The Story of the Glittering Plain | Page 6

they feared his face, and the
sorrow of his heart. So he got him out of the garth and turned toward
the sea-shore, and they saw the glitter of his spear-point a minute over
the turf-wall, and heard the clatter of his horse-hoofs as he galloped
over the hard way; and thus he departed.

CHAPTER III

: THE WARRIORS OF THE RAVEN SEARCH THE SEAS

Then the women bethought them, and they spake a word or two
together, and then they sundered and went one this way and one that, to
gather together the warriors of the Raven who were a-field, or on the
way, nigh unto the house, that they might follow Hallblithe down to the
sea-shore and help him; after a while they came back again by one and
two and three, bringing with them the wrathful young men; and when
there was upward of a score gathered in the garth armed and horsed,
they rode their ways to the sea, being minded to thrust a long-ship of
the Ravens out over the Rollers into the sea, and follow the
strong-thieves of the waters and bring a-back the Hostage, so that they
might end the sorrow at once, and establish joy once more in the House
of the Raven and the House of the Rose. But they had with them three
lads of fifteen winters or thereabouts to lead their horses back home
again, when they should have gone up on to the Horse of the Brine.
Thus then they departed, and the maidens stood in the garth-gate till
they lost sight of them behind the sandhills, and then turned back
sorrowfully into the house, and sat there talking low of their sorrow.
And many a time they had to tell their tale anew, as folk came into the
hall one after another from field and fell. But the young men came
down to the sea, and found Hallblithe's black horse straying about
amongst the tamarisk-bushes above the beach; and they looked thence
over the sand, and saw neither Hallblithe nor any man: and they gazed
out seaward, and saw neither ship nor sail on the barren brine. Then
they went down on to the sand, and sundered their fellowship, and went
half one way, half the other, betwixt the sandhills and the surf, where
now the tide was flowing, till the nesses of the east and the west, the
horns of the bay, stayed them. Then they met together again by the
Rollers, when the sun was within an hour of setting. There and then
they laid hand to that ship which is called the Seamew, and they ran her
down over the Rollers into the waves, and leapt aboard and hoisted sail,
and ran out the oars and put to sea; and a little wind was blowing
seaward from the gates of the mountains behind them.
So they quartered the sea-plain, as the kestrel doth the water- meadows,
till the night fell on them, and was cloudy, though whiles the wading
moon shone out; and they had seen nothing, neither sail nor ship, nor

aught else on the barren brine, save the washing of waves and the
hovering of sea-fowl. So they lay-to outside the horns of the bay and
awaited the dawning. And when morning was come they made way
again, and searched the sea, and sailed to the out-skerries, and searched
them with care; then they sailed into the main and fared hither and
thither and up and down: and this they did for eight days, and in all that
time they saw no ship nor sail, save three barks of the Fish-biters nigh
to the Skerry which is called Mew- stone.
So they fared home to the Raven Bay, and laid their keel on the Rollers,
and so went their ways sadly, home to the House of the Raven: and
they deemed that for this time they could do no more in seeking their
valiant kinsman and his fair damsel. And they were very sorry; for
these two were well-beloved of all men. But since they might not
amend it, they abode in peace, awaiting what the change of days might
bring them.

CHAPTER IV
: NOW HALLBLITHE TAKETH THE SEA

Now must it be told of Hallblithe that he rode fiercely down to the
sea-shore, and from the top of the beach he gazed about him, and there
below him was the Ship-stead and Rollers of his kindred, whereon lay
the three long-ships, the Seamew, and the Osprey and the Erne. Heavy
and huge they seemed to him as they lay there, black- sided, icy-cold
with the washing of the March waves, their golden dragon-heads
looking seaward wistfully. But first had he looked out into the offing,
and it was