Then a large body of men appeared before them, carrying lanterns. And
they heard a monstrous, husky, devil's voice crying: "Out, friends,
out upon them! Loot for the Irontooth!"
But here suddenly all these good women let fly their arrows with
great precision, for though they themselves remained in darkness they
could see the brigands, all lit up by their lanterns, as clearly as
in daylight. Two hundred of the men fell at the first volley, some
with arrows in their skulls, others in their necks, and several with
them in their bellies.
The Irontooth himself was among the first that the good women heard
fall with a great thud, from an arrow let fly by Wantje, which pierced
him through the eyeball neatly.
Some were not wounded at all, but, having troubled conscience, thought
when they saw all these white figures that 'twas the souls of those
whom they had made pass from life into death, come back by God's
grace to avenge themselves upon them. So they fell on their faces in
the dust, as if dead from fear, crying out in a most piteous manner:
"Mercy, Lord God! send back to hell all these ghosts, we pray you."
But when they saw the good wives bearing down on them fear put strength
into their legs, and they made off as fast as they would carry them.