Chapter Twelve. I t was well past noon when Torsten againproduced his prisoner, chained and humbled and choked with spleen,before Otir

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I t was well past noon when Torsten againproduced his prisoner, chained and humbled and choked with spleen,before Otir. Cadwaladr’s handsome lips were grimly set, andhis black eyes burning with rage all the more bitter for beingunder iron control. For all his protestations, he knew as well asany that Owain would not now relent from the position he had takenup. The time for empty hopes was past, and reality had engulfed himand brought him to bay. There was no point in holding out, sinceeventual submission was inevitable.

“He has a word for you,” said Torsten, grinning.“He has no appetite for living in chains.”

“Let him speak for himself,” said Otir. “Iwill pay you your two thousand marks,” said Cadwaladr. Hisvoice came thinly through gritted teeth, but he had himself well inhand. “You leave me no choice, since my brother uses meunbrotherly.” And he added, testing such shallows as wereleft to him in this flood of misfortune: “You will have toallow me a few days at liberty to have such a mass of goods andgear collected together, for it cannot all be in silver.”

That brought a gust of throaty laughter from Torsten, and anemphatic jerk of the head from Otir. “Oh, no, my friend! I amnot such a fool as to trust you yet again. You do not stir one stepout of here, nor shed your fetters, until my ships are loading andready for sea.”

“How, then, do you propose I should effect this matter ofransom?” demanded Cadwaladr with a savage snarl. “Doyou expect my stewards to render up my cattle to you, and my purse,simply at your orders?”

“I will use an agent I can trust,” said Otir,unperturbed now by any flash of anger or defiance from a man socompletely in his power. “If, that is, he will act for youeven in this affair. That he approves it we already know, youbetter than any of us. What you will do, before I let you looseeven within my guard, is to render up your small seal—I knowyou have it about you, you would not stir without it—and giveme a message so worded that your brother will know it could comeonly from you. I will deal with a man I can trust, no matter howthings stand between us, friend or enemy. Owain Gwynedd, if he willnot buy you out of bondage, will not stint to welcome the news thatyou intend to pay your debts honorably, nor refuse you his aid tosee due reparation made. Owain Gwynedd shall do the accountingbetween you and me.”

“He will not do it!” flared Cadwaladr, stung.“Why should he believe that I have given you my seal of myown will, when you could as well have stripped me and taken it fromme? No matter what message I might send, how can he trust, how canhe be sure that I send it of my own free will, and not wrung fromme with your dagger at my throat, under the threat ofdeath?”

“He knows me by now well enough,” said Otir drily,“to know that I am not so foolish as to destroy what can andshall be profitable to me. But if you doubt it, very well, we willsend him one he will trust, and the man shall take due orders fromyou in your very person, and bear witness to Owain that he has sotaken them, and that he saw you whole and in your right mind. Owainwill know truth by the bearer of it. I doubt he can take pleasurein the sight of you, not yet. But he’ll so far prove yourbrother as to put together your price in haste, once he knowsyou’ve chosen to honor your debts. He wants me gone, and go Iwill when I have what I came for, and he may have you back andwelcome.”

“You have not such a man in your muster,” saidCadwaladr with a curling lip. “Why should he trust any man ofyours?”

“Ah, but I have! No man of mine, nor of Owain’s, norof yours, his service falls within quite another writ. One thatoffered himself freely as guarantor for your safe return when youleft here to go and parley with your brother. Yes, and one that youleft to his fate and my better sense when you tossed your defiancein my face and turned tail for your life back to a brother whodespised you for it.” Otir watched the prince’s darkface flame into scarlet, and took dour satisfaction in having stunghim.

“Hostage for you he was, out of goodwill, and now you arereturned indeed, though in every manner of ill will, and I have nolonger any claim to keep him here. And he’s the man shall goas your envoy to Owain, and in your name bid him plunder such meansand valuables as you have left, and bring your ransom here.”He turned to Torsten, who had stood waiting in high and obviouscontent through these exchanges. “Go and find that youngdeacon from Lichfield, the bishop’s lad, Mark, and ask him tocome here to me.”

Mark was with Brother Cadfael when the wordreached him, gathering dry and fallen twigs for their fire fromamong the stunted trees along the ridge. He straightened up withhis load gathered into the fold of a wide sleeve, and stared at themessenger in mild surprise, but without any trace of alarm. Inthese few days of nominal captivity he had never felt himself acaptive, or in any danger or distress, but neither had he eversupposed that he was of any particular interest or consequence tohis captors beyond what bargaining value his small body mighthave.

