Dewi Sant
"_O holy David, our bishop, take away our sadness._"
David strode along the winding road: his feet were bare, his head wasbare and tonsured, and one garment, of coarse felt, but snowy white,was his only bodily covering. The sun beat down upon him; the sky, ofa deep, throbbing blue, held few clouds, and they silvery andsweetly-curved as the breast-feathers of a dove; on his left, thesea dazzled; before and about him, small columns of dust twirledmischievously. David's eyes, dark and bright, feasted untiringly uponthe life and growth around him, and he sang as he went.
"Dancing is the sea, the winds are dancing also: Breath of angels hath the sun-warmed hay, the poppies are out in scarlet. Good thing it is for a man to strive in his lifetime.
"A mighty chorus echoeth from the bed of ocean: There is also the poem of the flight of birds. Who would conquer sin, must learn praise and gratitude.
"Who hath set the thrift in the rocks that are smooth and barren? Who nourisheth the little sweet rose that maketh a garden of the sand-dunes? How can a man wander, when for him the Love of God is nailed on high?
"The corn-ears are purple-ripe: Generous gifts bring the apple-boughs against the season of All Saints. Very good is song, that giveth cheerfulness."
He turned him about, and looked back upon the whitewashed walls ofMynyw, his darling among his many foundations. To the little company ofreligious who followed his steps, he cried:
"I do think that of all the lands in all the world the fairest is ourland of Cymru. And of all the parts of Cymru, look you, the fairest andthe sweetest is this Dyfed."
Aidan, Teilo, Ismail, and some few more clustered round him. Said theyall together:
"Indeed, indeed, blessed, holy father, blessed is our Dyfed!" and manywere the looks of affection they cast upon their little abbot.
"I have been in the Holy Country," said David. "That is the very marvelof the world--a jewel set in the desert; but hard and bright, dear me!there is unplayful it is! I can never give thanks enough, children,that I am permitted to dwell here where I was born."
So saying, he resumed his journey. They had left the monks' cultivateddomain behind them, and were now in the shade of a broad lane betweenwillows and hazels, where the mallows and the bellflowers grew rankly.Of a sudden, the lane came to an end, and they emerged upon the littlepromontory below Porth Mawr. Carn Llidi loomed above them, on theirright hand, and at its foot rose Ty Gwyn, the deserted college ofPatrick, with its grave-stones round about it. In the western distance,far away, appeared a green fairy land, with the hazy forms of mountainsmelting into the skyline.
"Let us pray for our brethren of Ireland," said David, "of the SecondOrder of Saints."
About an hour later, David was still some few paces at the head of hispeople, and repeating to himself, hands folded, the prayers for thethird hour after noon, when he felt his shoulder seized in a brawnygrip, and he was forcibly twisted round until he faced a sturdyindividual, with a broad, smiling red face, sandy hair, and twinklinggreen-grey eyes, and fully equipped with the war-sword, flowing robe,and shoes of dressed leather which only a nobleman might wear. Near himwere his retinue of horsemen, one of whom held the steed from which hislord had just dismounted.
"David, little cousin," was his greeting, "whither so fast, I praythee, with thy chin to the ground? Have you mission to punishwrong-doers, O very powerful saint?"
"Why, kinsman Cadfan," David replied, "sweet is the sight of you to theeyes. It is seldom we meet now. But I am not abroad to deal withevildoers, look you. Dyfed, thanks be to God! is a very peaceful place;the religion of Christ reigns even in the farthest nooks. I have enoughto do, kinsman, to order mine own house and the brethren and disciplesover whom I rule. The bishops hold synod at Brefi, and I must be therewith the rest; though little doing, say I, follows much talking."
"Hast indeed won all this land by thy words and wonders?" cried Cadfan,who, though he had great affection for David, could never, in hispresence, master an uncontrollable desire to tease him. "Look that theydeceive thee not, the pigs of Dyfed! and pay not double tithes to theirDruids, and turn to them first at birth and at death! What did I hearof thee and of a monstrous old stone? Some tale spread by women...."
"Dost thou doubt the power of God?" exclaimed David, with flashingeyes. Then, as he caught sight of his interlocutor's face, he could nothelp smiling. "Cadfan, they would not give up the old stone ofCetti--slew beast and fowl upon it, to obtain prosperity, or forblessing or cursing, and slept beneath its shade that dreams mightvisit them! Then, on a day, when a great crowd was there assembled, Iprayed, and took a sword in my hand, and climbed upon the oldabomination, to the very top; and I smote with my sword in the face ofall the people, and lo! the stone split in twain with a hideous scream.Oh, joyful was my heart for that God had deigned to heed mysupplication! And so was the unbelieving remnant drawn into theChurch's fold."
