CHAPTER XXX. OF THE FIELD THAT WAS SET IN THE HOLM OF HAZELDALE.
Now thither cometh Jack o’ the Tofts, and spake to Christopher: “See thou, lad—Lord King, I should say; this looketh not like very present battle, for they be stayed half way down the bent; and lo thou, some half score are coming forth from the throng with a white shield raised aloft. Do we in likewise, for they would talk with us.”
“Shall we trust them, father?” said Christopher.
“Trust them we may, son,” said Jack; “Gandolf is a violent man, and a lifter of other men’s goods, but I deem not so evil of him as that he would bewray troth.”
So then they let do a white cloth over a shield and hoist it on a long spear, and straightway they gat to horse, Jack of the Tofts, and Christopher, and Haward of Whiteacre, and Gilbert,
