Who sent the sword? . . Llewelyn, his brave boy,
Where wanders he? in this his rightful realm,
Houseless and hunted; richly would the king
Gift the red hand that rid him of that fear!
Ririd, an outlaw'd fugitive, as yet
Eludes his deadly purpose; Rodri lives,
A prisoner he,. . I know not in what fit
Of natural mercy from the slaughter spared.
Oh, if my dear old master saw the wreck

And scattering of his house!.. that princely race!
The beautiful band of brethren that they were !

Madoc made no reply, . . he closed his eyes, Groaning. But Urien, for his heart was full, Loving to linger on the woe, pursued: I did not think to live to such an hour Of joy as this! and often, when my sight Turn'd dizzy from the ocean, overcome With heavy anguish, Madoc, I have prayed That God would please to take me to his rest.

So as he ceased his speech, a sudden shout
Of popular joy awakened Madoc's ear;
And calling then to mind the festal fires,
He ask'd their import. The old man replied,
It is the giddy people merry-making

To welcome their new Queen; unheeding they
The shame and the reproach to the long line
Of our old royalty!... Thy brother weds
The Saxon's sister.

What!.. in loud reply
Madoc exclaim'd, hath he forgotten all?
David! King Owen's son,.. my father's son,..
He wed the Saxon,.. the Plantagenet! 2

Quoth Urien, He so doats, as she had dropt
Some philtre in his cup, to lethargize
The British blood that came from Owen's veins.
Three days his halls have echoed to the song
Of joyaunce.

Shame! foul shame! that they should hear
Songs of such joyaunce! cried the indignant Prince:
Oh that my Father's hall, where I have heard
The songs of Corwen and of Keiriog's day,
Should echo this pollution! Will the chiefs
Brook this alliance, this unnatural tie?

There is no face but wears a courtly smile, Urien replied: Aberfraw's ancient towers Beheld no pride of festival like this, No like solemnities, when Owen came In conquest, and Gowalchmai struck the harp. Only Goervyl, careless of the pomp, Sits in her solitude, lamenting thee.

Saw ye not then my banner? quoth the Lord Of Ocean; on the topmast-head it stood

"It was the manner of those days, that the murtherer only, and he that gave the death's wound, should fly, which was called in Welsh Llawrudd, which is a red hand, because he had blouded his hands. The accessories and abettors to the murtherers were never hearkened after." Gwydir History.

This marriage was in fact one of the means whereby Henry succeeded for a time in breaking the independent spirit of the Welsh. David immediately sent a thousand men

To tell the tale of triumph; . . or did night
Hide the glad signal, and the joy hath yet
To reach her?

Now had they almost attain'd
The palace portal. Urien stopt and said,
The child should know your coming; it is long
Since she hath heard a voice that to her heart
Spake gladness; . . none but I must tell her this.
So Urien sought Goervyl, whom he found
Alone and gazing on the moonlight sea.

Oh you are welcome, Urien! cried the maid There was a ship came sailing hitherward... I could not see his banner, for the night Closed in so fast around her; but my heart Indulged a foolish hope!

The old man replied, With difficult effort keeping his heart down, God in his goodness may reserve for us That blessing yet! I have yet life enow To trust that I shall live to see the day, Albeit the number of my years well nigh Be full.

Ill-judging kindness! said the maid. Have I not nursed for two long wretched years That miserable hope, which every day Grew weaker like a baby sick to death, Yet dearer for its weakness day by day! No, never shall we see his daring bark!

I knew and felt it in the evil hour
When forth she fared! I felt it then! that kiss
Was our death parting!... And she paused to curb
The agony anon,.. But thou hast been
To learn their tidings, Urien? . . He replied,
In half-articulate words,.. They said, my child,
That Madoc lived,.. that soon he would be here.

She had received the shock of happiness:
Urien she cried. . thou art not mocking me!
Nothing the old man spake, but spread his arms
Sobbing aloud. Goervyl from their hold
Started, and sunk upon her brother's breast.

Recovering first, the aged Urien said, Enough of this, . . . there will be time for this, My children! better it behoves ye now To seek the King. And, Madoc, I beseech thee, Bear with thy brother! gently bear with him, My gentle Prince! he is the headstrong slave Of passions unsubdued 3; he feels no tie Of kindly love, or blood; . . provoke him not, Madoc!... It is his nature's malady.

