initial commit of ebook 44083HEADmain

49 files changed, 45746 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/44083-0.txt b/44083-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcf279a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7620 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of the Saxon Shore by Alfred John
+Church
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Count of the Saxon Shore
+
+Author: Alfred John Church
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2013 [Ebook #44083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF‐8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Burning of the Villa.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               The COUNT
+                           of the SAXON SHORE
+                                  _or_
+                          The Villa in VECTIS
+
+          _A TALE OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS FROM BRITAIN_
+
+                                 BY THE
+                      REV. ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A.
+                    _Author of “Stories from Homer”_
+
+                       WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
+                               RUTH PUTNAM
+
+
+
+_Fifth Thousand_
+
+
+London
+SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
+38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+
+
+
+
+
+                       Entered at Stationers’ Hall
+                             By SEELEY & CO.
+
+                 COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, 1887
+                   (For the United States of America).
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE.
+
+
+“Count of the Saxon Shore” was a title bestowed by Maximian (colleague of
+Diocletian in the Empire from 286 to 305 A.D.) on the officer whose task
+it was to protect the coasts of Britain and Gaul from the attacks of the
+Saxon pirates. It appears to have existed down to the abandonment of
+Britain by the Romans.
+
+So little is known from history about the last years of the Roman
+occupation that the writer of fiction has almost a free hand. In this
+story a novel, but, it is hoped, not an improbable, view is taken of an
+important event—the withdrawal of the legions. This is commonly assigned
+to the year 410, when the Emperor Honorius formally withdrew the Imperial
+protection from Britain. But the usurper Constantine had actually removed
+the British army two years before; and, as he was busied with the conquest
+of Gaul and Spain for a considerable time after, it is not likely that
+they were ever sent back.
+
+                                                                  A. J. C.
+                                                                     R. P.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                            PAGE
+     I.   A BRITISH CÆSAR                             1
+    II.   AN ELECTION                                13
+   III.   A PRIZE                                    21
+    IV.   THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND                    32
+     V.   CARNA                                      47
+    VI.   THE SAXON                                  57
+   VII.   A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES                 70
+  VIII.   THE NEWS IN THE CAMP                       83
+    IX.   THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS               94
+     X.   DANGERS AHEAD                             107
+    XI.   THE PRIEST’S DEMAND                       115
+   XII.   LOST                                      124
+  XIII.   WHAT DOES IT MEAN?                        135
+   XIV.   THE PURSUIT                               144
+    XV.   THE PURSUIT (_continued_)                 152
+   XVI.   THE GREAT TEMPLE                          164
+  XVII.   THE BRITISH VILLAGE                       173
+ XVIII.   THE PICTS                                 182
+   XIX.   THE SIEGE                                 194
+    XX.   CEDRIC IN TROUBLE                         207
+   XXI.   THE ESCAPE                                216
+  XXII.   A VISITOR                                 224
+ XXIII.   THE STRANGER’S STORY                      234
+  XXIV.   NEWS FROM ITALY                           245
+   XXV.   CONSULTATION                              256
+  XXVI.   FAREWELL!                                 266
+ XXVII.   MARTIANUS                                 271
+XXVIII.   A RIVAL                                   281
+  XXIX.   AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL                     293
+   XXX.   AT LAST                                   306
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+THE BURNING OF THE VILLA                        _Frontispiece_
+                                                          PAGE
+CONSTANTINE ELECTED EMPEROR                                 18
+THE _PANTHER_ AND THE SAXON PIRATES                         28
+CEDRIC AT THE FORGE                                         58
+JAVELIN THROWING                                            78
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS                               104
+BRITISH CONSPIRATORS                                       112
+THE CAPTURE OF CARNA                                       128
+THE SACRIFICE                                              166
+CEDRIC AND THE PICT                                        196
+CEDRIC’S FURY                                              212
+CEDRIC’S ESCAPE                                            222
+CLAUDIAN’S TALE                                            234
+THE COUNT RECEIVING THE LETTER OF HONORIUS                 252
+CARNA AND MARTIANUS                                        276
+CARNA ON THE HILLSIDE                                      304
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     _THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE._
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             A BRITISH CÆSAR.
+
+
+“Hail! Cæsar Emperor, the starving salute thee!”(1) and the speaker made a
+military salute to a silver coin, evidently brand-new from the mint (which
+did not seem, by the way, to turn out very good work), and bearing the
+superscription, “Gratianus Cæsar Imperator Felicissimus.” He was a soldier
+of middle age, whose jovial face did not show any sign of the fate which
+he professed to have so narrowly escaped, and formed one of a group which
+was lounging about the _Quæstorium_, or, as we may put it, the paymaster’s
+office of the camp at the head of the Great Harbour.(2) A very curious
+medley of nationalities was that group. There were Gauls; there were
+Germans from the Rhine bank, some of them of the pure Teuton type, with
+fair complexions, bright blue eyes, and reddish golden hair, and
+remarkably tall of stature, others showing an admixture of the Celtic
+blood of their Gallic neighbours in their dark hair and hazel eyes; there
+were swarthy Spaniards, fierce-looking men from the Eastern Adriatic,
+showing some signs of Greek parentage in their regular features and
+graceful figures; there were two or three who seemed to have an admixture
+of Asian or even African blood in them; it might be said, in fact, there
+were representatives of every province of the Empire, Italy only excepted.
+They had been just receiving their pay, long in arrear, and now
+considerably short of the proper amount, and containing not a few coins
+which the receivers seemed to think of doubtful value.
+
+“Let me look at his Imperial Majesty,” said another speaker; and he
+scanned the features of the new Cæsar—features never very dignified, and
+certainly not flattered by the rude coinage—with something like contempt.
+“Well, he does not look exactly as a Cæsar should; but what does it
+matter? This will go down with Rufus at the wine-shop and Priscus the
+sausage-seller, as well as the head of the great Augustus himself.”
+
+“Ah!” said a third speaker, picking out from a handful of silver a coin
+which bore the head of Theodosius, “this was an Emperor worth fighting
+under. I made my first campaign with him against Maximus, another British
+Cæsar, by the way; and he was every inch a soldier. If his son were like
+him(3) things would be smoother than they are.”
+
+“Do you think,” said the second speaker, after first throwing a cautious
+glance to see whether any officer of rank was in hearing—“do you think we
+have made a change for the better from Marcus?(4) He at all events used to
+be more liberal with his money than his present majesty. You remember he
+gave us ten silver pieces each. Now we don’t even get our proper pay.”
+
+“Marcus, my dear fellow,” said the other speaker, “had a full military
+chest to draw upon, and it was not difficult to be generous. Gratianus has
+to squeeze every denarius out of the citizens. I heard them say, when the
+money came into the camp yesterday, that it was a loan from the Londinium
+merchants. I wonder what interest they will get, and when they will see
+the principal again.”
+
+“Hang the fat rascals!” said the other. “Why should they sleep soft, and
+eat and drink the best of everything, while we poor soldiers, who keep
+them and their money-bags safe, have to go bare and hungry?”
+
+“Come, come, comrades,” interrupted the first soldier who had spoken; “no
+more grumbling, or some of us will find the centurion after us with his
+vine-sticks.”
+
+The group broke up, most of them making the best of their way to spend
+some of their unaccustomed riches at the wine-shop, a place from which
+they had lately kept an enforced absence. Three or four of the number,
+however, who seemed, from a sign that passed between them, to have some
+secret understanding, remained in close conversation—a conversation which
+they carried on in undertones, and which they adjourned to one of the
+tents to finish without risk of being disturbed or overheard.
+
+The camp in which our story opens was a square enclosure, measuring some
+five hundred yards each way, and surrounded by a massive wall, not less
+than four feet in thickness, in the construction of which stone, brick,
+and tile had, in Roman fashion, been used together. The defences were
+completed by strong towers of a rounded shape, which had been erected at
+frequent intervals. The camp had, as usual, its four gates. That which
+opened upon the sea—for the sea washed the southern front—was famous in
+military tradition as the gate by which the second legion had embarked to
+take part in the Jewish War and the famous siege of Jerusalem. Vespasian,
+who had begun in Britain the great career which ended in the throne, had
+experienced its valour and discipline in more than one campaign,(5) and
+had paid it the high compliment of making a special request for its
+services when he was appointed to conduct what threatened to be a
+formidable war. This glorious recollection was proudly cherished in the
+camp, though more than three centuries had passed, changing as they went
+the aspect of the camp, till it looked at least as much like a town as a
+military post. The troops were housed in huts stoutly built of timber,
+which a visitor would have found comfortably furnished by a long
+succession of occupants. The quarters of the tribune and higher centurions
+were commodious dwellings of brick; and the headquarters of the legate, or
+commanding officer, with its handsome chambers, its baths, and tesselated
+pavements, might well have been a mansion at Rome. There was a street of
+regular shape, in which provisions, clothes, and even ornaments could be
+bought. Roman discipline, though somewhat relaxed, did not indeed permit
+the dealers to remain within the fortifications at night, but the shops
+were tenanted by day, and did a thriving business, not only with the
+soldiers, but with the Britons of the neighbourhood, who found the camp a
+convenient resort, where they could market to advantage, besides gossiping
+to their hearts’ content. The relations between the soldiers and their
+native neighbours were indeed friendly in the extreme. The legion had had
+its headquarters in the camp of the Great Harbour for many generations,
+though it had occasionally gone on foreign service. Lately, too, the
+policy which had recruited the British legion with soldiers from the
+Continent, had been relaxed, partly from carelessness, partly because it
+was necessary to fill up the ranks as could best be done, and there was
+but little choice of men. Thus service became very much an inheritance.
+The soldiers married British women, and their children, growing up, became
+soldiers in turn. Many recruits still came from Gaul, Spain, and the mouth
+of the Rhine, and elsewhere, but quite as many of the troops were by this
+time, in part or in whole, British.
+
+Another change which the three centuries and a half since Vespasian’s time
+had brought about was in religion. The temple of Mars, which had stood
+near the headquarters, and where the legate had been accustomed to take
+the auspices,(6) was now a Christian Church, duly served by a priest of
+British birth.
+
+About a couple of hours later in the day a shout of “The Emperor! the
+Emperor!” was raised in the camp, and the soldiers, flocking out from the
+mess-tents in which most of them were sitting, lined in a dense throng the
+avenue which led from the chief gate to headquarters.
+
+Gratianus, who was followed by a few officers of superior rank and a small
+escort of cavalry, rode slowly between the lines of soldiers. His
+reception was not as hearty as he had expected to find. He had, as the
+soldiers had hinted, made vast exertions to raise a sum of money in
+Londinium—then, as now, the wealthiest municipality in the island. Himself
+a native of the place, and connected with some of its richest citizens, he
+had probably got together more than any one else would have done in like
+circumstances. But all his persuasions and promises, even his offer of
+twenty per cent. interest, had not been able to extract from the Londinium
+burghers the full sum that was required; and the soldiers, who the day
+before would have loudly proclaimed that they would be thankful for the
+smallest instalment, were now almost furious because they had not been
+paid in full. A few shouts of “Hail, Cæsar! Hail, Gratianus! Hail,
+Britannicus!” greeted him on the road to his quarters; but these came from
+the front lines only, and chiefly from the centurions and
+deputy-centurions, while the great body of the soldiers maintained an
+ominous silence, sometimes broken by a sullen murmur.
+
+Gratianus was not a man fitted to deal with sudden emergencies. He was
+rash and he was ambitious, but he wanted steadfast courage, and he was
+hampered by scruples of which an usurper must rid himself at once if he
+hopes to keep himself safe in his seat. He might have appealed frankly to
+the soldiers—asked them what it was they complained of, and taken them
+frankly into his confidence; or he might have overawed them by an example
+of severity, fixing on some single act of insubordination or insolence,
+and sending the offender to instant execution. He was not bold enough for
+either course, and the opportunity passed, as quickly as opportunities do
+in such times, hopelessly out of his reach.
+
+The temper of the soldiers grew more excited and dangerous as the day went
+on. For many weeks past want of money had kept them sober against their
+will, and now that the long-expected pay-day had come they crowded the
+wine-shops inside and outside the camp, and drank almost as wildly as an
+Australian shepherd when he comes down to the town after a six months’
+solitude. As anything can set highly combustible materials on fire, so the
+most trivial and meaningless incident will turn a tipsy mob into a crowd
+of bloodthirsty madmen. Just before sunset a messenger entered the camp
+bringing a despatch from one of the outlying forts. One of those
+prodigious lies which seem always ready to start into existence when they
+are wanted for mischief at once ran like wild-fire through the camp.
+Gratianus was bringing together troops from other parts of the province,
+and was going to disarm and decimate the garrison of the Great Camp. The
+unfortunate messenger was seized before he could make his way to
+headquarters, seriously injured, and robbed of the despatch which he was
+carrying. Some of the centurions ventured to interfere and endeavour to
+put down the tumult. Two or three who were popular with the men were
+good-humouredly disarmed; others, who were thought too rigorous in
+discipline, were roughly handled and thrown into the military prison; one,
+who had earned for himself the nick-name of “Old Hand me the other,”(7)
+was killed on the spot. The furious crowd then rushed to headquarters,
+where Gratianus was entertaining a company of officers of high rank, and
+clamoured that they must see the Emperor. He came out and mounted the
+hustings, which stood near the front of the buildings, and from which it
+was usual to address gatherings of the soldiers.
+
+For a moment the men, not altogether lost to the sense of discipline, were
+hushed into silence and order by the sight of the Emperor as he stood on
+the platform in his Imperial purple, his figure thrown into bold relief by
+the torches which his attendants held behind him.
+
+“What do you want, my children?” he said; but there was a tremble in his
+voice which put fresh courage into the failing hearts of the mutineers.
+
+“Give us our pay, give us our arrears!” answered a soldier in one of the
+back rows, emboldened to speak by finding himself out of sight.
+
+The cry was taken up by the whole multitude. “Our pay! Our pay!” was
+shouted from thousands of throats.
+
+Gratianus stood perplexed and irresolute, visibly cowering before the
+storm. At this moment one of the tribunes stepped forward and whispered in
+his ear. What he said was this: “Say to them, ‘Follow me, and I will give
+you all you ask and more.’”
+
+It was a happy suggestion, one of the vague promises that commit to
+nothing, and if the unlucky usurper could have given it with confidence,
+with an air that gave it a meaning, he might have been saved, at least for
+a time. But his nerve, his presence of mind was hopelessly lost. “Follow
+me—where? Whither am I to lead them?” he asked, in a hurried, agitated
+whisper.
+
+His adviser shrugged his shoulders and was silent. He saw that he was not
+comprehended.
+
+Gratianus continued to stand silent and irresolute, with his helpless,
+despairing gaze fixed upon the crowd. Then came a great surging movement
+from the back of the crowd, and the front ranks were almost forced up the
+steps of the platform. The unlucky prince turned as if to flee. The
+movement sealed his fate. A stone hurled from the back of the crowd struck
+him on the side of the face. Half stunned by the blow, he leaned against
+one of the attendants, and the blood could be seen pouring down his face,
+pale with terror, and looking ghastly in the flaming torchlight. The next
+moment the attendant flung down his torch and fled—an example followed by
+all his companions. Then all was in darkness; and it only wanted darkness
+to make a score of hands busy in the deed of blood.
+
+As Gratianus lay prostrate on the ground the first blow was aimed by a
+brother of his predecessor, Marcus, who had been quietly waiting for an
+opportunity of vengeance. In another minute he had ceased to live. His
+head was severed from the body and fixed on the top of a pike. One of the
+murderers seized a smouldering torch, and, blowing it into flame, held it
+up while another exhibited the bleeding head, and cried, “The tyrant has
+his deserts!” But by this time the mad rage of the crowd had subsided. The
+horror of the deed had sobered them. Many began to remember little acts of
+kindness which the murdered man had done them, and the feeling of wrong
+was lost in a revulsion of pity. In a few moments more the crowd was
+scattered. Silent and remorseful the men went to their quarters, and the
+camp was quiet again. But another British Cæsar had gone the way of a long
+line of unlucky predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+                               AN ELECTION.
+
+
+The camp next day was covered with gloom. The soldiers moved silent and
+with downcast faces along the avenues, or discharged in a mechanical way
+their routine duties. The guards were turned out, the sentries relieved,
+and the general order of service maintained without any action on the part
+of the officers—at least of those who held superior rank. These remained
+in the seclusion of their tents; and it may be said that those who were
+conscious of being popular were almost as much alarmed as those who knew
+that they were disliked. If the latter dreaded the vengeance of those whom
+they had offended, the others were scarcely less alarmed by the
+possibility of being elected to the perilous dignity which had just proved
+fatal to Gratianus. The country people, whose presence generally gave an
+air of cheerfulness and activity to the camp, were too much alarmed to
+come. The trading booths inside the gates were empty, and only a very few
+stalls were occupied in the market, which was held every day outside them.
+
+The funeral of the late prince was celebrated with some pomp. The soldiers
+attended it in crowds, and manifested their grief, and, it would seem,
+their remorse, by groans and tears. They were ready even to give proofs of
+their repentance by the summary execution of those who had taken an active
+part in the bloody deed. But here, one of the centurions, whose cheerful,
+genial manners made him an unfailing favourite with the men, had the
+courage to check them. “No, my men,” said he; “we were all mad last night,
+and we must all take the blame.”
+
+Two days passed without any incident of importance. On the third the
+question of a successor began to be discussed. One of the other garrisons
+might be beforehand with them, and they would have either to accept a
+chief who would owe his best favours to others, or risk their lives in an
+unprofitable struggle with him. In the afternoon a general assembly of the
+troops was held, the officers still holding aloof, though some of them
+mixed, _incognito_, so to speak, in the crowd.
+
+Of course, the first difficulty was to find any one who would take the
+lead. At last the genial centurion, who has been mentioned above as a
+well-established favourite with the soldiers, was pushed to the front. His
+speech was short and sensible. “Comrades,” he said, “I doubt whether what
+I have to say will please you; but I shall say it all the same. You know
+that I always speak my mind. We have not done very well in the new ways.
+Let us try the old. I propose that we take the oath to Honorius Augustus.”
+
+A deep murmur of discontent ran through the assembly, and showed that the
+speaker had presumed at least as far as was safe on his popularity with
+the troops.
+
+“Does Decius,” cried a burly German from the crowd—Decius was the name of
+the centurion—“does Decius recommend that we should trust to the mercy of
+Honorius? Very good, perhaps, for himself; for the giver of such advice
+could scarcely fail of a reward; but for us it means decimation(8) at the
+least.”
+
+A shout of applause showed that the speaker had expressed the feelings of
+his audience.
+
+“I propose that we all take the oath to Decius himself!” said a Batavian;
+“he is a brave man and an honest, and what do we want more?”
+
+The good Decius had heard undismayed the angry disapproval which his loyal
+proposal had called forth; but the mention of his name as a possible
+candidate for the throne overwhelmed him with terror. His jovial face grew
+pale as death; the sweat stood in large drops upon his forehead; he
+trembled as he had never trembled in the face of an enemy.
+
+“Comrades,” he stammered, “what have I done that you should treat me thus?
+If I have offended or injured you, kill me, but not this.”
+
+More than half possessed by a spirit of mischief, the assembly answered
+this piteous appeal by continuous shouts of “Long live the Emperor
+Decius!”
+
+The good man grew desperate. He drew his sword from the scabbard, and
+pointed it at his own heart. “At least,” he cried, “you can’t forbid me
+this escape.”
+
+The bystanders wrested the weapon from him; but the joke had gone far
+enough, and the man was too genuinely popular for the soldiers to allow
+him to be tormented beyond endurance. A voice from the crowd shouted,
+“Long live the Centurion Decius!” to which another answered, “Long live
+Decius the subject!” and the worthy man felt that the danger was over.
+
+A number of candidates, most of whom were probably as little desirous of
+the honour as Decius, were now proposed in succession.
+
+“I name the Tribune Manilius,” said one of the soldiers.
+
+The name was received with a shout of laughter.
+
+“Let him learn first to be Emperor at home!” cried a voice from the back
+of the assembly, a sally which had considerable success, as his wife was a
+well-known termagant, and his two sons the most frequent inmates of the
+military prison.
+
+“I name the Centurion Pisinna.”
+
+“Very good, if he does not pledge the purple,” for Pisinna was notoriously
+impecunious.
+
+“I name the Tribune Cetronius.”
+
+“Very good as Emperor of the baggage-guard.” Cetronius had, to say the
+least, no high reputation for personal courage, and was supposed to prefer
+the least exposed parts on the field.
+
+A number of other names were mentioned only to be dismissed with more or
+less contumely. Tired of this sport—for it really was nothing more—the
+crowd cried out for a speech from a well-known orator of the camp, whose
+fluency, not unmixed with shrewdness and humour, had gained him a
+considerable reputation among his comrades.
+
+“Comrades,” he began, “if you have not yet found a candidate worthy of
+your suffrages, it is not because such do not exist among you. Can it be
+believed that Britain is less worthy to produce the Emperor than Gaul, or
+Spain, or Thrace, or even the effeminate Syria? Was it not from Britain
+that there came forth the greatest of the successors of Augustus, the
+Second Romulus, Flavius Aurelius Constantinus?”(9)
+
+The orator was not permitted to proceed any further. The name Constantinus
+ran like an electric shock through the whole assembly, and a thousand
+voices took up the cry, “Long live Constantinus, Emperor Augustus!” while
+all eyes were turned to one of the back rows of the meeting, where a
+soldier who happened to bear that name was standing. Some of his comrades
+caught him by the arm, hurried him to the front, and from thence on to the
+hustings. He was greeted with a perfect uproar of applause, partly, of
+course, ironical, but partly the expression of a genuine feeling that the
+right man had been found, and found by some sort of Divine assistance. The
+soldiers were, as has been said, a strange medley of men, scarcely able to
+understand each other, and alike only in being savage, ignorant, and
+superstitious. They had been unlucky in choosing for themselves, and now
+it might be well to have the choice made for them. And at least the new
+man had a name which all of them knew and reverenced, as far as they
+reverenced anything.
+
+  [Illustration: Constantine elected Emperor.]
+
+Whether he had anything but a name might have seemed perhaps somewhat
+doubtful. He had reached middle age, for he had two sons already grown up,
+but had never risen above the rank of a private soldier. It might be said,
+perhaps, that he had shown some ability in thus avoiding promotion—not
+always a desirable thing in troublous times; but there was the fact that
+he was nearly fifty years of age, and was not even a deputy-centurion. On
+the other hand, he was a respectable man, ignorant indeed, for, like most
+of his comrades, he could neither read nor write, but with a certain
+practical shrewdness, so good-humoured that he had never made an enemy,
+known to be remarkably brave, a great athlete in his youth, and still of a
+strength beyond the average.
+
+His sudden and strange elevation did not seem to throw him in the least
+off his balance. He had been perfectly content to go without promotion,
+and now he seemed equally content to receive the highest promotion of all.
+He stood calmly facing the excited mob, as unmoved as if he had been a
+private soldier on the parade ground. A slight flush, indeed, might have
+been seen to mount to his face when the cloak of imperial purple was
+thrown over his shoulders, and the peaked diadem put upon his head. He
+must have been less than man not to have felt some thrill either of fear
+or pride at the touch of what had brought two of his comrades to their
+graves within the space of less than half a year; but he showed no other
+sign of emotion.
+
+The officers, seeing the turn things had taken, had now come to the front,
+and the senior tribune, taking the new Emperor by the hand, led him to the
+edge of the hustings, and said, “Comrades, I present to you Aurelius
+Constantinus, chosen by the providence of God and the choice of the army
+to be Emperor of Britain and the West. The Blessed and Undivided Trinity
+order it for the best.” A ringing shout of approval went up in response.
+The tribunes then took the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor in
+person. These again administered it to the centurions, and the centurions
+swore in great batches of the soldiers. The new-made prince meanwhile
+stood unmoved, it might almost be said insensible, so strange was his
+composure in the face of his sudden elevation. All that he said—the
+result, it seemed, of a whisper from one of his sons—were a few words,
+which, however, had all the success of a most eloquent oration.
+
+“Comrades, I promise you a donative(10) within the space of a month.”
+
+The assembly broke up in great good-humour, and the newly-made Emperor,
+attended by the officers, went to take possession of headquarters.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                                 A PRIZE.
+
+
+It was a bright morning some three weeks after the occurrences related in
+the last chapter, when a squadron of four Roman galleys swept round the
+point which is now known as the South Foreland. The leader of the four,
+all of which, indeed, lay so close together as to be within easy hailing
+distance, bore on its mainmast the _Labarum_, or Imperial standard,
+showing on a ground of purple a cross, a crown, and the sacred initials,
+all wrought in gold. It was the flagship, so to speak, of the great Count
+himself, one of the most important lieutenants of the Empire, whose task
+it was to guard the shores of Britain and Northern Gaul from the pirate
+swarms that issued from the harbours of the North Sea and the Baltic. The
+Count himself was on board, coming south from his villa on the eastern
+shore—for the stations of which he had the charge extended as far as the
+Wash—to his winter residence in the sunny island of Vectis.
+
+The Count was a tall man of middle age, and wore over his tunic a military
+cloak reaching to the hips, and clasped at the neck with a handsome device
+in gold, representing a hunting-dog with his teeth fixed in a stag. His
+head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat of felt. The only weapon that he
+carried was a short sword, which, with its plain hilt and leather
+scabbard, was evidently meant for use rather than show. His whole
+appearance and bearing, indeed, were those of a man of action and energy.
+His eyes were bright and piercing; his nose showed, strongly pronounced,
+the curve which has always been associated with the ability to command;
+the contour of his chin and lips, as far as could be seen through a short
+curling beard and moustache, worn as a prudent defence against the
+climate, betokened firmness. Still, the expression of the face was not
+unkindly. As a great writer says of one whom Britain had had good reason
+in earlier days both to fear and to love, “one would easily believe him to
+be a good man, and willingly believe him to be great.”
+
+At the time when our story opens he was standing in conversation with the
+helmsman, a weather-beaten old sailor, whose dark Southern complexion had
+been deepened by the sun and winds of more than fifty years of service
+into an almost African hue.
+
+“The wind will hardly serve us as well as it has,” said the Count, as his
+practised eye, familiar with every yard of the coast, perceived that they
+were well abreast of the extreme southern point of the coast.
+
+“No, my lord,” said the old man, “we shall have to take as long a tack as
+we can to the south. There is a deal of west in the wind—more, I think,
+than there was an hour since. Castor and Pollux—I beg your lordship’s
+pardon, the blessed Saints—defend us from anything like a westerly gale.”
+
+“Ah! old croaker,” replied the Count, with a laugh, “I verily believe that
+you will be half disappointed if we get to our journey’s end without some
+mishap.”
