FACE-OF-GOD LOOKETH ON SILVER-DALE: THE BOWMEN'S
BATTLE
There then they rested, as folk wearied with the toilsome journey,
when they had set sure watches round about their campment; and they
ate quietly what meat they had with them, and so gat them to sleep in
the wood on the eve of battle.
But not all slept; for the two captains went about amongst the
companies, Folk-might to the east, Face-of-god to the west, to look
to the watches, and to see that all was ordered duly. Also the Sun-
beam slept not, but she lay beside Bow-may at the foot of an oak-
tree; she watched Face-of-god as he went away amidst the men of the
Host, and watched and waked abiding his returning footsteps.
The night was well worn by then he came back to his place in the
vanward, and on his way back he passed through the folk of the Steer
laid along on the grass, all save those of the watch, and the light
of the moon high aloft was mingled with the light of the earliest
dawn; and as it happed he looked down, and lo! close to his feet the
face of the Bride as she lay beside her grand-sire, her head pillowed
on a bundle of bracken.
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