Flowers of History

IN the year of grace 447, when the nations around had become acquainted with the wickedness of king Vortigern and the levity of his mind, there rose up against him the Scots from the north-west, and the Picts from the north, because Vortigern had put to death a hundred of their countrymen; and terribly did they infest and ravage the kingdom of Britain. For consuming every thing by fire and sword, and by spoil and rapine, they inflicted on the guilty nation the vengeance of Heaven for the sins of their king, in which they had participated; and those of the wretched people that escaped the hostile invasion, fell the victims of a terrible famine, insomuch that the living were not sufficient for the burial of the dead. Whereupon the king and his people, desolated and worn out by the ravages of war, and not knowing what to do against the incursions of their enemies, at length came to the unanimous resolution of inviting over from beyond the sea the Saxon nation to their help; the effect, as it would seem, of the divine appointment, that evil might come upon them for their wickedness, as indeed was made but too manifest by the event. Meanwhile, messengers are despatched into Germany to effect their purpose.