e door to the treasure chamber of the Markmen; let us fall
on that at once rather than have many battles for other lesser matters,
and then at last have to fight for this also: for having this we have
all, and they shall be our thralls, and we may slaughter what we will,
and torment what we will and deflower what we will, and make our souls
glad with their grief and anguish, and take aback with us to the cities
what we will of the thralls, that their anguish and our joy may endure
the longer.' Thus will they say: therefore is it my rede that the
strongest and hardiest of you women take horse, a ten of you and one to
lead besides, and ride the shallows to the Bearing House, and tell them
of our rede; which is to watch diligently the ways of the wood; the
outgate to the Mark, and the places where the wood is thin and easy to
travel on: and ye shall bid them give you of their folk as many as they
deem fittest thereto to join your company, so that ye may have a chain of
watchers stretching far into the wilds; but two shall lie without the
wood, their horses ready for them to leap on and ride on the spur to the
wain-burg in the Upper-mark if any tidings befal.

"Now of these eleven I ordain Hrosshild to be the leader and captain, and
to choose for her fellows the stoutest-limbed and heaviest-handed of all
the maidens here: art thou content Hrosshild?"

Then stood Hrosshild forth and said nought, but nodded yea; and soon was
her choice made amid jests and laughter, for this seemed no hard matter
to them.

So the ten got together, and the others fell off from them, and there
stood the ten maidens with Hrosshild, well nigh as strong as men, clean-
limbed and tall, tanned with sun and wind; for all these were unwearied
afield, and oft would lie out a-nights, since they loved the lark's song
better than the mouse's squeak; but as their kirtles shifted at neck and
wrist, you might see their skins as white as privet-flower where they
were wont to be covered.

Then said the Hall-Sun: "Ye have heard the word, see ye to it, Hrosshild,
and take this other word also: Bid the Bearing stay-at-homes bide not the
sword and the torch at home if the Romans come, but hie them over hither,
to hold the Hall or live in the wild-wood with us, as need may be; for
might bides with many.

"But ye maidens, take this counsel for yourselves; do ye each bear with
you a little keen knife, and if ye be taken, and it seem to you that ye
may not bear t