thus was it that this loke ( for so do the eldar name the worms of melko ) suffered the orcs to slay whom they would and to gather whom they listed into a very great and very sorrowful throng of women , maids , and little children , but all the mighty treasure that they had brought from the rocky halls and heaped glistering in the sun before the doors he coveted for himself and forbade them set finger on it , and they durst not withstand him , nor could they have done so an they would .