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Page 165
Chapter Eleven
Simon and his few archers had no trouble reaching Krogen keep. Llewelyn's men were out in the woods watching, but they recognized Simon's colors during the day. In the night, the calls and countercalls, which unknowing persons would take for those of night birds, marked the travelers as friends. Krogen keep was the best-manned of Simon's holds, and was managed by Bifan ap Arnalt, who was fanatically faithful to Simon. When Simon had gone for fostering to William, Earl of Pembroke, Bifan went as his servant-guardian, and a powerful bond had been forged between them. Now he held Krogen, the most sensitively placed and strongest of Simon's properties, and Simon never needed to give a thought to its security.
When Simon left the next morning, fifty men-at-arms followed him. They were the best in the keep, expert trackers, able to fade into virtual invisibility in the thinnest cover, skilled with the longbow, and in addition, unlike many Welshmen, trained to fight on horseback

 
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