Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/125

Rh their country and the maintenance of their laws, and baffled ſeveral armies, firſt of the prince and afterwards of the King. They were ten thouſand horſe, and many more foot; who, entering into a mutual aſſociation, ſwore upon the goſples, that they would manfully and faithfully fight to the death for the liberties of their country and their antient laws, and declared they had rather die with honour than ſpin out a wretched life in diſgrace. At which manly action of their’s, ſays the hiſtorian, “The Engliſh ought deſervedly to bluſh, who lay down their neck to every one that ſets his foot upon it, and truckle under ſtrangers, as if they were a ſorry, diminutive, timorous, little people, and a riffraff of ſcoundrels.”

is very hard that the Engliſh nation muſt, at the ſame time, ſuffer by the Welch in their excurſions upon our borders, and withal, be continually perſecuted by this hiſtorian, and upbraided with the Welch valour. But ſo it is, that he cannot mention any Engliſh grievance, but he twits us with the Welch. of Rivers, by the procurement of our lady the Queen, marries a certain foreigner, a Savoyard, of the Queen’s kindred. Now to this belongs the county of Devon; and ſo day by day the noble poſſeſſions