"
Yet all this time, with these hundreds of strong castles, bristling
with turrets and towers, no Englishman's life was safe. If he dared to
go out alone, even twenty rods from the castle, he was instantly
killed by some angry Welshman lying in ambush. So the Normans had to
lock themselves up in armor, until they looked like lobsters in their
shells. When on their iron-clad horses they resembled turtles, so that
if a knight fell off, he had to be chopped open to be rid of his metal
clothes.
Yet all this was in vain, for when the Norman marched out in bodies,
or rode in squadrons, the Welshery kept away and were hidden.
Even the birds and beasts noticed this, and saw what fools the Normans
were, to behave so brutally.
As for the fairies, they met together to see what could be done. Even
the reptiles shamed men by living together more peaceably. Only the
beasts of prey approved of the Norman way of treating the Welsh
people.
At last, it came to pass that, after the long War of the Roses, when
the Reds and the Whites had fought together, a Welsh king sat upon the
throne of England. Henry VIII was of Cymric ancestry.
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