ANTIQUITIES. 



875 



iras taken, in cons eq uenceofabreac 

 having been efl'octed by means which 

 it requires some faith to credit on 

 the testimony of local traditions 

 and manuscripts. According to 

 such accounts, a battering-ram ^yas 

 worked by one thousand men, 

 and suspended to a frame, composed 

 of twenty large oaks. The breach 

 was made in the depth of a dark 

 jiight, and king Edward escaped in 

 the habit of a Welsh peasant. The 

 more eifectually to disguise himself, 

 he assisted with great eagerness to 

 pile wood on the tremendously large 

 hrcs that lighted the besiegers in 

 battering the castle. Local autho- 

 rities assert, probably with some de- 

 gree of poetical amplification, that 

 pne hundred teams were employed 

 to supply wood for those vast (ires. 

 The Welsh are said to have assisted 

 the besiegers from all quarters, at a 

 proper opportunity. Edward made 

 his escape from every danger, and 

 through the dark and stormy night, 

 went on till he came to the parish of 

 Llangonoyd, twenty miles westward, 

 where he hired himself as a cowherd 

 or shepherd, at a farm, still known 

 by so singular a circumstance. After 

 having been there for some time, 

 but how long is not precisely as- 

 certained ; the farmer, fiiuling him 

 but an awkard and ignorant fellow, 

 dismissed him. Such is the colour- 

 ing £i{ one account: but another 

 story, in manuscript, relates, that 

 the farmer knew who he was, and 

 befriended Uim as long as he could. 

 From Mangonoyd ho went to Neath 

 Abbey, whence he issued a procla- 

 mation, ordering his subjects to take 

 the <juecn, willi other particulars, 

 Mlii( h arc to be found in Uymcr's 

 Fijcdera. '1 he Spencers were taken 

 ill their castle, where prodigious 

 fliianlities of salt and fresh provisi- 



ons were found. Of live cattle, 

 there were lodged within the castle 

 walls, two thousand fat oxen, twelve 

 thousand cows, twenty-five thou- 

 sand calves, thirty thousand fat 

 sheep, six hundred draught horses, 

 and a sufficient number of carts for 

 them ; two thousand fat hogs, two 

 hundred tons of French wine, forty 

 tons of cyder and wine, the produce 

 of their own estates, with wheat 

 enough to make bread for two thou- 

 sand men for four years. In one of 

 the towers, every apartment was 

 crammed full of salt. Under this 

 tower was a furnace for smelting 

 iron, hot masses of which had been 

 thrown by engines on the be- 

 siegers, who, when they had got 

 possession of the castle, let out the 

 fused iron from the furnace, and 

 threw water upon it. This occa- 

 sioned a most dreadful explosion, 

 that rent the tower in two, and de- 

 stroyed the salt. What stands of 

 the tower at present, is that which 

 overhangs its base. The subsequent 

 fate of the two Hugh Spencers, fa- 

 ther and son, is too well known to 

 need a record on this occasion. 

 Hugh Spencer, the grandson, how- 

 ever, with his faithful garrison, 

 found means to destroy, very unex- 

 pectedly, a considerable number of 

 the besiegers, and leading his men to 

 the breach, was able to prevent 

 others from entering. Presuming 

 on this success, young Spencer suc- 

 ceeded in destroying his enemies 

 within, and procuring; tolerable 

 terms, by which he was permitted 

 to remain in pos.sessioH of his castle 

 and his estates, together with the 

 lordship of (Ilamorgan. His son, 

 Thouias Spencer, succeeded him. 

 The next in the catalogue was a se- 

 cond Thomas Spencer ; the last, 

 and if possible, the worst, of this 



tyrannicail 



