using my legs, man! As an old witch I can travel anywhere at nightin perfect safety."
According to this arrangement--to which the Hebrew was fain to agree--the pair started off a little after daybreak the following morning.Branwen galloped, as she had said, in advance, leaving her protector tomake his slower way through the forest.
The sun was high when the domestics of Gunrig's establishment werethrown into a state of great surprise and no little alarm at sight of alittle old woman in grey bestriding a goodly horse and galloping towardsthe house. Dashing into the courtyard at full speed, and scattering theonlookers right and left, she pulled up with some difficulty, just intime to prevent the steed going through the parchment window of thekitchen.
"Help me down!" she cried, looking full in the face of a lumpish lad,who stood gazing at her with open eyes and mouth. "Don't you see I amold and my joints are stiff? Be quick!"
There was a commanding tone in her shrill voice that brooked no delay.The lumpish lad shut his mouth, reduced his eyes, and, going shylyforward, held out his hand. The old woman seized it, and, almost beforehe had time to wink, stood beside him.
"Where is Gunrig's room?" she demanded.
All the observers pointed to a door at the end of a passage.
"Take good care of my horse! Rub him well down; feed him. _I_ shallknow if you don't!" she cried, as she entered the passage and knockedgently at the door.
It was opened by Gunrig's mother, whose swollen eyes and subdued voicetold their own tale.
"May I come in and see him, mother?" said Branwen, in her own softvoice.
"You are a strange visitor," said the poor woman, in some surprise. "Doyou want much to see him? He is but a poor sight now."
"Yes--O yes!--I want very much to see him."
"Your voice is kindly, old woman. You may come in."
The sight that Branwen saw on entering was, indeed, one fitted to arousethe most sorrowful emotions of the heart; for there, on a rude couch ofbranches, lay the mere shadow of the once stalwart chief, the greatbones of his shoulders showing their form through the garments which hehad declined to take off; while his sunken cheeks, large glitteringeyes, and labouring breath, told all too plainly that disease had almostcompleted the ruin of the body, and that death was standing by toliberate the soul.
"Who comes to disturb me at such a time, mother?" said the dying man,with a distressed look.
Branwen did not give her time to answer, but, hurrying forward, kneltbeside the couch and whispered in his ear. As she did so there was asudden rush of blood to the wan cheeks, and something like a blaze ofthe wonted fire in the sunken eyes.
"Mother," he said, with something of his old strength of voice, "leaveus for a short while. This woman has somewhat to tell me."
"May I not stay to hear it, my son?"
"No. You shall hear all in a very short time. Just now--leave us!"
"Now, Branwen," said the chief, taking her hand in his, "what blessedchance has sent you here?"
The poor girl did not speak, for when she looked at the great, thin,transparent hand which held hers, and thought of the day when it swayedthe heavy sword so deftly, she could not control herself, and burst intotears.
"Oh! poor, poor Gunrig! I'm so sorry to see you like this!--so very,very sorry!"
She could say no more, but covered her face with both hands and wept.
"Nay, take not your hand from me," said the dying man, again graspingthe hand which she had withdrawn; "its soft grip sends a rush of joy tomy sinking soul."
"Say not that you are sinking, Gunrig," returned the girl in pityingtones; "for it is in the power of the All-seeing One to restore you tohealth if it be His will."
"If He is All-seeing, then there is no chance of His restoring me tohealth; for He has seen that I have lived a wicked life. Ah! Branwen,you do not know what I have been. If there is a place of rewards andpunishment, as some tell us there is, assuredly my place will be that ofpunishment, for my life has been one of wrong-doing. And there issomething within me that I have felt before, but never so strong as now,which tells me that there _is_ such a place, and that I am condemned toit."
"But I have heard from the Hebrew--who reads strange things marked on aroll of white cloth--that the All-seeing One's nature is _love_, andthat He has resolved Himself to come and save men from wrong-doing."
"That would be good news indeed, Branwen, if it were true."
"The Hebrew says it is true. He says he believes it, and the All-seeingOne is a Redeemer who will save all men from wrong-doing."
"Would that I could find Him, Branwen, for that is what I wish. I knownot whether there shall be a hereafter or not, but if there is I shallhope for deliverance from wrong-doing. A place of punishment I care notmuch about, for I never shrank from pain or feared death. What I dofear is a hereafter, in which I shall live over again the old bad life--and I am glad it is drawing to a close with your sweet voice sounding inmy ears. I believe it was that voice which first shot into my heart thedesire to do right, and the hatred of wrong."
"I am glad to hear that, Gunrig, though it never entered into my head, Iconfess, to do you such a good turn. And surely it must have been theAll-seeing One who enabled me to influence you thus, and who now recallsto my mind what the Hebrew read to me--one of those sayings of the goodmen of his nation which are marked in the white roll I spoke of. It isthis--`God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'"
"That is a good word, if it be a true one," returned the chief, "and Ihope it is. Now, my end is not far off. I am so glad and thankful thatyou have forgiven me before the end. Another thing that comforts me isthat Bladud and I have been reconciled."
"Bladud!" exclaimed the girl.
"Ay, the prince with whom I fought at the games, you remember."
"Remember! ay, right well do I remember. It was a notable fight."
"It was," returned the chief, with a faint smile, "and from that day Ihated him and resolved to kill him, till I met him at the Hot Swamp,where I got this fatal wound. He nursed me there, and did his best tosave my life, but it was not to be. Yet I think that his tenderness, aswell as your sweet voice, had something to do with turning my angryspirit round. I would see my mother now. The world is darkening, andthe time is getting short."
The deathly pallor of the man's cheeks bore witness to the truth of hiswords. Yet he had strength to call his mother into the room.
On entering and beholding a beautiful girl kneeling, and in tears, whereshe had left a feeble old woman, she almost fell down with superstitiousfear, deeming that an angel had been sent to comfort her son--and soindeed one had been sent, in a sense, though not such an one assuperstition suggested.
A few minutes' talk with Gunrig, however, cleared up the mystery. Butthe unwonted excitement and exertion had caused the sands of life to runmore rapidly than might otherwise have been the case. The chief's voicebecame suddenly much more feeble, and frequently he gasped for breath.
"Mother," he said, "Branwen wants to get home without any one knowingthat she has been here. You will send our stoutest man with herto-night, to guard her through the woods as far as the Hebrew's cave.Let him not talk to her by the way, and bid him do whatever shecommands."
"Yes, my dear, dear son, what else can I do to comfort you?"
"Come and sit beside me, mother, and let me lay my head on your knee.You were the first to comfort me in this life, and I want you to be thelast. Speak with Branwen, mother, after I am gone. She will comfortyou as no one else can. Give me your hand, mother; I would sleep now asin the days gone by."
The bronzed warrior laid his shaggy head on the lap where he had been sooften fondled when he was a little child, and gently fell into thatslumber from which he never more awoke.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
THE HEBREW'S MISSION.
We turn now to Beniah the Hebrew. On arriving at the Hot Swamp he wasamazed to find the change that had been made in the appearance of the
locality in so short a time.
"United action, you see," said Captain Arkal, who did the honours of thenew settlement in the absence of Bladud and his friends, these beingstill absent on their vain search for the lad Cormac, "united action,perseveringly continued, leads to amazing results."
He repeated this to himself, in a low tone, as if he were rather proudof having hit on a neat way of expressing a great truth which hebelieved was an original discovery of his own. "Yes," he continued, "Ihave got my men, you see, into splendid working order. They act frommorning to night in concert--one consequence of which is that all isHarmony, and there is but one man at the helm, the consequence of whichis, that all is Power. Harmony and Power! I have no