hane whose daughter was in our hands last night
with you."

"Ill?" said I; "is he much hurt?"

"There had been a bit of a fight before we took him. One smote him
on the helm, and he was stunned. Thereafter he came to himself, and
again fell ill. He will mend, for it is naught."

"But where is he?"

"We have many camps, and I cannot tell you. You are a stranger.
But, says Jefan the prince, an you will come to him I am to guide
you."

Now I was in doubt indeed, for this was a dangerous errand. The man
saw that I hesitated, and smiled at me.

"Wise is our prince," he said. "He knew that you would fear to
come, therefore he bade me say that you were to mind that once he
had you, and set you free, and that he does not go back on his
doings, save he must. He has no enmity for the friends of the slain
king, but a great hatred for him who slew him."

"Would he not let Sighard the thane come to Fernlea, where his
daughter is?"

"Truly, if you will. But it is safer for you to come to him. There
Jefan will have all care for all of you until he may send you home.
It is told him that Quendritha has sworn the death of four men--of
the thane who rides the great pied horse, of his housecarl, of
Sighard of Anglia, and of Witred of Bradley, who helped the
Anglians to escape."

"How knows he all this? It is more than I have heard--if I have
guessed some of it."

The man shrugged his shoulders.

"Thane," he said, with a sidewise smile, "a man who is thrall to a
Mercian may yet be a Briton. The Saxon may make a slave of his
body, but his heart will be free."

Now I was the more sure that this Welsh prince had some good source
of knowledge of what went on inside the palace, and I thought that
mayhap he was right. Across the Welsh border might indeed be the
safest place for any man who had brought the wrath of the queen on
him. I would go to Sighard, and take Hilda with me. One thing I was
fairly glad of, and that was that so far as I knew none in all the
court of Offa had heard who my folk in Wessex were, else there
might be trouble for them; for Quendritha's daughter was not unlike
her mother, if all I heard was true.

"Meet me tonight, then," I said. "I will go to Jefan, and will
bring the lady."

"You do well," he answered gravely. "I will meet you somewhere on
the westward track, a mile from Fernlea ford. You shall but ride on
till I come. You shall choose your own time, for I cannot tell what
may stay you. I have n