be. So did they, and there
was little delay, for men were sleeping with one eye open, as folk say,
and many were already astir. So in a little while they were all in the
saddle, and the mist yet stretched low over the meadow; for the morning
was cool and without wind. Then Otter bade the word be carried down the
ranks that they should ride as quietly as may be and fare through the
mist to do the Romans some hurt, but in nowise to get entangled in their
ranks, and all men to heed well the signal of turning and drawing aback;
and therewith they rode off down the meadow led by men who could have led
them through the dark night.

But for the Romans, they were indeed getting ready to cross the ford when
the mist should have risen; and on the bank it was thinning already and
melting away; for a little air of wind was beginning to breathe from the
north-east and the sunrise, which was just at hand; and the bank,
moreover, was stonier and higher than the meadow's face, which fell away
from it as a shallow dish from its rim: thereon yet lay the mist like a
white wall.

So the Romans and their friends the dastards of the Goths had well nigh
got all ready, and had driven stakes into the water from bank to bank to
mark out the safe ford, and some of their light-armed and most of their
Goths were by now in the water or up on the Wolfing meadow with the more
part of their baggage and wains; and the rest of the host was drawn up in
good order, band by band, waiting the word to take the water, and the
captain was standing nigh to the river bank beside their God the chief
banner of the Host.

Of a sudden one of the dastards of the Goths who was close to the Captain
cried out that he heard horse coming; but because he spake in the Gothic
tongue, few heeded; but even therewith an old leader of a hundred cried
out the same tidings in the Roman tongue, and all men fell to handling
their weapons; but before they could face duly toward the meadow, came
rushing from out of the mist a storm of shafts that smote many men, and
therewithal burst forth the sound of the Markmen's war-horn, like the
roaring of a hundred bulls mingled with the thunder of horses at the
gallop; and then dark over the wall of mist showed the crests of the
riders of the Mark, though scarce were their horses seen till their whole
war-rank came dark and glittering into the space of the rising-ground
where the mist was but a haze now, and now at last smitten athwart by