amed him, and his heart angered, for men
said it everywhere:--"Now will come Ambrosie and Uther, and will
avenge soon Constance, the king of this land; there is no other
course, avenge they will their brother, and slay Vortiger, and burn
him to dust; thus they will set all this land in their own hand!" So
spake each day all that passed by the way.

Vortiger bethought him what he might do, and thought to send
messengers into other lands, after foreign knights, who might him
defend; and thought to be wary against Ambrosie and Uther.

In the meantime came tidings to Vortiger the king, that over sea were
come men exceeding strange; in the Thames to land they were come;
three ships good came with the flood, therein three hundred knights,
kings as it were, without (besides) the shipmen who were there within.
These were the fairest men that ever here came, but they were
heathens--that was the more harm! Vortiger sent to them, and asked how
they were disposed (their business); if they sought peace, and recked
of his friendship? They answered wisely, as well they knew, and said
that they would speak with the king, and lovingly him serve, and hold
him for lord; and so they gan wend forth to the king. Then was
Vortiger the king in Canterbury, where he with his court nobly
diverted themselves; there these knights came before the sovereign. As
soon as they met him, they greeted him fair, and said that they would
serve him in this land, if he would them with right retain. Then
answered Vortiger--of each evil he was ware--"In all my life that I
have lived, by day nor by night saw I never ere such knights; for your
arrival I am blithe, and with me ye shall remain, and your will I will
perform, by my quick life! But first I would of you learn, through
your sooth worship, what knights ye be, and whence ye are come, and
whether ye will be true, old and eke new?"

Then answered the one who was the eldest brother: "Listen to me now,
lord king, and I will make known to you what knights we are, and
whence we are come. I hight Hengest; Hors is my brother; we are of
Alemaine, a land noblest of all, of the same end that Angles is named.
In our land are strange tidings; after fifteen years the folk is
assembled, all our nation-folk, and cast their lots; upon whom that it
falleth, he shall depart from the land. The five shall remain, the
sixth shall forth proceed out of the country to a foreign land; be he
man ever so loved, he shall forth depa