arch aright. And Pascent
set in his own hand all West Welsh land.

It was on a day, his people were blithe, there arrived Appas--the
fiends him conveyed! To Pascent he quoth thus: "Come hither to us. I
will thee tell of a joyful tiding. I was at Winchester, with thine
adversaries, where the king lieth sick, and sorrowful in heart. But
what shall be my meed, if I thither ride, and I so gratify thee, that
I kill him?" Then answered Pascent, and toward Appas he went: "I
promise thee to-day a hundred pounds, for I may, if thou me so
gratifiest, that thou kill him." Troth they plight this treachery to
contrive. Appas went to his chamber, and this mischief meditated; he
was a heathen man, out of Saxland come. Monk's clothes he took on, he
shaved his crown upon; he took to him two companions, and forth he gan
proceed, and went anon right into Winchester, as if it were a holy
man--the heathen devil! He went to the burgh-gate, where the king lay
in chamber, and greeted the door-keeper with God's greeting; and bade
him in haste go into the king, and say to him in sooth, that Uther his
brother had sent him thither a good leech; the best leech that dwelt
in any land, that ever any sick man out of sickness can bring. Thus he
lied, the odious man, to the monarch, for Uther was gone forth with
his army, nor ever him saw Uther, nor thither him sent! And the king
weened that it were sooth, and believed him enow. Who would ween that
he were traitor!--for on his bare body he wore a cuirass, thereupon he
had a loathly hair-cloth, and then a cowl of a black cloth; he had
blackened his body, as if smutted with coal! He kneeled to the king,
his speech was full mild: "Hail be thou, Aurelie, noblest of all
kings! Hither me sent Uther, that is thine own brother; and I all for
God's love am here to thee come. For I will heal, and all whole thee
make, for Christ's love, God's son; I reck not any treasure, nor meed
of land, nor of silver nor of gold, but to each sick person I do it
for love of my Lord." The king heard this, it was to him most
agreeable;--but where is ever any man in this middle-earth, that would
this ween, that he were traitor! He took his glass vessel anon, and
the king urined therein; a while after that, the glass vessel in hand
he took, and viewed it forth-right before the king's knights; and thus
said anon Appas, the heathen man: "If ye will me believe, ere
to-morrow eve this king shall be all whole, healed at his will." Then