"Nay, you are fresh as the dawn."
He brushed back the tawny hair from off his forehead, and the lines about his mouth softened.
"I have news from the west."
"Ah!"
"We gather and spread like fire in a forest. The mountain men are with us, ready to roll down from the hills with hauberk and sword. In two months Malgo will have sent the bloody cross through all the west."
The golden thread ran through the girl's white fingers; the beads of her rosary rattled; she seemed to be weaving the destiny of a kingdom into the device upon her banner.
"How is it with us here?" she asked him.
"I have a thousand stout men and true camped upon the cliff. Levies are coming in fast, like steel to a magnet. In a month we shall outbulk a Roman legion."
"And Gilderoy?"
"Gilderoy and Geraint will give us a score thousand pikemen."