CAREG CENNEN
Before dawn Pabo was on his way, bound to Careg Cennen, riding between
four soldiers. He had been taken in the house of Howel. It had been his
intention to deliver himself up early on the morrow; but he was
forestalled.
He regretted this, for more reasons than one. He had been unable to make
final arrangements for the protection of Morwen, and he had been unable
to communicate with Howel as he desired, relative to the secret of the
treasure in the Roman gold-mines.
The owls were hooting and night-jars screaming as the cavalcade
proceeded along the Sarn Helen towards the broad valley of the Towy by
that of its tributary the _Dulais_. As they reached the main river, the
dawn was lightening behind the Brecknock Mountains, and the water
sliding down toward the sea shone cold as steel.
With daylight men were met upon the road, and occasionally a woman; the
latter invariably, the former for the most part fled at the sight of the
armed men. But some, less timorous remained, and recognizing the
Archpriest, saluted him with respect and with exclamations of
lamentation at seeing him in the hands of the common enemy. At Llandeilo
the river was crossed, and Pabo was conveyed up a steep ascent into the
tributary valley of the Cennen. But this stream makes a great loop, and
the troopers thrust their horses over the spur of hill about which the
torrent sweeps.
Presently the castle came in view, very new and white, constructed of
limestone, on a crag of the same substance, that rises precipitously for
five hundred feet sheer out the ravine and the brawling stream that
laves the foot of the crag.
After a slight dip the track led up a bold stony rise to the castle
gate.
The situation is of incomparable wildness and majesty. Beyond the ravine
towers up the Mynydd Ddu, the Black Mountain, clothed in short heather,
to cairn-topped ridges, two thousand feet above the sea, the flanks
seamed with descending threads of water; while further south over its
shoulder are seen purple hills in the distance. A solitary sycamore here
and there alone stands against the wind on the ridge about which the
Cennen whispers far below.
The bishop had already arrived at the castle. He had followed up his
emissary pretty quickly, anxious that his own view of the case should be
maintained in the event of the capture of Pabo.
He and Gerald of Windsor were on excellent terms. Between them they were
to divide the land, so much to the crook and so much to the sword; and
whom the latter did not consume were to be delivered over to feel the
weight of the crozier. In the subjugation of Wales, in the breaking of
the spirit of the people, church and castle must combine and play each
other's game.
The staff of the bishop has a crook above and a spike below, to signify
the double power that resides in his hands, that of drawing and that of
goading. The time for the exercise of the curved head might come in the
future, that for the driving of the sharp end was the present, thought
Bernard.
No sooner did he learn of the arrival of Pabo than he bade that he
should be brought into his presence, in the room given to him by his
host on whom he had intruded himself--a room facing south, overhanging
the precipice.
The weather was mild, and the sun shone in at the window. There was no
fire.
"So!" said the prelate, fixing his gray dark-rimmed irises on the
prisoner, "you are he who give yourself out to be the Archpriest of
Caio?"
"I am he," answered Pabo.
The bishop assured himself that the strongly built upright man before
him was bound and could not hurt him; and he said to the attendants, "Go
forth outside the door and leave this dissembler with me. Yet remain
within call, and one bid Gerald, the Master, come to me speedily."
The men withdrew.
"I wonder," said Bernard, and his words hissed through the gap in his
teeth, "I wonder now at thy audacity. If indeed I held thee to be Pabo,
the late Archpriest of Caio, who smote me, his bishop, on the mouth and
drew my blood, there would be no other course for me but to deliver thee
over to the secular arm, and for such an act of treason against thy
superior in God--the stake would be thy due."
"I am he, Lord Bishop, who struck thee on the mouth. The insult was
intolerable. The old law provided--an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth. If thou goest by the law of Moses deal with me as seems right.
What the Gospel law is, maybe thou art too recent in Holy Orders and too
new to the study of the Sacred Scriptures to be aware."
"Thou art insolent. But as I do not for a moment take thee to be the
deceased Pabo----"
"Lord Bishop, none doubt that I am he."
Bernard looked at him from head to foot.
"Methinks a taller man by three fingers' breadth, and leaner in face
certainly, as also browner in complexion, and with cheek-bones standing
out more forcibly."
Pabo hardly knew what to think of the bishop's words. It occurred to him
that the prelate was beating about for some excuse for pardoning him
whilst saving his dignity.
He smiled and said, "If it be a matter of doubt with thee, whether I be
indeed Pabo----"
"Oh! by no means," interrupted Bernard, "I have no manner of doubt. On
the surest testimony I know that the Archpriest Pabo was consumed by
fire from heaven. This is known far and wide. His Majesty the King is
aware of it; it is a matter of common talk."
"Yet is it not true."
"It is most assuredly true. I have the testimony of credible
eye-witnesses."
"Yet," said Pabo, "my own wife knows me."
"Of her I can believe anything," said Bernard, thrusting his seat a
little back, to give more space between himself and the prisoner.
