But when the spring was worn into April there fell new tidings: for on
a morning early came Stephen the Eater hurrying into the hall at
Wethermel and cried aloud: "Bows, bows! Come afield all ye of this
hall, and thou chiefly Osberne the Captain!"
Out then tumbled the stout men of Wethermel from shut-bed and hutch,
and were presently armed, and Osberne was in his byrny and steel hood
straightway, his bow in his hand and his quiver at his back.
They gathered about him and Stephen amidst of the hall, and then
Osberne asks what is toward. "Great matter enough," says Stephen. "Yet
how is to help therein? There is unpeace in the Dale, but it has
fallen on the Westerlings."
Quoth Osberne, short and sharp: "Ye, Otter, Simon, Longdeer, Alison,
take horse and ride straightway down the Dale and round to every
stead, and bid men gather to the side of the Flood with bows and
sling-spears and shot-weapons of all kinds, and that they stand not in
knots and clumps, but drawn out in line, and space enough between each
shooter. Bid them to leave not a shaft at home--we may speedily make
more--but not to loose once till they have marked their man. Now
hasten ye four! But ye others come after me at once, for we will go
afoot for the saving of time and the steadying of the shooting."
So they went toward the water, a dozen men all told, and all had bows
and good store of shafts. And as they went, Osberne spake to those
about him and said: "Spread out, and make little show of force, and
show not your bows to the foemen, so that they may contemn us and
venture the nearer to the bank. But shoot not till they defy us, lest
we smite a peaceful man." Now they were presently nigh enough to see
the going of men on the further shore, and they were all riders. It
was clear to see that they were aliens, men upon big horses clad in
outlandish armour with bright steel headpieces; they bore long spears
with light shafts, and a many of them had short horseman's bows and
quivers at their backs along with their targes.
Now as the men of Wethermel drew up to the water's edge, a knot of the
said aliens, about a score, came to them shouting and yelling, and
there were within sight scattered about the fields some two hundreds
in all. When they reined up by the Flood-side one of them, who seemed
by the gold on his armour and weapons to be a chief, hove his spear
aloft and brandished it, and fell to crying out in what seemed to be
words; but since they knew not his Latin they gat no meaning from
them, but he spake in a masterful and threatening voice. Then by
Osberne's bidding, Stephen, who stood anigh him, drew a white clout
from his scrip, made it fast to his spear and held it aloft, to show
that they would have parley. But for all answer the chieftain and his
brake out a-laughing; and then the chieftain gat his spear by the
midmost, and made as if he would cast at them; but the Flood there was
overwide for spear-shot. Then one of his folk unslung his shortbow and
nocked a shaft, and turned to the chief as if asking leave, and the
chief nodded him yeasay. Quoth Osberne hastily: "Stephen, cover thee!
It will be thou. Then if he looses, we loose, for this is a foeman."
Even therewith the shaft flew, and Stephen turned it with his shield.
Then the Wethermelers set up a shout and bent their bows, and Osberne
loosed first, and the shaft smote the chieftain in the eye, and he
fell dead off his horse: Stephen also put a shaft into the man who had
shot at him, and three others of them fell withal at the first loose,
besides three that were hurt. And the aliens liked the Wethermel
breakfast so ill, that they turned their backs to the river at once
and scuttled away into the field out of shot, yet not before they had
lost two more men and three horses.
Osberne stayed his men there a little while to see if the foe would
bring up others to go on with the game; but the aliens were over-wily
for that, as it seemed; for they but gathered together, and turning
all their heads down-dale fared on in one body.
As yet the Dalesmen had seen nought of any onset of their neighbours
of the West, and sore troubled was Osberne when he fell to thinking
that, as the robbers were wending, they must needs chop upon Hartshaw
Knolls; so the best he could hope was that Elfhild might flee from her
house to some other, or even, it might be, hide her in the wood, which
she knew so inwardly.
Meanwhile he bade his men go quietly down-stream on the river's edge.
Saith he: "If aught is to be done from this side, we shall presently
have the folk from the lower steads drifting into us, and we should
make a good band were it not for yonder wet dyke which the thieves
have gotten them for a defence."