Like a curious child he asked, wide-eyed: “What can yourcaptain want with me?”

“No harm,” said Cadfael. “For all I can see,these Irish Danes have more of the Irish than the Dane in themafter all this time. Otir strikes me as Christian as most thathabit in England or Wales, and a good deal more Christian thansome.”

“He has a thing for you to do,” said Torsten,goodnaturedly grinning, “that comes as a benefit to us all.Come and hear it for yourself.”

Mark piled his gathered fuel close to the hearth they had madefor themselves of stones in their sheltered hollow of sand, andfollowed Torsten curiously to Otir’s open tent. At the sightof Cadwaladr, rigidly erect in his chains and taut as a bowstring,Mark checked and drew breath, astonished. It was the firstintimation he had had that the turbulent fugitive was back withinthe encampment, and to see him here fettered and at bay wasbaffling. He looked from captive to captor, and saw Otir grimlysmiling and obviously in high content. Fortune was busy overturningall things for sport.

“You sent for me,” said Mark simply. “I amhere.”

Otir surveyed with an indulgent eye and some surprisingly gentleamusement this slight youth, who spoke here for a Church that Welshand Irish and the Danes of Dublin all alike acknowledged. Some day,when a few more years had passed, he might even have to call thisboy ‘Father’! ‘Brother’ he might call himalready.

“As you see,” said Otir, “the lord Cadwaladr,for whom you stood guarantor that he should go and come againwithout hindrance, has come back to us. His return sets you free toleave us. If you will do an errand for him to his brother OwainGwynedd, you will be doing a good deed for him and for usall.”

“You must tell me what that is,” said Mark.“But I have not felt myself deprived of my freedom here. Ihave no complaint.”

“The lord Cadwaladr will tell you himself,” saidOtir, and his satisfied smile broadened. “He has declaredhimself ready to pay the two thousand marks he promised to us forcoming to Abermenai with him. He desires to send word to hisbrother how this is to be done. He will tell you.”

Mark regarded with some doubt Cadwaladr’s set face anddarkly smoldering eyes. “Is this true?”

“It is.” The voice was strong and clear, if itgrated a little. Since there was no help for it, Cadwaladr acceptednecessity, if not with grace, at least with the recovered remnantof his dignity. “I am required to pay for my freedom. Verywell, I choose to pay.”

“It is truly your own choice?” Mark wondereddoubtfully.

“It is. Beyond what you see, I am not threatened. But I amnot free until the ransom is paid, and the ships loaded for sea,and therefore I cannot go myself to see my cattle rounded up anddriven, nor draw on my treasury for the balance. I want my brotherto manage all for me, and as quickly as may be. I will send him myauthority by you, and my seal by way of proof.”

“If it is what you wish,” said Mark, “yes, Iwill bear your message.”

“It is what I wish. If you tell him you had it from my ownlips, he will believe you.” His lips at that moment weredrawn thin with the hard-learned effort to keep the bitterness andfury caged within, but his mind was made up. There could berevenges later, there could be another repayment to be made inrequital of this one, but now what he needed was his freedom. Heslid out his private seal from a pocket in his sleeve, and held itout, not to Otir, who sat watching with a glittering grin, but toMark. “Take my brother this, tell him you had it from myhand, and ask him to hasten what I need.”

“I will, faithfully,” said Mark.

“Then ask him for my sake to send to Llanbadarn, to RhodriFychan, who was my steward, and will be my steward again if ever Iregain what is mine. What is left of my treasury he will know whereto find, and at my orders, witnessed by my seal, he will deliver itover. If the sum is not enough, what is lacking must be made up incattle. Rhodri knows where my stock are bestowed in safe charge.There are still herds kept for me, more than enough. Two thousandmarks is the sum. Ask my brother to make haste.”

“I will,” said Mark simply, and began by himselfmaking all haste. It was he who took an ambassador’s leave ofthem, rather than acknowledging his own dismissal from Otir’spresence. A brisk reverence and a brief farewell, and he wasalready on his way, and for some reason the space within the tentand about it looked curiously empty by the removal of his small,slight figure.

He went on foot; the distance was barely more than a mile.Within the half hour he would be delivering his message to OwainGwynedd, and setting in motion the events which were to restoreCadwaladr his freedom, if not his lands, and remove from Gwyneddthe threat of war, and the oppressive presence of an alienarmy.

The only pause he made before leaving was to impart to Cadfaelthe errand on which he was sent.

