Forth then went the banners of the Wolf, and the men of the vanward
fell to threading the rock-maze toward the north, and in two hours'
time were clear of the Dale under Shield-broad. All went in the same
order as yesterday; but on this day the Sun-beam would bear her
hauberk, and had a sword girt to her side, and her heart was high and
her speech merry.
When they left the Dale under Shield-broad the way was easy and wide
for a good way, the river flowing betwixt low banks, and the pass
being more like a string of little valleys than a mere gap, as it had
been on the other side of the Dale. But when one third of the day
was past, the way began to narrow on them again, and to rise up
little by little; and at last the rock-walls drew close to the river,
and when men looked toward the north they saw no way, and nought but
a wall. For the gap of the Shivering Flood turned now to the east,
and the Flood came down from the east in many falls, as it were over
a fearful stair, through a gap where there was no path between the
cliffs and the water, nought but the boiling flood and its turmoil;
so that they who knew not the road wondered what they should do.
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