governed the kingdom in a noble manner, had God permitted. When this man died, the British strength decayed ; their hopes, becoming diminished, fled; and they would have soon perished altogether, had not Ambrosius, the sole survivor of the Romans, who became monarch after Vortigern, quelled the presumptuous barbarians by the powerful aid of warlike Arthur. This is that Arthur, of whom the Britons fondly fable even to the present day; a man worthy to be celebrated, not by idle fictions, but in authentic history. He, indeed, for a long time upheld the sinking state, and roused the broken spirit of his countrymen to war. Finally, at the siege of Mount Badon, relying on an image of the Virgin which he had affixed to his armour, he engaged nine hundred of the enemy "single-handed, and dispersed them with incredible slaughter. On the other side, the Angles, although they underwent great vicissitudes of fortune, filled up their wavering battalions with fresh supplies of their countrymen; rushed with greater courage to the conflict, and extended themselves by degrees, as the natives retreated, over the whole island ; the counsels of God, in whose hand is every change of empire, not opposing their career. But this was effected in process of time; for while Vortigern lived, no new attempt was made against them. About this time, Hengist, from that bad quality of the human heart, of always grasping after more, the more it possesses, with a treacherous design, invited his son-in-law and three hundred of his followers to an entertainment; and when, by more than usual compotations, he had made them ready for strife, he began, purposely, to taunt them severally with sarcastic raillery: this had the effect of making them first quarrel, and then come to blows. Thus the Britons, basely murdered to a man, breathed their last amid their cups. The king himself having been made captive, purchased his liberty at the price of three provinces. In the thirty-ninth year after his arrival died Hengist, a man who, urging his success not less by artifice than courage, and giving free scope to his natural ferocity, preferred effecting his purpose by cruelty rather than by kindness. He left a son named Eisc, who, more intent on defending than enlarging his dominions, never exceeded his paternal bounds. At the expiration of twenty-four years, he had for his successors his son Oth, and Oth's son, Yrmenric, who, in their manners, resembled him, rather than their grandfather and great-grandfather. To the times of both, the Chronicles assign fifty-three years; but whether they reigned singly or together does not appear.