Kind and free.
His bairns approach me, pair by pair,
O what a nest of chieftains fair!
Here difficult it is to catch
A sight of either bolt or latch;
The porter's place here none will fill;
Her largess shall be lavish'd still,
And ne'er shall thirst or hunger rude
In Sycharth venture to intrude.
A noble leader, Cambria's knight,
The lake possesses, his by right,
And midst that azure water plac'd,
The castle, by each pleasure grac'd.
And when I had finished repeating these lines I said, "How much
more happy, innocent, and holy, I was in the days of my boyhood
when I translate Iolo's ode than I am at the present time!" Then
covering my face with my hands I wept like a child.
CHAPTER LXVII
Cup of Coffee - Gwen - Bluff old Fellow - A Rabble Rout - All from
Wrexham.
AFTER a while I arose from my seat and descending the hill returned
to the house of my honest friends, whom I found sitting by their
fire as I had first seen them.
"Well," said the man, "did you bring back Owen Glendower?"
"Not only him," said I, "but his house, family, and all relating to
him."
"By what means?" said the man.
"By means of a song made a long time ago, which describes Sycharth
as it was in his time, and his manner of living there."
Presently Gwen, who had been preparing coffee in expectation of my
return, poured out a cupful, which she presented to me, at the same
time handing me some white sugar in a basin.
I took the coffee, helped myself to some sugar, and returned her
thanks in her own language.
"Ah," said the man, in Welsh, "I see you are a Cumro. Gwen and I
have been wondering whether you were Welsh or English; but I see
you are one of ourselves."
"No," said I in the same language, "I am an Englishman, born in a
part of England the farthest of any from Wales. In fact, I am a
Carn Sais."
"And how came you to speak Welsh?" said the man.
"I took it into my head to learn it when I was a boy," said I.
"Englishmen sometimes do strange things."
"So I have heard," said the man, "but I never heard before of an
Englishman learning Welsh."
I proceeded to drink my coffee, and having finished it, and had a
little more discourse I got up, and having given Gwen a piece of
silver, which she received with a smile and a curtsey, I said I
must now be going,
"Won't you take another cup?" said Gwen, "you are welcome."
"No, thank you," said I, "I have had enough."
"Where are you going?" said the man in English.
