"I have a right in an emergency to see that all be done that is requisite for the good of the living, and for the repose of the dead. Do you not know, boy, that the enemy are on their way hither, and that when they arrive you will no further have this as your home?" "Goronwy, be kind and do as desired," said Morwen. The young man left, muttering. He looked but a boy; he was in fact a man. When he had passed beyond earshot, Morwen said, "Do not be short with the lad; he has much to bear, his infirmities of body are ever present to his mind, and he can ill endure the thought that but for them he would have been chief in Caio." "I have not come hither to discuss Goronwy and his sour humors," said Howel; "but to announce to you that Pabo is gone." "Whither?" "That I do not know." "For how long?" "That also I cannot say." "Is he in danger?" Morwen's color fled, and she put her hand to her bosom. "At present he is in none; for how long he will be free I cannot say, and something depends on you." "On me! I will do anything, everything for him." "To-morrow the sleuth-hounds will be after him: his safety lies in remaining hid." "But why has he not come to me and told me so?" "Because it is best that you know nothing, not even the direction he has taken in his flight. Be not afraid--he is safe so long as he remains concealed. As for you and that boy, ye shall both come to my house, for to-morrow he will be here who will claim this as his own. The bishop who has stepped into David's seat has sent him to dispossess our Archpriest of all his rights, and to transfer them to Cadell, his chaplain." "But it is not possible. He does not belong to the tribe." "What care these aliens about our rights and our liberties? With the mailed fists they beat down all law." "And he will take from us our house?" "If you suffer him." "How can I, a poor woman, resist?" "I do not ask you to resist." "Then what do you require of me?" "Leave him no house into which to step and which he may call his own." "I understand you not." "Morwen, say farewell you must to these walls--this roof. It will dishonor them to become the shelter of the renegade, after it has been the home of such as you and Pabo, and the Archpriests of our race and tribe for generations--aye, and after it has been consecrated by the body of this saint." He indicated the dead hermit. "But again I say, I do not understand. What would you have me do?" "Do this, Morwen." Howel dropped his voice and drew nearer to her. He laid hold of her wrist. "Set fire to the presbytery. The wind is from the east; it will cause the hall to blaze also." She looked at him in dismay and doubt. "To me, and away from this, thou must come, and that boy with thee. Thou wouldest not have Pabo taken from thee and given to some Saxon woman. So, suffer not this house that thou art deprived of to become the habitation of another--one false to his blood and to his duties."