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"No, truly," answered Jorworth; "I have some two score of men concealed among yonder bushes." "Then thou hadst best lead them away quickly," answered Wilkin, "before our archers let fly a sheaf of arrows among them." "How, villain! Dost thou not mean to keep thy promise?" said the Welshman. "I gave thee none," said the Fleming; "I promised but to think on what thou didst say.
"Base silver-broker!" answered Jorworth, "thinkest thou the Prince of Powys has as many money-bags, as the merchants of thy land of sale and barter? He gathers treasures by his conquests, as the waterspout sucks up water by its strength, but it is to disperse them among his followers, as the cloudy column restores its contents to earth and ocean.
By way of answer to both, Jorworth drew back his arm with his levelled javelin, and shaking the shaft till it acquired a vibratory motion, he hurled it with equal strength and dexterity right against the aperture in the wicket.
"I will excommunicate and deliver him over to Satan," said the monk, unable to wait the phlegmatic and lingering answer of the Fleming, "if he give horn, hoof, or hair of them, to such an uncircumcised Philistine as thou or thy master." "It is well, shorn priest," answered Jorworth in great anger. "But mark me reckon not on your frock for ransom.
"Your letter, craving the hand of our daughter Eveline Berenger, was safely delivered to us by your servant, Jorworth ap Jevan, and we thank you heartily for the good meaning therein expressed to us and to ours.
"My lands are forayed, twenty kine driven off, and " "Threescore shall replace them," interrupted Jorworth, "chosen from the most bright-skinned of the spoil." "But my daughter but the Lady Eveline" said the Fleming, with some slight change in his monotonous voice, which seemed to express doubt and perplexity "You are cruel conquerors, and "
Perhaps the honest man remembered that they had come within the danger of such a salutation, in some measure, on his own assurance. When the noise of the hasty retreat of Jorworth and his followers had died away, there ensued a dead silence, well corresponding with the coolness and calmness of that early hour in the morning.
"Prince," answered the bard, whose pride was at least equal to that of Gwenwyn himself, "you pervert the proverb of Taliessin it is the flattering harp which never lacked golden strings." Gwenwyn, turning sternly towards him, was about to make an angry answer, when the sudden appearance of Jorworth, the messenger whom he had despatched to Raymond Berenger, arrested his purpose.
This rude envoy entered the hall bare-legged, excepting the sandals of goat-skin which he wore, and having on his shoulder a cloak of the same, and a short javelin in his hand. The dust on his garments, and the flush on his brow, showed with what hasty zeal his errand had been executed. Gwenwyn demanded of him eagerly, "What news from Garde Doloureuse, Jorworth ap Jevan?"
"You believe that you understand me," said Wilkin; "but here lies the difficulty, which of us shall trust the other?" "Darest thou ask?" answered Jorworth. "Is it for thee, or such as thee, to express doubt of the purposes of the Prince of Powys?"
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