Read Online The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter - Free Book Online Page A

went that day. "There goes one, at least, who has got everything he prayed for," said my mother's husband, as we struggled back out of the crowd in the street, and drew breath in the courtyard of the house. And so we all agreed, except perhaps my mother, who went in to her mistress very thoughtful and absent, though she said no word.
      We waited, and looked for the Lord Griffith to come to us and take up his dwelling in this same house, but instead a page came from the court in the abbey bearing a message from him, desiring his wife to remove herself and the children and all her party, to join him there. And so she did, proudly and in haste, for it seemed that her household was to be of the king's own circle. It was therefore in a guest apartment at the abbey that she at last embraced her lord, and he took his children also into his arms.
      I think she had hoped, somewhat against reason, for a quick return to Wales, but she conceded that he spoke good sense when he said that this could not be done overnight. There would be no return until the question of the equitable division of lands had been settled, and that could only be by discussion, and under King Henry's patronage, and would take time and patience. Did it matter, when the end was certain justice? And she owned that indeed they owed everything to the king, and must abide his judgment, as the homage for the lands granted would be due directly to him. And first, said the Lord Griffith confidently, it was fitting and necessary that they should move south to London in the king's train, as was his wish, for thither the defeated David must come the next month, according to the agreement, to appear before a council of the king's magnates and ratify the peace. And at that the Lady Senena was well content, for she longed to see that humiliation visited upon her lord's rival and enemy.
      "Let him eat the hard bread he has doled out to others," she said vengefully. "And we shall sit among the king's honoured companions, and watch him swallow it."
      So when the king dispersed the middle English part of his muster, and moved
    on southwards to London, all our party went in his train, just as she had foreseen, and she and her lord and her children were favoured with King Henry's frequent notice and conversation on the journey, and their comfort attended to by his officers wherever we halted by the way. A daily allowance was made for their maintenance, generous enough for all expenses, until the Lord Griffith should be established in his own lands and as the king's vassal. And in due time David ap Llewelyn came, as he had promised, in what state was left to him, to meet with King Henry's council on the twenty-fourth day of October. And if his bearing was proud enough, and his person gallant, yet his humiliation was as deep as even the Lady Senena could have wished, for the king made still new inroads on what remained to him, demanding that Degannwy be handed over to the crown in payment of the expenses of the war, and David had no choice but to submit even to this deprivation. Everything he had pledged he made good. Roger of Montalt got back his castle of Mold, Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn took possession of his father's lands in Powys, the king's lieutenant in the southern march garrisoned Builth, Degannwy passed to the crown, and the king began the building of a new castle at Diserth, near Rhuddlan, for the better containing of his half-ruined neighbour. Everything the Lady Senena had foreseen came to pass, but for one particular.
      Neither she nor the Lord Griffith witnessed the despoiling. Very richly and comfortably they were lodged in London, when they reached that city, and their generous allowance continued, enough for all their needs. But their apartment was high in the keep of the Tower of London, that great White Tower, and their privacy well guarded by chosen attendants, though none of their choosing, behind safe lock and key.

    It was done so smoothly and