Llewelyn and Howel ap Res Vychan were amongst the first to tender their allegiance to the cause, and, having sent on a compact band of armed men to announce their coming in person, had themselves hurried to Dynevor to persuade their brothers there to join the national cause.

And they found Wendot less indisposed than they had feared.  The five years which had passed over his head since he had fallen under the spell of the English king’s regal sway had a good deal weakened the impression then made upon him.  Edward had not visited the country in person since that day, and the conduct of the English Lords of the Marches, and of those who held lands in the subjected country, was not such as to endear their cause to the hearts of the sons of Wales.  Heart-burnings and jealousies were frequent, and Wendot had often had his spirit stirred within him at some tale of outrage and wrong.  The upright justice of the king was not observed by his subjects, and the hatred to any kind of foreign yoke was inherently strong in these sons of the mountains.  In the studies the Dynevor brothers had prosecuted together they had imbibed many noble thoughts and many lofty aspirations, and these, mingling with the patriotic instinct so strongly bound up in the hearts of Cambria’s sons, had taught them a distrust of princes and an intense love for freedom’s cause, as well as a strong conviction that right must ever triumph over might.

So when the news arrived that the north was in open revolt, it struck a chord in the hearts of both brothers; and when the dark-browed twins came with the news that they had openly joined the standard of Llewelyn, they did not encounter the opposition they had expected, and it was with an eager hopefulness that they urged upon the Lord of Dynevor to lend the strength of his arm to the national cause.

“Wendot, bethink thee.  When was not Dynevor in the van when her country called on her?  If thou wilt go with us, we shall carry all the south with us; but hang thou back, and the cause may be lost.  Brother, why dost thou hesitate? why dost thou falter?  It is the voice of thy country calling thee.  Wilt thou not heed that call?  O Wendot, thou knowest that when our parents lived —­ when they bid us not look upon the foe with too great bitterness —­ it was only because a divided Wales could not stand, and that submission to England was better than the rending of the kingdom by internal strife.  But if she would have stood united against the foreign foe, thinkest thou they would ever have held back?  Nay; Res Vychan, our father, would have been foremost in the strife.  Are we not near in blood to Llewelyn of Wales, prince of the north?  Doth not the tie of blood as well as the call of loyalty urge us to his side?  Why dost thou ponder still?  Why dost thou hesitate?  Throw to the wind all idle scruples, and come.  Think what a glorious future may lie before our country if we will but stand together now!”