Several of the fortalices of the Welsh chiefs, perched on almost
inaccessible eminences, gave great trouble, and were only taken after
serious loss. One day Beorn and Wulf, with their own following and two
hundred and fifty light-armed levies, were despatched by Gurth to Porthwyn,
a stronghold belonging to a powerful chief named Llewellyn ap Rhys.
"It is, from all I hear," he said, "a very strong place, and will require
all our force to capture it. Indeed it is reported to be so strong that it
may be necessary to leave it unmolested until we form a junction with
Harold, and can besiege it regularly. It would not do to make an
unsuccessful attack, for that would raise the spirits of the Welsh. All
that I wish of you is to obtain a view of the castle from all sides if
possible, to bring me back an exact account of its defences, and to give me
your opinion as to our chances of capturing it if we decide to lay siege to
it."
Porthwyn was forty miles distant, and Beorn and Wulf determined to march
some thirty of these, and then to push forward at daybreak so as to obtain
a view of the fortress in the early morning. They took with them a Welsh
boy as a guide. He had been spared in the last village captured, and had
been told that his life depended upon his guiding them faithfully. The
places of ten men who had fallen during the various fights had been filled
up by an equal number of Gurth's own housecarls.
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