Pabo, the Priest: A NovelBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Pabo, the Priest: A Novel
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Great Britain -- History -- Henry I, 1100-1135 -- Fiction; Priests -- Fiction; Wales -- Fiction
All knew that Pabo was in concealment, and that his place of concealment
was known to none, not even to his wife or to Howel. They had not a clue
as to where he was. Some supposed that he had fled to the mountains of
Brecknock, others to Cardigan; some, again, that he had attached himself
to Griffith ap Rhys, who was traversing South Wales, stirring up
disaffection and preparing for a general rising of the Welsh against
their oppressors.
Yet hardly half a dozen men desired that he should be taken, and thus
free themselves from death. The great and heroic virtue of the Celt lies
in his devotion to his chief, for whom he is ready at once to lay down
his life.
The hideous prospect that lay before the unfortunate people of Caio was
one of illimited decimation. Would Rogier weary of his barbarous work?
Would it avail to send a deputation to the bishop? It was doubtful
whether the latter was not as hard of heart as his lay brother.
Gwen, the wife of Howel, was as one stunned. She leaned with both hands
against the wall of her house, her head drooping between them, with dry,
glazed eyes, and for long speechless.
Morwen was now in Howel's house. She had returned to it.
She was pale, and quivering with emotion under the weight of great
horror, unable to speak.
Her eyes were fixed on the despairing woman, from whose lips issued a
low moan, and whose bosom heaved with long-drawn, laborious breaths.
Morwen was well aware what sacrifices the tribe was making and would
have to make for her husband's safety, and this gave inexpressible pain
to her.
The moans of the poor woman cut her to the heart. At length, unable to
endure it longer, she went to her, put her arms round her, and drew her
to herself. Then, all at once, with a cry, the wife of Howel shook
herself free, and found words--
"Monday! It is on Monday that he must die, and that is our thirtieth
wedding-day? For all these years we have been together, as one soul, and
it will tear the heart out of my body--and to be hung on the
gallows--the shame, the loss--and Howel so clever, so shrewd! Where has
been his wit that he could not get free? He always had a cunning above
other men. And on our wedding-day!" She ran to a coffer and opened it,
and drew forth a knitted garment, such as we should nowadays call a
jersey.
"See, see!" cried the wretched woman. "I have been fashioning this; a
thought of him is knitted into every loop I have made, and I have kissed
it--kissed it a thousand times because it was for him. He feels the cold
in the long winters, and I made this for him that he might be warm, and
wherever he was remember me, and bear my kisses and my finger-work about
him. And he must die, and shiver, and be cold in the grave! Nay, shiver
and be cold hanging on the gallows, and the cold winds sway him. He
shall wear my knitted garment. They will let me pass to him, and I will
draw it over him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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