So far I have told you about a few, only the greatest, kings of the House of Cunedda. I know that you are wondering where Arthur comes in. I am not quite sure that Arthur ever really lived, except in the mind of many ages. He is the spirit of Roman rule, the true Dux Britanniae, and he has all the greatness and ability of all the race of Cunedda. I have been shown mountains under which he sleeps, with his knights around him, waiting for the time when his country is to be delivered. Let us hope that what Arthur represents—courage and wisdom, love of country and love of right—lives in the hearts of his people. VI THE LAWS OF HOWEL THE two ideas which ruled Wales were—the love of order and the love of independence. The danger of the first is oppression; the dangers of the other are anarchy and weakness. Wales was sometimes united, under a Maelgwn or a Rhodri, and the princes obeyed them; oftener, perhaps, the princes of the various parts ruled in their own way. The internal life of Wales is best seen in the laws of Howel the Good. Howel was the grandson of Rhodri; and, about 950, he called four men from each district to Hendy Gwyn (Whitland) to state the laws of the country. Twelve of the wisest put the law together; and the most learned scribe in Wales wrote it. It was thought that there should be one king over the whole people, but it was very rarely that every part of Wales obeyed one king. The country was divided into smaller kingdoms. In many ways Gwynedd was the most powerful. It was very easy to defend; for it was made up of the island of Môn (Anglesey), the promontory of Lleyn, and the mountain mass of Snowdon. Its steep side was thus towards England, and its cornlands and pastures on the further side. It was also the home of the family of Cunedda, from Maelgwn to the last Llywelyn. Powys was the Berwyn country. Ceredigion was the western slope of the Plinlimmon range; the eastern slopes had many smaller, but very warlike, districts. Deheubarth contained the pleasant glades and great forests of the Towy country. Dyved was the peninsula to the west; the southern slopes of the Beacons were Morgannwg and Gwent. Howel the Good found that the laws of the various parts differed in details, and he gave different versions to the north, the south-west, and the south-east. But the law and life of the whole people, if we only look at important features, are one. Several commotes made a cantrev, many cantrevs made a kingdom, many kingdoms made Wales. In each commote there were two kinds of people—the free or high-born, and the low-born or serfs. These may have been the conquering Celt and the conquered Iberian. It was very difficult for those in the lower class to rise to the higher; but, after passing through the storms of a thousand years, the old dark line of separation was quite lost sight of.