Then Ralph looked along the ridge to right and left of him,
and saw that all the host had come up and had a sight of the foemen;
on the right stood the Shepherds staring down into the meadow
and laughing for the joy of battle and the rage of the oppressed.
On the left sat the Champions of the Dry Tree on their horses, and they
also were tossing up their weapons and roaring like lions for the prey;
and down below the black crowd had drawn together into ordered ranks,
and still the clamour and rude roaring of the warriors arose thence,
and beat against the hill's brow.
Now so fierce and ready were the men of Ralph's company that it
was a near thing but that they, and the Shepherds in especial,
did not rush tumultuously down the hill all breathless and in ill order.
But Ralph cried out to Richard to go left, and Giles to go right, and stay
the onset for a while; and to bid the leaders come to him where he stood.
Then the tumult amidst his folk lulled, and Stephen a-Hurst and Roger
and three others of the Dry Tree came to him, and Giles brought
three of the Shepherds, and there was Clement and a fellow of his.
So when they were come and standing in a ring round Ralph,
he said to them:
"Brothers in arms, ye see that our foes are all in array to meet us,
having had belike some spy in Wulstead, who hath brought them the tale
of what was toward. Albeit methinks that this irks not either you nor me;
for otherwise we might have found them straggling, and scattered
far and wide, which would have made our labour the greater.
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