第13章 BOOK I(4)
Moreover I must not be silent concerning the collar (torques)which they call St.Canauc's;{41}for it is most like to gold in weight,nature,and colour;it is in four pieces wrought round,joined together artificially,and clefted as it were in the middle,with a dog's head,the teeth standing outward;it is esteemed by the inhabitants so powerful a relic,that no man dares swear falsely when it is laid before him:it bears the marks of some severe blows,as if made with an iron hammer;for a certain man,as it is said,endeavouring to break the collar for the sake of the gold,experienced the divine vengeance,was deprived of his eyesight,and lingered the remainder of his days in darkness.
A similar circumstance concerning the horn of St.Patrick (not golden indeed,but of brass [probably bronze],which lately was brought into these parts from Ireland)excites our admiration.The miraculous power of this relic first appeared with a terrible example in that country,through the foolish and absurd blowing of Bernard,a priest,as is set forth in our Topography of Ireland.
Both the laity and clergy in Ireland,Scotland,and Wales held in such great veneration portable bells,and staves crooked at the top,and covered with gold,silver,or brass,and similar relics of the saints,that they were much more afraid of swearing falsely by them than by the gospels;because,from some hidden and miraculous power with which they are gifted,and the vengeance of the saint to whom they are particularly pleasing,their despisers and transgressors are severely punished.The most remarkable circumstance attending this horn is,that whoever places the wider end of it to his ear will hear a sweet sound and melody united,such as ariseth from a harp gently touched.
In our days a strange occurrence happened in the same district.Awild sow,which by chance had been suckled by a bitch famous for her nose,became,on growing up,so wonderfully active in the pursuit of wild animals,that in the faculty of scent she was greatly superior to dogs,who are assisted by natural instinct,as well as by human art;an argument that man (as well as every other animal)contracts the nature of the female who nurses him.Another prodigious event came to pass nearly at the same time.A soldier,whose name was Gilbert Hagernel,after an illness of nearly three years,and the severe pains as of a woman in labour,in the presence of many people,voided a calf.A portent of some new and unusual event,or rather the punishment attendant on some atrocious crime.It appears also from the ancient and authentic records of those parts,that during the time St.Elwitus {42}led the life of a hermit at Llanhamelach,{43}the mare that used to carry his provisions to him was covered by a stag,and produced an animal of wonderful speed,resembling a horse before and a stag behind.
Bernard de Newmarch {44}was the first of the Normans who acquired by conquest from the Welsh this province,which was divided into three cantreds.{45}He married the daughter of Nest,daughter of Gruffydd,son of Llewelyn,who,by his tyranny,for a long time had oppressed Wales;his wife took her mother's name of Nest,which the English transmuted into Anne;by whom he had children,one of whom,named Mahel,a distinguished soldier,was thus unjustly deprived of his paternal inheritance.His mother,in violation of the marriage contract,held an adulterous intercourse with a certain knight;on the discovery of which,the son met the knight returning in the night from his mother,and having inflicted on him a severe corporal punishment,and mutilated him,sent him away with great disgrace.
The mother,alarmed at the confusion which this event caused,and agitated with grief,breathed nothing but revenge.She therefore went to king Henry I.and declared with assertions more vindictive than true,and corroborated by an oath,that her son Mahel was not the son of Bernard,but of another person with whom she had been secretly connected.Henry,on account of this oath,or rather perjury,and swayed more by his inclination than by reason,gave away her eldest daughter,whom she owned as the legitimate child of Bernard,in marriage to Milo Fitz-Walter,{46}constable of Gloucester,with the honour of Brecheinoc as a portion;and he was afterwards created earl of Hereford by the empress Matilda,daughter of the said king.By this wife he had five celebrated warriors;Roger,Walter,Henry,William,and Mahel;all of whom,by divine vengeance,or by fatal misfortunes,came to untimely ends;and yet each of them,except William,succeeded to the paternal inheritance,but left no issue.Thus this woman (not deviating from the nature of her sex),in order to satiate her anger and revenge,with the heavy loss of modesty,and with the disgrace of infamy,by the same act deprived her son of his patrimony,and herself of honour.Nor is it wonderful if a woman follows her innate bad disposition:for it is written in Ecclesiastes,"I have found one good man out of a thousand,but not one good woman;"and in Ecclesiasticus,"There is no head above the head of a serpent;and there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman;"and again,"Small is the wickedness of man compared to the wickedness of woman."And in the same manner,as we may gather grapes off thorns,or figs off thistles,Tully,describing the nature of women,says,"Men,perhaps,for the sake of some advantage will commit one crime;but woman,to gratify one inclination,will not scruple to perpetrate all sorts of wickedness."Thus Juvenal,speaking of women,say,"-Nihil est audacior illis Deprensis,iram atque animos a crimine sumunt.
-Mulier saevissima tunc est Cum stimulos animo pudor admovet.
-colllige,quod vindicta Nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.