Wendot bowed low.  If there was something bitter in having his father’s rightful inheritance granted to him as something of a boon, at least there was much to sweeten the draught in the kindly and gracious bearing of the king, and in Alphonso’s friendly words and looks.  He had no father to look to in time of need, and felt a great distrust of the kinsman who exercised some guardianship over him; so that there was considerable relief for the youth in feeling that the great King of England was his friend, and that he would keep him from the aggression of foes.

He stood aside as Edward’s glance passed on to Llewelyn and Howel, and it was plain that the monarch’s face changed and hardened as he fixed his eye upon the twins.

“Llewelyn —­ Howel,” he said, “joint lords of Iscennen, we wish that we had received the same good report of you that we have done of your brethren.  But it is not so.  There be dark records in your past which give little hope for the future.  Nevertheless you are yet young.  Wisdom may come with the advance of years.  But the hot blood in you requires taming and curbing.  You have proved yourselves unfit for the place hitherto occupied as lords of the broad lands bequeathed you by Res Vychan, your father.  For the present those lands are forfeit.  You must win the right to call them yours again by loyalty in the cause which every true Welshman should have at heart, because it is the cause which alone can bring peace and safety to your harassed country.  It is not willingly that we wrest from any man the lands that are his birthright.  Less willingly do we do this when homage, however unwilling and reluctant, has been paid.  But we have our duties to ourselves and to our submitted subjects to consider, and it is not meet to send firebrands alight into the world, when a spark may raise so fierce a conflagration, and when hundreds of lives have to pay the penalty of one mad act of headstrong youth.  It is your youth that shall be your excuse from the charge of graver offence, but those who are too young to govern themselves are not fit to govern others.”

Whilst the king had been speaking he had been closely studying the faces of the twin brothers, who stood before him with their eyes on the ground.  These two lads, although by their stature and appearance almost men, had not attained more than their sixteenth year, and had by no means learned that control of feature which is one of nature’s hardest lessons.  As the king’s words made themselves understood, their brows had darkened and their faces had contracted with a fierce anger and rage, which betrayed itself also in their clenched hands and heaving chests; and although they remained speechless —­ for the awe inspired by Edward’s presence could not but make itself felt even by them —­ it was plain that only the strongest efforts put upon themselves hindered them from some outbreak of great violence.

Edward’s eye rested sternly upon them for a moment, and then he addressed himself once again to Wendot.