"Well done, well done!" said his jovial kinsman.
"And the Gwyddel chieftains? Are they forbearing towards thee?"
"Boia is dead. Leschi came out of Ireland and slew him and all his inone night; and Leschi is for holy Church. But it was pity for Boia. Hesuffered us gladly, and I think would have hearkened to the word erelong. A brave soul! I say mass for him often, as Cattwg does for worthyVirgil. But the wicked shrew, his wife! she urged him with all hermight against us; and when we would take no notice of her handmaidenswhom she sent to bathe in the stream that runs before our very doors,one day she lured Dunawd her step-daughter to an ancient altar in aforsaken spot, and sacrificed her to the Siddi, her underground gods.First shore off the little one's hair,[6] and then slit her throat! Asweet innocent child! who would come to our church door, to peep and tolisten, and then flee shyly away. Alas! alas! a grievous happening!"
[6] In sign of dedication.
"And wilt thou spend all thy days in lonely Dyfed, little holy one? Idid hear of thee at Afallach,[7] where Joseph's thorn grows. Didst thounot bestow there some very rich treasure? Would that not be a kinglycentre for thee to dwell in?"
[7] Glastonbury.
"At Afallach left I the sapphire altar which I brought from Caer Salem.Afallach will be great and famous, I doubt not; but, Mary be aiding! Iwill live and die yonder in Glyn Rhosyn, nursery of the dearest of mysons. Lonely we are, yes. We control no state policy, for Britain isthe dominion of the Saxons; but Cymru shall render us thanks in days tocome: we shall have great power of prayer."
"O cousin, it is marvel to me that thou canst thus go barefoot in thedust, and hang rough texture of the taeogion[8] about thee, and drinknought but tasteless water. I am but an ordinary man, and I would notforego my pleasures of everyday for any miracles which might be sung ofdown the ages. Well, well! each man to his own taste! I go to old AuntAngharad, at Porth Mawr. The blessed woman! she has found me a daintymaid to wife, says she. Now speak me a blessing, David, and let me haveyour prayers."
[8] Villeins.
"Our Lord God be aiding thee, kinsman Cadfan! May He preserve to theethy good tenderness of heart!"
"And may He prosper thee, my David! Fare thee well, little kinsman."
Cadfan departed on his way, and David and his companions set theirfaces northwards. They were not a solitary party. The road swarmed withpriests and monks, and was trodden also by many laymen and some fewwomen whom devotion or curiosity drew to the synod of the bishops atBrefi in Ceredigion. As evening drew on, the abbot-bishop of Menevialed his tired followers up the slope of a wooded hill, where he knewwere dry caverns to pass the night in, and a spring of water. When theyneared their proposed resting-place, a tonsured figure ran out fromunder the trees, and stood in their path-way, waving his arms.
David whistled to the mongrel greyhound that padded by his side. Then,suddenly, he hastened his steps, his face aglow.
"Padarn! Dear, dear me! My Padarn! Are ye many? Or may we spend thisnight with thee and thine i
n this God-given spot?"
"Well met, well met, David!" cried Padarn, "And well met all, yeroad-stained travellers! There is surely room for all." He hurriedthrough the thicket to the clearing before the rocky bank which theaforesaid caves perforated, calling out: "Brethren! whom see ye here,whom see ye? Look you, this is David of Mynyw. Teilo, he, and I didjourney together to the holy Jerusalem, one in soul, in joy, and insorrow; and is it not a gladsome thing that he should be here amongstus this night?"
An enthusiastic welcome ensued, and before long David, Teilo, Aidan,Ismail and the rest had been seated by the fire and supplied with foodand drink. This was the Age of the Saints. Besides the newcomers therewere some dozen holy men, whose names are living yet, sitting aboutupon the ground, each one bound for the great synod of the Cymricpriesthood. In the mouth of the largest cave squatted an elderly man,sallow and wrinkled, with a beak-like nose and weary eyes; he hadvellum, pen, and inkhorn, and wrote sedulously, giving himself norespite, with a heavy frown between his brows the while. David knew himfor Gildas of Strathclyde, the apostle of Ruys in Lesser Britain.
They yielded early to their fatigue, and lay down where they bestmight, most of them within the shelter of the caves. Gildas put asidehis pen.
"They are all mightily drunken with the use and custom of sins!" hethundered. "If I reckoned without pause for ten years, the scandalsconcerning the high men of Britain would not be enumerated--andconcerning also our monks and ordained priests (Have mercy, have mercy,on us miserable sinners!). Our princes are a host of devils--nay, worsethan devils, for have they not received the sign and sacrament ofbaptism? Lust, and pillage, and oppression are such as were neverbefore since the creation of the world. Stinking to heaven isGomorrah--I should say Aberffraw! And there dwells the most heinous,the Satan of them all--and that is Maelgwn Gwenedd!"
