The Black Dwarf

The Chronicles, from which this narrative is extracted, assure us, that during the long periodwhen the Welsh princes maintained their independence, the year 1187 was peculiarly marked asfavourable to peace betwixt them and their warlike neighbours, the Lords Marchers, who inhabitedthose formidable castles on the frontiers of the ancient British, on the ruins of which the travellergazes with wonder. This was the time when Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied bythe learned Giraldus de Barri, afterwards Bishop of Saint David's, preached the Crusade from castleto castle, from town to town; awakened the inmost valleys of his native Cambria with the call toarms for recovery of the Holy Sepulchre; and, while he deprecated the feuds and wars of Christianmen against each other, held out to the martial spirit of the age a general object of ambition, and ascene of adventure, where the favour of Heaven, as well as earthy renown, was to reward thesuccessful champions.Yet the British chieftains, among the thousands whom this spirit- stirring summons called fromtheir native land to a distant and perilous expedition, had perhaps the best excuse for declining thesummons. The superior skill of the Anglo-Norman knights, who were engaged in constant inroadson the Welsh frontier, and who were frequently detaching from it large portions, which theyfortified with castles, thus making good what they had won, was avenged, indeed, but notcompensated, by the furious inroads of the British, who, like the billows of a retiring tide, rolled onsuccessively, with noise, fury, and devastation; but, on each retreat, yielded ground insensibly to theirinvaders.A union among the native princes might have opposed a strong and permanent barrier to theencroachments of the strangers; but they were, unhappily, as much at discord among themselves asthey were with the Normans, and were constantly engaged in private war with each other, of whichthe common enemy had the sole advantage.The invitation to the Crusade promised something at least of novelty to a nation peculiarly ardentin their temper; and it was accepted by many, regardless of the consequences which must ensue, tothe country which they left defenceless. Even the most celebrated enemies of the Saxon andNorman race laid aside their enmity against the invaders of their country, to enrol themselves underthe banners of the Crusade.