'
She turned to him and said: 'Why art thou not more joyous? thou art
like an host without music or banners.'
'Nay,' said he, 'heed not me, but my bidding!'
She said hastily: 'I think I shall die here; since for all we have
shot we minish them nowise. Now kiss me this once amidst the battle,
and say farewell.'
He said: 'Nay, nay; it shall not go thus. Abide a little while, and
thou shalt see all this tangle open, as the sun cleaveth the clouds
on the autumn morning. Yet lo thou! since thou wilt have it so.'
And he bent forward and kissed her face, and now the tears ran over
it, and she said smiling somewhat: 'Now is this more than I looked
for, whatso may betide.'
But while she was yet speaking he cried in a great voice:
'Ye who have spent your shot, or have nigh spent it, to axe and
sword, and follow me to clear the ground 'twixt the bent and the
halls. Let each help each, but throng not each other. Shoot wisely,
ye bowmen, and keep our backs clear of the foe. On, on! for the Burg
and the Face, for the Burg and the Face!'
Therewith he leapt down the steep of the hill, bounding like the
hart, with Dale-warden naked in his hand; and they that followed were
two score and ten; and the arrows of their bowmen rained over their
heads on the Dusky Men, as they smote down the first of the foemen,
and the others shrieked and shrank from them, or turned on them
smiting wildly and desperately.
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