540 [A.D. 1231. ROGER OF WENDOVER. Braose ; but on the king of England's marching thither with a small military force, thev, according to custom, retreated to their fastnesses. The king then went to the northern parts of the country, leaving Hubert the justiciary in this quarter to repel the incursions of the Welsh ; they however, as soon as they heard of the king's departure, again resumed their pillaging expeditions, and invading the districts near the castle of .Montgomery, they commenced committing their ravages in that quarter. When this news was brought to the knights of the garrison, they sallied forth to give battle to the Welsh, in order to prevent their roving alout the country thus unopposed, and cutting off their retreat, they slew and made prisoners of a great number of them : they then delivered all whom they had taken alive to the justiciary, who ordered them to be decapitated, and their heads to he sent to the king. Llewellyn, in great indignation at this deed, collected a large army and committed severe depredations on the lands and possessions of the barons, who lived on the borders of Wales, sparing neither the churches nor ecclesiastics; and burnt several churches, together with some noble women and girls who had rio J there for safety. /Low Llewellyn was excommunicated, and the kino invaded Mates. When king Henry received intelligence of this great crime, he collected a large army at Oxford on the 13th of July, antl there, when the whole of the nobility of the kingdom, clergy and people, had assembled, all the bishops and other prelates of the churches, in the presence of the king, excommunicated Llewellyn and his adherents, who had burnt the churches ; after which he led his army forward and inarched with all haste to Hereford. Llewellyn was then lying with his army near the castle id' Montgomery, in a field near the river, covered with marshes, where he was waiting in ambuscade to attack the knights of the garrison. From that place, as was said, he sent to the castle a certain monk from a convent of the Cistercian order in the neighbourhood, called Cumini ; wdien the knights of the castle saw him coining to them, they went out from the castF to speak with him, and asked him if lie had heard anything of king Llewellyn, to which the monk replied thai he had seen him with a small retinue in afield near, where he «e s waiting for a larger torce. The knights then asked the monk if horsemen could cross the river and the field safely, to which he replied, "The bridge by whi'h passengers used to cross the river has been broken by Llewellyn, because he feared an attack on your part ; but you can safely cross the river and the field on horseback wherever you choose, and with a few horsemen easily- conqiii r the Welsh, or put them to flight." Walt' r ile (iodarville, the governor of the castle, gave credit to this false information „f the monk, and at once gave orders to his fellow knights and the soldiers to fly to arms, and then, mounting their horses, they soon reached the