“My old, kind friend—is it—can it—be really yourself? So far from home—so unexpected! It makes me so glad to see you,” said the youth. Then, turning to Bladud, “A very old friend of mine, who helped me once in a time of great distress. I am so rejoiced, for now he will guide me back to my own home. You know I have sometimes talked of leaving you lately, Bladud.”
“You say truth, my young friend. Frequently of late, since I have been getting well, you have hinted at a wish to go home, though you have not yet made it clear to me where that home is; and sad will be the day when you quit me. I verily believe that I should have died outright, Beniah, but for the kind care of this amiable lad. But it is selfish of me to wish you to stay—especially now that you have found a friend who, it would seem, is both able and willing to guard you through the woods in safety. Yet, now I think, my complaint is so nearly cured that I might venture to do that myself.”
“Not so,” returned the lad, quickly. “You are far from cured yet. To give up using the waters at this stage of the cure would be fatal. It would perhaps let the disease come back as bad as before.”
“Nay, but the difficulty lies here,” returned the prince, smiling at the boy’s eagerness. “This good old man is at present engaged as guide to an army, and dare not leave his post. A foolish girl named Branwen fled some time ago from my father’s house, intending, it is supposed, to go to some friends living not far from the Hot Swamp. They have been searching for her in all directions, and at last her father, with a host at his heels, has been led to within a few miles of this place, but the girl has not yet been discovered; so the search will doubtless be continued.”
“Is that so?” asked Cormac of the Hebrew, pointedly.
“It is so.”
“What is the name of the chief whose daughter has been so foolish as to run away from her friends?”
“Gadarn,” answered Beniah.
“Oh! I know him!” exclaimed Cormac in some excitement, “and I know many of his people. I lived with them once, long, long ago. How far off is the camp, did you say?”
“An hour’s walk or so.”