was a full fair grove of oak-trees, very tall and
+ancient.  There then they burned the dead of the Host, wrapped about
+in exceeding fair raiment.  And when the ashes were gathered, the men
+of Burgdale and the Shepherds left those of their folk for the
+kindred to bury there in Silver-dale; for they said that they had a
+right to claim such guesting for them that had helped to win back the
+Dale.
+
+But when the Burning was done and the bale quenched, and the ashes
+gathered and buried (and that was on the morrow), then men bore forth
+the Banners of the Jaws of the Wolf, and the Red Hand, and the Silver
+Arm, and the Golden Bushel, and the Ragged Sword, and the Wolf of the
+Woodland; and with great joy and triumph they brought them into the
+Mote-house and hung them up over the dais; and they kindled fire on
+the Holy Hearth by holding up a disk of bright glass to the sun; and
+then they sang before the banners.  And this is somewhat of the song
+that they sang before them:
+
+
+Why are ye wending?  O whence and whither?
+   What shineth over the fallow swords?
+What is the joy that ye bear in hither?
+   What is the tale of your blended words?
+
+No whither we wend, but here have we stayed us,
+   Here by the ancient Holy Hearth;
+Long have the moons and the years delayed us,
+   But here are we come from the heart of the dearth.
+
+We are the men of joy belated;
+   We are the wanderers over the waste;
+We are but they that sat and waited,
+   Watching the empty winds make haste.
+
+Long, long we sat and knew no others,
+   Save alien folk and the foes of the road;
+Till late and at last we met our brothers,
+   And needs must we to the old abode.
+
+For once on a day they prayed for guesting;
+   And how were we then their bede to do?
+Wild was the waste for the people's resting,
+   And deep the wealth of the Dale we knew.
+
+Here were the boards that we must spread them
+   Down in the fruitful Dale and dear;
+Here were the halls where we would bed them:
+   And how should we tarry otherwhere?
+
+Over the waste we came together:
+   There was the tangle athwart the way;
+There was the wind-storm and the weather;
+   The red rain darkened down the day.
+
+But that day of the days what grief should let us,
+   When we saw through the clouds the dale-glad sun?
+We tore at the tangle that beset us,
+   And stood at peace when the day was done.
+
+Hall of the Happy, take our greeting!
+   Bid thou the Fathers come and see
+The Folk-signs on thy walls a-meeting,
+   And deem to-day what men we be.
+
+Look on the Holy Hearth new-litten,
+   How the sparks fly twinkling up aloof!
+How the wavering smoke by the sunlight smitten,
+   Curls up around the beam-rich roof!
+
+For here once more is the Wolf abiding,
+   Nor ever more from the Dale shall wend,
+And never again his head be hiding,
+   Till all days be dark and the world have end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.  OF THE NEW BEGINNING OF GOOD DAYS IN SILVER-DALE
+
+
+
+On the third day there was high-tide and great joy amongst all men
+from end to end of the Dale; and the delivered thralls were feasted
+and made much of by the kindreds, so that they scarce knew how to
+believe their own five senses that told them the good tidings.
+
+For none strove to grieve them and torment them; what they would,
+that did they, and they had all things plenteously; since for all was
+there enough and to spare of goods stored up for the Dusky Men, as
+corn and wine and oil and spices, and raiment and silver.  Horses
+were there also, and neat and sheep and swine in abundance.  Withal
+there was the good and dear land; the waxing corn on the acres; the
+blossoming vines on the hillside; and about the orchards and
+alongside the ways, the plum-trees and cherry-trees and pear-trees
+that had cast their blossom and were overhung with little young
+fruit; and the fair apple-trees a-blossoming, and the chestnuts
+spreading their boughs from their twisted trunks over the green
+grass.  And there was the goodly pasture for the horses and the neat,
+and the thymy hill-grass for the sheep; and beyond it all, the
+thicket of the great wood, with its unfailing store of goodly timber
+of ash and oak and holly and yoke-elm.  There need no man lack unless
+man compelled him, and all was rich enough and wide enough for the
+waxing of a very great folk.
+
+Now, therefore, men betook them to what was their own before the
+coming of the Dusky Men; and though at first many of the delivered
+thrall-folk feasted somewhat above measure, and though there were
+some of them who were not very brisk at working on the earth for
+their livelihood; yet were the most part of them quick of wit and
+deft of hand, and they mostly fell to presently at their cunning,
+both of husbandry and handicraft.  Moreover, they had great love of
+the kindreds, and especially of the Woodlanders, and strove to do all
+things that might pleasure them.  And as for those who were dull and
+listless because of their many torments of the last ten years, they
+would at least fetch and carry willingly for them of the kindreds;
+and these last grudged them not meat and raiment and house-room, even
+if they wrought but little for it, because they called to mind the
+evil days of their thralldom, and bethought them how few are men's
+days upon the earth.
+
+Thus all things throve in Silver-dale, and the days wore on toward
+the summer, and the Yule-tide rest beyond it, and the years beyond
+and far beyond the winning of Silver-dale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.  OF THE WORD WHICH HALL-WARD OF THE STEER HAD FOR FOLK-
+MIGHT
+
+
+
+But of the time then passing, it is to be said that the whole host
+abode in Silver-dale in great mirth and good liking, till they should
+hear tidings of Dallach and his company, who had followed hot-foot on
+the fleers of the Dusky Men.  And on the tenth day after the battle,
+Iron-face and his two sons and Stone-face were sitting about sunset
+under a great oak-tree by that stream-side which ran through the
+Mote-stead; there also was Folk-might, somewhat distraught because of
+his love for the Bride, who was now mending of her hurts.  As they
+sat there in all content they saw folk coming toward them, three in
+number, and as they drew nigher they saw that it was old Hall-ward of
+the Steer, and the Sun-beam and Bow-may following him hand in hand.
+
+When they came to the brook Bow-may ran up to the elder to help him
+over the stepping-stones; which she did as one who loved him, as the
+old man was stark enough to have waded the water waist-deep.  She was
+no longer in her war-gear, but was clad after her wont of Shadowy
+Vale, in nought but a white woollen kirtle.  So she stood in the
+stream beside the stones, and let the swift water ripple up over her
+ankles, while the elder leaned on her shoulder and looked down upon
+her kindly.  The Sun-beam followed after them, stepping daintily from
+stone to stone, so that she was a fair sight to see; her face was
+smiling and happy, and as she stepped forth on to the green grass the
+colour flushed up in it, but she cast her eyes adown as one somewhat
+shamefaced.
+
+So the chieftains rose up before the leader of the Steer, and Folk-
+might went up to him, and greeted him, and took his hand and kissed
+him on the cheek.  And Hall-ward said:
+
+'Hail to the chiefs of the kindred, and my earthly friends!'
+
+Then Folk-might bade him sit down by him, and all the men sat down
+again; but the Sun-beam leaned her back against a sapling ash hard
+by, her feet set close together; and Bow-may went to and fro in short
+turns, keeping well within ear-shot.
+
+Then said Hall-ward:  'Folk-might, I have prayed thy kinswoman Bow-
+may to lead me to thee, that I might speak with thee; and it is good
+that I find my kinsmen of the Face in thy company; for I would say a
+word to thee that concerns them somewhat.'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Guest, and warrior of the Steer, thy words are
+ever good; and if this time thou comest to ask aught of me, then
+shall they be better than good.'
+
+Said Hall-ward:  'Tell me, Folk-might, hast thou seen my daughter the
+Bride to-day?'
+
+'Yea,' said Folk-might, reddening.
+
+'What didst thou deem of her state?' said Hall-ward.
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Thou knowest thyself that the fever hath left her,
+and that she is mending.'
+
+Hall-ward said:  'In a few days belike we shall be wending home to
+Burgdale:  when deemest thou that the Bride may travel, if it were
+but on a litter?'
+
+Folk-might was silent, and Hall-ward smiled on him and said:
+
+'Wouldst thou have her tarry, O chief of the Wolf?'
+
+'So it is,' said Folk-might, 'that it might be labour lost for her to
+journey to Burgdale at present.'
+
+'Thinkest thou?' said Hall-ward; 'hast thou a mind then that if she
+goeth she shall speedily come back hither?'
+
+'It has been in my mind,' said Folk-might, 'that I should wed her.
+Wilt thou gainsay it?  I pray thee, Iron-face my friend, and ye
+Stone-face and Hall-face, and thou, Face-of-god, my brother, to lay
+thy words to mine in this matter.'
+
+Then said Hall-ward stroking his beard:  'There will be a seat
+missing in the Hall of the Steer, and a sore lack in the heart of
+many a man in Burgdale if the Bride come back to us no more.  We
+looked not to lose the maiden by her wedding; for it is no long way
+betwixt the House of the Steer and the House of the Face.  But now,
+when I arise in the morning and miss her, I shall take my staff and
+walk down the street of Burgstead; for I shall say, The Maiden hath
+gone to see Iron-face my friend; she is well in the House of the
+Face.  And then shall I remember how that the wood and the wastes lie
+between us.  How sayest thou, Alderman?'