David yawned, said a prayer for his kinsman Maelgwn, stretched himself,and fell asleep.
At the first glimmer of dawn, they were awakened by the clanging ofGildas's bell. Their prayer said, David went to bathe in the brook nearby. When he returned to the camp-fire, Gildas, his countenance sallowerthan usual, twisting and biting his lips, had just bent down to thesimmering pot that hung over the flames, with a loaf of bread in hishand, when the mongrel grey-hound darted up to him, made an ecstaticleap, and snatching the loaf in his teeth, rushed away with it down thehill-side.
David's laugh pealed loud and clear. The holy Gildas turned furiouslyupon a little boy, one of his pupils, who stood beside him rubbingsleepy eyes, and abused him for not giving his master warning of whathe must have seen was likely to occur. The bishop of Mynyw ran as fastas he could after the thief. Some distance below, in the valley, hecaught his dog, beat and scolded him, and possessed himself of thebread. In the village at the hill's foot, he admired a cottager'sleeks, and was given a handful. He then re-ascended the hill.
"The sour-faced hawk!" thought he. "I am glad, very glad, he did notobtain the rule of Mynwy when he tried to supersede me, long ago!"
Gildas confronted him.
"Ill is thy laughter, Dewi mab Sandde!" he spluttered hoarsely. "For aholy man of God--such conduct is light...."
"Thou hast the black bile, brother," said David. "Laughter is surelygiven us for good--so are we different from the brute beasts. We mustpractise austerities for all needful purposes; but I counsel thee thatthou endeavour to find joy in all things gay and innocent, and in thineown mishaps, that prove thee human, most of all: so shall suchdust-specks not make the sunshine less sweet to thee!" In softer tones,"Lift up thy heart, brother; in a very little while, we shall break ourfast. I and my companions will find food enough for us all and tospare."
Gildas, raging inarticulately, rushed into the cave where he had spentthe night.
David turned to the contrite boy, whose cheeks showed traces of tears.
"Hast thou seen our Lady's Candle,[9] over yonder by the quarry-side?"said he. "Such altar-light saw I never made by the hand of man. Seekthou it out, for a lovely sight."
[9] The great mullein.
"Father David," answered the child, "how may that be? Do they not tellus that we must not gratify our senses, for that this world teems withsin most foul?"
"That is old nonsense!" cried David. "Has not the Lord made all theearth, and is not His Word indwelling? And, son, remember this--comestorm, come drought, come frost, nothing can take our God from us."
"Is it true, O my father," asked the boy, wide-eyed, "that once on atime your own cook did try to poison you?"
"The poor mad fellow!" said the bishop shortly. "Luckily one of myguests suspected, and so were we one and all saved alive. Go thou drawwater, little one, where the brook is deepest: I have need of more."
David stirred the broth in the pot, adding his leeks and some sage andpepper which he carried about him. The monks had gone their severalways, in search of wild fruits and pot-herbs. From within the biggestcave came the sound of restless fidgeting. David began to sing:
"Hast thou heard the saying of Calwaladr, King of all Britain? The best crooked thing is the crooked handle of a plough."
There was a hasty footfall behind and Gildas stood beside him.
"Thy pardon, David," he said, very humbly, hanging his head. "Indeed,indeed, I know not why--but I have always a dark humour beforebreakfast!"
"Oh, Gildas, Gildas," cried David, as he wrung both the other's hands."I am too hot-mettled, I fear, in the early hours!"
When they were within an hour's walk of the town of Brefi, David leftthem and disappeared into the woods.
"There will be enough to talk and enough to listen," said he to Aidan."I feel a great need to pray."
The rest of the party proceeded without him. Now upon and around thehill of Brefi vast numbers of people were assembled. Certain questionsdisquieted the land of Cymru. Some hundred and fifty years before,Morgan the Briton, who is also called Pelagius, being at Rome, where helived ascetically and reasoned unceasingly, hatched from his brain asubtle heresy. Adam's sin was his alone, and brought no curse upon hischildren; the will of a man to do good was enough to secure him fromsin; Christ died only that His example might prompt and incite thewell-disposed to greater efforts, and that those baptized in His Namemight enter after death into a heaven superior to that of unbelievers.Now, of all the races of the earth, the race which set most store bythe sayings of Morgan was his own nation of the Briton, who lovediscussion before all things, and especially discussion of theproperties of the soul. Even so late as this, the Pelagians in Britainwere many, and tampered with the faith of many, exhorting theirfellow-Christians to forego the aid of the sacraments, as tending tosuperstitious bondage. And that some even of the clergy led gross andscandalous lives, we have Saint Gildas to witness.
