was going to hang the mouse next day. She advised against it, but he
persisted, and on the next morning took the animal to the top of the Mound
of Arberth, where he placed two wooden forks in the ground, and set up a
small gallows.

While doing this, he saw a clerk coming to him in old, threadbare
clothes. It was now seven years since he had seen a human being there,
except the friends he had lost and Kigva who survived them. The clerk bade
him good day and said he was going back to his country from England, where
he had been singing. Then the clerk asked Manawydan what he was doing.
"Hanging a thief," said he; and when the clerk saw that it was a mouse, he
offered a pound to release it, but Manawydan refused. Then a priest came
riding up and offered him three pounds to release the mouse; but this
offer was declined. Then he made a noose round the mouse's neck, and while
he did this, a bishop's whole retinue came riding towards him. The bishop
seemed, like everybody else, to be very desirous of rescuing the mouse; he
offered first seven pounds, and then twenty-four, and then added all his
horses and equipages; but Manawydan still refused. The bishop finally
asked him to name any price he pleased. "The liberation of Rhiannon and
Pryderi," he said. "Thou shalt have it," said the bishop. "And the removal
of the enchantment," said Manawydan. "That also," said the bishop, "if you
will only restore the mouse." "Why?" said the other. "Because," said the
bishop, "she is my wife." "Why did she come to me?" asked Manawydan. "To
steal," was the reply. "When it was known that you were inhabiting the
island, my household came to me, begging me to transform them into mice.
The first and second nights they came alone, but the third night my wife
and the ladies of the court wished also to accompany them, and I
transformed them also; and now you have promised to let her go." "Not so,"
said the other, "except with a promise that there shall be no more such
enchantment practised, and no vengeance on Pryderi and Rhiannon, or on