+
+'A sore lack it will be,' said Iron-face; 'but all good go with her!
+Though whiles shall I go hatless down Burgstead street, and say, Now
+will I go fetch my daughter the Bride from the House of the Steer;
+while many a day's journey shall lie betwixt us.'
+
+Said Hall-ward:  'I will not beat about the bush, Folk-might; what
+gift wilt thou give us for the maiden?'
+
+Said Folk-might:  'Whatever is mine shall be thine; and whatsoever of
+the Dale the kindred and the poor folk begrudge thee not, that shalt
+thou have; and deemest thou that they will begrudge thee aught?  Is
+it enough?'
+
+Hall-ward said:  'I wot not, chieftain; see thou to it!  Bow-may, my
+friend, bring hither that which I would have from Silver-dale for the
+House of the Steer in payment for our maiden.'
+
+Then Bow-may came forward speedily, and went up to the Sun-beam, and
+led her by the hand in front of Folk-might and Hall-ward and the
+other chieftains.  Then Folk-might started, and leapt up from the
+ground; for, sooth to say, he had been thinking so wholly of the
+Bride, that his sister was not in his mind, and he had had no deeming
+of whither Hall-ward was coming, though the others guessed well
+enough, and now smiled on him merrily, when they saw how wild Folk-
+might stared.  As for the Sun-beam, she stood there blushing like a
+rose in June, but looking her brother straight in the face, as Hall-
+ward said:
+
+'Folk-might, chief of the Wolf, since thou wouldst take our maiden
+the Bride away from us, I ask thee to make good her place with this
+maiden; so that the House of the Steer may not lack, when they who
+are wont to wed therein come to us and pray us for a bedfellow for
+the best of their kindred.'
+
+Then became Folk-might smiling and merry like unto the others, and he
+said:  'Chief of the Steer, this gift is thine, together with aught
+else which thou mayst desire of us.'
+
+Then he kissed the Sun-beam, and said:  'Sister, we looked for this
+to befall in some fashion.  Yet we deemed that he that should lead
+thee away might abide with us for a moon or two.  But now let all
+this be, since if thou art not to bear children to the kindreds of
+Silver-dale, yet shalt thou bear them to their friends and fellows.
+And now choose what gift thou wilt have of us to keep us in thy
+memory.'
+
+She said:  'The memory of my people shall not fade from me; yet
+indeed I ask thee for a gift, to wit, Bow-may, and the two sons of
+Wood-father that are left since Wood-wicked was slain; and belike the
+elder and his wife will be fain to go with their sons, and ye will
+not hinder them.'
+
+'Even so shall it be done,' said Folk-might, and he was silent a
+while, pondering; and then he said:
+
+'Lo you, friends! doth it not seem strange to you that peace
+sundereth as well as war?  Indeed I deem it grievous that ye shall
+have to miss your well-beloved kinswoman.  And for me, I am now grown
+so used to this woman my sister, though at whiles she hath been
+masterful with me, that I shall often turn about and think to speak
+to her, when there lie long days of wood and waste betwixt her voice
+and mine.
+
+The Sun-beam laughed in his face, though the tears stood in her eyes,
+as she said:  'Keep up thine heart, brother; for at least the way is
+shorter betwixt Burgdale and Silver-dale than betwixt life and death;
+and the road we shall learn belike.'
+
+Said Hall-face:  'So it is that my brother is no ill woodman, as ye
+learned last autumn.'
+
+Iron-face smiled, but somewhat sadly; for he beheld Face-of-god, who
+had no eyes for anyone save the Sun-beam; and no marvel was that, for
+never had she looked fairer.  And forsooth the War-leader was not
+utterly well-pleased; for he was deeming that there would be delaying
+of his wedding, now that the Sun-beam was to become a maid of the
+Steer; and in his mind he half deemed that it would be better if he
+were to take her by the hand and lead her home through the wild-wood,
+he and she alone; and she looked on him shyly, as though she had a
+deeming of his thought.  Albeit he knew it might not be, that he, the
+chosen War-leader, should trouble the peace of the kindred; for he
+wotted that all this was done for peace' sake.
+
+So Hall-ward stood forth and took the Sun-beam's right hand in his,
+and said:
+
+'Now do I take this maiden, Sun-beam of the kindred of the Wolf, and
+lead her into the House of the Steer, to be in all ways one of the
+maidens of our House, and to wed in the blood wherein we have been
+wont to wed.  Neither from henceforth let anyone say that this woman
+is not of the blood of the Steer; for we have given her our blood,
+and she is of us duly and truly.'
+
+Thereafter they talked together merrily for a little, and then turned
+toward the houses, for the sun was now down; and as they went Iron-
+face spake to his son, and said:
+
+'Gold-mane, wilt thou verily keep thine oath to wed the fairest woman
+in the world?  By how much is this one fairer than my dear daughter
+who shall no more dwell in mine house?'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Yea, father, I shall keep mine oath; for the
+Gods, who know much, know that when I swore last Yule I was thinking
+of the fair woman going yonder beside Hall-ward, and of none other.'
+
+'Ah, son!' said Iron-face, 'why didst thou beguile us?  Hadst thou
+but told us the truth then!'
+
+'Yea, Alderman,' said Face-of-god smiling, 'and how thou wouldest
+have raged against me then, when thou hast scarce forgiven me now!
+In sooth, father, I feared to tell you all:  I was young; I was one
+against the world.  Yea, yea; and even that was sweet to me, so
+sorely as I loved her--Hast thou forgotten, father?'
+
+Iron-face smiled, and answered not; and so came they to the house
+wherein they were guested.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.  TIDINGS OF DALLACH:  A FOLK-MOTE IN SILVER-DALE
+
+
+
+Three days thereafter came two swift runners from Rose-dale with
+tidings of Dallach.  In all wise had he thriven, and had slain many
+of the runaways, and had come happily to Rose-dale:  therein by the
+mere shaking of their swords had they all their will; for there were
+but a few of the Dusky Warriors in the Dale, since the more part had
+fared to the slaughter in Silver-stead.  Now therefore had Dallach
+been made Alderman of Rose-dale; and the Burgdalers who had gone with
+him should abide the coming thither of the rest of the Burgdale Host,
+and meantime of their coming should uphold the new Alderman in Rose-
+dale.  Howbeit Dallach sent word that it was not to be doubted but
+that many of the Dusky Men had escaped to the woods, and should yet
+be the death of many a mother's son, unless it were well looked to.
+
+And now the more part of the Burgdale men and the Shepherds began to
+look toward home, albeit some amongst them had not been ill-pleased
+to abide there yet a while; for life was exceeding soft to them
+there, though they helped the poor folk gladly in their husbandry.
+For especially the women of the Dale, of whom many were very goodly,
+hankered after the fair-faced tall Burgdalers, and were as kind to
+them as might be.  Forsooth not a few, both carles and queens, of the
+old thrall-folk prayed them of Burgdale to take them home thither,
+that they might see new things and forget their old torments once for
+all, yea, even in dreams.  The Burgdalers would not gainsay them, and
+there was no one else to hinder; so that there went with the Burgdale
+men at their departure hard on five score of the Silver-dale folk who
+were not of the kindreds.
+
+And now was a great Folk-mote holden in Silver-dale, whereto the
+Burgdale men and the Shepherds were bidden; and thereat the War-
+leader gave out the morrow of the morrow for the day of the departure
+of the Host.  There also were the matters of Silver-dale duly
+ordered:  the Men of the Wolf would have had the Woodlanders dwell
+with them in the fair-builded stead, and take to them of the goodly
+stone houses there what they would; but this they naysaid, choosing
+rather to dwell in scattered houses, which they built for themselves
+at the utmost limit of the tillage.
+
+Indeed, the most abode not even there a long while; for they loved
+the wood and its deeds.  So they went forth into the wood, and
+cleared them space to dwell in, and builded them halls such as they
+loved, and fell to their old woodland crafts of charcoal-burning and
+hunting, wherein they throve well.  And good for Silver-dale was
+their abiding there, since they became a sure defence and stout
+outpost against all foemen.  For the rest, wheresoever they dwelt,
+they were guest-cherishing and blithe, and were well beloved by all
+people; and they wedded with the other Houses of the Children of the
+Wolf.
+
+As to the other matters whereof they took rede at this Folk-mote,
+they had mostly to do with the warding of the Dale, and the learning
+of the delivered thralls to handle weapons duly.  For men deemed it
+most like that they would have to meet other men of the kindred of
+the Felons; which indeed fell out as the years wore.
+
+Moreover, Folk-might (by the rede of Stone-face) sent messengers to
+the Plain and the Cities, unto men whom he knew there, doing them to
+wit of the tidings of Silver-dale, and how that a peaceful and guest-
+loving people, having good store of wares, now dwelt therein, so that
+chapmen might have recourse thither.
