22 A>TTALS OF EOGEE DE HOVEDEK. A.D. 776. most unconquerable sword arms were only like garments, bones like flesh. "When, therefore, (just like two fires set in different places, which consume every thing that intervenes) it came to pass that the king and the earl met face to face, each terribly and franticly gnashed his teeth at the other and shook his right hand and put himself on his guard, and with mighty blows they both provoked the attack. But the God who opposes the haughty, depressed the wonted confidence of mind of the haughty king. "When, therefore, he could neither recover his spirit nor his strength, while his own men were still engaged, in a fit of terror he took to flight, and from that day to the time of his death, God granted him no prosperity whatever. For, four years after this, again engaging71 at Secandune,72 after a dreadful slaughter of his army, disdaining flight, he was slain, and was buried at Repandun;'3 and thus this most mighty king, after he had reigned forty-one years, paid the penalty for his immoderate pride. From this period, the kingdom of "Wessex, being greatly strengthened, did not cease to increase till it had reached perfection. In the fourteenth year of his reign, Cuthred fought against the Britons,74 who, vainly opposing him who had conquered king Ethelbald, speedily took to flight, and deservedly suffered a very great slaughter, without any loss to the enemy. In the following year, Cuthred, the high and mighty king, illustrious for so many successes and victories, departed this life. Sigebert, a relation of the above-named king, succeeded him, but held the sovereignty for a short time only ; for growing haughty and insolent, by reason of the exploits of his predecessor, he became intolerable even to his own domestics, as he ill-treated them in all manner of ways, and either perverted the common laws of the kingdom to his own advantage, or disregarded them for his own profit ; on which, Cumbra, his earl, a most noble man, at the entreaty of the whole people, acquainted the cruel king with their complaints ; but when he exhorted him to act with more moderation, and to treat the people with kindness, and laying aside his wonted inhumanity, to show himself amiable to God and man, the king immediately ordered him to be killed by an unrighteous death, and becoming more cruel and more intolerable to his people, proved himself a still 11 With Cuthred. 72 Seckington ; Lambarde, however, conjectures Saiwold, in Lincolnshire. 73 Repton, in Derbyshire. 74 The Welsh.