CHAPTER XXII
IN OGOFAU
In the darkness, Goronwy was lurking about the church. He was the firstto communicate to Rogier that Morwen had taken sanctuary. The Norman,angry, bade him watch and not suffer her to leave without informing himwhither she had betaken herself. She could not remain thereindefinitely. It was a custom that sanctuary held for seven days andnights, and that if the clergy could not send away a refugee during thattime, the right of protection afforded by the sacredness of theprecincts ceased in that particular case.
Rogier was wounded in his vanity, but not greatly concerned. He wascertain that she could not escape him eventually.
A hand was laid on Goronwy's shoulder; he started with terror, and hisalarm was not lessened when Pabo addressed him, "What are you doinghere, Goronwy?"
"Oh, Pabo! we have feared you were lost."
"As you see--I am returned. What are you doing here?"
"Alas! I have no proper home--no more than you. Do you ask then why I amabout at night?"
"Poor boy! poor boy! Well, I would have you do me a commission now. Imust not be seen here; yet would communicate with my wife. Where isMorwen?"
Goronwy hesitated but for a moment, and then answered, "I do not know."
"She is not now with Howel?"
"No, sent elsewhere. Perhaps to Llansawel."
"You must find her, and bid her come to me."
"Whither shall I bid her go?"
"Bid her come to me in Ogofau."
"In Ogofau?" echoed Goronwy, shrinking back.
"There is one thing more I desire," pursued Pabo. "Go into the churchand bring me thence one of those coils of taper that hang in front ofthe screen."
"Taper!" in all but speechless astonishment.
"Yes; I am going to enter the old mine. I do not hesitate to tell you,as one in blood, in hopes, in sufferings with me. I am going to enterthe mine, and would fain have a consecrated light."
"I will get it at once," said Goronwy, and went within. What could thismean? What was Pabo's object? Within the church two lamps burnt in thesanctuary, but without all was dark, yet in the darkness he could seeMorwen crouched against the screen. A Celtic church had buildingsconnected with it--a guest hall in which the congregation could assembleand take a meal after divine service, stables for horses, and evensleeping apartments. All were surrounded by the privilege of sanctuary;yet Morwen remained in the church, fearing lest these adjuncts shouldnot meet with the same respect as the main building, the house of God.
Against the screen were hung a number of twisted wax tapers, formingcoils. These were employed on vigils and at the Pylgain, or ChristmasEve service at night. One of these Goronwy took down. He said no word toMorwen, but went out as silently as he had entered.
"I thank you," said Pabo. "I would not enter myself lest Cadell shouldbe there, and he recognize me."
"You need not have feared that," laughed Goronwy. "He is not one tospend hours in prayer. He is not there."
"Then will I enter and pray."
"Nay," Goronwy interposed. "There are others there who it were wellshould not see you."
"Be it so," said Pabo. "And now--find Morwen, aye--and speak with Howelalso. Tell him naught of Ogofau. I shall have something to say shortlythat will make the hearts of all Welshmen dance."
"And will you not tell me?"
"All in good time, lad. As yet I cannot say, for in sooth it is anexpectation and not a certainty."
Then he departed.
Goronwy leaned against the church wall, looking in the direction he hadtaken, perplexed and not knowing what he should do.
Pabo took his course over the brawling Annell, below the church, andmounted a spur of hill, among woods, till he came to a hollow, anincipient glen that ran west, and opposite rose a rounded height crownedby a camp, the Caer of ancient Cynyr, the father of the Five Saints. Itwas thence these holy brothers had descended to place themselves underthe tuition of Cynwyl. It was when these five had disappeared into thegold-mine that the father had surrendered his principality to themissionary who had come among them from the North, and thus hadconstituted the Archpriesthood, holding a chieftaindom over the Caiodistrict.
And now Pabo descended among stumps of trees and broken masses of stone,and all at once stood on the edge of a great crater, into which thesilvery light of the moon from behind a haze flowed, and which itfilled. Out of this circular basin shot up a spire of rock, called theBelfry of Gwen--of her who dared to enter the mine to spy on the Saintsin their magic sleep.
Cautiously Pabo descended the steep side, where the rubble, sifted forgold, sloped to the floor.
On reaching the bottom he looked around him.
He was in an amphitheater of rock, here abrupt, there buried underslopes of detritus.
The moon came out and sent the shadow of Gwen's Belfry across the levelwhite floor of the mine.
