into his confidence, related to him an anecdote which
had just been told to him by Bladud.

"It will be the death of the king," said Gadarn. "You had better go to
him. He may need your services."

But the king was made of sterner stuff than his friend imagined. He put
strong constraint upon himself, and, being not easily overcome by
feeling--or anything else under the sun--he lived to relate the same
anecdote to his wife and daughter.

The day following, Bladud resumed with the Hebrew the conversation that
had been interrupted by Branwen.

"I was going to have said to you, Beniah, that I want your services very
much."

"You had said that much, prince, before Bran--I mean Cor--that is, the
old woman--interrupted us. How can I serve you?"

"By going back with me to the Hot Swamp and helping to carry out a grand
scheme that I have in my brain."

The Hebrew shook his head.

"I love not your grand schemes," he said, somewhat sternly. "The last
grand scheme that your father had was one which, if successfully carried
out, would have added a large portion of Albion to his dominions, and
would have swept several tribes off the face of the earth. As it was,
the mere effort to carry it out cost the lives of many of the best young
men on both sides, and left hundreds of mothers, wives, sisters, and
children to mourn their irreparable losses, and to wonder what all the
fighting was about. Indeed, there are not a few grey-bearded men who
share that wonder with the women and children, and who cannot, by any
effort of their imagination, see what advantage is gained by either
party when the fight is over."

"These grey-beards must be thick-skulled, then," replied the prince with
a smile, "for does not the victor retain the land which he has
conquered?"

"Yea, truly, and he also retains the tombs of the goodly young men who
have been slain, and also the widows and sweethearts, and the national
loss resulting from the war--for all which the land gained is but a
paltry return. Moreover, if the All-seeing One cared only for the
victors, there might be some understanding of the matter--though at the
cost of justice--but, seeing that He cares for the vanquished quite as
much as for the victorious, the gain on one side is counterbalanced by
the loss on the other side, while the world at large is all the poorer,
first, by the loss of much of its best blood, second, by the creation of
a vast amount of unutterable sorrow and