And, of a truth, Owain never saw any
kind of meat that was not there in abundance, but it was better
cooked there than he had ever found it in any other place. And
there was not one vessel from which he was served that was not of
gold or of silver. And Owain eat and drank until late in the
afternoon, when lo! they heard a mighty clamor in the castle, and
Owain asked the maiden what it was. "They are administering
extreme unction," said she, "to the nobleman who owns the castle."
And she prepared a couch for Owain which was meet for Arthur
himself, and Owain went to sleep.
And a little after daybreak he heard an exceeding loud clamor and
wailing, and he asked the maiden what was the cause of it. "They
are bearing to the church the body of the nobleman who owned the
castle."
And Owain rose up, and clothed himself, and opened a window of the
chamber, and looked towards the castle; and he could see neither
the bounds nor the extent of the hosts that filled the streets.
And they were fully armed; and a vast number of women were with
them, both on horseback and on foot, and all the ecclesiastics in
the city singing. In the midst of the throng he beheld the bier,
over which was a veil of white linen; and wax tapers were burning
beside and around it; and none that supported the bier was lower
in rank than a powerful baron.
Never did Owain see an assemblage so gorgeous with silk [Footnote:
Before the sixth century all the silk used by Europeans had been
brought to them by the Seres, the ancestors of the present
Boukharians, whence it derived its Latin name of Serica.
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