The day of the synod was hot to oppression. From early morning untilpast noon, one after another, bishop and priest addressed thegathering. There was as much embroidered rhetoric, impassionedargument, and brilliant, aimless quotation as always abound whereverthe Cymry are met together; but to no one came the trenchant words thatwould sever the knots of their problems. As for the greatest amongthem, Dyfrig, and Deiniol, and Gildas, they seemed tongue-tied by theheavy weather, and hopelessly dreary.
Then said Dyfrig the aged saint:
"One who was made bishop by the Patriarch of Caer Salem is not presentamongst us, a man who is eloquent, full of grace, and approved inreligion, who has spread the Gospel far and wide in the desert regionsof Britain, and has thoroughly purged the pagan land of Dyfed: Davidthe son of Sandde, of Mynyw in Pebidiog. Let us send for him."
Gildas, Dyfrig, and Deiniol, and the young Aidan, sought and foundDavid, and to Brefi hill they led him. Now the sides of the hill werewhite as a flowering orchard with the bleached garments of the priestsand bishops who crowded thereon, and for a mile or more on every handstretched the great throng of the people. When David came among them,the holy men made a pile of their cloaks, satchels, and books that hemight mount upon it, for he was a s
hort man (they say three cubits inheight). So he stood up before them in all his greatness, and he seemedto tower high above them all.
He spoke to them in his voice of silver; he smote at error with strongstrokes, which called forth both tears and laughter; he pleaded sweetlywith the recalcitrant; his arguments were sound, his metaphors livelyand concise. How can it be supposed, said he, that the nature of mancan of itself engender righteousness to salvation? He told of his ownlaborious days: of his long discipleship with Illtyd; his missionaryjourneys throughout the west of Britain; his struggle, scarcely ended,with hostile princes and heedless people in his native province; histemptations, contests, watchings, and privations; his experiences as aruler of religious and a trainer of youth. "If a man glorify his will,there follows pride; and pride drops dead in the presence of God mockedand crucified!"
Then he talked of discipline, of the need of it in human life, and ofhow it must be loving and carefully contrived, that the heart of thedelinquent be not hardened.
Of those who listened, not one moved from his place until the end ofDavid's discourse, and scarcely one stirred hand or foot. And somethere were who saw a spirit near the saint, like to a dove, withgleaming bill, who sometimes perched upon his shoulder and whispered inhis ear. And to many in that assembly his words brought comfort entireand ease from mental strife, and left in their hearts a pathway ofpeace and light.
They acclaimed him with rapturous tongues; far and wide they noised itthat David of Mynyw was the treasure of the Cymry, the prince of allthe saints of Britain. Gildas muttered congratulations, and hurriedaway to his interminable writing. His heart was not free from envy fora little while.
As David was leaving the synod, he heard the sound of heartbroken sobsfrom a little gathering upon the banks of the Teify. It was a poorwoman lamenting by the body of her son.
"Dewi, Dewi!" she cried, "have pity upon my affliction! He was my onlylittle weakly child, and I have striven so sorely to rear him! Godcannot reave him from me. Entreat Him for me, Dewi Sant!"
The tears rose to David's eyes as these sorrowful words were uttered;he knelt down by the body, and began to rub the hands and the feet, andto pray aloud in this wise.
"O Lord, my God, who didst descend to this world from the bosom of theFather for us sinners, that Thou mightest redeem us from the jaws ofthe old enemy, have pity on this widow, and give life to her only son,that Thy Name may be magnified in all the earth!"
He felt the limbs growing gradually warmer beneath his touch, and hecontinued to pray, and to call upon the boy in tender, soothing tones.By and by the eyelids flickered; then the boy opened his eyes, raisedhimself for the space of a second, and looked full into the eyes ofDavid. They gave him wine, and life was secured to him.
When they had escaped from the grateful outpourings of the mother,David said to Teilo:
"Brother, an awful thing is death! For after death, we come no more;and judgment follows. It has been given to me once or twice to beholdthe Angel drawing near to those who themselves were unaware; and powerhas even then come upon me that I might put them in mind of theirlatter end. I pray often, Teilo, that neither thou, nor I, nor any ofthe brethren, nor any of all my beloved people, may be cut off withouttimely warning."
Wherefore, say the ancients, is the Corpse Candle foretellingdissolution oftenest seen in the diocese of Mynyw.
