34 ROGER OF WEXDOVT3R. [A.D. 516. baser sort, to undertake to destroy the king by poison. Coming, therefore, to Verolamium, they sought diligently for the means of effecting their design. At last, they hit on this expedient. There was, outside of the city, a fountain of the clearest water, of which the king was accustomed to drink, and he would take no other liquor. The vile traitors, therefore, went to this fountain and poisoned it all around, insomuch that all the water which flowed from it was infected. The king drank of it and speedily died, as did a hundred more after him, until at last the mischief was detected, and the fountain was covered with a heap of earth. There are some who say that this was the very fountain which was brought out of the dry ground to satisfy the people's thirst, in answer to the prayers of the undaunted martyr St. Alban, as he was proceeding to martyrdom. Coronation of king Arthur. On the king's death the bishops, with the clergy and laity of the kingdom, assembled together, and buried him in a royal manner beneath the Giant's Dance. After which, Dubricius, archbishop of the city of Legions, with the bishops and nobles, raised to the throne his son Arthur, a youth of fifteen. Such were his goodness and liberality, that he was beloved by all the people ; and the multitude of soldiers that flocked to him was so great that he had not sufficient pay for them. The Saxons, about that time, had invited over more of their countrymen from Germany, and, under Colgrin their leader, had subjugated the whole of the island from the Humber to the sea. On which, Arthur, with his people, went against York, which the Saxons had now subdued ; whereupon Colgrin, hearing of his approach, went to meet him with a great force near the river Duglas. In this battle Arthur put Colgrin to flight, and pursuing him as far as York, laid siege to.the city. Baldulph, Colgrin's brother, who was waiting on the coast the arrival of the Saxon auxiliaries, meditated an attack on Arthur by night. But Arthur, receiving intelligence by his spies, despatched Cador, duke of Cornwall, with six hundred knights and three thousand foot, to meet the enemy, who, falling on them suddenly, after slaying some and wounding others, put the rest to flight.