“Dromas!” cried Bladud, “can it be? Am I dreaming?”
“This is all very well,” interrupted the impatient Gadarn, “and I have no doubt you are excellent friends though somewhat demonstrative, but we are holding a council of war—not of affection—and as the enemy may be close at hand it behoves us to be smart. Shake hands, Gunrig; you and I must be friends when we fight on the same side. Now, let us to work. Who is to have the chief command?”
By universal desire the council appointed Gadarn.
“Well, then,” said the commander-in-chief, “this is my view: Addedomar will come expecting to find us all asleep. He will find us all very wide awake. There is a slope in front of this camp leading down to the Swamp. At the bottom is a nice level piece of flat land, bordering on the Swamp, that seems just made for a battlefield. We will drive him and his men down the slope on to that flat, from which, after giving them the toothache, we will drive them into the Swamp, and as close up to the spring-head as we can, so that they may be half boiled alive, if possible. Those who escape the Swamp will find men ambushed on the other side who will drive them into the river. Those who escape the river may go home and take my blessing along with them.”
“Then do you intend to divide our troops into two bodies?” asked Bladud.
“Of course I do. We can’t have an ambush without dividing, can we?”
“Division means weakness,” observed Gunrig.
“You were ever obstinate, Gunrig,” said Gadarn, sharply.
“Division sometimes means strength,” said Dromas in a conciliatory tone, for he was anxious at least to prevent division in the council. “As Addedomar is ignorant of the strength of our force, his being attacked unexpectedly, and in the dark, by two or three bands at once, from different quarters, will do much to demoralise his men and throw them into confusion.”
“Right, my young friend,” rejoined Gadarn; “though you do speak in the tones of one who has been born under other stars, there is sense in your head. That is the very thing I mean to do. We will divide into four bands. I will keep the biggest at the camp to drive them down the slope and begin the fight. Prince Bladud will take one detachment round through the woods to the river and fall upon them from that side. Gunrig, who I know loves the post of danger, will go down between the two mounds and meet the enemy right in the teeth when they are being driven out upon the flat land, and Dromas, as he seems to be a knowing man, might take the ambush on the other side of the Swamp.”