The next day, before they had travelled many miles, earth and sky tookon a mysterious aspect. A heavy blight hung in the air; and a strange,watery column, with its head in the clouds, trailed over the earth,discharging raindrops which were hot to the touch and yet struck chill.A few men and women fell sick by the roadside; their bodies shrivelledand turned yellow, and in a few hours they died. David remained amongthe sufferers, nursing and consoling. The Yellow Plague hourlyincreased its ravages. Some recounted that the advance of the pestcould be seen in the form of a female spirit--a frightful hag,hairless, with flavescent features and long pointed teeth, who clutchedat her prey. Ere many days, the land was choked with unburied corpses.
"Maelgwn the King is dead!" they told David.
"Then is Gildas content!" said he. "Hasten we to Mynyw."
In Dyfed, for all his loving zeal, he could not dwell long, because ofthe Plague which followed him there. So David and all his survivingbrethren and all the inhabitants of Pebidiog whom he could gathertogether set sail for Lesser Britain. There he laboured greatly forfive years and more at Leon, Saint Ivy, and Loquivy, preaching the wordof God and founding churches and houses of religion.
In the last year but one of the fifth century after Christ, when Davidwas a very old man, Cynyr son of Cyngen, a scholar in Teilo's Cor uponthe Taff, being unable to bear the stern rule of Teilo, fled from thecollege and wandered until he came upon Llywel the hermit of Selyf inBrycheiniog, who entertained him and kept him under his protection. Anda little after Llywel died, and Cynyr dwelt still in the former cell ofLlywel. That year was cold and frosty, and the fruits of the earth werenipped in the ear and in the bud. At the autumn equinox great storms ofwind and rain arose, followed early by snow, and the flocks of the menof Brycheiniog were lost and starved for the most part. As soon as thethaw set in at the beginning of the next year, Llyr Merini, lord ofTalgarth, laid claim to a cantref in the lordship of Rhaint son ofBrychan, his wife's brother, as belonging to his own tribe, andpublicly reproached King Rhaint with being the cause of the latedisastrous weather through his harbourage of an apostate religious. Themen of Llyr fell upon the lands of Rhaint, seized his men, broke theirploughs, and carried off the little grain they had ready to sow. Someof the seed-corn with which they could not escape they cast into thestony bed of the brook Cilieni. Rhaint and his people proceeded tofitting reprisals. And so things continued until the spring had comeindeed. It was then that David of Mynyw, as he journeyed throughBrycheiniog, declared his will to judge between the warring princes.
On the morning of the first of May, a white-robed monk, with hornyhands, and a tanned face whose pointed nose and patient brown eyes madeit resemble the face of a dog, stood in the dingle through which theClydach flows. Upon a gradually-sloping bank, where primroses and smallblue violets bloomed in the damp and mossy grass, he had just spreadthree sheep-skins, and was regarding their position with doubtful look.He appeared oblivious of two other persons who occupied the little glenat the same moment, though these were no less than Llyr Merini, lord ofTalgarth, and his wife Gwen, daughter of King Brychan. At a seemlydistance were their household attendants.
"O Lily, servant of David," said Llyr, "I have heard that he thy masterholds the keys that do lock and unlock the portals of heaven!"
"Very righteous saint is David," replied Lily. He did no more thanglance at the lord and lady.
"Surely he does consider that the perjury of one tonsured to God is ofall things the most abominable?"
"David has a key to all of heaven that is in the world," David'sservant continued. "Where he scattereth, there does the good cornspring. When the Yellow Plague had run its course, and we returned fromLlydaw, a crushing labour was before him, for men were lax and weary,and religion wellnigh forgotten. But this task he fulfilled, for theblessing of God was upon him, and he and his disciples journeyed farafield, hither to Brycheiniog, and into Gwent, Ewyas, and Erging, andsowed the seed of the Gospel in plenty. Every holy thing does Davidfoster and honour. And he reads plainly the hearts of men, and tracesthe springs of their actions. A fountain of justice is the heart ofDavid."
"Many fair churches owns David. Loves he not gifts of gold, and silver,and polished jewels," said Gwen eagerly, "for the adornment of hisfoundations? They say that the praise of beauty is ever upon his lips."
"This will not do for my master!" cried Lily, snatching one of thefleeces from the ground. "How can he, whose years are ninety and more,huddle upon the moss like a lithe-limbed stripling? He must have a seatconformable to his dignity, myn Duw!"
"See, see!" Gwen cried. "A heap of logs for the great May fire! We willfetch one of them, hu
sband, for the use of the powerful saint."
