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Medrawd and Arthur, men whispered, would appear once more on earth to fight over again the fatal battle of Camlan in which the hero-king perished. The last conqueror of the Celtic race, Cadwallon, still lived to combat for his people. The supposed verses of Taliesin expressed the undying hope of a restoration of the Cymry.
The Prince looked round at first with displeasure at the interruption, for he was himself about to speak; but when he beheld the bard bending over his harp with an air of inspiration, and blending together, with unexampled skill, the wildest and most exalted tones of his art, he himself became an auditor instead of a speaker, and Cadwallon, not the Prince, seemed to become the central point of the assembly, on whom all eyes were bent, and to whom each ear was turned with breathless eagerness, as if his strains were the responses of an oracle.
As the Welshman crossed the drawbridge, he was observed by his faithful bard to shudder with involuntary emotion; nor did Cadwallon, experienced as he was in life, and well acquainted with the character of his master, make any doubt that he was at that moment strongly urged by the apparent opportunity, to seize upon the strong fortress which had been so long the object of his cupidity, even at the expense of violating his good faith.
"When the slayer of my sovereign became God's soldier," answered Cadwallon, "and served his cause in Palestine, he was safe from my earthly vengeance." "A wonderful forbearance on the part of a Welsh assassin!" said the King, scornfully.
Bernicia seized on the fall of Eadwine to recall the line of Æthelfrith to its throne; and after a year of anarchy his second son, Oswald, became its king. The Welsh had remained encamped in the heart of the north, and Oswald's first fight was with Cadwallon.
His army obeyed, and, in the battle which followed, Oswald's forces were completely victorious. The Mercians, and their allies, the western Britons, were routed, and driven out of Bernicia, and Cadwallon was pursued as far as the Denise Burn, and there slain. The Denise Burn is supposed to have been the Rowley Burn, which flows into the Devil's Water, on whose banks stands Dilsten Castle.
Gwenwyn himself, in a transport of delight, tore off the golden bracelets which he wore, to bestow them upon a bard whose song had produced an effect so desirable; and said, as he looked at the silent and sullen Cadwallon, "The silent harp was never strung with golden wires."
I will answer no more questions lead on to axe or gallows it is indifferent to Cadwallon my soul will soon be with my free and noble ancestry, and with my beloved and royal patron." "My liege and prince," said De Lacy, bending his knee to Henry, "can you hear this, and refuse your ancient servant one request? Spare this man! Extinguish not such a light, because it is devious and wild."
"Thou art deceived, Norman," replied the minstrel; "my menial place and base lineage were but assumed! I am Cadwallon the Briton Cadwallon of the Nine Lays Cadwallon, the chief bard of Gwenwyn of Powys-land and his avenger!"
When Penda of Mercia, and the British Prince Cadwallon, were warring against Northumbria, the greatest Northumbrian King, Edwin, was defeated and slain by them; and on their return to the attack, Ethelfrith's eldest son, called back from exile to take the vacant throne, and rule in his father's seat of Bamburgh, also fell before their fierce onslaught.
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