+
+Lastly spake Folk-might and said:
+
+'Guests and brothers-in-arms, we have been looking about our new
+house, which was our old one, and therein we find great store of
+wares which we need not, and which we can but use if ye use them.  Of
+your kindness therefore we pray you to take of those things what ye
+can easily carry.  And if ye say the way is long, as indeed it is,
+since ye are bent on going through the wood to Rose-dale, and so on
+to Burgdale, yet shall we furnish you with beasts to bear your goods,
+and with such wains as may pass through the woodland ways.'
+
+Then rose up Fox of Upton and said:  'O Folk-might, and ye men of the
+Wolf, be it known unto you, that if we have done anything for your
+help in the winning of Silver-dale, we have thus done that we might
+help ourselves also, so that we might live in peace henceforward, and
+that we might have your friendship and fellowship therewithal, so
+that here in Silver-dale might wax a mighty folk who joined unto us
+should be strong enough to face the whole world.  Such are the redes
+of wise men when they go a-warring.  But we have no will to go back
+home again made rich with your wealth; this hath been far from our
+thought in this matter.'
+
+And there went up a murmur from all the Burgdalers yeasaying his
+word.
+
+But Folk-might took up the word again and spake:
+
+'Men of Burgdale and the Sheepcotes, what ye say is both manly and
+friendly; yet, since we look to see a road made plain through the
+woodland betwixt Burgdale and Silver-dale, and that often ye shall
+face us in the feast-hall, and whiles stand beside us in the fray, we
+must needs pray you not to shame us by departing empty-handed; for
+how then may we look upon your faces again?  Stone-face, my friend,
+thou art old and wise; therefore I bid thee to help us herein, and
+speak for us to thy kindred, that they naysay us not in this matter.'
+
+Then stood up Stone-face and said:  'Forsooth, friends, Folk-might is
+in the right herein; for he may look for anger from the wights that
+come and go betwixt his kindred and the Gods, if they see us faring
+back giftless through the woods.  Moreover, now that ye have seen
+Silver-dale, ye may wot how rich a land it is of all good things, and
+able to bring forth enough and to spare.  And now meseemeth the Gods
+love this Folk that shall dwell here; and they shall become a mighty
+Folk, and a part of our very selves.  Therefore let us take the gifts
+of our friends, and thank them blithely.  For surely, as saith Folk-
+might, henceforth the wood shall become a road betwixt us, and the
+thicket a halting-place for friends bearing goodwill in their hands.'
+
+When he had spoken, men yeasaid his words and forbore the gifts no
+longer; and the Folk-mote sundered in all loving-kindness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.  DEPARTURE FROM SILVER-DALE
+
+
+
+On morrow of the morrow were the Burgdale men and they of the
+Shepherds gathered together in the Market-stead early in the morning,
+and they were all ready for departure; and the men of the Wolf and
+the Woodlanders, and of the delivered thralls a great many, stood
+round about them grieving that they must go.  There was much talk
+between the folk of the Dale and the Guests, and many promises were
+given and taken to come and go betwixt the two Dales.  There also
+were the men of the thrall-folk who were to wend home with the
+Burgdalers; and they had been stuffed with good things by the men of
+the kindreds, and were as fain as might be.
+
+As for the Sun-beam, she was somewhat out of herself at first, being
+eager and restless beyond her wont, and yet at whiles weeping-ripe
+when she called to mind that she was now leaving all those things,
+the gain whereof had been a dream to her both waking and sleeping for
+these years past.  But at last, as she stood in the door of the Mote-
+house, and beheld all the throng of folk happy and friendly, it came
+over her that she herself had done her full share to bring all this
+about, and that all those pleasant places of Silver-dale now full of
+the goodly life of man would be there even as she had striven for
+them, and that they would be a part of her left behind, though she
+were dwelling otherwhere.
+
+Therewithal she said to herself that it was now her part to wield the
+life of men in Burgdale, and begin once more her days of a chieftain
+and a swayer of the Folk, and the life of a stirring woman, which the
+edge of the sword and the need of the hard hand-play had taken out of
+her hands for a while, making her as a child in the hands of the
+strong wielders of the blades.
+
+So now she became calm once more, and her face was clad again with
+the full measure of that majesty of beauty which had once overawed
+Face-of-god amidst his love of her; and folk beheld her and marvelled
+at her fairness, and said:  'She hath an inward sorrow at leaving the
+fair Dale wherein her Fathers dwelt, and where her mother's ashes lie
+in earth.'  Albeit now was her sorrow but little, and much was her
+hope, and her foresight of days to be; though all the Dale, yea,
+every leaf and twig of it whereby her feet had ever passed, and each
+stone of the fair houses, was to her as a picture that she could look
+on from henceforth for ever.
+
+Of the Bride it is to be said that she was now much mended, and she
+caused men bear her on a litter out into the Marketplace, that she
+might look on the departure of her folk.  She had seen Face-of-god
+once and again since the Day of Battle, and each time had been kind
+and blithe with him; and for Iron-face, she loved him so well that
+she was ever loth to let him depart from her, save when Folk-might
+was with her.
+
+And now was the Alderman standing beside her, and she said to him:
+'Friend and kinsman, this is the day of departure, and though I must
+needs abide behind, and am content to abide, yet doth mine heart ache
+with the sundering; for to-morrow when I wake in the morning there
+will be no more sending of a messenger to fetch thee to me.  Indeed,
+great hath been the love between me and my people, and nought hath
+come between us to mar it.  Now, kinsman, I would see Gold-mane, my
+cousin, that I may bid him farewell; for who knoweth if I shall see
+him again hereafter?'
+
+Then went Iron-face and found Face-of-god where he was speaking with
+Folk-might and the chieftains, and said to him:
+
+'Come quickly, for thy cousin the Bride would speak with thee.'
+
+Face-of-god reddened, and paled afterwards, but he went along with
+his father silently; and his heart beat as he came and stood before
+the litter whereas the Bride lay, clad all in white and propped up on
+fair cushions of red silk.  She was frail to look on, and worn and
+pale yet; but he deemed that she was very happy.
+
+She smiled on him, and reached out her hand and said:
+
+'Welcome once more, cousin!'  And he held her hand and kissed it, and
+was nigh weeping, so sore was he beset by a throng of memories
+concerning her and him in the days when they were little; and he
+bethought him of her loving-kindness of past days, beyond that of
+most children, beyond that of most maidens; and how there was nothing
+in his life but she had a share in it, till the day when he found the
+Hall on the Mountain.
+
+So he said to her:  'Kinswoman, is it well with thee?'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'I am now nigh whole of my hurts.'
+
+He was silent a while; then he said:
+
+'And otherwise art thou merry at heart?'
+
+'Yea, indeed,' said she; 'yet thou wilt not find it hard to deem that
+I am sorry of the sundering betwixt me and Burgdale.'
+
+Again was he silent, and said in a while:  'Dost thou deem that I
+wrought that sundering?'
+
+She smiled kindly on him and said:  'Gold-mane, my playmate, thou art
+become a mighty warrior and a great chief; but thou art not so mighty
+as that.  Many things lay behind the sundering which were neither
+thou nor I.'
+
+'Yet,' said he, 'it was but such a little time agone that all things
+seemed so sure; and we--to both of us was the outlook happy.'
+
+'Let it be happy still,' she said, 'now begrudging is gone.  Belike
+the sundering came because we were so sure, and had no defence
+against the wearing of the days; even as it fareth with a folk that
+hath no foes.'
+
+He smiled and said:  'Even as it hath befallen THY folk, O Bride, a
+while ago.'
+
+She reddened, and reached her hand to him, and he took it and held
+it, and said:  'Shall I see thee again as the days wear?'
+
+Said she:  'O chieftain of the Folk, thou shalt have much to do in
+Burgdale, and the way is long.  Yet would I have thee see my
+children.  Forget not the token on my hand which thou holdest.  But
+now get thee to thy folk with no more words; for after all, playmate,
+the sundering is grievous to me, and I would not spin out the time
+thereof.  Farewell!'
+
+He said no more, but stooped down and kissed her lips, and then
+turned from her, and took his ways to the head of the Host, and fell
+to asking and answering, and bidding and arraying; and in a little
+time was his heart dancing with joy to think of the days that lay
+before him, wherein now all seemed happy.
+
+So was all arrayed for departure when it lacked three hours of noon.
+As Folk-might had promised, there were certain light wains drawn by
+bullocks abiding the departure of the Host, and of sumpter bullocks
+and horses no few; and all these were laden with fair gifts of the
+Dale, as silver, and raiment, and weapons.  There were many things
+fair-wrought in the time of the Sorrow, that henceforth should see
+but little sorrow.  Moreover, there was plenty of provision for the
+way, both meal and wine, and sheep and neat; and all things as fair
+as might be, and well-arrayed.
+
+It was the Shepherds who were to lead the way; and after them were
+arrayed the men of the Vine and the Sickle; then they of the Steer,
+the Bridge, and the Bull; and lastly the House of the Face, with old
+Stone-face leading them.  The Sun-beam was to journey along with the
+House of the Steer, which had taken her in as a maiden of their
+blood; and though she had so much liefer have fared with the House of
+the Face, yet she went meekly as she was bidden, as one who has
+gotten a great thing, and will make no stir about a small one.