They carried a log between them to the foot of the bank. Lily approvedit, after scrutiny, and spread one of his cherished sheepskins upon it.Then David came slowly into the glen towards them, leaning upon the armof King Rhaint of the Red Eyes. With a quick gesture of greeting to allthere assembled, he seated himself in the tribunal prepared for him. Heseemed smaller than ever now, for his form was bowed and his skin wasabundantly wrinkled, and all his life and energy centred in hisgleaming dark-hazel eyes.
Teilo, abbot-bishop of Llandaff, and Ismael, one of David's ownbishops, were with him, and some of their attendant monks; and thecourtiers and fighting-men of Rhaint followed. A few of the villagershad made their way to the place of meeting.
"Speak you now your causes, my children," said David, in his clariontones, which the years had scarcely weakened.
"This one has attacked my lands," cried Rhaint, "and has broken theploughs of my men, and destroyed their valuable corn-seed!"
"This one," cried Llyr, "keeps from me a cantref which was my father'sand the father of my father's; and Brycheiniog brings forth nosustenance, for Rhaint mab Brychan protects the renegade Cynyr!"
Two armed men, shouting and threatening, dragged a youth in monasticgarb, tonsured, his countenance pallid and his eyes dim with watchingand fasting, to the feet of the bishops.
"Here is Cynyr, between my men," said Rhaint. "Examine him, father,upon his matter."
"O stinging viper!" exclaimed Teilo. "Obedience didst thou vow to me inmy college upon the Taff! And thou didst manifest such notabledispositions in the early days of thy pupilage!"
"May the penalty be heavy and bitter, we pray you, holy bishops," saidGwen, "that the curse be lifted from us. Always very ill fortune dogsthe breach of a vow!"
"Lady, I would have silence about me," said David, "that I may pray OurLord for grace to discern rightly between Teilo my son and my brotherand Llywel who is in Paradise." ... After a brief pause: "What pleadestthou, Cynyr? By whose permission hast thou betaken thyself to the lifeof a solitary? Wilt thou confess thy sins, and return to the faithfulcongregation?"
"Dewi mab Sandde, with you will I go," the young man replied.
"With me? but not with Teilo? Speak out thy mind, and fear not."
"Not with Teilo. His rule is too harsh: I cannot bow myself to suchauthority."
"Thou must go with my brother Teilo, being his pupil and servant."
"I will abide here in Llywel's cell, and gather about me my own Cor,and rule it. Or I will live beneath the ordinance of David. Let him[10]not cast me away; for of all saints he is the most efficacious! I wouldbe a holy man, even as he is. But, look you, the legions of Satan docompass me about, and make hideous my nights and my days. There is alsoan evil, fair woman, Indeg daughter of Maenarch, who plagues mewhenever I do meet with her; and her spirit is with me continually, totrouble me, when she herself is absent! Pray for me, for the love ofthe Lord!"
[10] David. Cynyr uses the third person singular of courtesy.
"O Cynyr," said David meditatively, "hast thou the gift of obedience, Iwonder?... Thou hast taken thy final vows before the Holy Sacrament?"he added suddenly.
Cynyr hung his head, and grew even paler than he had been before.
"No, no. My consecration should have been at the Paschal Feast of lastyear. I fled Llandaff the week before. This I told to blessed Llywelbefore he took me in."
"Why, Teilo," said the bishop of Mynyw, "I had heard that this Cynyrhad deserted the furrow that he had undertaken to plough. Where is thetruth in this?"
"My overseer of the disciples did speak of his consecration," was theother bishop's answer.
"Thou hast said that his vows were taken?"
"I did think that they were," said Teilo.
"Llandaff has done the youth great wrong!" cried David.
A dull red crept into the face of Teilo, but he did not utter a word.
"Come you here, Llyr and Rhaint," David said sternly. "This is myjudgment, princes, upon you. It is written that cursed is he whooppresses the poor and helpless. Ye have brought contention andbloodshed to pass. Your people are slain, or wounded, or they pine incaptivity; those that remain unhurt and free are starving, their fieldsbeing waste; and great is your guilt, for their livelihood is giveninto your charge! Ye have just heard the conclusion of your affair.Cynyr son of Cyngen is no vowed monk; how can heaven have sent a blightupon your lands for his sake? Greed it was that made Llyr to plunderthe Lordships of Rhaint. And Rhaint has hated his brother, though I saynot that his hatred had no cause. Ye two shall swear to be friends, andto keep peace, and maintain good government. And half of Selyf shall bethine, O Rhaint, for Brychan thy father did win it in fair fight; andhalf shall be Llyr's, for thy sister is his wife, and he is thybrother. So shall the lords of Gwent not spoil Brycheiniog when itschief men are divided."
The princes exclaimed together:
"Wondrous his judgment! There is content we are!"
