the sons of Molmutius, succeeded him. They quarrelled, and Brennus was
driven out of the island, and took refuge in Gaul, where he met with
such favor from the king of the Allobroges that he gave him his daughter
in marriage, and made him his partner on the throne. Brennus is the name
which the Roman historians give to the famous leader of the Gauls who
took Rome in the time of Camillus. Geoffrey of Monmouth claims the glory
of the conquest for the British prince, after he had become king of the
Allobroges.
ELIDURE
After Belinus and Brennus there reigned several kings of little note,
and then came Elidure. Arthgallo, his brother, being king, gave great
offence to his powerful nobles, who rose against him, deposed him, and
advanced Elidure to the throne. Arthgallo fled, and endeavored to find
assistance in the neighboring kingdoms to reinstate him, but found none.
Elidure reigned prosperously and wisely. After five years’ possession of
the kingdom, one day, when hunting, he met in the forest his brother,
Arthgallo, who had been deposed. After long wandering, unable longer to
bear the poverty to which he was reduced, he had returned to Britain,
with only ten followers, designing to repair to those who had formerly
been his friends. Elidure, at the sight of his brother in distress,
forgetting all animosities, ran to him, and embraced him. He took
Arthgallo home with him, and concealed him in the palace. After this he
feigned himself sick, and, calling his nobles about him, induced them,
partly by persuasion, partly by force, to consent to his abdicating the
kingdom, and reinstating his brother on the throne. The agreement being
ratified, Elidure took the crown from his own head, and put it on his
brother’s head. Arthgallo after this reigned ten years, well and wisely,
exercising strict justice towards all men.
He died, and left the kingdom to his sons, who reigned with various
fortunes, but were not long-lived, and left no offspring, so that
Elidure was again advanced to the throne, and finished the course of his
life in just and virtuous actions, receiving the name of _the pious_,
from the love and admiration of his subjects.
Wordsworth has taken the story of Artegal and Elidure for the subject of
a poem, which is No. 2 of “Poems founded on the Affections.”
LUD
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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