CHAPTER XLIV. OF THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE MEN OF THE STEER, THE BRIDGE, ANDTHE BULL.
WILD was the turmoil and confusion in the Market-stead; for the more partof the men therein knew not what had befallen about the altar, thoughsome clomb up to the top of that stack of faggots built for the burningof the thralls, and when they saw what was toward fell to yelling andcursing; and their fellows on the plain Place could not hear their storyfor the clamour, and they also fell to howling as if a wood full of wilddogs was there.
And still the shafts rained down on that throng from the Bent of theBowmen, for another two score men of the Woodlanders had crept down thehill to them, and shafts failed them not. But the Dusky Men about thealtar, for all their terror, or even maybe because of it, now began toturn upon the scarce-seen foemen, and to press up wildly toward thehill-side, though as it were without any order or aim. Every man of themhad his weapons, and those no mere gilded toys, but their very tools ofbattle; and some, but no great number, had their bows with them and a fewshafts; and these began to shoot at whatsoever they could see on thehill-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 ontoward the hill; for those about the road that led southward knew notwhat had betided nor whither to turn. So that at this beginning of thebattle, of all the thousands in the great Place it was but a few hundredsthat set on the Bent of the Bowmen, and at these the bowmen of thekindreds shot so close and so wholly together that they fell one overanother in the narrow ways between the houses whereby they must needs goto gather on the plain ground betwixt the backs of the houses and thebreak of the hill-side. But little by little the archers of the DuskyMen gathered behind the corpses of the slain, and fell to shooting atwhat they could see of the men of the kindreds, which at that while wasnot much, for as bold as they were, they fought like wary hunters of theWood and the Waste.
But now at last throughout all that throng of Felons in the Market-placethe tale began to spread of foemen come into the Dale and shooting fromthe Bents, and all they turned their faces to the hill, and the whole setof the throng was thitherward; though they fared but slowly, so evil wasthe order of them, each man hindering his neighbour as he went. And notonly did the Dusky Men come flockmeal toward the Bent of the Bowmen, butalso they jostled along toward the road that led southward. That beheldWood-wise from the Bent, and he was minded to get him and his aback, nowthat they had made so great a slaughter of the foemen; and two or threeof his fellows had been hurt by arrows, and Bow-may, she would have beenslain thrice over but for the hammer-work of the Alderman. And no marvelwas that; for now she stood on a little mound not half covered by a thinthorn-bush, and notched and loosed at whatever was most notable, asthough 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 behindthem rang out the merry sound of the Burgdale horns, and he turned tolook at the wood-side, and lo! thereunder was the hill bright and darkwith men-at-arms, and over them floated the Banners of the Wolf, and theBanners of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull. Then gave forth thebowmen of the kindreds their first shout, and they made no stay in theirshooting; but shot the eagerer, for they deemed that help would comewithout their turning about to draw it to them: and even so it was. Forstraightway down the bent came striding Face-of-god betwixt the twoBanners 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 theWolf; for now that the men of the kindreds had been brought face to facewith the foe, and there was less need of them for way-leaders, the morepart of them were liefer to fight under their own banner along with theWoodlanders; so that the company of those who went under the Wolves wasmore than three long hundreds and a half; and the bowmen on the edge ofthe bent shouted again and merrily, when they felt that their brotherswere amongst them, and presently was the arrow-storm at its fiercest, andthe twanging of bow-strings and the whistle of the shafts was as the windamong the clefts of the mountains; for all the new-comers were bowmen ofthe best.
