in
my haste in the old days, and bitterly have I been punished. I pray
you forgive."

Then Owen rose, and it seemed to me that on the king the weight of
years had fallen suddenly, so that he had grown weak and needful of
the strong arm of the steadfast prince who stood before him, and I
took the arm of the steward and pulled him unresisting through the
doorway, so that what greeting those two might have for one another
should be their own.

Then said the steward to me as we looked at one another:

"This is the best day for us all that has been since the prince who
has come back left us. There will be joy through all Cornwall."

But I knew that what I dreaded had come to pass, and that from
henceforth the way of the prince of Cornwall and of the house-carle
captain of Ina's court must lie apart, and I had no answer for him.

CHAPTER V. HOW OSWALD FELL INTO BAD HANDS, AND FARED EVILLY, ON THE
QUANTOCKS.

It would be long for me to tell how presently Owen called me in to
speak with the king, and how he owned me as his foster son in such
wise that Gerent smiled on him, and spoke most kindly to me as
though I had indeed been a kinsman of his own. And then, after we
had spoken long together, Thorgils was sent for, and he told the
tale of the end of Morgan plainly and in few words, yet in such
skilful wise that as he spoke I could seem to see once more our
hall and myself and Elfrida at the dais, even as though I were an
onlooker.

"You are a skilful tale teller," the king said when he ended. "You
are one of the Norsemen from Watchet, as I am told."

"I am Thorgils the shipmaster, who came to speak with you two years
ago, when we first came here. Men say that I am no bad sagaman."

"This is a good day for me," Gerent said, "and I will reward you
for your tale. Free shall the ship of Thorgils be from toil or
harbourage in all ports of our land from henceforward. I will see
that it is known."

"That is a good gift, Lord King," said the Norseman, and he thanked
Gerent well and heartily, and so went his way back to the guest
chambers with a glad heart.

Then Gerent said gravely:

"I suppose that there are men who would call all these things the
work of chance or fate. But it is fitting that vengeance on him who
wronged you should come from the hand of one whom you have cared
for. That has not come by chance; but I think it will be well that
it is not known here just at first whose was the hand that slew
Mo