 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet
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92. Vortimer. 454.
Then
Vortimer, the Sonne of Vortiger,
Vpon the Saxons made succesfull warre:
Till he by Rowan was by craft o'r-tane,
From whose false hands, he dy'd by poys'nous bane.
Deposed Vortiger (his Sonne once slaine)
His ill gain'd, ill kept Crowne he gain'd againe:
Hengistus with his Saxon fresh supplies,
The Plaines of Salisbury did all surprize.
The King tooke counsell of his Brittaine Lords,
And all in generall to a Peace accords.
The Saxons and the Brittaines did agree,
That at this meeting all vnarm'd should be:
But traitrous Hengist did a watch-word speake,
Which did the Law of Armes, and Honour breake,
The Saxons vnsuspected drew forth Kniues,
Foure hundred, threescore Lords, all lost their liues,
All Brittaine Nobles, then the Saxons there,
Surpris'd the King, constraining him through feare
To giue Kent, Sussex, Suffolke, Norfolke, and
That Hengist, King should in those Lands command,
But after nineteene yeeres were quit expir'd,
Reuenging Fire, the King in's Castle fir'd.
And thus the Saxons, and Great Hengists Heyres,
Won Shire to Shire, till Brittaine all was theirs.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet
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