"Gwen daughter of Brychan, wilt thou swear to this also?"
"Yes, yes!" the Lady Gwen replied. "No love of warfare have I!"
"In the name of God, ye do promise to hold to peace and fellowship?"
"In the name of God, we do promise to hold to peace and fellowship onewith another!"
"Prosperity be upon you, and upon your children and your children'schildren, and upon all that is yours and theirs, while ye do observethis solemn compact!" said David then. "And if so be ye scorn and breakit, may lightning and storm devastate your territories, may sicknessand famine stalk throughout them, and may rottenness take hold uponyour bodies! Amen, amen!"
Rhaint and Llyr held each other's hands and shook them up and down;they almost danced upon the springy sod in the exhilaration that theirreactive emotion had quickened.
"I am old donkey, Llyr!" shouted Rhaint. "I forgive thee thy ravages.My people will have no bread this year; but doubtless thou wiltprovide?"
"Donkey and cuckoo am I!" roared Llyr. "I will feed thy people. We willmake a great feast to-night, and forget our differences."
And they two and Gwen sat down upon the bank, and laughed and gossippedtogether.
Cynyr flung himself at David's feet.
"Forsake me not!" he wailed. "I am as firmly resolved as ever to leadthe life of a saint. Let the little holy one of Mynyw be aiding to me!"
The abstraction of age was upon David; he sat gazing at and through thekneeling youth.
Lily approached him, carrying something square wrapped in a cloth.
"What wouldst thou say, my servant?" the bishop murmured. "Well, well,indeed, what hast thou there?"
"My father's official," answered Lily. He removed the cloth, anddisclosed a book, with cover worn and water-stained, and laid it uponhis master's knees.
David turned the pages, caressing them with his numb old fingers.
"Once I was harsh with a boy,"[11] said he. "And my harshness wasbecause of this blemished volume. I thank thee, Lily, for bringing thatsin of anger to my mind. The child, whom I had permitted to read myoffice-book, left it out of doors upon a rainy day. For penance I senthim to lie at full length upon the sand of the shore at Porth Mawr; andin the press of business I forgot for many hours where I had bidden himbide. When at last I ran to find him, the waves were licking his body,and half-drowned was he.... My son," the saint continued, addressingCynyr, "hast thou not told me that the direst of thy assailant demonsis a living woman, and no bloodless spirit?"
[11] St. Aidan, bishop of Ferns.
"Indeg daughter of Maenarch pesters and torments me, so that thethought of her is an ever-present temptation. Great hate and scorn hasshe for me, and her strength she spends in striving for my downfall.She does come bringing bannuts,[12] for she knows I love to eat them!"
[12] Walnuts.
"My father," Lily interposed, "they say that the girl is here."
"Well, indeed, now," said David, "let her come forth."
Several wom
en pushed a maiden into the middle of the ring formed by theassembly. She seemed to have been weeping, for her eyelids wereflushed; she shook her dark hair over her face, and clutched her handstogether and plucked at a ring she wore.
"Daughter," said David, "why do you torment and pester Cynyr son ofCyngen, a hermit seeking God?"
Her lips moved. Some thought she whispered hoarsely:
"I do not!"
"Dost thou hate Cynyr?"
"I hate him in my heart!" cried she.
"I will hang him from yonder ash-tree," said David with a mockingtwinkle, "to-morrow at dawn."
"No, no!" she shrieked. "Mercy, mercy! Holy David, there is cruel heis! Spare him--spare Cynyr----"
"Peace, woman!" David's face had become a mask of fury, but his voicewas mellifluous. "Nothing will thy tongue avail thee. Thou hast wroughtdevilish magic, and surely we shall slay thee as a witch!"
"Myn Duw!" shouted Cynyr the novice, tossing his arms on high. "Do notso! I was mistaken--there is mad I have been. David has cleared thecovering from my eyes! I love Indeg...."
"And thou, Indeg," said David softly, "dost thou love Cynyr?"
Said she, more softly still:
"I like him ... as well as I like any man."
"Our Lord God lays hold upon His own," cried David, "and, Teilo, thereis no need to grab souls for him. Rhaint mab Brychan, wilt thou adoptthis Cynyr into thy tribe, when he shall have sojourned with thee theaccustomed number of years? He will make a brave fighting-man, thoughnot in the picked army of heaven."
"Yes, indeed!" replied Rhaint the King. "I am David's servant, to dohis bidding."
"Now, upon blessed Llywel's land, where he lived and died," the saintcontinued, "we will set a new church, and Llywel, Teilo, and I, wethree, will own it in perpetuity. And of the three thou, Teilo, shalthave the pre-eminence. Willingly wilt thou fast forty days upon thisspot, for our church's hallowing. A small omission troubles thyconscience, I know. Children," turning from the Abbot of Llandaff tothe man and woman before him, "I would see all well with you before Idepart. Give me thy ring, Indeg."
