side of the way, and next
the gates were thrown wide open (which before had been shut save for a
wicket) and thereafter came the first of a company of men-at-arms,
foot-men, with bills some, and some with bows, and all-armed knights
and sergeants a-horseback.

So streamed in these weaponed men till Ralph saw that it was a great
host that was entering the Burg; and his heart rose within him, so
warrior-like they were of men and array, though no big men of their
bodies; and many of them bore signs of battle about them, both in the
battering of their armour and the rending of their raiment, and the
clouts tied about the wounds on their bodies.

After a while among the warriors came herds of neat and flocks of sheep
and strings of horses, of the spoil which the host had lifted; and then
wains filled, some with weapons and war gear, and some with bales of
goods and household stuff. Last came captives, some going afoot and
some for weariness borne in wains; for all these war-taken thralls were
women and women-children; of males there was not so much as a little
lad. Of the women many seemed fair to Ralph despite their grief and
travel; and as he looked on them he deemed that they must be of the
kindred and nation of the fair white women he had seen in the streets;
though they were not clad like those, but diversely.

So Ralph gazed on this pageant till all had passed, and he was weary
with the heat and the dust and the confused clamour of shouting and
laughter and talking; and whereas most of the folk followed after the
host and their spoil, the streets of the town there about were soon
left empty and peaceful. So he turned into a street narrower than
most, that went east from the South Gate and was much shaded from the
afternoon sun, and went slowly down it, meaning to come about the
inside of the wall till he should hit the East Gate, and so into the
Great Place when the folk should have gone their ways home.

He saw no folk in the street save here and there an old woman sitting
at the door of her house, and maybe a young child with her. As he came
to where the street turned somewhat, even such a carline was sitting on
a clean white door-step on the sunny side, somewhat shaded by a tall
rose-laurel tree in a great tub, and she sang as she sat spinning, and
Ralph stayed to listen in his idle mood, and he heard how she sang in a
dry, harsh voice:

Clashed sword on shield In the harvest field;
And no man bla