"Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat?"


and


"Et si non recte possis quocunque modo rem,"


my pen shrinks with abhorrence from the relation of the enormous
vengeance exercised by the court against its vassals, within the
comot of Caeo, in the Cantref Mawr. Near Dinevor, on the other side
of the river Tywy, in the Cantref Bychan, or the little cantred,
there is a spring which, like the tide, ebbs and flows twice in
twenty-four hours. {100} Not far to the north of Caermardyn, namely
at Pencadair, {101} that is, the head of the chair, when Rhys, the
son of Gruffydd, was more by stratagem than force compelled to
surrender, and was carried away into England, king Henry II.
despatched a knight, born in Britany, on whose wisdom and fidelity
he could rely, under the conduct of Guaidanus, dean of Cantref Mawr,
to explore the situation of Dinevor castle, and the strength of the
country. The priest, being desired to take the knight by the
easiest and best road to the castle, led him purposely aside by the
most difficult and inaccessible paths, and wherever they passed
through woods, the priest, to the general surprise of all present,
fed upon grass, asserting that, in times of need, the inhabitants of
that country were accustomed to live upon herbs and roots. The
knight returning to the king, and relating what had happened,