"Yet he is well for so sorely wounded a man."
Then he promised that it should not be so long before I heard news
from Owen again, for he had yet to make several voyages before the
winter. And he kept his promise well, for I think that he made one
more than he would have done, for my sake solely, though he will
not own it, lest the long winter should seem lonesome to me.
For I will say at once that Owen did not come back by Yule. All
that went on in the Cornish court I do not know, but it seemed that
Gerent thought it well that he should not return until the last
hope of victory over Wessex had passed from among his people; and
it may be that he did not wish it to be thought that Owen had any
hand in bringing about the peace which he must needs make. He would
see to that, and take all the blame thereof himself, caring nothing
for any man, if blame there should be from those who set the war on
foot.
So although I waited to hear from time to time as Thorgils came and
went, getting also word from him when some Danish ship crossed to
Watchet, nought was said of Owen's return. And I was not sorry, for
as things went I could not have gone to Dyfed to meet him.
There was the new land we had won to be tended, and for a time the
planning for that was heavy enough. All men know now how it ended
in the building of the mighty fortress of Taunton at the southern
end of the Quantock hills, to bar the passage from West to East for
all time.
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