Thou good old man! replied the Prince, be sure

I shall remember what to him is due,
What to myself; for I was in my youth
Wisely and well train'd up; nor yet hath time
Effaced the lore my foster-father taught.

to serve under his brother-in-law and liege lord in Normandy, and shortly after attended the parliament at Oxford upon his summons.

3" Caradoc represents Davydd as a prince greatly disliked on account of his cruelty and untractable spirit, killing and putting out the eyes of those who were not subservient to his will, after the manner of the English!"— Cambrian Biography.

Of Yorwerth, and of Owen's broken house; .. I dread his dark suspicions !

Not for me Suffer that fear, my sister! quoth the Prince. Safe is the straight and open way I tread; Nor hath God made the human heart so bad That thou or I should have a danger there. So saying, they toward the palace gate Went on, ere yet Aberfraw had received The tidings of her wanderer's glad return.

II.

THE MARRIAGE FEAST.

THE guests were seated at the festal board; 1
Green rushes strew'd the floor; high in the hall
Was David; Emma, in her bridal robe,
In youth, in beauty, by her husband's side
Sate at the marriage feast. The monarch raised
His eyes, he saw the mariner approach;
Madoc! he cried; strong nature's impulses
Prevail'd, and with a holy joy he met
His brother's warm embrace.

With that what pels
Of exultation shook Aberfraw's tower!
How then re-echoing rang the home of Kings,
When from subdued Ocean, from the World
That he had first foreseen, he first had found,
Came her triumphant child! The mariners,
A happy band, enter the clamorous hall;

1 The order of the royal hall was established by law. "The men to whom the right of a seat in the hall belongs are fourteen, of whom four shall sit in the lower, and ten in the upper part of the hall. The king is the first, he shall sit at the pillar, and next him the chancellor; and after him the guest, and then the heir apparent, and then the master of the hawks. The foot-bearer shall sit by the dish opposite the king, and the mead-maker at the pillar behind him. The priest of the household shall be at another pillar, who shall bless the meat, and chaunt the pater noster. The crier shall strike the pillar above the king's head. Next him shall be the judge of the palace, and next to him the musician, to whom the right of the seat belongs. The smith of the palace shall be at the bottom before the knees of the priest. The master of the palace shall sit in the lower hall with his left hand towards the door, with the serving-men whom he shall chuse, and the rest shall be at the other side of the door, and at his other hand the musician of the household. The master of the horse shall sit at the pillar opposite the king, and the master of the hounds at the pillar opposite the priest of the household."-Laws of Hoel Dha'.

2" 1165. The king gathered another armie of chosen men, through all his dominions, as England, Normandy, Anjow, Gascoine, and Gwyen, sending for succours from Flanders and Brytain, and then returned towards North Wales, minding utterlie to destroy all that had life in the land and coming to Croes Oswalt, called Oswald's Tree, incamped there. On the contrarie side, Prince Owen and his brother Cadwallader, with all the power of North Wales; and the Lord Rees, with the power of South Wales; and Owen Cyveilioc and the sonnes of Madoc ap Meredyth, with the power of Powyss, and the two sonnes of Madoc ap Ednerth, with the people betwixt Wye and Seavern, gathered themselves togither and came to Corwen in Edeyrneon, proposing to defend their country. But the king understanding

Fills with one common feeling every heart,
And strangers give and take the welcoming
Of hand and voice and eye. That boisterous joy
At length allay'd, the board was spread anew,
Anew the horn was brimm'd, the central hearth
Built up anew for later revelries.

Now to the ready feast! the seneschal
Duly below the pillars ranged the crew;
Toward the guest's most honourable seat

The King himself led his brave brother;.. then,
Eyeing the lovely Saxon as he spake,

Here, Madoc, see thy sister! thou hast been
Long absent, and our house hath felt the while
Sad diminution; but my arm at last
Hath rooted out rebellion from the land;
And I have stablish'd now our ancient house,
Grafting a scyon from the royal tree
Of England on the sceptre; so shall peace
Bless our dear country.

