“Sighard?” I said.  “How came he in your hands?”

“He came over the border, lord, and we had him straightway,” said the man simply.  “Methinks there were men after him.”

“Where is he?” said I, anxiously enough.  “He can pay ransom.”

“He is ill,” said the man; “he cries for his daughter.  Jefan thinks that he is that thane whose daughter was in our hands last night with you.”

“Ill?” said I; “is he much hurt?”

“There had been a bit of a fight before we took him.  One smote him on the helm, and he was stunned.  Thereafter he came to himself, and again fell ill.  He will mend, for it is naught.”

“But where is he?”

“We have many camps, and I cannot tell you.  You are a stranger.  But, says Jefan the prince, an you will come to him I am to guide you.”

Now I was in doubt indeed, for this was a dangerous errand.  The man saw that I hesitated, and smiled at me.

“Wise is our prince,” he said.  “He knew that you would fear to come, therefore he bade me say that you were to mind that once he had you, and set you free, and that he does not go back on his doings, save he must.  He has no enmity for the friends of the slain king, but a great hatred for him who slew him.”

“Would he not let Sighard the thane come to Fernlea, where his daughter is?”

“Truly, if you will.  But it is safer for you to come to him.  There Jefan will have all care for all of you until he may send you home.  It is told him that Quendritha has sworn the death of four men—­of the thane who rides the great pied horse, of his housecarl, of Sighard of Anglia, and of Witred of Bradley, who helped the Anglians to escape.”

“How knows he all this?  It is more than I have heard—­if I have guessed some of it.”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

“Thane,” he said, with a sidewise smile, “a man who is thrall to a Mercian may yet be a Briton.  The Saxon may make a slave of his body, but his heart will be free.”

Now I was the more sure that this Welsh prince had some good source of knowledge of what went on inside the palace, and I thought that mayhap he was right.  Across the Welsh border might indeed be the safest place for any man who had brought the wrath of the queen on him.  I would go to Sighard, and take Hilda with me.  One thing I was fairly glad of, and that was that so far as I knew none in all the court of Offa had heard who my folk in Wessex were, else there might be trouble for them; for Quendritha’s daughter was not unlike her mother, if all I heard was true.

“Meet me tonight, then,” I said.  “I will go to Jefan, and will bring the lady.”

“You do well,” he answered gravely.  “I will meet you somewhere on the westward track, a mile from Fernlea ford.  You shall but ride on till I come.  You shall choose your own time, for I cannot tell what may stay you.  I have naught to do but wait.  If you meet other Britons, tell them that you seek the prince, and they will pass you on.  If so be you come not tonight, I will wait for another, and yet another.  After that—­”