til
the foe from the forest looked on him for the last time, for it was
all that he deserved, and I set my seax back in my belt and turned
away to my horse with a great loathing of the man in my mind; and
seeing that, he begged for mercy again most pitiably.

That is a hard thing to hear unmoved, and I stayed and looked at
him again. My first wrath was leaving me as I saw the fullness of
the end of his plans, and I do not think that it is in me to be
utterly revengeful.

"What mercy can you hope from me!" I said coldly.

"None, Thane--none. But let me go hence with you. Better the rope
than these wild beasts. Or slay me now, and swiftly."

"Who, of all your friends, tied you here?" I asked him.

"Howel's men," he answered. "They took my goods at the ford of
Caerau yonder, and so brought me here and left me. That was early
this morning."

"I marvel that you bided in reach of any who might speak with me,"
I said.

"My comrades left me, for fear of that same. I must hire ponies to
get the goods away. I thought you had died on the wild sea that
night."

"It seems to me that this is but justice on you. The goods you have
lost were stolen from honest men. And it were just if I left you
bound as you bound me."

Then the man said slowly: "Ay, it is justice. But will you treat me
even as I treated you, Thane?"

I looked at him in some wonder. The man's face had grown calm,
though it was yet grey and drawn, and this seemed as if he would
own his fault without excuse. I minded that Nona the princess and
her father, ay, and Thorgils, had said that they thought well of
Evan the merchant up till this time.

"Supposing I let you go--What then?" I said.

"First of all, I would tell you somewhat for which you will thank
me, Thane."

"Tell me that first," I said, not altogether believing that he had
anything which could be worth my hearing, but with a full mind now
to let him go.

Plainly, he had some sort of faith in me, or in the worth of what
he had to say, for he began eagerly:

"Thane, when we took you, it was Owen of Cornwall for whom we
waited. We were not minding you at all until we saw that we might
hurt him through you."

"That I suppose. I know that you laid wait for Owen the prince."

"Ay, for you know the Welsh and heard all that we said. But listen,
Thane, this is it. Eight of the friends of Morgan had sworn the
death of Owen that morning, and it was the leader of them who set
us on. He was not the