But the divine vengeance pursued him,for the inhabitants rushed upon the invaders,few against many,unarmed against armed;and having slain great numbers,and taken many prisoners,gained a most complete and bloody victory.For,as our Topography of Ireland testifies,that the Welsh and Irish are more prone to anger and revenge than any other nations,the saints,likewise,of those countries appear to be of a more vindictive nature.
Two noble persons,and uncles of the author of this book,were sent thither by the king;namely,Henry,son of king Henry I.and uncle to king Henry II.by Nest,daughter of Rhys,prince of South Wales;and Robert Fitz-Stephen,brother to Henry,a man who in our days,shewing the way to others,first attacked Ireland,and whose fame is recorded in our Vaticinal History.Henry,actuated by too much valour,and ill supported,was pierced by a lance,and fell amongst the foremost,to the great concern of his attendants;and Robert,despairing of being able to defend himself,was badly wounded,and escaped with difficulty to the ships.
There is a small island,almost adjoining to Anglesey,which is inhabited by hermits,living by manual labour,and serving God.It is remarkable that when,by the influence of human passions,any discord arises among them,all their provisions are devoured and infected by a species of small mice,with which the island abounds;but when the discord ceases,they are no longer molested.Nor is it to be wondered at,if the servants of God sometimes disagree,since Jacob and Esau contended in the womb of Rebecca,and Paul and Barnabas differed;the disciples also of Jesus disputed which of them should be the greatest,for these are the temptations of human infirmity;yet virtue is often made perfect by infirmity,and faith is increased by tribulations.This island is called in Welsh,Ynys Lenach,{167}or the ecclesiastical island,because many bodies of saints are deposited there,and no woman is suffered to enter it.
We saw in Anglesey a dog,who accidentally had lost his tail,and whose whole progeny bore the same defect.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.