Brother Cadfael came very thoughtfully to whereHeledd was stirring the sleeping fire in the stone hearth, toprepare food for the evening meal. His mind was full of what he hadjust learned, but he could not help remarking how well this vagrantlife in a military camp suited her. She had taken the sungraciously, her skin was a golden bronze, with an olive bloom uponit, suave and infinitely becoming to her dark hair and eyes, andthe rich red of her mouth. She had never in her life been so freeas she was now in her captivity. The gloss of it was about her likecloth of gold, and it mattered not at all that her sleeve was torn,and the hem of her gown soiled and frayed.

There’s news that could be good for us all,” saidCadfael, watching her neat movements with pleasure. “Not onlydid Turcaill come back safely from his midnight foray, it seems hebrought back Cadwaladr with him.”

“I know,” said Heledd, and stilled her busy handsfor a moment, and stared into the fire and smiled. “I sawthem come back, before dawn.”

“And you never said word?” But no, she would not,not yet, not to anyone. That would be to reveal more than she wasyet ready to reveal. How could she say that she had risen beforethe sun, to watch for the little ship’s safe return?“I’ve scarcely seen you today. No harm had come ofwhatever they were up to, that was all that mattered. Why, whatfollows? How is it so good for us all?”

“Why, the man has come to his senses, and agreed to paythese Danes what he promised them. Mark has just been sent off tocommission Owain, in his brother’s name, and with hisbrother’s seal for surety, to collect and pay his ransom.Otir will take it and go, and leave Gwynedd in peace.”

Now she had indeed turned to pay due attention to what he wassaying, with raised brows and sharply arrested hands. “He hasgiven in? Already? He will pay?”

“I have it from Mark, and Mark is already on his way.Nothing could be surer.”

“And they will go!” she said, a mere murmur withinher still lips. She drew up her knees and folded her arms aboutthem, and sat gazing before her, neither smiling nor frowning, onlycoolly and resolutely assessing these changed prospects for goodand evil. “How long, do you think, Cadfael, it will take tobring cattle up here by the drove roads from Ceredigion?”

“Three days at the least,” said Cadfael, and watchedher put away that factor in the methodical recesses of her mind, tobe kept in the reckoning.

“Three days at the most, then,” she said, “forOwain will make all haste to be rid of them.”

“And you will be glad to be free,” said Cadfael,probing gently into regions where truth had at least two faces, andhe could not be sure which one was turned towards him, and whichwas turned away.

“Yes,” she said, “I shall be glad!” Andshe looked beyond him into the grey-blue, shifting surface of thesea, and smiled.

Gwion had reached the guard-post, the same bywhich his lord had been abducted, without hindrance, and was in thevery act of stepping over the threshold when the guard barred hisway with a braced lance, and challenged him sharply: “Are notyou Gwion, Cadwaladr’s liegeman?”

Gwion owned to it, bewildered rather than alarmed. No doubt theywere keeping a closer watch on this gate, after last night’sincursion, and this sentry did not know Owain’s mind, and hadno intention of incurring blame by allowing either entry or exitunquestioned. “I am. The prince has given me leave to stay orgo, as I choose. Ask Cuhelyn. He will tell you so.”

“I have later news for you,” said the guard,unmoving. “For the prince has only a short while since askedthat you be sought, if you were still within the pale, and sentback to him.”

“I never knew him change his mind in such afashion,” protested Gwion distrustfully. “He made itplain he set no store on me, and did not care a pin whether Istayed or departed. Nor whether I lived or died, for thatmatter.”

“Nevertheless, it seems he has a use for you yet. No harm,if he never threatened any. Go and see. He wants you. I know nomore than that.”

There was no help for it. Gwion turned back towards the squatroof of the farmstead, his mind a turmoil of unprofitablespeculations. Owain could not possibly have got wind of what wasstill at best only a vague intent, hardly a plan at all, though hehad spent a long time with Ieuan ab Ifor over the detail of numbersand means, and all that Ieuan had gathered concerning the layout ofthe Danish camp. Too long a time, as it now appeared. He shouldhave left at once, before there could be any question of detaininghim. By this time he could have dispatched his groom south to bringup the promised force, and been back within the stockade herebefore ever he was missed. Planning could have waited. Now it wastoo late, he was trapped. Yet nothing was quite lost. Owain couldnot know. No one knew but Gwion himself and Ieuan, and Ieuan hadnot yet spoken a word to any of those stalwarts he knew of whowould welcome a venture. That recruitment was still to come. Thenwhat Owain wanted of him could have nothing to do with theirhalf-formed enterprise.

