han if they had been gnats, or birds of the air, save one only
which lingered behind the rest, and this mouse Manawyddan came up with.
Stooping down he seized it by the tail, and put it in his glove, and
tied a piece of string across the opening of the glove, so that the
mouse could not escape. When he entered the hall where Kieva was
sitting, he lighted a fire, and hung the glove up on a peg.

'What hast thou there?' asked she.

'A thief,' he answered, 'that I caught robbing me.'

'What kind of a thief may it be which thou couldst put in thy glove?'
said Kieva.

'That I will tell thee,' he replied, and then he showed her how his
fields of corn had been wasted, and how he had watched for the mice.

'And one was less nimble than the rest, and is now in my glove.
To-morrow I will hang it, and I only wish I had them all.'

'It is a marvel, truly,' said she, 'yet it would be unseemly for a man
of thy dignity to hang a reptile such as this. Do not meddle with it,
but let it go.'

'Woe betide me,' he cried, 'if I would not hang them all if I could
catch them, and such as I have I will hang.'

'Verily,' said she, 'there is no reason I should succour this reptile,
except to prevent discredit unto thee.'

'If I knew any cause that I should succour it, I would take thy
counsel,' answered Manawyddan, 'but as I know of none, I am minded to
destroy it.'

'Do so then,' said Kieva.

So he went up a hill and set up two forks on the top, and while he
was doing this he saw a scholar coming towards him, whose clothes were
tattered. Now it was seven years since Manawyddan had seen man or beast
in that place, and the sight amazed him.

'Good day to thee, my lord,' said the scholar.

'Good greeting to thee, scholar. Whence dost thou come?'

'From singing in England; but wherefore dost thou ask?'

'Because for seven years no man hath visited this place.'

'I wander where I will,' answered the scholar. 'And what work art thou
upon?'

'I am about to hang a thief that I caught robbing me!'

'What manner of thief is that?' inquired the scholar. 'I see a creature
in thy hand like upon a mouse, and ill does it become a man of thy rank
to touch a reptile like this. Let it go free.'

'I will not let it go free,' cried Manawyddan. 'I caught it robbing me,
and it shall suffer the doom of a thief.'

'Lord!' said the scholar, 'sooner than see a man like thee at such a
work, I would give thee a pound which I have received as alms