'
Then he passed on, and his men after him, tall, lean, and silent
amidst the shouting. All these men bare bows, for they were keen
hunters; each had at his girdle a little axe and a wood-knife, and
some had long swords withal. They wore, everyone of the carles,
short green surcoats over their coats of fence; but amongst them were
three women who bore like weapons to the men, but were clad in red
kirtles under their hauberks, which were of good ring-mail gleaming
over them from throat to knee.
Last came another tall man, but young, of twenty-five winters, and
spake:
'Scrivener, I am Bears-bane of the Woodlanders, and these that come
after me wend under the sign of the Spear, and they are of the tale
of one hundred and seven.'
And he passed by at once, and his men followed him, clad and weaponed
no otherwise than they of the War-shaft, and with them were two
women.
Now went all those companies back to their banners, and stood there;
and there arose among the bystanders much talk concerning the Weapon-
show, and who were the best arrayed of the Houses. And of the old
men, some spake of past weapon-shows which they had seen in their
youth, and they set them beside this one, and praised and blamed.
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