Long and happy years
Await my sovereigns! thus the Prince replied,
And long may our dear country rest in peace!
Enough of sorrow hath our royal house
Known in the field of battles,.. yet we reap'd
The harvest of renown.

Ay,.. many a day, David replied, together have we led The onset... Dost thou not remember, brother, How in that hot and unexpected charge On Keiriog's bank, we gave the enemy Their welcoming?

And Berwyn's after-strife! 2

that they were nigh, being wonderfull desirous of battell, came to the river Ceireoc, and caused the woods to be hewn down. Whereupon a number of the Welshmen understanding the passage, unknown to their captains, met with the king's ward, where were placed the picked men of all the armie, and there began a hote skirmish, where diverse worthie men were slaine on either side; but in the end the king wanne the passage, and came to the mountain of Berwyn, where he laid in campe certaine days, and so both the armies stood in awe of each other; for the king kept the open plains, and was afraid to be intrapped in straits; but the Welshmen watched for the advantage of the place, and kept the king so straitlie, that neither forage nor victuall might come to his camp, neither durst anie soldiour stir abroad. And to augment their miseries there fell such raine, that the king's men could scant stand upon their feete upon those slipperie hilles. In the end, the king was compelled to return home without his purpose, and that with great loss of men and munition, besides his charges. Therefore in a great choler he caused the pledges eies, whom he had received long before that, to be put out; which were Rees and Cawdwalhon the sonnes of Owen, and Cynwric and Meredith the sonnes of Rees, and other." - Powell.

During the military expedition which King Henry II. made in our days against South Wales, an old Welshman at Pencaduir, who had faithfully adhered to him, being desired to give an opinion about the royal army, and whether he thought that of the rebels would make resistance, and what would be the final event of this war, replied: "This Nation, O king, may now, as in former time, be harassed, and in a great measure weakened and destroyed by you and other powers, and it will often prevail by its laudable exertions; but it can never be totally subdued through wrath of man, unless the wrath of God shall concur. Nor do I think, that any other nation than this of Wales, or any other

Quoth Madoc, as the memory kindled him:
The fool that day, who in his masque attire
Sported before King Henry, wished in vain
Fitlier habiliments of javelin-proof!
And yet not more precipitate that fool
Dropt his mock weapons, than the archers cast
Desperate their bows and quivers-full away,
When we leapt on, and in the mire and blood
Trampled their banner!

I hate the Saxon!3 Madoc cried; not yet
Have I forgotten, how from Keiriog's shame
Flying, the coward wreak'd his cruelty
On our poor brethren!... David, seest thou never
Those eyeless spectres by thy bridal bed? 4
Forget that horror?.. may the fire of God
Blast my right hand, or ever it be link'd
With that accursed Plantagenet's!

The while,

That was a day indeed, which I may still
Proudly remember, proved as I have been
In conflicts of such perilous assay,

That Saxon combat seem'd like woman's war.
When with the traitor Hoel I did wage
The deadly battle, then was I in truth

Put to the proof; no vantage-ground was there,
Nor famine, nor disease, nor storms to aid,
But equal, hard, close battle, man to man,
Briton to Briton. By my soul, pursued
The tyrant, heedless how from Madoc's eye
Flash'd the quick wrath like lightning,.. though I knew
The rebel's worth 2, his prowess then excited
Unwelcome wonder; even at the last,

When stiff with toil and faint with wounds, he raised
Feebly his broken sword,...

Then Madoc's grief

Found utterance; Wherefore, David, dost thou rouse The memory now of that unhappy day,

Shook with ungovernable wrath; the page,
Who chafed his feet 5, in fear suspends his task;
In fear the guests gaze on him silently;

His eyeballs flash'd, strong anger choked his voice,
He started up... Him Emma, by the hand
Gently retaining, held, with gentle words
Calming his rage. Goervyl too in tears
Besought her generous brother: he had met
Emma's reproaching glance, and self-reproved
While the warm blood flush'd deeper o'er his check,
Thus he replied; I pray you pardon me,

My Sister-Queen! nay, you will learn to love
This high affection for the race of Owen,
Yourself the daughter of his royal house
By better ties than blood.

