“Who?” inquired the good curate.
“The world—all the world, are looking for me,” replied the wretch; “but I shall escape them yet. You are a good man; you would not rob the dead, would you?”
“Heaven forbid,” he replied.
“Ay, ay, you fear Heaven—you fear its curses here, and its vengeance hereafter. I think I may trust you, as I have not above an hour to live. Look at me! don’t you see what they hunt me for? I’m all gold!—a man of gold!—robbers seek for me, to buy them food!—Spendthrifts hunt after me, to pay their debts!—Women grasp at me, to purchase jewels!—And kings lay snares for me, to gorge and fatten!”
He then related his wonderful adventure in Ogo ap Shenkin; and, as he concluded it, exclaimed,
“Bury me safely. You make take my little finger, that will pay all expenses, but don’t break up my body—to—to—to—” and the hypochondriac expired. [304]
There is no doubt that the vision of the goat and the chest of wealth, was a dream after one of Jordan’s drunken bouts, which produced so powerful an impression upon his mind, that it banished the few wits intoxication had left him.
CHAPTER XI.
A Mistake—Road to Llanrwst—Gwydir Castle—Llanrwst Shaking Bridge—Inn—The Theatre—Town Hall—Free Schools—Alms Houses—Rhaiadr y Parc Mawr—Llynn Giwionydd—Taliesin—Trefriw—Slate Quarries—Conway—The Suspension Bridge—The Castle—Local Customs—A Phrenologist—Excursion to the Ormes’ Head—The Smuggler—The Bump of Order.
“On a rock whose haughty brow
Frowned o’er old Conway’s foaming flood,
Rob’d in a sable garb of woe,
With haggard eye, the poet stood.”GRAY.