And
doubt ye nothing of our being taken unawares this night; for I have
bidden and sent out watchers of the ways, and neither a man's son nor
a mare's son may come in on us without espial. Now make we our
friends welcome. Forsooth, I looked for them an hour later; and had
they come an hour earlier yet, some heads would now lie on the cold
grass which shall lie on a feather bed to-night. But let be, since
all is well!
"Now get we home to our houses, and eat and drink and slumber this
night, if never once again, amid the multitude of friends and fellows;
and yet soberly and without riot, since so much work is to hand.
Moreover the priest saith, bear ye the dead men, both friends and
foes, into the chancel of the church, and there this night he will
wake them: but after to-morrow let the dead abide to bury their dead!"
Therewith he leapt down from the cross, and Will and I bestirred
ourselves and mingled with the new-comers. They were some three
hundred strong, clad and armed in all ways like the people of our
township, except some half-dozen whose armour shone cold like ice
under the moonbeams.
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