It is not improbable that our Bard might have been one of those who suffered in the cause of his country, though he had the good luck to escape Edward’s fury. I wish I may be so happy as to convey some faint idea of his merit to the English reader. The original has such touches, as none but a person in the Bard’s condition could have expressed so naturally. However not to anticipate the judicious reader’s opinion, to which I submit mine with all deference, I shall now produce some account of this great man, taken from that skilful and candid antiquary Mr. Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt’s notes on Dr. Powel’s history of Wales, printed at Oxford, 1663. “Sir John Griffydd Llwyd, knight, the son of Rhys ap Griffydd ap Ednyfed Fychan, was a valiant gentleman, but unfortunate, ‘magnæ quidem, sed calamitosæ virtutis,’ as Lucius Florus saith of Sertorius. He was knighted by king Edward, when he brought him the first news of his queen’s safe delivery of a son at Carnarvon Castle; the king was then at Rhuddlan, at his parliament held there. This Sir Griffydd afterwards taking notice of the extreme oppression and tyranny exercised by the English officers, especially Sir Roger Mortimer, lord of Chirk, and justice of North Wales, towards his countrymen the Welsh, became so far discontented, that he broke into open rebellion, verifying that saying of Solomon, ‘Oppression maketh a wise man mad.’ He treated with Sir Edward Bruce, brother to Robert, then king of Scotland, who had conquered Ireland, to bring or send over men to assist him in his design against the English; but Bruce’s terms being conceived too unreasonable, the treaty came to nought; however being desperate, he gathered all the forces he could, and, in an instant, like a candle that gives a sudden blaze before it is out, overran all North Wales and the Marches, taking all the castles and holds; but to little purpose, for soon after he was met with, his party discomfited, and himself taken prisoner. This was in the year of our Lord 1322.” I thought so much by way of introduction necessary to commemorate so gallant a person; what became of him afterwards is not mentioned by our historians. However the following poem remains not only as a monument of the hero’s bravery, but of the Bard’s genius. * * * * *