But little by little the
archers of the Dusky Men gathered behind the corpses of the slain,
and fell to shooting at what they could see of the men of the
kindreds, which at that while was not much, for as bold as they were,
they fought like wary hunters of the Wood and the Waste.
But now at last throughout all that throng of Felons in the Market-
place the tale began to spread of foemen come into the Dale and
shooting from the Bents, and all they turned their faces to the hill,
and the whole set of the throng was thitherward; though they fared
but slowly, so evil was the order of them, each man hindering his
neighbour as he went. And not only did the Dusky Men come flockmeal
toward the Bent of the Bowmen, but also they jostled along toward the
road that led southward. That beheld Wood-wise from the Bent, and he
was minded to get him and his aback, now that they had made so great
a slaughter of the foemen; and two or three of his fellows had been
hurt by arrows, and Bow-may, she would have been slain thrice over
but for the hammer-work of the Alderman. And no marvel was that; for
now she stood on a little mound not half covered by a thin thorn-
bush, and notched and loosed at whatever was most notable, as though
she were shooting at the mark on a summer evening in Shadowy Vale.
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