"Hearken unto me," said the bishop; "I have heard say of these Welsh
that they keep their King Arthur somewhere, ready to produce him in the
hour of need, to fight against their rightful lord and sovereign the
King of England. And I warrant ye--they will turn out some scullion
knave, and put a tinsel crown about his head, and shout 'God save King
Arthur!' and make believe it is he come from his long sleep to fight
against us. But we are prepared against such make-believes and mumming
kings. And so, in like manner, when Pabo, Archpriest of Caio, is dead,
burned to a cinder, as it has been most surely reported to us, then up
starts such as you and assume to be what you are not, so as to fan the
flame of discontent among the people, and inspire them with hopes that
can never be fulfilled; and so persuade them to resist rightful
authority. Have I not appointed my late chaplain to be Archpriest in the
room of that unhappy man who, for temerity in lifting his hand against
his ecclesiastical father, was evidently, before the eyes of all men,
smitten by Heaven? I, of all men, I, who was struck in the face, and
thereby lost my teeth, have a right to recognize the impious man who
smote me. But I tell thee I do not identify thee. Further, I am ready to
declare, and if need be, to swear, that thou art not the man. Thou art
but a sorry makeshift. Who should know him, if not I?"
"My dear people of Caio, whose pastor I have been, among whom I have
gone in and out, will know me well enough. Confront me with them and the
matter will be settled at once."
"Nay--the word of a Welshman is not to be trusted. They will combine to
bolster up a lie. Thou art an impostor, a false Pabo. That is certain."
Then he turned his hands one over the other: "If thou wert the real
Pabo, then be very sure of this: I would deliver thee over to the
secular arm to be burned in verity--and only Norman and English soldiers
should surround the fire, and they would see that thou wast in truth
this time burned to a coal. But as I do not and will not hold this, I
ask thee, for thine own sake, to acknowledge that there has been a plot
to thrust thee forward--that thy people are in a league to accept thee
as their priest and chief, knowing very well that their true priest and
chief was burned in his house. Confess this, and I will use my endeavor
to get thee thrust away into some distant part, where no harm shall come
to thee. Nay, further," the bishop brightened up, "I will even keep thee
about myself and advance thee to honor, and I will put thee into a fat
benefice at the other extremity of the diocese, if thou wilt constantly
affirm that thou art not Pabo, and never wast Pabo, neither ever knew
him--but hast been mistaken for him through some chance resemblance."
"Although a Welshman," said the Archpriest, with a curl of the lip,
"and, as thou sayest, ready with lies, I will not say that."
"Then take the consequences," exclaimed the bishop. "I give one minute
in which to resolve thee. Admit that thou art an impostor, and I will do
what I can for thee; refuse--and--and----"
"Do your worst," exclaimed Pabo indignantly. "What your object is I
cannot devise; but, be it what it may, I will not help with a
falsehood. I am Pabo, still Archpriest and head of the tribe of the land
of Caio."
"Then," said the bishop, with harshness in his tone but with no
alteration in his mask-like face, "be content, as simulating the Pabo
who struck his ecclesiastical father in the face, and knocked out one
tooth and broke another, to receive such punishment as is due to so
treasonable an action."
"If we two met as plain Christian people, living under the Gospel," said
Pabo, "I would say the act was done under provocation; but it was an
unworthy act, and I, who committed it, express my regret and ask for
pardon of my brother Christian."
"And I," said the bishop, "as a Christian man and a prelate of the Holy
Roman Church, do cheerfully give forgiveness. Yet inasmuch as it is
unwise that----"
"I see," said Pabo; "a forgiveness that is no forgiveness at all. The
transgression must be wiped out in blood."
"The Church never sheds blood," said Bernard. "She hands over stubborn
offenders to the secular arm. Here it comes--in at the door."
The hand of Gerald of Windsor was thrust in, followed by the man
himself.
"See here," said Bernard, addressing the Baron and pointing to Pabo,
"this is a man who sets himself up to be a leader among the rebellious
Welsh, and is stirring up of hot blood and fomenting of intrigue."
"Aye," said Gerald, "I have tidings come this day that the beggars are
rising everywhere. They have among them their Prince Griffith ap Rhys."
"And here," said the prelate, "is one of his agents. This man gives
himself out to be a certain person whom he is not, and he has come among
the people of Caio to bid them take up arms. But happily my brother
Rogier is there."
"What shall we do with him?" asked Gerald.
"Beau Sieur," said the prelate, "with that I have nought to do.
Sufficient that I place him--a dangerous fellow--in your hands. And mark
you, a priest as well as an agitator, one to arouse the religious
fanaticism of the people against the Church as well as against the
Crown."
"What shall be done with him? Cut off his head?"
"Nay, I pray shed no blood."
"Shall we hang him?"
"I think," said the bishop, after musing a moment, "that it would be
well were he simply to disappear. Let him not be hung so that,
perchance, he might be recognized, but rather suffer him to be cast into
one of the dungeons where none may ever cast eye on him till he be but
bones and there be forgot."