Let them beware. Hatred breeds hatred
again, and things despiteful are done to those who despitefully use
you. They come with threats, demanding truage, and reproving us for
the evil we have done them. Tribute they claim by the right of the
strong, leaving sorrow and shame as our portion. But if the Romans
claim to receive tribute of Britain because tribute was aforetime paid
them from Britain, by the same reasoning we may establish that Rome
should rather pay tribute to us. In olden days there lived two
brothers, British born, namely, Belinus, King of the Britons, and
Brennus, Duke of Burgundy, both wise and doughty lords. These stout
champions arrived with their men before Rome, and shutting the city
close, at the end gained it by storm. They took hostages of the
citizens to pay them tribute, but since the burgesses did not observe
their covenant, the brethren hanged the hostages, to the number of
four and-twenty, in the eyes of all their kinsfolk. When Belinus went
to his own place, he commended Rome to the charge of Brennus, his
brother. Now Constantine, the son of Helena, drew from Brennus and
Belinus, and in his turn held Rome in his care. Maximian, King of
Britain, after he had conquered France and Germany, passed the Mont
St.
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