manders, with that success which usually attended the Roman

arms.

Caractacus was the first who seemed willing, by a vigorous effort, to rescue his country, and repel its insulting and rapacious conquerors. This rude soldier, though with inferior forces, continued, for above nine years, to oppose and harass the Romans; till at length he was totally routed, and taken prisoner by Ostorius Scapula, who sent him in triumph to Rome. While Caractacus was leading through Rome, he appeared no way dejected at the amazing concourse of spectators that were gathered upon this occasion, but casting his eyes on the splendours that surrounded him, "Alas, (cried he,) how is it possible, that a people possessed of such magnificence at home could envy me an humble cottage in Britain!" The emperor was affected with the British hero's misfortunes, and won by his address. He ordered him to be unchained upon the spot, and set at liberty with the rest of the captives.

:

The cruel treatment of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, drove the Britons once more into open rebellion. Prasatagus, king of the Iceni, at his death, had bequeathed one half of his dominions to the Romans, and the other to his daughters, thus hoping, by the sacrifice of a part, to secure the rest in his family but it had a different effect; for the Roman procurator immediately took possession of the whole: and when Boadicea, the widow of the deceased, attempted to remonstrate, he ordered her to be scourged like a slave, and violated the chastity of her daughters. These outrages were sufficient to produce a revolt throughout the island. The Iceni, as being the most deeply interested in the quarrel, were the first to take arms; all the other states soon followed the example; and Boadicea, a woman of great beauty, and masculine spirit, was appointed to head the common forces, which amounted to two hundred and thirty thousand fighting men. These, exasperated by their wrongs, attacked several of the Roman settlements and colonies with success. Paulinus, who commanded the Roman forces, hastened to relieve London, which was already a flourishing colony; but found, on his arrival, that it would be requisite, for the general safety, to abandon that place to the merciless fury of the enemy. London was soon, therefore, reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it were massacred; and the Romans, with all other strangers, to the number of seventy thousand, were cruelly put to the sword. Flushed with these successes, the

Britons no longer sought to avoid the enemy, but boldly came to the place where Paulinus awaited their arrival, posted in a very advantageous manner, with a body of ten thousand men. The battle was obstinate and bloody. Boadicea herself appeared in a chariot with her own daughters, and harangued her army with masculine intrepidity; but the irregular and undisciplined bravery of her troops were unable to resist the cool intrepidity of the Romans. They were routed with great slaughter; eighty thousand perished in the field, and an infinite number were made prisoners; while Boadicea herself, fearing to fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her life by poison.

The general who finally established the dominion of the Romans in this island was Julius Agricola, who governed it during the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself as well by his courage as humanity.

For several years after the time of Agricola, a profound peace seems to have prevailed in Britain, and little mention is made of the affairs of the island by any historian.

At length, however, Rome, that had for ages given laws to nations, and diffused slavery and oppression over the known world, began to sink under her own magnificence. Mankind, as if by a general consent, rose up to vindicate their natural freedom; almost every nation asserting that independence which they had been long so unjustly deprived of.

During these struggles the British youth were frequently drawn away into Gaul, to give ineffectual succour to the various contenders for the empire, who, failing in every attempt, only left the name of tyrants behind them. In the mean time, as the Roman forces decreased in Britain, the Picts and Scots continued still more boldly to infest the northern parts; and crossing the Friths, which the Romans could not guard, in little wicker boats, covered with leather, filled the country wherever they came with slaughter and consternation.

The Romans, therefore, finding it impossible to stand their ground in Britain, in the reign of the emperor Valentinian, took their last leave of the island, after being masters of it for near four hundred years, and now left the natives to the choice of their own government and kings. They gave them the best instructions the calamitous times would permit, for exercising their arms, and repairing their ramparts, and helped them to erect a new wall of stone, built by the emperor Severus across the island, which they had not at that time artisans skilful enough among themselves to repair.

THE

CHAP. II.

THE SAXONS.

HE Britons, being now left to themselves, considered their new liberties as their greatest calamity.

The Picts and Scots uniting together, began to look upon Britain as their own, and attacked the northern wall, which the Romans had built to keep off their incursions, with success. Having thus opened to themselves a passage, they ravaged the whole country with impunity, while the Britons sought precarious shelter in their woods and mountains.

It was in this deplorable and enfeebled state that the Britons had recourse to the Saxons, a brave people; who, for their strength and valour, were formidable to all the German nations around them, and supposed to be more than a match for the gods themselves. They were a people restless and bold, who considered war as their trade; and were, in consequence, taught to consider victory as a doubtful advantage, but courage as a certain good. A nation, however, entirely addicted to war, has seldom wanted the imputation of cruelty, as those terrors which are opposed without fear, are often inflicted without regret. The Saxons are represented as a very cruel nation; but we must remember that their enemies have drawn the picture.

