"I cannot," she said, and looked about her at the walls, at every object against them, at the hearth, endeared to her by many ties. "I cannot--I cannot," and then: "Indeed I cannot with him here,"--and she indicated the corpse. "It is with him here that the house must burn," said Howel. "Burn the hermit--the man of God!" "It would be his will, could he speak," said Howel. "He, throughout his life, gave his body to harsh treatment and treated it as the enemy of his soul. Now out of Heaven he looks down and bids you--he as a saint in light--do this thing. He withholds not his cast-off tabernacle, if thereby he may profit some." "Nay, let him be honorably buried, and then, if thou desirest it, let the house blaze." "It must be, Morwen, as I say. Hearken to me. When they come to-morrow they will find the presbytery destroyed by fire, and we will say that the Archpriest has perished in it." "But they will know it is not so. See his snowy beard!" "Will the flames spare those white hairs?" "Yet all know--all in Caio." "And I can trust them all. When the oppressor is strong the weak must be subtle. Aye, and they will be as one man to deceive him, for they hate him, and they love their true priest." "I cannot do it." "It may be that the truth will come out in a week, a month--I cannot say; but time will be gained for Pabo to escape, and every day is of importance." "If it must be--but, O Howel, it is hard, and it seemeth to me unrighteous." "It is no unrighteousness to do that which must be." "And it must?" "Morwen, you shall not lay the fire. I will do it--but done it must be." CHAPTER X THE CELL ON MALLAEN At the back of Caio church and village stretches a vast mountain region that extends in tossed and rearing waves of moorland and crag for miles to the north; and indeed, Mynedd Mallaen is but the southern extremity of that chain which extends from Montgomeryshire and Merioneth, and of which Plinlimmon is one of the finest heads. The elevated and barren waste is traversed here and there by streams--the Cothy, the Camdwr, the Doeth--but these are through restricted and uninhabited ravines, Mynedd Mallaen, the southernmost projection of this range, is a huge bulk united to the main mountain system by a slight connecting ridge, between the gorge of the Cothy and a tributary of the Towy. North of this extends far the territory of Caio, over barren wilderness, once belonging to the tribe now delimited as a parish some sixteen miles in length. On leaving the Council Hall, Pabo tarried but for a few minutes in converse with Howel, and then ascended the glen down which brawled the Annell. The flanks of mountain on each side were clothed with heath and heather now fast losing their bells, and were gorgeous with bracken, turned to copper and gold by the touch of the finger of Death. He pursued his way without pause along the track trodden by those who visited the rock of Cynwyl, where annually the waters were stirred with his staff.