Wild Wales Part 78

"Well," said the attorney, "this is my client; what do you think of him?"

"He is rather a different person from what I had expected to see," said I; "but let us mind what we say, or we shall offend him."

"Not we," said the attorney; "that is, unless we speak Welsh, for he understands not a word of any other language."

Then sitting down at the farther table, he said to his client in Welsh: "Now, Mr. So-and-so, have you learnt anything more about that first keeper?"

The client bent down, and placing both his hands upon the table, began to whisper in Welsh to his professional adviser. Not wishing to hear any of their conversation, I finished my breakfast as soon as possible, and left the room. Going into the inn-yard, I had a great deal of learned discourse with an old ostler about the glanders in horses. From the inn-yard I went to my own private room, and made some dottings in my notebook, and then went down again to the parlour, which I found unoccupied. After sitting some time before the fire, I got up, and strolling out, presently came to a kind of market-place, in the middle of which stood an old-fashioned-looking edifice supported on pillars.

Seeing a crowd standing round it, I asked what was the matter, and was told that the magistrates were sitting in the town-hall above, and that a grand poaching-case was about to be tried. "I may as well go and hear it," said I.

Ascending a flight of steps, I found myself in the hall of justice, in the presence of the magistrates, and amidst a great many people, amongst whom I observed my friend the attorney and his client. The magistrates upon the whole were rather a fine body of men. Lord V- was in the chair, a highly-intelligent-looking person, with fresh complexion, hooked nose, and dark hair. A policeman very civilly procured me a commodious seat.

I had scarcely taken possession of it when the poaching case was brought forward. The first witness against the accused was a fellow dressed in a dirty snuff-coloured suit, with a debauched look, and having much the appearance of a town shack. He deposed that he was a hired keeper, and went with another to watch the river at about four o'clock in the morning; that they placed themselves behind a bush, and that a little before daylight they saw the farmer drive some cattle across the river.

He was attended by a dog. Suddenly they saw him put a spear upon a stick which he had in his hand, run back to the river, and plunging the spear in, after a struggle pull out a salmon; that they then ran forward, and he himself asked the farmer what he was doing, whereupon the farmer flung the salmon and spear into the river, and said that if he did not take himself off he would fling him in too. The attorney then got up, and began to cross-question him. "How long have you been a keeper?"

"About a fortnight."

"What do you get a week?"

"Ten shillings."

"Have you not lately been in London?"

"I have."

"What induced you to go to London?"

"The hope of bettering my condition."

"Were you not driven out of Machynlleth?"

"I was not."

"Why did you leave London?"

"Because I could get no work, and my wife did not like the place."

"Did you obtain possession of the salmon and the spear?"

"I did not."

"Why didn't you?"

"The pool was deep where the salmon was struck, and I was not going to lose my life by going into it."

"How deep was it?"

"Over the tops of the houses," said the fellow, lifting up his hands.

The other keeper then came forward; he was brother to the former, but had much more the appearance of a keeper, being rather a fine fellow and dressed in a wholesome, well-worn suit of velveteen. He had no English, and what he said was translated by a sworn interpreter. He gave the same evidence as his brother about watching behind the bush, and seeing the farmer strike a salmon. When cross-questioned, however, he said that no words pa.s.sed between the farmer and his brother, at least, that he heard.

The evidence for the prosecution being given, my friend the attorney entered upon the defence. He said that he hoped the court were not going to convict his client, one of the most respectable farmers in the county, on the evidence of two such fellows as the keepers, one of whom was a well-known bad one, who for his evil deeds had been driven from Machynlleth to London, and from London back again to Machynlleth, and the other, who was his brother, a fellow not much better, and who, moreover, could not speak a word of English-the honest lawyer forgetting, no doubt, that his own client had just as little English as the keeper. He repeated that he hoped the court would not convict his respectable client on the evidence of these fellows, more especially as they flatly contradicted each other in one material point, one saying that words had pa.s.sed between the farmer and himself, and the other that no words at all had pa.s.sed, and were unable to corroborate their testimony by anything visible or tangible. If his client speared the salmon, and then flung the salmon with the spear sticking in its body into the pool, why didn't they go into the pool and recover the spear and salmon? They might have done so with perfect safety, there being an old proverb-he need not repeat it-which would have secured them from drowning had the pool been not merely over the tops of the houses, but over the tops of the steeples. But he would waive all the advantage which his client derived from the evil character of the witnesses, the discrepancy of their evidence, and their not producing the spear and salmon in court. He would rest the issue of the affair with confidence, on one argument, on one question; it was this. Would any man in his senses-and it was well known that his client was a very sensible man-spear a salmon not his own, when he saw two keepers close at hand watching him-staring at him? Here the chairman observed that there was no proof that he saw them-that they were behind a bush. But my friend the attorney very properly, having the interest of his client and his own character for consistency in view, stuck to what he had said, and insisted that the farmer must have seen them, and he went on reiterating that he must have seen them, notwithstanding that several magistrates shook their heads.

Just as he was about to sit down, I moved up behind him and whispered, "Why don't you mention the dog? Wouldn't the dog have been likely to have scented the fellows out, even if they had been behind the bush."

He looked at me for a moment, and then said with a kind of sigh, "No, no!

twenty dogs would be of no use here. It's no go-I shall leave the case as it is."

