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feather tuft attached to a spear, the Roman tufa,
preceded him as he walked through the streets."^
But his conquests were not confined to the recovery
of Deira and the mastery of Bernicia. He finally
conquered the British settlement which had so long
and so stubbornly held its ground in the district of
Elmete, near Leeds. He gained Chester and obtained
possession of the islands of Anglesey and
Man. "South of the Humber he was owned as
over-lord by the five English states of Mid-Britain."-
The Angles, it is hardly necessary to remind the
reader, were at this time heathen. They were worshippers
of Thor and Woden, of Friga and Saeter,
whose names still survive on the lips of all of us in
the appellations given to the days of the week. No
attempt appears to have been made on the part of
any British Christians to evangelise the pagan Angles.
At this we cannot wonder. They stood in a mutual
relation of fierce and unrelenting enmity. From the
time the latter gained possession of the eastern seaboard
they advanced step by step into the interior of
the country, persistently driving the Britons further
and further westward, until they were at last thrust
into the fastnesses of Wales.
'
Green's "History of the English People," i. p. 44.
» Ibid, p. 45.