not," returned the Hebrew, "whether it was the intrigues of yourcourt or the circumstances of it, which were the cause of all the messin which I and others have been involved, but I am aweary of it, andhave made up my mind to leave the place and retire to a remote part ofthe wilderness, where I may find in solitude solace to my exhaustedspirit, and rest to my old bones."
"That will never do, Beniah," said the prince, laughing. "You take tooserious a view of the matter. There is no fear of any more intrigues orcircumstances arising to perplex you for some time to come. Besides, Iwant your services very much--but, before broaching that point, let meask why you have invited me to come to see you here. Hafrydda gave meyour message--"
"My message!" repeated the Hebrew in surprise.
"Yes--to meet you here this forenoon on urgent business. If it isanything secret you have to tell me, I hope you have not got yourwonderful old witch in the back cave, for she seems to have discoveredas thorough a cure for deafness as I found for leprosy at the HotSwamp."
"Wonderful old witch!" repeated Beniah, with a dazed look, and a tone ofexasperation that the prince could not account for. "Do you, then, notknow about that old woman?"
"Oh! yes, I know only too much about her," replied Bladud. "She hasbeen staying at the palace for some time, as you know, and rather alively time the old hag has given us. She went in to see my mother oneday and threw her into convulsions, from which, I think, she has hardlyrecovered yet. Then she went to my father's room--the chief Gadarn andI were with him at the time--and almost before she had time to speakthey went into fits of laughter at her till the tears ran down theircheeks. I must say it seemed to me unnecessarily rude and unkind, for,although the woman is a queer old thing, and has little more of her facevisible than her piercing black eyes, I could see nothing to laugh at inher shrivelled-up, bent little body. Besides this, she has kept thedomestics in a state of constant agitation, for most of them seem tothink her a limb of the evil spirit. But what makes you laugh so?"
"Oh! I see now," returned the Hebrew, controlling himself by a strongeffort. "I understand now why the old woman wished to be present at ourinterview. Come forth, thou unconscionable hag!" added Beniah, in thevoice of a stentor, "and do your worst. I am past emotion of any kindwhatever now."
As he spoke he gazed, with the resigned air of a martyr, at the innerend of his cavern. Bladud also looked in that direction. A momentlater and the little old woman with the grey shawl appeared; thrust outthe plank bridge; crossed over, and tottered towards them.
"Dearie me! Beniah, there's no need to yell so loud. You know I've gotback my hearing. What want ye with me? I'm sure I have no wish to pryinto the secrets of this young man or yourself. What d'ye want?"
But Beniah stood speechless, a strange expression on his face, his lipsfirmly compressed and his arms folded across his breast.
"Have you become as dumb as I was deaf, old man?" asked the woman,petulantly.
Still the Hebrew refused to speak.
"Have patience with him, old woman," said Bladud, in a soothing tone."He is sometimes taken with unaccountable fits--"
"Fits!" interrupted the old woman. "I wish he had the fits that I havesometimes. Perhaps they would cure him of his impudence. They wouldcure you too, young man, of your stupidity."
"Stupidity!" echoed Bladud, much amused. "I have been credited withpride and haste and many other faults in my day, but never withstupidity."
"Was it not stupid of you to go and ask that silly girl to wed you--thatdouble-faced thing that knows how to cheat and deceive and--"
"Come, come, old woman," said the prince, repressing with difficulty aburst of indignation. "You allow your old tongue to wag too freely. Isuppose," he added, turning to Beniah, "that we can conclude ourconversation outside?"
But the Hebrew still remained immovable and sternly dumb.
Unable to understand this, Bladud turned again to the old woman, but,lo! the old woman was gone, and in her place stood Branwen, erect, withthe grey shawl thrown back, and a half-timid smile on her face.
To say that Bladud was thunderstruck is not sufficient to indicate hiscondition. He stood as if rooted to the spot with his whole beingconcentrated in his wide-open blue eyes.