Grateful the Queen
Replied, by winning smile and eloquent eye
Thanking the gentle Prince: a moment's pause

David's cheek

Grew pale and dark; he bent his broad black brow
Full upon Madoc's glowing countenance;
Art thou return'd to brave me? to my teeth
To praise the rebel bastard? to insult
The royal Saxon, my affianced friend?

language whatever, may hereafter come to pass, shall in the day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge answer for this corner of the earth."- Hoare's Giraldus.

1 Brienstone in Dorsetshire was held in grand sergeantry by a pretty odd jocular tenure; viz. by finding a man to go before the king's army for forty days, when he should make war in Scotland (some records say in Wales), bareheaded and barefooted, in his shirt and linen drawers, holding in one hand a bow without a string, in another an arrow without feathers."— Gibson's Camden.

2 There is a good testimony to Hoel's military talents in the old history of Cambria, by Powell. "At this time Cadel, Meredyth, and Rees, the sons of Gruffyth ap Rees, ap Theodor, did lead their powers against the castle of Gwys; which, after they saw they could not win, they sent for Howel the sonne of Owen, prince of North Wales, to their succour, who for his prowesse in the field, and his discretion in consultation, was counted the flowre of chivalrie; whose presence also was thought only sufficient to overthrow anie hold." 3 of this name Saxon, which the Welsh still use, Higden gives an odd etymology. "Men of that cowntree ben more yghter and stronger on the see than other scommers or theeves of the see, and pursue theyr enemyes full harde, both by water and by londe, and ben called Saxones, of Saxum, that is, a stone, for they ben as hard as stones, and uneasy to fare with."-Polycronycon, i. 26.

Thus to the wanderer of the waters spake :
Madoc, thou hast not told us of the world
Beyond the ocean and the paths of man.

A lovely land it needs must be, my brother,
Or sure you had not sojourn'd there so long,
Of me forgetful, and my heavy hours
Of grief and solitude and wretched hope.
Where is Cadwallon? for one bark alone
I saw come sailing here.

The tale you ask
Is long, Goervyl, said the mariner,
And I in truth am weary. Many moons

4 Henry in his attempt upon Wales, 1165, "did justice on the sons of Rhys, and also on the sons and daughters of other noblemen that were his accomplices, very rigorously; causing the eyes of the young striplings to be pecked out of their heads, and their noses to be cut off or slit; and the eares of the young gentlewomen to be stuffed. But yet I find in other authors that in this journey King Henry did not greatly prevail against his enemies, but rather lost many of his men of war, both horsemen and footmen; for by his severe proceeding against them, he rather made them more eager to seek revenge, than quieted them in any tumult." Holinshed. Among these unhappy hostages were some sons of Owen Gwynedh.

5 "The foot-bearer shall hold the feet of the king in his lap from the time when he reclines at the board till he goes to rest, and he shall chafe them with a towel; and during all that time he shall watch that no hurt happen to the king. He shall cat of the same dish from which the king takes his meat, having his back turned toward the fire. He shall light the first candle before the king at his meal." — Laws of Hoel

Dha'.

Accubuerit is the word in Wotton's version. It is evident that the king must have lain at his meal, after the Roman fashion, or this pedifer could not have chafed his feet.

Have wax'd and waned, since from that distant world,
The country of my dreams and hope and faith,
We spread the homeward sail : a goodly world,
My Sister! thou wilt see its goodliness,

And greet Cadwallon there.... But this shall be
To-morrow's tale; indulge we now the feast!..
You know not with what joy we mariners
Behold a sight like this.

Smiling he spake,
And turning, from the sewer's hand he took
The flowing mead. David, the while, relieved
From rising jealousies, with better eye
Regards his venturous brother. Let the Bard,
Exclaim'd the king, give his accustom'd lay;
For sweet, I know, to Madoc is the song
He loved in earlier years.

O Father! Thee, whose wisdom, Thee, whose power,
Whose love,.. all love, all power, all wisdom, Thou!
Tongue cannot utter, nor can heart conceive.
He in the lowest depth of Being framed
The imperishable mind; in every change,
Through the great circle of progressive life,
He guides and guards, till evil shall be known,
And being known as evil, cease to be; 3
And the pure soul, emancipate by Death,
The Enlarger, shall attain its end predoom'd,
The eternal newness of eternal joy. 5

Then, strong of voice, The officer proclaim'd the sovereign will, 1 Bidding the hall be silent; loud he spake, And smote the sounding pillar with his wand, And hush'd the banqueters. The chief of Bards Then raised the ancient lay. 2

1 The crier to command silence was one of the royal household; first he performed this service by his voice, then by striking with the rod of his office the pillars above the king's head. A fine was due to him for every disturbance in the court.