+
+“Good words, good words, my lord,” said the old man, hastily crossing
+himself, while he muttered something, which, if it could have been
+overheard, would have been scarcely suitable to that act of devotion.
+“Heaven bring us safe to our journey’s end! Of course it is your
+lordship’s business to give orders, and ours to go to the bottom, if it is
+to be so. But I must say, saving your presence, that it is against all
+rules of a sailor’s craft as I have known it, man and boy, for nigh upon
+threescore years, to be at sea near about a month after the autumn
+equinox.
+
+  ’Never let your keel be wet,
+  When the Pleiades have set;
+  Never let your keel be dry,
+  When the Crown is in the sky.’
+
+That is what my father used to say, and his fathers before him, for I do
+not know how many generations, for we have always followed the sea.”
+
+“Very well for them, perhaps,” said the Count, “in the days when a man
+would almost as soon go into a lion’s den as venture out of sight of land.
+But the world is too busy to let us waste half our year on shore.”
+
+“Yes, yes, I know all about that,” answered the old man, who was
+privileged to have the last word even with so great a personage as the
+Count; “but there is a proverb, ‘Much haste, little speed,’ and I have
+always found it quite as true by sea as by land.”
+
+Meanwhile the proper signals had been given to the rest of the squadron,
+and the whole four were now heading south, with a point or two to the
+west, the _Panther_—for that was the name of the flagship—still slightly
+leading the way, with her consorts in close company. In this order they
+made about twelve miles, the wind freshening somewhat as they drew further
+away from the British shore, and, being nearly aft, carrying them briskly
+along.
+
+“Fine sailing, fine sailing,” said the old helmsman, drawn almost in spite
+of himself into an exclamation of delight, as the _Panther_, rushing
+through the water with an almost even keel, began to widen the gap between
+herself and her nearest follower. The short waves, which just broke in
+sparkling foam, the brilliant sunshine, almost bringing back summer with
+its noonday heat, and the sea with a blue which recalled, though but
+faintly, the deep tint of his native Mediterranean, combined to gladden
+the old man’s soul. “But we need not put about now,” he said to himself.
+“If this wind holds we shall fetch Lemanis(11) without requiring to tack.”
+
+He was about to give the necessary orders to trim the sails, when he was
+stopped by a shout from the look-out man at the bow, “A sail on the
+starboard side!” Just within the range of a keen sight, in the
+south-western horizon, the sunlight fell on what was evidently a sail. But
+the distance was too great to let even the keenest sight distinguish what
+kind of craft it might be, or which way it was moving. The Count, who had
+gone below for his mid-day meal, was of course informed of the news. He
+came at once upon deck, and lost no time in making up his mind.
+
+“If she is an enemy,” he said to the old helmsman, “she will be eastward
+bound; though I never knew a pirate keep the sea quite so late in the
+year. If she is a friend she will probably be sailing westward, or even
+coming our way—but it does not matter which. If she has anything to tell
+us, we shall be sure to hear it sooner or later. But it will never do to
+let a pirate escape if we can help it. Any one who is out so late as the
+middle of October must have had good reason for stopping, and can hardly
+fail to be worth catching. Quintus, put her right before the wind, and
+clap on every inch of canvas.”
+
+The course of the squadron was now changed to nearly due south-east. All
+eyes, of course, were bent on the strange craft, and before an hour had
+passed it was evident that the Count had been right in his guess. There
+were four ships; they were long and low in the water, of the build which
+was only too well known along the coasts of Gaul and Britain, where no
+river or creek, if it gave as much as three or four feet of water, was
+safe from their attack. In short, they were Saxon pirates, and were now
+moving eastward with all the speed that sails and oars could give them.
+The question that every one on board the _Panther_ was putting to himself
+with intense interest was, “Shall we be able to intercept them?” For the
+present the Count’s ship had the advantage of speed, thanks to the wind
+abaft the beam. But a stern chase would be useless. On equal terms the
+pirates were at least as quick as their pursuers. The light, too, of the
+autumn day would soon fail, and with the light every chance of success
+would be gone.
+
+For a time it seemed as if the escape of the pirate was certain. “Curse
+the scoundrels!” cried the Count, as he paced impatiently up and down the
+after deck. “If it would only come on to blow in real earnest we should
+have them. Anyhow, I would sooner that we should all founder together than
+that they should get off scot free.”
+
+The _Panther_, which had left her consorts about a mile in the rear, was
+now near enough for her crew to see distinctly the outlines of the pirate
+ships, to mark the glitter of the shields that were ranged along the
+gunwales, and to catch the rhythmic rise and fall of the long sweeping
+oars. The Saxons were evidently straining every nerve to make good their
+escape, and it seemed scarcely possible that they could fail. Then came a
+turn of fortune—the very thing, in fact, that the Count had prayed for.
+For a time—only a very few moments—the wind freshened to something like
+the force of a gale. The masts of the _Panther_ were strained to the
+utmost of their strength; they groaned and bent like whips under the
+sudden pressure on the canvas, but the seasoned timber stood the sudden
+call upon it bravely. How the Count blessed himself that he had never
+passed over a piece of bad workmanship or bad material! The good ship took
+a wild plunge forward, but nothing gave way. But the last of the four
+pirates was not so fortunate. She had one tall mast, carrying a
+fore-and-aft sail, so large as to be quite out of proportion to her size.
+The wind struck her nearly sideways, and she heeled over till her keel
+could almost be seen. For a moment it was doubtful whether she would not
+capsize. Then the mast gave. The vessel righted at once, but only to lie
+utterly helpless on the water, with all her starboard oars hopelessly
+entangled with the canvas and rigging. What the Count would have done had
+his ship been entirely in hand it is difficult to say. No speedier or more
+effective way of dealing with the enemy than running her down could have
+been practised. The _Panther_ had three or four times the tonnage of her
+adversary, whose lightness and low bulwarks made her easily accessible to
+this kind of attack. Nor would the pirates have a chance of showing the
+desperate valour which the Roman boarding-parties had learnt to respect
+and almost to fear. The only argument on the other side would have been
+that prisoners and booty would probably be lost. But, as a matter of fact,
+the Count had no opportunity of weighing the _pros_ and _cons_ in the
+matter. The _Panther_, driving as she was straight before the wind, was
+practically unmanageable. She struck the pirate craft with a tremendous
+crash amidships, and cut her almost literally in half. One blow, and one
+only, did the pirates strike at their conquerors. When escape had become
+manifestly impossible by the fall of the mast, the Saxon warriors had
+dropped their oars, and seizing their bows had discharged a volley of
+arrows against the Roman ship. The hurry and confusion of the moment did
+not favour accurate aim, and most of the missiles flew wide of the mark;
+but one seemed to have been destined to fulfil the helmsman’s expectations
+of evil to come. It struck the old man on the left side, inflicting a
+fatal wound. In the first confusion of the shock the incident was not
+noticed, for the brave fellow stuck gallantly to the tiller, propping
+himself up against it while he kept the _Panther_ steadily before the
+wind. In fact, loss of blood had brought him nearly to his end before it
+was even known that he had been wounded. Then, in a moment, the Count was
+at his side.
+
+  [Illustration: The Panther and the Saxon Pirate.]
+
+“Carry him to my own cabin,” he said.
+
+The old man raised his hand in a gesture that seemed to refuse the service
+which half a dozen stout sailors were at once ready to render him. “Nay,”
+said he, “it is idle; this arrow has sped me. But let me die here, where I
+can see the waves and the sky. I have known them, man and boy, threescore
+years—aye, and more, for my father would take me on his ship when I was a
+tiny chap of three feet high. Nay, no cabin for me; ’tis almost as bad as
+dying in one’s bed.”
+
+His voice grew feeble. The Count stopped, and asked whether there was
+anything that he could do for him.
+
+“Nay,” said the old man, “nothing; I have neither chick nor child. ’Tis
+all as well as I could have wished. But mark, my lord, I was right about
+sailing in October. Any one that knows the sea would be sure that trouble
+must come of it.”
+
+The next moment he was past speaking or hearing.
+
+It was his privilege, we must remember, to have the last word.
+
+The _Panther_ meanwhile had been brought to the wind. Her consorts, too,
+had come up, and a search was made for any survivors of the encounter that
+might be still afloat. Some had been killed outright by the concussion;
+others had been so hurt that they could make no effort to save themselves.
+They would not, however, have made it if they could. Those that had
+escaped uninjured evidently preferred drowning to a Roman prison. With
+grim resolution they straightened their arms to their sides and went down.
+Only two survivors were picked up. These, evidently twins from their close
+resemblance to each other, were found clinging to a fragment of timber.
+One had been grievously hurt, the other had not suffered any injury.
+
+The wounded man, who had received an almost fatal blow upon the head, had
+lost the power to move, and was holding on to life more than half
+unconsciously; and his brother, moved by that passionate love so often
+found between twins, had sacrificed himself—that is, the honour which he
+counted dearer than life—to save him. Had he had only himself to think of,
+he would have been the first to go down a free man to the bottom of the
+sea; but his brother was almost helpless, and he could not leave him.
+
+When it was evident that all further search would be useless, the squadron
+set their sails for Lemanis, which, thanks to a further change in the wind
+to the northward, they were able to reach before midnight.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+                         THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND.
+
+
+Count Ælius was a man of the best Roman type, a man of “primitive virtue,”
+as the classical writers would have put it, though this virtue had been
+softened, refined, and purified by civilizing and instructing influences,
+of which the old Roman heroes—the Fabiuses, the Catos, the Scipios—had
+known nothing. In the antiquity of his lineage there was scarcely a man in
+the Empire who could pretend to compare with him. For the most part, the
+old houses from which had come the Consuls and Dictators of the Republic
+had died out. The old nobility had gone, and the new nobility had followed
+it. The great name of Fabius, saved by an accident from extinction, when
+its three hundred gallant sons, each of them “fit to command an army,”
+perished in one day by the craft of the Etruscan foe, had passed away.
+There was no living representative of the conqueror of Carthage, or of the
+conqueror of Corinth. Even the _parvenus_ of the Empire had in their turn
+disappeared. The generals and senators, both of the old Rome and of the
+new,(12) bore names which would have sounded strange and barbarous to
+Cicero or even to Tacitus. An Ælius then, one who claimed to trace his
+descent to a time even earlier than the legendary age, to a race which was
+domiciled in Italy long before even Æneas had brought thither the gods of
+Troy, was an almost singular phenomenon in a generation of new men. And
+nothing less than this was the pedigree claimed by the Ælii. Their
+remotest ancestor—the Count never could hear an allusion to it without a
+smile—was the famous cannibal king who ruled over the Laestrygones, a
+tribe of Western Italy,(13) and from whose jaws the prudent Ulysses so
+narrowly escaped. The pride of ancient descent is not particular as to the
+character of a progenitor, so he be sufficiently remote; and one branch of
+the Ælii had always delighted to recall by their surname their connection
+with this man-eating hero. But the race had not lacked glories of its own
+in historical times. They had had soldiers, statesmen, and men of letters
+among them. One of them had been made immortal by the friendship of
+Horace. Another, an adopted son, it was true, better known by the famous
+name of Sejanus, had nearly made himself master of the throne of the
+Cæsars. About a hundred years later this crowning glory of human ambition
+had fallen to it in the person of Hadrian, third in the list of the “five
+good Emperors”;(14) though indeed there were purists in the matter of
+genealogy who stoutly denied that this great soldier and scholar had any
+of the real Ælian blood in him.
+
+The Count’s father had held civil office at Carthage, and the young Ælius
+had there, for a short time, been a pupil of Aurelius Augustinus, then
+known as an eloquent teacher of rhetoric, afterwards to become the most
+famous doctor of the Western Church. But his bent was not for the
+profession of the law, and his father, though disappointed at his
+preference for a soldier’s career, would not stand in his way. His first
+experience of warfare was gained on a day of terrible disaster. His
+father’s influence had secured him a position which seemed in every way
+desirable. He was attached to the staff of Trajanus, a general of division
+in the army of the Emperor Valens. By great exertions, travelling night
+and day, at the hottest period of the year, the young Ælius contrived to
+report himself to his commander on the eve of the great battle of
+Adrianople. He had borne himself with admirable courage and
+self-possession during that terrible day, more disastrous to the Roman
+arms than even Cannæ itself. He had helped to carry the wounded Emperor to
+a cottage near the field of battle, and had barely escaped with his life,
+cutting his way with desperate resolution through the enemy, when this
+place of refuge was surrounded and burnt by the barbarians. After this
+unfortunate beginning he betook himself for a time to the employments of
+peace, obtaining an office under Government at Milan, where he renewed his
+acquaintance with his old teacher, Augustine. Then another opening, in
+what was still his favourite profession, presented itself. The young
+soldier’s gallant conduct on the disastrous day of Adrianople had not been
+forgotten by some who had witnessed it, and when Stilicho, then the rising
+general of the Empire, was looking about for officers to fill posts upon
+his staff, the name of Ælius was mentioned to him. Under Stilicho he
+served with much distinction, and it was on Stilicho’s recommendation that
+he was appointed to the post which, when our story opens, he had held for
+nearly twenty years.
+
+His position during this period had been one of singular difficulty. The
+tie between the Empire and Britain was very loose. More than once during
+Ælius’ tenure of office it had seemed to be broken altogether. Pretender
+after pretender had risen against the central power, and had declared his
+province independent, and himself an Emperor. The Count of the Saxon Shore
+had contrived to keep himself neutral, so to speak, during these troubles.
+His own office, that of defending the eastern and southern shores of the
+island against the attacks of the Saxon pirates, he had filled with
+remarkable vigilance and skill. And the usurpers had been content to leave
+him undisturbed. His sailors were profoundly attached to him, and any
+attempt to interfere with him would have thrown a considerable weight into
+the opposite scale. And he and his work were necessary. Whether Britain
+was subject to Rome or independent of it, it was equally important that
+its coasts should not be harried by pirates. If Ælius would provide for
+this—and he did provide for it, with an almost unvarying success—he might
+be left alone, and not required to give in his allegiance to the new
+claimant of the throne. This allegiance he never did give in. He was
+always the faithful servant of those who appointed him, and, whoever might
+happen to be the temporary master of Britain, regularly addressed his
+despatches and reports to the central authority in Italy. On the other
+hand, he did not feel himself bound to take direct steps towards asserting
+that authority in the island. He had to keep the pirates in check, and
+that was occupation quite sufficient to keep all his energies employed.
+Thus, as has been said, he observed a kind of neutrality, always loyal to
+the Roman Emperor, but willing to be on friendly terms with the rebel
+generals of Britain as long as they left him alone, let him do his work of
+defending the coast, and did not make any demands upon him which his
+conscience would not allow him to satisfy.
+
+Having thus sketched the career of the Count, we must now say something
+about the house, which now—it was early in the afternoon of the day
+following the events described in the last chapter—was just coming into
+sight.
+
+The villa was the Count’s private property, and had been purchased by him
+immediately on his arrival in the island, for a reason which will be given
+hereafter. It was a handsome house, and complete in its way, with all that
+was necessary for a comfortable residence, but not one of the largest of
+its kind. Indeed, it may be said that what may be called the “living” part
+of it was unusually small for the dwelling of so distinguished a person as
+the Count. It had been found large enough by its previous owners, men of
+moderate means and, it so happened, of small families; and the Count,
+feeling that his occupation of it might be terminated at any time, had not
+cared to add to it. Its situation was remarkably pleasing. Behind it was a
+sheltering range of hills,(15) keeping off the force of the south-westerly
+winds, and then richly covered with wood. It was not too near the sea, the
+Romans not finding that the ceaseless disturbance of rising and falling
+tides was an element of pleasure, though they could not get too close to
+their own tideless Mediterranean; but it was within an easy distance of
+the Haven.(16) The convenience of this neighbourhood had indeed been one
+of the Count’s reasons for selecting this spot. But if the harsh, grating
+sound of the waves upon the shingle did not reach the ears of the dwellers
+in the villa, and the force of the sea winds was somewhat broken for them
+by intervening cliffs, they still enjoyed all the freshness and vitality
+of an air that had come across many a league of water. The climate, too,
+was genial, mild without being too soft, mostly free from damp, though not
+exempt from occasional mist, seldom troubled by frost or snow, and, on the
+whole, not unlike some of the more temperate regions of Italy.
+
+The villa, with its belongings, occupied three sides of a square, or
+rather rectangle, and was built nearly to the points of the compass. The
+eastern side of the square was open, thus giving a prospect seawards. The
+western contained the principal living rooms. The northern, too, was
+partly occupied by bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, for which there was no
+room in the comparatively small portion which had been originally intended
+for the residence of the owner and his family. Some of the workmen
+employed lived in cottages outside the villa enclosure. The southern was
+devoted to storehouses, workshops, and all the miscellaneous buildings
+which made a Roman villa, as far as possible, an establishment complete in
+itself. The open space was occupied by a pretty garden, which will be more
+particularly described hereafter.(17)
+
+The eastward front of the villa was occupied for the greater part of its
+length by a colonnade or corridor. A low wall of about four feet in height
+separated this from the garden; above the wall it was open to the air; but
+an overhanging roof helped greatly to shelter it, while the view into the
+garden was unimpeded. The floor was adorned with a handsome tesselated
+pavement, the principal device of which was a representation of the
+favourite subject of Orpheus attracting beasts and birds by his lyre. The
+proprietor from whom the Count had purchased the villa had brought it from
+Italy. He was a Christian of artistic tastes, and, like his
+fellow-believers, had delighted to trace in the old myth a spiritual
+meaning, the power of the teaching of Christ to subdue to the Divine
+obedience the savage, animal nature of man. He had displaced for it the
+original design, which, indeed, was nothing better than a commonplace
+representation of dancing figures which had satisfied the earlier owners.
+The artist had included among the listeners animals, some of which, as the
+monkey, the Thracian minstrel could hardly have seen, and, with a certain
+touch of humour, he had adorned the monkey’s head with a Phrygian cap,
+like that which Orpheus himself wore, to indicate probably that the monkey
+is the caricature of man. The inner wall was ornamented with a bold design
+of Cæsar’s first landing in Britain, worked in fresco. Seats and tables
+were arranged along it at intervals, and the whole corridor was thus made
+to furnish a pleasant promenade in winter and a charming resort when the
+weather was warm.
+
+At the south end of the corridor was the Count’s own apartment, or study,
+as it would be called in a modern house. One window looked into the
+corridor, into which a door also opened; another, which was built out into
+the shape of a bow, so as to catch as much of the sun as the aspect
+allowed, looked into the garden. Part of it was formed of lattices, which
+admitted of being completely closed when the weather required such
+protection; the rest was glazed with glass, which would have seemed rough
+to the present generation, but was quite as good as most people were
+content to have in their houses fifty years ago. The pavement was
+tesselated, and presented various designs, a Bacchante, and a pair of
+gladiators among them. These, however, were commonly covered with thick
+woollen rugs, the villa being chiefly used as a winter residence. The
+Count had not forgotten his early studies, and some handsome bookcases
+contained his favourite authors, among which were to be found the great
+classic poets of Rome, Tacitus, for whom he had a special regard, some
+writers on the military art, Cato and Columella on agriculture, and, not
+least honoured, though some, at least, of their contents had but little
+interest for him—for, sincere Christian as he was, he cared little for
+controversy—the numerous treatises of his friend and teacher, Augustine.
+Behind this room was a simple furnished bed-chamber, showing in an almost
+bare simplicity the characteristic tastes of a soldier.
+
+At the other end of the corridor was a door leading to the principal
+chamber in this part of the villa. This measured altogether close upon
+forty feet in length, but it was divided, or rather could be divided, into
+two by columns which stood about halfway down its longer sides, and
+between which a curtain could be hung. When the chamber was occupied in
+summer it might be used as a whole; in the winter the smaller part, which
+looked out into the garden, could be shut off from the rest by drawing the
+curtain, and so made a comfortable room, warmed from below by hot air from
+the furnace, which had been constructed at the western end of the northern
+wing of the villa. Much artistic skill had been expended on the pavements
+of the apartment, and the smaller chamber was very richly decorated in
+this way. In the middle was a large head of Medusa, and the rest was
+filled with beautifully-worked scenes illustrating the pleasures of a
+pastoral life. It was the custom of the Count’s family to use the larger
+portion of the whole chamber as a dining-room, the smaller as a ladies’
+boudoir. On the rare occasion of some large entertainment being given, the
+whole was thrown into one.
+
+The ladies of the family, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, had their
+own apartments at the western end of the north wing, part of which was
+shut off for their occupation and for their immediate attendants. A
+covered way connected this with the portion occupied by the Count.
+
+It would be needless to describe the rest of the villa. It was like the
+houses of its kind, houses which the Romans erected wherever they went in
+as close an imitation as they could make of what they were accustomed to
+at home.
+
+The garden, however, must not be wholly passed over. Spacious and handsome
+as it was, it in part presented a stiff and unnatural appearance, looking,
+in fact, somewhat theatrical, as contrasted with the pastoral sunniness of
+the landscape. A Roman gardener had been brought from Rome—one skilled in
+all the arts of his craft. It was he who had terraced the slope with so
+much regularity, had planted stiff box hedges—and, above all, it was his
+taste which led him to cut and train box and laburnum shrubs into
+fantastic imitations of other forms. The poor trees were forced to abandon
+their own natural shapes, and to pose as vases, geometrical figures, and
+animals of various kinds. There was even a ship of box surrounded by a
+broad channel of water, so that the spectator, making large demands on his
+imagination, might imagine that the little mock vessel was moored on a
+still sheet of water. Among the box trees were stone fountains badly
+copied from classic models. But these had not remained in their bare
+crudity. The loving British ivy had crept close around them, and added a
+grace which the sculptor had failed to give. The Roman gardener would have
+liked to banish this intruder, or to at least train it into the positions
+prescribed by horticultural rules, but he had been bidden to let it run at
+its own sweet will; and so it had, and had flourished, well nursed by the
+soft and humid atmosphere.
+
+Scattered at regular intervals through the green were flower-beds stocked
+with plants, which were either native to the island, or had been brought
+hither with great care from the capital. There were roses in several
+varieties, strange-shaped orchids, which had been found growing wild at
+lower levels of the island, and adopted into this civilized garden to
+ornament it with their unique beauty. Gay geraniums and other flowers made
+throughout the summer bright patches of colour in striking contrast to the
+dark green.
+
+These beds were enclosed by borders. Between these enclosures were
+curiously-cut letters of growing box, which perpetuated—at least for the
+life-time of the shrub—the gardener’s own name or that of his master, or
+classic titles, to serve as designations for certain portions of the
+place. In the midst of the garden several luxuriant oaks and graceful elms
+had been allowed to retain in their native freedom the shapes into which
+they had been growing for so many years. They cast wide shadows, and gave
+a softened aspect to the unnatural shapes of the trained growths.
+
+Beyond the floral division of the garden was another enclosure for pear
+and apple trees. They stood on a green sward, soft as velvet, and of a
+deeper hue than Italian suns permit to the grass on which they smile.
+Here, too, were foreign embellishments. The monotony of the uniform rows
+of fruit trees was varied by pyramids of box, and the whole orchard was
+surrounded by a belt of plane trees.
+
+A circle of oaks had been left at the summit of one of the terraces. Thick
+hedges were planted between the trees, making a dense wall, in which
+openings were cut for the view, so that the vista was visible, like a
+picture set in a dark frame. This green room, roofed by the sky, was paved
+with a mosaic of the bright coloured chalk from the cliffs at the western
+end of the island, and contained an oblong basin of water shaped like a
+table. The water flowed through so gently that the surface always seemed
+at rest, and yet never grew warm. Couches were placed at this fountain
+table, and from time to time repasts were served here, certain viands
+being placed in dishes shaped like swans or boats, which floated
+gracefully on the watery surface. The more solid meats were placed on the
+broad marble edges of the basin.
+
+This sylvan retreat seemed made for a meeting of naiads and nereids. In
+short, the spot was so sheltered, the outlook over sea and land both near
+and across the strait so fair, that one could well believe even Pliny’s
+famed Tuscan garden, which may have suggested some features of this
+British one, was not more happily placed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                                  CARNA.
+
+
+When Ælius had come, some eighteen years before the beginning of our
+story, to take up his command on the coast of Britain, he had brought with
+him his young wife. This lady, always delicate in health, had not long
+survived her transplantation to a northern climate. Six months after her
+arrival in Britain she had died in giving birth to a daughter. The child
+was entrusted to the care of a British woman, wife of the sailing master
+of one of the Roman ships, who had reared her together with her own
+daughter. When little Ælia was but a few weeks old her foster-mother had
+become a widow, her husband having met with his death in a desperate
+encounter with one of the Saxon cruisers. This misfortune had been
+followed by another, the loss of her two elder children, who had been
+carried off by a malarious fever. The widow, thus doubly bereaved, had
+thankfully accepted the Count’s offer that she should take the post of
+mother of the maids in his household. Her foster-daughter, a feeble little
+thing, whom she had the greatest difficulty in rearing, was as dear to her
+as was her own child, and the new arrangement ensured that she should not
+be separated from her. For ten years she was as happy as a woman who had
+lost so much could hope to be. She had the pleasure of seeing her delicate
+nursling pass safely through childhood, and grow into a handsome, vigorous
+girl. Then her own call came; and feeling that her earthly work was done,
+she had been glad to meet it. The Count, who was a frequent visitor to her
+deathbed, had no difficulty in promising her that the two children should
+never be separated. Indeed he could not have divided the pair even had he
+wished. Every wish of the ten-year-old Ælia was as a law to him, and Ælia
+would have simply broken her heart to lose her playmate and sister Carna.
+
+The two friends were curiously unlike in person and disposition. Ælia was
+a Roman of the Romans. Her hair was of a shining blue-black hue, and so
+abundant that when unbound it fell almost to her knees. Her black eyes,
+soft and lustrous in repose, and shaded with lashes of the very longest,
+could give an almost formidable flash when anything had roused her to
+anger. Her complexion was a rich brown, relieved by a slight ruddy tinge;
+her features regular, less delicately carved, indeed, than the Greek type,
+but full of expression, which was tender or fiery, according to her mood.
