"
Now Owen had gone back to his place, and while one or two thanes
came forward and looked in the face of the man, whom they had not
yet seen plainly, he spoke to the king, and Ina seemed to wonder at
what he heard.
Then Herewald the ealdorman said:
"That is the name of one of the two Devon princes of the West
Welsh, cousins of Gerent the king. We have trouble with their men,
who raid our homesteads now and then."
At that a big man with a yellow moustache and long curling hair
rose from among the franklins and said loudly, in a voice which was
neither like that of a Briton nor a Saxon at all:
"Let me get a nearer look at him, and I will soon tell you if he is
what he claimed to be."
And with no more ceremony he came to where I and the two
house-carles yet stood, and looked and laughed a little to himself
as he did so.
"He is Morgan the prince, right enough," he said. "And I can tell
you all the trouble. Your sheriff hung his brother, Dewi, three
months since for cattle lifting and herdsman slaying on this side
Parrett River, somewhere by Puriton, where no Welshman should be. I
helped hunt the knaves at the time. The sheriff took him for a
common outlaw like his comrades, and it was in my mind that there
would be trouble. So I told the sheriff, and he said that if the
king himself got mixed up with outlaws and cattle thieves he must
even take his chance with the rest.
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