ftotoel &elc'* afe. 53 



aggressions of a foreign enemy ; some even said that he 

 had been induced to desert her cause, and that he only 

 waited for an opportunity to avow himself. Others, 

 whispered, that he looked with a jealous eye on the 

 generous Glendour ; and that he feared not to speak of 

 him as the sole leader of a desperate faction, who, if 

 deprived of their head, had no other hope. 



Glendour ' knew that such evil rumours were abroad, 

 and it seemed as if he wished to set his kinsman at 

 defiance ; for having taken with him his chosen companion 

 Madog, he set forth to drive the red deer from the 

 forest brake, in the domains of the unbending lord of 

 Nannau. But the lord of Nannau could not brook that 

 his red deer should be thus vexed and driven, and when 

 one of these noble animals crossed his path, closely pur- 

 sued by the fiery Glendour with hound and horn, he 

 rushed from the forest and summoned his cousin to 

 single combat. It was a fatal one for Howel ; he fell 

 on the green sward, in the very place where all is now so 

 verdurous and joyful, and his corpse was dragged by his 

 enraged kinsman beneath the tree, whose bare and 

 sapless branches and high top, bald with dry antiquity, 

 whose gnarled and rugged trunk, and large projecting 

 roots are almost fearful in their decay. 



The tree was hollow at that time, and the companion 

 of Glendour having, with his assistance, lifted the corpse 

 of the unhappy chieftain from off the ground, dropped it 

 within the oak. This was a ruthless deed, but the 



