For when the fleers of the Burg came home the Porte lost no time,
but sent out another host to follow after the Champions and their spoil;
for they had learned that those men had not turned about to Hampton
after their victory, but had gone on to the Wheat-wearers.
"So it befell that the host of the Burg came up with the Champions on
the eve of a summer day when there were yet three hours of daylight.
But whereas they had looked to have an easy bargain of their foemen,
since they knew the Champions to be but a few, lo! there was the hillside
covered with a goodly array of spears and glaives and shining helms.
They marvelled; but now for very shame, and because they scarce could
help it, they fell on, and before sunset were scattered to the winds again,
and the fleers had to bear back the tale that the more part of their foes
were women of the Wheat-wearers; but this time few were those that came
back alive to the Burg of the Four Friths; for the freed captives were
hot and eager in the chase, casting aside their shields and hauberks
that they might speed the better, and valuing their lives at naught
if they might but slay a man or two of the tyrants before they died.
"Thus was the Burg wounded with its own sword: but the matter
stopped not there: for when that victorious host of men and women
came into the land of the Wheat-wearers, all men fled away in terror
at first, thinking that it was a new onset of the men of the Burg;
and that all the more, as so many of them bore their weapons and armour.
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