very life.

More than fifteen centuries ago, this country, now called England,
was inhabited by a Celtic race known as the Britons, a warlike
people, divided into numerous tribes constantly at war with each
other. But in the first century of the Christian era they were
conquered by the Romans, who added Britain to their vast empire and
held it against attacks from without and rebellions from within by
stationing legions, or troops of soldiers, in strongly fortified
places all over the country. Now, from their conquerors, the
Britons learnt many useful arts, to read and to write, to build
houses and to make roads; but at the same time, they unlearnt some
of their own virtues and, among others, how to think and act for
themselves. For the Romans never allowed a Briton any real part in
the government of his own country, and if he wished to become a
soldier, he was sent away from Britain to serve with a legion
stationed in some far-distant part of the empire. Thus it came
about that when, in the fifth century, the Romans withdrew from
Britain to defend Rome itself from invading hordes of savages, the
unhappy Britons had forgotten how to govern and how to defend
themselves, and fell an easy prey to the many enemies waiting to
pounce on their defenceless country. Picts from Scotland invaded
the north, and Scots from Ireland plundered the west; worst of all,
the heathen Angles and Saxons, pouring across the seas from their
homes in the Elbe country, wasted the land with fire and sword.
Many of the Britons were slain; those who escaped sought refuge in
the mountainous parts of the west from Cornwall to the Firth of
Clyde. There, forgetting, to some extent, their quarrels, they took
the name of the Cymry, which means the "Brethren," though the
English, unable to understand their language, spoke of them