d; but the grey
shawl and the metallic voice were too much for him. Dear, good,
patient, old man, you have no notion what a fearful amount of abuse he
took from me, without losing temper--and I gave him some awful
home-thrusts too! I felt almost tempted to kiss him and beg his pardon.
But now, Hafrydda, I am beginning to be afraid of what all this
deceiving and playing the double-face will come to. And I'm ashamed of
it too--I really am. What will Bladud think of me when he finds out?
Won't he despise and hate me?"

"Indeed he will not. I know his nature well," returned the princess,
kissing, and trying to reassure her friend, whose timid look and tearful
eyes seemed to indicate that all her self-confidence and courage were
vanishing. "He loves you already, and love is a preventive of hate as
well as a sovereign remedy for it."

"Ay, he is fond of Cormac, I know, but that is a very different thing
from loving Branwen! However, to-morrow will tell. If he cares only
for the boy and does not love the girl, I shall return with my father to
the far north, and you will never see Branwen more."

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

THE PLOT THICKENS.

During the residence of Gadarn at the court of King Hudibras, that wily
northern chief had led the king to understand that one of his
lieutenants had at last discovered his daughter Branwen in the hands of
a band of robbers, from whom he had rescued her, and that he expected
her arrival daily.

"But what made the poor child run away?" asked the king at one of his
interviews with his friend. "We were all very fond of her, and she of
us, I have good reason to believe."

"I have been told," replied the chief, "that it was the fear of Gunrig."

"Gunrig! Why, the man was to wed my daughter. She had no need to fear
him."

"That may be so, but I know--though it is not easy to remember how I
came to know it--that Gunrig had been insolent enough to make up to her,
after he was defeated by Bladud, and she was so afraid of him that she
ran away, and thus fell into the hands of robbers."

While the chief was speaking, Hudibras clenched his hands and glared
fiercely.

"Dared he to think of another girl when he was engaged to my daughter!"
he said between his teeth. "It is well that Gunrig is dead, for
assuredly I would have killed him."

"It is well indeed," returned Gadarn, "for if your killing had not been
sufficient, I would have made it more effectual. But he is out of the