+
+Along with her were Wood-father and Wood-mother, and Wood-wise, now
+whole of his hurt, and Wood-wont, and Bow-may.  Save Bow-may, they
+were not very joyous; for they were fain of Silver-dale, and it irked
+them to leave it; moreover, they also had liefer have gone along with
+the House of the War-leader.
+
+Last of all went those people of the once thralls of the Dusky Men
+who had cast in their lot with the Burgdalers, and they were
+exceeding merry; and especially the women of them, they were
+chattering like the stares in the autumn evening, when they gather
+from the fields in the tall elm-trees before they go to roost.
+
+Now all the men of the Dale, both of the kindreds and of the thrall-
+folk, made way for the Host and its havings, that they might go their
+ways down the Dale; albeit the Woodlanders clung close to the line of
+their ancient friends, and with them, as men who were sorry for the
+sundering, were Wolf-stone and God-swain and Spear-fist.  But the
+chiefs, they drew around Folk-might a little beside the way.
+
+Now Red-coat of Waterless, who had been hurt, and was now whole
+again, cast his arms about Folk-might and kissed him, and said:
+
+'All the way hence to Burgdale will I sow with good wishes for thee
+and thine, and especially for my dear friend God-swain of the Silver
+Arm; and I would wish and long that they might turn into spells to
+draw thy feet to usward; for we love thee well.'
+
+In like wise spake other of the Burgdalers; and Folk-might was kind
+and blithe with them, and he said:
+
+'Friends, forget ye not that the way is no longer from you to us than
+it is from us to you.  One half of this matter it is for you to deal
+with.'
+
+'True is that,' said Red-beard of the Knolls, 'but look you, Folk-
+might, we be but simple husbandmen, and may not often stir from our
+meadows and acres; even now I bethink me that May is amidst us, and I
+am beginning to be drawn by the thought of the haysel.  Whereas thou-
+-' (and therewith he reddened) 'I doubt that thou hast little to do
+save the work of chieftains, and we know that such work is but little
+missed if it be undone.'
+
+Thereat Folk-might laughed; and when the others saw that he laughed,
+they laughed also, else had they foreborne for courtesy's sake.
+
+But Folk-might answered:  'Nay, chief of the Sickle, I am not
+altogether a chieftain, now we have gotten us peace; and somewhat of
+a husbandman shall I be.  Moreover, doubt ye not that I shall do my
+utmost to behold the fair Dale again; for it is but mountains that
+meet not.'
+
+Now spake Face-of-god to Folk-might, smiling and somewhat softly, and
+said:  'Is all forgiven now, since the day when we first felt each
+other's arms?'
+
+'Yea, all,' said Folk-might; 'now hath befallen what I foretold thee
+in Shadowy Vale, that thou mightest pay for all that had come and
+gone, if thou wouldest but look to it.  Indeed thou wert angry with
+me for that saying on that eve of Shadowy Vale; but see thou, in
+those days I was an older man than thou, and might admonish thee
+somewhat; but now, though but few days have gone over thine head, yet
+many deeds have abided in thine hand, and thou art much aged.  Anger
+hath left thee, and wisdom hath waxed in thee.  As for me, I may now
+say this word:  May the Folk of Burgdale love the Folk of Silver-dale
+as well as I love thee; then shall all be well.'
+
+Then Face-of-god cast his arms about him and kissed him, and turned
+away toward Stone-face and Hall-face his brother, where they stood at
+the head of the array of the Face; and even therewith came up the
+Alderman somewhat sad and sober of countenance, and he pushed by the
+War-leader roughly and would not speak with him.
+
+And now blew up the horns of the Shepherds, and they began to move on
+amidst the shouting of the men of Silver-dale; yet were there amongst
+the Woodlanders those who wept when they saw their friends verily
+departing from them.
+
+But when they of the foremost of the Host were gotten so far forward
+that the men of the Face could begin to move, lo! there was Redesman
+with his fiddle amongst the leaders; and he had done a man's work in
+the day of battle, and all looked kindly on him.  About him on this
+morn were some who had learned the craft of singing well together,
+and knew his minstrelsy, and he turned to these and nodded as their
+array moved on, and he drew his bow across the strings, and
+straightway they fell a-singing, even as it might be thus:
+
+
+Back again to the dear Dale where born was the kindred,
+   Here wend we all living, and liveth our mirth.
+Here afoot fares our joyance, whatever men hindred,
+   Through all wrath of the heavens, all storms of the earth.
+
+O true, we have left here a part of our treasure,
+   The ashes of stout ones, the stems of the shield;
+But the bold lives they spended have sown us new pleasure,
+   Fair tales for the telling in fold and on field.
+
+For as oft as we sing of their edges' upheaving,
+   When the yellowing windows shine forth o'er the night,
+Their names unforgotten with song interweaving
+   Shall draw forth dear drops from the depths of delight.
+
+Or when down by our feet the grey sickles are lying,
+   And behind us is curling the supper-tide smoke,
+No whit shall they grudge us the joyance undying,
+   Remembrance of men that put from us the yoke.
+
+When the huddle of ewes from the fells we have driven,
+   And we see down the Dale the grey reach of the roof,
+We shall tell of the gift in the battle-joy given,
+   All the fierceness of friends that drave sorrow aloof.
+
+Once then we lamented, and mourned them departed;
+   Once only, no oftener.  Henceforth shall we fling
+Their names up aloft, when the merriest hearted
+   To the Fathers unseen of our life-days we sing.
+
+
+Then was there silence in the ranks of men; and many murmured the
+names of the fallen as they fared on their way from out the Market-
+place of Silver-stead.  Then once more Redesman and his mates took up
+the song:
+
+
+Come tell me, O friends, for whom bideth the maiden
+   Wet-foot from the river-ford down in the Dale?
+For whom hath the goodwife the ox-waggon laden
+   With the babble of children, brown-handed and hale?
+
+Come tell me for what are the women abiding,
+   Till each on the other aweary they lean?
+Is it loitering of evil that thus they are chiding,
+   The slow-footed bearers of sorrow unseen?
+
+Nay, yet were they toiling if sorrow had worn them,
+   Or hushed had they bided with lips parched and wan.
+The birds of the air other tidings have borne them -
+   How glad through the wood goeth man beside man.
+
+Then fare forth, O valiant, and loiter no longer
+   Than the cry of the cuckoo when May is at hand;
+Late waxeth the spring-tide, and daylight grows longer,
+   And nightly the star-street hangs high o'er the land.
+
+Many lives, many days for the Dale do ye carry;
+   When the Host breaketh out from the thicket unshorn,
+It shall be as the sun that refuseth to tarry
+   On the crown of all mornings, the Midsummer morn.
+
+
+Again the song fell down till they were well on the western way down
+Silver-dale; and then Redesman handled his fiddle once more, and
+again the song rose up, and such-like were the words which were borne
+back into the Market-place of Silver-stead:
+
+
+And yet what is this, and why fare ye so slowly,
+   While our echoing halls of our voices are dumb,
+And abideth unlitten the hearth-brand the holy,
+   And the feet of the kind fare afield till we come?
+
+For not yet through the wood and its tangle ye wander;
+   Now skirt we no thicket, no path by the mere;
+Far aloof for our feet leads the Dale-road out yonder;
+   Full fair is the morning, its doings all clear.
+
+There is nought now our feet on the highway delaying
+   Save the friend's loving-kindness, the sundering of speech;
+The well-willer's word that ends words with the saying,
+   The loth to depart while each looketh on each.
+
+Fare on then, for nought are ye laden with sorrow;
+   The love of this land do ye bear with you still.
+In two Dales of the earth for to-day and to-morrow
+   Is waxing the oak-tree of peace and good-will.
+
+
+Thus then they departed from Silver-dale, even as men who were a
+portion thereof, and had not utterly left it behind.  And that night
+they lay in the wild-wood not very far from the Dale's end; for they
+went softly, faring amongst so many friends.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.  TALK UPON THE WILD-WOOD WAY
+
+
+
+On the morrow morning when they were on their way again Face-of-god
+left his own folk to go with the House of the Steer a while; and
+amongst them he fell in with the Sun-beam going along with Bow-may.
+So they greeted him kindly, and Face-of-god fell into talk with the
+Sun-beam as they went side by side through a great oak-wood, where
+for a space was plain green-sward bare of all underwood.
+
+So in their talk he said to her:  'What deemest thou, my speech-
+friend, concerning our coming back to guest in Silver-dale one day?'
+
+'The way is long,' she said.
+
+'That may hinder us but not stay us,' said Face-of-god.
+
+'That is sooth,' said the Sun-beam.
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'What things shall stay us?  Or deemest thou that
+we shall never see Silver-dale again?'
+
+She smiled:  'Even so I think thou deemest, Gold-mane.  But many
+things shall hinder us besides the long road.'
+
+Said he:  'Yea, and what things?'
+
+'Thinkest thou,' said the Sun-beam, 'that the winning of Silver-stead
+is the last battle which thou shalt see?'