But the kindreds of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull, they hung yet awhile longer on the hills’ brow, their banners floating over them andtheir horns blowing; and the Dusky Felons in the Market-place beheldthem, and fear and rage at once filled their hearts, and a fierce anddreadful yell brake out from them, and joyously did the Men of Burgdaleanswer 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 shoutall together, and all their horns blew, and they moved on down the hillas one man, slowly and with no jostling, the spear-men first, and thenthey of the axe and the sword; and on their flanks the deft archersloosed on the stumbling jostling throng of the Dusky Men, who for theirpart 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 theirshoulders into the air, and stood so a moment, and then slowly fellforward, as the oars of the longship fall into the row-locks, and thenover the shoulders of the foremost men showed the steel of the five ranksbehind them, and their own spears cast long bars of shadow on thewhiteness of the sunny road. No sound came from them now save the rattleof their armour and the tramp of their steady feet; but from the DuskyMen rose up hideous confused yelling, and those that could freethemselves from the tangle of the throng rushed desperately against theon-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 therea Dusky Felon rolled himself unhurt under the ash-staves, and hewed theknees of the Dalesmen, and a tall man came tottering down; but what menor wood-wights could endure the push of spears of those mightyhusbandmen? The Dusky Ones shrunk back yelling, or turned their backsand rushed at their own folk with such fierce agony that they enteredinto the throng, till the terror of the spear reached to the midmost ofit and swayed them back on the hindermost; for neither was there outgatefor the felons on the flanks of the spearmen, since there the feathereddeath beset them, and the bowmen (and the Bride amongst the foremost)shot wholly together, and no shaft flew idly. But the wise leaders ofthe Dalesmen would not that they should thrust in too far amongst thehowling 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 theflanks 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 andtheir foes, over which the spears hung terribly, nor durst the Dusky Mena
dventure there; and thereon was nought but men dead or sorely hurt.Then suddenly a horn rang thrice shrilly over all the noise and clamourof the throng, and the ranks of the spearmen opened, and forth into thatspace 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 ofthe 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 himhad called it the Barley-scythe. With him were some of the best of thekindreds, as Wolf of Whitegarth, Long-hand of Oakholt, Hart of Highcliff,and War-well the captain of the Bridge. These made no tarrying on thatspace of the dead, but cried aloud their cries: ‘For the Burg and theSteer! for the Dale and the Bridge! for the Dale and the Bull!’ and sofell at once on the Felons; who fled not, nor had room to flee; and alsothey feared not the edge-weapons so sorely as they feared those hugespears. So they turned fiercely on the swordsmen, and chiefly onIron-hand, as he entered in amongst them the first of all, hewing to theright 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 hisplace, and hewed at him with the steel axe and the crooked sword; andwith many strokes they clave his shield and brake his helm and rent hisbyrny, while he heeded little save smiting with the Barley-scythe, andthe blood ran from his arm and his shoulder and his thigh.
But War-well had entered in among the foe on his left hand, andunshielded hove up a great broad-bladed axe, that clave the iron helms ofthe 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 hisstroke. He cleared a ring round Iron-hand, whose eyes were growing dimas the blood flowed from him, and hewed three strokes before him; thenturned and drew the champion out of the throng, and gave him into thearms of his fellows to stanch the blood that drained away the might ofhis limbs; and then with a great wordless roar leaped back again on theDusky Men as the lion leapeth on the herd of swine; and they shrank awaybefore him; and all the swordsmen shouted, ‘For the Bridge, for theBridge!’ and pressed on the harder, smiting down all before them. On hisleft hand now was Hart of Highcliff wielding a good sword hightChip-driver, wherewith he had slain and hurt a many, fighting wisely withsword and shield, and driving the point home through the joints of thearmour. But even therewith, as he drave a great stroke at a lord of theDusky Ones, a cast-spear came flying and smote him on the breast, so thathe staggered, and the stroke fell flatlings on the shield-boss of hisfoe, and Chip-driver brake atwain nigh the hilts; but Hart closed withhim, and smote him on the face with the pommel, and tore his axe from hishand and clave his skull therewith, and slew him with his own weapon, andfought on valiantly beside War-well.
Now War-well had fought so fiercely that he had rent his own hauberk withthe might of his strokes, and as he raised his arm to smite a hugestroke, a deft man of the Felons thrust the spike of his war-axe up underhis arm; and when War-well felt the smart of the steel, he turned on thatman, and, letting his axe fall down to his wrist and hang there by itsloop, he caught the foeman up by the neck and the breech, and drave himagainst the other Dusky Ones before him, so that their weapons piercedand rent their own friend and fellow. Then he put forth the might of hisarms and the pith of his body, and hove up that felon and cast him on tothe heads of his fellow murder-carles, so that he rent them and was rentby them. Then War-well fell on again with the axe, and all the championsof the Dale shouted and fell on with him, and the foe shrank away; andthe Dalesmen cleared a space five fathoms’ length before them, and thespearmen drew onward and stood on the space whereon the first onslaughthad been.
Then drew those hewers of the Dale together, and forth from the companycame the man that bare the Banner of the Bridget and the championsgathered round him, and they ordered their ranks and strode with theBanner before them three times to and fro across the road athwart thefront of the spearmen, and then with a great shout drew back within thespear-hedge. Albeit five of the champions of the Dale had been slainoutright there, and the more part of them hurt more or less.
But when all were well within the ranks, once again blew the horn, andall 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 theDusky Men were so fierce and wild that the rough voices of the Dalesmenwere drowned amidst them.
Forth then came every bowman of the kindred that was there and loosed onthe Dusky Men; and they forsooth had some bowmen amongst them, but coopedup and jostled as they were they shot but wildly; whereas each shaft ofthe 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 hadbeen smitten by a shaft and broken in her hand: so she had caught up ashort horn bow and a quiver from one of the slain of the Dusky Men; andnow she knelt on one knee under the shadow of the spears nigh to hergrandsire Hall-ward, and with a pale face and knitted brow notched andloosed, and notched and loosed on the throng of foemen, as if she weresome daintily fashioned engine of war.
So fared the battle on the road that went from the south into theMarket-stead. Valiantly had the kindred fought there, and no man of themhad blenched, and much had they won; but the way was perilous beforethem, for the foe was many and many.
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