and betimes so far as to Ireland, tells me all he has learned. It
were churlish not to listen, and then we need warning against such
attacks as that of Morgan. Moreover, one likes somewhat to talk
of."

"That is plain enough," said Nunna, laughing.

"Maybe I do talk too much," answered the Norseman. "It is a failing
in my family. But my sister is worse than I."

Then the king laughed again, and so dismissed the shipman, and
presently Owen bade me make all preparation for riding to Norton on
the morrow early. Ina would have us take a strong guard, and I
should bring them back, either with or without Owen, as things
went.

But little sleep had I that night, for I knew too well that from
henceforth my life and that of my foster father must lie apart, and
how far sundered we might be I could not tell. There was no love of
the Saxon in West Wales, nor of the Welshman in Wessex.



CHAPTER IV. HOW THE LADY ELFRIDA SPOKE WITH OSWALD, AND OF THE MEETING WITH
GERENT.


Gerent, the king of the West Welsh, as we called him, ruled over
all the land of Devon and Cornwall, from the fens of the Tone and
Parrett Rivers to the Land's End. Only those wide fens, across