+Her figure was somewhat small, but beautifully formed. If Ælia was
+unmistakably Roman, Carna showed equally clearly one of the finest British
+types. She was tall, overtopping her companion by at least a head; her
+hair, which fell in curls about her shoulders, was of a glossy chestnut;
+her eyes of the very deepest blue; her complexion, half-way between blonde
+and brunette, mantled with a delicate colour, which deepened, when her
+emotions were touched, into an exquisite blush; her forehead was somewhat
+low, but broad, and with a rare promise both of artistic power and of
+intelligence; her nose would have been pronounced by a casual observer to
+be the most faulty feature in her face; and it is true that its outline
+was not perfect. But the same observer, after a brief acquaintance, would
+probably have retracted his censure, and owned that this feature suited
+the rest of her face, and would have been less charming if it had been
+more perfect. Ælia was impulsive and quick of temper, honest and
+affectionate, but not caring to go below the surface of things, and
+without a particle of imagination. Carna, on the other hand, seemed the
+gentlest of women. Those blue eyes of hers were ready to express affection
+and pity; but no one—not even Ælia, who could be exceedingly provoking at
+times—had ever seen a flash of anger in them. But her nature had depths in
+it that none suspected to be there; it was richly endowed with all the
+best gifts of her Celtic race. She had a world of her own with which the
+gay Roman girl, whom she loved so dearly, and with whom she seemed to
+share all her thoughts, had nothing to do. Music touched her soul in a way
+of which Ælia, who could sing very charmingly, and play with no little
+expression on the _cithara_, had no conception. And though she had never
+written, or even composed, a verse, and possibly would never write or
+compose one, she was a poetess. At present all her soul was given to
+religion, religion full of the imagination and enthusiasm which has made
+saints of so many women of her race. The good British priest, to whose
+flock she belonged, a worthy man who eked out his scanty income(18) by
+working a small farm, was perplexed by her enthusiasm. She was not
+satisfied with the duties of adorning the little church where he
+ministered, and its humble altar-cloths and vestments, by the skill of her
+nimble fingers, of aiding the chants with the rich tones of her beautiful
+voice, of ministering to the sick. She performed these, indeed, with
+devotion, but she demanded more, and the good man did not know how to
+satisfy her. In addition to her other gifts Carna had that of being a born
+nurse. It was her first impulse to fly to the help of anything—whether it
+was man, or beast, or bird—that was sick or hurt, just as it was Ælia’s
+impulse, though she mastered it at any strong call of duty, to avoid the
+sight of suffering. She had now heard that a prisoner had been brought in
+desperately wounded, and she could not rest till she knew whether she
+could do anything for the poor creature’s soul or body. Ælia was as
+scornful as her love for her foster-sister allowed her to be.
+
+“My dearest Carna,” she cried, “what on earth can make you trouble
+yourself in this fashion about this miserable creature? They are the worst
+plagues in this world, these Saxons, and it would be a blessing to the
+world if it were well quit of the whole race of them! A set of pagan
+dogs!”
+
+“Oh, sister,” said Carna, her eyes brimming with tears, “that is the worst
+of it. A pagan, who has never heard of the Blessed Lord, and now, they
+say, he is dying! What shall we do for him?”
+
+“But surely,” returned the other, “he is no worse off than his threescore
+companions who went to the bottom the other day.”
+
+“God be good to them,” said Carna, “but then we did not know them, and
+that seems to make a difference. And to think that this poor creature
+should be so near to the way and not find it. But I must go and see him.”
+
+“It will only tear your poor, tender heart for no purpose. You had far
+better come and talk to father.”
+
+Carna was not to be persuaded, but hurried to the chamber to which the
+wounded man had been borne.
+
+It was evident at first sight that the end was not far off. The dying
+Saxon lay stretched on a rude pallet. He was a young man, who could
+scarcely have seen as many as twenty summers, for the down was hardly to
+be seen on his upper lip and chin. His face, which was curiously fair for
+one who had followed from infancy an outdoor life, was deadly pale, a
+pathetic contrast with the red-gold hair which fell in curly profusion
+about it. His eyes, in which the fire was almost quenched, were wide open,
+and fixed with an unchanging gaze upon a figure that stood motionless at
+the foot of the bed. This was his brother, who had been permitted by the
+humanity of the Count to be present. They had been exchanging a few
+sentences, but the dying man was now too far gone to speak, and the two
+could only look their last farewell to each other. It was a pitiful thing
+to see the twins, so like in feature and form, but now so different, the
+one, prisoner as he was, full of life and strength, the other on the very
+threshold of death.
+
+By the side of the wounded man stood the household physician, a
+venerable-looking slave, who had acquired such knowledge of medicine and
+surgery as sufficed for the treatment of the commoner ailments and
+accidents. This case was beyond his skill, or indeed the skill of any man.
+He could do nothing but from time to time put a few drops of cordial
+between the sufferer’s lips. Next to the physician stood the priest, and
+his skill, too, seemed to be at fault. A messenger, sent by Carna, had
+warned him that a dying man required his ministrations, but had added no
+further particulars, and the worthy man, who was busy at the time in
+littering down his cattle, had hastily changed his working dress for his
+priestly habiliments, and had come ready, as he thought, to administer the
+last consolations of the Church to a dying Christian. The case utterly
+perplexed him. He had tried the two languages with which he was familiar,
+and found them useless. No one had been able to understand a single word
+of the dialogue which had passed between the brothers. The dying stranger
+was as hopelessly separated from him and the means of grace that he could
+command as if he had been a thousand miles away. He could not even
+venture—for his theology was of the narrowest type—to commend to the mercy
+of God the passing soul of this unbaptized heathen.
+
+Carna understood the situation at a glance. She saw death in the Saxon’s
+face; she saw the hopeless perplexity in the expression of the priest.
+
+“Father,” she cried, “can you do nothing, nothing at all for this poor
+soul?”
+
+“My daughter,” said the priest, “I am helpless. He knows nothing; he
+understands nothing.”
+
+“Can you not baptize him?”
+
+“Baptize him without a profession of repentance, without a confession of
+faith! Impossible!”
+
+“Will you let him perish before your eyes without an effort to save him?”
+
+“Child,” said the priest, with some impatience in his tone, “I have told
+you that I am helpless. It was not I that brought these things about.”
+
+The girl cast an agonized look about the room, as of one that appealed for
+help, and seized a crucifix that hung upon the wall. She threw herself
+upon her knees by the bedside, and after pressing the symbol of Redemption
+passionately to her lips, held it to the mouth of the dying man. The
+Saxon, on his first entrance into the room, had removed his look from his
+brother and fixed it steadfastly on this beautiful apparition. Clad in
+white from head to foot, with a golden girdle about her waist, her eyes
+shining with excitement, her whole face transfigured by a passion of pity,
+she seemed to him a vision from another world, one of the Walhalla maidens
+of whom his mother had talked to him in days gone by. His lips closed
+feebly on the crucifix which she held to them; a smile lighted up his
+fading eyes, and he muttered with his last breath “Valkyria.” The girl
+heard the word and remembered without understanding it. The next moment he
+was dead, and one of the women standing by stepped forward and closed his
+eyes.
+
+Carna burst into a passion of tears.
+
+“He is gone,” she cried, amidst her sobs, “he is gone, and we could not
+help him.”
+
+The priest was silent. He had no consolation to offer. Indeed, but that he
+recognized the girl’s saintliness—a saintliness to which he, worthy man as
+he was, had no pretensions—he would have thought her grief foolish. But
+the old physician could not keep silence.
+
+“Pardon me, lady,” he said, “if I seem to reprove you. I pray you not to
+suffer your zeal for the salvation of souls to overpower your faith. Do
+you think that the All-Father does not love this poor stranger as well as
+you, nay, better than you can love him? that He cannot care for him as
+well? that you, forsooth, must save him out of His hands? Nay, my
+daughter—pardon an old man for the word—do not so distrust Him.”
+
+“You are right, father, as always,” said the girl. “I have been selfish
+and faithless. I was angry, I suppose, to find myself baffled and
+helpless. You must set me a penance, father,” she added, turning to the
+priest.
+
+The Saxon meanwhile had contrived by his gestures to make his guards
+understand that he wished to take his farewell of his dead brother. They
+allowed him to approach the bed. He stooped and kissed the lips of the
+dead, and then, choking down the sobs which convulsed his breast, turned
+away, seemingly calm and unmoved. But as he passed Carna he contrived to
+catch with his manacled hands one of the flowing sleeves of her white
+robe, and to lift the hem to his lips.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+                                THE SAXON.
+
+
+It was not easy to know what should be done with the survivor of the two
+Saxon captives. The villa had no proper provision for the safe custody of
+prisoners; and the problem of keeping a man under lock and key, without a
+quite disproportionate amount of trouble, was as difficult as it would be
+in the ordinary country house of modern times.
+
+“I shall send him to the camp at the Great Harbour,” said the Count, a few
+days after the scene described in our last chapter. “It is quite
+impossible to keep him unless we chain him hand and foot, or set half a
+dozen men to guard him; and even then he is such a giant that he might
+easily overpower them. At the camp they have got a prison, and stocks
+which would hold him as fast as death.”
+
+Carna’s face clouded over when she heard the Count’s determination, but
+she said nothing. The lively Ælia broke in—
+
+“My dear father, you will break poor Carna’s heart if you do anything of
+the kind. She is bent on making a convert of the noble savage. And anyhow,
+whatever else she may induce him to worship, he seems ready, from what I
+have seen, to worship her. And besides, what harm can he do? He has no
+arms, and he can’t speak a word of any language known here. If he were to
+run away he would either be killed or be starved to death.”
+
+“Well, Carna,” said the Count, with a smile, “what do you say? Will you
+stand surety for this young pagan? Or shall I make him your slave, and
+then, if he runs away, it will be your loss?”
+
+“I hope,” said the girl, “that you won’t send him to the camp, where, I
+fear, they hold the lives of such as he very cheap.”
+
+“Well,” replied the Count, “we will keep him here, at all events for the
+present, and I will give the bailiff orders to give him something to do in
+the safest place that he can think of.”
+
+Accordingly the young Saxon was set to work at the forge attached to the
+villa, and proved himself a willing and serviceable labourer. No more
+suitable choice, indeed, could have been made. That he was a man of some
+rank at home everything about him seemed to show—nothing more than his
+hands, which were delicate, and unusually small in proportion to his
+almost gigantic stature. But the greatest chief among his people would not
+have disdained the hammer and anvil. Was not Thor a mighty smith? And was
+it not almost as much a great warrior’s business to make a good sword as
+to wield it well when it was made? So the young man, whose mighty
+shoulders and muscular arms were regarded with respect and even
+astonishment by his British fellow-workmen, laboured with a will, showing
+himself no mean craftsman in the blacksmith’s art. Sometimes, as he plied
+the hammer, he would chant to himself, in a low voice, what sounded like a
+war-song. Otherwise he remained absolutely silent, not even attempting to
+pick up the few common words which daily intercourse with his companions
+gave him the opportunity of learning. There was an air of dignity about
+him which seemed to forbid any of the little affronts to which a prisoner
+would naturally be exposed; his evidently enormous strength, too, was a
+thing which even the most stupid of his companions respected. Silent,
+self-contained, and impassive, he moved quietly about his daily tasks; it
+was only when he caught a glimpse of Carna that his features were lighted
+up for a moment with a smile.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric at the Forge.]
+
+The idea of opening up any communication with him seemed hopeless, when an
+unexpected, but still quite natural, way out of the difficulty presented
+itself. An old peddler, who was accustomed to supply the inmates of the
+villa with silks and jewellery, and who sometimes had a book in his pack
+for Carna, paid in due course one of his periodical visits. The old man
+was a Gaul by birth, a native of one of the States on the eastern bank of
+the Rhine, and in youth he had been an adventurous trader, extending his
+journeys eastward and northward as far as the shores of the Baltic. The
+risk was great, for the Germans of the interior looked with suspicion on
+the visits of civilized strangers; but, on the other hand, the profits
+were considerable. Amber, in pieces of a size and clearness seldom matched
+on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, and beautiful furs, as of the seal and
+the sea-otter, could be bought at very low prices from these
+unsophisticated tribes, and sold again to the wealthy ladies of
+Lutetia(19) and Lugdunum(20) at a very considerable advantage. In these
+wanderings Antrix—for that was the peddler’s name—had acquired a good
+knowledge of the language—substantially the same, though divided into
+several dialects—spoken by the German tribes; and, indeed, without such
+knowledge his trading adventures would have been neither safe nor
+profitable. As he approached old age Antrix had judged it expedient to
+transfer his business from Gaul to Britain. Gaul he found to be a
+dangerous place for a peaceable trader, having lost more than once all the
+profits of a journey, and, indeed, a good deal more, by one of the
+marauding bands by whom the country was periodically overrun. Britain, or
+at least the southern district of Britain, was certainly safer, and it was
+this that for the last ten years he had been accustomed to traverse, till
+he had become a well-known and welcome visitor at every villa and
+settlement along the coast.
+
+Here then chance, or, as Carna preferred to think, Providence, had
+provided an interpreter; and it so happened that, whether by another piece
+of good fortune, or an additional interposition, his services were made
+permanently useful. The old man had found his journeys becoming in the
+winter too laborious for his strength, and it was not very difficult to
+persuade him to make his home in the villa for two or three months till
+the severity of the season should have passed. Every one was pleased at
+the arrangement. Antrix was an admirable teller of tales, and his had been
+an adventurous life, full of incident, with which he knew how to make the
+winter night less long. The Count saw a rare opportunity, such as had
+never come to him before, of learning something about the hardy
+freebooters whom it was his business to overawe; and Carna had the
+liveliest hopes of making a proselyte, if she could only make herself, and
+the message in which she had so profound a faith, understood.
+
+The young Saxon’s resolution and pride did not long hold out against the
+unexpected delight of being able once more to converse in his own
+language, and he soon began to talk with perfect freedom—for, he had no
+idea of having anything to conceal—about his home and his people. He was
+the son, they learnt from him, of the chief of one of the Saxon
+settlements near the mouth of the Albis.(21) The people lived by hunting
+and fishing, and, more or less, by cultivating the soil. But life was
+hard. The settlements were crowded; game was growing scarce, and had to be
+followed further afield every year; the climate, too, was very uncertain,
+and the crops sometimes failed altogether. In short, they could not live
+without what they were able to pick up in their expeditions to richer
+countries and more temperate climates. On this point the young Saxon was
+perfectly frank. The idea that there was anything of which a warrior could
+possibly be ashamed in taking what he could by the strong hand had
+evidently never crossed his mind. To rob a neighbour or fellow-tribesman
+he counted shameful—so much could be gathered from expressions that he let
+drop; as to others, his simple morality was this—to keep what you had, to
+take what others could not keep. The Count found him curiously well
+informed on what may be called the politics of Europe. He was well aware
+of the decay of the Roman power. Kinsmen and neighbours of his own had
+made their way south to get their share in the spoil of the Empire. Some,
+he had heard, had stopped to take service with the enemy; some had come
+back with marvellous tales of the wealth and luxury which they had seen.
+About Britain itself he had very clear views. The substance of what he
+said to the Count was this: “You won’t stop here very long. My father says
+that you have been weakening your fleet and armies here for years past,
+and that you will soon take them away altogether. Then we shall come and
+take the country. It will hardly be in his time, he says. Perhaps it may
+not be in mine. It is only you that hinder us; it is only you that we are
+afraid of. We shall have the island; we must have it. Our own country is
+too small and too barren to keep us.”
+
+Of his own adventures the young Saxon had little to say. This was the
+first voyage that he and his brother had taken. Their father was in
+failing health, and their mother, who had but one other child, a girl some
+ten years younger, had kept them at home, till she had been unwillingly
+persuaded that they were losing caste by taking no part in the warlike
+excursions of their countrymen. “We had a fairly successful time,” went on
+the young chief, with the absolute unconsciousness of wrong with which a
+hunter might relate his exploits; “took two merchantmen that had good
+cargoes on board, and had a right royal fight with the people of a town on
+the Gallic coast. We killed thirty of them; and only five of our warriors
+went to the Walhalla. Then we turned homeward, but our ship struck on a
+rock near some islands far to the west,(22) and had almost gone to the
+bottom. With great labour we dragged her ashore, and set to work repairing
+her; but our chief smith and carpenter had fallen in the battle, and we
+were a long time in making her fit for sea. This was the reason why we
+were going home so late, and also why we lagged behind our comrades when
+you were chasing us. By rights we were the best crew and had the swiftest
+ship, but she had been clumsily mended, and dragged terribly in the
+water.”
+
+The Count listened to all this with the greatest interest, and plied the
+speaker with questions, all of which he answered with perfect frankness.
+He found out how many warriors the settlement could muster, what were the
+relations with their neighbours, whether there had been any definite plans
+for a common expedition. On the whole, he came to the conclusion that
+though there was no danger of an overpowering migration from this quarter
+such as Western and Southern Europe had suffered from in former times,
+these sea-faring tribes of the East would be an increasing danger to
+Britain as years went on. Personally the prospect did not concern him
+greatly; his fortunes were not bound up with the island. Still he loved
+the place and its people; it troubled him to see what dark days were in
+store for them. And taking a wider view—for he was a man of large
+sympathies—he was grieved to see another black cloud in an horizon already
+so dark. Would anything civilized be left, he thought to himself, when
+every part of Europe has been swept by these hosts of barbarians?
+
+Before long another source of interest was discovered in the young Saxon.
+The Count happened to overhear him chanting to himself, and though he
+could not distinguish the words, he recognized in the rhythm something
+like the camp-songs that he had often listened to from German warriors in
+Stilicho’s camp. Here again the peddler’s services as an interpreter were
+put in requisition, and though the old man’s Latin, which went little
+beyond his practical wants as a trader, fell lamentably short of what was
+wanted, enough was heard to interest the villa family, which had a
+literary turn, very much. What the young man had sung to himself was an
+early Saga, a curious romance(23) of heroes fighting with monsters, as
+unlike as can be conceived to anything to be found in Roman poetry—verse
+in its rudest shape, but still making itself felt as a real poet’s work.
+
+Lastly, Carna, now that she had found a way of communicating her thoughts,
+threw herself with ardour into the work of proselytizing the stranger.
+Here the peddler was more at home in his task as interpreter. Carna used
+the dialect of South Britain, with which he was far more familiar than he
+was with Latin—it differed indeed but little from his native speech. The
+topics too were familiar, for he had been brought up in the Christian
+faith, and though he scarcely understood the girl’s zeal, he was quite
+willing to help her as much as he could.
+
+Carna found her task much more difficult than she had expected. She had
+thought in her simple faith that it would be enough for her to tell to the
+young heathen the story of the Crucified Christ for him to fall down at
+once and worship. He listened with profound attention and respect. This,
+perhaps, he would have accorded to anything that came from her lips; but,
+beyond this, the story itself profoundly interested him. But it must be
+confessed that there was a good deal in it which did not commend itself to
+his warrior’s ideal of what the God whom he could worship should be. He
+was a soldier, and he could scarcely conceive of anything great or good
+that was outside a soldier’s virtues. The gods of his own heaven, Odin and
+Thor and Balder, were great conquerors, armed with armour which no mortal
+blow could pierce, wielders of sword and hammer which were too heavy for
+any mortal arm to wield. He could bow down to them because they were
+greater, immeasurably greater than himself, in the qualities and gifts
+which he most honoured. Now he was called upon to receive a quite
+different set of ideas, to set up a quite different standard of
+excellence. The story of the Gospels touched him. It roused him almost to
+fury when he heard how the good man who had gone about healing the sick
+and feeding the hungry had been put shamefully to death by His own
+countrymen, by those who knew best what He had done. If Carna had bidden
+him avenge the man who had been so ungratefully treated, he would have
+performed her bidding with pleasure. But to worship this Crucified One, to
+depose for Him Odin, Lord of Battles—that seemed impossible.
+
+Still he was impressed, and impressed chiefly by the way in which the
+preacher seemed to translate into her own life the principles of the faith
+which she tried to set forth to him. She had told him that this Crucified
+One had died for him. He could not understand why He should have done so,
+why He should not have led His twelve legions of angels against the
+wicked, swept them off from the face of the earth, and established by
+force of arms a kingdom of justice. Still the idea of so much having been
+given, so much endured for his sake touched him, especially when he saw
+how passionately in earnest was this wonderful creature, this beautiful
+prophetess, as, with the German reverence for women, he was ready to
+regard her, how eager she was to do him good, how little, as he could not
+but feel, she thought of herself in comparison with others.
+
+As long as Carna dwelt on these topics she made good way; when she
+wandered away from them, as naturally she sometimes did, she was not so
+successful. One day it unluckily occurred to her that she would appeal to
+his fears.
+
+“Do not refuse to listen,” she said to him, “for if He is infinitely good
+to those who love Him, He can also be angry with those who love Him not.”
+
+“What will He do with them?” asked the young Saxon.
+
+“He will send them to suffer in everlasting fire.”
+
+“Ah!” answered the youth, “I have heard from our wise men of such a place
+into which Odin drives cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false
+to their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting cold, and this
+indeed seems to me to be worse than fire.”
+
+“Yes,” said Carna, “there is such a place of torment, and it is kept not
+only for the wicked, as you say, but for all who do not believe.”
+
+“Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who do not own Him as their
+Master, and call themselves by His name?”
+
+“Yes—and think how terrible a thing it would be if it should happen to
+you.”
+
+“And that is why you are so anxious to persuade me?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And why you were so troubled about my brother when you could not make him
+understand before he died?”
+
+“Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should pass away when safety was in
+his reach.”
+
+“And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him to that place because he
+did not know Him?”
+
+“I fear that it must be so.”
+
+“Then He shall send me also. For how am I better because I have lived
+longer? No—I will be with my brother, whom I loved, and with my own
+people.”
+
+And neither for that day nor for many days to come would he speak again on
+this subject. Carna was greatly troubled; but she began to think whether
+there might not be something in what the young man had said.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                       A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+Our story must now go back a little, and take up the course of events at
+the camp, where the look of affairs was not promising. The donative
+promised by Constantine on the day of his election had been paid, but this
+had been done only after the greatest exertions in wringing money out of
+unlucky traders, farmers, and even peasants, who had been already squeezed
+almost dry. All that had any coin left were beginning to bury it,(24) and
+though the collectors of taxes, or loans, or gifts, or whatever else the
+frequent requisition of money might be called, had ingenious ways of
+discovering or making their owners give up these hoards, it was quite
+evident that very little more could be got out of Britain. The military
+chest meanwhile was becoming alarmingly empty, and though money was still
+found somehow for the larger camps, some of the less important garrisons
+had been left for months with almost nothing in the way of pay. What was
+to be done was a pressing question, which had to be answered in some way
+within a few days. If it was not so answered, it was tolerably plain that
+Constantine would meet the fate of Marcus and Gratianus. The Emperor
+himself (if we are to give him this title) seemed to be very little
+troubled by the prospect, and remained stolidly calm. His elevation indeed
+had made the least possible difference to him. He drank a better kind of
+wine, and perhaps a little more—for his cups had been limited by his
+means—but he did not run into excess. He was still the same simple,
+contented, good-natured man that he had always been. But his sons were of
+another temper, though curiously differing from each other. Constans the
+elder was an enthusiast, almost a fanatic, a man of strong religious
+feeling, who would have followed the religious life if it had been
+possible, and who now, finding himself possessed of power, had schemes of
+using it to promote his favourite schemes. Julian the younger had
+ambitions of a more commonplace kind. But both the brothers were agreed in
+holding on to the power that had been so strangely put into their father’s
+hands, hands which, as he had very little will of his own, were
+practically theirs.
+
+A council was held at which Constantine, his two sons, and three of the
+officers of highest rank were present, and the urgent question of the day
+was anxiously debated.
+
+Julian began the discussion.
+
+“The army,” he said, “must be employed, or it will find mischief to do at
+home which all of us will be sorry for.”
+
+“I have some one to introduce to your Majesty,” said one of the officers
+present, “who may have something to say which will influence your
+decision. He is from Ierne,(25) and brings me a letter from the commander
+at Uriconium. He came last night.”
+
+“Let him enter,” said Constantine, with his usual dull phlegmatic voice.
+
+The tribune went to the door of the chamber, and despatched a message to
+his quarters. In a few minutes the stranger was introduced into the
+council. He was a man verging upon middle age, somewhat short of stature,
+with a great bush of fiery-red hair, which stood up from his head with a
+very fierce look, a long, shaggy beard of the same colour, eyes of the
+deepest blue, very bright and piercing, but with a wandering and unsteady
+look in them, and a ruddy complexion which deepened to an intense colour
+on his cheek bones and other prominent parts of his face. Around his neck
+he wore a heavy twisted collar of remarkably red gold. Massive rings of
+the same metal adorned his fingers. His dress was of undyed wool, and very
+rudely shaped, a curious contrast to the richness of his ornaments. He was
+followed into the room by an interpreter, a young native of Northern
+Britain, who had been carried off by Irish pirates from one of the
+ecclesiastical schools. He had been taught Latin before his captivity,
+and, while a captive, had made himself acquainted with the Irish language,
+which indeed did not differ very much from that spoken in Britain.(26) His
+task of interpreter was not by any means an easy one to fulfil. The Prince
+broke out into a rapid torrent of complaint, invective, and entreaty,
+which left the young man, who was not very expert in either of the
+languages with which he had to deal, hopelessly behind. Then seeing that
+he was not followed, he turned on his unlucky attendant and dealt him a
+blow upon the ear that sent him staggering across the room. Then he seemed
+to remember himself, and began to tell his story again at a more moderate
+rate of speed, though he still from time to time, when he came to some
+peculiarly exciting part in the tale of his wrongs, broke out into a rapid
+eloquence that baffled all interpretation. The upshot of the story was
+this—
+
+He was, or rather had been, a small king in South-eastern Ireland,(27) the
+eldest of four brothers, having succeeded his father about ten years
+before. There had been a quarrel about the division of some property. The
+Prince was a little obscure in his description of the property; indeed it
+was a matter about which he was shrewd enough to say as little as
+possible. But his hearers had no difficulty in presuming that it consisted
+of spoil carried off from Britain. The quarrel had come to blows. All the
+nation had been divided into parties in the dispute. Finally he had been
+compelled by his ungrateful subjects to fly for his life. Would the
+Emperor bring him back? He was liberal, even extravagant, in his offers.
+He would bring the whole island under his dominion. (As a matter of fact,
+his dominions had never reached more than seventy miles inland, and he had
+contrived to make himself so hated during his ten years’ reign that he had
+scarcely a friend or follower left.) And what an island it was! There
+never was such a place. The sheep were fatter, the cows gave more milk
+than in any other place in the whole world. And there was gold too, gold
+to be had for the picking up; and amber on the shores, and pearls in the
+rivers. In short, it was a treasure-house of wealth, which was waiting for
+the lucky first-comer.
+
+“Are you a Christian?” asked Constans.
+
+The exiled chief would have gladly said that he was, and indeed for a
+moment thought of the audacious fiction that his attachment to the new
+faith had been one of the causes of his expulsion. He was, in fact, a
+savagely bigoted pagan, and had dealt very roughly with one or two
+missionaries who had ventured into his neighbourhood. But he reflected
+that the falsehood would infallibly be detected, and would inevitably do
+him a great deal of harm.
