Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/267

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POLGERRAN
203


However, shortly after this Tewdrig fell ill—caught a heavy head-cold perhaps—and, thinking that he had been "ill-wished" by Kea, hastily reconciled himself with the saint, and restored his oxen. The Rosinis in the narrative is Roseland, but the Kestell Carveth, or Stag's Castle, where Kea made his first settlement, cannot be identified by name, though it was probably what is now called Woodbury.

But the relations with Tewdrig continued strained, and the condition of affairs was worse when the king fell from his horse and broke his neck. Kea, fearing lest this should be imputed to him, as occasioned by his "ill-wishing," resolved on flight to Brittany. He went to Landegu, i.e. Landege, the old name of the place, as we learn from Bishop Stapleton's Register (1310). Here was a merchant about to send a cargo of corn to Brittany, and Kea, with his companions, were permitted by the merchant to depart in the grain ship.

He reached the Brittany coast at Cleder, and there he remained till the discord broke out between Arthur and Mordred, when Kea returned to Britain, and endeavoured, but in vain, to reconcile them. After the death of Arthur, it was Kea who told Queen Gwenever some unpleasant home-truths, and induced her to retire into a convent. Then, in 542, he returned to Cleder, where he died shortly after at an advanced age. But this story of his connection with Arthur and Gwenever is very problematical, indeed impossible to reconcile with his history, if he was converted in 433. In Brittany he is called S. Kay, or Kea, as in Cornwall.