Then he burst out:
"Lady I love you, more than all the world besides. Will you be my
wife?"
She did not seem at all willing at first, but love begets love.
Finally yielding to his pleadings, she said, rather solemnly:
"I will be your bride but only on this condition, that if you strike
me three times, without cause, I will leave your house and you only
will be to blame, and it will be forever."
These words stuck in his mind, and he inwardly made a vow never to
give his lovely wife cause to leave him.
But not yet did happiness come, for, even while he took oath that he
would rather cut off his right hand, than offend her, she darted away
like an arrow, and, diving in the lake, disappeared.
At this sudden blow to his hopes and joy, Gwyn was so sorely
depressed, as to wish to take his own life. Rushing up to the top of a
rock, overhanging the deepest part of the lake, he was just about to
leap into the water and drown himself, when he heard a voice behind
him, saying:
"Hold rash lad, come here!"
He looked and there down on the shore of the lake, stood a grand
looking old man, with a long white beard.
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