+
+“No!” he exclaimed; “would that I were. But there is nothing that I so
+much desire if only I could attain to that blessing. But I promise to be
+baptized myself, and to have every man, woman, and child within my
+dominions baptized within a month, if you will only bring me back to
+them.”
+
+Even Constans thought this zeal to be a little excessive.
+
+“And how many men can you bring into the field?” asked the more practical
+Julian; “and what money can you find for the pay of the soldiers?”
+
+The stranger was taken aback at these direct questions.
+
+“All my subjects, all my treasures are yours,” he said, after a pause.
+
+“I don’t believe,” said one of the tribunes in Latin to Julian, “that he
+has any subjects besides this wretched interpreter, or any treasure beyond
+what he wears on his neck and his fingers.”
+
+“Shall he withdraw?” said Julian to his father.
+
+Constantine, who never spoke when he could avoid speaking, answered by a
+nod, and the Irish Prince withdrew.
+
+“Let us have nothing to do,” said the practical Julian, “with these Irish
+savages. They may cut their own throats, and welcome, without our helping
+them. The men, too, would rebel at the bare mention of Ierne. It is out of
+the world in their eyes, and I think they are about right. And as to the
+gold and pearls, I don’t believe in them.”
+
+“Perhaps you are right,” said Constans; “but it would be a great work to
+bring over a new nation to the orthodox faith.”
+
+Julian answered with a laugh. “My good brother, we are not all such
+zealous missionaries as you. I am afraid that preaching is not exactly the
+work which our friends the soldiers are looking out for.”
+
+“What does your Majesty say to an expedition to chastise those thieving
+Picts? They grow more insolent every day.”
+
+This was the suggestion of one of the tribunes.
+
+“What is to be got?” was Julian’s answer.
+
+“Glory!” answered the tribune.
+
+“Glory! What is that?—the men want pay and plunder. These bare-legged
+villains haven’t so much as a rag that you can take from them, and they
+have a shrewd way of giving at least as many hard blows as they take.
+No!—we will leave the Picts alone, and only too thankful if they will do
+the same for us!”
+
+“The Count of the Shore has not yet taken the oath to his Majesty,” said
+an officer who had not spoken before. “We might give some employment to
+the men in bringing him to reason.”
+
+Constantine spoke for the first time since the council had begun its
+sitting—“The Count is a good man and does his business well. Leave him
+alone.”
+
+Other suggestions were made and discussed without any sensible approach to
+a conclusion, and the council broke up, but with an understanding that it
+should meet again with as little delay as possible.
+
+On the afternoon of that very day an incident occurred which convinced
+every one—if further conviction was needed—that delay would certainly be
+fatal.
+
+A party of soldiers was practising javelin throwing, and Constantine, who
+had been particularly expert in this exercise in his youth, stood watching
+the game. He had stepped up to examine the mark made by one of the weapons
+on the wooden figure at which the men were throwing, when a javelin passed
+most perilously near his head and buried itself in the wood. It could not
+have been an accident; no one could have been so recklessly careless as to
+throw under the circumstances. Constantine was as imperturbable as usual.
+Without a sign of fear or anger, he said, “Comrades, you mistake; I am not
+made of wood,” and, signing to his attendants, walked quietly away. The
+incident, however, made a great impression upon him, and a still greater
+upon his sons.
+
+  [Illustration: Javelin throwing.]
+
+The consultation was renewed and prolonged far into the night, and, as no
+conclusion was reached, continued on the next day. About noon an
+unexpected adviser appeared upon the scene.
+
+A message was brought into the council-chamber that a merchant from Gaul
+had something of importance to communicate to the Emperor. The man was
+admitted, after having been first searched by way of precaution. His dress
+was sober in cut and colour, and he had a small pack such as the wandering
+dealers in jewellery and similar light articles were accustomed to carry.
+Otherwise he was little like a trader; indeed, it did not need a very
+acute or practised hand to detect in him a soldier’s bearing, and even
+that of one who was accustomed to command.
+
+“You have something to tell us?” said Julian.
+
+“Yes, I have,” said the stranger, “but let me first show you my
+credentials.”
+
+He spoke in passable Latin, but with a decided accent, which, strongly
+marked as it was, was not recognized by any of those present. At the same
+time he produced from a silken purse, which he wore like a girdle round
+his waist, a small square of parchment. It was a letter written in a
+minute but very clear hand, and it had evidently been put for the security
+of the bearer, who could thus more easily dispose of it in case of need,
+into the smallest possible compass. This was handed to Constantine, who,
+in turn, passed it on to his elder son Constans, he being the only one
+present who could read and write with fluency. It ran thus:
+
+
+“_Alaric, the son of Baltha, King of the Goths, Emperor of the World, to
+Marcus, Emperor of Britain and the West, greeting._”
+
+
+A grim smile passed over Constantine’s face as he heard this address. He
+muttered to himself, “‘Marcus,’ indeed! Those who write to the Emperor of
+Britain must have speedy letter-carriers.” The letter proceeded thus:
+
+
+“_I desire friendship and alliance with the nations who are wearied and
+worn out with the oppressions and cruelties of Rome, and for this purpose
+send this present by my __trusty kinsman and counsellor Atualphus, to you
+who are, I understand, asserting against the common tyrant of the world
+the liberty of Britain and the West. I have not thought it fit to trust
+more to writing, but commend to you the bearer hereof, the aforesaid
+Atualphus, who is acquainted with the mind and purpose of myself and of my
+people, and with whom you may conveniently concert such plans as may best
+serve our common welfare. Farewell. Given at my camp at Æmona._”
+
+
+“Marcus is no more,” said Julian. “He was unworthy of his dignity. You are
+in the presence of the most excellent Constantine, Emperor of Britain.”
+
+“It matters not,” said the Goth, with a haughty smile. “My lord the king
+will treat as willingly with one as with another, so he be an enemy of
+Rome!”
+
+“And what does he propose? What would he have us do?”
+
+“Make common cause with him against Honorius and Rome.”
+
+“What shall we gain thereby?”
+
+“Half of the Empire of the World.”
+
+“How shall that be?”
+
+“The King will march into Italy and attack the Emperor in his own land.
+The Emperor will withdraw all the legions that he yet controls for his own
+defence. With them the King will deal. Then comes your opportunity. What
+does it profit you to remain in this island, where nothing is to be won
+either of glory or of riches. Cross over into Gaul and Spain, which,
+wearied with oppression and desiring above all things to throw off the
+Roman yoke, will gladly welcome you. Your Cæsar shall reign on this side
+of the Alps and the Pyrenees. The future may bring other things, but that
+may suffice for the present.”
+
+The plan, so bold, and yet, it would seem, so feasible, and presenting a
+ready escape out of a situation that seemed hopeless, struck every one
+present with a delighted surprise. Even the phlegmatic Constantine was
+roused. “It shall be done,” he said.
+
+Some further conversation followed, which it is not necessary to relate.
+Ways and means were discussed. Questions were asked about the strength and
+temper of the forces in Gaul and Spain, about the feeling of the towns,
+and a hundred other matters, with all of which Atualphus showed a
+curiously intimate knowledge. When the Goth retired from the council, he
+left very little doubt or hesitation behind him.
+
+“They are heretics—these Goths,” grumbled Constans; “obstinate Arians
+every one of them, I told——”
+
+“You shall convert them, my brother,” answered Julian, “when you are
+Bishop of Rome. When we divide the West between us, that shall be your
+portion.”
+
+“It shall be done,” said Constantine again, as he rose from his chair.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE NEWS IN THE CAMP.
+
+
+That afternoon a banquet, which was as handsomely set out as the very
+short notice permitted, was given to all the officers in the camp. When
+the tables were removed,(28) Constantine, who had been carefully primed by
+his sons with what he was to say, addressed his guests. His words were few
+and to the point. “Britain,” he said, “has been long enough ruled by
+others. It is now time that she should begin herself to rule. It was the
+error of those who went before me to be content with the limits of this
+island. But here there is not enough to content us. Beyond the sea,
+separated from us by only a few hours’ journey, lie wealthy provinces
+which wait for our coming. A kindlier sky, more fertile fields, richer and
+fairer cities than ours are there. We have only to show ourselves, in
+short, to be both welcomed and obeyed. Half the victories which we have
+won here to no profit over poverty-stricken barbarians would have sufficed
+to give us riches even beyond our desires. Henceforth let us use our arms
+where they may win something for us beyond empty honour and wounds. Follow
+me, and within a year you shall be masters both of Gaul and Spain.”
+
+The younger guests received this oration with shouts of applause; visions
+of promotion and prize-money, and even of the spoil of some of the wealthy
+cities of the mainland floated before them. The older men did not show
+this enthusiasm. Many of them were attached to Britain by ties that they
+were very loth to break. They had little to hope, but much to fear, from a
+change. Still, they saw the necessity for doing something; another year
+such as that which had just passed would thoroughly demoralize the army of
+Britain. Legions that get into the habit of making emperors and killing
+them for their pastime must be dealt with by vigorous remedies, and the
+easiest and best of these was active service. In any case it would have
+been impolitic to show dissent. Many feigned, therefore, a joy which they
+did not feel, and shouted approval when the Senior Tribune exclaimed,
+“Comrades, drink to our chief, Constantine Augustus, Emperor of Britain
+and the West.”
+
+The revel was kept up late into the night, the young Goth distinguishing
+himself by the marvellous depth of his draughts and the equally marvellous
+strength of his head.
+
+The Emperor retired early from the scene, and Constans, who had little
+liking for these boisterous scenes, followed his example, as did most of
+the older men. One of these, the cheery centurion, who has been mentioned
+more than once, we may follow to his home.
+
+Outside the camp had grown up a village of considerable size, though it
+consisted for the most part of humble dwellings. There were two or three
+taverns, or rather drinking-shops, where the soldiers could carouse on the
+thin, sour wine of the British vineyards, or, if the length of their
+purses permitted, on metheglin, a more potent drink, made from the
+fermentation of honey. A Jew, driven by the restless speculation of his
+race, had established himself in a shop where he sold cheap ornaments to
+the soldiers’ wives, and advanced money to their husbands on the security
+of their pay. A tailor displayed tunics and cloaks, and a shoemaker sold
+boots warranted to resist the cold and wet of the island climate. There
+were a few cottages occupied by the grooms and stablemen who attended to
+the horses employed in the camp, by fishermen who plied their trade in the
+neighbouring waters, and other persons of a variety of miscellaneous
+employments in one way or other connected with the camp. But just outside
+the main street, at the end nearest to the camp, stood a house of somewhat
+greater pretensions. It was indeed a humble imitation of the Roman villa,
+being built round three sides of an irregular square, which was itself
+occupied by a grass plot and a few flower beds. It was to this that the
+Centurion Decius bent his steps after the conversation related in the last
+chapter. It was evidently with the reluctant step of the bearer of bad
+news that he proceeded on his way. As soon as he entered the enclosure his
+approach was observed from within. Two blooming girls, whose ages may have
+been seventeen and fifteen respectively, ran gaily to meet him. A woman
+some twenty-five years older, but still youthful of aspect and handsome,
+followed at a more sober pace.
+
+“What is the matter, father?” cried the elder of the girls, who had been
+quick to perceive that all was not right.
+
+The centurion held up his hand and made a signal for silence. “Hush,” he
+said; “I have something to tell you, but it must not be here. Let us go
+indoors.”
+
+“Shall the children leave us alone?” said the centurion’s wife, who had
+now come up.
+
+“No,” he answered, wearily, “let them be with us while they can,” he added
+in a low voice, which only the wife’s ears, made keenly alive by affection
+and fear, could catch.
+
+The gaiety of the young people was quenched, for, without having any idea
+of what had happened, they could see plainly enough that something was
+disturbing their parents; and it was with fast beating hearts that they
+waited for his explanation.
+
+“Our happy days here are over, my dearest,” said the centurion, drawing
+his wife to him, and tenderly kissing her, as soon as they were within
+doors.
+
+“You mean,” said she, “that the order has come.”
+
+“Yes,” he answered, “we are to leave as soon as the transports can be
+collected. The resolution was made to-day and will be announced to the
+army to-morrow. It is no secret, I suppose, or will not be for long.”
+
+“And where are we to go?” cried the elder of the girls, whose face
+brightened as the thought of seeing a little more of the world, of a home
+in one of the cities of Gaul, possibly in Rome itself, flitted across her
+mind.
+
+The poor centurion changed colour. The girl’s question brought up the
+difficulty which he knew had to be faced, but which he would gladly have
+put off as long as he could.
+
+“We shall go to Gaul, certainly; where I cannot say,” he answered, after a
+long pause, and in a hesitating voice.
+
+“Oh, how delightful!” cried the girl; “exactly the thing that Lucia and I
+have been longing for. And Rome? Surely we shall go to Rome, father? Are
+you not glad to hear it, mother? I am sure that we are all tired of this
+cold, foggy place.”
+
+The mother said nothing. If she did not exactly see the whole of the
+situation, she had at least an housewife’s horror of a move. The poor
+father moved uneasily upon his chair.
+
+“The legion will go,” he said, “but your mother and you——”
+
+“Oh, Lucius,” cried the poor wife, “you do not, cannot mean that we are
+not to go with you!”
+
+“Nothing is settled,” he replied, “it is true; but I am much troubled
+about it. _You_ might go, though I do not like the idea of your following
+the camp; but these dear girls—and yet they cannot be separated from you.”
+
+The unhappy wife saw the truth only too clearly. If the times had been
+quiet, she might herself have possibly accompanied the legion in its march
+southward; but even then she could not have taken her daughters with her,
+her daughters whom she never allowed to go within the precincts of the
+camp, except on the one day, the Emperor’s birthday, when all the
+officers’ families were expected to be present at the ceremony of saluting
+the Imperial likeness. And this had of late been omitted when it was
+difficult to say from day to day what Emperor the troops acknowledged. The
+centurion had spoken only too truly; the legion might go, but they must
+stay behind. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+“Lucia,” cried the elder girl to her sister, “we will enlist; we will take
+the oath; I should make just as good a soldier as many of the Briton lads
+they are filling up the cohorts with now; though you, I must allow, are a
+little too small,” she added, ruefully, as she looked at her sister’s
+plump little figure, too hopelessly feminine ever to admit the possibility
+of a disguise. “Cheer up, mother,” she went on, “we shall find a way out
+of the difficulty somehow.” And she threw her arms round the weeping
+woman, and kissed her repeatedly.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes, broken at last by the timid,
+hesitating voice of the younger girl.
+
+“But must you go, father?” she said. “Surely they don’t keep soldiers in
+the camp for ever. And have you not served long enough? You were in the
+legion, I have heard you say, before even Maria was born.”
+
+“My child,” said the centurion, “it is true that my time is at least on
+the point of being finished. Yet I can’t leave the service just now. Just
+because I am the oldest officer the Legate counts on me, and I can’t
+desert him. It would be almost as bad as asking for one’s discharge on the
+eve of a battle. And besides, though I don’t like troubling your young
+spirits with such matters, I cannot afford it. Were I to resign now I
+should get no pension, or next to none. But in a year or two’s time, when
+things are settled down, I hope to get something worth having—some post,
+perhaps, that would give me a chance of making a home for you.”
+
+A fifth person, who had hitherto taken no part in the conversation, and
+whose presence in the room had been almost forgotten by every one, now
+broke in, with a voice which startled the hearers by its unusual clearness
+and precision. Lena, mother of the centurion’s wife, had nearly completed
+her eightieth year. Commonly, she sat in the chimney corner, unheeding, to
+all appearances, of the life that went on about her, and dozing away the
+day. In her prime, and even down to old age, she had been a woman of
+remarkable activity, ruling her daughter’s household as despotically as in
+former days she had ruled her own. Then a sudden and severe illness had
+prostrated her, and she had seemed to shrink at once into feebleness and
+helplessness of mind and body. Her daughter and granddaughters tended her
+carefully and lovingly; but she seemed scarcely to take any notice of
+them. The only thing that ever seemed to rouse her attention was the sight
+of her son-in-law when he chanced to enter the chamber without disarming.
+The shine of the steel brought a fire again into her dim, sunken eyes. It
+was probably this that had now roused her; and her attention, once
+awakened, had been kept alive by what she heard.
+
+“And at whose bidding are you going?” she said, in a startlingly clear
+voice to come from one so feeble; “this Honorius, as he calls himself, a
+feeble creature who has never drawn a sword in his life! Now, if it had
+been his father! He was a man to obey. He did deserve to be called
+Emperor. I saw him forty years ago—just after you were born, daughter—when
+he came with his father. A splendid young fellow he was; and one who would
+have his own way, too! How he gave those turbulent Greeks at Thessalonica
+their deserts! Fifteen thousand of them!(29) That was an Emperor worth
+having!”
+
+“Oh! mother,” cried her daughter, horrified to see the old woman’s
+ferocity, softened, she had hoped, by age and infirmity, roused again in
+all its old strength. “Oh! mother, don’t say such dreadful things. That
+was an awful crime in Theodosius, and he had to do penance for it in the
+church.”
+
+“Ay,” muttered the old woman, “I can fancy it did not please the priests.
+But why,” she went on, raising her voice again, “why does not Britain have
+an Emperor of her own?”
+
+“So she has, mother,” said the centurion. “You forget our Lord
+Constantine.”
+
+“Our Lord Constantine!” she repeated. “Who is Constantine? Why, I remember
+his mother—a slave girl—whom the Irish pirates carried off from somewhere
+in the North. Constantine’s father bought her, and married her. Why should
+he be Emperor? I could make as good a one any day out of a faggot stick.”
+
+“Peace, dear mother,” said the centurion, soothingly, afraid that her
+words might have other listeners.
+
+“Why not you,” went on the old woman, unheeding; “you are better born.”
+
+“I, Emperor!” cried the centurion. “Speak good words, dearest mother.”
+
+“Well,” said the old woman, dropping her voice again, “they are poor
+creatures now-a-days.” And she relapsed into silence, looking again as
+wholly indifferent to the present as if the strange outburst of rage and
+impatience which her family had just witnessed had never taken place.
+
+The family discussed the position of affairs anxiously till far into the
+night.
+
+“And what will happen,” said the wife, “when the legions are gone?”
+
+“There will be a British kingdom, I suppose; and, if it were united, it
+might stand. But it will not be united. It will be every man for himself.”
+
+“And how about the Saxons and the Picts? If the legions hardly protected
+us from them, how will it be when they are gone?”
+
+The centurion’s look grew gloomier than ever. “I know,” he said, “the
+prospect is a sad one. But I hope that for a year you will be fairly safe;
+and after that I shall hope to send for you. Or you might go over to Gaul.
+But I hope to see the Count of the Shore about these matters. He will give
+me the best advice. Here, of course, you can hardly stay, even if you
+cared to do it; and some place must be found. Meanwhile, make all the
+preparations you can for a move.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+                      THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS.
+
+
+The resolution to leave Britain was announced at a general meeting of the
+soldiers on the following day, and was received by it with tremendous
+enthusiasm. To most who were present, Gaul seemed a land of promise. It
+was from Gaul that almost every article of luxury that they either had or
+wished to have was imported, and some of the necessities of life, as
+notably wine, were known to be both better and cheaper there than in
+Britain. Comfortable quarters in wealthy cities, which were ready to be
+friendly, or could easily be brought to reason if they were not; easy
+campaigns, not against naked Picts, but against civilized enemies who had
+something to lose; and when the time of service was over, a snug little
+farm, with corn land, pasture, and vineyard, and a hard-working native to
+till it—such were the dreams which floated through the soldiers’ minds;
+and they were ready to go anywhere with the man who promised to make them
+into realities. Older and more prudent men who knew that there were two
+sides to the question, and the unadventurous, who were well content to
+stay where they were, could not resist the tide of popular feeling, and
+concealed, if they did not abandon, their doubts and scruples. As money
+was scarce, the men volunteered to forego their pay till it could be
+returned to them with large interest in the shape of prize-money. They
+even gave up to the melting pot the silver ornaments from their arms and
+from the trappings of their horses. The messengers who were sent with the
+tidings of the proposed movement to the other camps—which were now mainly
+to be found in the southern part of the island—found the troops everywhere
+well disposed, and within a few days every military station was alive with
+the stir and bustle of preparations for a move.
+
+One of the most pressing cares of the new leaders of the army was the
+securing the means of transport. There was a great number of merchant
+ships, indeed, which could be pressed into the service, and which would
+perform it very well if only the passage in the Channel could be made
+without meeting opposition. The question to be considered was whether they
+could reckon upon this, or would the fleet, which was still supposed to
+acknowledge the authority of Honorius, prevent them from crossing. The
+chief person to be reckoned with in this matter was, of course, the Count
+of the Shore, and a despatch was immediately sent to him. It was the
+production of Constans, and ran thus—
+
+
+“_Constantine, Emperor of Britain and the West, to Lucius Ælius, Count of
+the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+“_Having been called to Empire by the unanimous voice of the People and
+Army of Britain, and desiring to give deliverance from tyranny and
+protection from violence to other provinces besides this my Island of
+Britain, I purpose to transport such forces as it may be necessary to use
+for this purpose to the land of Gaul. I call upon you therefore, having
+full confidence in your loyalty, to give me such assistance as may be in
+your power, for the accomplishment of this end, and promise you, on the
+other hand, my favour and protection. Farewell._
+
+“_Given at the Camp of the Great Harbour._”
+
+
+The Count received this communication about ten days after his arrival at
+the villa. The writer would scarcely have been pleased at the comments
+which he made as he read it.
+
+“‘Constantine, Emperor.’ How many more Emperors are we to have in this
+unlucky island? ‘Of Britain and the West.’ And I doubt whether he can call
+a foot of ground his own fifty miles from the camp. ‘To deliver other
+provinces from oppression and violence.’ Why not begin by trying his hand
+at home? ‘Full confidence in my loyalty.’ Truly valuable praise from so
+excellent a judge in the matter. ‘Such assistance as may be in my power.’
+Well, I should be glad to see the last of this crew of adventurers and
+villains; but he sha’n’t have my ships.”
+
+The Count’s position indeed was one of singular difficulty. He had thought
+it best—indeed he had found it necessary, if he was to do his own work—to
+keep on friendly terms with the usurpers who had gone before Constantine.
+It had been quite hopeless for him to attempt to coerce the legions. If
+they chose to make Emperors for themselves, he must let them do it, so
+long as they did not interfere with his liberty as a loyal subject. But
+this was a different matter. Crossing over into Gaul meant downright
+hostility to the authorities in Italy. How could he help it forward? And
+yet how could he prevent it? He had three ships available. All the others
+were laid up for the winter in harbours on the eastern and south-eastern
+shores of the island. With these he might do some damage to the legions in
+their passage; but the passage he could not hope to prevent. And if he did
+prevent it, what would be his own future relations with the army? Clearly
+he could not stay in Vectis, or indeed anywhere in Britain, for there was
+no place which he could hope to hold against a small detachment of the
+army. And to go, though it could easily be done, and would save him a vast
+amount of trouble, would be to give up his whole work, and to leave the
+unhappy inhabitants of the coast without protection from the pirates of
+the East. After long and anxious deliberation, which he did not disdain to
+share with his daughter and Carna, he resolved on a middle course, by
+following which he would neither help nor hinder. The first thing was to
+seek an interview with Constantine or his representatives, and a messenger
+was accordingly despatched suggesting a conference to be held on
+shipboard, under a flag of truce, off the mouth of the Great Harbour.
+
+The proposition was accepted, and three days afterwards the conference was
+held, in the way that the Count had suggested. Each party brought a single
+ship, which was anchored for the greater convenience of carrying on the
+conversation, but was perfectly ready to slip its anchor in case of any
+threatening of treachery. The Count’s vessel had the Imperial standard at
+its mast-head; Constantine’s, on the other hand, had no distinguishing
+characteristic. Both he and his two sons were present, but the father was
+as silent as usual, and the chief spokesman was Julian.
+
+The Count was very brief in his greetings, and indicated, as plainly as he
+could without saying it in so many words, that he did not acknowledge the
+pretensions of the usurper.
+
+“My lord,” he said, “you have asked me to help in the transport of your
+army across the Channel. Briefly then I have not the means. I have but
+three ships ready for sea, and not one of these can I spare.”
+
+“The Emperor can command their services,” said Julian.
+
+“I have received no instructions from my master,” returned the Count, “to
+use them except for the protection of the coast.”
+
+“You have them now,” said Julian, “and you will refuse to obey them at
+your peril.”
+
+“My commission is made out by Flavius Honorius Augustus, and I know no
+other to whom I can yield obedience.”
+
+A pause followed this plain speech; the party on board with Constantine
+debated the situation with some heat, Julian maintaining that the Count
+must be brought to reason, the others being anxious to keep on good terms
+with him.
+
+“A single cohort can bring him to order,” cried the young Prince.
+
+“Can drive him out of the villa doubtless,” said the more prudent
+Constans, “but not bring us an inch nearer getting the ships.”
+
+“We may at least count on your friendship,” said Constans, Julian retiring
+sulkily from the negotiations; “you will not hinder the passage.”
+
+“I have nothing to do with the disposition of the legions,” answered the
+Count, “and, as I said before, have no instructions except to defend the
+shore against the Pirates.”
+
+“His Majesty will not be ungrateful,” said Constans.
+
+“I owe no duty but to Honorius, and desire no favour but from him,” was
+the Count’s reply, and the conference was at an end.
+
+The result was as favourable as Constantine could have expected. At least
+no opposition would be offered. Preparations for the passage were
+accordingly hurried on with all possible speed. All the towns along the
+coast were put under requisition for all the shipping that they could
+furnish, and, for the most part, were glad enough to answer the call.
+Whatever might happen in the future, it would be at least something to be
+rid of such troublesome neighbours. If other legions were to come, they
+might be more orderly and well-behaved. If these were to be the last,
+perhaps this would be a change for the better. Every one accordingly
+exerted himself to the utmost to supply the demand for transports.