What the Romans had done was to scoop out the interior of a nodule ofhill, much as we now dig out the inside of a Stilton cheese, and leavethe walls intact. But there existed this difference: that the walls werenot like a cheese-rind, that could be pierced through. They were butportions of the mountain, into which, by adits from the crater, theminers had burrowed. Most of these old tunnels were choked, some hiddenunder slides of rubble, but one gaped black, and it was into this thatthe Five Saints had entered according to legend, and Gwen also. And nowPabo was about to penetrate as well. Doubt of the reality of thediscovery made by the hermit had departed. He was fully convinced thathe would light on the hoard. His sole fear left was he should forget thedirections he had seen traced on the plank.
There was little wind now, below in this bowl. He struck flint and steeltogether and obtained a light. Then he kindled his wax taper, signedhimself with the cross, and entered the cave.
For some way in, the floor was covered with stones that had been thrownin. The roof was higher than his head and was arched.
This was no natural cavern like that under Careg Cennen. This was cut byman's hand, out of rock very different in character, color, and texturefrom the limestone.
The light from his taper glittered in the water that trickled over thesides, and in the pools that here and there lay in the footway. Therewere no stalagmites. Pabo could distinguish the marks of the picks usedto excavate the adit. All at once he was startled by a rushing andwhistling.
He drew back, and past him swept legions of bats that had hitherto livedundisturbed in this cave. They came back, flickered near his face,threatened his light, and he shouted and threw stones. Then--he saw,heard them no more. They had issued from the portal and had gone to huntunder the open sky.
Now the ground rose; there had been an accumulation of soil, and he wasforced to bend low to pass on. But presently the floor sank and thevault was loftier, and he pursued his course erect.
The ground now was hard rock, not earth, and it rang under his steps. Itwas also dry. The air was intensely still.
The candle cast but a feeble light, and that but imperfectly illuminedthe way before him. He could best see by holding it above his head, yetwas able to do this only where the arched roof was high, and he everfeared lest it should strike on a rock and become extinguished.
The passage bulged and became a hall, and here it seemed to him that hesaw some blue object before him. He stood, uncertain what it was, andwhether to venture towards it. Presently he discovered that it was apatch of light, a reflection of some of the moonlit vapor in the skyfalling through a small orifice far, far above in a dome, the height ofwhich he could not measure. In contrast with the yellow flame of hiscandle, this feeble spot had looked blue as a turquoise. He tried torecollect the plan sketched on the board, and he did remember that thishall was there indicated, with _Ibi lumen_ scrawled beside it. Hetraversed this hall and entered another passage, or a continuance of thesame, beyond. Then he put his hand to his brow, and endeavored to recallthe sketch of the mine--and felt that it was gone from him.
While lying in prison at Careg
Cennen he had recalled it distinctly--henow, indeed, remembered that there was a direction _in sinistram_ or _addextram_, he could not now say which, and where the turn was to be made.However, there surely could be no mistake--as he had the way openbefore him.
Hitherto he had felt no fear. Possibly his incarceration in partialdarkness had accustomed him to some such places; he pushed on, moreover,animated with hope. And he placed some confidence in his blessed taperfrom the church of the patron of his family and tribe.
But suddenly he sprang back, and only just in time. In front of him,occupying the whole width of the passage, was a hole. How deep it was hehad some means of judging by hearing the bound and rebound of a stonedislodged by his foot.
"_Cave puteum_;" now he recalled the warning.
He crept forward cautiously, and extended his light over the gulf. Itillumined the sides but a little way down. Judging by the time a stonetook in falling before it plashed into water, it must have been aboutfifty feet in depth.
The well was not large at the mouth. And now Pabo distinctly rememberedthat the _Thesaurus_ was not far beyond it.
It did not occur to him to return. He was so near the goal that reach ithe must.
He examined attentively the sides. Not a thread of a track existedwhereby the abyss might be skirted. There were no pieces of wood aboutby means of which it could be bridged.
The well's mouth was but four feet in diameter. Surely he could leapthat!
He stepped back two, three strides, and bounded. He reached the groundbeyond, but in the spring his light was extinguished.
The snuff was glowing, and he blew on it, but it would not flame.
"It matters not," said he. "I have my tinder and steel; I can relightit. Now on, on to the gold!"
He stepped forward in the dark, but holding the taper with thesmoldering snuff. Then his steps sounded as though he were in a widechamber. He held out his hands; the walls had fallen away. A few stepsfurther, and he stumbled, and stumbling, dropped on his knees, and sawby the expiring light of the snuff--the glint of ingots of gold.
The last spark went out, and he was in complete darkness.