He was still feverishly recording and discarding possibilitieswhen he entered the low-beamed hall of the farm, and made his stiffand wary reverence to the prince across the rough trestletable.

Hywel was there, close at his father’s shoulder, and twomore of the prince’s trusted captains stood a little apart,witnesses in some business which remained inexplicable to Gwion.For the only other person in the room was the meager little deaconfrom Lichfield, in his rusty black habit, his spiky ring ofstraw-colored hair growing stubbornly every way, his grey eyes asalways wide, direct and tranquil. They looked at Gwion, and Gwionturned his head away, as though he feared they might see too deeplyinto his mind if he met them fully. He found even the benevolentregard of such eyes unnerving. But what could this little clerichave to do with any matter between Owain and Cadwaladr and theDanish interlopers? Yet if the business in hand here was somethingentirely different, what could it have to do with him, and whatneed to recall him?

“It’s well that you have not left us, Gwion,”said Owain, “for after all there is a thing you can do forme, and therewith also for your lord.”

“That I would certainly do, and gladly,” said Gwion,but as yet withholding belief.

“Deacon Mark here is newly come from Otir the Dane,”said the prince, “who holds my brother and your lordprisoner. He has brought word from Cadwaladr that he has agreed topay the sum he promised, and buy himself out of debt and out ofbondage.”

“I cannot believe it!” said Gwion, blanched to thelips with shock. “I will not believe it, unless I hear himsay so, freely and openly.”

“Then you and I are of one mind,” said Owain drily,“for I also had hardly expected him to see sense so soon. Youhave good cause to know my mind in this matter. I would rather mybrother should be a man of his word, and pay what he promises. Butneither would I accept from another mouth the instruction that willbeggar him. Otir deals fairly. From my brother’s mouth youcannot hear his will made plain, he will not be free until his debtis paid. But you may hear it from Brother Mark, who received it intrust from him, and will testify that he spoke it firmly and withintent, being whole of his body and in his right mind.”

“I do so testify,” said Mark. “He has beenprisoner only this one day. He is fettered, but further than thatno hand has been laid on him, and no threat made against his bodyor his life. He says so, and I believe it, as no violence has everbeen offered to me or to those others hostage with the Danes. Hetold me what was to be done. And he delivered to me with his ownhand his seal, as authority for the deed, and I have delivered itto the prince, according to Cadwaladr’s orders.”

“And the purport of his message? Be kind enough to repeatit,” the prince requested courteously. “I would nothave Gwion fear that I have in any degree prompted you, or puttwisted words into your mouth.”

“Cadwaladr entreats the lord Owain, his brother,”said Mark, fixing his dauntingly clear eyes upon Gwion’sface, “to send with all haste into Llanbadarn, to RhodriFychan, who was his steward, and who knows where his remainingtreasury is bestowed, and to tell him that his lord requires thedispatch to Abermenai of money and stock to the value of twothousand marks, to be delivered to the Danish force under Otir, aspromised to them at the agreement in Dublin. And to that end he hassent his seal for guarantee.”

There was a long silence after the clear, mild voice ended thisrecital, while Gwion stood motionless and mute, struggling with thefury of denial and despair and anger within him. It was notpossible that so proud and intolerant a soul as Cadwaladr shouldhave submitted, and so quickly. And yet men, even the most arrogantand hot-headed of men, do value their lives and liberty high, andwill buy them back even with humiliation and shame when the threatcomes close, and congeals from imagination into reality. But firstto dare defy and discard his Danes, and then to grovel to them andscrape together their price in undignified haste—that wasunworthy. Had he but waited a few days, there should have beenanother ending. His own men were so near, and would not have lethim lie in chains for long, even if brother and all had desertedhim. God, let me have two days yet, prayed Gwion behind his dark,closed face, and I will fetch him off by force, and he shall calloff his bailiffs and take back his property, and be Cadwaladragain, erect as he always was.

“This charge,” Owain was saying, somewhere at theextreme edge of Gwion’s consciousness, a voice from thedistance, or from deep within, “I intend to fulfill with allhaste, as he asks, the quicker to redeem his person together withhis good name. My son Hywel rides south at once. But since you arehere, Gwion, and all your heart’s concern is his service, youshall ride with Hywel’s escort, and your presence will be afurther guarantee to Rhodri Fychan that this is indeedCadwaladr’s voice speaking, and those who serve him are boundto obey. Will you go?”

“I will go.”