+
+It was a curious medley of vessels that assembled in the Great Harbour in
+the late autumn for the embarkation of the army. Old ships of war that had
+lain high and dry from before the memory of man were hastily pitched over
+and launched. Merchant vessels of every kind were there, from the huge
+hulks that were accustomed to carry heavy cargoes of metal from Cornwall,
+to the light barks that carried on the trade in wine, olive oil, fruit,
+and such light goods between Armorica and Britain; even the fishing
+vessels from the villages along the coast were pressed into the service,
+and laden to the full, sometimes even to a dangerous depth, with military
+material and all the miscellaneous property with which an army of twenty
+thousand men would be likely to be encumbered. The greater part of this
+force had been collected at the Camp of the Great Harbour, which indeed
+was overflowing, and more than overflowing, with troops. But the garrisons
+that were situated to the eastward, as at Regnum(30) and Anderida,(31)
+were to join the fleet as it sailed, while those from the inland and coast
+stations of South and Eastern Britain were to make the best of their way
+to the Portus Lemanus. This was to be the rendezvous for the whole force,
+and the point for commencing the passage. The longer voyage, direct from
+the Great Harbour to the mouth of the Sequana (the Seine) or the
+projecting peninsula, now known as Manche, was dreaded, for the Channel
+had even a worse reputation in those days than it has now. It was
+arranged, accordingly, that the flotilla should sail along the coast as
+far as the Portus Lemanus, and cross from thence to Bononia.(32) The first
+half of November had passed before the preparations for departure were
+completed, and there were some who advised Constantine to delay his
+passage till the following spring. That he knew to be impossible; it was
+better to run any risk of storm or shipwreck than to face the winter with
+an ill-paid and discontented army.
+
+At early dawn, on the fifteenth of the month, the embarkation began, the
+munitions of war, stores, and other baggage having been already, as far as
+was possible, put on board of the heavier transports. The water-gate of
+the camp was thrown open, and at this Constantine, his sons, and his
+principal officers took their place. The priest who served the church
+within the camp offered a few prayers, and solemnly blessed the eagle of
+the Second Legion, which constituted, as has been said, the main part of
+the forces in the camp. When this ceremony was concluded, Constantine
+addressed the army.
+
+“By this gate in the days of our ancestors Vespasian led forth the Second
+Legion, then, as now, one of the chief ornaments and supports of the
+Empire, to execute the judgment of God on the rebellious nation of the
+Jews, and to receive before long as his reward the Empire of Rome. By this
+gate I lead you forth, worthy successors as you are of those who conquered
+with him, to a service not less honourable, and certain to receive no less
+distinguished a reward. Let my name, which recommended me to your favour,
+and this place, already famous as the starting-point of victorious armies,
+be accepted as omens of success. Comrades, follow me on a march which has
+for its end nothing less than the Capitol of Rome.”
+
+He then took his seat in a boat manned with a picked crew, and, amidst
+shouts of applause from the assembled soldiers and spectators, was rowed
+to the ship, one of the few war galleys of recent construction that were
+to be found in the fleet. Then began the embarkation of the troops.
+
+It was a singular scene. The news had spread with the greatest rapidity
+through the whole countryside, and the native population had crowded to
+witness the departure. Every point from which the sight could be seen was
+occupied by spectators. Even the slopes of Portsdown were thickly dotted
+by them. Nearer the camp the emotion and excitement were intense. A
+regiment that marches out of a town in which it has been in garrison for a
+year or two leaves many sad hearts behind it; even so brief a space is
+long enough for the binding of many ties. But the legions had been almost
+permanent residents in Britain, and they were bound to its people by bonds
+many and close. And this people was not, it must be remembered, the
+self-restrained English race, so chary of sighs and groans, and so much
+ashamed of tears, but a race of excitable Celts, always ready to express
+all, and even more, than they felt. Wives, children, kinsfolk, friends
+were now to be left behind, and probably left for ever—for who could
+believe that the legions, whose departure had been threatened so long,
+could ever come back?
+
+  [Illustration: The Departure of the Legions.]
+
+The embarkation went on. Some of the lighters could be brought close to
+the shore, and were boarded by gangways. To others of heavier burden the
+men had to be carried in boats. A strong guard had been posted to keep the
+place of embarkation clear. But the guard was powerless, or perhaps
+unwilling—for who could deal harshly with women and children so
+situated?—to check the rush of the excited crowd. Some of the women threw
+themselves on their departing husbands and lovers, clasped them round
+their necks, or hung to their knees. Others sat on the shore rocking
+themselves to and fro, or frozen by the extremity of their grief into
+stillness; some uttered shrill cries; others were sunk in a speechless
+despair. Nor were there wanting scenes of a less harrowing kind. Not a few
+of the departing soldiers were breaking other obligations besides those of
+the heart. Creditors were to be seen clinging to debtors whom they saw
+vanishing out of their sight. The Jew trader from the village outside the
+camp seemed to be in despair. Probably he had secured himself fairly well
+against the consequences of an event which he must have been shrewd enough
+to foresee; but to judge from the bitterness and frequency of his appeals
+he was hopelessly ruined. He swore by the patriarchs and prophets that he
+had always carried on his business at a loss, and that if his debts were
+not now settled in full he should be reduced to beggary. The
+tavern-keepers were also busy, running to and fro, getting, or trying to
+get, payment of scores from customers whom they had trusted. There were
+others who had something to sell, some provisions for the voyage, a cloak,
+or a mantle, and offered it as a bargain—not, however, without a margin of
+profit—to dear friends with whom they were not likely to have dealings
+again. Other noisy claimants for attention were young Britons who wanted
+to enlist. For days past these had been flocking into the camp, and now
+that their last chance was about to disappear, they became importunate in
+the extreme. The numbers of the legions could have been almost doubled
+from these candidates for service.
+
+Slowly, as ship after ship received its complement of men, the turmoil on
+the shore lessened, and about sunset the embarkation was completed. The
+weather was beautifully calm, a light wind blowing from the land during
+the day, and even this falling as the light declined. When the moon
+rose—the time of the full had been chosen for the embarkation—the sea was
+almost calm. Then, amidst a great cry of “Farewell,” from the shore, the
+fleet slowly moved down the harbour. All night, making the most of the
+favourable weather, it pursued its way along the coast, being joined as it
+went by other detachments. At the Portus Lemanus it found the fleet which
+carried the garrisons of the eastern stations ready to start, and the
+whole made its way without hindrance across the Channel to Bononia, having
+as prosperous a voyage as had the legions which more than four hundred and
+fifty years before Cæsar had brought to the island.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                              DANGERS AHEAD.
+
+
+The winter that followed the departure of the legions was a busy time with
+the Count. He was now almost the only representative of Roman power in
+Southern Britain, and the villa on the island became a place of
+considerable importance. A military force of some strength was gathered
+there. Constantine’s enterprise was not universally popular, and many had
+taken any chance that offered itself of escaping from it. Some had
+reached, or very nearly reached, the end of their time of service, and
+claimed their discharge; others were known to be loyal to Rome, and were
+allowed to retire. Not a few of those who found themselves without home or
+employment, and did not happen to have friends or kinsfolk in Britain,
+rallied to the Count. The families, too, of some that had gone with the
+legions were glad to claim such shelter and protection as the
+neighbourhood of the villa could give. Among these were the wife and
+daughters of the Centurion Decius; the old mother had steadily refused to
+accompany them, and, with an aged dependent of nearly the same age,
+continued to occupy the house near the deserted camp. It was an anxious
+matter with the Count what was to be done with these helpless people.
+While things were quiet they could live safely, if not very comfortably,
+in the neighbouring village; but if trouble were to come—and there were
+several quarters from which it might come—they would have to be sheltered
+somewhere in the villa. This never could be made into a really strong
+place; but it might serve well enough for a time and against ordinary
+attack. Some of the outbuildings and domestic offices were fortified as
+well as the position admitted; such material of war as could be got was
+accumulated, and provisions also were stored. The most reliable resource,
+however, was in the ships of war. These were not, as was usual, drawn up
+on the beach for the winter, but were kept at anchor, ready for immediate
+use.
+
+Nor were these precautions unnecessary, for indeed, as we shall see,
+mischief of a very formidable kind was brewing, and indeed had been
+brewing ever since the departure of the legions, and even before that
+event. And it was mischief of a kind of which it may safely be affirmed
+that neither the Count nor any Roman official, had any notion. Britain, to
+all appearance, had for many generations been thoroughly subdued. Any
+Roman, if he had been told that there was any danger of rebellion among
+the Britons, would have laughed the suggestion to scorn. The legions,
+indeed, had often been mutinous and turbulent, and their generals
+ambitious and unscrupulous. The island indeed had gained so bad a
+reputation for loyalty to the Empire that it had been called the mother of
+tyrants, by “tyrant” being meant “usurper.” But whenever Rome had been
+defied, she had been defied by her own troops. The Britons had enlisted in
+the rebel armies, but they had never attempted to assert anything like
+British independence. And yet the tradition of independence and liberty
+had always been kept alive. The Celtic race is singularly tenacious of
+such ideas, and also singularly skilful in concealing them from those who
+are its masters for the time, and the Britons were Celts of the purest
+blood. Caradoc(33) and Boadicea, and other heroes and heroines of British
+independence, were household words in many families which were yet
+thoroughly Roman in spirit and manners. Just as the Christianized Jews of
+Spain, though to all appearances devout worshippers at church, still clung
+in secret to the rites of their own worship, so these loyal subjects of
+the Empire, as all the world believed them, cherished in their hearts the
+memory of the free Britain of the past and the hope of a free Britain in
+the future. And the time was now at hand when their leaders thought that
+this hope might be fulfilled.
+
+The Shanklin Chine of to-day is not a little different from the Shanklin
+Chine of fifteen hundred years ago. It has, so to speak, been subdued and
+civilized. Now it is a very pretty and pleasant wood; then it was an
+almost impenetrable thicket, a noted lair of elk and wild boar.
+Inaccessible, however, as it seemed to any one who surveyed it from above,
+there was for those who were in the secret a way of approaching its
+recesses. A little path, the beginning of which it was almost impossible
+to discover without a guide, led up from the sea-end of the ravine to a
+hut which had been constructed about half way up the ascent. It consisted
+of a single chamber, about fourteen feet long, ten broad, and not more
+than seven in height, and was constructed of roughly-hewn logs, the
+interstices of which were filled with clay. The walls, however, were not
+visible, for they were covered with hangings of a dark blue material,
+something like serge. The floor was strewn with rushes. In the centre of
+the apartment there was a hearth, having over it an aperture in the roof,
+not, however, opening directly into the outer air, by which the smoke
+might escape. On this hearth two or three logs were smouldering with a
+dull heat which it would have been easy to fan into flame. There were two
+windows unglazed, but closed with rough wooden lattices.
+
+On three settles, roughly but strongly made of oak, which, with a
+rudely-polished slab of wood that served for table, constituted all the
+furniture of the hut, sat three confederates, and behind each stood a
+stalwart attendant armed with a wicker shield which hung from his neck,
+and a long Gallic sword. The three chiefs were curiously different in
+appearance. One, as far, at least, as dress and manner were concerned,
+might have passed anywhere for a genuine Roman. He was taller, it is true,
+than the Romans commonly were; and his complexion, though dark rather than
+fair, had a ruddier hue than was often seen under the more glowing skin of
+Italy; still he might have walked down the Sacred Way or the Saburra(34)
+unnoticed save as an exceptionally handsome man, of that fair beauty which
+the southern nations especially admire. His hair was carefully curled and
+perfumed; his face as carefully shaven, and showing no trace of beard,
+moustache, or whisker. His toga of brilliant white, his long-sleeved tunic
+of some dark purple stuff, his elegant sandals, were all such as a dandy
+of the Palatine might have worn. The one thing which would have been
+singular in a Roman street was the under-garment reaching to his knees,
+which he had assumed in consideration of the cold and wet of the insular
+climate. His fingers were loaded with rings, one of them a sapphire of
+unusual size, on which was engraved a likeness of the feeble features of
+the Emperor Honorius; on his left wrist might be seen a bracelet of gold.
+
+If Martianus—for that was the name of the personage whom we have been
+describing—might have been easily mistaken for a Roman, the chief who sat
+facing him on the opposite side of the hearth was as manifestly a Briton.
+His hair fell over his shoulders in long natural curls which suggested no
+suspicion of the barber’s or the perfumer’s art. His upper lip was covered
+with a moustache which drooped to his chin. His body was covered with a
+sleeveless coat skilfully made of otters’ skins. Both arms were bare, and
+were plentifully painted with woad. On his legs he wore a garment
+something like the “trews” or short trowsers which the Highland regiments
+sometimes wear in lieu of the kilt; his feet were enveloped in rude boots
+of hide which were laced round his ankles. His ornaments were a massive
+chain of twisted gold, which he wore round his neck, and a single ring,
+rudely wrought of British gold, in which was set a British pearl of
+immense size but indifferent hue. He had a Roman name, as he could on
+occasion wear Roman costume, and speak the Latin tongue. In the present
+company he was known and addressed by his native name of Ambiorix.
+
+  [Illustration: British Conspirators.]
+
+The third conspirator had the appearance of a middle-class provincial. He
+wore the tunic that formed part of a Roman’s ordinary dress, but not the
+toga, which was replaced by a garment somewhat resembling a short cloak.
+But under the garb of a well-to-do townsman was concealed a very
+remarkable career and character. Carausius—for this was the name by which
+he was generally known—was one of the last representatives of the ancient
+Druid priesthood. The glory and power of this remarkable caste, which had
+once held itself superior to the kings of Britain, were departed. Indeed,
+it was almost dangerous to hold the ancient faith, and practise the
+ancient worship. Since the publication of the edict by which Constantine
+had made Christianity the Imperial religion, the adherents of the old
+religion had become fewer and feebler. Some of the chiefs and nobles still
+held it in secret, or were, at least, ready to return to it, if it should
+ever again become powerful; but its adherents were mostly to be found
+among the poorer classes. Even these in the towns were, in name at least,
+mostly Christians; it was only the dwellers in the remoter and wilder
+parts of the country that remained faithful. But these scattered adherents
+revered the name of Carausius, who was believed to possess all the wisdom
+of his class, and was indeed credited with mysterious powers over nature
+and the gift of prophecy. From the Roman population all this was a secret,
+and the secret was remarkably well kept. Carausius was supposed to be
+nothing more than an ordinary farmer. His Roman neighbours would have been
+astonished in the last degree if they could have seen him presiding at one
+of the Druid ceremonies, in his white robes curiously embroidered with
+mystic figures, his chaplet of golden oak-leaves, and the headless spear,
+which was to him what the crozier was to a Christian bishop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+                           THE PRIEST’S DEMAND.
+
+
+“So the time has come at last,” said Ambiorix; “at last the yoke is broken
+from off the neck of Britain. Blessed be the day that saw the legions of
+the oppressor depart!”
+
+“Yes,” replied Martianus, “but will they not return? They have gone
+before; but have they not come back? I take it these Romans get too much
+out of us to let us go willingly.”
+
+“I have no fear of their return. If Honorius can make terms with this
+Constantine and his army, he will never send them back here; he wants them
+too much at home. He has got King Alaric to reckon with, and he has been
+long since drawing every soldier that he can from the provinces into
+Italy. No, depend upon it, at last Britain is free.”
+
+“Free; yes, if it has not forgotten how to move.”
+
+“We haven’t all learnt to play the slave,” said Ambiorix fiercely, as he
+started from his seat. “There are some who have not sold their birthright
+for the delights of the bath and the banquet, and who are too proud to ape
+the manners of their masters.”
+
+“Peace, my son,” interposed the aged priest; “Martianus is not the less
+able to help the cause of our country because he seems to be the friend of
+those who oppress it.”
+
+“These are but the wild words of youth, father,” said Martianus. “By a
+wise man they are forgotten as soon as they are heard. But let us hear
+what Ambiorix has to tell us about the force which we can bring into the
+field.”
+
+The young chief entered into details which it is impossible to reproduce.
+Preparations had been made over nearly the whole of Britain, though the
+more northerly parts, owing to the perpetual attacks of their neighbours
+the Picts, had little to contribute in the way of help. Ambiorix knew how
+many men could be relied upon in every district; he was acquainted with
+the disposition of the representatives of the chief British families; he
+knew what each would want for himself, to whom he would be prepared to
+yield precedence, from whom he would claim precedence for himself. All his
+views and calculations were those of a sanguine temper; but he certainly
+could show—on paper at least, as we should say—a very respectable amount
+of strength. When he had finished his account of the resources of Britain,
+Martianus, who, whatever his faults, had at least a genuine admiration for
+ability, held out his hand—
+
+“This is wonderful!” he said. “You have a true genius for rule. That you
+should keep the threads of so complicated a business all so distinct is
+simply wonderful. You certainly give me hopes that I never had before.”
+
+“I never doubted for a moment,” returned the young man, “but that when
+this Roman incubus was removed all would go well. Besides, who is there to
+attack us? We have no enemies.”
+
+“No enemies!” replied the other, in a tone of surprise. “Do you forget the
+Saxons by sea and the Picts by land.”
+
+“I believe that neither will trouble us. They are not our enemies, but the
+enemies of Rome. They have harassed—they were quite right in harassing—the
+oppressors of the world: they will respect, I am sure, the liberties of a
+free people. When Britain is as independent as they are we shall be
+friends.”
+
+Martianus could not help smiling sarcastically. “That is very fine. One
+would think that you had been a pupil in one of the schools of rhetoric
+which you so much despise. The most famous of our declaimers could not
+have put it better. But I am afraid that there will be some difficulty in
+explaining all this to them.”
+
+“In any case, we can defend ourselves,” returned the young chief, “though
+I do not think that the need will occur.”
+
+“Let us hope not,” said Martianus, but his tone was not confident or
+cheerful.
+
+There were, it may easily be supposed, not a few other subjects for
+discussion, and the conversation lasted for a long time, the young chief
+showing throughout such a mastery of details as greatly impressed his
+companions. When he had finished a brief silence followed. It was broken
+by the priest. There was a special solemnity in his tone, which seemed to
+claim an authority for his utterances, quite different from the position
+that he had taken up while politics or military matters were being
+discussed.
+
+“My children,” he said, “this is a grave matter. The weal or woe of
+Britain for many generations is at stake. If we fail, we may well be
+undone for ever. You cannot enter on so great an enterprise without the
+favour of the gods, and the favour of the gods is not easily to be won.
+For many years they have lacked the sacrifice which they most prize. I
+myself, though I have completed my threescore years and ten, have but once
+only been privileged so to honour them. The time has come for this
+sacrifice to be offered once more. Have I your consent, my children? But
+indeed I need not ask. This is a matter in which I cannot be mistaken, and
+from which I cannot go back.”
+
+The young chief nodded assent, but said nothing. He was evidently
+disturbed.
+
+“What do you mean, father?” he said.
+
+“The sacrifice which the gods most prize,” answered the old man, “is also
+that which is most prized by men. The most perfect offering which we can
+present to them is the most perfect creature they themselves have made.
+Sheep and oxen may suffice for common needs; but at such a time as this,
+when Britain itself is at stake, we must appease the gods with the blood
+of MAN.”
+
+Martianus grew pale. “It is not possible,” he stammered.
+
+“Not only possible, but necessary,” calmly returned the priest. “Our
+fathers were commonly content to offer those who had offended against the
+laws; but in times of special necessity they chose the noblest victims.
+Even our kings have given up their sons and their daughters. So it must be
+now.”
+
+All this was absolutely horrible to Martianus. He did not believe indeed
+in Christianity, but it had influenced him as it had influenced all the
+world. Whether he was at heart much the better may be doubted. But he was
+softer, more refined; he shrank from visible horrors, from open
+cruelty—though he could be cruelly selfish on occasion—and from bloodshed,
+though he would not stretch out a finger to save a neighbour’s life. And
+what the priest said was as new and unexpected to him as it was hideous.
+He had no idea that this savage faith had survived in Britain.
+
+“Father,” he said, “such a thing would ruin us. Such a deed would raise
+the whole country against us. A human sacrifice! It is monstrous!”
+
+“You are right so far,” returned the priest, “the country must not know
+it. Britain is utterly corrupted by this new faith, a superstition fit
+only for women, and children, and slaves; and I don’t doubt but that it
+would lift up its hands in horror at this holy solemnity. But there is no
+need that it should know it. It must be done secretly—so much I concede.”
+
+“And the victim?”
+
+“Well, the days are passed when a Druid could lay his command on Britain’s
+noblest, and be obeyed without a murmur. The victim must be taken by
+force, and secretly.”
+
+“And have you any such victim in your thoughts?”
+
+The priest hesitated for a moment; but it was only for a moment. He
+resumed in a low voice, which it evidently cost him an effort to keep
+steady—
+
+“I have not forgotten the necessity of a choice; indeed for months past it
+has been without ceasing in my mind, and now the choice is made. The
+victim whom the gods should have is a maiden, beautiful and pure. She is
+of noble descent, though her father was compelled, by poverty and the
+oppression of the Roman tyrants, to follow a humble occupation. Thus she
+is worthy to be offered. And yet no true Briton will regret her fate, for
+she has deserted the faith of her ancestors for the base superstition of
+the Cross.”
+
+“And her name, father?” said both of the conspirators together.
+
+Again the priest hesitated; a close observer might even have seen a trace
+of agitation in that stern countenance.
+
+“It is Carna,” he said, after a pause, which raised the suspense of his
+hearers almost to agony. “It is Carna, adopted daughter of Count Ælius.”
+
+And he looked steadfastly at his companions’ faces, as if he would have
+said, “I dare you to challenge my decision.”
+
+The two started simultaneously to their feet. Not long before, young
+Ambiorix, who was then not yet possessed by the fanatical patriotism which
+now mastered him, had admired her beauty and sweetness of manner, and had
+had day-dreams of her as the goddess of his own hearth. Then a stronger
+love had come in the place of the old. It was not of woman, but of Britain
+free among the nations, as she had been before the restless eagles of the
+South had found her, that he thought day and night. Still, he could not
+calmly hear her doomed to a horrible death, and for a moment he was ready
+to rebel against the sentence of the priest.
+
+The older man was terribly agitated. He had been for many years on the
+friendliest footing with the Count, a frequent guest at his table, almost
+an intimate of the house. And Carna was an especial favourite with him.
+Her sweetness, her simplicity, and a pathetic resemblance that she bore to
+a dead daughter of his own, touched him on the best side of his nature.
+
+“Priest,” he thundered, “it shall not be. I would sooner the whole scheme
+came to ruin; I would sooner die. A curse on your hideous worship!”
+
+The priest had now crushed down the risings of human feelings which his
+training had not sufficed to eradicate.
+
+“You have sworn by the gods,” he said, “and you cannot go back. If you do
+not hesitate to betray Britain, at least you will not dare to betray
+yourself. You know the power I can command. Go back from your promise to
+follow my leading, and you are a dead man. You are faithful?” he went on,
+turning to Ambiorix. “You do not draw back?”
+
+The young chief returned a muttered assent.
+
+The older man, meanwhile, was in a miserable condition of indecision and
+terror. Unbeliever as he was, having long since given up the faith of his
+fathers, and never accepted the doctrine of the church but with the
+emptiest formality, he had not put from his breast the superstitious fear
+that commonly lingers when belief is gone. And he knew that the priest’s
+threatened vengeance on himself was no empty boast. The strength of
+Druidism had passed, but it still had fanatics at its command, whose
+daggers would find their way sooner or later to his heart. The cold,
+cynical look with which he had entered on the conference had given place
+to mingled looks of rage, remorse, and fear.
+
+“You must have your own way,” he muttered, sullenly.
+
+“My son,” said the priest, in a tone which he made studiously cautious,
+“what is one life in comparison with the happiness and glory of our
+nation? You, I know, would shrink from no sacrifice, and, believe me,” he
+added in a lower voice, for he had to play off the two rivals against each
+other, “believe me, whatever sacrifice you make shall not miss its
+reward.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                                  LOST.
+
+
+Carna was known all over the neighbourhood of the villa as the best and
+kindest of nurses, always ready to help in cases of sickness, and able to
+command the services of the household physician where her own medical
+skill was at fault. It was therefore with no surprise that the morning
+after the consultation, recorded in the last chapter, she was told that
+her help was wanted in a case of urgent need. The woman who had brought
+the message was a stranger. She was the daughter, she said, of an old
+woman living at Uricum, a small hamlet about four miles from the villa.
+She had happened to come the day before on a visit to her mother, and
+found her very ill; they had no medicines in the house, and indeed should
+not have known how to use them if they had. Would the lady come, and, if
+she thought proper, bring the physician with her? The place mentioned was
+on the limits of the district with which Carna was acquainted. It could
+only be approached by a path through the forest; and the girl had not
+visited it more than two or three times in her life. She had a vague
+remembrance, however, of the patient’s name. On sending for the physician,
+it was found that he was out, having been called away, Carna was told, to
+a case which, he had said before starting, would probably occupy him for
+the greater part of the day. On hearing this, she made up her mind to
+start without waiting for him. The illness was very probably of a simple
+kind, though it might be violent in degree. Very likely it was a case in
+which the nurse would be more wanted than the doctor. She provided herself
+with two or three simple remedies which she learnt to employ in the
+ordinary maladies of the country, of which feverish colds were the most
+common, and started, taking with her as companion and protector a stately
+Milesian dog, or mastiff, who was always delighted to play the part of a
+guard in her country walks. Her own pet dog, a long-haired little
+creature, something of the Spanish kind, whom she had intended to leave at
+home, contrived to free himself from the custody to which he had been
+assigned, and stealthily followed her, cunningly keeping out of sight till
+the party had gone too far for him to be conveniently sent back. He then
+showed himself with extravagant gestures of contrition, was tenderly
+reproached, pardoned, and allowed to go on.
+
+During the walk the messenger was curiously silent, and answered all
+Carna’s questions about her mother and her affairs in the very briefest
+fashion. All that could be got from her was that she lived on the main
+land, about twenty miles inland, in a northerly direction, and that since
+her marriage, now twenty years ago, she had seen very little of her
+mother. When they reached the outskirts of the hamlet she pointed out her
+mother’s house, and, making an excuse that she had an errand for a
+neighbour, disappeared. Carna, seeing nothing but a certain surliness of
+temper, possibly only shyness, in her companion, went on without
+suspicion. She reached the house, and knocked at the door. There was no
+answer. She knocked again. Still all was silence. Looking a little more
+closely at the place she could see no signs of habitation, no smoke, for
+instance, making its way out of the thatch (for chimneys did not yet
+exist, at least, in the poorer dwellings). The next thing was to peep in
+at the window, a wooden lattice, which had been left partially open. The
+room into which she looked was perfectly bare.
+
+A suspicion rushed into her mind that she had been tricked, and that
+danger of some unknown kind was at hand. The strange sympathy which often
+makes the dog so quick to understand the feelings of man, made the big
+mastiff, Malcho, uneasy. With a low growl, showing uneasiness rather than
+fear or anger, he ranged himself at her side.
+
+As she stood considering what was next to be done, a party of six men, one
+of whom led a horse, issued from the wood which bordered the little garden
+of the cottage.
+
+“Can you tell me where I shall find one Utta, who, I am told, is sick, and
+wishful to see me? Can it be that I have mistaken the house?”
