just a little quiver in her lip as she said this, and the
fierce old king's face softened somewhat.

"Nay," he said, "I meant no unkindness. I forgot that it is not
right to speak to a child as to grown warriors. It is long since
there was a lady about the place who is one of us."

Then Nona smiled wanly, and set her hand on that of the old king,
and kept it there while she spoke.

"Indeed, Thane, it may be foolishness, and now perhaps as time goes
on it begins to seem so to me. Once, as I know now, on the night
when Owen first slept in his new house on the moor, I dreamed that
he was in sore danger, for I seemed to see shadows of men creeping
everywhere round the house that I have never set eyes on; and
again, on the next night, and that was the night of the burning, I
saw the house in flames, and men fought and fell around it among
the flickering shadows, but I did not seem to see Owen. And then on
the next night, soon after I first slept, I woke trembling with the
most strange dream of all. I think that the light had hardly gone
from the west, but the moon had not yet risen. I dreamed that I
stood at the end of a narrow valley, whose sides were of tall
cliffs of rough grey stone, and in the depth of the valley I saw a
great menhir standing on the farther side of a black pool. And all
the surface of the pool was rippling as if somewhat had disturbed
it, and set upright in the ground on this side was a sword, like to
that which King Ina gave you, Thane--ay, that which you wear now,
not like my father's swords. And I thought that I heard one call on
your name."

Now I heard Jago stifle a cry behind me, and as for myself I stood
silent, biting my lip that I might know that I was not dreaming
also, and I saw that Howel was looking at me in a wondering way,
while Gerent glowered at me. All the time that she had been
speaking, Nona had looked on the ground, in some fear lest we
should smile at this which had been called foolishness, and I was
glad when the king broke the silence with a short laugh.

"Well, Oswald, what think you of this? On my word, it seems that
you half believe in the foolishness that some hold concerning
dreams."

"I would not hold this so," said Howel,--"seeing that she has
dreamed of things that did take place, as we know too well."

"Fire and fighting? Things, forsooth, that every village girl on
the Saxon marches is frayed with every time she sleeps."

So said Gerent, and I answered him: