Forth then came every bowman of the kindred that was there and loosed
on the Dusky Men; and they forsooth had some bowmen amongst them, but
cooped up and jostled as they were they shot but wildly; whereas each
shaft of the Dale went home truly.
But amongst the bowmen forth came the Bride in her glittering war-
gear, and stepped lightly to the front of the spearmen. Her own yew
bow had been smitten by a shaft and broken in her hand: so she had
caught up a short horn bow and a quiver from one of the slain of the
Dusky Men; and now she knelt on one knee under the shadow of the
spears nigh to her grandsire Hall-ward, and with a pale face and
knitted brow notched and loosed, and notched and loosed on the throng
of foemen, as if she were some daintily fashioned engine of war.
So fared the battle on the road that went from the south into the
Market-stead. Valiantly had the kindred fought there, and no man of
them had blenched, and much had they won; but the way was perilous
before them, for the foe was many and many.
CHAPTER XLV. OF FACE-OF-GOD'S ONSLAUGHT
Now the banners of the Wolf flapped and rippled over the heads of the
Woodlanders and the Men of the Wolf; and the men shot all they might,
nor took heed now to cover themselves against the shafts of the Dusky
Men.
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