"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 little time, and now it was as if
Yuletide had come again in high summer, so full was the little town
with guests who came to the wedding. Erpwald had come soon after
us, with a train of Sussex thanes, who were his neighbours and
would see him through the business, and take him and his bride home
again.
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