subsisted
after the conquest, and at length incorporated with that of the
conquerors; whereas in England the Saxon language received little or no
tincture from the Welsh; and it seems, even among the lowest people, to
have continued a dialect of pure Teutonic to the time in which it was
itself blended with the Norman. Secondly, that on the continent the
Christian religion, after the Northern irruptions, not only remained,
but flourished. It was very early and universally adopted by the ruling
people. In England it was so entirely extinguished, that, when Augustin
undertook his mission, it does not appear that among all the Saxons
there was a single person professing Christianity.

[Sidenote: A.D. 500]

The sudden extinction of the ancient religion, and language appears
sufficient to show that Britain must have suffered more than any of the
neighboring nations on the continent. But it must not be concealed that
there are likewise proofs that the British race, though much diminished,
was not wholly extirpated, and that those who remained were not, merely
as Britons, reduced to servitude. For they are mentioned as existing in
some of the earlier Saxon laws. In these laws they are allowed a
compensation on the footing of the meaner kind of English; and they are
even permitted, as well as the English, to emerge out of that low rank
into a more liberal condition. This is degradation, but not slavery.[27]
The affairs of that whole period are, however, covered with an obscurity
not to be dissipated. The Britons had little leisure or ability to write
a just account of a war by which they were ruined; and the Anglo-Saxons
who succeeded them, attentive only to arms, were, until their
conversion, ignorant of the use of letters.

It is on this darkened theatre that some old writers have introduced
those characters and actions which have afforded such ample matter to
poets and so much perplexity to historians. This is the fabulous and
heroic age of our nation. After the natural and just representations of
the Roman scene, the stage is again crowded with enchanters, giants, and
all the extravagant images of the wildest and most remote antiquity. No
personage makes so conspicuous a figure in these stories as King Arthur:
a prince whether of British or Roman origin, whether born on this island
or in Amorica, is uncertain; but it appears that he opposed the Saxons
with remarkable virtue and no small degree of success, which has
rende