Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/122

 scabbard on his thigh was of red leather; his helmet was gold, set with sapphires of great virtue and crested with a lion of flame-colour, having a fiery red tongue and crimson eyes; the ashen lance headed with silver in his right hand was steeped in blood. He saluted the Emperor and said:

'Lord, dost thou not heed this slaughter? Thy pages and thy young men and the sons of the nobles of Britain are being killed, and who is to defend this island?'

'Owen,' said Arthur, 'forbid thy Ravens,' and it seemed to Rhonabwy that as the Emperor spoke there was no other sound in the world. But Owen answered only:

'Lord, play this game.'

Owen lost, and they began another game. As they were finishing, Rhonabwy heard a greater clamour of armed men and a yet greater croaking and flapping of Ravens flinging down armour and shreddings of men and horses. A third knight was riding up on a lofty-headed piebald horse, its left shoulder bright red and its right foreleg pure white. Horse and man were in armour of speckled yellow, and both wore robes of honour, black and white and bordered with purple. The knight's sword was three-edged and golden-hilted; his yellow helmet was set with crystals, and its crest was a griffin with a stone of many virtues in its head; and his spear was ashen, the shaft azure, the head overlaid with silver and stained with new blood. He came in anger.

'Lord,' he said to Arthur, 'the Ravens have slain the men of your household and the chief men of the island. Command Owen to forbid his Ravens.'

'Owen,' said Arthur, 'forbid them'; and Arthur's hands crushed the golden chess-men like clay under