at the prayer of the Britons, and drove the barbarians with great slaughter over the frith. They also aided the Britons in constructing the wall of stone, not as before of turf, and carrying it from one sea to the other. They also built at intervals on the southern shore watch-towers, from which the approach of the enemy might be discerned. Then they bid farewell to their allies, giving them to understand that they should return no more, for they could not exhaust themselves in such distant expeditions. When the Roman forces were thus withdrawn, the enemy again flew to arms, and possessed themselves of all the island as far as the wall. Nor was it long before they laid that in ruins, as well as the neighbouring towns. They soon began to devastate the country within the wall, so that the Britons themselves were driven by famine to resort to thieving and plunder, and nothing was left in the whole country for the sustenance of life, but what was procured by hunting. The eulogy of Honorius: "In his moral and religious character he greatly resembled his father Theodosius, and, although in his times there were many wars, both foreign and civil, they occasioned a very small effusion of blood."

Theodosius II., also called the Younger, lost the dominion of Britain. He held, however, the empire of the Romans 28 years. In the twenty-third year of his reign, Ætius, an illustrious man, was Consul together with Symmachus. To him the remnant of the Britons transmitted an epistle; in the sequel of which (addressed "to Etius, Consul for the third time") they thus unfold their lamentable story: "The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea throws us back to the barbarians; between both we have the choice of death in two shapes, either to be massacred or drowned." But their prayers were of no avail; Etius could afford them no relief, as he was at this time embarrassed by serious wars with Bledda and Attila, kings of the Huns. And although the year afterwards Bledda, the brother of Attila, fell into an ambush and was slain, Attila was himself so formidable an enemy to the republic that he laid waste nearly the whole of Europe, overthrowing everywhere cities and castles. At the same time a severe famine prevailed at Constantinople, followed by a pestilence, and great part of the city walls, with 56 towers, fell down.

So

also in many of the ruined cities famine and a pestiferous atmosphere destroyed thousands both of men and of beasts. The famine affected Britain, as well as the rest of the provinces, so that the Britons, perceiving that all human aid failed, invoked the divine. Then the Almighty, having tried them, had compassion on them, giving strength to their arms and point to their swords. They burst, therefore, from their fastnesses in the mountains and the woods, and, rushing on the Scots and Picts, routed and slew them in every quarter; while the enemy's assaults were no longer what they had been, and their arms were feeble, opposed to those of the Britons. Thus their heart failed them, their strength was broken, and they fled in their terror, great numbers being slaughtered. The Scots, with shame, returned to Ireland; the Picts, seeking refuge in the remotest parts of the island, then first and for ever discontinued their inroads. Thus the Lord gave victory to his people, and confounded their enemies. About this time, i. e. in the eighth year of Theodosius, Palladius was sent by Pope Celestine to the Scots, as their first bishop. Theodosius also lost the dominion of Gaul, Spain, and Africa, which the Vandals, the Alans, and the Goths laid waste all lands with fire and sword. In the third year of the siege of Hippo by the fierce Genseric, Augustine, its bishop, departing in the Lord, was spared the grief of witnessing its fall.

After the victory of the Britons had restored peace, they were blessed with an harvest of such extraordinary abundance as was in the memory of no prior times, so that as their triumph had restored order, this plenty relieved the famine; the Almighty making trial whether, when adversity had failed to correct them, prosperity would render them thankful. But excess was followed by every kind of wickedness, without respect of God; and so much did barbarism and malice and falsehood prevail, that whoever manifested a more gentle and truthful disposition was considered the enemy of Britain, and became the common mark for hatred and persecution. Not only secular men, but the pastors of the Lord's flock, casting off his light and easy yoke, became the slaves of drunkenness, revenge, litigious contention, animosities, and every kind of wicked

