So Dallach brought them to him; but he
found that though they spake the tongue, they were so few-spoken from
wildness and loneliness, at least at first, that nought could come
from them that was not dragged from them.
These men said that they had been in the wood more than nine years,
so that they knew but little of the conditions of the Dale in that
present day. However, as to what Dallach had said concerning the
Dusky Men, they strengthened his words; and they said that the Dusky
Men took no delight save in beholding torments and misery, and that
they doubted if they were men or trolls. They said that since they
had dwelt in the wood they had slain not a few of the foemen,
waylaying them as occasion served, but that in this warfare they had
lost two of their fellows. When Face-of-god asked them of their
deeming of the numbers of the Dusky Men, they said that before those
bands had broken into Rose-dale, they counted them, as far as they
could call to mind, at about three thousand men, all warriors; and
that somewhat less than one thousand had gone up into Rose-dale, and
some had died, and many had been cast away in the wild-wood, their
fellows knew not how.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334