And if her smile was a little sad, it was plain that Nona the
princess was glad as her father to see her guest again, and I will
say that to me the sight of her was like a bright gleam in the grey
of sadness that was over all things. It did not seem possible that
she and trouble could find place together.
So I greeted her, and she went back to her place quickly, for
hardly would Gerent wait for us to speak a few words before he
would talk of that which was in all his thoughts; and then came
Jago and stood at the door, guarding it as it were against
listeners.
Now the old king told me all that I had heard from his thane
already, and I must tell what 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.
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