"Is my presumption too great, Bladud?" asked the girl, hesitatingly. "Idid but wish to assure you that I have no other deceptions to practise.That I fear--I hope--that--"
The prince, recovering himself, sprang forward and once again stoppedher mouth--not with his hand; oh! by no means!--while Beniah, with thatrefinement of wisdom which is the prerogative of age, stepped out toascertain whether it happened to be rain or sunshine that ruled at thetime. Curiously enough he found that it was the latter.
That evening the doctor of the royal household was summoned by anaffrighted servitor to the apartment of Gadarn, who had been overheardchoking. The alarmed man of medicine went at once, and, bursting intothe room without knocking, found the great northern chief sitting on theedge of his couch purple in the face and with tears in his eyes. Theexasperated man leaped up intending to kick the doctor out, but,changing his mind, he kicked the horrified servitor out instead, and,taking the doctor into his confidence, related to him an anecdote whichhad just been told to him by Bladud.
"It will be the death of the king," said Gadarn. "You had better go tohim. He may need your services."
But the king was made of sterner stuff than his friend imagined. He putstrong constraint upon himself, and, being not easily overcome byfeeling--or anything else under the sun--he lived to relate the sameanecdote to his wife and daughter.
The day following, Bladud resumed with the Hebrew the conversation thathad been interrupted by Branwen.
"I was going to have said to you, Beniah, that I want your services verymuch."
"You had said that much, prince, before Bran--I mean Cor--that is, theold woman--interrupted us. How can I serve you?"
"By going back with me to the Hot Swamp and helping to carry out a grandscheme that I have in my brain."
The Hebrew shook his head.
"I love not your grand schemes," he said, somewhat sternly. "The lastgrand scheme that your father had was one which, if successfully carriedout, would have added a large portion of Albion to his dominions, andwould have swept several tribes off the face of the earth. As it was,the mere effort to carry it out cost the lives of many of the best youngmen on both sides, and left hundreds of mothers, wives, sisters, andchildren to mourn their irreparable losses, and to wonder what all thefighting was about. Indeed, there are not a few grey-bearded men whoshare that wonder with the women and children, and who cannot, by anyeffort of their imagination, see what advantage is gained by eitherparty when the fight is over."
"These grey-beards must be thick-skulled, then," replied the prince witha smile, "for does not the victor retain the land which he hasconquered?"
"Yea, truly, and he also retains the tombs of the goodly young men whohave been slain, and also the widows and sweethearts, and the nationalloss resulting from the war--for all which the land gained is but apaltry return. Moreover, if the All-seeing One cared only for thevictors, there might be some understanding of the matter--though at thecost of justice--but, seeing that He cares for the vanquished quite asmuch as for the victorious, the gain on one side is counterbalanced bythe loss on the other side, while the world at large is all the poorer,first, by the loss of much of its best blood, second, by the creation ofa vast amount of unutterable sorrow and bitter hatred, and, third, by atremendous amount of misdirected energy.
"Look, for instance, at the Hot Swamp. Before the late war it was theabode of a happy and prosperous population. Now, it is a desolation.Hundreds of its youth are in premature graves, and nothing whatever hasbeen gained from it by your father that I can see."
"But surely men must defend themselves and their women and childrenagainst foes?" said Bladud.
"Verily, I did not say they should not," replied Beniah. "Self-defenceis a duty; aggressive
war, in most cases (I do not say in all), is ablunder or a sin."
"I think that my mind runs much on the same line with yours, Beniah, asto these things, but I am pretty sure that a good many years will passover us before the warriors of the present day will see things in thislight."
One is apt to smile at Bladud's prophetic observation, when one reflectsthat about two thousand seven hundred years have elapsed since that day,and warriors, as well as many civilians, have not managed to see it inthis light yet!
"However," continued the prince, "the scheme which runs in my head isnot one of war--aggressive or defensive--but one of peace, for thebetterment of all mankind. As you know, I have begun to build a
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