ngs that are past,
there is no remedy.'

'Leave me, both of you,' said the countess, 'and I will take counsel.'

Then they went out.

The next morning the countess summoned her subjects to meet in the
courtyard of the castle, and told them that now that her husband was
dead there was none to defend her lands.

'So choose you which it shall be,' she said. 'Either let one of you take
me for a wife, or give me your consent to take a new lord for myself,
that my lands be not without a master.'

At her words the chief men of the city withdrew into one corner and took
counsel together, and after a while the leader came forward and said
that they had decided that it was best, for the peace and safety of
all, that she should choose a husband for herself. Thereupon Owen was
summoned to her presence, and he accepted with joy the hand that she
offered him, and they were married forthwith, and the men of the earldom
did him homage.

From that day Owen defended the fountain as the earl before him had
done, and every knight that came by was overthrown by him, and his
ransom divided among his barons. In this way three years passed, and no
man in the world was more beloved than Owen.

Now at the end of the three years it happened that Gwalchmai the knight
was with Arthur, and he perceived the king to be very sad.

'My lord, has anything befallen thee?' he asked.

'Oh, Gwalchmai, I am grieved concerning Owen, whom I have lost these
three years, and if a fourth year passes without him I can live no
longer. And sure am I that the tale told by Kynon the son of Clydno
caused me to lose him. I will go myself with the men of my household to
avenge him if he is dead, to free him if he is in prison, to bring him
back if he is alive.'

Then Arthur and three thousand men of his household set out in quest of
Owen, and took Kynon for their guide. When Arthur reached the castle,
the youths were shooting in the same place, and the same yellow man was
standing by, and as soon as he beheld Arthur he greeted him and invited
him in, and they entered together. So vast was the castle that the
king's three thousand men were of no more account than if they had been
twenty.

At sunrise Arthur departed thence, with Kynon for his guide, and reached
the black man first, and afterwards the top of the wooded hill, with the
fountain and the bowl and the tree.

'My lord,' said Kai, 'let me throw the water on the slab, and receive
the first adventure