THE BRACELET OF MAXEN
"Look at me," said Nest; "I am the daughter of Rhys and sister of your
Prince Griffith. How I have been treated God knows, but not worse than
my dear country. I have been cast into the arms of one of its
oppressors, and I welcome it, because I can do something thereby for
those of my people who suffer. Griffith is about. He will do great
things. I sent him with warning to you. And now I will even yet save
you. Know you where you are? Whither I have brought you? Come further."
She led him down among the smooth shoulders of rock, and showed him pans
scooped in the limestone ledges that brimmed with water.
There was no well in Careg Cennen. It would not have availed to have
sunk one. In the dry limestone there were no springs. Gerald the Norman
would not have reared his castle on this barren head of rock had he not
known that water was accessible in this natural cave.
But this cavern had been known and utilized long before the Norman
adventurers burst into Wales. At some remote age, we know not how many
centuries or tens of centuries before, some warfaring people had
surrounded the top of the hill with a wall of stones, not set in mortar,
but sustained in place by their own weight. And to supply themselves
with water, they had cut a path like a thread in the face of the
precipice to the mouth of a gaping cavern that could be seen only from
the slopes of the Black Mountains, on the further side of the Cennen
River.
In this vault water incessantly dripped, not in rapid showers, but
slowly; in wet weather more rapidly than at times of dryness, yet even
in the most burning, rainless seasons, there never was an absolute
cessation of falling drops. To receive these, bowls had been scooped out
in ledges of rock; and hither came the maidens daily with their
pitchers, to supply the wants of all in the castle. What the Norman
builders had done was to broaden the path by cutting deeper into the
face of the cliff, and to build up the face towards the precipice,
leaving loopholes at intervals, to prevent accidents such as might
happen through vertigo, or a turn of an ankle, or a slip on the polished
lime-rock. The whole mouth of the cavern had also been walled up, so
that no one unacquainted with the arrangements within the castle would
have suspected its existence.
To fill the pitchers the water-carriers were furnished with wooden
spoons and shallow ladles, with which they scooped up the liquid from
the rock-basins into their vessels.
Hither Nest, the wife of Gerald of Windsor, had brought Pabo. She had
learned what was the doom of the Archpriest so soon as the interview was
over between him, the bishop, and her husband. Nest was a subtle woman.
Lovely beyond any other woman in Britain, and with that exquisite
winsomeness of manner which only a Celtic woman possesses, which a Saxon
can ape but not acquire, she was able when she exerted her powers to
cajole Gerald, and obtain from him much that his judgment warned him he
should not yield. For a long time she had induced him even to harbor her
brother Griffith, but he did so only so long as the young man was not in
open revolt against King Henry.
She had not on this occasion attempted to induce Gerald to mitigate the
sentence on Pabo. She reserved her cajolery for another occasion. Now,
she had recourse to other means. With a little cleverness, she had
succeeded in securing the key of the dungeon; but for her own good
reasons she did not desire that her husband should learn, or even
suspect, that she had contrived the escape of the prisoner.
Now Pabo stood by her in the great natural domed vault in the bowels of
the mountain, crowned by Careg Cennen Castle; and by the flicker of the
lamp he saw her face, and wondered at its beauty.
"Pabo, priest of God!" she said, and her face worked with emotion.
"Heaven alone knows what a life I lead--a double life, a life behind a
mask. I have a poor, weak, trembling woman's heart, that bleeds and
suffers for my people. I have but one love--one only love, that fills
and flames in all my veins: it is the love of Wales, of my country, my
beautiful, my sovereign country. And, O God! my people. Touch them, and
I quiver and am tortured, and durst not cry out. Yet am I linked to one
who is my husband, and I belong to him in body. Yet hath he not my
immortal soul, he hath not this passionate heart. Nay! Not one single
drop of the burning Welsh blood that dances and boils in every artery."
She clasped her hands to her heart. "Oh, Pabo, my lot is in sad
quarters! My life is one continuous martyrdom for my country, for my
people, for their laws, their freedom, their Church! What can I do? Look
at these women's fingers! What gifts have I? Only this fair face and
this golden hair, and a little mother wit. I give all to the good cause.
And now," she became more calm in tone, and she put forth her hand and
clasped the priest by the wrist, and spake in measured tones, though her
finger-ends worked nervously. "And now--learn this. For reasons that I
cannot speak plainly, I would not have my husband know that I have
contrived thy escape. And I cannot contrive to pass thee out through the
gates. There is but one way that thou canst be freed. See--the women
come hither to draw water, and the door creaks on its hinges whensoever
opened. When thou hearest the door cry out, then hide thee under the
stair, or yonder in the depth of the cave. None of the wenches penetrate
further than these basins. But after they have left--and they come but
in the morning and at eve--then thou hast this place to thyself. Know
that there is no escape downwards from the eyelet-holes. It is a sheer
fall--and if that were adventured, thou wouldst be dashed to pieces, as
was one of the Normandy masons who was engaged on the wall. He lost his
foothold and fell--and was but a mangled heap at the bottom. No--that
way there is no escape. I have considered well, and this is what I have
devised." She paused and drew a long breath. "There stands a stout and
well-rooted thorn-tree on the crag above. I will tarry till supper-time,
when my lord and his men will be merry over their cups, and then will I
swing a bracelet--this." She took off a twisted serpent of gold,
quaintly wrought, from her wrist. "This I will attach to a string, and I
will fasten the other end to the thorn-tree. Then shall the bracelet be
swung to and fro, and do thou remain at one of the loopholes, and put
forth thine hand and catch the string as it swings. Hold it fast and
draw it in. Then I will attach a knotted rope to the string, and do thou
draw on until thou hast hold of the rope. Thereupon I will make the
other end fast to the thorn-tree, and as thou canst not descend, mount,
and thou art free."
Pabo hesitated--then said, "It seems to me that these eyelet-holes are
too narrow for a man's body to pass through."
"It is well said," answered Nest, "and of that I have thought. Here is a
stout dagger. Whilst thou canst, work out the mortar from between the
joints of the masonry about the window-slit yonder. It is very fresh and
not set hard. But remove not the stone till need be."
"I will do so."
"And as to the bracelet," continued Nest, "it is precious to me, and
must not be left here to betray what I have done. Bring it away with
thee."
"And when I reach the thorn-tree then I will restore it thee."
"Nay," rejoined Nest, "take it with thee, and go find my brother
Griffith, wherever he be, and give it to him. Know this: it was taken
from the cairn of Maxen Wlledig, the Emperor of Britain, whose wife was
a Welsh princess, and whose sons ruled in Britain, and of whose blood
are we. Tell him to return me my bracelet within the walls of Dynevor.
Tell him"--her breath came fast and like flame from her lips--"tell him
that I will not wear it till he restore it to me in the castle of our
father--in the royal halls of our ancestors, the Kings of Dyfed, and
has fed the ravens of Dynevor with English flesh."
Again she calmed down.
A strange passionate woman. At one moment flaming into consuming heat,
then lulling down to calm and coolness. It was due to the double life
she lived; the false face she was constrained to assume, and the
undying, inextinguishable patriotic ardor that ate out her heart, that
was so closely and for so long time smothered, but which must at times
force itself into manifestation. Pabo, looking into that wondrous face,
by the flicker of the little lamp, saw in it a whole story of sorrow,
shame, rage, love, and tenderness mapped out.
A strange and terrible life-story had hers been--even in young days.
She had been taken from her home while quite a child, and committed as a
hostage to the charge of Henry Beauclerk; he had done her the worst
outrage that could have been offered--when she was helpless, an alien
from her home and people in his power. Then, without caring whether she
liked the man or not, he had married her to Gerald of Windsor, the
spoliator, the ravager of South Wales. Once, Owen ap Cadogan, son of
the Prince of Cadogan, had seen her at a banquet and eisteddfod given by
her father at Aberteiri, to which the kings, princes, and lords of Wales
had been invited. Among all the fair ladies there assembled none
approached in beauty the young Princess Nest, daughter of King Rhys, and
wife of Gerald of Windsor. Owen went mad with love. On the plea of
kinship he visited her in Pembroke Castle, set it on fire, and while it
was blazing carried her away into Powys.
Nor was she an unwilling victim: she accompanied him, but only because
she trusted that he would rouse all Wales and unite North and South in
one great revolt against the power of England. And, indeed, at his
summons, like a wild-fire, revolt had spread through Dyfed, Cardigan,
and southern Powys. Only North Wales remained unmoved. The struggle was
brief--the Cymri were poor and deficient in weapons of war, and were
unable to withstand the compact masses hurled against them, in perfect
military discipline, and securing every stride by the erection of a
stronghold. Owen, carrying with him plenty of spoil, fled to Ireland,
where he was hospitably received, and Gerald recovered his wife. She was
disillusioned. Owen sought no nobler end than the amassing of plunder
and the execution of vindictive revenge on such as had offended him. His
ferocity had alienated from him the hearts of his people, for his sword
had been turned rather against such of his own kin who had incurred his
resentment than against the common foe.
Into Cardigan, the realm of Owen's father, Strongbow had penetrated, and
had planted castles.
Presently, harboring treachery in his heart, Owen returned from Ireland
and threw himself into the arms of Henry Beauclerk, who flattered him
with promises and took him in his company to Normandy, where he bestowed
on Owen the honor of knighthood, and had converted him into a creature
ready to do his pleasure without scruple.
Pembroke Castle had been rebuilt, Carmarthen was girt with iron-bound
towers; in rear, Strongbow was piling up fortresses at Aberystwyth and
Dingeraint.
"See!" said Nest; "poorly hast thou fared hitherto. I have laid in a
store of food for thee under the stair. Be ready just before nightfall.
Lay hold of the golden bracelet, and retain it till thou encounterest
Griffith, then give it him with my message. Let him return it me in our
father's ruined hall of Dynevor, when it is his own once more."