A.D. 449.] ARRIVAL OP THE SAXONS. throw of its foes, both invisible and carnal, the prelates prepare to return home. Their own merits, and the intercession of the blessed martyr Alban, obtained for them a tranquil passage, and the happy vessel restored them in peace to their rejoicing people. This was in the tenth year of Meroveus, king of the Franks. * Of the arrival of the A ngles into Britain, and of their country and leaders. In the year of grace 449, the nation of the Angles or Saxons, being invited over by king Vortigern, arrive in - Britain in three ships of war,-! and had a place assigned them by the king, in the eastern part of the island, to dwell in, on the terms that they should fight for the peace and safety of the kingdom against the enemy, and that the Britons should furnish them with sufficient pay. Now, those who came over belonged to three of the more powerful nations of Germany, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, as also the people in the province of the West-Saxons over against the Isle of Wight, who to this day are called Jutes. From the Saxons, whose original country is now called Old Saxony, came the East-Saxons, South-Saxons, and West-Saxons. From the Angles, whose country is called Anglia, and is said to have remained desert from that time to this day, are descended the East-Angles, the Midland-Angles, the Mercians, the whole race of the Northumbrians, who live to the north of the river Humber, and the rest of the nations of the Angles. Their leaders are said to have been two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, sons of Wicthgisius, the son of Wicta, the son of Wecta, the son of Woden ; from whose stock the royal families of many provinces deduce their origin. When at length they stood before the king, he asked them respecting the faith and religion of their ancestors, on which Hengist replied, " We worship the gods of our fathers— Saturn, Jupiter, and the other deities who govern the world, and especially Mercury, whom in our tongue we call Woden, and to whom our fathers dedicated the fourth day of the week, which to this day is called ' Wodensday.' Next to • Meroveus is supposed to have been present at the battle in which Attila was defeated by .lEtius.. He died, according to Sigebcrt, in 458, + The Saxons landed at Ebsfleet in the Isle of Thanet.