hat I thought thereof, and that was
little enough beyond what I have said, and at last, when he seemed
to wait for me to ask him more, I put a question that had come into
my mind as I rode, and asked if there might be any chance of Morfed
the priest having a hand in the matter.

And at that the king's frown grew black, and he answered fiercely:

"Morfed, the mad priest?--Ay, why had not I thought of him before?
Look you, Oswald, into my hall of justice he came, barefoot and
ragged from his wanderings, but a few days before Owen left me; and
before all the folk, high and low, who were gathered there he cried
out on all those who spoke for peace with the men who owned the
rule of Canterbury, and who held traffic with the Saxon who has
taken our lands. And Owen was for speaking him fair, seeing that he
was crazed, but I bade him be silent, telling the priest that what
was lost is lost, and there needed no more said thereof; and that
if the men of Austin and we differed it was not the part of
Christian men to make the difference wider, even as Owen and
Aldhelm were wont to say. And at that he raved, and threatened to
lay the heaviest ban of the Church on Owen, and on all who held
with him, and so he was taken from my presence, and I have seen him
no more. But he was a friend of Morgan."

"That is the priest who was with Dunwal, surely," Howel said.

"The same," I answered--"and I was warned of him," and I looked
toward the princess, and she smiled a little and flushed.

"I mind how he glared at Oswald across my table," Howel said. "But
one need fear little from him, as I think. Who will heed a crazy
priest?"

"Many," answered Gerent. "The more because they deem him inspired.
I will have him taken and brought to me."

There fell a little uneasy silence after that outburst of the
king's, but I felt that I had not yet heard all that they would
tell me. So we waited for the old king to speak, and at last he
turned suddenly to the princess, setting his thin white hand on her
shoulder, and said:

"Now tell Oswald what foolishness brought you here, Nona, daughter
of Howel, that he may say what he thinks thereof."

"Maybe he also will think it foolishness, King Gerent," she said in
her low clear voice. "But however that may be, I will tell him, for
in what I have to say may be help. I cannot tell, but because it
might be so I begged my father to bring me hither. It was all that
I could do for my godfather."

There was