they drew near to the greater light of it, there could be
seen in the chief seat a man, past middle age, tall,
wide-shouldered and thin-flanked, with a short peaked beard
and close-cut grizzled hair; he was high of cheekbones,
thin-faced, with grey eyes, both big and gentle-looking; he
was clad in a green coat welted with gold. Beside him sat a
woman, tall and big-made, but very fair of face, though she
were little younger, belike, than the man. Out from these
two sat four men and four women, man by man and woman by
woman, on either side of the high-seat. Of the said men,
one was of long red hair as David, and like to him in all
wise, but older; the others were of like fashion to him in
the high-seat. Shortly to say it, his sons they were, as
David and the two young men with him. The four women who
sat with these men were all fair and young, and one of them,
she who drank out of the red-head's cup, so fair, and with
such a pleasant slim grace, that her like were not easy to
be found.

Again, to shorten the tale, there in the hall before
Christopher, who lay unwotting, were Jack of the Tofts and
his seven sons, and the four wives of four of the same, whom
they had won from the Wailful Castle, when they, with their
father, put an end to the evil woman, and the great
she-tyrant of the Land betwixt the Wood and the River.

Now when David and his were come up to the dais, they stayed
them, and their father spake from his high-seat and said:
"What is to do, ye three? and what catch have ye?"