A Childs History of England | Page 9

before these crowds of fighting men whom they had innocently
invited over as friends, retired into Wales and the adjacent country; into Devonshire, and
into Cornwall. Those parts of England long remained unconquered. And in Cornwall now
- where the sea-coast is very gloomy, steep, and rugged - where, in the dark winter-time,
ships have often been wrecked close to the land, and every soul on board has perished -
where the winds and waves howl drearily and split the solid rocks into arches and caverns
- there are very ancient ruins, which the people call the ruins of KING ARTHUR'S
Castle.
Kent is the most famous of the seven Saxon kingdoms, because the Christian religion was
preached to the Saxons there (who domineered over the Britons too much, to care for
what THEY said about their religion, or anything else) by AUGUSTINE, a monk from
Rome. KING ETHELBERT, of Kent, was soon converted; and the moment he said he
was a Christian, his courtiers all said THEY were Christians; after which, ten thousand of
his subjects said they were Christians too. AUGUSTINE built a little church, close to this
King's palace, on the ground now occupied by the beautiful cathedral of Canterbury.
SEBERT, the King's nephew, built on a muddy marshy place near London, where there
had been a temple to Apollo, a church dedicated to Saint Peter, which is now
Westminster Abbey. And, in London itself, on the foundation of a temple to Diana, he
built another little church which has risen up, since that old time, to be Saint Paul's.
After the death of ETHELBERT, EDWIN, King of Northumbria, who was such a good
king that it was said a woman or child might openly carry a purse of gold, in his reign,
without fear, allowed his child to be baptised, and held a great council to consider
whether he and his people should all be Christians or not. It was decided that they should
be. COIFI, the chief priest of the old religion, made a great speech on the occasion. In
this discourse, he told the people that he had found out the old gods to be impostors. 'I am
quite satisfied of it,' he said. 'Look at me! I have been serving them all my life, and they
have done nothing for me; whereas, if they had been really powerful, they could not have
decently done less, in return for all I have done for them, than make my fortune. As they
have never made my fortune, I am quite convinced they are impostors!' When this
singular priest had finished speaking, he hastily armed himself with sword and lance,
mounted a war-horse, rode at a furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and
flung his lance against it as an insult. From that time, the Christian religion spread itself
among the Saxons, and became their faith.

The next very famous prince was EGBERT. He lived about a hundred and fifty years
afterwards, and claimed to have a better right to the throne of Wessex than BEORTRIC,
another Saxon prince who was at the head of that kingdom, and who married EDBURGA,
the daughter of OFFA, king of another of the seven kingdoms. This QUEEN EDBURGA
was a handsome murderess, who poisoned people when they offended her. One day, she
mixed a cup of poison for a certain noble belonging to the court; but her husband drank
of it too, by mistake, and died. Upon this, the people revolted, in great crowds; and
running to the palace, and thundering at the gates, cried, 'Down with the wicked queen,
who poisons men!' They drove her out of the country, and abolished the title she had
disgraced. When years had passed away, some travellers came home from Italy, and said
that in the town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar- woman, who had once been
handsome, but was then shrivelled, bent, and yellow, wandering about the streets, crying
for bread; and that this beggar-woman was the poisoning English queen. It was, indeed,
EDBURGA; and so she died, without a shelter for her wretched head.
EGBERT, not considering himself safe in England, in consequence of his having claimed
the crown of Wessex (for he thought his rival might take him prisoner and put him to
death), sought refuge at the court of CHARLEMAGNE, King of France. On the death of
BEORTRIC, so unhappily poisoned by mistake, EGBERT came back to Britain;
succeeded to the throne of Wessex; conquered some of the other monarchs of the seven
kingdoms; added their territories to his own; and, for the first time, called the country
over which he ruled, ENGLAND.
And now, new enemies arose, who, for a long time, troubled England sorely. These were
the Northmen, the