they saw the clothes lie by the walls, then each to other lamented
their brother. The abbot leapt on horse, and after Vortiger rode, and
soon gan overtake the Earl Vortiger. Thus said the abbot to Vortiger
where he rode: "Say me, thou mad knight, why dost thou so great wrong?
Thou takest from us our brother,--leave him, and take the other. Take
Ambrosie the child, and make of him a king, and anger thou not Saint
Benedict, nor do thou to him any wrong!"

Vortiger heard this--he was crafty and very wary;--soon he came back,
and the abbot he took, and swore by his hand, that he would him hang,
unless he him pledged, that he would forthright unhood Constance the
king's son of this land, and for such need he should be king of this
country. The abbot durst no other, there he unhooded his brother, and
the child gave the abbot in hand twenty ploughlands, and afterwards
they proceeded forth into London. Vortiger the high forbade his
attendants, that they to no man should tell what they had in design.
Vortiger lay in London, until the same set day came, that the knights
of this land should come to husting.

At the day they came, many and numerous; they counselled, they
communed, the stern warriors, that they would have Ambrosie, and raise
for king; for Uther was too little--the yet he might suck--and
Constance was monk, who was eldest of them, and they would not for
anything make a monk king. Vortiger heard this, who was crafty and
most wary, and leapt on foot as if it were a lion. None of the Britons
there knew what Vortiger had done. He had in a chamber Constance the
dear, well bathed and clothed, and afterwards hid with twelve knights.
Then thus spake Vortiger--he was of craft wary: "Listen, lordings, the
while that I speak of kings. I was in Winchester, where I well sped, I
spake with the abbot, who is a holy man and good, and said him the