+
+“Utta, my lady,” said one of the party, “is not to be found any more. She
+died a week since.”
+
+“But,” said Carna, with rising anger, “a woman, who said that she was her
+daughter, told me, not more than two hours ago, that she was sick, and
+desired to see me. Why have I been brought here for nothing?”
+
+“Pardon me, lady,” returned the first speaker, in a tone in which respect
+and command were curiously blended, “but you have not been brought for
+nothing. You have a better work to do than ministering to a sick old
+woman.”
+
+As he spoke he moved forwards. But he had not taken two steps before the
+great dog, who had been watching the speakers, we might say almost
+listening to their talk with the most eager attention, sprang furiously at
+him, and laid him prostrate on the ground. His companions rushed to rescue
+their leader from the dog and to seize the girl. They did not accomplish
+either of their objects with impunity. The gallant creature turned from
+one assailant to another with a strength and a fury which made him a most
+formidable antagonist, and he had inflicted some frightful wounds before
+he was made senseless by repeated blows from the weapons of the
+assailants. Nor was Carna overpowered without a struggle. Weapons she had
+none, except a little dagger, meant for use in needlework, which hung at
+her side; but she used this not without effect. She clenched her fist, and
+dealt two or three blows, of which her antagonists bore the marks upon
+their faces for days to come. Finally she wrenched herself from the grasp
+of the assailants as a last resource, and endeavoured to fly, but it was a
+hopeless effort. Before she had run more than a few yards she was
+overtaken. Her captors used no more violence than they could help.
+Probably had they been less unwilling to hurt her, she could not have
+resisted so long. Finding her so strong and so determined, they were
+obliged to bind her hands and feet; but they did this with all the
+gentleness compatible with an evident resolve to make her bonds secure. In
+the midst of her terror and distress Carna could not help observing with
+astonishment that the cords which they used were of silk. Then finding
+herself absolutely helpless, she said—
+
+“Do not bind me as though I were a slave. On the faith of a Christian, I
+will not attempt to escape.”
+
+“Lady, we trust you,” said the leader of the party, and at the same time
+directed one of his companions to unbind the ropes. “Be comforted,” he
+went on; “we do not intend you harm; on the contrary, high honour is in
+store for you.”
+
+  [Illustration: The Capture of Carna.]
+
+Carna was scarcely reassured by these mysterious words, but she had now
+recovered her calmness. Summoning up all her courage—and it was far beyond
+even the average of a singularly fearless race—she intimated to her
+captors that she was ready to follow them without further delay. They
+mounted her upon the horse, which, as has been said, one of them was
+holding, and started in a northerly direction. Two of the party had been
+so severely injured by the hound, that they were obliged to stay behind.
+One of the others held the bridle of the horse, and led him forward at an
+ambling pace; the others followed behind.
+
+The way of the party lay entirely along rough forest-paths which seemed
+from their appearance, often grown over as they were with branches and
+creepers, to be but seldom traversed. Night had fallen some hours before
+they reached the northern coast of the island. Their way had lain in a
+north-westerly direction, and they emerged near to the arm of the sea now
+known as Fishbourne Creek. Here they found a rowing boat in waiting.
+
+Carna’s captors now handed over their charge to the boat party, which was
+under the command of the young chief whom we know by the name of Ambiorix.
+He received his prisoner with a dignified civility, made her as
+comfortable as he could with rugs and wraps in the stern of the boat, and
+then gave orders to start. The journey across the channel, which we now
+know as the Solent, occupied some hours, though the night was calm, and
+the ebbing tide mostly in the rowers’ favour, the shortest route not being
+taken, but a north-westerly direction still followed. The morning was just
+beginning to break when the coast was reached near the spot where
+Lymington now stands. The party hurriedly disembarked, put the girl on a
+rough litter which they had with them in the boat, and carried her to a
+dwelling some half-mile inland, and surrounded by the woods which here
+almost touched high-water mark. Carna found a tolerable chamber allotted
+to her, where she was waited upon by an elderly woman who seemed bent on
+doing everything that she could for her comfort. The girl was of the
+elastic temper which soon recovers itself even under the most depressing
+circumstances. She had the wisdom, too, to feel that, if she was to help
+herself, she must keep up her strength to the very best of her power. She
+did not refuse the simple but well-cooked meal which her attendant served
+to her, after she had enjoyed the refreshment of a bath. And then
+overpowered by the fatigue of a journey which had lasted not much less
+than twenty-four hours, she sank into a deep sleep.
+
+It was dark when her attendant gently roused her and told her that in an
+hour she would be required to resume her journey, in which, as Carna heard
+with some pleasure, she was herself to be her companion. A start was made
+about three hours before midnight, and the journey was continued till an
+hour before dawn. This plan was followed till their destination was
+reached. The party was evidently careful to keep its movements secret.
+Their way lay as before, by woodland paths, leading them through the
+district now known as the New Forest. They travelled but slowly, more
+slowly indeed than they had done on the island, for the paths were still
+rougher, and, in fact, almost undistinguishable. Carna, too, was the only
+one of the company that had a horse, and her female attendant, who was
+neither young nor active, could manage but a few miles at a time. It was
+the morning of the second day after they had left the coast before they
+reached the edge of the great forest known as the Natanleah. Some five
+miles to the west lay Sorbiodunum, now Salisbury. This was a Roman town of
+some importance, and had of course to be avoided by the party, who,
+indeed, were anxious, as Carna could gather from a few scattered words
+that were let drop in her presence, as to the way in which the rest of
+their journey was to be accomplished. The country was open, cultivated,
+and comparatively populous, the inhabitants being, for the most part,
+thoroughly Latinized. Two Roman roads, too, had to be crossed before their
+destination was reached.
+
+The day was spent as usual in concealment and repose. An hour after
+nightfall the party started. They had now managed to procure another horse
+for Carna’s attendant; and as the ground was fairly level, unenclosed,
+and, at that time of year, unencumbered by crops, they moved rapidly
+onwards. The moon had now risen, and Carna, for the first time, could at
+least see where they were going. She was still, however, at a loss to know
+what part of the country they had reached. At midnight a halt was called,
+and the leader of the party proceeded to blindfold the captive’s eyes. But
+if he wanted to keep her in ignorance of the locality, he was a little too
+late. The girl’s quick sight had caught a glimpse in the distance of the
+huge circle of earth walls, now known as Amesbury. She had never seen the
+place, but it was known to her in the chronicles of her people. There, as
+she had read with a patriotism which all her Roman surroundings had not
+been able to quench, her countrymen had more than once held at bay the
+legions of Rome. She knew roughly the situation of the famous camp of the
+Belgæ, and she was sure that these massive fortifications, just seen for a
+moment in the moonlight, could be none others than those of which she had
+read so often.
+
+When the bandage was removed, she found herself in a chamber larger and
+more comfortably furnished than any she had hitherto occupied on her
+journey. Part of the palace of one of the old kings of the Belgæ was still
+standing, and the travellers had taken up their quarters in it. The
+Amesbury camp was indeed as safe a place as they could have chosen. It was
+a spot which no Roman, much less a Briton living under Roman protection,
+would care to visit. The whole countryside believed that it was haunted by
+the spirits of the great chiefs and warriors who had been buried within
+its precincts, and of the slaves who had been killed to furnish them with
+service and attendance in the unseen world. The scanty remnant who still
+clung to the Druid faith found their account in encouraging these
+superstitions. More than one appearance had been arranged to terrify
+sceptical or curious persons who had been rash enough to visit the vast
+circle of embankments. For many years before the time of our story the
+enclosure had been untrodden except by the few who were in the secret of
+the Druid initiation. Here, then, the party waited securely with their
+prisoner till the time should come for the solemn visit to _Choir Gawr_,
+the Great Temple, known to us by the name of Stonehenge.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                            WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
+
+
+It was some time before the prolonged absence of Carna caused any alarm at
+the villa. When she was on one of her errands of kindness among the sick,
+it was difficult to say when she would return. But in the course of the
+afternoon the old physician returned, not a little wrath that he had been
+sent on a fool’s errand. He had been told that an old farmer, living close
+to the north-west of the island some seven or eight miles from the villa
+was lying dangerously ill, and he had found the supposed patient in
+vigorous health, and not a little angry at being supposed to be anything
+else. This seemed to make things look somewhat serious. It was easy to
+guess that the trick played upon the physician had something to do with
+the message brought to Carna. It was remembered that the stranger had
+asked that he should accompany the girl; it was at least possible that she
+knew him to be out of the way, and that she would not have made the
+request had she not known it.
+
+While the Count, who had just returned from an inspection of his crews,
+was talking the matter over with his daughter and two of his officers who
+happened to be present, a new cause for suspicion and alarm presented
+itself. Carna’s pet dog had found its way back with a bit of broken cord
+round its neck, and refused to be comforted, tearing and pulling at the
+dresses of the attendant, and saying, as plainly as a dog could say it,
+that there was something wrong, that it must be attended to at once, and
+that he would show them how to do it, if they would only follow him. When
+the rope round his neck was examined more closely, it was found that it
+had been gnawed in two. “He has been tied up and has broken away,” said
+the Count, when this was pointed out to him. “And if I know the dear
+little thing,” broke in Ælia, “he would not have left his mistress as long
+as he could be near her. I am sure that some mischief has happened to
+her.” And this was the general impression, though, who could have ventured
+on so audacious an outrage it was impossible to guess.
+
+What had happened, as the reader may possibly guess, was this. The dog had
+remained with Carna, showing his love, not by fierce resistance like that
+made by his powerful companion, for which he had the sagacity to know he
+had not sufficient strength, but by keeping as close to her as he could.
+After she had been made a prisoner, and while the party were preparing for
+a start, he had been tied to a tree. It had been intended that he should
+go with his mistress, for whom, as has been said, her captors showed
+throughout a certain consideration, but it so happened that in the bustle
+of departure he was forgotten. When he saw her go and found himself left
+behind, he set himself with all his might to gnaw the rope which fastened
+him to the tree. This task took him a long time, for he was an old dog,
+and his teeth were not as good as they had been. Finding himself free he
+started in headlong pursuit, easily tracking the party by the scent, but
+after a while he halted; a happy thought—is it possible that, in the teeth
+of all accumulated evidences, any one can deny that dogs can think?—a
+happy _thought_ then struck his mind, quickened to its utmost capacity of
+intelligence by love and grief. We may translate it into human language
+thus: “If I follow her and overtake her, what good can I do? but if I go
+back and make the people at home understand that something has happened to
+her, then I can help her to some purpose.” This was his conclusion,
+anyhow. How he arrived at it only He knows who makes all things great and
+small, and “divideth to all severally as He will.” He turned back, ran
+with breathless speed to the villa, and did all that could be done, short
+of speaking, to show that his dear mistress was in trouble.
+
+Meanwhile, however, much time had been lost, and the day was already far
+advanced. Anxious as was the Count to set out, he could not but perceive
+that haste might defeat the object of his journey. To start when the light
+was failing would probably be to miss important signs of what had
+happened, and, very possibly, to risk success. All preparations, however,
+were made. The men who were to form the pursuing party were chosen. As it
+may be supposed, there was no lack of volunteers. There was not a single
+being at the villa or its dependencies that would not have given a great
+deal and borne a great deal to see Carna again in safety. But it would be
+possible to take only a small number, if the pursuit was to be rapid and
+effective. Some of the most active of the crews of the war-ships
+accordingly were chosen, sailors having then as now a cheerful activity
+that makes them particularly valuable members of a land expedition. The
+Count added others from his own establishment, and he determined to
+conduct the party himself. It was arranged that it should start the
+following day, as soon as it should be sufficiently light.
+
+One of the slaves who was early astir on the following morning found fixed
+to an outside gate of the villa a document, rudely written and roughly
+folded, which bore the Count’s address. It was found, when opened, to
+contain the following message, expressed in ungrammatical Latin, mingled
+with one or two British words:
+
+
+“_She whom you seek is not far off, and may be recovered by you if you are
+wise. If you attempt to regain her by force, she will be lost to you
+altogether. But if you wish to have her again with you safely and without
+trouble, send one whom you can trust with a hundred gold pieces at
+midnight three days after the receiving of this letter to the place to
+which she was yesterday fetched. Let your messenger go alone, and ask no
+questions then or afterwards._”
+
+
+“So she is held to ransom by a set of brigands,” cried the Count, when he
+had read this document. “I should not have thought that such a thing had
+been possible in Britain. But the times have been getting worse and worse.
+We have long been weakening our hold upon the province, and we had better
+clear out altogether, if we cannot do better than this. But I suppose we
+have no choice. We must not endanger the dear girl’s life. But now the
+question is about the money. I do not think that I have so much in gold in
+the house; but we can borrow somewhere what is wanted.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said the Count’s secretary, whom he had summoned to consult
+with him, “the peddler can help you. He has the reputation of being richer
+than he looks.”
+
+“Well,” replied the Count, “that would be a simple way out of the
+difficulty, if it can be managed. Meanwhile, let me see what I have got of
+my own at hand.”
+
+It was found that eighty gold pieces were forthcoming, and the peddler was
+summoned and asked whether he could make up the balance.
+
+“My Lord,” said the man when he was brought into the Count’s presence and
+had heard the story, “I will make no idle pretence of poverty. I have what
+you want, and it is entirely at your lordship’s service. But will you let
+me see the letter in which this demand for ransom is made?”
+
+The Count handed him the document, and he examined it long and carefully.
+
+“My lord,” he said, “the more I look at this, the more I am confirmed in
+certain suspicions which have been growing up in my mind. I have been
+thinking of this matter, and of other matters which seem to me to be
+connected with it all the night. It will take long to explain, and, of
+course, after all I may be wrong; still, I think you would do well to hear
+what I have got to say.”
+
+The Count, who had previously had reasons for thinking well of the
+peddler’s intelligence, bade him proceed.
+
+“In the first place,” continued the man, “I think this letter is a blind.
+It is made to look like the work of some very rude and ignorant person.
+But the pretence is not well kept up. You will see, if you look at the
+handwriting a little more closely, that it is feigned. The writer was
+perfectly able to make it a great deal better than it is, if he had so
+chosen, and he has sometimes forgotten his part. Some of the letters, some
+even of the words, particularly of the small words, about which he would
+naturally be less careful, are quite well-formed. Now a really bad writer,
+I mean one who writes badly because he does not know how to write well, is
+always bad; every letter he forms is misshapen.”
+
+The Count examined the document and acknowledged that this comment upon it
+was just. And he began to see too what was naturally more apparent to him,
+as an educated man, than it was to the peddler, that the style was hardly
+what would have been expected from an ignorant scribe.
+
+“What, then, is your conclusion?” he asked.
+
+“About that,” returned the other, “I am not so certain. That this is a
+blind, as I said, I am sure; and this talk about the ransom consequently
+is a deception. ‘Three days,’ you see it says. That would be three days
+lost. No, my lord, it is not by robbers that this has been planned.”
+
+“What then?” cried the Count, flushing a fiery red as a sudden thought
+occurred to him. “Carna is very beautiful. Do you think——”
+
+“No,” said the peddler, “I think not. A lover would not lay so elaborate a
+plot as I fancy I can see here. I think the Lady Carna is a hostage, or——”
+
+He paused, and continued after a few minutes of silence. “I have much to
+piece together, and it would take long, and lose much precious time. That
+is the last thing that we should do. They have got too much start already.
+We must not let them improve it more than we can help. You will let me go
+with you, and I shall have leisure to put all I have got to say together
+without hindering you. But the sooner we are on their track the better.”
+
+To this the Count readily agreed, and preparations for immediate departure
+were made. It was with difficulty that Ælia could be persuaded that she
+must be left behind. But when it was pointed out to her that her presence
+must inevitably make the progress of the party more slow, and increase
+their anxieties, she reluctantly gave way. At the last moment an
+unexpected addition was made to the party in the person of the Saxon
+prisoner.
+
+“My lord,” said the peddler, to whom the young man had communicated his
+earnest desire to be allowed to go; “it may seem a strange thing for me to
+say, but you cannot have a better helper in this matter than this young
+fellow. He is as strong as any horse, and as keen and intelligent a youth
+as I ever saw. And in this case too his wits will be doubly sharp, and his
+arm doubly strong, for he worships the very ground that the Lady Carna
+treads upon.”
+
+“Very well,” replied the Count, with a smile, “let him go. After all, it
+is quite as safe to take a lion about with one, as to leave him at home.”
+
+The pet dog was, of course, a valued member of the expedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                               THE PURSUIT.
+
+
+The task of tracing the lost girl was at first easy enough. She and the
+stranger, who, it now seemed, had been sent to entrap her, had been seen
+proceeding in the direction mentioned in the message. The neighbourhood of
+the villa was mostly cultivated ground, and there had been people at work
+in the fields who had noticed the girl’s well-known figure. Beyond this
+belt of cultivated country, which might have been about a mile broad,
+there was only one road which it was possible for her to have taken.
+Following this, and reaching the hamlet at the further end of which, as we
+have seen, the abduction had taken place, they still found themselves on
+the right track. A child had seen two people, one of them, she said, a
+pretty lady, pass by on the morning of the day before. The lady had
+smiled, and said a few words to her in her own language, and had given her
+a sweetmeat. Further on the traces of what they were looking for became
+still more evident. There were marks of struggle on the ground, for Carna,
+as we have seen, had not suffered herself to be taken without resistance;
+a button was found on the ground, which the peddler at once identified as
+one of his own selling. And a little off the path, the tree was found to
+which the dog had been tied, with the fragment of string still attached to
+it. Curiously enough, no traces of the great dog could be found.
+
+Nor did the next step in the pursuit delay them long. There were, it is
+true, three paths through the forest, which closed in the hamlet on every
+side except that by which the party had approached it. Carna’s pet dog at
+once decided for the searchers which of the three they should follow. He
+discovered the scent very quickly, ran at the top of his speed along the
+path thus distinguished from the others for about a hundred yards, and
+then, coming back, implored the party, so to speak, by his gestures, that
+they should come with him. It was evident that the path had been traversed
+by a party of considerable size, whose tracks, the marks of a horse’s
+hoofs among them, were still fresh in the ground, soft as it was with the
+winter rains. The dog was evidently satisfied that they were right, for he
+ran quietly on, now and then giving a very soft little whine. It wanted
+still an hour or so of sunset when the party emerged out of the forest
+upon the shore.
+
+Here it might have seemed at first all trace was lost. The tide had flowed
+and ebbed twice since the girl had been there, and had swept away all
+marks of footsteps. The dog too was no longer a guide. The poor little
+creature’s distress indeed was pitiful, as he ran to and fro upon the
+shore with a plaintive whine.
+
+The Count asked his companions for their opinions.
+
+“Have they taken to the wood again, do you think? or have they crossed the
+water? they may have gone a mile or more along the shore and then entered
+the forest. In that case it seems hopeless to recover the track.”
+
+“It is my opinion,” said the peddler, “that they have crossed to the
+mainland; but it is only an opinion, and I have little or nothing to urge
+for it.”
+
+Other members of the party had different views; and, on the whole, opinion
+was adverse to the peddler’s view; and the Count was about to order a
+search in the direction of the wood further along the shore, when the
+attention of the party was arrested by a shout from the Saxon.
+
+The discussion had been carried on in a language which he had still some
+difficulty in understanding, and he had been pacing backwards and forwards
+along the shore, seemingly lost in thought, but really watching everything
+with that keen attention to all outward objects which is one of the
+characteristics of uncivilized man. It was thus that something caught his
+eye. He plunged his hand into one of the little rock-pools upon the shore,
+and drew it out. It was a small gold trinket, which the girl had dropped
+in the forlorn hope that it might be found. Its weight, for it was an
+almost solid piece of metal, had kept it in the place where it fell, and
+as the night and day had been uniformly calm, there had been no sufficient
+movement of the water to disturb it. With a cry of delight the Saxon held
+it up, and the Count recognized it at once.
+
+“Ah!” said the peddler, “I knew the fellow would be of use to us. If the
+Lady Carna is anywhere on the earth he would find her. This proves, my
+lord, that they have crossed the sea. They would certainly have not come
+down so far from the shore as this.”
+
+This seemed too probable to admit of any doubt. Happily it had occurred to
+the Count that it would be well to have some kind of vessel at his
+command, and he had ordered a pinnace to start from the haven as soon as
+it could be got ready, and to coast along the shore of the island,
+watching for any signal that might be given. The land party had
+outstripped the ship, which, indeed, had not started till somewhat later.
+Still, it might be expected very soon. Meanwhile there was an opportunity
+for discussing the aspect which the affair now bore.
+
+After various opinions had been given, the Count turned to the peddler.
+“And what do you think of the affair?”
+
+“I have a notion,” the man replied, “but it may be only a fancy—still I
+seem to myself to have a notion of what their purpose is.”
+
+“Do you mean,” pursued the Count, as the other paused, and seemed almost
+unwilling to speak, “do you mean that they think of holding her as a kind
+of hostage against me? Do they fancy that I shall not be able to act
+against them, and shall hinder my colleagues from acting, as long as she
+is in their power? or will they keep her as something to make terms about
+if they fail?”
+
+The other was still silent for a few minutes, and seemed to be collecting
+his thoughts. At last he said:
+
+“My lord, what I am going to tell you may seem as foolish as a dream. I
+should have gone on saying nothing about it, as I have said nothing about
+it hitherto, if things had not happened which makes it a crime for me to
+be silent any longer. You find it difficult to believe that a rebellion is
+possible among a nation which you have always looked upon as thoroughly
+subdued. But what will you say if I tell you that this rebellion has been
+preparing for generations, and that the Druids have been, and are, at the
+bottom of it.”
+
+“Druids!” cried the Count, “I did not know that there were any Druids. I
+thought that the last of them had disappeared years ago.”
+
+“Not so,” replied the peddler; “the people who rule do not know what is
+going on about them. Now I have been among this people the greater part of
+my life. I have seen them, not as they show themselves to you, but as they
+are. You think that they are Christians—not very good Christians, perhaps,
+but still not worse than other people—and believing the Creeds, if they
+believe anything. Now I know for a certainty that many of them are no more
+Christians now than their fathers were three hundred and fifty years ago.
+I have seen sometimes, when no one knew that I saw, what they really
+worshipped. I have pieced together many little things. I have heard hints
+dropped unawares, and I know that there is a secret society, which has
+existed ever since the island was conquered, which has for its object the
+bringing back of the old faith. I could name—if things turn out as I
+expect they will, I will name—men whom you believe to be quiet,
+respectable citizens, but who are the heads of a conspiracy reaching all
+over Britain, against Rome and the Christian Church. You never see them
+except in the tunic and the cap, but they can wear on occasion the Druid’s
+robe and crown.”
+
+“But tell me,” said the Count, with a certain impatience, “what has this
+got to do with my daughter?”
+
+“This, my lord,” answered the other, “that if the Druids are making the
+great effort for which they have been preparing for no one knows how many
+years, they will begin it with all the solemnity that is possible—in a
+word, with the great sacrifice. This, I suppose, has not been practised
+for many generations, but it has not been forgotten. To speak plainly, I
+believe that the Lady Carna has been carried off for the victim.”
+
+The Count staggered back as if he had been struck. “Impossible!” he cried.
+“Such things cannot be in Britain: and why should they fix upon her?”
+
+“For two reasons,” said the peddler. “She is of royal race. You very
+likely do not know or care about such things. All Britons to you will be
+much about the same; but they do not forget it. Yes, though her father was
+nothing more than a sailor, she is descended from Cassibelan. And then she
+is a Christian. These are the two reasons why they have chosen her—this is
+what they honour her for, and this is what they hate her for.”
+
+“But where,” cried the Count, “where is this monstrous thing to be done?”
+
+“That,” replied the other, “I think I know. It can hardly be done anywhere
+but at the Great Temple, the Choir Gawr, as they call it themselves.”
+
+“And where is this Great Temple?”
+
+“About forty miles inland, in a nearly northerly direction. I have seen
+the place once, and I can find my way to it, I believe; but, to make sure,
+I will find a guide.”
+
+“And when?”
+
+“At the full moon. I should say.”
+
+“And how much does it want to the full moon now?”
+
+“It will be full moon to-morrow night.”
+
+“We have to cross then to the mainland—and the galley is not in sight—to
+find a guide, and to travel forty miles, and all before to-morrow night.
+Well, it must be done. To think of these wretches murdering my dear
+Carna!”
+
+“Do not fear, my lord; we shall do it,” said the peddler; but added, in a
+low voice, “if nothing happens.”
+
+At that moment the galley came in sight. “That is right,” cried the Count;
+“anyhow, we begin well; no time will be lost in getting across.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+                        THE PURSUIT (_CONTINUED_).
+
+
+The signal previously agreed was promptly hoisted by the party on shore,
+and as promptly observed and obeyed by the crew of the galley which had
+been for some time on the watch for some communication.
+
+“My lord,” said the peddler, when they had embarked, “if I may suggest, we
+should not make a straight passage to the mainland from here, but steer
+for the north-west. Some eight miles beyond the western point of the
+island there is a river flowing into the sea, and a fishing village at the
+mouth. I know the place well, and have one or two good friends there. We
+shall get a guide there; I have in my mind the very man who will suit us
+well in that capacity. Indeed the river(35) itself would be no bad guide.
+The Great Temple lies but a few miles westward from its upper course. The
+road will be easy too along the valley, which is mostly clear of wood.”
+
+“Then,” said the Count, “the Temple cannot be far from Sorbiodunum. Why
+not make for the Great Harbour, and go by the Great Road to Venta(36) and
+from Venta to Sorbiodunum.(37) The travelling would be much easier.”
+
+“I have thought of that,” said the other, “but I think my plan the best.
+The distance is far less, and, what is quite as important, we shall not be
+expected to come that way. Depend upon it there will be an ambuscade laid
+somewhere along the road; for they will feel sure that we shall try and
+come that way.”
+
+It was evident anyhow that as far as the sea voyage was concerned the man
+was right. The tide was ebbing slowly, and an east wind, already high and
+still rising, was blowing. To make way against wind and tide to the Great
+Harbour would be in any case a laborious business; and if the wind
+increased to a gale as it threatened to do, might become impossible. The
+galley had been chosen for swiftness rather than seaworthy qualities in
+rough weather, and might fail in the attempt to work back. On the other
+hand both wind and tide thoroughly favoured a westward voyage.
+
+Indeed she moved gaily on with a strong breeze, that in the phraseology of
+to-day would be called a half-gale, blowing due aft, and scarcely felt the
+heavy sea, seeming to leave the waves behind, as the rowers bent their
+backs to their work. The Saxon had now taken his place on one of the
+thwarts, and his gigantic strength, put it was evident with a will into
+the labour, seemed of itself to drive the galley forwards. In an
+incredibly short time the river mouth was reached, the galley stranded,
+and the guide, who, by great good luck, had just returned from a fishing
+voyage, engaged.
