Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/321

A.D. 1278. predictions which bore his name. One of these, which was now remembered and repeated, was to the effect that when the English money should become circular the Prince of Wales should be crowned in London. Edward had lately issued a new coinage of round halfpence and farthings, and had issued a decree forbidding the penny to be divided into quarters, as had previously been done. The Welsh, therefore, thought they saw the time arrived to which the prediction referred, and interpreting that dark saying according to their own wild wishes, believed that it foreshadowed nothing less than the subjugation of the whole island to the countrymen of the prophet.



The impetuous descendants of the ancient Britons scarcely needed such old stories as these to prompt them to vengeance. David forgot the rewards he had received at the king's hands, and having effected a reconciliation with his