The Letters Also Which William De
Braose, As A Rich And Powerful Man, Was Accustomed To Send To
Different Parts,
Were loaded, or rather honoured, with words
expressive of the divine indulgence to a degree not only tiresome to
his
Scribe, but even to his auditors; for as a reward to each of his
scribes for concluding his letters with the words, "by divine
assistance," he gave annually a piece of gold, in addition to their
stipend. When on a journey he saw a church or a cross, although in
the midst of conversation either with his inferiors or superiors,
from an excess of devotion, he immediately began to pray, and when
he had finished his prayers, resumed his conversation. On meeting
boys in the way, he invited them by a previous salutation to salute
him, that the blessings of these innocents, thus extorted, might be
returned to him. His wife, Matilda de Saint Valery, observed all
these things: a prudent and chaste woman; a woman placed with
propriety at the head of her house, equally attentive to the
economical disposal of her property within doors, as to the
augmentation of it without; both of whom, I hope, by their devotion
obtained temporal happiness and grace, as well as the glory of
eternity.
It happened also that the hand of a boy, who was endeavouring to
take some young pigeons from a nest, in the church of Saint David of
Llanvaes, {35} adhered to the stone on which he leaned, through the
miraculous vengeance, perhaps, of that saint, in favour of the birds
who had taken refuge in his church; and when the boy, attended by
his friends and parents, had for three successive days and nights
offered up his prayers and supplications before the holy altar of
the church, his hand was, on the third day, liberated by the same
divine power which had so miraculously fastened it.
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