I thought that the poor soul had surely gone distracted with the fear of the forest beasts on him, so that he no longer knew friend from foe, and I wondered how long he had been bound here in this lonely place.

I had seen no house or trace of men between here and Tenby.
I hitched the bridle rein over a low bough, and leaving my horse went toward him to set him loose, wondering who had left him here.
And as I drew my seax and went to cut the lashings he writhed afresh and cried piteously for mercy in what sounded like bad Saxon from behind the cloth across his face, as though he deemed that I came to slay him.

I did not notice the strangeness of his using my own tongue here in the heart of a Welsh land at the time, but thought he took me for one of those who had bound him.
"Fear not," I said, speaking in Welsh to comfort him.
And if anything, that seemed to terrify him yet more.
"Mercy, good Thane--mercy!" he mumbled from his half-stifled lips.
Then it seemed to me that it was strange that he knew what I was, and before I cut the bonds I took the cloth from his face, and lo! the man was Evan the outlaw, my enemy! That told me why he feared me in good truth, for he had need to do so, and I stood back and looked at him with the bright weapon still in my hand, and he cried and begged for mercy unceasingly.

It seemed but right that he should be bound helplessly as he had bound me, yet he had not the bitterness of seeing a friend look on him without knowing him as had I.It was a foe whom he saw, and that a righteous one.
Then I was minded to turn away and leave him where he was, until the foe from the forest looked on him for the last time, for it was all that he deserved, and I set my seax back in my belt and turned away to my horse with a great loathing of the man in my mind; and seeing that, he begged for mercy again most pitiably.
That is a hard thing to hear unmoved, and I stayed and looked at him again.

My first wrath was leaving me as I saw the fullness of the end of his plans, and I do not think that it is in me to be utterly revengeful.
"What mercy can you hope from me!" I said coldly.
"None, Thane--none.