98 



and hands uplifted to Heaven, poured forth devout prayers to the Lord.' At 

 length, rising up, and signing his face and forehead with the sign of the cros3, 

 he thus clearly spake :— "Almighty God and Jesus Christ, who knowest all 

 things, declare here this day Thy power. If Thou hast caused me to descend 

 lineally from the natural Princes of Wales, I command these birds, in Thy name, 

 to declare it." And immediately the birds, beating the water with their wings, 

 began to cry aloud, and proclaim him. The spectators were astonished and con. 

 founded, and Earl Milo, hastily returning with Payn Fitz John to court, related 

 this singular occurrence to the Kiug, who is said to have replied, "By the death 

 of Christ," an oath he was accustomed to use, "it is not a matter of so much 

 wonder ; for, although by our great authority we commit acts of violence and 

 wrong against these people, they are shown to be the rightful inheritors of the 

 land." 



" " The lake also is, according to the testimony of the inhabitants, endued 

 with miraculous power. It came to pass before that great war, in which 

 all this province was destroyed by the sons of Jestin, that the large lake, and 

 the river Leveni, which flows from it into the Wye opposite Glasbury, were 

 tinged with a deep green colour. The old people were consulted, and answered 

 that a short time before the great desolation caused by Howel, son of Meredyth, 

 the water had been colored in a similar manner. In those days the lake some- 

 times assumed a greenish hue, and in our days it has appeared to be tinged with 

 red, not universally, but as if blood flowed partially through certain veins and 

 small chaunels. Moreover the lake is sometimes seen by the inhabitants covered 

 and adorned with buildings, pastures, gardens, and orchards. In the winter, 

 when it is frozen over, and the water is converted into a sheet of ice, it emits 

 an horrible sound resembling the moans of many animals collected together ; 

 but this perhaps may be occasioned by the sudden bursting of the shell, and 

 the gradual ebullition of the air through imperceptible channels." 



The monk of Chester has collected and compressed these tales of wonder 



into the following lines : — 



Ad Brecknock est vivarium, 

 Satis abundans piscium, 

 Saspe colons varii 

 Comma gerens pomarii 

 Structuras ;edifieii 

 Sa pe videbis inibi. 

 Sub lacu cum sit gelidu.i, 

 SSirus auditor sonitus. 

 Si terras princcps venerit, 

 Aves can tare jusserit, 

 Statim depromuut raodulos, 

 Nil concinunt ad cceteros. 



Leland, speaking of this lake, saith— " Llin Sevathan is a iiii myles 



by south south est from Brecknock. It is in breadth a mile, and a ii mile 



of length, and wheras it is deepest xiii fathom. On the one side wel nere 



the ripe is a kinde of weedes that goith along the Llin, wherein the spaune 



hath sucur, and also the great fische. At great winds the water doth surge 



there marvellously. Llevenny cometh through th's lake, no great river, and 



