It Is Wonderful That
Nature Should, As It Were, Conform Itself In This Particular To The
Accident Of The Father.
We saw also a knight, named Earthbald, born
in Devonshire, whose father, denying the child with which his mother
Was pregnant, and from motives of jealousy accusing her of
inconstancy, nature alone decided the controversy by the birth of
the child, who, by a miracle, exhibited on his upper lip a scar,
similar to one his father bore in consequence of a wound he had
received from a lance in one of his military expeditions. Stephen,
the son of Earthbald, had a similar mark, the accident being in a
manner converted into nature. A like miracle of nature occurred in
earl Alberic, son of Alberic earl of Veer, {168} whose father,
during the pregnancy of his mother, the daughter of Henry of Essex,
having laboured to procure a divorce, on account of the ignominy of
her father, the child, when born, had the same blemish in its eye,
as the father had got from a casual hurt. These defects may be
entailed on the offspring, perhaps, by the impression made on the
memory by frequent and steady observation; as it is reported that a
queen, accustomed to see the picture of a negro in her chamber,
unexpectedly brought forth a black child, and is exculpated by
Quintilian, on account of the picture. In like manner it happened
to the spotted sheep, given by Laban out of his flock to his nephew
Jacob, and which conceived by means of variegated rods. {169} Nor
is the child always affected by the mother's imagination alone, but
sometimes by that of the father; for it is well known that a man,
seeing a passenger near him, who was convulsed both behind and
before, on going home and telling his wife that he could not get the
impression of this sight off his mind, begat a child who was
affected in a similar manner.
CHAPTER VIII
Passage of the river Conwy in a boat, and of Dinas Emrys
On our return to Banchor from Mona, we were shown the tombs of
prince Owen and his younger brother Cadwalader, {170} who were
buried in a double vault before the high altar, although Owen, on
account of his public incest with his cousin-german, had died
excommunicated by the blessed martyr St. Thomas, the bishop of that
see having been enjoined to seize a proper opportunity of removing
his body from the church. We continued our journey on the sea
coast, confined on one side by steep rocks, and by the sea on the
other, towards the river Conwy, which preserves its waters
unadulterated by the sea. Not far from the source of the river
Conwy, at the head of the Eryri mountain, which on this side extends
itself towards the north, stands Dinas Emrys, that is, the
promontory of Ambrosius, where Merlin {171} uttered his prophecies,
whilst Vortigern was seated upon the bank. There were two Merlins;
the one called Ambrosius who prophesied in the time of king
Vortigern, was begotten by a demon incubus, and found at Caermardin,
from which circumstance that city derived its name of Caermardin, or
the city of Merlin; the other Merlin, born in Scotland, was named
Celidonius, from the Celidonian wood in which he prophesied; and
Sylvester, because when engaged in martial conflict, he discovered
in the air a terrible monster, and from that time grew mad, and
taking shelter in a wood, passed the remainder of his days in a
savage state.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 69 of 103
Words from 36220 to 36812
of 54608
