met him on the wharf; but he was glad to see him
there.

"Faith," he said, "it has been a trouble to me that a man whom I
was wont to trust had turned out so ill. It shook my own belief in
my better judgment. I did think I knew a man when I saw him, until
then. So I was not far wrong after all. Now I will make a new song
of his deeds, and I do not think it will be a bad one."

Then it came to pass that one day, when the wind blew fair for
Tenby, I saw the ship draw away from me as her broad sail filled,
while on the deck was Owen in a great chair, and from his side Nona
waved to me, and Howel shouted that I must come over ere long and
fetch Owen home. Thorgils was steering, and he lifted his arm and
cried his parting words, and so I turned away, feeling lonely as a
man may feel for a little while. And presently I looked again
toward the ship, and I think that the last I saw of her was the
flutter of Nona's kerchief in the soft wind, and I vowed that
nought should hinder me from Dyfed when the time came.

Thereafter I rode to Glastonbury, and told Herewald what I thought
of the trouble that was surely brewing in the west; and he said
that he also had some reason to think that along his borders men
were getting more unruly, as if none tried to hinder them from
giving cause of offence to us.

"Well, if they will but keep quiet until this wedding is over it
will be a comfort," he said. "I should be more at ease if once
Elfrida was safely in Sussex."

Then I learned that the wedding was to be in a month's time or so,
and already there were preparations in hand for it. With all my
heart I hoped also that nought might mar it.

Then I passed on to the king at Winchester, and glad was he to hear
that we had indeed found Owen. But as he listened to what I thought
was coming on us from the west, he said:

"It is even what Owen and I foresaw with the death of Aldhelm. This
is a matter that not even Owen could have prevented, for it comes
of the jealousy of the priests. We will go to Glastonbury and
watch, and maybe we shall be in time for the wedding. But I will
not be the one to break the peace. If war there must be, it must
come from Gerent."

And so he mused for a while, and then said:

"Well, so it will be. And not before West Wales has tried her
failing force for the last time will there be a lasting peace."

CHAPTER XV. HOW ERPWALD SAW HIS FIRST FIGHT ON HIS WEDDING DAY.

So we went to Glastonbury in a l