H. C. Bailey

“ The King stood up and laid his hand on Eustace's shoulder. “We go together,” he said. “For the rest—stand to your arms, hold out to the end.” He strode to the door and drew the bar and beckoned the women. Slowly, amazed they came, and close behind them Eustace and he marched out on the Welsh spears.
In the misty twilight they saw saffron cloaks clustering and the spear-heads glitter. The girl's mother cried out: “Iestyn! Iestyn! we have trapped their King. See, he follows after me to render himself.” ”

“ The English soldiery might march up and down their valleys and burn every homestead that offered defiance, but till the mountains were laid low there was refuge for every man who dared starvation, and, if they were but a remnant, the rest could go sullenly about their business, yielding no more than they must, and making the English infinite toil and hardship, and promising themselves rebellion at the first chance. Wales was conquered, but no man supposed that it was won, and, least of all men, the king in Carnarvon. ”

“ Halt! We be all friends here. Who strikes, strikes the King.”
Then their captain rode up and saluted. “Orders, sir?” he asked, gruffly.
“Have this fellow in guard, Bertram,” quoth the King, thrusting at Eustace with his foot. He hauled the girl up again, and “Speak for me, mistress,” he said. “I charge you all come to me in Carnarvon on St. Mark's Day. Then shall you see this knave who hath wronged you judged before a Welsh prince. For I will give you a prince that was born in Wales, and can speak no word of English, and he shall rule you according to the ancient laws of Wales.” ”

“ Never since the world began had man or beast fallen into that bog and come out again alive. But this giant had saved his horse and himself. Plainly a giant endued with the mastery of the elements, lord of earth and water and air and fire, a magician to be worshipped like the storm-cloud. Fearing doom for himself and all the little people, came Corb. ”

“ In whose life and conversation you shall find nought of Englishry.”
Whereat the Welsh shouted loud and long, and the monk said: “For such an one they swear to give their lives.”
Then the King took from the captain of his yeomen, Sir Bertram Daylesford, his shield, and on it put his baby son that lay there murmuring softly, and he held the shield with its burden aloft and cried: “Behold your Prince! Here in Carnarvon was he born, and of England he knows nought. I give you mine own son to guard you. Hold him dear and cherish him, Prince of Wales.” ”

“ But in the morning, when sunlight flooded the valley and there was no sound but bird song and the music of the river, he was mighty bold again, and swore the Welsh girl should not escape him. Then said one who had marked his fears, Grey Roger: “Ay, and you swore we should burn the house. But a man grows wise o' nights.”
“I'll leave the nest to lure the birds back,” quoth Eustace. “By sundown we will have them again.” So they rode away.
On that morning the King rode out from Carnarvon with his wolfhounds and his foresters. ”

“ The next moment green sward yielded beneath them with a hollow sucking sound, and the horse neighed in wild terror and plunged, and black slime rose like spray. The King hurled himself from the saddle, and, wriggling on the mire that sucked at him, reached a tussock of rushes, and another and another, and haled himself panting on to solid earth. ”

“ The foresters rode off with blowing of horn and hallooing, but the din of wolves from the caves had made the hounds mad, and they would not be turned. So the foresters thundered after them, falling further and still further behind, while the King rode alone after his quarry.
Once and again he saw the wolf, and then in the combes to northward lost him altogether, and drew rein swearing, and turned to search for the hounds; but they were far away on the slopes above Llyn Padarn. He heard a shout, and rode to it. But that shout came from Corb, who lurked on the hillside above a bog. ”

“ The little man, whom his wife called Corb, went down the valley while twilight fell, and slowly and more slowly, for he would not come near the houses of men who used iron and ate baked bread till nightfall. ”

“ Our stomachs cry manger.” He made some more broken Welsh and signs, and Corb understood him, and, turning, beckoned him on. If this dread magician wanted no more than a meal he could be taken to the homestead of David the maer and left there, while Corb fled away to his cave. ”