ce's
neck, while Hafrydda seized his hand and covered it with kisses.

"Body of me! am I dreaming?" cried the king, after a few moments of
speechless amazement.

"Oh! Bladud," exclaimed the queen, looking up in his smiling face, "did
you really think you could deceive your own mother? Fie, fie, I would
have recognised you if you had come with your face painted black."

By this time the king had recovered, and realised the fact that his
long-lost son had returned home. He strode towards him, and, grasping
his hand, essayed to speak, but something in his throat rendered speech
impossible. King Hudibras was a stern man, however, and scorned to show
womanly weakness before his people. He turned suddenly round, kicked a
few courtiers out of his way, remounted the platform, and, in a loud
voice, announced the conclusion of the sports.

Great was the rejoicing among the people assembled there, when the news
spread that the long-lost Prince Bladud had returned home, and that the
tall youth who had defeated Gunrig was he, and they cheered him with
even more zest and energy than they had at the moment of his victory.

Meanwhile Gunrig, having been conveyed to the residence of the king, was
laid on a couch. The palace was, we need scarcely say, very unlike our
modern palaces, being merely a large hut or rude shanty of logs,
surrounded by hundreds of similar but smaller huts, which composed this
primitive town. The couch on which the chief lay was composed of
brushwood and leaves. But Gunrig did not lie long upon it. He was a
tough man, as well as a stout, and he had almost recovered consciousness
when the princess, returning from the games, arrived to assist her
friend in attending to the king's commands.

She found Branwen about to enter the chamber, in which the chief lay,
with a bandage.

"Hast heard the news?" she asked, with a gladsome smile.

"Not I," replied Branwen, in a rather sharp tone.

"Whatever it is, it seems to have made you happy."

"Truly it has. But let us go in with the bandages first. The news is
too good to be told in a hurry."

The sound of their voices as they entered aroused Gunrig completely, and
he rose up as they approached.

"My father sent us," said the princess in some confusion, "to see that
you are well cared for. Your wounds, I hope, are not dangerous?"

"Dangerous, no; and they will not prevent me from speedily avenging
myself on the young upstart who has appeared so su