Would that there had been
battle, and that I had died therein with those that had a heart to
fight; and even so saith now every man, yea, every woman in the Dale.
But it was not so when the elders met in our Council-House on the day
when the Dusky Men bade us pay them tribute and give them houses to
dwell in and lands to live by. Then had we weapons in our hands, but
no hearts to use them.'
'What befell then?' said the goodman of Whitegarth.
Said Dallach: 'Look ye to it, lords, that it befall not in Burgdale!
We gave them all they asked for, and deemed we had much left. What
befell, sayst thou? We sat quiet; we went about our work in fear and
trembling, for grim and hideous were they to look on. At first they
meddled not much with us, save to take from our houses what they
would of meat and drink, or raiment, or plenishing. And all this we
deemed we might bear, and that we needed no more than to toil a
little more each day so as to win somewhat more of wealth. But soon
we found that it would not be so; for they had no mind to till the
teeming earth or work in the acres we had given them, or to sit at
the loom, or hammer in the stithy, or do any manlike work; it was we
that must do all that for their behoof, and it was altogether for
them that we laboured, and nought for ourselves; and our bodies were
only so much our own as they were needful to be kept alive for
labour.
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