Little order was
there in that market if the king was not there, and Morgan and his
friends were in the town. Men have taken heart again since the
coming back of Owen, for it was bad enough, as you may suppose by
what happened to me. So I fled, and then Tregoz had me outlawed,
with a price on my head, so that, being well known, I had to take
to Exmoor and herd with others in the same case. I knew that no
weregild, as the Saxon calls it, would be enough to save me from
the Cornishman.
"There I was the one who could sell the stolen goods across the
water, being held in good repute there, and I traded with the Norse
strangers who ferried me across. So it was that when Owen came I
was in Watchet, and there Tregoz saw me and laid hands on me. Then
he needed men to carry out that which he would do, and he had me
forth and spoke to me, saying that if I would manage the Quantock
outlaws for him he would forgive me and have me inlawed again. I
was to have been hanged that day, Thane, and so you will see that I
had no choice. Owen's coming saved me then."
Evan was not the first man whom I had known to be driven into evil
ways by misfortune and powerful enemies. I had little blame for
him. A man will do much to save his neck from the rope. But this
did not tell me how he knew the plans of Tregoz after I set him
free in Dyfed.
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