ness. Then the anger of the Lord was moved, and He visited the corrupt race with a terrible plague, which in a short time carried off such great multitudes that those who survived scarcely sufficed to bury the dead. But not even the sight of death, nor the fear of death, were sufficient to recall the survivors from the more fatal death of the soul into which their sins had plunged them. The righteous judgment of God was therefore openly shown in his determination to destroy the sinful nation; and He stirred up against them the Scots and Picts, who were ready to avenge their former losses by still fiercer attacks. They rushed on the Britons, like wolves against lambs, driving them again into the fastnesses of the woods in which it was their custom to take refuge. There they took counsel what was to be done, and in what quarter protection was to be sought against these repeated irruptions of the northern tribes. It was agreed, therefore, by common consent, with the concurrence of their king Vortigern, that the nation of the Saxons should be invited to come to their aid from over the sea; a counsel disposed by divine Providence to the end that punishment should follow the wicked, as the issue of events sufficiently proved.

BOOK II.1

In the former book we have treated of the forty-five emperors who reigned in Britain, as well as the rest of the world, of whom, if any now possess heavenly glory, it is because they are no longer in possession of earthly. Our discourse of them has indeed been meagre, but a longer narrative of their actions would have been wearisome, tedious, and disgusting. Let us rather reflect, from the contemplation of those for whose majesty and dominion the whole world barely sufficed, how worthless is all the glory and power and loftiness for which men toil and sweat and are frantic. If they desire glory (I speak after the manner of men), let them seek that which is true; if fame, that which does not vanish; if honour, that which will not fade: not that of the emperors we have spoken of, all whose glory is now an empty tale. That true glory and fame and honour will be ours, if we follow Him who alone is the Truth with joy and gladness, and if we rest our whole trust and hope in God, and not on the children of men, as the Britons did, who, rejecting Him, and having no fear of his great majesty, sought for aid from Pagans, and obtained that which befitted them.

For the nation of the Saxons or Angles, being invited by the aforesaid king, crossed over to Britain, in three long ships, in the year of grace 4492, when Martian and Valerian, who reigned seven years, were emperors, and in the twenty-fourth year after the foundation of the kingdom of

'This Second Book of Henry of Huntingdon's History is principally founded on Bede, with the assistance occasionally of the Saxon Chronicle. It relates the arrival of the Saxons and Angles in Britain, and the establishment, seriatim, of the several kingdoms of the Heptarchy, the history of which it pursues to the year 685, when all the English kings and nations had been converted to Christianity.

2. See Bede, book i. c. 15.

The

the Franks, of whom Pharamond was the first king. Saxons, therefore, were settled by the British king in the eastern part of the island, that thus they might fight for a country which was to become their own, while in truth their object was to subjugate the whole.

A battle was fought by the Saxons against the Scots and Picts, who had penetrated as far as Stamford', in the south of Lincolnshire, 40 miles from the town of that name. But as the Northerns fought with darts and spears, while the Saxons plied lustily their battle-axes and long swords, the Picts were unable to withstand the weight of their onset, and saved themselves by flight. The Saxons gained the victory and its spoils; their countrymen receiving tidings of which, as well as of the fertility of the island and the cowardice of the Britons, a larger fleet was immediately sent over with a greater body of armed men, which, when added to the first detachment, rendered the army invincible. The new comers received from the Britons an allotment of territory on the terms that they should defend by arms the peace and security of the country against their enemies, while the Britons engaged to pay the auxiliary force. The immigrants belonged to three of the most powerful nations of Germany, the Saxons, the Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes sprung the people of Kent and the Isle of Wight, with those who are still called Jutes in the province of the West Saxons, opposite to the Isle of Wight. From the Saxons, that is, from the country which is now distinguished as that of the Old Saxons, are descended the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and the West Saxons. From the Angles, that is, the people of the country called Angle, which has remained a desert from that time to the present, and is situated between the districts of the Jutes and the Saxons, are descended the East Angles, the Middle Anglians, the Mercians, all the race of the Northumbrians, that is, the tribes which settled to the north of the river Humber, with the rest of the English people. Their principal chiefs are reported to have been two brothers, named

This account of the battle of Stamford, and the first settlement of the Saxons in Britain, Henry of Huntingdon introduces from some other autho rity, now unknown, into his history, in which he generally follows Bede.