'
'How come ye to that?' said Stone-face.
Said Face-of-god: 'Abide a while, fosterer! Though the odds between
us be great, it is not to be hidden that I wot how ye of the Wolf
know of privy passes into Silver-dale; yea, into the heart thereof;
and this is the special gain ye have to give us. Therefore we, the
thousand men, falling on the foe unawares, shall make a great
slaughter of them; and if the murder be but grim enough, those
thralls of theirs shall fear us and not them, as already they hate
them and not us, so that we may look to them for rooting out these
sorry weeds after the overthrow. And what with one thing, what with
another, we may cherish a good hope of clearing Silver-dale at one
stroke with the said thousand men.
'There remaineth Rose-dale, which will be easier to deal with,
because the Dusky Men therein are fewer and the thralls as many:
that also would I fall on at the same time as we fall on Silver-dale
with the men that are left over from the Silver-dale onslaught.
Wherefore my rede is, that we gather all those unmeet for battle in
the field into this Burg, with ten tens of men to strengthen them;
which shall be enough for them, along with the old men, and lads, and
sturdy women, to defend themselves till help comes, if aught of evil
befall, or to flee into the mountains, or at the worst to die
valiantly.
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