os--quid in
superis novisti.' Tell to the shades below what thou hast seen in the
heights above."

"And the Walloons know Latin!" muttered the knight; "I respect them!"

The slow thegn frowned, stammered, and renewed:

"One thing at least is clear; that the rock is well nigh insurmountable
to those who know not the passes; that strict watch, baffling even Welch
spies, is kept night and day; that the men on the summit are desperate
and fierce; that our own troops are awed and terrified by the belief of
the Welch, that the spot is haunted and the towers fiend-founded. One
single defeat may lose us two years of victory. Gryffyth may break from
the eyrie, regain what he hath lost, win back our Welch allies, ever
faithless and hollow. Wherefore, I say, go on as we have begun. Beset
all the country round; cut off all supplies, and let the foe rot by
famine--or waste, as he hath done this night, his strength by vain
onslaught and sally."

"Thy counsel is good," said Harold, "but there is yet something to add to
it, which may shorten the strife, and gain the end with less sacrifice of
life. The defeat of tonight will have humbled the spirits of the Welch;
take them yet in the hour of despair and disaster. I wish, therefore, to
send to their outposts a nuncius, with these terms: 'Life and pardon to
all who lay down arms and surrender.'"

"What, after such havoc and gore?" cried one of the thegns.

"They defend their own soil," replied the Earl simply: "had not we done
the same?"

"But the rebel Gryffyth?" asked the old thegn, "thou canst not accept him
again as crowned sub-king of Edward?"

"No," said the Earl, "I propose to exempt Gryffyth alone from the pardon,
with promise, natheless, of life if he give himself up as prisoner; and
count, without further condition, on the King's mercy." There was a
prolonged silence. None spoke against the Earl's proposal, though the
two younger thegns misliked it much.

At last said the elder, "But hast thou thought who will carry this
message? Fierce and wild are yon blood-dogs; and man must needs shrive
soul and make will, if he will go to their kennel."

"I feel sure that my bode will be safe," answered Harold; "for Gryffyth
has all the pride of a king, and, sparing neither man nor child in the
onslaught, will respect what the Roman taught his sires to respect--envoy
from chief to chief--as a head scatheless and sacred."

"Choose whom thou wilt, Harold," said one of t