+
+'Nay,' said he, 'nay.'
+
+'Shall thy Dale--our Dale--be free from all trouble within itself
+henceforward?  Is there a wall built round it to keep out for ever
+storm, pestilence, and famine, and the waywardness of its own folk?'
+
+'So it is as thou sayest,' quoth Face-of-god, 'and to meet such
+troubles and overcome them, or to die in strife with them, this is a
+great part of a man's life.'
+
+'Yea,' she said, 'and hast thou forgotten that thou art now a great
+chieftain, and that the folk shall look to thee to use thee many days
+in the year?'
+
+He laughed and said:  'So it is.  How many days have gone by since I
+wandered in the wood last autumn, that the world should have changed
+so much!'
+
+'Many deeds shall now be in thy days,' she said, 'and each deed as
+the corn of wheat from which cometh many corns; and a man's days on
+the earth are not over many.'
+
+'Then farewell, Silver-dale!' said he, waving his hand toward the
+north.  'War and trouble may bring me back to thee, but it maybe
+nought else shall.  Farewell!'
+
+She looked on him fondly but unsmiling, as he went beside her strong
+and warrior-like.  Three paces from him went Bow-may, barefoot, in
+her white kirtle, but bearing her bow in her hand; a leash of arrows
+was in her girdle, her quiver hung at her back, and she was girt with
+a sword.  On the other side went Wood-wont and Wood-wise, lightly
+clad but weaponed.  Wood-mother was riding in an ox-wain just behind
+them, and Wood-father went beside her bearing an axe.  Scattered all
+about them were the men of the Steer, gaily clad, bearing weapons, so
+that the oak-wood was bright with them, and the glades merry with
+their talk and singing and laughter, and before them down the glades
+went the banner of the Steer, and the White Beast led them the
+nearest way to Burgdale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.  HOW THE HOST CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+
+
+It was fourteen days before they came to Rose-dale; for they had much
+baggage with them, and they had no mind to weary themselves, and the
+wood was nothing loathsome to them, whereas the weather was fair and
+bright for the more part.  They fell in with no mishap by the way.
+But a score and three of runaways joined themselves to the Host,
+having watched their goings and wotting that they were not foemen.
+Of these, some had heard of the overthrow of the Dusky Men in Silver-
+dale, and others not.  The Burgdalers received them all, for it
+seemed to them no great matter for a score or so of new-comers to the
+Dale.
+
+But when the Host was come to Rose-dale, they found it fair arid
+lovely; and there they met with those of their folk who had gone with
+Dallach.  But Dallach welcomed the kindreds with great joy, and bade
+them abide; for he said that they had the less need to hasten, since
+he had sent messengers into Burgdale to tell men there of the
+tidings.  Albeit they were mostly loth to tarry; yet when he lay hard
+on them not to depart as men on the morrow of a gild-feast, they
+abode there three days, and were as well guested as might be, and on
+their departure they were laden with gifts from the wealth of Rose-
+dale by Dallach and his folk.
+
+Before they went their ways Dallach spake with Face-of-god and the
+chiefs of the Dalesmen, and said:
+
+'Ye have given me much from the time when ye found me in the wood a
+naked wastrel; yet now I would ask you a gift to lay on the top of
+all that ye have given me.'
+
+Said Face-of-god:  'Name the gift, and thou shalt have it; for we
+deem thee our friend.'
+
+'I am no less,' said Dallach, 'as in time to come I may perchance be
+able to show you.  But now I am asking you to suffer a score or two
+of your men to abide here with me this summer, till I see how this
+folk new-born again is like to deal with me.  For pleasure and a fair
+life have become so strange to them, that they scarce know what to do
+with them, or how to live; and unless all is to go awry, I must needs
+command and forbid; and though belike they love me, yet they fear me
+not; so that when my commandment pleaseth them, they do as I bid, and
+when it pleaseth them not, they do contrary to my bidding; for it
+hath got into their minds that I shall in no case lift a hand against
+them, which indeed is the very sooth.  But your folk they fear as
+warriors of the world, who have slain the Dusky Men in the Market-
+place of Silver-stead; and they are of alien blood to them, men who
+will do as their friend biddeth (think our folk) against them who are
+neither friends or foes.  With such help I shall be well holpen.'
+
+In such wise spake Dallach; and Face-of-god and the chiefs said that
+so it should be, if men could be found willing to abide in Rose-dale
+for a while.  And when the matter was put abroad, there was no lack
+of such men amongst the younger warriors, who had noted that the dale
+was fair amongst dales and its women fairer yet amongst women.
+
+So two score and ten of the Burgdale men abode in Rose-dale, no one
+of whom was of more than twenty and five winters.  Forsooth divers of
+them set up house in Rose-dale, and never came back to Burgdale, save
+as guests.  For a half score were wedded in Rose-dale before the
+year's ending; and seven more, who had also taken to them wives of
+the goodliest of the Rose-dale women, betook them the next spring to
+the Burg of the Runaways, and there built them a stead, and drew a
+garth about it, and dug and sowed the banks of the river, which they
+called Inglebourne.  And as years passed, this same stead throve
+exceedingly, and men resorted thither both from Rose-dale and
+Burgdale; for it was a pleasant place; and the land, when it was
+cured, was sweet and good, and the wood thereabout was full of deer
+of all kinds.  So their stead was called Inglebourne after the
+stream; and in latter days it became a very goodly habitation of men.
+
+Moreover, some of the once-enthralled folk of Rose-dale, when they
+knew that men of their kindred from Silver-dale were going home with
+the men of Burgdale to dwell in the Dale, prayed hard to go along
+with them; for they looked on the Burgdalers as if they were new Gods
+of the Earth.  The Burgdale chiefs would not gainsay these men
+either, but took with them three score and ten from Rose-dale, men
+and women, and promised them dwelling and livelihood in Burgdale.
+
+So now with good hearts the Host of Burgdale turned their faces
+toward their well-beloved Dale; and they made good diligence, so that
+in three days' time they were come anigh the edge of the woodland
+wilderness.  Thither in the even-tide, as they were making ready for
+their last supper and bed in the wood, came three men and two women
+of their folk, who had been abiding their coming ever since they had
+had the tidings of Silver-dale and the battles from Dallach.  Great
+was the joy of these messengers as they went from company to company
+of the warriors, and saw the familiar faces of their friends, and
+heard their wonted voices telling all the story of battle and
+slaughter.  And for their part the men of the Host feasted these
+stay-at-homes, and made much of them.  But one of them, a man of the
+House of the Face, left the Host a little after nightfall, and bore
+back to Burgstead at once the tidings of the coming home of the Host.
+Albeit since Dallach's tidings of victory had come to the Dale, the
+dwellers in the steads of the country-side had left Burgstead and
+gone home to their own houses; so that there was no great multitude
+abiding in the Thorp.
+
+So early on the morrow was the Host astir; but ere they came to
+Wildlake's Way, the Shepherd-folk turned aside westward to go home,
+after they had bidden farewell to their friends and fellows of the
+Dale; for their souls longed for the sheepcotes in the winding
+valleys under the long grey downs; and the garths where the last
+year's ricks shouldered up against the old stone gables, and where
+the daws were busy in the tall unfrequent ash-trees; and the green
+flowery meadows adown along the bright streams, where the crowfoot
+and the paigles were blooming now, and the harebells were in flower
+about the thorn-bushes at the down's foot, whence went the savour of
+their blossom over sheep-walk and water-meadow.
+
+So these went their ways with many kind words; and two hours
+afterwards all the rest of the Host stood on the level ground of the
+Portway; but presently were the ranks of war disordered and broken up
+by the joy of the women and children, as they fell to drawing goodman
+or brother or lover out of the throng to the way that led speediest
+to their homesteads and halls.  For the War-leader would not hold the
+Host together any longer, but suffered each man to go to his home,
+deeming that the men of Burgstead, and chiefly they of the Face and
+the Steer, would suffice for a company if any need were, and they
+would be easily gathered to meet any hap.
+
+So now the men of the Middle and Lower Dale made for their houses by
+the road and the lanes and the meadows, and the men of the Upper Dale
+and Burgstead went their ways along the Portway toward their halls,
+with the throng of women and children that had come out to meet them.
+And now men came home when it was yet early, and the long day lay
+before them; and it was, as it were, made giddy and cumbered with the
+exceeding joy of return, and the thought of the day when the fear of
+death and sundering had been ever in their hearts.  For these new
+hours were full of the kissing and embracing of lovers, and the
+sweetness of renewed delight in beholding the fair bodies so sorely
+desired, and hearkening the soft wheedling of longed-for voices.
+There were the cups of friends beneath the chestnut trees, and the
+talk of the deeds of the fighting-men, and of the heavy days of the
+home-abiders; many a tale told oft and o'er again.  There was the
+singing of old songs and of new, and the beholding the well-loved
+nook of the pleasant places, which death might well have made nought
+for them; and they were sweet with the fear of that which was past,
+and in their pleasantness was fresh promise for the days to come.
