The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter Page A

though he had a fine flow of eloquence like most of his house, he was not lettered beyond the signing of his name. Very fine proclamations we drew up between us, and I was kept busy copying the long pedigree of my young lord, and setting forth his claims and his injuries, King Henry's tender care for him and concern for his just cause, and the peace and benefit that might accrue to Wales if they did right to him, and rallied to his standard against the uncle who shut him out from his inheritance. Throughout all those pans of Wales which were held under the crown these were read and distributed and cried publicly. And where the crown had no sway they were insinuated by whatever agency de Rohan could discover and use.
      So the last of the autumn passed, with only one drawback, that we got no result for all our labour. And for myself, I did not see these efforts of mine go out with a single mind or a whole heart, seeing at whose expense and for whose profit this matter was really undertaken. For here was Wales contending against England, and a Welsh prince was seeking to win away as much as he might of Wales to a side which, Owen or no Owen, could only be called England's. And surely there was a part of me that drew relieved breath as every day passed, and still barely a man, and none of substance, took the bait we put out and came to declare himself.
      Then Owen, unhappy with this state of affairs, for he had counted on making a strong appeal to all those chiefs who had taken his father's part, at least did something for those few Welsh who were brought in prisoner, for he suggested that they should be offered grace and aid if they would either convert to his banner, or better, go back into Wales as agents for him. But such as accepted this surely took to their heels gladly when they were released to their own country, and did no recruiting for us, and such as elected to join the king's forces did so to save life and limb, and were of little worth, their hearts being elsewhere.
      Most of that winter we passed in Chester, but when the hardest of the weather was over we moved out nearer to the salt marshes and sands of the Dee, to the king's manor of Shotwick. I think by then King Henry had given up the idea that Owen could be of much use to him at this stage, but still he required him as a puppet to be produced and give his proceedings a cover of justice when he put an army into the field in earnest, as now he had determined to do. For the Welsh revolt continued vigorous and successful. In February a certain Fitz-Mathew, who was in command of a force of knights controlling the southern march, was ambushed and killed in a hill pass near Margam, and most of his company shattered. And if King Henry could rejoice over one bloody engagement near Montgomery, where, as we heard, three hundred Welshmen were drawn into a net from which they could not escape, and there slaughtered, he was soon grieving again for the loss of Mold, for David stormed and took it at the end of March. That could not pass. With Mold in David's hands again there was no safety for the royal castle at Diserth, it might be cut off from its base of Chester at any time. The king knew then that there was nothing for him to do but call up the whole muster of his knighthood service, and launch a full campaign with the summer, and he began at once to send out orders to his justiciars to collect provisions for his army.
      We spent most of that year at Shotwick, for the king would not risk using Owen in the field, though he did entertain and display him at Chester when he came there in August, and halted his army for a week. Then they moved on to the banks of the Conway, and the king began the building of a great new castle on the rock of Degannwy on the east bank, to provide protection from a distance both for Diserth and Chester. They remained in camp there, busy with this building, until the end of October.
      Now it chanced that that year the winter came