God, the crime was punished in the very place where it had been
committed. A short time after the taking of this fortress, when the
aforesaid sheriff was building a castle at Landinegat, {68} near
Monmouth, with the assistance of the army he had brought from
Hereford, he was attacked at break of day, when


"Tythoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile"


was only beginning to divest herself of the shades of night, by the
young men from Gwent and the adjacent parts, with the descendants of
those who had been slain. Through aware of this premeditated
attack, and prepared and drawn up in battle array, they were
nevertheless repulsed within their intrenchments, and the sheriff,
together with nine of the chief men of Hereford, and many others,
were pierced to death with lances. It is remarkable that, although
Ranulf, besides many other mortal wounds, had the veins and arteries
of his neck and his windpipe separated with a sword, he made signs
for a priest, and from the merit of his past life, and the honour
and veneration he had shewn to those chosen into the sacred order of
Christ, he was confessed, and received extreme unction before he
died. And, indeed, many events concur to prove that, as those who
respect the priesthood, in their latter days enjoy the satisfaction
of friendly intercourse, so do their revilers and accusers often die
without that consolation. William de Braose, who was not the author
of the crime we have preferred passing over in silence, but the
executioner, or, rather, not the preventer of its execution, while
the murderous bands were fulfilling the orders they had received,
was precipitated into a deep foss, and being taken by the enemy, was