ple were baptised.

Augustine returned to Rome where he was consecrated Archbishop of the
English nation. A church was built at Canterbury, and the work of
preaching the Faith went on vigorously. The East Saxons made no more
hesitation at being baptised than the men of Kent. Ethelbert, indeed,
could command obedience; he was Over Lord of all the nations south of
the Humber. He it was, according to Bede, who built the first church of
St. Paul in London, a fact which proves his authority and influence in
London, and his sincere desire that the East Saxons should become
Christians.

They did, in a way. But when King Siebehrt died, they relapsed and drove
their Bishop into exile.

Then--Bede says that they were punished for this sin--the East Saxons
fell into trouble. They went to war with the men of Wessex and were
defeated by them. After this, we find London in the hands of the
Northumbrians and the Mercians--that is to say--these nations one after
the other obtained the supremacy. It was in the year 616 or thereabouts,
that Bishop Mellitus had to leave his diocese. Forty years later another
conversion of London took place under Bishop Cedd, consecrated at
Lindisfarne. The new faith was not strong enough to stand against a
plague, and the East Saxons of London went back once more to their old
gods. After another thirty years, before the close of the seventh
century, London was again converted: and this time for good.

In the eighth century London passed again out of the hands of the East
Saxon kings into those of the Mercians. The earliest extant document
concerning London is one dated 734, in which King Ethelbald grants to
the Bishop of Rochester leave to send one ship without tax in or out of
London Port.

A witan--i.e. a national council--was held in London in 811. It is then
spoken of as an illustrious place and royal city. The supremacy of
Mercia passed to that of Wessex--London went with the supremacy. In 833
Egbert, King of Wessex, held a witan in London.

[Illustration: MARTYRDOM OF ST. EDMUND BY THE DANES.

(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries._)]

When Egbert died the supremacy of Wessex fell with him. Then the Danish
troubles fell thick and disastrous upon the country. When Alfred
succeeded to the Crown the Danes held the Isle of Thanet, which
commanded the river; they had conquered the north country from the Tweed
to the Humber; they had overrun all the eastern counties twice--viz.