"Well, within a while the Wheat-wearers were grown so full
of hope that they bade the men of the Dry Tree lead them
against the Burg of the Four Friths, and the Champions were
ready thereto; because they wotted well, that, Hampton being
disgarnished of men, the men of the Burg might fall on it;
and even if they took it not, they would beset all ways
and make riding a hard matter for their fellowship.
So they fell to, wisely and deliberately, and led an host
of the best of the carles with them, and bade the women keep
their land surely, so that their host was not a great many.
But so wisely they led them that they came before the Burg
well-nigh unawares; and though it seemed little likely that
they should take so strong a place, yet nought less befell.
For the Burg-dwellers beset with cruelty and bitter anger
cried out that now at last they would make an end of this
cursed people, and the whoreson strong-thieves their friends:
so they went out a-gates a great multitude, but in worser
order than their wont was; and there befell that marvel
which sometimes befalleth even to very valiant men,
that now at the pinch all their valour flowed from them,
and they fled before the spears had met, and in such evil
order that the gates could not be shut, and their foemen
entered with them slaying and slaying even as they would.
So that in an hour's space the pride and the estate of the Burg
of the Four Friths was utterly fallen.
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