Jones emphasises the flood’s apocalyptically topsy-turvy nature: the land is turned to water, the rich are made poor, the fertile is laden with salt, and scholars are left dumbfounded. Yet the “merciless” waters also provide a stage for miraculous, divine acts of mercy. In Monmouthshire, a milkmaid stranded on a high bank is eventually saved, “through God’s good help”, when some large troughs are lashed together and two muscly men punt to the rescue. Moreover, Jones asks us to “mark what befell, at this time, of the strangeness of other creatures”: because, as the tide rose around the bank, the milkmaid found her haven “also covered over, with wild beasts” — dogs, cats, foxes, and rodents — “that thither to seek for succour” and yet, predator and prey mingled, “in this danger of life, they not once offered to express their natural envy: But in a gentle sort, they freely enjoyed the liberty of life.”