Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/30

 farmers were afraid their crops would be destroyed, so that numbers of people died of famine.

7. There were still many Romans in Britain, who were not soldiers but were settled here, most of them having married into British families; and there were a great number of people who were Britons by birth, but whose ancestors had been Romans; and all these were desirous that the country should still be governed by the Roman laws, and formed what was called the Roman party.

8. But there was a British party also, that wanted to do away with the Roman laws altogether, and not to let the Romans have any thing to do with ruling the country; so each of these parties elected a king.

9. The Britons chose a prince named Vortigern; and the Romans chose one called Aurelius Ambrosius; and there was war between them.

10. Then Vortigern, the British king, thought it would be a good thing to get some other brave people to join his party, that he might be able to overcome his rival, as well as to drive away the Picts and Scots; so he proposed to some of the British chiefs that they should ask the