What else could he say? It was already decreed. It was anotherway of discarding him, but with a sop to his implacable loyalty. Inthe name of that loyalty he must now assist in stripping his lordof a great part of what possessions remained to him, when only ashort while ago he had been in high heart, setting out to bring anarmy to Cadwaladr’s rescue, without this ignominy and loss.But: “I will go,” said Gwion, swallowing necessitywhole. There might still be an opportunity to make contact with hiswaiting muster, before ever the Danish ships loaded and raisedanchor with their booty, and sailed in triumph for Dublin.

They set out within the hour, Hywel ab Owain, Gwion, and anescort of ten men-at-arms, well-mounted, and with authority tocommandeer fresh remounts along the way. Whatever Owain’sfeelings now towards his brother, he did not intend him to remainlong a prisoner—or, perhaps a defaulting debtor. There was noknowing which of the two mattered more.

The three days predicted by Cadfael passed inbrisk activity elsewhere, but in the two opposed camps they draggedand were drawn out long, like a held breath. Even the watch keptupon the stockades grew a shade lax, expecting no attack now thatthe issue was near its resolution without the need of fighting.Only Ieuan ab Ifor still fretted at the waiting, and bore in mindalways that such negotiations might collapse in failure, prisonersremain prisoners, debts unpaid, marriages delayed beyond bearing.And as the hours passed he spoke privately to this one and that oneamong his younger and more headstrong friends, rehearsed for themthe safe passage he had made twice by night at low tide along theshingle and sand to spy out the Danish defences, and how there wasa place where approach from the sea was possible in reasonablecover of scrub and trees. Cadwaladr might have submitted, but theseyoung hot-heads of Wales had not. Bitterly they resented it thatinvaders from Ireland should not only sail home without losses, buteven with a very substantial profit to show for their incursion.But was it not already too late, now that it was known Hywel hadgone south with orders to bring back and pay over the sum Otirdemanded and Cadwaladr had conceded?

By no means, said Ieuan. For Gwion was gone with them, andsomewhere between here and Ceredigion Gwion had brought up ahundred men who would fight for Cadwaladr. None of these hadconsented to let his lord be plundered of two thousand marks, or bemade to grovel before the Dane. They would not stomach it, even ifCadwaladr had been brought so low as to submit to it. Ieuan hadspoken with Gwion before he left in Hywel’s party. On the waysouth, if chance offered, he would break away from his companionsand go to join his waiting warriors. On the way north again, if hewas watched too suspiciously on the way south, even Hywel would becontent with him for his part in dealing with Rhodri Fychan atLlanbadarn, and no one would be paying too much heed to what hedid. Somewhere along the drove roads he could break away and rideahead. One dark night was all they would need, with the tide outand their numbers thus reinforced, and Heledd and Cadwaladr wouldbe snatched out of bondage, and Otir could take to the seas for hislife, and go back empty-handed to Dublin.

There were not wanting a number of wild young men inOwain’s following whose instincts leaned rather to fightingout every issue to a bloody conclusion than to manipulating a wayout of impasse without loss of life. There were a few who saidopenly that Owain was wrong to abandon his brother to pay his duesalone. Oaths were meant to be kept, yes, but the tensions of bloodand kinship could put even oaths out of mind. So they listened, andthe thought of bursting in through the Danish fences, sweeping Otirand his men into their ships at the edge of the sword and drivingthem out to sea began to have a powerful appeal. They were weary ofsitting here inactive day after day. Where was the glory inbargaining a way out of danger with money and compromise?

The image of Heledd burned in Ieuan’s memory, the darkgirl poised against the sky on a hillock of the dunes. Twice he hadseen her there, watched the long, lissome stride and the proudlycarried head. She had a fiery grace even in stillness. And he couldnot believe, he could not convince himself, that such a woman, onealone in a camp full of men, could continue to the end unviolated,uncoveted. It was against mortal nature. Whatever Otir’sauthority, someone would defy it. And now his most haunting fearwas that when they had loaded their plunder, so tamely surrendered, and were raising anchor to sail for home, they would carry Heleddaway with them, as they had carried many a Welsh woman in the past,to be slave to some Dublin Dane for the rest of her life.

He would not have bestirred himself as he did for Cadwaladr, towhom he owed nothing but ill. But for sheer hostility to theinvaders, and for the recovery of Heledd, he would have dared theassault with only his own small band of like-minded heroes, if needarose. But better far if Gwion could return in time with hishundred. So for the first day, and the second, Ieuan waited witharduous patience, and kept watch southward for any sign.

