Nevertheless, not all men abode there
the feast through; for or ever the afternoon was well worn, were many
men wending along the Portway eastward toward the Upper Dale, each
man in his war-gear and with a scrip hung about him; and these were
they who were bound for the trysting-place and the journey over the
waste.
So the Folk-mote was sundered; and men went to their houses, and
there abode in peace the time of their summoning; since they wotted
well that the Hosting was afoot.
But as for the Woodlanders, who were at the Mote-stead with all their
folk, women, children, and old men, they went not back again to
Carlstead; but prayed the neighbours of the Middle Dale to suffer
them to abide there awhile, which they yeasaid with a good will. So
the Woodlanders tilted themselves in, the more part of them, down in
the meadows below the Mote-stead, along either side of Wildlake's
Way; but their ancient folk, and some of the women and children, the
neighbours would have into their houses, and the rest they furnished
with victual and all that they needed without price, looking upon
them as their very guests.
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