+
+So amid their joyance came evening and nightfall; and though folk
+were weary with the fulness of delight, yet now for many their
+weariness led them to the chamber of love before the rest of deep
+night came to them to make them strong for the happy life to be begun
+again on the morrow.
+
+House by house they feasted, and few were the lovers that sat not
+together that even.  But Face-of-god and the Sun-beam parted at the
+door of the House of the Face; for needs must she go with her new
+folk to the House of the Steer, and needs must Face-of-god be amongst
+his own folk in that hour of high-tide, and sit beside his father
+beneath the image of the God with the ray-begirt head.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.  HOW THE MAIDEN WARD WAS HELD IN BURGDALE
+
+
+
+Now May was well worn when the Host came home to Burgdale; and on the
+very morrow of men's home-coming they began to talk eagerly of the
+Midsummer Weddings, and how the Maiden Ward would be the greatest and
+fairest of all yet seen, whereas battle and the deliverance from
+battle stir up the longing and love both of men and maidens; much
+also men spake of the wedding of Face-of-god and the Sun-beam; and
+needs must their wedding abide to the time of the Maiden Ward at
+Midsummer, and needs also must the Sun-beam go on the Ward with the
+other Brides of the Folk.  So then must Face-of-god keep his soul in
+patience till those few days were over, doing what work came to hand;
+and he held his head high among the people, and was well looked to of
+every man.
+
+In all matters the Sun-beam helped him, both in doing and in
+forbearing; and now so wonderful and rare was her beauty, that folk
+looked on her with somewhat of fear, as though she came from the very
+folk of the Gods.
+
+Indeed she seemed somewhat changed from what she had been of late;
+she was sober of demeanour during these last days of her maidenhood,
+and sat amongst the kindred as one communing with herself:  of few
+words she was and little laughter; but her face clear, not overcast
+by any gloom or shaken by passion:  soft and kind was she in converse
+with others, and sweet were the smiles that came into her face if
+others' faces seemed to crave for them.  For it must be said that as
+some folk eat out their hearts with fear of the coming evils, even so
+was she feeding her soul with the joy of the days to be, whatever
+trouble might fall upon them, whereof belike she foreboded some.
+
+So wore the days toward Midsummer, when the wheat was getting past
+the blossoming, and the grass in the mown fields was growing deep
+green again after the shearing of the scythe; when the leaves were
+most and biggest; when the roses were beginning to fall; when the
+apples were reddening, and the skins of the grape-berries gathering
+bloom.  High aloft floated the light clouds over the Dale; deep blue
+showed the distant fells below the ice-mountains; the waters
+dwindled; all things sought the shadow by daytime, and the twilight
+of even and the twilight of dawn were but sundered by three hours of
+half-dark night.
+
+So in the bright forenoon were seventeen brides assembled in the Gate
+of Burgstead (but of the rest of the Dale were twenty and three
+looked for), and with these was the Sun-beam, her face as calm as the
+mountain lake under a summer sunset, while of the others many were
+restless, and babbling like April throstles; and not a few talked to
+her eagerly, and in their restless love of her dragged her about
+hither and thither.
+
+No men were to be seen that morning; for such was the custom, that
+the carles either departed to the fields and the acres, or abode
+within doors on the morn of the day of the Maiden Ward; but there was
+a throng of women about the Gate and down the street of Burgstead,
+and it may well be deemed that they kept not silence that hour.
+
+So fared the Brides of Burgstead to the place of the Maiden Ward on
+the causeway, whereto were come already the other brides from steads
+up and down the Dale, or were even then close at hand on the way; and
+among them were Long-coat and her two fellows, with whom Face-of-god
+had held converse on that morning whereon he had followed his fate to
+the Mountain.
+
+There then were they gathered under the cliff-wall of the Portway;
+and by the road-side had their grooms built them up bowers of green
+boughs to shelter them from the sun's burning, which were thatched
+with bulrushes, and decked with garlands of the fairest flowers of
+the meadows and the gardens.
+
+Forsooth they were a lovely sight to look on, for no fairer women
+might be seen in the world; and the eldest of them was scant of five
+and twenty winters.  Every maiden was clad in as goodly raiment as
+she might compass; their sleeves and gown-hems and girdles, yea,
+their very shoes and sandals were embroidered so fairly and closely,
+that as they shifted in the sun they changed colour like the king-
+fisher shooting from shadow to sunshine.  According to due custom
+every maiden bore some weapon.  A few had bows in their hands and
+quivers at their backs; some had nought but a sword girt to their
+sides; some bore slender-shafted spears, so as not to overburden
+their shapely hands; but to some it seemed a merry game to carry long
+and heavy thrust-spears, or to bear great war-axes over their
+shoulders.  Most had their flowing hair coifed with bright helms;
+some had burdened their arms with shields; some bore steel hauberks
+over their linen smocks:  almost all had some piece of war-gear on
+their bodies; and one, to wit, Steed-linden of the Sickle, a tall and
+fair damsel, was so arrayed that no garment could be seen on her but
+bright steel war-gear.
+
+As for the Sun-beam, she was clad in a white kirtle embroidered from
+throat to hem with work of green boughs and flowers of the goodliest
+fashion, and a garland of roses on her head.  Dale-warden himself was
+girt to her side by a girdle fair-wrought of golden wire, and she
+bore no other weapon or war-gear; and she let him lie quiet in his
+scabbard, nor touched the hilts once; whereas some of the other
+damsels would be ever drawing their swords out and thrusting them
+back.  But all noted that goodly weapon, the yoke-fellow of so many
+great deeds.
+
+There then on the Portway, between the water and the rock-wall, rose
+up plenteous and gleeful talk of clear voices shrill and soft; and
+whiles the maidens sang, and whiles they told tales of old days, and
+whiles they joined hands and danced together on the sweet summer dust
+of the highway.  Then they mostly grew aweary, and sat down on the
+banks of the road or under their leafy bowers.
+
+Noon came, and therewithal goodwives of the neighbouring Dale, who
+brought them meat and drink, and fruit and fresh flowers from the
+teeming gardens; and thereafter for a while they nursed their joy in
+their bosoms, and spake but little and softly while the day was at
+its hottest in the early afternoon.
+
+Then came out of Burgstead men making semblance of chapmen with a
+wain bearing wares, and they made as though they were wending down
+the Portway westward to go out of the Dale.  Then arose the weaponed
+maidens and barred the way to them, and turned them back amidst
+fresh-springing merriment.
+
+Again in a while, when the sun was westering and the shadows growing
+long, came herdsmen from down the Dale driving neat, and making as
+though they would pass by into Burgstead, but to them also did the
+maidens gainsay the road, so that needs must they turn back amidst
+laughter and mockery, they themselves also laughing and mocking.
+
+And so at last, when the maidens had been all alone a while, and it
+was now hard on sunset, they drew together and stood in a ring, and
+fell to singing; and one Gold-may of the House of the Bridge, a most
+sweet singer, stood amidst their ring and led them.  And this is
+somewhat of the meaning of their words:
+
+
+The sun will not tarry; now changeth the light,
+Fail the colours that marry the Day to the Night.
+
+Amid the sun's burning bright weapons we bore,
+For this eve of our earning comes once and no more.
+
+For to-day hath no brother in yesterday's tide,
+And to-morrow no other alike it doth hide.
+
+This day is the token of oath and behest
+That ne'er shall be broken through ill days and best.
+
+Here the troth hath been given, the oath hath been done,
+To the Folk that hath thriven well under the sun.
+
+And the gifts of its giving our troth-day shall win
+Are the Dale for our living and dear days therein.
+
+O Sun, now thou wanest! yet come back and see
+Amidst all that thou gainest how gainful are we.
+
+O witness of sorrow wide over the earth,
+Rise up on the morrow to look on our mirth!
+
+Thy blooms art thou bringing back ever for men,
+And thy birds are a-singing each summer again.
+
+But to men little-hearted what winter is worse
+Than thy summers departed that bore them the curse?
+
+And e'en such art thou knowing where thriveth the year,
+And good is all growing save thralldom and fear.
+
+Nought such be our lovers' hearts drawing anigh,
+While yet thy light hovers aloft in the sky.
+
+Lo the seeker, the finder of Death in the Blade!
+What lips shall be kinder on lips of mine laid?
+
+La he that hath driven back tribes of the South!
+Sweet-breathed is thine even, but sweeter his mouth.
+
+Come back from the sea then, O sun! come aback,
+Look adown, look on me then, and ask what I lack!
+
+Come many a morrow to gaze on the Dale,
+And if e'er thou seest sorrow remember its tale!
+
+For 'twill be of a story to tell how men died
+In the garnering of glory that no man may hide.
+
+O sun sinking under!  O fragrance of earth!
+O heart!  O the wonder whence longing has birth!
