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.
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