ong other things, the men from the north learned
that Britain was crossed with good Roman roads, and dotted with
houses of brick and stone; that walled cities had taken the place
of tented camps, and that the country for miles round each city
was green every spring with waving wheat, or white with orchard
blossoms.

[Illustration: HENGIST AND HORSA LANDING IN ENGLAND]

After the Roman legions had left Britain, the Jutes, led, it is
said, by two great captains named Hengist and Horsa, landed upon
the southeastern coast and made a settlement.

Britain proved a pleasant place to live in, and soon the Angles
and Saxons also left the North Sea shores and invaded the beautiful
island.

The new invaders met with brave resistance. The Britons were headed
by King Arthur, about whom many marvelous stories are told. His
court was held at Caerleon (_caer'le-on_), in North Wales, where
his hundred and fifty knights banqueted at their famous "Round
Table."

The British king and his knights fought with desperate heroism.
But they could not drive back the Saxons and their companions and
were obliged to seek refuge in the western mountainous parts of
the island, just as their forefathers had done when the Romans
invaded Britain. Thus nearly all England came into the possession
of the three invading tribes.

II

Arthur and his knights were devoted Christians. For the Romans
had not only made good roads and built strong walls and forts in
Britain, but they had also brought the Christian religion into the
island. And at about the time of the Saxon invasion St. Patrick
was founding churches and monasteries in Ireland, and was baptizing
whole clans of the Irish at a time. It is said that he baptized
12,000 persons with his own hand. Missionaries were sent out by
the Irish Church to convert the wild Picts of Scotland and at a
later day the distant barbarians of Germany and Switzerland.

The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes believed in the old Norse gods, and
Tiew and Woden, Thor and Friga, or Frija, were worshiped on the
soil of Britain for more than a hundred years.

The Britons tried to convert their conquerors, but the invaders did
not care to be taught religion by those whom they had conquered;
so the British missionaries found the work unusually hard. Aid came
to them in a singular way. At some time near the year 575 A.D.,
the Saxons quarreled and fought with their friends, the Angles.
They took some Angles prisoners and carried t