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.
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