And Thus, In The
Presence Of A Numerous Body Of His Own And His Brother's Forces,
Suffered The Punishment Which His Barbarous And Unnatural Conduct
Had So Justly Merited.
Another circumstance which happened here deserves notice.
A
greyhound belonging to the aforesaid Owen, large, beautiful, and
curiously spotted with a variety of colours, received seven wounds
from arrows and lances, in the defence of his master, and on his
part did much injury to the enemy and assassins. When his wounds
were healed, he was sent to king Henry II. by William earl of
Gloucester, in testimony of so great and extraordinary a deed. A
dog, of all animals, is most attached to man, and most easily
distinguishes him; sometimes, when deprived of his master, he
refuses to live, and in his master's defence is bold enough to brave
death; ready, therefore, to die, either with or for his master. I
do not think it superfluous to insert here an example which
Suetonius gives in his book on the nature of animals, and which
Ambrosius also relates in his Exameron. "A man, accompanied by a
dog, was killed in a remote part of the city of Antioch, by a
soldier, for the sake of plunder. The murderer, concealed by the
darkness of the morning, escaped into another part of the city; the
corpse lay unburied; a large concourse of people assembled; and the
dog, with bitter howlings, lamented his master's fate. The
murderer, by chance, passed that way, and, in order to prove his
innocence, mingled with the crowd of spectators, and, as if moved by
compassion, approached the body of the deceased.
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