' 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.
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