[Illustration:  Egbert Gains A great victory over the French invaders.]

Augustine was very kindly received by Ethelbert, and invited up to the house.  Augustine met with great success, for the king experienced religion and was baptized, after which many of his subjects repented and accepted salvation on learning that it was free.  As many as ten thousand in one day were converted, and Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury.  On a small island in the Thames he built a church dedicated to St. Peter, where now is Westminster Abbey, a prosperous sanctuary entirely out of debt.

The history of the Heptarchy is one of murder, arson, rapine, assault and battery, breach of the peace, petty larceny, and the embezzlement of the enemy’s wife.

In 827, Egbert, King of Wessex and Duke of Shandygaff, conquered all his foes and became absolute ruler of England (Land of the Angles).  Taking charge of this angular kingdom, he established thus the mighty country which now rules the world in some respects, and which is so greatly improved socially since those days.

Two distinguished scholars flourished in the eighth century, Bede and Alcuin.  They at once attracted attention by being able to read coarse print at sight.  Bede wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the Angles.  It is out of print now.  Alcuin was a native of York, and with the aid of a lump of chalk and the side of a vacant barn could figure up things and add like everything.  Students flocked to him from all over the country, and matriculated by the dozen.  If he took a fancy to a student, he would take him away privately and show him how to read.

The first literary man of note was a monk of Whitby named Caedmon, who wrote poems on biblical subjects when he did not have to monk.  His works were greatly like those of Milton, and especially like “Paradise Lost,” it is said.

Gildas was the first historian of Britain, and the scathing remarks made about his fellow-countrymen have never been approached by the most merciless of modern historians.

The book was highly interesting, and it is a wonder that some enterprising American publisher has not appropriated it, as the author is now extremely dead.

[Illustration:  A disciple of the liquid religion practised by the Saxon.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE INFLUX OF THE DANES:  FACTS SHOWING CONCLUSIVELY THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE BRITON OF TO-DAY.

And now, having led the eager student up to the year 827 A.D., let us take him forward from the foundation of the English monarchy to the days of William the Conqueror, 1066.

Egbert, one of the kings of Wessex, reigned practically over Roman Britain when the country was invaded by the Northmen (Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes), who treated the Anglo-Saxon as the Anglo-Saxon had formerly treated the poor Briton.