ate in a solemn mass!

The story ends with a highly sensational description of the death of
Alexander by poisoning, and an elaborate enumeration of the pomps of his
obsequies.

[Sidenote: Rome la Grant.] A third order of romances, also belonging to
this cycle, includes a lengthy poem known as "Rome la Grant." Here Virgil
appears as a common enchanter. With the exception of a few well-known
names, all trace of antiquity is lost. The heroes are now exposed to
hairbreadth escapes; wonderful adventures succeed one another without any
pause; and there is a constant series of enchantments, such as the Italian
poets loved to revel in, as is shown in the works by Boiardo and Ariosto
already mentioned.

These tales, and those on the same theme which had preceded them, gave rise
to a generally accepted theory of European colonization subsequent to the
Trojan war; and every man of note and royal family claimed to descend from
the line of Priam.

[Sidenote: Story of Brutus.] As the Romans insisted that their city owed
its existence to the descendants of Aeneas, so the French kings Dagobert
and Charles the Bald claimed to belong to the illustrious Trojan race. The
same tradition appeared in England about the third century, and from Gildas
and Nennius was adopted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is from this historian
that Wace drew the materials for the metrical tale of Brutus (Brute), the
supposed founder of the British race and kingdom. This poem is twenty
thousand lines long, and relates the adventures and life of Brutus, the
great-grandson of Aeneas.

At the time of Brutus' birth his parents were frightened by an oracle
predicting that he would be the cause of the death of both parents, and
only after long wanderings would attain the highest pitch of glory. This
prophecy was duly fulfilled. Brutus' mother, a niece of Lavinia, died at
his birth. Fifteen years later, while hunting, he accidentally slew his
father; and, expelled from Italy on account of this involuntary crime, he
began his wanderings.

In the course of time Brutus went to Greece, where he found the descendants
of Helenus, one of Priam's sons, languishing in captivity. Brutus headed
the revolted Trojans, and after helping them to defeat Pandrasus, King of
Greece, obtained their freedom, and invited them to accompany him to some
distant land, where they could found a new kingdom.

Led by Brutus, who in the mean while had married the daughter of Pandrasus,
the Troj