The court was cleared for a time, and when the audience were again admitted, Lord V- said that the Bench found the prisoner guilty; that they had taken into consideration what his counsel had said in his defence, but that they could come to no other conclusion, more especially as the accused was known to have been frequently guilty of similar offences. They fined him four pounds, including costs.

As the people were going out I said to the farmer in Welsh, "A bad affair this."

"Drwg iawn-very bad indeed," he replied.

"Did those fellows speak truth?" said I.

"Nage-Dim ond celwydd-not they! nothing but lies."

"Dear me!" said I to myself, "what an ill-treated individual!"

CHAPTER LXXIX

Machynlleth-Remarkable Events-Ode to Glendower-Dafydd Gam-Lawdden's Hatchet.

Machynlleth, p.r.o.nounced Machuncleth, is one of the princ.i.p.al towns of the district which the English call Montgomeryshire, and the Welsh Shire Trefaldwyn, or the Shire of Baldwin's town; Trefaldwyn, or the town of Baldwin, being the Welsh name for the town which is generally termed Montgomery. It is situated in nearly the centre of the valley of the Dyfi, amidst pleasant green meadows, having to the north the river, from which, however, it is separated by a gentle hill. It possesses a stately church, parts of which are of considerable antiquity, and one or two good streets. It is a thoroughly Welsh town, and the inhabitants, who amount in number to about four thousand, speak the ancient British language with considerable purity.

Machynlleth has been the scene of remarkable events, and is connected with remarkable names, some of which have rung through the world. At Machynlleth in 1402 Owen Glendower, after several brilliant victories over the English, held a parliament in a house which is yet to be seen in the Eastern Street, and was formally crowned King of Wales; in his retinue was the venerable bard Iolo Goch, who, imagining that he now saw the old prophecy fulfilled, namely that a prince of the race of Cadwaladr should rule the Britons, after emanc.i.p.ating them from the Saxon yoke, greeted the chieftain with an ode to the following effect:-

Here's the life I've sigh'd for long: Abash'd is now the Saxon throng, And Britons have a British lord Whose emblem is the conquering sword; There's none I trow but knows him well The hero of the watery dell, Owain of b.l.o.o.d.y spear in field, Owain his country's strongest shield; A sovereign bright in grandeur drest, Whose frown affrights the bravest breast.

Let from the world upsoar on high A voice of splendid prophecy!

All praise to him who forth doth stand To 'venge his injured native land!

Of him, of him a lay I'll frame Shall bear through countless years his name: In him are blended portents three, Their glories blended sung shall be: There's Owain meteor of the glen, The head of princely generous men; Owain the lord of trenchant steel, Who makes the hostile squadrons reel; Owain besides of warlike look, A conqueror who no stay will brook; Hail to the lion leader gay, Marshaller of Griffith's war array; The scourger of the flattering race, For them a dagger has his face; Each traitor false he loves to smite, A lion is he for deeds of might; Soon may he tear, like lion grim, All the Lloegrians limb from limb!

May G.o.d and Rome's blest father high Deck him in surest panoply!

Hail to the valiant carnager, Worthy three diadems to bear!

Hail to the valley's belted king!

Hail to the widely conquering, The liberal, hospitable, kind, Trusty and keen as steel refined!

Vigorous of form he nations bows, Whilst from his breast-plate bounty flows.

Of Horsa's seed on hill and plain Four hundred thousand he has slain.

The cope-stone of our nation's he, In him our weal, our all we see; Though calm he looks his plans when breeding, Yet oaks he'd break his clans when leading.

Hail to this partisan of war, This bursting meteor flaming far!

Where'er he wends Saint Peter guard him, And may the Lord five lives award him!

To Machynlleth on the occasion of the parliament came Dafydd Gam, so celebrated in after time; not, however, with the view of entering into the counsels of Glendower, or of doing him homage, but of a.s.sa.s.sinating him. This man, whose surname Gam signifies crooked, was a petty chieftain of Breconshire. He was small of stature, and deformed in person, though possessed of great strength. He was very sensitive of injury, though quite as alive to kindness; a thorough-going enemy and a thorough-going friend. In the earlier part of his life he had been driven from his own country for killing a man, called Big Richard of Slwch, in the High Street of Aber Honddu, or Brecon, and had found refuge in England, and kind treatment in the house of John of Gaunt, for whose son Henry, generally called Bolingbroke, he formed one of his violent friendships. Bolingbroke, on becoming King Henry the Fourth, not only restored the crooked little Welshman to his possessions, but gave him employments of great trust and profit in Herefordshire. The insurrection of Glendower against Henry was quite sufficient to kindle against him the deadly hatred of Dafydd, who swore "by the nails of G.o.d" that he would stab his countryman for daring to rebel against his friend King Henry, the son of the man who had received him in his house and comforted him, when his own countrymen were threatening his destruction. He therefore went to Machynlleth with the full intention of stabbing Glendower, perfectly indifferent as to what might subsequently be his own fate.

Glendower, however, who had heard of his threat, caused him to be seized and conducted in chains to a prison which he had in the mountains of Sycharth. Shortly afterwards, pa.s.sing through Breconshire with his host, he burnt Dafydd's house, a fair edifice called the Cyrnigwen, situated on a hillock, near the river Honddu, to the ground, and seeing one of Gam's dependents gazing mournfully on the smouldering ruins, he uttered the following taunting englyn:-

"Shouldst thou a little red man descry Asking about his dwelling fair, Tell him it under the bank doth lie, And its brow the mark of the coal doth bear."