In Otir’s camp the days of waiting passed slowly butconfidently, perhaps too confidently, for there was certainly somerelaxation of the strict watch they had kept. The square-riggedcargo ships, with their central wells ready for loading, werebrought inshore, to be easily beached when the time came, and onlythe small, fast dragon-boats remained within the enclosedharborage. Otir had no reason to doubt Owain’s good faith,and as an earnest of his own had removed Cadwaladr’s chains,though Torsten stayed attentive at the prisoner’s elbow,ready for any rash move. Cadwaladr they did not trust, they knewhim now too well.

Cadfael watched the passing of the hours and kept an open mind.There was still room for things to go wrong, though there seemed noparticular reason why they should do so. It was simply that whentwo armed bands were brought together so closely in confrontation,it needed only a spark to set light to the otherwise dormanthostility between them. Waiting could make even the stillness seemominous, and he missed Mark’s serene company. What engagedhis attention most during this interlude was the behavior ofHeledd. She went about the simple routine she had devised here forher living without apparent impatience or anticipation, as ifeverything was predetermined, and already accepted, and there wasnothing for her to do about any part of it, and nothing in iteither to delight or trouble her. She was, perhaps, more silentthan usual, but with no implication of tension or distress, ratheras if words would be wasted on matters already assured. It mighthave suggested nothing better than resignation to a fate she couldnot influence, but there was no change in the summer gloss that hadturned her comeliness into beauty, or the deep, burnished luster ofher iris eyes as they surveyed the ribbon of the shingle beach, andthe swaying of the ships offshore under the urging of the changingtides. Cadfael did not follow her too assiduously, nor watch hertoo closely. If she had secrets, he did not want to know them. Ifshe wanted to confide, she would. If there was anything she neededfrom him, she would demand it. And of her safety here he wasassured. All these restless young men wanted now was to load theirships and take their profits home to Dublin, well out of anengagement that might have ended in disaster, given sodoubled-edged a partner. Thus in either camp the second day drew toa close.

Faced with the authority of Hywel ab Owain, thegrudging and stiff-necked testimony, of Gwion, who so clearly hatedhaving to admit his lord’s capitulation, and holdingCadwaladr’s seal in his hand, Rhodri Fychan on his own landsin Ceredigion found no reason to question further the instructionshe was given. He accepted with a shrug the necessity, and deliveredto Hywel the greater part of the two thousand marks in coin. Itmade some heavy loads for a number of sumpter horses which werelikewise contributed as part of the ransom price. And the rest, hesaid resignedly, could be rounded up from grazing land close to thenorthern border of Ceredigion, near the crossing into Gwynedd, inCadwaladr’s swart, sturdy cattle, moved there when this sameHywel drove him out of his castle and fired it after him, more thana year ago. His own herdsmen had grazed them there on his behalfever since he had been driven out.

It was at Gwion’s own suggestion that he was commissionedto ride northward again ahead of his companions, and get this herdof cattle, slow-moving as they would be, in motion towardsAbermenai at once. The horsemen would easily overtake them afterthey had loaded the silver, and no time would be wasted on thereturn journey. A groom of Rhodri’s household rode with him,glad of the outing, to bear witness that they had the authority ofCadwaladr himself, through his steward, to cut out some threehundred head of cattle from his herds and drive them northward.

It was all and more than he could have hoped for. Travellingsouth he had had no opportunity to withdraw himself or make anypreparation for his escape. Now with his face to the north againeverything fell into his hand. Once he had set out across theborder of Gwynedd, with herd and drovers in brisk motion behindhim, nothing could have been easier than to detach himself and rideahead, on the pretext of giving due notice to Otir to prepare hisships to receive them, and leave them to follow to Abermenai at thebest speed they could make.

It was the morning of the second day, very early, when he setforth, and evening when he reached the camp where he had left hishundred like-minded companions living off the country about them,and by this little more popular with their neighbors than suchroving armies usually are, and themselves glad to be on the moveagain.

It seemed wise to wait until morning before marching. They layin a sheltered place in open woodland, aside from the roads. Onemore night spent here, and they could be on their way with thefirst light, for from now on they could move only at a fast footpace, and even by forced marches foot soldiers cannot outpace thehorsemen. Cadwaladr’s drovers must rest their traveling herdovernight, there was no fear of being overtaken by them. Gwionslept his few hours with a mind content that he had done all a mancould do.

In the night, on the highroad half a mile from their camp, Hyweland his mounted escort passed by.

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