indiscreet ardour, made a hostile irruption into Wales, and
presuming to pass through that narrow and woody defile, experienced
a signal defeat, and a very heavy loss of men. {181} The aforesaid
king invaded Wales three times with an army; first, North Wales at
the above-mentioned place; secondly, South Wales, by the sea-coast
of Glamorgan and Goer, penetrating as far as Caermarddin and
Pencadair, and returning by Ellennith and Melenith; and thirdly, the
country of Powys, near Oswaldestree; but in all these expeditions
the king was unsuccessful, because he placed no confidence in the
prudent and well-informed chieftains of the country, but was
principally advised by people remote from the marches, and ignorant
of the manners and customs of the natives. In every expedition, as
the artificer is to be trusted in his trade, so the advice of those
people should be consulted, who, by a long residence in the country,
are become conversant with the manners and customs of the natives;
and to whom it is of high importance that the power of the hostile
nation, with whom, by a long and continued warfare, they have
contracted an implacable enmity and hatred, should be weakened or
destroyed, as we have set forth in our Vaticinal History.

In this wood of Coleshulle, a young Welshman was killed while
passing through the king's army; the greyhound who accompanied him
did not desert his master's corpse for eight days, though without
food; but faithfully defended it from the attacks of dogs, wolves,
and birds of prey, with a wonderful attachment. What son to his
father, what Nisus to Euryalus, what Polynices to Tydeus, what
Orestes to Pylades, would have shewn such an affectionate regard?
As a mark of favour to the dog, who was almost starved to death, the
English, although bitter enemies to the Welsh, ordered the body, now
nearly putrid, to be deposited in the ground with the accustomed