On the road that crosses the Denbigh moors and leads from Denbigh to Betws-y-coed through Clocaenog forest, you will pass the sportsman inn, the highest inn in Wales. 1460 and next to the inn was a tiny cottage. A witch took shelter from a storm on his way to Caernarfon. A young woman answered the door, and asked him to please go away. "Why not, little maid?" said the witch. She told him that her two brothers were due home soon and they were fierce robbers. "They will kill you" she said. The witch asked if he could just come in for ten minutes, and after much persuading, she agreed. She warned him "Be it on your own head if my brothers arrive; they are ruthless." "I am not afraid of your brothers, " said the witch, walking in and sitting down. After only a few minutes in stamped the brothers, stamping and swearing. "Bring ale sister," they yelled, and she hurried off to fetch them their drink. Then they saw the stranger and snarled at him, drawing their knives. "After our sister are you? Well as soon as we have cleaned our knives of the blood we will both use them to kill you," they said. The witch merely answered "Please let me sit here and read my book before you kill me. I cannot defend myself against the two of you. Let me enjoy my last few minutes on earth." They looked amazed at his daring, and were quite speechless when he removed a book from his pocket and began reading aloud in a strange tongue. As he read an animal's horn started to grow out of the kitchen table in front of the two would-be murderers. The tow robbers gazed at it transfixed, and so did their sister who had just returned to the room with their ale. The witch got up and helped himself to some bread and cheese, and some beer which he really enjoyed. He then found himself a light and went upstairs to sleep leaving the other three staring fixedly at nothing, the girl still with the jar of ale in her hands. When he came down in the morning, the robbers and their sister had not moved. He made himself breakfast and left to continue his journey. In passing the sister he apologised for having to bewitch her as well as the two robbers. At Betws-y-coed he called in to the local magistrate, and told him what had transpired, and that the two robbers would still be there if he hurried. It was such an unusual story that the magistrate believed him and sent his men at once to get the two. They rode swiftly and the two men were in custody in half an hour. The magistrate's men did not take the sister though, and at midday she awoke, the horn had vanished and she remembered nothing of the previous night's events. She never saw her brothers again, as they had been hanged for murder.
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