Perhaps They Were Seen By Such A Miraculous
Vision As When King Balthazar Saw The Hand Of One Writing On The
Wall, "Mane, Techel, Phares," That Is, Weighed, Numbered, Divided;
Who In The Same Night Lost Both His Kingdom And His Life.
But
Cambria well knows how in these districts, from a blind desire of
dominion, a total dissolution of the endearing ties of
consanguinity, and a bad and depraved example diffused throughout
the country, good faith has been so shamefully perverted and abused.
CHAPTER VI
Newport and Caerdyf
At Newport, where the river Usk, descending from its original source
in Cantref Bachan, falls into the sea, many persons were induced to
take the cross. Having passed the river Remni, we approached the
noble castle of Caerdyf, {77} situated on the banks of the river
Taf. In the neighbourhood of Newport, which is in the district of
Gwentluc, {78} there is a small stream called Nant Pencarn, {79}
passable only at certain fords, not so much owing to the depth of
its waters, as from the hollowness of its channel and muddy bottom.
The public road led formerly to a ford, called Ryd Pencarn, that is,
the ford under the head of a rock, from Rhyd, which in the British
language signifies a ford, Pen, the head, and Cam, a rock; of which
place Merlin Sylvester had thus prophesied: "Whenever you shall see
a mighty prince with a freckled face make an hostile irruption into
the southern part of Britain, should he cross the ford of Pencarn,
then know ye, that the force of Cambria shall be brought low." Now
it came to pass in our times, that king Henry II.
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