+
+But now an unforeseen obstacle opposed itself. A few specks of rain had
+been felt by the party as they went, and then as the day went on, began to
+change to snow. And now the wind almost suddenly died away, and at the
+same time the fall of snow grew heavier. The face of the guide fell.
+
+“My lord,” he said, “I hear that your business is urgent and cannot wait.
+But I must tell you that the weather looks very bad, and that the
+prospects of our journey are almost as unfavourable as they can be. We
+shall have a very heavy fall of snow, and if the wind gets up again, and
+it begins to drift, we shall be blocked, and possibly unable to get either
+backwards or forwards.”
+
+“We must go,” said the Count, in a determined voice, “though the snow were
+over our heads.”
+
+After a very short interval allowed for refreshment, the party started. At
+first the snow was no very serious obstacle; but after a couple of hours
+incessant and rapid fall, it began to make movement very difficult. The
+progress of the travellers grew slower and slower, and the Count began to
+calculate that at their present rate of speed they could but barely arrive
+in time. It was an immense relief when the sky almost suddenly cleared,
+and showed the moon still evidently somewhat short of the full. But the
+relief was only temporary. The clearer weather was the result of a change
+of wind, which had suddenly veered to a point westward of north and which
+was rapidly increasing in force. And now occurred the thing which the
+peddler’s knowledge of the country and the weather had suggested to
+him—the snow began to drift. At first the party was hardly conscious of
+the change; indeed for a time the way was somewhat clearer and easier than
+before; then as they came to a slight depression, the snow was felt to be
+certainly deeper. Still three or four miles were traversed without any
+particular difficulty. Then the leader of the party suddenly plunged into
+a drift considerably above his knees. This obstacle, however, was
+surmounted, or rather avoided by making a _détour_. But still the wind
+rose higher and higher, and as it rose, not only did its force hinder the
+party’s advance, but the drifts grew now formidably deep. Some of the
+party began to lag behind; the Count himself, who was past his prime,
+began to acknowledge to himself, with an agony of anger and fear in his
+heart, that his strength was failing. Still they struggled on, leaving one
+or two of the strugglers to make the best of their way back, or, it might
+well be, to perish in the snow, till about half the distance was
+traversed. They had now reached a little hamlet,(38) on the outskirts of
+which there happened to be a small villa. It was shut up, the proprietor
+chancing to be absent, but it was put at the disposal of the party by the
+person who was in charge. Fires were hastily lighted, and the travellers,
+most of whom had almost reached the end of their powers of endurance, were
+refreshed with warmth and food.
+
+The Count held a council of war. The situation indeed seemed nothing less
+than desperate. Two out of the party of twenty-five—their numbers had been
+increased by a contingent taken from the crew of the galley—were missing.
+They had fallen out on the march, and it was too probable that they had
+perished in the snow. Of the remainder but four or five seemed fit for any
+further exertion. By far the freshest and most vigorous of them was the
+Saxon. The fatigues of the night had scarcely told on his gigantic
+strength. The Italians, and even the Britons, natives of the southern
+parts of the island, and little accustomed to heavy falls of snow, looked
+at him with astonishment. As for him, he was full of impatience at the
+delay.
+
+The Count was in an agony of doubt and distress. His own strength had
+failed so completely that all his spirit—and there was no braver man in
+the armies of Rome—could not have dragged him a hundred yards further. And
+he saw that many of his followers were in little better case. And yet to
+give up the pursuit! to leave Carna, the sweetest, gentlest of women, dear
+to him as a daughter of his own, to this hideous death! The thought was
+too dreadful.
+
+“When do they perform their horrible rites?” said the Count to the
+peddler.
+
+“When the full moon shines through the great south entrance of the
+Temple,” was the answer.
+
+“And when will that be?”
+
+“To-night, and about an hour before midnight, as far as I can guess.”
+
+“And what must be done? What is your advice?”
+
+“There seems to me only one thing possible. Those who can must press on. I
+count a great deal on the Saxon. His strength and endurance are such as I
+never saw in any man, and they now seem to be increased manyfold. Anything
+that can be done by mortal man, he, you may be sure, will do. Our guide
+too has happily something still left in him; and there are three or four
+others who are equal to going on after they have had a little rest. I
+should say, let them get two or three hours’ sleep, and then push on to
+Sorbiodunum. That is not far from here, and they can easily reach it
+before noon to-day, after allowing a fair time for rest. Perhaps they may
+get some help there, though the place is not what it was. It is some years
+since I paid it a visit, and then I found it in a very declining
+condition, so much so that it was not worth my while to go there again.
+There were not more than two or three Roman traders there, and they made
+but a very poor living out of their business.”
+
+This seemed to be the best course practicable under the circumstances. The
+Saxon, with whom the peddler held a long conversation, was for pressing on
+at once, and would almost have gone alone, but for want of a guide. When
+he understood the state of the case he yielded to what he perceived to be
+a necessity, and throwing himself down on the hearth was almost
+immediately buried in a profound sleep, an example which was soon followed
+by the rest of the party, the Count and the peddler excepted.
+
+Not more than two hours could be allowed for rest. The guide and the three
+sailors who had volunteered to go on were roused with no little
+difficulty; the young Saxon was wide awake in a moment. The party partook
+hastily of a meal of bread, meat, and hot wine and water, which the
+peddler had been busying himself in preparing while they slept, and, after
+stowing away some provisions for the day, started on their journey about
+two hours before noon.
+
+Sorbiodunum was reached without much difficulty. But there a great
+disappointment awaited them. The peddler’s anticipations were more than
+fulfilled, for the town was almost deserted. Only one Roman remained
+there. He was an old man who had married a British wife, and who
+cultivated a farm which had descended to her from her father. When the
+guide handed to him the letter which the Count had addressed to the
+authorities of the town, begging for any help which they could give in
+saving the liberty and life of a person very dear to himself, he shook his
+head. When he heard the whole of the guide’s story, he became still more
+depressed.
+
+“Authorities!” he said, “there are no authorities. I am the only Roman
+left in the place, and I do not know where to look for a single man to
+help you. As for the Great Temple on the plain there is not a creature
+here who would dare to go near it. They think it haunted by spirits and
+demons. And indeed there _are_ strange stories about it. To tell you the
+plain truth, I should not much care to go there myself. No; I see nothing
+to be done. But I will ask my wife. Perhaps her woman’s wit will help us.”
+
+Bidding the party be seated, he left the room in which he had received
+them, and entered the kitchen, where his wife was busy with her domestic
+affairs.
+
+In about half an hour he returned. His expression was now a shade more
+cheerful than before.
+
+“Ah!” he said, “I was right about the woman’s wit. She _has_ thought of
+something. You must know that my wife is a very devout Christian—for
+myself I am a Christian too, but I must own that I don’t see so much in it
+as she does—and that she has brought up our children in that way of
+thinking. Now, our eldest son is a priest in a village some seven miles
+hence, and his people are devoted to him. If there is any one in this
+neighbourhood who can give you the help you want it is he. He has only got
+to say the word and his people will follow him to the end of the world.
+Here is a proof of it. Four years ago a strong party of Picts came this
+way, ravaging and plundering wherever they went. There were not more than
+fifty of them, but the people were as terrified as if they were so many
+demons. If you think this place a desert now, what would you have thought
+it then? There was not a single person left in it—at least a single person
+that could help himself—for the cowards had the meanness to leave some of
+the old and the sick behind them. But my son was not going to let the
+robbers have it all their own way—you know he has something of the Roman
+in him—and he went about talking to his people in such a way, that they
+plucked up spirit, and fell on the Picts one night when they were
+expecting nothing less than an attack, and gave such an account of them,
+that the country has not been troubled since with the like of them. Well,
+as I say, he is the man to help you. I have my younger son here working
+with me on the farm; he is just such another as his elder brother, and
+would have been a priest too if he had not felt it to be his duty to stay
+and help me. I will bring him in, and he shall hear the whole story and
+carry it to his brother. That is the best hope that I can give you, and I
+really think that it is worth something. What I can do for you does not go
+beyond hospitality, but to that you are heartily welcome. You have some
+hours before you. If you start an hour after sunset you will be in ample
+time. And, in fact, you had better not start before, because the less that
+is seen of your movements the better. I don’t know that any of the people
+about here are infected with the Druid superstition, though I have had one
+or two hints to that effect, hints which what you have just told me helps
+to explain. But, in any case, the more secret you are the better. Besides,
+my son’s Party cannot reach the Great Temple till long after dark.
+Meanwhile take some rest and refreshment, for, believe me, you have
+something before you.”
+
+This advice was so obviously right, that the guide, who was in command of
+the party, had no hesitation in accepting it.
+
+About six o’clock another start was made. At first, though the weather
+looked threatening, no serious obstacle presented itself. The snow was
+somewhat deep on the ground, but there were no serious drifts on their
+way, a way which, indeed, for some distance from the town lay under the
+leeward side of a wood. But they had not gone more than a mile and a half
+when a disastrous change in their circumstances occurred. The wind rose
+almost suddenly to the height of a gale, and brought with it a fall of
+snow, separated by the rapid movement of the air into a very fine powder,
+and working its way through the clothing of the traveller with a
+penetrating power which nothing could resist. Still, benumbed as they
+were, almost blinded by the icy particles which were whirled with all the
+force of the tempest against their faces, they struggled on for more than
+half the distance which lay between them and their destination. Then the
+three sailors cried out simultaneously that they must halt, and the guide
+unwillingly owned that he must follow their example. Only the Saxon was
+left to go on, and he, with a gesture which it was impossible to mistake,
+declared his intention of persevering. Just at that moment the clouds
+parted in the east, and the full moon showed the landscape with a singular
+clearness, its most conspicuous feature being the gigantic stones of the
+Great Temple, which could be seen about two miles to the northward. The
+guide pointed to them, and the Saxon, when they caught his eye, leapt
+forward with an energy which nothing seemed to have abated, and, with a
+gesture of farewell to his companions, plunged into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                            THE GREAT TEMPLE.
+
+
+The Great Temple, or Stonehenge as it is now called, though its decay had
+already commenced, still preserved the form which we have now some
+difficulty in tracing. There was an outer circle consisting of thirty huge
+triliths,(39) the greater part of which were still standing in the
+position in which the unsparing labour of a long past generation had
+placed them. Within this there was a circle of forty single stones, this
+circle again containing two ovals. One of these ovals was composed of five
+triliths, even larger than those which stood in the outer circle; the
+other was made of nineteen upright stones. At the upper end of this stood
+the altar, a low, flat structure of blue marble.
+
+All the preparations for the sacrifice were complete when Cedric—for we
+may as well henceforth call the Saxon by the name which he bore among his
+countrymen—reached the spot. Carna was being led by two of the subordinate
+priests to the altar, where Caradoc stood, robed for the rite which he was
+about to perform. The sky had now again cleared, and the moon, riding high
+in the heavens, poured a flood of silver light through the south entrance,
+and fell on the priest’s impassive face as he stood fronting the light,
+while it glittered on his crown of gold and gave a dazzling brilliancy to
+his white robe. In his hand he held a knife of flint, with which it was
+the custom to give the first blow to the victim, though innovation had so
+far prevailed even in the Druid worship that the sacrifice was completed
+with a weapon of steel. But this latter lay at his feet, and was concealed
+by the fall of his robe. It was not, indeed, supposed to be used. The
+attendants, who were also dressed in white, were rough and brutal
+creatures, selected for their office because they could be trusted to
+carry out any orders without remonstrance or hesitation. Yet even they
+seemed touched by the girl’s dignity and courage, as she walked with head
+erect and unfaltering gait between them. Had she hesitated, or hung back,
+or struggled, doubtless they would not have hesitated to drag her to the
+altar; but walking as she did with a proud resignation to her fate, they
+showed her a rude respect by letting their hands rest as lightly as
+possible, so as to give no sense of constraint, upon her arms. On either
+side of the priest stood Martianus and Ambiorix. The younger man had
+braced himself to what, fanatical patriot as he was, was evidently a
+hateful task. He looked steadfastly and unflinchingly at the scene; but
+his face was deadly pale, and the blood trickled down his chin as he bit
+his lip in the unconscious effort to maintain a stern composure. Martianus
+was overwhelmed with shame and horror. If there was one softer heart among
+the “stern, black-bearded kings” who of old in Aulis watched the daughter
+of Agamemnon die, he must have looked and felt as Martianus did in the
+Great Temple that night. Cursing again and again in his heart the ambition
+which had led him to mix himself up with this fanatical crew, but too much
+a craven at heart to protest, he stood trembling with agitation, mostly
+keeping his eyes shut or fixed upon the earth, but sometimes compelled by
+a fascination which he could not resist to lift them, and take in the
+horror of the scene. Each of the chiefs had an armed attendant standing
+behind him. Besides these there were no spectators of the scene, though
+guards were disposed at each of the entrances which led to the central
+shrine. Even these had been kept in ignorance of what was to be done, and
+they were too deeply imbued with the traditional awe felt for the Great
+Temple to think of playing the spy.
+
+  [Illustration: The Sacrifice.]
+
+The priest, after observing the position of the moon, and seeing that the
+shadows fell now almost straight towards the north, began the invocation
+which was the preliminary of the sacrifice. It was for this that the Saxon
+was waiting, as he stood in the shadow of one of the huge triliths. He
+crept silently out of his concealment, entirely unobserved, so intent were
+all present on the scene that was being enacted. His first object was the
+priest. This had been laid down for him in the instructions given him by
+the peddler before he started; and indeed his own instinct would have
+dictated the act. The priest put out of the way, the sacrifice would, for
+the time at least, be stopped; for so high a solemnity could not be
+performed but by one of the very highest rank. Time would thus be gained,
+and with time anything might happen. One firm thrust between the shoulders
+sent the Saxon’s sword right through the priest’s body, so that the point
+stood out an inch or two from the priest. Without a cry the man fell
+forward, deluging with his blood the stone of sacrifice. The ministrants
+who stood on either side of Carna were paralysed with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could recover themselves Cedric had dragged his weapon
+out of the priest’s body, sheathed it, and thrown himself on them. Two
+blows, delivered almost simultaneously by fists that had almost the force
+of sledge hammers, levelled them both senseless to the ground. He then
+caught the girl up in his arms. A full-grown woman—and Carna had a stature
+beyond the average of her sex—is no light burden, but Cedric’s strength
+was, as has been said before, exceptionally great, and now it seemed
+doubled by the fierce excitement of the hour. To escape with her by
+running was, he knew, impossible. For such a task no fleetness of foot, no
+strength, would be sufficient. To attempt would be to expose himself to
+certain death, and Carna to as certain re-capture. But his quick eye had
+caught sight of a place where he might hold out, at least for a time,
+against a much superior strength of assailants. One of the triliths had
+partially fallen, the huge cross-stone having been so displaced that it
+formed an angle with one of its supports, and so afforded a protection to
+the back and sides of a fighter who managed to ensconce himself in the
+niche, and who would so have only his front to protect. Setting Carna
+behind him, and making her understand by a movement of the hand that she
+must crouch as low as she could upon the ground, he prepared to hold his
+position. The odds against him were not so heavy as might have been
+supposed. The two ministrants were unarmed. Of the four left, the two
+chiefs and their attendants, one was a middle-aged man, who had never been
+expert in arms; and who, whatever his skill and strength, would scarcely
+have cared to use them in such a conflict. Ambiorix, indeed, was of
+another temper. The gloomy, fanatical doggedness with which he had looked
+on at the preparations for the sacrifice gave way to a fierce delight when
+he saw an enemy before him with whom he could cross swords. In his inmost
+soul he had hated the thought of the sacrifice; but yet the man who had
+hindered it, and with it the weal of Britain, was a foe whom it would be
+pleasure to smite to the ground. But fierce as was his temper, it was full
+of chivalry. He would not dishonour himself by bringing odds against an
+enemy. Signing to the armed attendants to stand back, he advanced to
+challenge Cedric. The Saxon, in height and strength, was more than a match
+for his antagonist. But he was hampered by his position, especially by the
+presence of the girl. The weapon, too, with which he was armed—a short
+Roman sword—was strange to him. He thought with regret of his own good
+steel, an heirloom come down to him from warriors of the past, and
+inscribed with magic Runic rhymes, that was then lying at the bottom of
+the Channel. The change, however, was not really so much to his
+disadvantage as he thought. The stones behind him would have hindered the
+long sweeping blow which made the great Saxon swords especially
+formidable. Altogether it might have seemed as if Cedric must inevitably
+be worsted in the struggle. The British chief, though he hated the customs
+and even the civilization of the Roman conquerors, had not disdained to
+learn what they could teach him in the use of arms. They were acknowledged
+masters in that, and he accepted the maxim that it was right to be
+instructed even by one’s bitterest enemy. Accordingly he knew all that a
+fencing master could teach him; and all the Saxon’s agility, quickness of
+eye, and strength, could not counterbalance the advantage. Before many
+minutes had passed Cedric was bleeding from two wounds, neither of them
+very serious, but sufficient to hamper and weaken him. One had been
+inflicted on the sword-arm, and threatened to disable him altogether
+before long. He felt this himself, and took his resolve. “The curse of
+Thor upon this foolish toy!” he cried, in his native tongue, as he threw
+the short sword straight in the face of his enemy; and followed up the
+strange missile by leaping on his antagonist, both of whose arms he
+fastened down to his sides with a supreme exertion of strength. Gigantic
+strength, indeed, was the only thing which gave so desperate a resort the
+chance of success, and this might well have failed, if the adversary had
+not been entirely unprepared for the movement. Once held in this
+tremendous clasp, Ambiorix was as helpless as a kid in the hug of a bear.
+Cedric fairly lifted him off his feet, and threw him backwards. His head
+struck one of the great stones in his fall, and he lay senseless and
+helpless on the ground.
+
+The struggle was over so quickly that the attendants had no time to
+interfere; nor when it was finished did they feel any great eagerness to
+engage so formidable a champion. Still they advanced, and Martianus, who
+felt himself unable to maintain any longer in the face of what had
+happened his attitude of inaction, advanced with them. By this time Carna,
+who had been almost stunned by the rapid succession of startling
+incidents, had recovered her self-possession. She lifted herself from the
+ground, and stepped between Cedric and the three antagonists who stood
+confronting him.
+
+“Martianus,” she cried, “what are you doing here? What mixes you up with
+these horrible doings—you, my father’s friend, you, a Christian man?”
+
+The Briton stood silent, cursing in his heart the hideous enterprise which
+had not even the poor merit of success. He was spared the necessity of
+speaking by an exclamation from one of the ministrants.
+
+“See!” cried the man, “there is a party coming. It is not likely that they
+are friends—let us be off.”
+
+And indeed the moonlight clearly showed a number of persons who were
+rapidly advancing up one of the great avenues.
+
+Martianus did not hesitate.
+
+“You are right,” he said to the man, “we must go. The priest’s body must
+be left. It is useless to cumber ourselves with the dead; we shall have as
+much as we can do to escape ourselves, but take the sacred things. They at
+least must not fall into the hands of the enemy. And you,” he went on,
+addressing himself to the two attendants, “take up your master and carry
+him off. We have something of a start, and it is possible that they may
+not pursue us.”
+
+His directions were at once obeyed. The priest’s body was stripped of its
+robes and ornaments. Ambiorix, who still lay unconscious on the ground,
+was carried by the united efforts of the soldiers and ministrants, and the
+whole party had started in the direction of Amesbury before the
+new-comers, who proved to be the priest Flavius, with a party of his
+people, reached the Temple.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                           THE BRITISH VILLAGE.
+
+
+The British priest’s home was at a populous village on the banks of the
+Avon, now known by the name of Netton, and as this was some miles nearer
+than Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the party whom his
+opportune arrival had rescued from danger. Once arrived there, it would be
+easy to send a messenger to the town, and await further instructions. A
+litter was hastily constructed for Carna, who, though her spirits and
+courage were still unbroken, was somewhat exhausted by excitement and
+fatigue. The Saxon’s wounds were dressed and bound up by the priest, who
+united some knowledge of medicine and surgery to his other
+accomplishments, and was indeed scarcely less well qualified for the cure
+of bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor looked somewhat grave when he
+saw how deep the sword-cuts were, and how much blood had been lost, but
+Cedric made light of his injuries, scorned the idea of being carried, and
+indeed seemed to find no difficulty in keeping close to Carna’s litter on
+the homeward journey.
+
+Netton—we are unable to give the British name of the village—was reached
+some time before dawn. At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himself
+with two or three hours’ sleep, was ready to perform his office at his
+little church. It was the first day of the week, and the building was
+crowded. It was an oblong building, with a semicircular eastern end, that
+resembled that kind of chancel which is known by the name of an apse. It
+had been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied the shape that
+seems to have been used in the earliest Christian buildings, that of the
+_schola_ or meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations. The body of
+the building was of timber. The eastern end, or sanctuary, had a little
+more pretension to ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung with
+somewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with symbolic designs.
+
+Few of the party which had accompanied the priest the night before were
+prevented by their fatigue from being present. The Britons were always a
+devout people, and in Netton their priest had gained such an influence
+over them, that they were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.
+Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but the priest’s wife—he had
+followed the usual practice of the British Church in marrying before
+ordination—had absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion. Cedric,
+who would otherwise have been present in whatever part of the building was
+open to an unbaptized person, was still buried in a profound slumber. The
+service was in Latin, a language of which most if not all the worshippers
+knew enough to be able to follow the prayers. Such portions of the
+Scriptures as were read were accompanied by the priest with occasional
+expositions in the British language; and the sermon, except the text,
+which was in Latin, and taken from the recently published Vulgate of St.
+Jerome, was wholly in that tongue. The preacher’s text was from the
+Psalms, “Quomodo dicitis animæ meæ, Transmigra in montem sicut
+passer?”(40) and was mostly concerned with the troubles of the time. He
+had in an uncommon degree the national gift of eloquence, and stirred the
+hearts of his hearers to their inmost depths. He warned them that
+troublous times were approaching, such as neither they nor their fathers
+had seen were approaching, and that they would have to resist unto blood
+for the faith into which they had been baptized.
+
+“Antichrist,” he cried, adapting to the day, as Christian preachers have
+done in every age, the language of the apostles—“Antichrist is at hand!
+You see him in these heathen hosts who are threatening you on every side;
+these Saxon pirates from the east, who are ravaging our shores; these
+Pictish ravagers from the north, who every year are penetrating further
+and further into the land. Yes,” he added, with a telling reference to the
+event of the night before, “and even in apostates of British blood, who
+have preserved in your midst the hideous superstitions from which our
+ancestors turned to worship the blessed Christ; and as it was in the days
+of the blessed Paul, so is it now: ‘He that letteth will let till he be
+taken out of the way,’ The Roman power has kept these forces in check, but
+it will keep them no more. The time is short. They are gathering every day
+in greater strength, and you must gird yourselves to meet them.”
+Therefore, he went on, they must be strong and quit them like men. They
+must gird on them, and make complete in every point, their spiritual
+armour—the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Divine Word, the
+all-covering shield of faith; nor must they forget the temporal weapons
+with which the outward enemies who assail the body must be met. “He that
+hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one,” cried the preacher,
+in his final apostrophe to his people, “and he will find that as his day
+so shall his strength be, and that the Lord can deliver by few as by many,
+Gideon’s three hundred, as by the eight hundred thousand men that drew
+sword in Israel.”
+
+Wrought by the eloquence of the orator to an almost incontrollable
+excitement, the whole congregation sprang to their feet, as if they were
+asking to be led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden change from
+the stirring tone of the trumpet to the sweet music of the flute, the
+preacher touched another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never quite
+broken with tears, he besought them to cleanse their hearts; he reminded
+them that the armies of the Lamb of God must be clothed in the white robe
+of righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak, charity to the
+fallen, were as needed for Christ’s soldiers as steadfastness and courage,
+till many a cheek was wet with tears of contrition and repentance.
+
+In the course of the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger was despatched to
+Sorbiodunum. By the time he reached that town the Count and his party had
+arrived, excepting one who had been left behind, still too exhausted by
+his forced march to move. Some, too, had been sent back in the hope that
+they might not be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce been
+left behind during the journey through the snow. As there was now no
+immediate necessity of haste, Ælius allowed his followers to rest and
+refresh themselves for the remainder of the day at Sorbiodunum. The
+following morning he went on to Netton, where he found, to his great
+delight, that Carna had apparently suffered no harm from her perilous
+adventures. His gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of words to
+express. Though it somewhat hurt his Roman pride that a barbarian should
+ever have the strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not suffer
+his vexation to take anything from the hearty warmth of his thanks. Cedric
+received them with the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which both Britons
+and Italians could not help resenting in their hearts, while they
+reluctantly admired his surpassing strength.
+
+Three days were spent in Netton with much comfort to the party, the priest
+and his people showing them as liberal an hospitality as their means
+admitted, and refusing the recompense which the Count almost forced upon
+them.
+
+“Take something for your poor,” said Ælius, when his arguments were
+exhausted.
+
+“My people,” answered the priest, “must not lose one of the most precious
+privileges of their Christian life, the sweet compulsion of having to
+minister to the necessities of those who want their help.”
+
+“Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your church,” the Count went on.
+
+The good man hesitated for a moment. His church was dear to his heart, and
+he would gladly have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could make it.
+
+“My lord,” he replied, after his brief hesitation, “in happier times, and
+in another place, I would not refuse your generous offer. But now the
+poorer we are the better. I should like to see our altar-vessels of gold,
+but it would not be well to tempt the barbarians to a deadly sin, and to
+expose Christian lives to worse peril than that they now stand in, by such
+treasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to be spread abroad.
+Our chalices, and flagons, and patens are now of lead, thinly covered for
+decency’s sake with silver, and they are of no value to any but those who
+use them. No, my lord, leave our church with at least such safety as
+poverty can give. But there are places in the world, I would fain believe,
+though indeed in these days I scarce know where they are, where Christian
+men worship God in security, and where the treasures of the church are
+safe from robbery. Let your gift be given there, when you find the
+occasion. And if you will let me know the place I shall be happy with
+imagining it, without the anxious care of its custody.”
+
+With this answer the Count was compelled to be content, till at least next
+morning, by which time Carna’s ready wit had suggested that the priest
+could hardly refuse a gift of books.
