The place was full of people, and those mostly nobles, so that I had to stand in the doorway for a moment to see what was going on.  It was plainly somewhat out of the common, for there were guards along one end of the room.  It seemed as if there were a trial.

Gerent sat in the great chair which one might call his throne at the upper end of the room, and beside him was Owen.  I thought that my foster father seemed pale and troubled in that first glance, but I had every reason to know why this was so.  Before these two stood a man, with his back to me therefore, and for the moment I did not recognise him.  On either side of this man were guards, and it was plainly he who was in trouble, if any one.  Gerent was speaking to him.

“Well,” he said, “hither you have come as a guest, and as a guest you shall be treated.  But you must know that here within the walls of the place you shall abide.  If you will give your word to do that I shall not have to keep you so closely.”

“This is not what I had looked for from you, King Gerent,” the man said.

I knew the voice at once, for it was that of Dunwal, my fellow passenger.  So the treachery of his brother must be known, and he was to be held here as a hostage, as one might say.  Gerent’s next words told me that it was so.

“If there is any fault to be found, it is in the ways of your brother.  Blame him that I must needs have surety for his behaviour.  It cannot be suffered that he should go on plotting evil against us, unchecked in some way.”

Dunwal shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that all this was no concern of his.

“Shall you hold my daughter as well?” he said.  “I trust that your caution will not make you go so far as that.”

Gerent’s eyes flashed at the tone and words, but he answered very coldly: 

“She will bide here also, and in all honour.”

Then he beckoned to a noble who stood near him, and spoke to him for a moment.  It chanced that this was one of the very few whom I knew here.  His name was Jago, and I had often seen him at Glastonbury, for he was a friend of our ealdorman, Elfrida’s father, holding somewhat the same post in Norton as my friend in our town.  Owen liked him well also, and he was certainly no friend to Morgan and his party.

“Jago’s wife will give your daughter all hospitality in his house,” Gerent said, turning again to Dunwal.  “Have I your word as to keeping within bounds during my pleasure?”

“Ay, you have it,” answered Dunwal curtly.

Then I slipped out of the door quietly, and went to that room where Owen and I waited on our first coming here, and I sent a steward to tell him of my arrival.  There is no need for me to tell how he greeted me, or how I met him.

Then when those greetings were over I heard all that had been going on, and my loss had made turmoil enough.  My men had brought back the news, having missed me very shortly, but it was long before they found traces of me.  The first thing that they saw was my hawk, as I expected, and after that the bodies of the slain.  As I was not with them, they judged that I had escaped in some way, but they lost the track of the feet in the woodlands, and so rode back to Owen in all haste.