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"Kynan," I cried, "have a care! This is what they want you to do! Wait!" For I could see that in the open Gymbert had the advantage of numbers, and I suspected that he was trying to draw the fiery Welsh from their works. There was surely some reason for this half-hearted attack on the stockade that had been already proved too strong. He did not hear me.
"No, father," I said quickly, seeing that he had learned too little, and doubtless believed Hilda either drowned or else in the hands of Gymbert and his men whichever tale Quendritha had been told or chose to tell him. "I was in the wood, and thither came the lady we ken of when she was set forth from the place. I was in time to get her away, and she is safe."
Chapman, or priest, or beggar man, he is likely to find a broad arrow among his ribs first, and questioned as to what his business may be afterward." Then we went along the ramparts to the rearward gate; and it seemed as if Gymbert had somewhat on his mind, for he fell silent now and then, for no reason which I could fathom.
Long ago the Welsh had bared all this hillside, and there was no cover for a foe as he came up the hill. Across the grass came one man alone, and that man was Gymbert, as I had half expected. It was ourselves whom he was after. Maybe his only chance of regaining favour with the king being through Quendritha, he was trying his best to pleasure her. Or else she had threatened him.
Is it possible that Gymbert has looked so high, and would take him from his way?" And at that one of the other Mercians answered bluntly: "You speak of what is not possible, and you know it. Who but that one of whom we ken would have seen that those who wrought here with saw and axe were not disturbed?
Presently I saw Gymbert across the hall, and I thought he looked uneasy. As he had fairly spoiled his name as a good huntsman, I was not surprised, nor did it trouble me. I missed him toward the end of the feast; but no doubt he had his duties about the place as when I spoke to him last night, and that was nothing to wonder at. I did not see him go. It was a long feast.
It was the first sight I had of her that morning, and now her eyes were wide with wonder at the cries and bustle of armed men. "Wilfrid, what is it all?" she cried. "Gymbert has gathered some men, and is trying to make Jefan give us up," I said, knowing it was best to tell her plainly. "But you need have no fear; this place is strong, and the man cannot have any following worth naming."
The thane had got it home in his flank as he gored the horse, but to little effect. Then the boar had taken to the thickets, and there the foresters had slain him. Gymbert sent a man for a fresh horse, and so rode away without another word to us. The noise from the nets went on, shifting across the little valley as the kings went from place to place in search of fresh game at the barrier.
"But he will bide here across my door, as is his wont." "Outside, I suppose?" said Gymbert, with a laugh. "Well, as you like." He rode away, and I looked at Erling wonderingly. The Dane was watching him with a black scowl on his face. "Where on earth did you learn the British tongue?" I said; "and what know you of Gymbert?" "I learned the Welsh yonder," Erling answered, nodding westward.
Not fifty yards behind us, as the horses plunged into the ford, there was a shout for halt, and Gymbert's men reined up with a sound of slipping hoofs and clattering weapons on the steep bank above us. A sharp voice from the other bank called to know who we were and who after us. "The Anglians!" I cried back. "Gymbert and ten men in pursuit!"
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