ard how Owen, my foster father, was indeed a prince of the
old Cornish line that came from Arthur, and how his cousins, Morgan
and Dewi, had plotted to oust him from his place at the right hand
of Gerent the king, and had succeeded only too well, so that he had
had to fly. It matters not what their lies concerning him had been,
nor do I think that Owen knew all that had been said against him,
but Gerent had banished him, and so he had wandered to Mercia, and
thence after a year or two to Sussex, having heard of the Irish
monks of the old Western Church at Bosham. So he had met with me,
and thus he and I had come to Ina's court together.

And as I heard all, I knew that it had been for my sake that he was
content to serve as a simple forester at Eastdean, for Ina told me
that across the Severn among the other princes of the old Welsh
lands he would have been more than welcome. I could say nothing,
but I set my hand on his and left it there, and he smiled at me,
and grasped it.

"And now," said Ina, "your hand has in some sort avenged the old
wrong, for you have brought about the end of Morgan, who was Owen's
foe. But this is a matter we need to hear more concerning. Do you
bring us that stranger that he may tell us what he knows."

I went to the hall again, and found him easily enough, for all men
were looking at him. He was in the midst of the hall, juggling in
marvellous wise with a heavy woodman's axe, which he played with as
if it were a straw for lightness. Even as I entered from the door
on the high place he was whirling it for a mighty stroke which
seemed meant to cleave a horn cup which he had set on a stool
before him, and I wondered. But he stayed the stroke as suddenly as
if his great arms had been turned to steel, so that the axe edge
rested on the rim of the vessel without so much as notching it, and
at that all the onlookers cheered him.

"Now it may be known," said he, smiling broadly, "why men call me
Thorgils the axeman."

Then he threw the unhandy weapon into the air whirling, and caught
it as it came to hand again, so that it balanced on his palm, and
so he held it as I went to him, and told him the king would speak
with him.

Whereon he threw the axe at the doorpost, so that it stuck there,
and laughed at the new shout of applause, and so turned down his
sleeves and bade me lead him where I would.

He made a stiff, outlandish salute as he stood before Ina, and the
king returned it.

"I hav