"Listen to me, lordings, I am king of this people; I hight Vortimer,
my brother hight Catiger; and Vortiger hight our father--miscounsel
followeth him! He hath brought into this land heathen people; but we
have put them to flight, as our full foes, and felled with weapon many
thousands of them, and sent them over sea-stream, so that they never
shall come again. And we shall in land worship our Lord, comfort God's
folk, and friendly it maintain, and be mild to the land-tillers;
churches we shall honour, and heathendom hate. Each good man shall
have his right, if God it will grant, and each thral and each slave be
set free. And here I give to you in hand each church-land all free;
and I forgive to each widow her lord's testament, and each shall love
other as though they were brothers. And thus we shall in our day put
down Hengest's laws, and him and his heathendom that he hither
brought, and deceived my father through his treacherous crafts;
through his daughter Rowenne he betrayed my father. And my father so
evilly began, that he shunned the Christendom, and loved the heathen
laws too much, which we shall avoid the while that we live.
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