bing up the straw and bending it down with
its weight, and had cut off one of the ears of wheat, and had carried it
away, leaving there the stalk, and he saw not a single straw there that
had not a mouse to it. And they all took their way, carrying the ears
with them.

In wrath and anger did he rush upon the mice, but he could no more come
up with them than if they had been gnats, or birds in the air, except one
only, which though it was but sluggish, went so fast that a man on foot
could scarce overtake it. {73} And after this one he went, and he caught
it and put it in his glove, and tied up the opening of the glove with a
string, and kept it with him, and returned to the palace. Then he came
to the hall where Kicva was, and he lighted a fire, and hung the glove by
the string upon a peg. "What hast thou there, lord?" said Kicva. "A
thief," said he, "that I found robbing me." "What kind of thief may it
be, lord, that thou couldst put into thy glove?" said she. "Behold I
will tell thee," he answered. Then he showed her how his fields had been
wasted and destroyed, and how the mice came to the last of the fields in
his sight. "And one of them was less nimble than the rest, and is now in
my glove; to-morrow I will hang it, and before Heaven, if I had them, I
would hang them all." "My lord," said she, "this is marvellous; but yet
it would be unseemly for a man of dignity like thee to be hanging such a
reptile as this. And if thou doest right, thou wilt not meddle with the
creature, but wilt let it go." "Woe betide me," said he, "if I would not
hang them all could I catch them, and such as I have I will hang."
"Verily, lord," said she, "there is no reason that I should succour this
reptile, except to prevent discredit unto thee. Do therefore, lord, as
thou wilt." "If I knew of any cause in the world wherefore thou shouldst
succour it, I would take thy counsel concerning it," said Manawyddan,
"but as I know of none, lady, I am minded to destroy it." "Do so
willingly then," said she.

And then he went to the Gorsedd of Narberth, taking the mouse with him.
And he set up two forks on the highest part of the Gorsedd. And while he
was doing this, behold he saw a scholar coming towards him, in old and
poor and tattered garments. And it was now seven years since he had seen
in that place either man or beast, except those four persons who had
remained together until two of them were lost.

"My lord," said the scho