Will ye not slay so many at last, that they shall learn to
fear us, and abide at home and leave us at peace?'
But Face-of-god said: 'Meseemeth, father, that this is not thy rede,
and that thou sayest this but to try me: and perchance ye have been
talking about me when I was without in the street e'en now. Even if
it might be that we should thus cow these felons into abiding at home
and tormenting their own thralls at their ease, yet how then are our
friends of the Wolf holpen to their own again? And I shall tell thee
that I have promised to this man and this woman that I will give them
no less than a man's help in this matter. Moreover, I have spoken in
every house of the Dale, and to the Shepherds and the Woodlanders,
and there is no man amongst them but will follow me in the quarrel.
Furthermore, they have heard of the thralldom that is done on men no
great way from their own houses; yea, they have seen it; and they
remember the old saw, "Grief in thy neighbour's hall is grief in thy
garth," and sure it is, father, that whether thou or I gainsay them,
go they will to deliver the thralls of the Dusky Men, and will leave
us alone in the Dale.
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