shrunk from me, the telling had left me worse than when I kept it hid
from him.

When I ended, he laid his hand on my shoulder--even as the bishop had
laid his, and said:

"Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord."

And I, who had never heard those words before, thought them a promise
sent by the mouth of this prophet, as it were, to me, and wondered. Then
he went on:

"Surely, my son, I believe you to be true, and that you suffer
wrongfully, for never one who would lie told the evil of himself as you
have told me. Foolish you have been, indeed, as is the way of youth, but
disloyal you were not."

I was silent, and waited for him to speak such words again. And he, too,
was silent for a little, looking out over the marsh, and rocking himself
to and fro as he sat on the tree trunk beside me.

"Watching and praying and fasting alone, there has been given me some
little gift of prophecy, my son; now and then it comes, but never with
light cause. And now I will say what is given me to say. Cast out you
are from the Wessex land, but before long Wessex shall be beholden to
you. Not long shall Matelgar, the treacherous, hold your place--but
you shall be in honour again of all men. Only must you forego your
vengeance and leave that to the hand of the Lord, who repays."

"What must I do now, Father?" I asked, in a low voice.