Next morning he addressed that regiment, saying:-- "Soldiers, you think that because I have become a Christian and will not permit unnecessary bloodshed, I am also become a fool.

I will teach you otherwise.

One man in every twenty of you shall be killed, and henceforth any soldier who attempts to desert will be killed also!" The order was carried out, for Owen could not find a word to say against it, with the result that desertions almost ceased, though not before the king had lost some eight or nine thousand of his best soldiers.

Worst of all, these soldiers had gone to join Hafela in his mountain fastnesses; and the rumour grew that ere long they would appear again, to claim the crown for him or to take it by force of arms.
Now too a fresh complication arose.

The old king sickened of his last illness, and soon it became known that he must die.