Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/112

 'To-morrow I and my young swine will go into Arthur's own country and ravage it.'

Through the sea to Wales went the boar and the seven swine, followed by Arthur and his army and huntsmen and hounds in the King's galley, Prydwen. Turk Truith kept ahead of them, and killed many men and cattle in South Wales. The dead were found, but not their destroyers. Arthur sent out the swiftest hunters, and with them Dridwyn and his own hound Cavall. They hunted through St. David's and Milford, and over the Preselly Mountains, through Cardigan and back along the valleys of the river Loughor and the Aman, over the Black Mountains and the Beacons of Caermarthen, into the Tawy Valley, and over the Beacons of Brecknock. The boar turned upon them not once or twice and slew men, kings, and giants, and many hounds and horses. Often they lost him among the hills or on the cliffs of the coast. If any of the young swine were separated from Turk Truith and surrounded, he broke through to their help. But one by one the swine were killed. All the hounds were now loose; their barking and the shouts of Mabon and Arthur's huntsmen filled every valley. Only two of the swine came alive out of the valleys of the Loughor and the Aman, and soon these also were cut off and overpowered. At the pool of Ewin in Bettws on the slopes of the valley where Aman runs into Loughor, the boar turned upon Arthur himself and slew heroes as well as hounds and yet escaped. He was making eastwards away from these fatal valleys towards the Severn, and Arthur summoned all Cornwall and Devon to meet him at the estuary of the Severn.

'While I live,' said Arthur, 'the boar shall not enter Cornwall. Before that, I will oppose him in single combat myself.'