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Denbigh, quarterly gules and or, four lions rampant, counterchanged, became the lawful Prince of Wales; and when the news reached him of the slaughter of his brother, "he summoned all the chieftains and barons of Wales to assemble at Denbigh, to hold a national council. This proves that Denbigh was still in his possession, and even then a place of sufficient strength to afford security for a deliberating council of war, and to declare him Prince of Wales, as the hereditary successor of his brother, although Edward had a powerful army then lying at Rhuddlan, only a few miles off. It appears, indeed, strange that Edward had not made himself master of David's Castle of Denbigh while the prince was in Snowdonia. Probably it was considered too strongly fortified and garrisoned for present attack; that he did not wish to waste his resources in endeavouring to reduce it, which could only have been effected by a long siege, when he had no such spare forces at his disposal. It is probable that it was taken afterwards by Henri de Lacy, upon the fall or capture of Prince David, where the garrison either surrendered, or abandoned it in despair.

"While the Welsh were drowned in unfathomable depths of sorrow, and lost in the very abyss of despair, by the death of their beloved prince, Llywelyn, Edward burst upon them with all the ferocity of a tiger, spreading universal carnage among them. In vain did they fly for shelter to the caves of the mountains and the tops of the ragged rocks of the Snowdonian Alps; those bloodhounds in human form, whom he had hired for the purpose from the Basque provinces, chased them from cliff to cliff, and from cave to cave, giving no quarter to those

1 The probability is, that Edward himself was then in Snowdonia, where he advanced immediately on the information of Prince Llywelyn's death. It seems probable that Prince David intended to make this stronghold (Denbigh) the seat of his government, and that he conveyed the crown and regalia hither immediately after his brother's death. It should also be observed, that a portion of the Welsh crown jewels was discovered, a few years back, at Maes Mynnan, where Prince Llywelyn once resided. They had evidently been hidden at the time above alluded to.

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