CHAPTER LVII. HOW THE HOST CAME HOME AGAIN.
IT was fourteen days before they came to Rose-dale; for they had muchbaggage with them, and they had no mind to weary themselves, and the woodwas nothing loathsome to them, whereas the weather was fair and brightfor the more part. They fell in with no mishap by the way. But a scoreand three of runaways joined themselves to the Host, having watched theirgoings and wotting that they were not foemen. Of these, some had heardof the overthrow of the Dusky Men in Silver-dale, and others not. TheBurgdalers received them all, for it seemed to them no great matter for ascore 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 sentmessengers into Burgdale to tell men there of the tidings. Albeit theywere mostly loth to tarry; yet when he lay hard on them not to depart asmen on the morrow of a gild-feast, they abode there three days, and wereas well guested as might be, and on their departure they were laden withgifts from the wealth of Rose-dale by Dallach and his folk.
Before they went their ways Dallach spake with Face-of-god and the chiefsof the Dalesmen, and said:
‘Ye have given me much from the time when ye found me in the wood a nakedwastrel; yet now I would ask you a gift to lay on the top of all that yehave given me.’
Said Face-of-god: ‘Name the gift, and thou shalt have it; for we deemthee our friend.’
‘I am no less,’ said Dallach, ‘as in time to come I may perchance be ableto show you. But now I am asking you to suffer a score or two of yourmen to abide here with me this summer, till I see how this folk new-bornagain is like to deal with me. For pleasure and a fair life have becomeso strange to them, that they scarce know what to do with them, or how tolive; and unless all is to go awry, I must needs command and forbid; andthough belike they love me, yet they fear me not; so that when mycommandment pleaseth them, they do as I bid, and when it pleaseth themnot, they do contrary to my bidding; for it hath got into their mindsthat I shall in no case lift a hand against them, which indeed is thevery sooth. But your folk they fear as warriors of the world, who haveslain the Dusky Men in the Market-place of Silver-stead; and they are ofalien blood to them, men who will do as their friend biddeth (think ourfolk) against them who are neither friends or foes. With such help Ishall be well holpen.’
In such wise spake Dallach; and Face-of-god and the chiefs said that soit should be, if men could be found willing to abide in Rose-dale for awhile. And when the matter was put abroad, there was no lack of such menamongst the younger warriors, who had noted that the dale was fairamongst dales and its women fairer yet amongst women.
So two score and ten of the Burgdale men abode in Rose-dale, no one ofwhom was of more than twenty and five winters. Forsooth divers of themset up house in Rose-dale, and never came back to Burgdale, save asguests. For a half score were wedded in Rose-dale before the year’sending; and seven more, who had also taken to them wives of the goodliestof the Rose-dale women, betook them the next spring to the Burg of theRunaways, and there built them a stead, and drew a garth about it, anddug and sowed the banks of the river, which they called Inglebourne. Andas years passed, this same stead throve exceedingly, and men resortedthither 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 woodthereabout was full of deer of all kinds. So their stead was calledInglebourne after the stream; and in latter days it became a very goodlyhabitation of men.
Moreover, some of the once-enthralled folk of Rose-dale, when they knewthat men of their kindred from Silver-dale were going home with the menof Burgdale to dwell in the Dale, prayed hard to go along with them; forthey looked on the Burgdalers as if they were new Gods of the Earth. TheBurgdale chiefs would not gainsay these men either, but took with themthree score and ten from Rose-dale, men and women, and promised themdwelling and livelihood in Burgdale.
So now with good hearts the Host of Burgdale turned their faces towardtheir well-beloved Dale; and they made good diligence, so that in threedays’ time they were come anigh the edge of the woodland wilderness.Thither in the even-tide, as they were making ready for their last supperand bed in the wood, came three men and two women of their folk, who hadbeen abiding their coming ever since they had had the tidings ofSilver-dale and the battles from Dallach. Great was the joy of thesemessengers as they went from company to company of the warriors, and sawthe familiar faces of their friends, and heard their wonted voicestelling all the story of battle and slaughter. And for their part themen of the Host feasted these stay-at-homes, and made much of them. Butone of them, a man of the House of the Face, left the Host a little afternightfall, and bore back to Burgstead at once the tidings of the cominghome of the Host. Albeit since Dallach’s tidings of victory had come tothe Dale, the dwellers in the steads of the country-side had leftBurgstead and gone home to their own houses; so that there was no greatmultitude abiding in the Thorp.
So early on the morrow was the Host astir; but ere they came toWildlake’s Way, the Shepherd-folk turned aside westward to go home, afterthey had bidden farewell to their friends and fellows of the Dale; fortheir souls longed for the sheepcotes in the winding valleys under thelong grey downs; and the garths where the last year’s ricks shouldered upagainst the old stone gables, and where the daws were busy in the tallunfrequent ash-trees; and the green flowery meadows adown along thebright streams, where the crowfoot and the paigles were blooming now, andthe 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 afterwardsall the rest of the Host stood on the level ground of the Portway; butpresently were the ranks of war disordered and broken up by the joy ofthe women and children, as they fell to drawing goodman or brother orlover out of the throng to the way that led speediest to their homesteadsand halls. For the War-leader would not hold the Host together anylonger, but suffered each man to go to his home, deeming that the men ofBurgstead, and chiefly they of the Face and the Steer, would suffice fora company if any need were, and they would be easily gathered to meet anyhap.
So now the men of the Middle and Lower Dale made for their houses by theroad and the lanes and the meadows, and the men of the Upper Dale andBurgstead went their ways along the Portway toward their halls, with thethrong of women and children that had come out to meet them. And now mencame home when it was yet early, and the long day lay before them; and itwas, as it were, made giddy and cumbered with the exceeding joy ofreturn, and the thought of the day when the fear of death and sunderinghad been ever in their hearts. For these new hours were full of thekissing and embracing of lovers, and the sweetness of renewed delight inbeholding the fair bodies so sorely desired, and hearkening the softwheedling of longed-for voices. There were the cups of friends beneaththe chestnut trees, and the talk of the deeds of the fighting-men, and ofthe 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 thewell-loved nook of the pleasant places, which death might well have madenought for them; and they were sweet with the fear of that which waspast, and in their pleasantness was fresh promise for the days to come.
So amid their joyance came evening and nightfall; and though folk wereweary with the fulness of delight, yet now for many their weariness ledthem to the chamber of love before the rest of deep night came to them tomake 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 nottogether that even. But Face-of-god and the Sun-beam parted at the doorof the House of the Face; for needs must she go with her new folk to theHouse of the Steer, and needs must Face-of-god be amongst his own folk inthat hour of high-tide, and sit beside h
is father beneath the image ofthe God with the ray-begirt head.
The Roots of the Mountains Page 58