So they fared on, and now and again some man of the lifters turned
somewhat toward them to look on their demeanour, and whiles one would
speed an arrow to them, but did no harm; at last, as they began to
draw nigh the narrows above the Bight of the Cloven Knoll, a whole
sort of the foemen came riverwards, but somewhat more than half held
on the straight way down the Dale. Even therewith came to join the
Wethermelers a many of the folk from the downward steads, stout
fellows all, and well armed with shot-weapons.
And now there was nought for it but on both sides men were drifting
toward the Bight of the Cloven Knoll, nor needeth words to tell of the
anguish of Osberne's heart and the fierce wrath of his spirit. When
the aliens, who were thronging to the river-bank, saw how narrow the
stream was growing, they set up a whoop and drew closer to the
Eastdalers, and the more part of them got off their horses and marched
along foot by foot with them, and they were now within shot of each
other, so that the foemen stayed at whiles and shot them a shaft; and
now they hurt divers of the Dalesmen, but Osberne would not suffer
them to shoot back as yet.
So came they within sight of the Dwarfs' cave, and there were not a
few of the Dalesmen who feared the place even in the turmoil of
battle; and some deemed it might be unlucky to them; but others said
that most like Osberne's good luck would prevail over the evil will of
the Dwarf-kind.
So when Osberne came to the trysting-place, he and his were fully two
score men, and they of the stoutest; and he stood before them all on
the very place where his feet had so often stayed for the comforting
of his heart and the caressing of his love: there he stood, handling a
heavy cast-spear.
Even therewith the aliens poured on to the ness, howling like dogs,
and on to Elfhild's very standing-place. Before all his men came a
chieftain of them, clad in armour wrought gaudily and decked all with
gold and silver, and with a great red horse-tail streaming from his
helm. He hove up his hand and poised a great spear, but in that nick
of time Osberne cast his weapon suddenly, with a fierce shout, and all
about him and behind him he heard the loose of the Dalesmen's bows.
Sooth to say, as he cast, he almost looked to see all that turmoil
clear away as a dream, and that he should see Elfhild falling with the
spear in her breast. But nought it befel: the gold-decked chieftain
took the spear under his arm, and he and his spear fell over clashing
and clattering down into the gulfs of the green water, and many of the
strong-thieves fell before the shaft-storm of the Dalesmen; but
therewith the foemen shot also, and some of the Dalesmen were slain
and divers hurt, but that abated their hearts no jot. But Osberne took
twelve shafts from out his quiver and nocked them one after the other,
and every time he loosed a man's life went away on the arrow-point;
but bitter was his wrath and his grief that he might not slay them all
and deliver his love. Many a shaft smote him, but the more part of
them fell off scatheless from the rings of Hardcastle's loom. Now were
many of the thieves slain; yet so fierce and eager were they, that the
more part would not draw aback, nay, some were so hungry for that
cruel slaughter of them that they heeded not the sundering of the
Flood, but rushed on as if there were nought between them, and fell
over into the boil of waters and were lost in the bottomless depths.
So fared the battle, and the ranks of the Dalesmen began to thin; but
Osberne had no thought of going back a foot's length, and his men were
so valiant that they deemed nought evil save the sundering of the
Flood. Osberne was hurt in three places, but not sorely; but Stephen
bore a shaft in his side, yet he stood upon his feet and shot no less
valiantly than erst.
But now all of a sudden the raging throng before them had some new
goings-on in it and began to sidle landward, and therewithal beyond
them rose a great shout, and therein the Eastdalers knew the voice of
their kinsmen, and they shouted all together in answer as they plied
the bow, and the strong-thieves turned about and ran yelling and
cursing toward the landward and the south-west, for the Westdalers
were upon them with spear and axe and sword.
That was the end of the shot-stour, and the aliens came never again
that tide under the shafts of the Eastdalers. But betwixt the kenning
of their dead and the tending of their hurt folk, they stood gazing
out anxiously over the field, if they might but see how the battle of
handy-strokes had gone, and by seeming right hard it had been; but in
a while they saw the aliens thrust back and edging away towards their
horses, which they had left standing out of bow-shot not far from the
Bight of the Cloven Knoll. The Westdalers were following on, smiting
great strokes, but not so as to be mingled up with them; nor did they
seem as if they would will to hinder them if they should get on their
horses and ride away; and even they did so presently, and the Dalesmen
saw them never again.