deserted to Louis king of France, which caused the king greater
uneasiness than he had ever before experienced; and which, by the
conduct of some one of his sons, was continued till the time of his
decease. This monarch, through divine mercy (for God is more
desirous of the conversion than the destruction of a sinner),
received many other admonitions and reproofs about this time, and
shortly before his death; all of which, being utterly incorrigible,
he obstinately and obdurately despised, as will be more fully set
forth (by the favour of God) in my book, "de Principis
Instructione."

Not far from Caerdyf is a small island situated near the shore of
the Severn, called Barri, from St. Baroc {84} who formerly lived
there, and whose remains are deposited in a chapel overgrown with
ivy, having been transferred to a coffin. From hence a noble
family, of the maritime parts of South Wales, who owned this island
and the adjoining estates, received the name of de Barri. It is
remarkable that, in a rock near the entrance of the island, there is
a small cavity, to which, if the ear is applied, a noise is heard
like that of smiths at work, the blowing of bellows, strokes of
hammers, grinding of tools, and roaring of furnaces; and it might
easily be imagined that such noises, which are continued at the ebb
and flow of the tides, were occasioned by the influx of the sea
under the cavities of the rocks.



CHAPTER VII