after his accustomed manner these his Israelites, whether they
loved him or not, until the year of the siege of Bath-hill, when
took place also the last almost, though not the least slaughter
of our cruel foes, which was (as I am sure) forty-four years and
one month after the landing of the Saxons, and also the time of
my own nativity.  And yet neither to this day are the cities of
our country inhabited as before, but being forsaken and overthrown,
still lie desolate; our foreign wars having ceased, but our civil
troubles still remaining.  For as well the remembrance of such
terrible desolation of the island, as also of the unexpected
recovery of the same, remained in the minds of those who were
eyewitnesses of the wonderful events of both, and in regard
thereof, kings, public magistrates, and private persons, with
priests and clergymen, did all and every one of them live orderly
according to their several vocations.  But when these had departed
out of this world, and a new race succeeded, who were ignorant
of this troublesome time, and had only experience of the present
prosperity, all the laws of truth and justice were so shaken and
subverted, that not so much as a vestige or remembrance of these
virtues remained among the above-named orders of men, except among