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Sometimes the King himself looked haggard and withdrawn and Gwalchmai knew that he had been
ridden by the nightmare and that his thoughts were that perhaps the little prince might never wear a
crown.
Corenice begged Gwalchmai to tell the King of Alata, so that if the worst should come this tiny remnant
of the people Merlin and King Arthur had striven so hard to protect might in the end be able to take ship
and find a refuge across the sea.
For a long time Gwalchmai refused to do this, feeling that the secret should be given only to the one it had
been meant for the Emperor of Rome. In the end, he came about to her way of thinking, although he
said,  It seems to be the destiny of Alata to become, not an addition to the Empire as my father wished,
but a home for refugees!
 What better destiny could it have? asked Corenice.
To his surprise, King Brons shook his head at the offer.
 I could never desert my people. With such shipping as I can command, we could move only a small
number of the Cymry. Even if we made many trips, as our strength diminished the Normans would
encroach upon us. Loegria England would absorb those who remained. It would be the act of a
traitor.
 I realize that the offer was made in good faith and I honor you for it and thank you, but we shall fight to
keep this land free and we need every man and boy to do it. Our women would have it no other way nor
would I ask it of them.
 However, I shall have all that you have told me written down and put away in a private place. If ever we
should come to terms with the Normans and dwell in peace along the border marches, it might befall that
my son or his son perhaps might some time wish to seek adventure there. It was a kind thought, Prince
Gwalchmai, but I must refuse it.
In the springtime of the following year, the border was quiet Farmers tilled their fields undisturbed and no
knights rode out to war; women s tears were shed, not because of policies made by the highborn, but
because of the small troubles of their own houses.
Apple blossoms fell gently upon the tombs of the brave, fishermen hauled in their nets, and trading vessels
came and went from the harbor of Morfa Harlech.
One day Gwalchmai and Corenice sailed out on one of these, a wine-ship from Malaga, outfitted as King
Brons had promised. They carried such maps as could be procured, guidance in their minds as to where
their destination might lie, and the blessings of their hosts.
King Brons and the people lined the beach to see them off and his harper struck up a lay of lament at the
parting. For a long time they waved goodbyes and when they were still far out at sea, and the Cymry
could no longer be seen, they kept their eyes fixed upon the gay flutter of the bright dragon pennons,
whipped by the winds which were sweeping over the heights of Castle Harlech.
 Godspeed! Farewell and good fortune to those who depart and return no more!
Such it was indeed for those of the court who remembered the strangers who came and stayed a while to
depart and be held tenderly in their thoughts. Sometimes they wondered how those two fared, the tall,
red-skinned prince and his dark lady who loved him so deeply and who had a lilt of golden bells in her
laughter.
A harper made a song in their honor and it was often sung as time passed and a generation of j>eople
came to age and another followed and passed away. Somfetimes the grandson of that harper was asked
for another song after he had sung that one and was applauded. He would stop and think a moment.
Then he would strike a resounding chord  from his harp and declaim, as a chanting prelude to his song:
 These are the Three Vanished Losses of the Isle of Brit-am
 First, Gavranj son of Aeddan, and his men, who went to sea in search of the Green Isles of Floods and
never were heard of more;
 Second, Myrdhinn, the Bard of Aurelian Ambrosius, and his Nine Bards of Knowledge, who went to
sea in the House of Glass and there has been no account whither they went;
 Third, Madoc, son of Owalin Gwynedd, who went to sea with his three hundred men in ten ships and it
is not known to what place they went.
After the singing there would be subdued weeping, for many remembered Madoc and some had known
his father, Owen, and there were a few old people who had heard tell at first hand of King Brons.
It was these few who sometimes wondered if there was any connection between the advent of those
strangers from the sea and Prince Madoc s disappearance.
They wondered also to what land they might have sailed, but the prince had taken the record with him
and by that time only Gwalchmai and Corenice could have told them and they were no longer in
Britain.
11
nArngrim and the Cjolden (jirl
The world had been long in turmoil. While Gwalchmai lay in the glacier massive movements of restless
peoples had taken place.
Rome had collapsed before the terrible Goths, had been rescued by the Greeks of Byzantium and fallen
again to the tribes of the Lombards, or Long Knives, descending upon them out of the forests of her
ancient enemy, Germania. Men then began to think of Italy as a nation, for Rome was dead and those
who still could call themselves Romans were refugees in the swamps of Venice.
The lights still shone brightly in Byzantium, but the boundaries of the Eastern Empire expanded and
shrank like those of an amoeba. Sometimes they were broad and irregular during times of uneasy peace;
sometimes they were confined only to the walls which surrounded that often beleaguered city, still the
pride of Europe. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]