e unsuspecting Britons were revelling on the good
cheer which had been provided for them, and half-drunken with the mead
and beer which flowed in torrents, uprose Hengist, and with a voice of
thunder uttered the fatal words "nemet eoure saxes:" the cry was obeyed,
each Saxon grasped his knife and struck with it at the throat of his
defenceless neighbour. Almost every blow took effect; only three British
chieftains escaping from the banquet of blood. This infernal carnage the
Welsh have appropriately denominated the treachery of the long knives.
It will be as well to observe that the Saxons derived their name from the
saxes, or long knives, which they wore at their sides, and at the use of
which they were terribly proficient.

Two or three days after the attempt at murder at Llangollen, hearing that
the Welsh butcher was about to be brought before the magistrates, I
determined to make an effort to be present at the examination.
Accordingly I went to the police station and inquired of the
superintendent whether I could be permitted to attend. He was a North
Briton, as I have stated somewhere before, and I had scraped acquaintance
with him, and had got somewhat into his good graces by praising Dumfries,
his native place, and descanting to him upon the beauties of the poetry
of his celebrated countryman, my old friend, Allan Cunningham, some of
whose works he had perused, and with whom as he said, he had once the
honour of shaking hands. In reply to my question he told me that it was
doubtful whether any examination would take place, as the wounded man was
in a very weak state, but that if I would return in half-an-hour he would
let me know. I went away, and at the end of the half-hour returned, when
he told me that there would be no public examination, owing to the
extreme debility of the wounded man, but that one of the magistrates was
about to proceed to his house and take his deposition in the presence of
the criminal and also of the witnesses of the deed, and that if I pleased
I might go along with him, and he had no doubt that the magistrate would
have no objection to my being present. We set out together; as we were
going along I questioned him about the state of the country, and gathered
from him that there was occasionally a good deal of crime in Wales.

"Are the Welsh a clannish people?" I demanded.

"Very," said he.

"As clannish as the Highlanders?" said I.

"Yes," said he, "and a good deal more."

W