but Clement tripped him and he fell, and his sword flew out of his hand.
Then Clement and two of the others bound his hands with their girdles,
till they might know what had befallen; for they deemed that a devil
had entered into him, and feared that he would do a mischief to himself
or some other.

And now was the whole Fellowship assembled, and stood
in a ring round about Ralph and Bull, and the dead man;
as for him, he had been dead some time, many days belike;
but in that high and clear cold air, his carcase, whistled by
the wind, had dried rather than rotted, and his face was clear
to be seen with its great hooked nose and long black hair:
and his skull was cloven.

Now Bull had done his wailing for his kinsman, and he seemed
to wake up as from a dream, and looked about the ring
of men and spake: "Here is a great to do, my masters!
What will ye with me? Have ye heard, or is it your custom,
that when a man cometh on the dead corpse of his brother,
his own mother's son, he turneth it over with his foot,
as if it were the carcase of a dog, and so goeth on his way?
This I ask, that albeit I be but a war-taken thrall, I be
suffered to lay my brother in earth and heap a howe over him
in these mountains."

They all murmured a yeasay to this save Ralph. He had been sobered
by his fall, and was standing up now betwixt Clement and the captain,
who had unbound his hands, now that the others had come up;
he hung his head, and was ashamed of his fury by seeming.
But when Bull had spoken, and the others had answered,