2 The lines which follow represent the Bardic system, as laid down in the following Triads of Bardism : —

12. There are three Circles of Existence; the Circle of Infinity, where there is nothing but God, of living or dead, and none but God can traverse it; the Circle of Inchoation, where all things are by Nature derived from Death,.. this Circle hath been traversed by man; and the Circle of Happiness, where all things spring from Life,.. this man shall traverse in Heaven.

"13. Animated Beings have three States of Existence : that of Inchoation in the Great Deep, or Lowest point of Existence; that of Liberty in the State of Humanity; and that of Love, which is Happiness in Heaven.

"14. All animated Beings are subject to three Necessities; beginning in the Great Deep; Progression in the Circle of Inchoation; and Plenitude in the Circle of Happiness. Without these things nothing can possibly exist but God.

"15. Three things are necessary in the Circle of Inchoation; the least of all animation, and thence Beginning; the materials of all things, and thence Increase, which cannot take place in any other state; the formation of all things out of the dead mass, and thence Discriminate Individuality.

"16. Three things cannot but exist towards all animated Beings from the nature of Divine Justice: Co-sufferance in the Circle of Inchoation, because without that none could attain to the perfect knowledge of any thing; Co-participation in the Divine love; and Co-ultimity from the nature of God's Power, and its attributes of Justice and Mercy.

"17. There are three necessary occasions of Inchoation: to collect the materials and properties of every nature; to collect the knowledge of every thing; and to collect power towards subduing the Adverse and the Devastative, and for the divestation of Evil. Without this traversing every mode of animated existence, no state of animation, or of any thing in nature, can attain to Plenitude."

3"By the knowledge of three things will all Evil and Death be diminished and subdued; their nature, their cause, and their operation. This knowledge will be obtained in the Circle of Happiness."-Triads of Bardism, Tr. 35.

4 Angau, the Welsh word for Death, signifies Enlarge

ment.

5 Nefoedd, the Welsh word for Heaven, signifies Renovation.

"The three Excellencies of changing the mode of Existence in the Circle of Happiness:-Acquisition of Knowledge; beautiful Variety; and Repose, from not being able to endure uniform Infinity and uninterrupted Eternity.

"Three things none but God can do: endure the Eternities of the Circle of Infinity; participate of every state of Existence without changing; and reform and renovate every thing without the loss of it.

"The three Plenitudes of Happiness:- Participation of every nature, with a plenitude of One predominant; conformity to every cast of genius and character, possessing superior excellence in One; the Love of all Beings and Existences, but chiefly concentred in one object, which is God: and in the predominant One of each of these will the Plenitude of Happiness consist."-Triads of Bardism, 40. 38. 45.

6 "I will extol the generous Hero, descended from the race of Roderic, the bulwark of his country, a Prince eminent for his good qualities, the glory of Britain: Owen, the brave and expert in arms, that neither hoardeth nor coveteth riches.

"Three fleets arrived, vessels of the main, three powerful fleets of the first rate, furiously to attack him on the sudden : one from Iwerddon, the other full of well-armed Lochlynians, making a grand appearance on the floods, the third from the transmarine Normans, which was attended with an immense though successless toil.

"The dragons of Mona's sons were so brave in action, that there was a great tumult on their furious attack; and before the prince himself there was vast confusion, havoc, conflict, honourable death, bloody battle, horrible consternation, and upon Tal Mavra, a thousand banners: there was an outrageous carnage, and the rage of spears and hasty signs of violent indignation. Blood raised the tide of the Menai, and the crimson of human gore stained the brine. There were glittering cuirasses, and the agony of gashing wounds, and the mangled warriors prostrate before the chief, distinguished by his crimson lance. Loegria was put into confusion; the contest and confusion was great, and the glory of our Prince's wide-wasting sword shall be celebrated in an hundred languages to give him his merited praise.”— Panegyric upon Owen Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, by Gwalchmai the son of Melir, in the year 1157. — Evans's Specimens of Weish Poetry.