+
+
+So they sang, and the sun sank indeed; and amidst their singing the
+eve was still about them, though there came a happy murmur from the
+face of the meadows and the houses of the Thorp aloof.  But as their
+song fell they heard the sound of footsteps a many on the road; so
+they turned and stood with beating hearts in such order as when a
+band of the valiant draw together to meet many foes coming on them
+from all sides, and they stand back to back to face all comers.  And
+even therewith, their raiment gleaming amidst the gathering dusk,
+came on them the young men of the Dale newly delivered from the grief
+of war.
+
+Then in very deed the fierce mouths of the raisers of the war-shout
+were kind on the faces of tender maidens.  Then went spear and axe
+and helm and shield clattering to the earth, as the arms of the new-
+comers went round about the bodies of the Brides, weary with the long
+day of sunshine, and glee and loving speech, and the maidens suffered
+the young men to lead them whither they would, and twilight began to
+draw round about them as the Maiden Band was sundered.
+
+Some, they were led away westward down the Portway to the homesteads
+thereabout; and for divers of these the way was long to their halls,
+and they would have to wend over long stretches of dewy meadows, and
+hear the night-wind whisper in many a tree, and see the east begin to
+lighten with the dawn before they came to the lighted feast that
+awaited them.  But some turned up the Portway straight towards
+Burgstead; and short was their road to the halls where even now the
+lights were being kindled for their greeting.
+
+As for the Sun-beam, she had been very quiet the day long, speaking
+as little as she might do, laughing not at all, and smiling for
+kindness' sake rather than for merriment; and when the grooms came
+seeking their maidens, she withdrew herself from the band, and stood
+alone amidst the road nigher to Burgstead than they; and her heart
+beat hard, and her breath came short and quick, as though fear had
+caught her in its grip; and indeed for one moment of time she feared
+that he was not coming to her.  For he had gone with the other grooms
+to that gathered band, and had passed from one to the other, not
+finding her, till he had got him through the whole company, and
+beheld her awaiting him.  Then indeed he bounded toward her, and
+caught her by the hands, and then by the shoulders, and drew her to
+him, and she nothing loth; and in that while he said to her:
+
+'Come then, my friend; lo thou! they go each their own way toward the
+halls of their houses; and for thee have I chosen a way--a way over
+the foot-bridge yonder, and over the dewy meadows on this best even
+of the year.'
+
+'Nay, nay,' she said, 'it may not be.  Surely the Burgstead grooms
+look to thee to lead them to the gate; and surely in the House of the
+Face they look to see thee before any other.  Nay, Gold-mane, my
+dear, we must needs go by the Portway.'
+
+He said:  'We shall be home but a very little while after the first,
+for the way I tell of is as short as the Portway.  But hearken, my
+sweet!  When we are in the meadows we shall sit down for a minute on
+a bank under the chestnut trees, and thence watch the moon coming up
+over the southern cliffs.  And I shall behold thee in the summer
+night, and deem that I see all thy beauty; which yet shall make me
+dumb with wonder when I see it indeed in the house amongst the
+candles.'
+
+'O nay,' she said, 'by the Portway shall we go; the torch-bearers
+shall be abiding thee at the gate.'
+
+Spake Face-of-god:  'Then shall we rise up and wend first through a
+wide treeless meadow, wherein amidst the night we shall behold the
+kine moving about like odorous shadows; and through the greyness of
+the moonlight thou shalt deem that thou seest the pink colour of the
+eglantine blossoms, so fragrant they are.'
+
+'O nay,' she said, 'but it is meet that we go by the Portway.'
+
+But he said:  'Then from the wide meadow come we into a close of
+corn, and then into an orchard-close beyond it.  There in the ancient
+walnut-tree the owl sitteth breathing hard in the night-time; but
+thou shalt not hear him for the joy of the nightingales singing from
+the apple-trees of the close.  Then from out of the shadowed orchard
+shall we come into the open town-meadow, and over its daisies shall
+the moonlight be lying in a grey flood of brightness.
+
+'Short is the way across it to the brim of the Weltering Water, and
+across the water lieth the fair garden of the Face; and I have dight
+for thee there a little boat to waft us across the night-dark waters,
+that shall be like wavering flames of white fire where the moon
+smites them, and like the void of all things where the shadows hang
+over them.  There then shall we be in the garden, beholding how the
+hall-windows are yellow, and hearkening the sound of the hall-glee
+borne across the flowers and blending with the voice of the
+nightingales in the trees.  There then shall we go along the grass
+paths whereby the pinks and the cloves and the lavender are sending
+forth their fragrance, to cheer us, who faint at the scent of the
+over-worn roses, and the honey-sweetness of the lilies.
+
+'All this is for thee, and for nought but for thee this even; and
+many a blossom whereof thou knowest nought shall grieve if thy foot
+tread not thereby to-night; if the path of thy wedding which I have
+made, be void of thee, on the even of the Chamber of Love.
+
+'But lo! at last at the garden's end is the yew-walk arched over for
+thee, and thou canst not see whereby to enter it; but I, I know it,
+and I lead thee into and along the dark tunnel through the moonlight,
+and thine hand is not weary of mine as we go.  But at the end shall
+we come to a wicket, which shall bring us out by the gable-end of the
+Hall of the Face.  Turn we about its corner then, and there are we
+blinking on the torches of the torch-bearers, and the candles through
+the open door, and the hall ablaze with light and full of joyous
+clamour, like the bale-fire in the dark night kindled on a ness above
+the sea by fisher-folk remembering the Gods.'
+
+'O nay,' she said, 'but by the Portway must we go; the straightest
+way to the Gate of Burgstead.'
+
+In vain she spake, and knew not what she said; for even as he was
+speaking he led her away, and her feet went as her will went, rather
+than her words; and even as she said that last word she set her foot
+on the first board of the foot-bridge; and she turned aback one
+moment, and saw the long line of the rock-wall yet glowing with the
+last of the sunset of midsummer, while as she turned again, lo!
+before her the moon just beginning to lift himself above the edge of
+the southern cliffs, and betwixt her and him all Burgdale, and Face-
+of-god moreover.
+
+Thus then they crossed the bridge into the green meadows, and through
+the closes and into the garden of the Face and unto the Hall-door;
+and other brides and grooms were there before them (for six grooms
+had brought home brides to the House of the Face); but none deemed it
+amiss in the War-leader of the folk and the love that had led him.
+And old Stone-face said:  'Too many are the rows of bee-skeps in the
+gardens of the Dale that we should begrudge wayward lovers an hour's
+waste of candle-light.'
+
+So at last those twain went up the sun-bright Hall hand in hand in
+all their loveliness, and up on to the dais, and stood together by
+the middle seat; and the tumult of the joy of the kindred was hushed
+for a while as they saw that there was speech in the mouth of the
+War-leader.
+
+Then he spread his hands abroad before them all and cried out:  'How
+then have I kept mine oath, whereas I swore on the Holy Boar to wed
+the fairest woman of the world?'
+
+A mighty shout went rattling about the timbers of the roof in answer
+to his word; and they that looked up to the gable of the Hall said
+that they saw the ray-ringed image of the God smile with joy over the
+gathered folk.
+
+But spake Iron-face unheard amidst the clamour of the Hall:  'How
+fares it now with my darling and my daughter, who dwelleth amongst
+strangers in the land beyond the wild-wood?'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX.  THE BEHEST OF FACE-OF-GOD TO THE BRIDE ACCOMPLISHED:  A
+MOTE-STEAD APPOINTED FOR THE THREE FOLKS, TO WIT, THE MEN OF
+BURGDALE, THE SHEPHERDS, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE WOLF
+
+
+
+Three years and two months thereafter, three hours after noon in the
+days of early autumn, came a wain tilted over with precious webs of
+cloth, and drawn by eight white oxen, into the Market-place of
+Silver-stead:  two score and ten of spearmen of the tallest, clad in
+goodly war-gear, went beside it, and much people of Silver-dale
+thronged about them.  The wain stayed at the foot of the stair that
+led up to the door of the Mote-house, and there lighted down
+therefrom a woman goodly of fashion, with wide grey eyes, and face
+and hands brown with the sun's burning.  She had a helm on her head
+and a sword girt to her side, and in her arms she bore a yearling
+child.
+
+And there was come Bow-may with the second man-child born to Face-of-
+god.
+
+She stayed not amidst the wondering folk, but hastened up the stair,
+which she had once seen running with the blood of men:  the door was
+open, and she went in and walked straight-way, with the babe in her
+arms, up the great Hall to the dais.
+
+There were men on the dais:  amidmost sat Folk-might, little changed
+since the last day she had seen him, yet fairer, she deemed, than of
+old time; and her heart went forth to meet the Chieftain of her Folk,
+and the glad tears started in her eyes and ran down her cheeks as she
+drew near to him.
+
+By his side sat the Bride, and her also Bow-may deemed to have waxed
+goodlier.  Both she and Folk-might knew Bow-may ere she had gone half
+the length of the hall; and the Bride rose up in her place and cried
+out Bow-may's name joyously.
+
+With these were sitting the elders of the Wolf and the Woodlanders,
+the more part of whom Bow-may knew well.
+
+On the dais also stood aside a score of men weaponed, and looking as
+if they were awaiting the word which should send them forth on some
+errand.
