The Bible had been translated, and in 314 A.D.  Britain had three Bishops, viz., of London, Lincoln, and York.

CHAPTER III.

THE ADVENT OF THE ANGLES:  CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE REHABILITATION OF BRITAIN ON NEW LINES.

With the landing of Hengist and Horsa English history really begins, for Caesar’s capture of the British Isles was of slight importance viewed in the light of fast-receding centuries.  There is little to-day in the English character to remind one of Caesar, who was a volatile and epileptic emperor with massive and complicated features.

The rich warm blood of the Roman does not mantle in the cheek of the Englishman of the present century to any marked degree.  The Englishman, aping the reserve and hauteur of Boston, Massachusetts, is, in fact, the diametrical antipode of the impulsive, warm-hearted, and garlic-imbued Roman who revels in assassination and gold ear-bobs.

The beautiful daughter of Hengist formed an alliance with Vortigern, the royal foreman of Great Britain,—­a plain man who was very popular in the alcoholic set and generally subject to violent lucid intervals which lasted until after breakfast; but the Saxons broke these up, it is said, and Rowena encouraged him in his efforts to become his own worst enemy, and after two or three patent-pails-full of wassail would get him to give her another county or two, until soon the Briton saw that the Saxon had a mortgage on the throne, and after it was too late, he said that immigration should have been restricted.

[Illustration:  Rowena captivates Vortigern.]

Kent became the first Saxon kingdom, and remained a powerful state for over a century.

More Saxons now came, and brought with them yet other Saxons with yet more children, dogs, vodka, and thirst.  The breath of a Saxon in a cucumber-patch would make a peck of pickles per moment.

The Angles now came also and registered at the leading hotels.  They were destined to introduce the hyphen on English soil, and plant the orchards on whose ancestral branches should ultimately hang the Anglo-Saxon race, the progenitors of the eminent aristocracy of America.

Let the haughty, purse-proud American—­in whose warm life current one may trace the unmistakable strains of bichloride of gold and trichinae—­pause for one moment to gaze at the coarse features and bloodshot eyes of his ancestors, who sat up at nights drenching their souls in a style of nepenthe that it is said would remove moths, tan, freckles, and political disabilities.

[Illustration:  Ethelbert, king of Kent, proclaimed “Bretwalda.”]

The seven states known as the Saxon Heptarchy were formed in the sixth and seventh centuries, and the rulers of these states were called “Bretwaldas,” or Britain-wielders.  Ethelbert, King of Kent, was Bretwalda for fifty years, and liked it first-rate.