that in them also might be fulfilled the words of Isaiah the
prophet, "And God hath called his people to lamentation, to baldness,
and to the girdle of sackcloth; behold they begin to kill calves,
and to slay rams, to eat, to drink, and to say, 'We will eat and
drink, for to-morrow we shall die.'" For the time was approaching,
when all their iniquities, as formerly those of the Amorrhaeans,
should be fulfilled. For a council was called to settle what was
best and most expedient to be done, in order to repel such frequent
and fatal irruptions and plunderings of the above-named nations.

23. Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant
Gurthrigern [Vortigern], the British king, were so blinded, that,
as a protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting
in among them like wolves into the sheep-fold), the fierce and
impious Saxons, a race hateful both to God and men, to repel the
invasions of the northern nations. Nothing was ever so pernicious
to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky. What palpable
darkness must have enveloped their minds-darkness desperate and
cruel! Those very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more
than death itself, were invited to reside, as one may say, under
the selfsame roof. Foolish are the princes, as it is said, of
Thafneos, giving counsel to unwise Pharaoh. A multitude of whelps
came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls,
as they call them, that is, in there ships of war, with their
sails wafted by the wind and with omens and prophecies favourable,
for it was foretold by a certain soothsayer among them, that they
should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred
years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should
plunder and despoil the same. They first landed on the eastern
side of the island, by the invitation of the unlucky king, and