+
+Now stood up Folk-might and said:  'Fair greeting and love to my
+friend and the daughter of my Folk!  How farest thou, Bow-may, best
+of all friendly women?  How fareth my sister, and Face-of-god my
+brother? and how is it with our friends and helpers in the goodly
+Dale?'
+
+Said Bow-may:  'It is well both with all those and with me; and my
+heart laughs to see thee, Folk-might, and to look on the elders of
+the valiant, and our lovely sister the Bride.  But I have a message
+for thee from Face-of-god:  wilt thou that I deliver it here?'
+
+'Yea surely,' said Folk-might, and came forth. and took her hand, and
+kissed her cheeks and her mouth.  The Bride also came forth and cast
+her arms about her, and kissed her; and they led her between them to
+a seat on the dais beside Folk-might.
+
+But all men looked on the child in her arms and wondered what it was.
+But Bow-may took the babe, which was both fair and great, and set it
+on the knees of the Bride, and said:
+
+'Thus saith Face-of-god:  "Friend and kinswoman, well-beloved
+playmate, the gift which thou badest of me in sorrow do thou now take
+in joy, and do all the good thou wouldest to the son of thy friend.
+The ring which I gave thee once in the garden of the Face, give thou
+to Bow-may, my trusty and well-beloved, in token of the fulfilment of
+my behest."'
+
+Then the Bride kissed Bow-may again, and fell to fondling of the
+child, which was loth to leave Bow-may.
+
+But she spake again:  'To thee also, Folk-might, I have a message
+from Face-of-god, who saith:  "Mighty warrior, friend and fellow, all
+things thrive with us, and we are happy.  Yet is there a hollow place
+in our hearts which grieveth us, and only thou and thine may amend
+it.  Though whiles we hear tell of thee, yet we see thee not, and
+fain were we, might we see thee, and wot if the said tales be true.
+Wilt thou help us somewhat herein, or wilt thou leave us all the
+labour?  For sure we be that thou wilt not say that thou rememberest
+us no more, and that thy love for us is departed."  This is his
+message, Folk-might, and he would have an answer from thee.'
+
+Then laughed Folk-might and said:  'Sister Bow-may, seest thou these
+weaponed men hereby?'
+
+'Yea,' she said.
+
+Said he:  'These men bear a message with them to Face-of-god my
+brother.  Crow the Shaft-speeder, stand forth and tell thy friend
+Bow-may the message I have set in thy mouth, every word of it.'
+
+Then Crow stood forth and greeted Bow-may friendly, and said:
+'Friend Bow-may, this is the message of our Alderman:  "Friend and
+helper, in the Dale which thou hast given to us do all things thrive;
+neither are we grown old in three years' wearing, nor are our
+memories worsened.  We long sore to see you and give you guesting in
+Silver-dale, and one day that shall befall.  Meanwhile, know this:
+that we of the Wolf and the Woodland, mindful of the earth that bore
+us, and the pit whence we were digged, have a mind to go see Shadowy
+Vale once in every three years, and there to hold high-tide in the
+ancient Hall of the Wolf, and sit in the Doom-ring of our Fathers.
+But since ye have joined yourselves to us in battle, and have given
+us this Dale, our health and wealth, without price and without
+reward, we deem you our very brethren, and small shall be our hall-
+glee, and barren shall our Doom-ring seem to us, unless ye sit there
+beside us.  Come then, that we may rejoice each other by the sight of
+face and sound of voice; that we may speak together of matters that
+concern our welfare; so that we three Kindreds may become one Folk.
+And if this seem good to you, know that we shall be in Shadowy Vale
+in a half-month's wearing.  Grieve us not by forbearing to come."
+Lo, Bow-may, this is the message, and I have learned it well, for
+well it pleaseth me to bear it.'
+
+Then said Folk-might:  'What say'st thou to the message, Bow-may?'
+
+'It is good in all ways,' said she, 'but is it timely?  May our folk
+have the message and get to Shadowy Vale, so as to meet you there?'
+
+'Yea surely,' said Folk-might, 'for our kinsmen here shall take the
+road through Shadowy Vale, and in four days' time they shall be in
+Burgdale, and as thou wottest, it is scant a two days' journey thence
+to Shadowy Vale.'
+
+Therewith he turned to those men again, and said:  'Kinsman Crow,
+depart now, and use all diligence with thy message.'
+
+So the messengers began to stir; but Bow-may cried out:  'Ho!  Folk-
+might, my friend, I perceive thou art little changed from the man I
+knew in Shadowy Vale, who would have his dinner before the fowl were
+plucked.  For shall I not go back with these thy messengers, so that
+I also may get all ready to wend to the Mote-house of Shadowy Vale?'
+
+But the Bride looked kindly on her, and laughed and said:  'Sister
+Bow-may, his meaning is that thou shouldest abide here in Silver-dale
+till we depart for the Folk-thing, and then go thither with us; and
+this I also pray thee to do, that thou mayst rejoice the hearts of
+thine old friends; and also that thou mayst teach me all that I
+should know concerning this fair child of my brother and my sister.'
+
+And she looked on her so kindly as she caressed the babe, that Bow-
+may's heart melted, and she cried out:
+
+'Would that I might never depart from the house wherein thou
+dwellest, O Bride of my Kinsman!  And this that thou biddest me is
+easy and pleasant for me to do.  But afterwards I must get me back to
+Burgdale; for I seem to have left much there that calleth for me.'
+
+'Yea,' said Folk-might, 'and art thou wedded, Bow-may?  Shalt thou
+never bend the yew in battle again?'
+
+Said Bow-may soberly:  'Who knoweth, chieftain?  Yea, I am wedded now
+these two years; and nought I looked for less when I followed those
+twain through the wild-wood to Burgdale.'
+
+She sighed therewith, and said:  'In all the Dale there is no better
+man of his hands than my man, nor any goodlier to look on, and he is
+even that Hart of Highcliff whom thou knowest well, O Bride!'
+
+Said the Bride:  'Thou sayest sooth, there is no better man in the
+Dale.'
+
+Said Bow-may:  'Sun-beam bade me wed him when he pressed hard upon
+me.'  She stayed awhile, and then said:  'Face-of-god also deemed I
+should not naysay the man; and now my son by him is of like age to
+this little one.'
+
+'Good is thy story,' said Folk-might; 'or deemest thou, Bow-may, that
+such strong and goodly women as thou, and women so kind and friendly,
+should forbear the wedding and the bringing forth of children?  Yea,
+and we who may even yet have to gather to another field before we
+die, and fight for life and the goods of life.'
+
+'Thou sayest well,' she said; 'all that hath befallen me is good
+since the day whereon I loosed shaft from the break of the bent over
+yonder.'
+
+Therewith she fell a-musing, and made as though she were hearkening
+to the soft voice of the Bride caressing the new-come baby; but in
+sooth neither heard nor saw what was going on about her, for her
+thoughts were in bygone days.  Howbeit presently she came to herself
+again, and fell to asking many questions concerning Silver-dale and
+the kindred, and those who had once been thralls of the Dusky Men;
+and they answered all duly, and told her the whole story of the Dale
+since the Day of the Victory.
+
+So Bow-may and the carles who had come with her abode for that half-
+month in Silver-dale, guested in all love by the folk thereof, both
+the kindreds and the poor folk.  And Bow-may deemed that the Bride
+loved Face-of-god's child little less than her own, whereof she had
+two, a man and a woman; and thereat was she full of joy, since she
+knew that Face-of-god and the Sun-beam would be fain thereof.
+
+Thereafter, when the time was come, fared Folk-might and the Bride,
+and many of the elders and warriors of the Wolf and the Woodland, to
+Shadowy Vale; and Dallach and the best of Rose-dale went with them,
+being so bidden; and Bow-may and her following, according to the word
+of the Bride.  And in Shadowy Vale they met Face-of-god and Alderman
+Iron-face, and the chiefs of Burgdale and the Shepherds, and many
+others; and great joy there was at the meeting.  And the Sun-beam
+remembered the word which she spoke to Face-of-god when first he came
+to Shadowy Vale, that she would be wishful to see again the dwelling
+wherein she had passed through so much joy and sorrow of her younger
+days.  But if anyone were fain of this meeting, the Alderman was glad
+above all, when he took the Bride once more in his arms, and caressed
+her whom he had deemed should be a very daughter of his House.
+
+Now telleth the tale of all these kindreds, to wit, the Men of
+Burgdale and the Sheepcotes; and the Children of the Wolf, and the
+Woodlanders, and the Men of Rose-dale, that they were friends
+henceforth, and became as one Folk, for better or worse, in peace and
+in war, in waning and waxing; and that whatsoever befell them, they
+ever held Shadowy Vale a holy place, and for long and long after they
+met there in mid-autumn, and held converse and counsel together.
+
+NO MORE AS NOW TELLETH THE TALE OF THESE KINDREDS AND FOLKS, BUT
+MAKETH AN ENDING.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ROOTS OF THE MOUNTAINS ***
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