* Ireland.

And Menai's waters, burst with plunge on plunge, Curling above their banks with tempest-swell Their bloody billows heaved.

The long-past days Came on the mind of Madoc, as he heard That song of triumph; on his sun-burnt brow Sate exultation: . . other thoughts arose, As on the fate of all his gallant house Mournful he mused; oppressive memory swell'd His bosom, over his fix'd eye-balls swam The tear's dim lustre, and the loud-toned harp Rung on his ear in vain; .. its silence first Roused him from dreams of days that were no more.

III.

CADWALLON.

THEN on the morrow, at the festal board, The Lord of Ocean thus began his tale.

My heart beat high when with the favouring wind We sail'd away; Aberfraw! when thy towers, And the huge headland of my mother isle, Shrunk and were gone.

One human sound; . . only the raven's wing, Which rose before my coming, and the neigh Of wounded horses, wandering o'er the plain.

Night now was coming on; a man approach'd And bade me to his dwelling nigh at hand. Thither I turn'd, too weak to travel more; For I was overspent with weariness, And having now no hope to bear me up, Trouble and bodily labour master'd me. I ask'd him of the battle: . . who had fallen He knew not, nor to whom the lot of war Had given my father's sceptre. Here, said he, I came to seek if haply I might find Some wounded wretch, abandon'd else to death. My search was vain, the sword of civil war Had bit too deeply.

Soon we reach'd his home,

A lone and lowly dwelling in the hills,

Quoth David, how this enterprize arose,
And the wild hope of worlds beyond the sea;
For at thine outset being in the war,

I did not hear from vague and common fame
The moving cause. Sprung it from bardic lore,
The hidden wisdom of the years of old,
Forgotten long? or did it visit thee
In dreams that come from Heaven?

The Prince replied,
Thou shalt hear all; . . but if, amid the tale,
Strictly sincere, I haply should rehearse
Aught to the King ungrateful, let my brother
Be patient with the involuntary fault.

I was the guest of Rhys at Dinevawr,1 And there the tidings found me, that our sire Was gather'd to his fathers: . . not alone The sorrow came; the same ill messenger Told of the strife that shook our royal house, When Hoel, proud of prowess, seized the throne? Which you, for elder claim and lawful birth, Challenged in arms. With all a brother's love, I on the instant hurried to prevent The impious battle: . . all the day I sped; Night did not stay me on my eager way... Where'er I pass'd, new rumour raised new fear... Midnight, and morn, and noon, I hurried on, And the late eve was darkening when I reach'd Arvon, the fatal field... The sight, the sounds, Live in my memory now, for all was done! For horse and horseman side by side in death, Lay on the bloody plain; . . a host of men, And not one living soul,.. and not one sound,

1 Dinas Vawr, the Great Palace, the residence of the Princes of Deheubarth, or South Wales. This also was erected by Rhodri Mawr.

And homely fare, and I was satisfied:

That done, he piled the hearth, and spread around
The rushes of repose. I laid me down;
But worn with toil, and full of many fears,
Sleep did not visit me: the quiet sounds
Of nature troubled my distemper'd sense;
My ear was busy with the stirring gale,
The moving leaves, the brook's perpetual flow.

So on the morrow languidly I rose, And faint with fever: but a restless wish Was working in me, and I said, My host, Wilt thou go with me to the battle-field, That I may search the slain? for in the fray My brethren fought; and though with all my speed I strove to reach them ere the strife began, Alas, I sped too slow!

Grievest thou for that?

He answer'd, grievest thou that thou art spared
The shame and guilt of that unhappy strife,
Briton with Briton in unnatural war?
Nay, I replied, mistake me not! I came
To reconcile the chiefs; they might have heard
Their brother's voice.

Their brother's voice? said he,
Was it not so?... And thou, too, art the son
Of Owen !... Yesternight I did not know
The cause there is to pity thee. Alas,
Two brethren thou wilt lose when one shall fall!..
Lament not him whom death may save from guilt;
For all too surely in the conqueror

Thou wilt find one whom his own fears henceforth Must make to all his kin a perilous foe.