The approach to this curious place was as romantic as the cave itself. It was through a narrow aperture, formed of two immense slate rocks that face each other, with the space between them narrower at the bottom than the top, so that the passage could be entered only side-ways, with the figure inclined forward, according to the slant of the rocks, a thin person being barely able to make his way in, while a man of some rotundity might also succeed, rising on his toes, forcing himself upwards. Between these rocks of entrance a massive stone block was wedged at the top, so that it formed a rude resemblance to an arch.
After sideling so far through a comparatively long passage, it was a great surprise that it led to so small a cave; for it was scarcely large enough to shelter three persons huddled close together. What it wanted in breadth, it possessed in height, as it ran up like a chimney, to the attitude of forty-five feet, and was opened at the top to the very summit of the mount, forming a skylight to the room below. Although the little cave was void of a solid roof, a very rural one was formed by the large tufts of heather and fern, which sprung through the crevices of the rocks; the whole being surmounted by the pendant branch of a dwarf oak, that with many other trees stood like a crown on the elevated head of Dinas.
However singular the interior of this cave might appear to our hero, he had great pleasure in examining the grand combination that graced its exterior. There he saw, with never-satisfied delight and wonder, objects of the most romantic character, curiously united, near the junction of the three counties. The rocky Dinas, with its many inaccessible sides, besides the loose crags before mentioned, was partially covered with aged dwarfish trees, all bending in the same direction; many with their heads broken by tempests, but still throwing out branches, while others, stark, sere, and shrouded in green moss, were things to which seasons brought no change.
From the mouth of the cave a beautiful view was obtained of the well-wooded mountain of Maesmaddegan, while the junction of the rivers Towey and Dorthea [269] enlivened the gloom caused by the deep gulf which separated Dinas.
Twm was, however, careless for this once of the extremely attractive character of the scenery around him. One of the most interesting pages in the Book of Nature lay open before him, but it remained unperused, unnoticed at his feet. His eager eye was fixed steadily on the spot where it would catch the earliest glimpse of his approaching mistress. Out of all patience at her long delay, he now began to wonder at the cause of it; when at length, to his great dismay, he saw one female hurrying on, and her not the one, although the faithful Miss Meredith.
Having reached the side of the river, which separated her from the base of Dinas, and finding that he was watching her, she placed a paper on the rock, and a stone upon it, then kissing her hand sportively, turned about and hastened homeward with the utmost precipitation. In his eagerness to overtake her, Twm attempted to run down the declivity, but soon lost his footing, sliding and rolling down several yards, by which he was for a few moments rather stunned. Losing all hope of overtaking his mistress’s confidante, he applied to the paper on the rock, which he found to be a note hastily scrawled with a pencil, containing merely these words:—
“My father has unexpectedly arrived, with several of his friends—can’t see you at Llandovery on the Fair day. Yours ever.” “By the Dood!” muttered Twm to himself, “if this is a coquette’s trick which she put on me, it shall avail her nothing;—mine she is, by promise, and mine she shall be, in spite of the devil, and all her Brecknockshire friends to boot!” Determined to bring his affairs to a speedy crisis, he changed his clothes, and soon made his way to Llandovery.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Twm assumes various disguises, and accomplishes many clever things at Llandovery fair. A strange scene in a court of justice. Twm flies and is pursued.
Twm set off to Llandovery fair with a fluttering heart and hopeful anticipations of seeing his mistress, and planned another little drama, in which he intended the grey horse should have an important part.