Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/382

 CHAPTER LXV. A FRIEND AT NEED.

T was some three years after this that weaponed men came down into the Dale. It was told to Osberne, and he took his sword and went to meet them. He came across them as they fared slowly down the bent, looking weary and fordone. He looked at them, and he saw that there was nothing for it but that the chiefest of them, and there were but three, was the Lord of Longshaw. So he ran up to him, and cast his arms about him and kissed him, and asked him what ailed. And the Lord said, and laughed withal: That has befallen me which befalls most men: I have been overcome, and I believe that my foes are hard on my heels. Will they be a many? said Osberne. Not in this first stour, said the Lord. Well, said Osberne, I will go and look to it to get a few men together to show them out of the Dale. So he turned hand in hand with the Lord of Longshaw, and cried out to Stephen the Eater to gather forth; and in an hour or so they had enough men and to spare. By that time the pursuers came glittering over the bent, so Osberne and his gathered themselves together and stood till the others came. And when they were within hail, Osberne asked: What would ye here in arms? We are peaceable men. Said the pursuers: We have