"
They did as he bade them, but Ralph got somewhat of an
eye-shot out of a corner of the cloak, and he could see
that the Sage went and stood up against the tree-trunk
holding a horse by the bridle, one on each side of him.
Even therewith Ralph heard the clatter of horse-hoofs over
the stones about the stream, and a man's voice cried out:
"They will have heard us; so spur over the grass to the fire
and the big tree: for then they cannot escape us."
Then came the thump of horse-hoofs on the turf, and in half
a minute they were amidst of a rout of men a-horseback, more than
a score, whose armour and weapons gleamed in the moonlight:
yet when these riders were gotten there, they were silent,
till one said in a quavering voice as if afeard:
"Otter, Otter! what is this? A minute ago and we could see
the fire, and the tree, and men and horses about them:
and now, lo you! there is naught save two great grey stones lying
on the grass, and a man's bare bones leaning up against the tree,
and a ruckle of old horse-bones on either side of him.
Where are we then?"
Then spake another; and Ralph knew the voice for Otter's: "I
wot not, lord; naught else is changed save the fire and the horses
and the men: yonder are the hills, yonder overhead is the moon,
with the little light cloud dogging her; even that is scarce changed.
Belike the fire was an earth-fire, and for the rest we saw wrong
in the moonlight.
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