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Page 434
his witch-woman's name as a talisman. However, Siorl had hardly expected the appearance of the witch herself in answer.
"Get her a horse, and get her out of here!" Simon roared.
"What about my men?" Rhiannon cried.
"Any Welsh prisoner will be freed," Simon replied, then turned to order Echtor to strip de Guisnes's tent and found Rhiannon was gone. "Rhiannon!" he bellowed.
"I am getting Math," she shouted back.
She was not far, but he could hardly hear her. The whole camp was a bedlam as Bassett with Pembroke's troops poured into it. The confusion was indescribable, for Henry's whole army had been caught sleeping, unarmed and unprepared, and was now in a state of total panic. Here and there a captain would try to organize his men to resist, but by specific instructions he would be struck down as the first target. The few knights and barons were being immobilized by the simple expedient of cutting their tents down around them, extracting them half-smothered, and rendering them unconscious.
The common men-at-arms were being rounded up and put to work at loading everything movable on carts and pack animals and driving them out. Welsh guards with arrows nocked to their bows patrolled up and down the line of carts. The pack animals were fastened together in long trains, each led by a single trustworthy man.
As Rhiannon came back around the side of the tent, Ewyn came up with a cart, and Echtor drove forward some dazed, bloodied, and half-naked Flemish mercenaries, who promptly fell on their knees, thinking they had been brought before Simon for judging. They could not, of course, understand a word Echtor said to them.
"Get up," Simon said in French, "and load the goods

 
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