m. In
private he was informed that, on condition of surrendering Wales, he
should receive a county in England and a pension of one thousand
pounds a year. David was to go to the Holy Land, and not return except
by the King's permission. These terms were undoubtedly hard, but could
not be called unreasonable, as, by the subjugation of Anglesey, the
principality was reduced to the two modern counties of Merionethshire
and Carnarvonshire. Llewelyn and his barons preferred to die fighting
sword in hand for position and liberty. The Primate excommunicated
them and withdrew.

About the time of this interview, November 6th, there was a sharp
skirmish at Bangor. Some of the Earl of Gloucester's troops crossed
over before the bridge was completed, except for low-water mark, and
were surprised and routed, with the loss of their leader and fourteen
bannerets, by the Welsh. This encouraged Llewelyn to resume offensive
operations, and he poured troops into Cardigan to ravage the lands of
a Welshman in the English interest. The English forces in Radnor
marched up along the left bank of the Wye, and came in sight of the
enemy at Buelth, December 10th. Llewelyn was surprised during a
reconnaissance and killed by an English knight, Stephen de Frankton.
After a short but brilliant encounter, in which the English charged up
the brow of a hill and routed the enemy with loss, they examined the
dead bodies, and for the first time knew that Llewelyn was among the
slain. A letter was found on his person giving a list, in false names,
of the English nobles with whom he was in correspondence, but either
the cipher was undiscoverable or the matter was hushed up by the
King's discretion.

Llewelyn, dying under church ban, was denied Christian sepulture. His
head, crowned with a garland of silver ivy-leaves, was carried on the
point of a lance through London, and exposed on the battlements of the
Tower. The prophecy that he should ride crowned through London had
been fatally fulfilled.

With the death of Llewelyn the Welsh war was virtually at an end. With
all his faults of temper and judgment, he had shown himself a man of
courage and capacity, who identified his own cause with his people's.
But David, though now implicated in the rebellion beyond hope of
pardon, had fought under the English banner against his countrymen,
with the wish to dismember the principality. The Welsh cannot be
accused of fickleness if they became languid in a struggle