they turned their arms against those by whom they had been invited: who being shortly routed, their wretched remains, which are now called Welsh, they straitened in impassable mountains and woods, and had, by a series of succession, most brave and widely governing kings of whom were Ethelbert, the great grandson of Hengist, who, his empire being extended from the Gallic sea into the Humber, took up the light yoke of Christ, at the preaching of Augustine; Alfred, who, presiding over the Northumbrians, subdued, at once, the Britons and the Scots, with vast slaughter; Edwin, who, succeeding to Alfred, reigned, at the same time, over the Engles and the Britons; Oswald, his successor, who governed all the people of Britain. It will be evident, that these things, according to the historical truth displayed by the venerable Bede, are authentic: all things which this man has taken pains to write, concerning Arthur, and either his successors, or, after Vortigern, his predecessors, partly by himself, partly, also, by others, have, it is evident, been feigned, either by the unbridled passion of lying or even for the sake of pleasing the Britons, of whom a great many are reported to be so brutish, that they are said to expect that Arthur is yet, as it were, about to come, nor can

they bear to hear that he is dead.* Finally, he makes Aurelius Ambrosius succeed to Vortigern (the

Certainly, such a tradition existed among the Britons or Welsh, before the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is mentioned by William of Malmesbury, who, observing that the sepulchre of Arthur had never been discovered, adds, "whence the antiquity of elegiac songs and fables, that he is yet to come.' (B. 3, P. 115.)

Master Wace, in his Roman de Brut, a liberal translation from Geoffrey of Monmouth, finished in 1155, after relating the battle of Camblan, proceeds to tell us, modestly enough:

Artur, si la geste ne ment,

El quer fu nafre mortelement,
En Avalon se fit mener,
Pur ses plaes mediciner ;
Uncore i est, Breton l'atendent,
Si com il dient e entendent;
De la vendra, uncore pot vivere.
Meistre Wace, ki fist cest livere,
Nen volt plus dire de sa fin
Ke en dist le prophete Merlin:
Merlin dist de Artur outdrait,
Ke sa mort autuse serreit.

Li prophete dist verité,

Tut tens en ad lom puis doté,

E dutera co crei tut dis
Sil est mort u il est vifs."

("-Arthur himself thore
Men sais he wonded sore,
For his wondes wer to drede,
Therfor, thei did him lede

Saxons, whom Vortigern had sent for, being defeated and expelled) egregiously reigning in the

Into the ile' of Avaloun

And thus sais ilka Bretoun :

That olyve ther he es,

Man in blode and in flesch

And after him yit thei loke.

Maister Was, that made' this boke,
He sais no more of his fine
Than dos the prophete Merlyne :
Merlyn sais, full mervailous

That Arthur [s] dede was doutous;
Therfor, the Bretons drede
And sais he lyves in lede :

But I say thei trowe wrong

If he 'lyve' his life is long;
Bot the Bretons loude lie,

He was so wonded him burd die.")

(ROBERT OF Brunne.)

The French, in fact, have an old romance, in manuscript, intitled, "Roman d'Arthus le rethore' (that is, Arthur restored or revived). Alanus de Insulis or Allan of Lile, who wrote a book under the following title and died in 1202:

Prophetia Anglicana [1. Britannica] et Romana: hoc est, Merlini Ambrosii Britanni, ex incubo olim, ante annos mille ducentos in Anglia [1. Britannia] nati vaticinia, à Galfredo Monumetensi Latinè conscripta, unà cum septem explanationum in eandem prophetam, excellentissimi sui temporis oratoris, polyhistoris [falsò] et theologi ;" Francofurti 1608, octavo. In this book, after reciting this part of one of the pretended propecies of the visionary Merlin (apud Galfredi Monumetensis Historia regum Britanniae, L. 7, c. 3), which speaks of A "boar of

whole of Britain, and to him gives Uther-Pendragon, his brother, for successor, reigning with

Cornwall," who shall give his assistance.-"The house of Romulus shall dread its fierceness and his end shall be dubious:" this boar Allan applies to Arthur, and thus proceeds: "Most, truly, indeed, as at this very day, the various opinion of men proves concerning his life and death: but, if you do not believe me, go into the Armorican kingdom, that is LessBritain, and proclaim, through the ways and streets, Arthur is dead, in the manner of other dead men, and, then, certainly, you will prove by the thing itself that the prophecy of Merlin is true; if, nevertheless, you should be thence able to escape free; but you [will] either be stifled by the curses of the hearers or, certainly, be overwhelmed with stones (B. 1, P. 19, 20). It may be fairly inferred that, about this time (as, in fact, it is proved by William of Malmesbury), that this notion had become a proverb, in use to ridicule those who were ever ready to believe any thing, manifestly, impossible or absurd. This occurs in the 57th epistle of Petrus Blosensis (Peter of Blois), who was contemporary with Allan de insulis.

"Quibus si credideris

Expectare poteris

Arturum cum Britonibus."

This idea seems to be, continually, running in his head, for, in the 34th epistle: "As yet," he says, I conceive the wishes. of a more fortunate event and, peradventure, with the Britons, I tarry for Arthur, about to come, and, with the Jews, expect the Messiah,"

"In Sicily," according to Gervase of Tilbury, "is mount Etna... In the desert of this mountain the natives relate that the great Arthur hath appeared in our times. For when, on a certain day, the keeper of the palfrey of the bishop of

no unequal power and glory; inserting more things about his Merlin, by a profuse liberty of

Catania would have beat the horse committed to him, the horse, by a sudden impulse of lasciviousness [or] fatness, leaping and betaking himself to his own liberty, fled. Being sought, by the servant following him, through the arduous and precipitous parts of the mountain and not found, fear arising to the footman, he sought him about the obscure parts of the mountain. Why more words? a most narrow, but plain place was found: the lad came into a most spacious plain, pleasant and filled with all delights and there, in a palace constructed by wonderful art, [saw] Arthur, lying on a couch of royal furniture and when, from the stranger and foreigner, he demanded the cause of his arrival, the cause of his journey being known, he immediately caused the bishops palfrey to be brought and commended to the servant that it should be restored to the bishop; adding, that he there, of old, in a battle, with Mordred, his nephew and Childeric, general of the Saxons, his wounds every year bleeding afresh, had long remained sick; yea, rather, as I received from the natives, he destined his presents to that prelate, which were seen by many, admired by more, with fabulous novelty. But, in the forests of Britain, Greater or Less, similar things are reported to have happened, the foresters relating it, that they, in every other day, about noon and in the first dead times of nights, under the full moon, the moon shining, have very often seen a number of men hunting and the noise of dogs and horns, who, to those enquiring, affirm that they are of the society and family of Arthur." (Otia imperialia (Scrip. Bruns. Leibnitii, I, 921). This seems to resemble the familia Hellequini; see Spcculum historiale Vincentii.

The Sicilians, of this day, have a tradition that the British Arthur is still preserved alive with them, by his sister Morgan,