disused to arms, who, being
now cut off from the Roman empire, of which they had been a province
during so many ages, had not yet acquired any union among themselves,
and were destitute of all affection to their new liberties and of all
national attachments and regards [i]. The vices and pusillanimity of
Vortigern, the British leader, were a new ground of hope; and the
Saxons in Germany, following such agreeable prospects, soon reinforced
Hengist and Horsa with 5000 men, who came over in seventeen vessels.
The Britons now began to entertain apprehensions of their allies,
whose numbers they found continually augmenting; but thought of no
remedy, except a passive submission and connivance. This weak
expedient soon failed them. The Saxons sought a quarrel, by
complaining that their subsidies were ill paid, and their provisions
withdrawn [k]; and immediately taking off the mask, they formed an
alliance with the Picts and Scots, and proceeded to open hostility
against the Britons.
[FN [i] Chron. Sax. p. 12. Ann. Beverl. p. 42. [k] Bede, lib. 1.
cap. 15. Nennius, cap. 35. Gildas, Sec. 23.]

The Britons, impelled by these violent extremities, and roused to
indignation against their treacherous auxiliaries, were necessitated
to take arms; and having deposed Vortigern, who had become odious from
his vices, and from the bad event of his rash counsels, they put
themselves under the command of his son, Vortimer. They fought many
battles with their enemies; and though the victories in these actions
be disputed between the British and Saxon annalists, the progress
still made by the Saxons proves that the advantage was commonly on
their side. In one battle, however, fought at Eaglesford, now
Ailsford, Horsa, the Saxon general, was slain, and left the sole
command over his countrymen in the hands of Hengist. This active
general, continually reinforced by fresh numbers from Germany, carried
devastation into the most remote corners of Britain; and being chiefly
anxious to spread the terror of his arms, he spared neither age, nor
sex, nor condition, wherever he marched with his victorious forces.
The private and public edifices of the Britons were reduced to ashes:
the priests were slaughtered on the altars by those idolatrous
ravagers: the bishops and nobility shared the fate of the vulgar: the
people, flying to the mountains and deserts, were intercepted and
butchered in heaps: some were glad to accept of life and servitude