The Cambrian Sketch-Book Part 23

Having reviewed the military career of Llewelyn, I shall proceed to make two or three observations respecting his character as a ruler and citizen. We have abundant evidence to prove that he was a profound lover of his country. He loved her hills and dales, her mountains and valleys, her alpine heights and cwms, or dells, with all the strong pa.s.sion of a warm and generous heart. Deeper than the love of home, of wife, of kindred, of lands and possessions, was his affection for wild Wales and its people. Of all countries in the wide world, Wales was to him the brightest and fairest, and its people the bravest and best. For her welfare, he sacrificed all he had, all he possessed; and at last his life was immolated on his dear country's shrine. As a citizen, he was generous and kind. His heart was full of human sympathy, while his spirit was one of the gentlest that ever dwelt in a tabernacle of clay.

Although he raised his country to a position of military fame which she had not occupied in previous history, yet war, in his view, had no glory.

He loved peace. He desired to live on terms of amity and friends.h.i.+p with the English people and their rulers. But alas! alas! those rulers were bent on the destruction of the independence and freedom of his country.

To prevent this, he led his army against the foe, and for a time war smiled upon him; but at last he fell, not in battle, but unarmed and alone, stricken to the earth by an a.s.sa.s.sin.

Brief, comparatively brief, was the public life of Prince Llewelyn; but grand, n.o.ble, and heroic were his deeds. He lived for others, not for himself. For the welfare of his country he laboured, not for personal aggrandizement. The mainspring of his actions was the deep and intense love of Fatherland. The great object for which he worked and fought and suffered, for which he became a public man, the leader and chief and ruler of a brave, a virtuous, an heroic people, was, to secure the independence of his country, the freedom and liberty of its people, and the blessing of permanent peace. To the interests of the land of his birth, the home of his father's sepulchre, he was ever true, ever faithful, ever unswerving in fidelity and loyalty. If others proved faithless, not so this patriotic prince. If others of his countrymen forsook the true standard of national independence, if they joined the ranks of the enemy with a view to aid in crus.h.i.+ng the liberties of an ancient people-a race who could trace their history, without a single break in the narrative, hundreds of years before the appearance of the Divine Teacher on earth-Llewelyn felt it all the more necessary for him to be more fearless in the fray, to put on a bolder and a manlier front, to toil and to work more incessantly in the cause which he felt was founded upon justice, upon right, and equity. For a period of thirty-six years he carried on a successful though an unequal struggle with the English monarchs Henry and Edward. But few, very few, was the number of his soldiers compared with the hosts who made up the armies that fought under the banner of his country's foes. His were brave men, and they were engaged in a struggle which was dearer and more sacred to them than life itself. They were true soldiers. To fear they were strangers.

Deeper than the love of life, than the love of kindred, than the love of estates and possessions, was their love and affection for Fatherland. We hardly know which to admire the more, the people or their leaders, the soldiers or their brave chiefs, the Cambrian army or their lawful prince.

They were exposed to temptation, but they yielded not to its alluring charms. Bribes were freely offered to many a Cambrian chieftain, but these offers were made in vain. When at last treason achieved the work which a far more powerful nation than the Welsh failed to accomplish on the battle-field, let it be proclaimed to the world, and let the fact be known to all ages to come, that the traitor was a border man, and not a man in whose veins flowed Cambrian blood. But he accomplished his work, and Llewelyn was no more. His death was the direst calamity that had ever befallen the Cambrian people. Strange as it might appear, nevertheless it is an historical fact, that when Llewelyn's compatriots found that their brave prince had fallen by the hands of an a.s.sa.s.sin, the spirit of heroism and bravery appears to have forsaken them. Hence to the best, and to the bravest of the brave, the struggle now appeared hopeless, notwithstanding that Prince David still lived and was free.

Though that prince was as brave as his deceased brother he did not command the same amount of confidence which was reposed in the slain Llewelyn. Thus we find, that though the struggle was continued, it lacked the boldness, energy, and high military tactics which had characterized the generals.h.i.+p of the martyred chief. Hence it soon became evident to the enemy that the death-knell of Cambrian freedom and independence had sounded, and that in a few days, or at any rate in a few months at most, this ancient Princ.i.p.ality would cease to occupy a separate and distinct place in the annals of the world. That the people in those times should have regarded the downfall of their country, the loss of their freedom and independence, as a terrible calamity, was but natural. In King Edward's promises and generosity the Welsh people had no confidence. To him and to his immediate predecessor they traced, and correctly traced, most of their troubles with the English nation. They had desired to live in peace; war they did not invite. They took up arms, not for conquest, not to extend their dominion, not to annex new counties to the Princ.i.p.ality, but simply in defence of the rights and liberties of their country, which they desired to transmit and hand down to their children and their children's children. But Providence had, for some grand purpose and design, willed that the weaker nation should be united to the stronger and more powerful people. In this age we behold and recognise the wisdom of His purpose. Though a distinct race, in language, feeling, and mental and physical idiosyncrasy, yet we unitedly admit that the benefits which come to us by reason of our union with the Saxon, are neither few nor unimportant. Happily, too, the ancient feuds between the two races are forgotten. We now live as brethren. The rivalry between us is no longer on the battle-field; we contend not with sword and bayonet. No! the contest is s.h.i.+fted to a more n.o.ble, a more beautiful, and a grander scene, with a sublimer aim and object than ever has characterized broad fields of battle; namely, the advancement of material civilization; the triumphs of art and the conquests of science; and the social, intellectual, moral, and religious welfare of the people.

May the standard of our contention ever be towards this high ideal! then a glorious future awaits the union of the Cambrian and Saxon peoples.

If now and then we of the former race drop a tear when the shadows of our country's martyred princes pa.s.s by, it is with no feeling of bitterness towards those into whose hands the sceptre of our land has pa.s.sed. On the contrary, while we remember with pride and grat.i.tude the heroic struggle of the "last of our native princes," we admit that it is infinitely better for Wales that she should be united to England under the beneficent sway of Victoria, and we have still a Prince of Wales to whom the Cambrian people are as loyal as their fathers were to Prince Llewelyn.

NOTE.-The historic facts embodied in the preceding sketch are taken from "Carnhuanawc's Hanes Cymru," "Warrington's History of Wales," the "Cambrian Plutarch," and "Welsh Sketches."