It was no disagreeable circumstance to these ambitious people to be invited into a country, upon which they had for ages before been forming designs. In consequence, therefore, of Vortigern's solemn invitation, who was then king of Britain, they arrived with fifteen hundred men, under the command of Hengist and Horsa, who were brothers, and landed on the isle of Thanet. There they did not long remain inactive; but being joined by the British forces, they boldly marched against the Picts and Scots, who had advanced as far as Lincolnshire, and soon gained a complete victory over them.

The Saxons, however, being sensible of the fertility of the country to which they came, and the barrenness of that which they had left behind, invited over great numbers of their countrymen to become sharers in their new expedition. Accordingly they received a fresh supply of five thousand men, who passed over in seventeen vessels, and soon made a permanent establishment in the island.

The British historians, in order to account for the easy conquest of their country by the Saxons, assign their treachery, not less than their valour, as a principal cause. They alledge, that Vortigern was artfully inveigled into a passion for Rowena, the daughter of Hengist; and, in order to marry her, was induced to settle the fertile province of Kent upon her father, from whence the Saxons could never after be removed. It is alledged also, that upon the death of Vortimer, which shortly happened after the victory he obtained at Egglesford, Vortigern his father was reinstated upon the throne. It is added, that this weak monarch accepting of a festival from Hengist, three hundred of his nobility were treacherously slaughtered, and himself detained as a captive.

After the death of Hengist, several other German tribes, allured by the success of their countrymen, came over in great numbers. A body of Saxons, under the conduct of Ella and his three sons, had some time before laid the foundation of the kingdom of the South Saxons, though not without great opposition and bloodshed. This new kingdom included Surry, Sussex, and the New Forest, and extended to the frontiers of Kent.

Another tribe of Saxons, under the command of Cerdic, and his son Kenric, landed in the West, and from thence took the name of West Saxons. These met with a very vigorous resistance from the natives, but being reinforced from Germany, and assisted by their countrymen on the island, they routed the Britons; and although retarded in their progress by the celebrated king Arthur, they had strength enough to keep possession of the conquests they had already made. Cerdic, therefore, with his son Kenric, established the third Saxon kingdom in the island, namely, that of the West Saxons, including the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight.

It was in opposing this Saxon invader that the celebrated prince Arthur acquired his fame. However unsuccessful all his valour might have been in the end, yet his name made so great a figure in the fabulous annals of the times, that some notice must be taken of him., This prince is of such obscure original, that some authors suppose him to be the son of king Ambrosius, and others only his nephew; others again affirm that he was a Cornish prince, and son of Gurlois, king of that province. However this be, it is certain he was a commander of great valour; and, could courage alone repair the miserable state of the Britons, his might have been effectual.

According to the most authentic historians, he is said to have worsted the Saxons in twelve successive battles. In one of these, namely, that fought at Caerbadon, in Berks, it is asserted that he killed no less than four hundred and forty of the enemy with his own hand. But the Saxons were too numerous and powerful to be extirpated by the desultory efforts of single valour; so that a peace, and not conquest, were the immediate fruits of his victories. The enemy, therefore, still gained ground; and this prince, in the decline of life, had the mortification, from some domestic troubles of his own, to be a patient spectator of their encroachments. His first wife had been carried off by Melnas, king of Somersetshire, who detained her a whole year at Glastonbury, until Arthur, discovering the place of her retreat, advanced with an army against the ravisher, and obliged him to give her back. In his second wife, perhaps, he might have been more fortunate, as we have no mention made of her; but it was otherwise with his third consort, who was debauched by his own nephew, Mordred. This produced a rebellion, in which the king and his traitorous kinsman, meeting in battle, slew each other.

In the mean time, while the Saxons were thus gaining ground in the west, their countrymen were not less active in other parts of the island. Adventurers still continuing to pour over from Germany, one body of them, under the command of Uffa, seized upon the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and gave their commander the title of king of the East Angles, which was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain.

Another body of these adventurers formed a kingdom under the title of East Saxony, or Essex, comprehending Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. This kingdom, which .was dismembered from that of Kent, formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain.

The kingdom of Mercia was the sixth which was established by these fierce invaders, comprehending all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of the two last named kingdoms.

The seventh and last kingdom which they obtained, was that of Northumberland, one of the most powerful and extensive of them all. This was formed from the union of two smaller Saxon kingdoms; the one called Bernicia, containing the present county of Northumberland, and the bishopric of Durham; the subjects of the other, called the Deiri, extend