might live no longer!--for he had good laws the while that he lived;
but he was king here but twelve years, and then was the king
dead—-hearken now through what chance. He had in his house a Peoht,
fair knight and most brave; he fared with the king, and with all his
thanes by no other wise but as it were his brother. Then became he so
potent, to all his companions unlike; then thought he to betray
Constantin the powerful. He came before the king, and fell on his
knees, and thus lied the traitor before his lord: "Lord king, come
forthright, and speak with Cadal thy knight, and I will thee tell of
strange speeches, such as thou never ere on earth heardest."

Then arose the king Constantin, and went forth out with him. But alas!
that Constantin's knights knew it not! They proceeded so long forward
that they came in an orchard. Then said the traitor there: "Lord, be
we here." The traitor sat down, as if he would hold secret discourse,
and he approached to the king, as a man doth in whispering. He grasped
a knife very long, and the king therewith he pierced into the heart;
and he himself escaped--there the king dead lay, and the traitor fled
away.

The tidings came to court, how the king had fared; then was mickle
sorrow spread to the folk. Then were the Britons busy in thought, they
knew not through anything what they might have for king, for the
king's two sons, little they were both. Ambrosie could scarcely ride
on horse, and Uther, his brother, yet still sucked his mother; and
Constance the eldest was monk in Winchester; monk's clothes he had on,
as one of his companions. Then came to London all this landfolk, to
their husting, and to advise them of a king, what wise they might do,
and how they might take on, and which one of these children they might
have for king. Then chose this people Aurelie Ambrosie, to have for