276 CWM BYCHAN. 



them been quarried from one of our Britisli hills, no eye could have 

 discerned the absence of so minute a fragment ; and when the hand 

 of time shall have crumbled them to dust and mingled them with 

 the surrounding sands, who shall trace out the once proud towers 

 and mighty monuments ? 



It was during the early part of the reign of Edward the First 

 that the incidents related in the following narrative occurred. — 

 When that monarch returned from the Holy Land, he found him- 

 self placed in undisputed possession of the English throne. The 

 various factions which had prevailed during the late reign, and 

 which had deluged the kingdoms in the blood of civil war, had now 

 subsided, all parties seemed willing to put themselves under the 

 authority of the new king. The vigorous and restless mind of 

 Edward, however, could not long endure the inactivity of peace. 

 He longed for some object on which to exercise his enterprising 

 genius and to employ the energies of his subjects. He determined 

 on the subjugation of Wales which, for many centuries, had been a 

 turbulent province never thoroughly conquered, taking every oppor- 

 tunity of throwing off its allegiance when civil dissentions or foreign 

 expeditions had occupied the English troops. 



Edward levied a considerable army and entered North Wales. 

 The Welsh, who could not oppose him in the open field, took refuge 

 in the inaccessible regions of Snowdonia where, for some time, they 

 defied his power ; but, at length, through famine and the perseve- 

 rance of their enemies, they were dislodged and obliged to sue for 

 peace. Heavy conditions were imposed on the vanquished by the 

 conqueror ; but these soon after were violated. The Welsh flew 

 again to arms : another army was sent against them ; they were 

 again defeated, and Llewellyn their king was slain. His brother 

 David became nominal sovereign of the country, but he was a fugi- 

 tive and a wanderer in the land of his fathers. Hunted from place 

 to place, with a price set on his head, this unfortunate Prince still 

 endeavoured to maintain the liberty and independence of his native 

 soil. Inheriting from his hardy race, indomitable courage joined to 

 the quenchless light oi" patriotism, he beheld with a swelling heart 

 and a maddening spirit the foot of the proud invader tread those 

 wild mountain-tops and beautifully romantic vales over which he 

 had heretofore ranged as free as the fetterless winds that play over 

 them. 



With a few faithful followers who still adhered to him in his ad- 

 versity, and who still remembered their past hours of freedom and 

 of joy, he continued to elude his enemies, and frequently made sue- 



