During the raigne of Maximinian;

Who dying left none heire them to withstand,

But that they ouerran all parts with easie hand.

The weary Britons, whose war-hable youth lxii

Was by Maximian lately led away,

With wretched miseries, and woefull ruth,

Were to those Pagans made an open pray,

And dayly spectacle of sad decay:

Whom Romane warres, which now foure hundred yeares,

And more had wasted, could no whit dismay;