She put her ring in the palm of David.
"It is not yet the noon-hour," said he. "Lily, where is my altar, andthe other things I now require?"
"Here is your altar, my father," was Lily's reply, "and the sacredelements, look you!--ready for the swearing of oaths."
He brought David's portable altar and placed it before him, and setbread and wine upon it.
David rose to his feet, and, supported by Teilo and Ismael, said massas it was celebrated for a marriage.
"Cynyr," said he in the British tongue, "wilt thou have Indeg as thywife?"
"Yes, yes!" Cynyr answered.
"And, Indeg, wilt thou have Cynyr as thy husband?"
She nodded her head several times.
"Then I declare before all these, men and women of the Plant y Cymry,that ye be man and wife together. And, Cynyr, thou shalt love Indeg aslong as her life shall last; and thou, Indeg, shalt love Cynyr and obeyhim. The blessing of God is upon you; and ye shall go with my blessing,and with the blessing of Teilo."
Hand in hand the lovers wandered away over the young, green grass.
"Sixty days and no less will I fast before I consecrate Llywel'schurch," cried Teilo, his native generosity breaking forth, "and thosetwo shall have my prayers at each day's offering!"
Gwhir, Teilo's bard at Llandaff, unslung his harp from his shoulder,and struck a triumphant prelude from the strings. He began to chant thepraises of his master:
"Thrice a hundred servants of Christ does Teilo feed in his Bangor. The fierce old dragon he drove to the seas--potent is our father. Miracles are all about the little ones of Teilo.
"With Brynach aforetime did angels company in the wilderness about Nant Nimer. No harvest had Llandaff but flower of the broom, the gold-finch of the meadows. Surely white messengers were at hand for the succour of the Cor of Teilo!"
David listened at first with a slight frown, but by the end of thesecond triad his countenance had softened.
"Truth governs the tongue of Gwhir," said he. "Hearken! there is alsomusic over yonder. Give me thy arm, my Ismael--I would hear thechildren sing."
They left the dingle, David and his followers, and ascended a gentleslope that led to an open stretch of level, sheep-cropped sward. Herestunted cowslips grew, and daisies, and a few stray tufts of thymegreeted the footsteps of each comer with their tonic perfume. Young menand girls, partnered in couples, were dancing about a blossominghawthorn. At their shoulders and wrists, their knees or their ankles,coloured ribbons fluttered; and as they sprang, with outstretched arms,to touch the tree-trunk they hissed between tongue and palate. A manplayed shrilly upon a pipe, and a number of elderly women, seated uponthe ground, were singing:
"Arianrod's battlements light the pathless waste of the sky. Oak for power, and ash for aid, and birch for constancy! Bird calls to bird that gone is winter, the time of hunger and fear. Bless the thorntree, maidens and boys, and bless the spring of the year!"
David watched them indulgently, for the days of the Druids were faroff. When their dance was over, they rushed in a body to his feet,begging his blessing, and crying out compliments, sincere thoughextravagant, upon his sanctity and his fame.
"Dewi Sant! Dewi Sant! Father of the Saints of Britain! May he liveamongst us for ever!"
"As God wills," said he, as he turned to leave them. "Beautiful the Maytree--more beautiful the groves of Paradise. There is a hard task, mybrothers, for Ismael."
His companions remembered well what he had spoken of Ismael in twomonths less than a year from that hour.[13]
[13] Ismael succeeded David as Bishop of Mynyw.
One February day in the year Six Hundred and One, many folk, rich andpoor, flocked to the walls of Ty Ddewi, David's monastic enclosure. Arumour had gone abroad that the saint had had heavenly premonition thathis end was near at hand. So, weeping and lamenting, these men andwomen came from the regions around, crying upon their bishop to taketheir sadness from them. Within Ty Ddewi there was a wonderful silenceand peace; and in the streets of Mynyw were heard the flutterings ofinvisible wings.
"Look you, this mourning must cease, now!" said blessed David.
"Well, well, true is what ye have heard. Merry tidings have reached me!In a little while from now, on the first day of March, I must go henceto the place where is life without end, rest without labour, and joywithout sorrow--where is health and no pain, youth and no old age,peace and no contention, music and no discord. I charge you prayalways, in all your undertakings, spiritual and bodily; and be good,little people, for the best usage is goodness."
His last words on earth were just as simple:
"Take me with Thee!"
Star of Mercia: Historical Tales of Wales and the Marches Page 4
