[264] Ann. Camb. C. “Franci exercitum movent in Guent, et nihil impetrantes vacui domum redeunt, et in Kellitravant versi sunt in fugam.” The name of the place is given in the text of the Annals as “Celli Darnauc;” the Brut as “Celli Carnant.” I do not know its site.
[265] Ib. “Iterum venerunt in Brechinauc et castella fecerunt in ea, sed in reditu apud Aberlech versi sunt in fugam a filiis Iduerth filii Kadugaun.” The Brut gives their names as Gruffydd and Ivor.
[266] So says the Brut, 1094 (1096).
[267] These details of the siege of Pembroke come from Giraldus, It. Camb. i. 12. As he has mistaken the date of the whole matter by putting it in the reign of Henry, so he has mistaken the special date of the siege, which he places soon after the death of Rhys ap Tewdwr, that is in 1093. His stories may belong to the movement of 1094; but they seem to come more naturally here. When the knights have deserted, “ex desperatione scapham intrantes navigio fugam attemptassent, in crastino mane Giraldus eorum armigeris arma dominorum cum feodis dedit, ipsosque statim militari cingulo decoravit.”
[268] They are brought “ad ultimam fere inediam.” Then Gerald, “ex summa prudentia spem simulans et solatia spondens, quatuor qui adhuc supererant bacones a propugnaculis frustatim ad hostes projici fecit.”
[269] Ib. “Die vero sequente ad figmenta recurrens exquisitiora, literas sigillo suo signatas coram hospitio Menevensis episcopi, cui nomen Wilfredus, qui forte tunc aderat, tanquam casu a portitore dilapsas inveniri procuravit.” I suppose this means that the Bishop was in a house outside the besieged castle; otherwise it is not clear how the Welsh could have got hold of the letter. It seems also to imply that the Bishop was on friendly terms with the besieged. But the whole story is a little dark.
[270] Ib. “Quo per exercitum literis lectis audito, statim obsidione dispersa ad propria singuli sunt reversi.” Directly after—“nec mora”—Gerald marries Nest. If we could at all trust her grandson’s chronology, this would throw some light on her relation to Henry.
[271] Ann. Camb. 1096. “Penbrochiam devastaverunt et incolumes domum redierunt.” The cattle come from the Brut.
[272] Ann. Camb. 1097. “Geraldus præfectus de Penbroc Meneviæ fines devastavit.” In the other manuscript he is dapifer, and in the Brut ystiwart.
[273] See vol. i. p. 572.