The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter Page B

favour of the powerful, especially those lords who held along the northern march. Therefore I was present when she received the word for which she waited.
      "Madam," said the old man, flushed with joy and importance, for it is always good to be the bearer of news long-desired and wholly welcomed, "the Lord Griffith is freed, and handed over to his Grace at Chester, and your son with him. They will return here with the king's Grace within the week."
      She clasped her hands and coloured to the brow with delight, like a young girl, and said a fervent thanks to God for this deliverance. And fiercely she questioned him of those other matters, for she was a good hater as well as a loyal lover.
      "And the terms? What becomes of all thpse impleaded lands, Powys, Mold, all those conquests held from their father? Does David give up all? All?"
      "All!" he said. "Everything Llewelyn Fawr took by force of arms goes back to those who claim it. Montalt gets back Mold after forty years. Gwenwynwyn's son will be set up in Powys, and Merioneth returns to Meredith's sons. All the Welsh princes who used to hold directly from the crown are to come back to the crown. Everything he fought for, he has lost!"
      A strange thought came into my mind then that I was not listening to a Welsh princess and her officer speaking, but to English voices exulting over a defeated Wales.
      "What, all the homages that belonged to King John are to come back to the crown again? A great loss!"
      And I thought how the Gwynedd she looked to see divided now by force between the Lord Griffith and his brother was shrunken by all those fealties, and marvelled how she could be glad of it, even for her lord's own sake, for surely he was also a loser, or at best stood to gain only a meagre princedom. But she saw no false reasoning.
      "And David will pay!" she said with passion. "The expenses of this war, also! King Henry will not let that go by default."
      "Madam, he is to give up the whole cantref of Tegaingl, and Ellesmere also, these go to the crown. And there will be a further payment in money, a heavy fine."
      "His justice returns on his own head," she said. "And will my lord truly be here within the week, shall I see him again?"
      "Madam, he is already with the king, they return together. Your son also."
      "And what provision is made for him? What lands are allotted to my lord?" She shook suddenly to a frightening thought. "He'll hold them from the king, in chief? Not from David! Say not from David!"
      "Direct from the crown, madam. It's agreed that the question shall be determined by his Grace's own court, according to Welsh custom or strict law, as may be decided. Our lord will be there to speak for himself."
      "Then no division is yet made. No," she said, but with some doubt and reluctance, "I see there could be no judgment yet. It is a matter for the court, in fairness. Then all will be well. And I did right to come. I tell you," she said, for her humbly, "sometimes I have wondered. Am I now justified?"
      "Madam," he said, "my lord is on his way back to you and to his children, and the Lord Owen with him. What other answer do you need? They are free, and you have freed them."
      She was so abashed, and so glad, that briefly she shed tears, she who never wept. And she called the children, and told them their father was coming in a few days. At which David only stared and pondered with little understanding, for he hardly remembered his father.

    I remember also the day that they came. All the citizens of Shrewsbury were out on the streets to see the army return, though the main body of men did not enter the town walls. But the king and his officers and barons rode through from gate to gate, from the castle to the abbey, where they halted again for two nights. The house where we lodged was very close to the street where they passed, and we went down into the crowd to watch, while the Lady Senena and the Lady Gladys had a