+
+“My lord,” said the good man, when the Count renewed his offer in its
+fresh shape on the following day, “your determined generosity has overcome
+me. Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my people’s. I
+sometimes feel that they are starved, or at the best ill-fed with
+spiritual food. I can speak to them of their every-day duties, but I
+cannot build them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself, and
+where is the knowledge to come from? Of books I have none but my Bible and
+my Service-book, and two small books of homilies. If I had some of the
+commentaries and homilies of the two great doctors of our Church,
+Hieronymus(41) and Augustine, I should be well content. I have heard of
+the great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, John the Golden
+Mouth,(42) but, alas, I cannot read Greek.”
+
+“You shall have them as soon as they can be got,” said the Count.
+
+In the course of the day the search party sent back from Sorbiodunum
+returned. They had found one of the stragglers still alive, and had
+brought him on to the village where the first halt had been made. There he
+was being carefully tended, but there was no chance of his being restored
+to health for many weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terrible
+account to give. Only a few mangled remains could be discovered, the poor
+creatures having been manifestly devoured by wolves. All that could be
+hoped was that they had expired before they were attacked.
+
+The Count had now nothing to detain him, and as he was for many reasons
+anxious to be at home, where a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him,
+he determined to start on the following day. His route was first to
+Sorbiodunum. There he would be on the main road leading to Venta
+Belgarum.(43) From Venta, by following another main road he and his party
+would make their way easily to the Camp of the Great Harbour.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                                THE PICTS.
+
+
+The journey to Venta Belgarum was accomplished in safety, and, by dint of
+starting long before sunrise, in a single day. The distance was a little
+more than twenty miles, and the road, which was so straight that the end
+of the journey might almost have been seen from the beginning, lay almost
+through an open country. This was favourable for speed, as there was
+little or no need to reconnoitre the ground in advance. It was just after
+sunrise when the party reached the spot where the traces of the great camp
+of Constantius Chlorus may still be seen. It had even then ceased to be
+occupied, but the soldiers’ huts were still standing, and the avenues,
+though overgrown with grass, looked as if they might easily be thronged
+again with all the busy life of a camp. The Count called a halt for a few
+minutes, and pointed out the locality to Carna.
+
+“See,” said he, with a sigh, “there Constantius had his camp, the great
+Constantius to whom we owe so much.”
+
+“And was Constantine himself ever there?” cried the girl, to whom the
+first Christian Emperor was the object of an admiration which we, knowing
+as we do more about him, can hardly share.
+
+“I doubt it,” returned the Count. “Constantius made it and held it during
+his campaigns with Allectus. But, my child, I was thinking not of its
+past, but of its future. It will never be occupied again.”
+
+“Why should it?” exclaimed the girl, almost forgetting in her excitement
+that she was speaking to a Roman. “Why should it? Why should not Britain
+be happy and safe and free without the legions? Forgive me, father,” she
+added, remembering herself again; “I am the last person in the world who
+should be ungrateful to Rome.”
+
+“I don’t blame you,” said the Count, and as he looked at the maiden’s
+flashing eyes and remembered how bravely she had gone through terrors
+which would have driven most women out of their senses, he thought to
+himself—“Ah, if there were but a few thousand men who had half the spirit
+of this woman in them, the end might be different. My child,” he went on,
+“I would not discourage you, but there are dark days before this island.
+She has enemies by sea and land, and I doubt whether she has the strength
+to strike a sufficient blow for herself. I am thankful that you will be
+safely away before it comes.”
+
+Carna was about to speak, but checked herself. It was not the time she
+felt to speak out her heart.
+
+For some time after this little or nothing of interest occurred; but as
+the party approached within a few miles of Venta the scene underwent a
+remarkable change. The road had hitherto been almost entirely deserted; it
+was now thronged: but the face of every passenger was turned towards
+Venta, not a single traveller was going the other way. Every by-way and
+bridle-path and foot-path that touched the road contributed to swell the
+throng. In fact, the whole countryside was in motion. And the fugitives,
+for their manifest hurry and alarm proclaimed to be nothing less, carried
+all their property with them. Carts laden with rustic furniture, on the
+top of which women and children were perched, waggons loaded with the
+harvest of the year, droves of sheep and cattle helped to crowd the road
+till it was almost impassable. And still the hurrying pace, the fearful
+anxious glances cast behind showed that it was some terrible danger from
+which this timid multitude was flying. For some time, so stupified with
+fear were the fugitives, Ælius could get no rational answer to the
+questions which he put. “The Picts! The Picts! They are upon us!” at last
+said a man whom a sudden catastrophe that brought a great pile of
+household goods to the ground, had compelled to halt, and who was glad to
+get the help of the Count’s attendants to restore them, all help from
+neighbours being utterly out of the question when all were selfishly
+intent on saving their own lives and property. When his property had been
+set in its place again the man thanked the Count very heartily, and was
+collected enough to tell all he knew.
+
+“There is no doubt that the Picts are not far off. I have not seen
+anything of them myself, thank heaven! but I could see the fires last
+night all along the sky to the north.”
+
+“Have they ever been here before?”
+
+“Never quite here. You see, sir, the camp at Calleva(44) kept them in
+check. A party did slip by, I know, some little way to the westward, and I
+was glad to hear they got rather roughly handled. But, generally, they did
+not like to come anywhere near the camps. But now these are deserted, and
+there is nothing to keep them back.”
+
+“But why don’t you defend yourselves?”
+
+“Ah, sir, we have not the strength, nor even the arms. You are a Roman, I
+see, and, if I may judge, a man in authority, and you know that I am
+speaking the truth. You have not allowed us to do anything for ourselves,
+and how can we do it now at a few months’ notice?”
+
+The Count made no answer; indeed, none was possible.
+
+“And you expect to find shelter at Venta?”
+
+“I don’t say that I expect it, but it is our only chance. The place has at
+least walls.”
+
+“And any one to man them?”
+
+“There should be some old soldiers, but how many I cannot say; anyhow,
+scarcely enough for a garrison.”
+
+When the Count learned the situation he felt that his best course would be
+to press on with his party to Venta with all the speed possible. The chief
+authority of the town was in the hands of a native, who had the title of
+Head of the City.(45) It was possible that this officer might be a man of
+courage and capacity; but it was far more likely that he would be quite
+unequal to the emergency. In either case the Count felt that his advice
+and personal influence might be of very great use. Even the twenty stout
+soldiers whom he had with him would be no inconsiderable addition to the
+fighting force of the place. Accordingly he gave orders to his followers
+to quicken their pace. Fortunately the greater part of the fugitives was
+behind them; still it was no easy task for the party to make its way
+through the struggling masses of human beings and cattle, and it was past
+sunset when they rode up to the gates of Venta.
+
+It was evident that the bad news had already arrived. The gates were
+closely shut, while the walls were crowded with spectators anxiously
+looking northwards for signs of the approaching enemy. The porter was at
+first unwilling to admit the strangers, peering anxiously through the
+wicket at them, and declaring that he must first consult his superior. One
+of the spectators on the wall happened, however, to recognize the Count,
+and the party was admitted without further question, and rode up at once
+to the quarters of the Commander of the Town.
+
+If he had hoped to find an official with whom it would be possible or
+profitable to co-operate in the _Princeps_ of Venta, the Count was very
+much disappointed. He was an elderly man, who had realized a fair fortune
+by contracting for the provisioning of the army in Southern Britain, and
+had done very fairly as long as he had nothing to do but execute the
+orders of the military governor. Left to himself he was absolutely
+helpless. Indeed he had been taking refuge from his anxieties in the
+wine-cup, and the Count found him at least half intoxicated. At the moment
+of the party’s arrival the poor creature had reached the valorous stage of
+drunkenness, and was loud in his declarations that there was no possible
+danger.
+
+“They will know better,” he said, “than to come near Venta. If they do,
+very few will go back. Indeed I should like nothing better than to give
+them a lesson. You shall see something worth looking at if you will give
+us the pleasure of your company in our little town for a day or two.”
+
+Another cup, which he drained to the prosperity of Britain and the
+confusion of her enemies, changed his mood. He now seemed to have
+forgotten all about the invaders, insisted on recognizing a dear friend of
+past times in the Count, and invited him to spend the rest of the day in
+talking over old times.
+
+The Count did not waste many minutes with the old man, but when he left
+the house the darkness had already closed in. After finding with some
+difficulty accommodation for Carna, he returned to the gate, anxious to
+learn for himself how things were going on. He found the place a scene of
+frightful confusion. The warders had abandoned their office as hopeless.
+An incessant stream of fugitives, men, women, and children, mingled with
+carts and waggons of every shape and size, was pouring into the town.
+Every now and then one of these vehicles, brought out perhaps in the
+sudden emergency from the repose of years, broke down and blocked the way.
+Then the living torrent began to rage at the obstacle, as a river in flood
+roars about a tree which has fallen across its current. Shortly the
+offending vehicle would be removed by main force, and with a very scanty
+regard for its contents. Then the uproar lulled again, though there never
+ceased a babel of voices, cursing, entreating, complaining, quarrelling,
+through all the gamut of notes, from the deepest base to the shrillest
+treble. The wall was crowded with the inhabitants of the town, and every
+eye was fixed intently on the northern horizon. There, as was only too
+plainly to be seen, the sky was reddened with a dull glow, which might
+have been described as a sunrise out of place, but that it was brightened
+now and then for a moment by a shoot of flame. “Where are they?” “How soon
+will they be here?” were the questions which every one was asking, and
+which no one attempted to answer. The Count made his way with some
+difficulty along the top of the rampart in search of some one from whom he
+might hope to get some rational account of the situation. At last he found
+among the spectators an old man, whose bearing struck him as having
+something soldierly about it. A nearer look showed him a military
+decoration. He lost no time in addressing him.
+
+“Comrade,” he said, “I see that you have followed the eagles.”
+
+The veteran recognized something of the tone of command in the Count’s
+voice, and made a military salute.
+
+“Yes, sir, so I have, though my sword has been hanging up for more than
+thirty years.”
+
+“And what do you think of the prospect?”
+
+“Badly, sir, badly. This is just what I feared; but it has come even
+sooner than I looked for it. Things have been very bad for some time in
+the north ever since the garrisons were taken from the Wall,(46) but,
+except for a troop of robbers now and then, we were fairly safe here. But
+now that these barbarians know that the legions are gone, there will be no
+stopping them.”
+
+“They are the Picts, I hear. Have you ever had to do with them?”
+
+“Yes, sir, I have seen as much of them as ever I want to see. I came to
+this island thirty-nine years ago with Theodosius, grandfather, you know,
+of the Augustus;” and the old man, who was steadfastly loyal to the
+Emperor, bared his head as he spoke. “I am a Batavian from the island of
+the Rhine, and was then a deputy-centurion in Theodosius’ army. We found
+Britain full of the savages. They had positively over-run the whole
+country as far as the southern sea, and only the walled towns had escaped
+them, and these were almost in despair. I shall never forget how the
+people at Londinium crowded about the general, kissing his hands and feet,
+when he rode into the town. But I must not tire you with an old soldier’s
+stories. You ask me about the Picts. They are the worst savages I ever
+saw, and I have had some experience too. They go naked but for some kind
+of a skin girdle about their loins, and they are hideously painted, and
+their hair is more like a beast’s than a man’s, and then they eat human
+flesh. Ah, sir, you may shake your head, but I know it. We used to find
+dead bodies with the fleshy parts cut off where they had been. I shudder
+to think of what I saw in those days. Well, we gave them a good lesson,
+drove them back to their own country, and an awful country it is, all
+lakes and mountains, with not so much as a blade of corn from one end to
+the other. But now they will be as bad as ever.”
+
+“But you are safe here in Venta, I suppose?”
+
+“Safe! I wish we were. If we had a proper garrison here, there is no one
+to command them. You have seen the _Princeps_?”
+
+The Count said nothing, but his silence was significant.
+
+“But there is no garrison. There are not more than fifty men in the place
+who have ever carried arms.”
+
+“But surely the people will defend themselves. You, as an old soldier,
+know very well that civilians, who would be quite useless in the field,
+may do good service behind walls.”
+
+“True, sir, if they have two things—a spirit and a leader; and these
+people, as far as I can tell, have neither.”
+
+“That is a bad look out. But tell me—how soon do you think the enemy will
+be here?”
+
+“Not to-night, certainly; perhaps not to-morrow. And indeed it is just
+possible that they may not come at all. You see that they get a great
+quantity of plunder in the country without much trouble or danger, and
+they may leave the towns alone. Barbarians mostly don’t care to knock
+their heads against stone walls, and of course they think us a great deal
+stronger than we are.”
+
+After making an appointment with his new acquaintance for a meeting on the
+following day, the Count rejoined his party.
+
+The next day the _Princeps_ called a meeting of the principal burgesses of
+the town, at which the Count, in consideration of his rank as a Roman
+official, was invited to attend. The tone of the meeting was better than
+he had expected. There were one or two resolute men among the local
+magistrates, and these contrived to communicate something of their spirit
+to the rest. A general levy of the inhabitants between the ages of sixteen
+and sixty was to be made. The town was divided into districts, and
+recruiting officers were appointed for each. By an unanimous vote of the
+meeting the Count was requested to take the chief command. The delay of
+the invaders gave some time for carrying out these preparations for
+defence. A force was speedily raised, sufficient, as far at least as
+numbers were concerned, to garrison the walls. This was divided into
+companies, each having two watches, which were to be on duty alternately.
+The whole extent of work was divided among them, and the town was stored
+with such missiles as could be collected or manufactured, while Carna
+busied herself among the women, organizing the supply of food and drink
+for the guards of the wall, and preparations for the care of the wounded.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                                THE SIEGE.
+
+
+Day after day the burgesses of Venta awaited the course of events. For
+some time they hoped that, after all, the town might not be visited by the
+invaders. The lurid glow of the skies by night, and the clouds of smoke by
+day, sometimes borne by the wind so close to the town that the smell could
+be distinctly recognized, proved that they were still near. But though the
+effects of their work of ruin were visible enough, of the barbarians
+themselves no one had yet caught a glimpse. But towards the evening of the
+seventh day after the Count’s arrival a party was seen to emerge from a
+wood, distant about half a mile from the gates. There were four in all;
+two of them were mounted on small and very shaggy ponies, the others were
+on foot. The party advanced till they were about a hundred yards from the
+wall, and though the fading light prevented them from being seen very
+clearly, there could be no doubt that they were some of the dreaded Picts.
+
+A debate, which seemed, from the gesticulations of the speakers to be of a
+somewhat violent kind, was carried on for a time among the savages. Then
+one of the mounted men rode, with all the speed to which his diminutive
+horse could be urged, almost up to the gates of the town. He wore a
+deer-skin robe of the very simplest construction, with holes through which
+his head and arms were thrust. His legs were bare. Round his neck was hung
+a bow of a very rude kind. In his right hand he carried a short spear.
+With the butt of this he struck violently at the gate, as if demanding
+entrance, and after waiting a few seconds, as it seemed for an answer,
+turned his pony’s head and began to ride back to his party. He had almost
+reached them before the defenders of the wall had recovered from the
+astonishment which his audacity had caused them. Then one who was armed
+with a bow discharged at the retreating figure an arrow, which more by
+good luck than skill, for scarcely any aim had been taken, struck the Pict
+on the neck. He did not fall from his horse, but swayed heavily to one
+side, catching at the animal’s mane to steady himself. His three
+companions rushed forward to help him, and in another moment would have
+carried him off, but for the resolution and activity of the Saxon, who
+with the Count was standing on the rampart close to the gate. He lowered
+himself by his hands from the wall, a height of about fifteen feet, itself
+no small feat of activity, and ran at his full speed, a speed which, as
+has been said before, was quite uncommon. Hampered as they were by having
+to keep their wounded companion in the saddle, the Picts could move but
+slowly, and were soon overtaken. With two blows, delivered with all his
+gigantic strength, Cedric levelled two of them to the ground, and, seizing
+the wounded chief, threw him over his shoulder, then turning ran towards
+the gate. For a moment the third Pict stood too astonished to move. Cedric
+had thus a start of some yards, and before he could be overtaken, had got
+so close to the wall as to be under the protection of the archers and
+slingers who lined it. The next moment the wicket of the gate was opened,
+and the prisoner secured.
+
+It was evident that he was a prize of some value, for a rudely wrought
+chain of gold round his neck showed that he was a chief. He had ridden up
+to the gate against the advice of his followers, as it was guessed, under
+the influences of copious draughts of metheglin. The effect of the liquor,
+together with the pain of his wound and the shock of his capture, had been
+to make him insensible when he was brought into the town. While he was in
+this state his wound was dressed by a slave who had some surgical skill,
+and who declared that though serious it was not mortal. When he recovered
+consciousness he behaved more like a wild beast than a man. His first act
+was to tear furiously at the bandage which had been applied to his wound.
+The attendants mastered him with difficulty, for he fought with the
+ferocity of a wild cat, and then bound his hands and feet. Thus rendered
+helpless, he raved at the top of his voice till sheer exhaustion reduced
+him to silence, a silence which was soon followed by sleep.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric and the Pict.]
+
+The night passed without any attack. It was evident that the Picts were in
+considerable force, for their watch fires were to be seen scattered over a
+wide extent of country, and there was much anxious talk in the town about
+the chances of a siege. Few indeed in Venta closed their eyes that night,
+and with the earliest morning the whole town was astir. The invaders, of
+course, had no notion of how a siege should be conducted, nor had they the
+necessary mechanical means even if they had known how to use them. Their
+arrows did but little harm, for their bows were ill made, and had but a
+small range, nothing like that which was commanded by the better weapons
+of the defenders. With the sling, however, they were singularly expert,
+and inflicted no small damage, making indeed some parts of the walls
+scarcely tenable. But as they could do nothing without showing themselves,
+they suffered more loss than they inflicted. In the early days of the
+siege especially, a catapult, which the garrison worked from the walls,
+did great damage among them. After awhile they were careful not to collect
+in such numbers as to give a fair mark for this piece of artillery.
+
+The townspeople were greatly elated at their success, and when, about a
+fortnight after the first appearance of the invaders before the walls, two
+days had passed without one of them being visible, concluded that,
+hopeless of making any impression upon the place, they had disappeared.
+
+They were soon undeceived. It was growing dusk on the third day after the
+supposed departure of the enemy, when a heavily laden cart was drawn up to
+the western gate of the city. The driver, apparently a country man,
+knocked for admittance. By rights, at such an hour, it should have been
+refused, but the vigilance of the watch had begun to slacken, most of the
+besieged believing that the danger was practically over. Accordingly, no
+difficulty was made about throwing open the gates. But, once thrown open,
+they were not so easily closed. Just as the cart was passing through the
+opening in the wall one of the wheels came off, and the vehicle broke down
+hopelessly. Commonly it would not have taken long to clear the obstacle
+out of the way. There was usually a throng of people about the gates and
+on the walls, and a multitude of willing hands would have been ready to
+lend their help. But just at this moment the gates and walls were almost
+deserted. Even-song was going on in the Church of Venta, and a preacher of
+some local fame was expected to enlarge on the Divine mercy shown in the
+deliverance of the town from the barbarians. The keepers of the gate
+would, therefore, have been at a loss even if they had seen the necessity
+of bestirring themselves. As it was, they were content to do nothing. They
+amused themselves by standing by and laughing at the rustic driver as he
+slowly unladed from his vehicle its miscellaneous cargo, the contents, it
+seemed, of one of the country-side cottages, from which the terror of the
+invasion had driven their inhabitants. The process of unloading, carried
+on slowly and with much grumbling, was scarcely half finished, when one of
+the warders, chancing to look behind him, caught sight of a body of men
+rapidly approaching through the darkness. A number of Picts had concealed
+themselves in the wood mentioned before as distant about half a mile from
+the wall, and when they saw the gate blocked by the broken-down cart—a
+part, it need hardly be said, of the stratagem—had made a rush to get to
+it before the obstacle could be removed. A hasty alarm was raised, and
+some of the citizens who were in hearing ran up. But it was too late. The
+rustic driver, a villain whose treacherous services had been bought by the
+enemy, had quickened his work when he saw his employers approaching, and
+contrived to finish the unloading of the cart at the very moment of their
+coming up. In a few moments some of them had clambered over the empty
+vehicle, struck down the guards, and disabled the fastenings of the gates.
+Before many minutes had passed the whole of the ground outside the gates
+seemed to swarm with the enemy, and though the townspeople had now begun
+to make a rally in force, it was too late to make any effectual effort to
+keep them out. The situation would in any case have been full of danger.
+At Venta it was hopeless. A garrison of veterans might have kept their
+heads, but there were not more than sixty or seventy among the defenders
+of Venta who had ever seen service in the field; and the citizen soldiers
+were fairly panic-stricken when they saw themselves actually facing a
+furious, yelling crowd of barbarians, cruel and savage creatures in
+reality, and commonly reported to be even worse than they were. Without
+even striking a blow they turned and fled. The Count, whom the alarm had
+just reached, was met, and, for a time, carried away by the tide of
+fugitives. Still he was able to rally a few men to his side for a last
+effort. Some of his own followers were with him, and the rest could be
+fetched in a few moments. The gallant old centurion, in spite of his
+seventy years, was prompt with the offer of his sword; and, as always
+happens, the infection of courage spread not less rapidly than the
+infection of cowardice. Altogether a compact body of about a hundred men
+were collected. Well armed and well disciplined they turned a steadfast
+face to the enemy, and were able to make their retreat to a little fort
+which stood on a hill to the south-east of the town. Carna, the priest of
+Venta and his family, and a few other non-combatants were with them. More,
+in the terrible confusion of the scene, it was impossible to rescue. All
+through the trying time Cedric distinguished himself by his coolness and
+courage. When once he had seen Carna safely bestowed in the centre of the
+party, and had also seen that the person of the Pictish chief was secured
+(having the presence of mind to foresee that he would be a valuable
+hostage), he took up a position in the extreme rear of the retreat, and
+performed prodigies of valour in keeping the pursuers at bay.
+
+The occupation of the fort could, of course, do nothing more than give
+them a breathing space. Though it had been for some time unoccupied, its
+defences were tolerably perfect, and it might have been held against a
+barbarian enemy as long as provisions held out. Unfortunately this was the
+weak part of their position. Of provisions they had very little. Luckily
+the place had latterly been used as a warehouse, and contained some sacks
+of flour. A few sheep were feeding in a meadow hard by, and were hastily
+driven within the defences. Happily there was a well within the walls.
+
+That night was a dismal experience which none of the party ever forgot. A
+confused noise came up from the town, where the savages were busy with
+plunder and massacre. Every now and then some piercing shriek was heard,
+curdling the blood of all the listeners. At other times the loud crash of
+some falling building could be distinguished. Towards midnight flames
+could be seen bursting out from various parts of the town, and before an
+hour had passed, every eye was fixed on a hideous spectacle, on which it
+was an agony to look, but from which it yet seemed impossible to turn.
+Venta was on fire. The flames could be seen to catch street after street,
+and distinctly against the lurid background of the burning houses could be
+seen, flitting here and there, as they busied themselves with the work of
+destruction, the dark shapes of the barbarians. When the morning dawned
+only a few detached buildings, among them the church, a basilica of some
+size, built by the munificence of the Empress Helena, were standing.
+
+The party in the fort reviewed their position anxiously. The civilians
+were for the most part in favour of staying where they were. They felt the
+substantial protection of the stout walls which surrounded them, and were
+indisposed to leave it. The military men, on the other hand, recognized
+facts more clearly and more completely. The protection of the fort was
+worth this and this only—that it gave them time to reflect. To stand a
+siege would be to ensure destruction.
+
+“We must cut our way through,” said the Count. “If we do not try it now we
+shall have to try it three or four days hence, and try it with less
+courage, and hope, and strength, and probably fewer men than we have now.”
+
+“Cut our way through all those thousands of savages!” said the _Princeps_,
+who was one of the few who had escaped from the town. “No; we should be
+fools to leave the shelter of these walls.”
+
+“Shelter!” cried the old centurion; “will they shelter you against famine?
+No; let us go while we have strength to walk.”
+
+“But how,” said another of the townspeople, “how will you do all the three
+things at once—retreat, and fight, and save the women? A few of the men
+may get through, but it will be as much as they can do to take care of
+themselves.”
+
+The argument was only too clear, and the Count turned away with a groan of
+despair. The prospect seemed hopeless. All the comfort that he could find
+was in the thought that he and Carna should anyhow, not fall alive into
+the hands of the barbarians.
+
+But now Cedric came again to the rescue with the happy thought which had
+made him carry off the Pictish chief. He said nothing to any of his
+companions; but he managed the affair with the prisoner, and managed it
+with an astonishing speed and success. He pointed to a party of the
+chief’s fellow-countrymen who were approaching the fort, by way, it
+appeared, of reconnoitring its defences, and intimated that he wished to
+open communications with them, showing at the same time, by holding up two
+of his fingers, that not more than two were to approach. The chief, whose
+intelligence was sharpened by a keen sense of his danger, by a shrill
+piercing whistle, twice repeated, conveyed this intimation to his
+countrymen, and two of them approached to within speaking distance of the
+walls. Cedric now addressed himself to the task of making his prisoner
+understand that his life and liberty depended upon his inducing his
+countrymen to retire. This was not very easily done. The expressive
+gestures of drawing a knife across the throat was readily understood; and
+at last by a pantomime of signs he was made to comprehend that this would
+be the result, if his countrymen were to approach the walls. Then the
+other alternative was expressed. One of the bonds with which he was
+secured was partially loosed, and this action was accompanied by a
+sweeping gesture of the hand towards the north, which was to indicate that
+that must be their way, if he was to be freed. A light of comprehension
+gradually dawned in the chief’s eye, and the Saxon had little doubt that
+he had made his meaning intelligible. Whether the man could be trusted to
+keep the engagement was what neither he nor any one could say. But it was
+clear that the risk had to be run, for the only possible hope of escape
+lay in this direction. A conversation followed between the chief and his
+countrymen, accompanied by signs which were intended to convey to the
+Saxon the purport of what he was saying. When it was over, they
+disappeared, and the chief, turning to Cedric, raised his hands to the sky
+in a gesture which the latter interpreted, and rightly interpreted, to
+mean that he was calling the powers above to witness his fidelity to the
+engagement which he had made.
+
+Cedric then communicated the result of his negotiations through his
+interpreter the peddler to the Count. It was not received with unanimous
+approval by the party in the fort. The _Princeps_ especially protested
+loudly against trusting their lives to the good faith of a couple of
+savages. “A Pict and a Saxon!” he cried, “the worst enemies that Britain
+has, and you think that they are going to save us!” He was quickly
+overruled by the Count, who let him understand quite plainly that he would
+be left to shift for himself unless he availed himself of this chance of
+escape.
+
+“Do as you please,” was Ælius’s first utterance, “you have authority over
+the fort, and if you choose to defend it with as many of your friends as
+you can induce to stay with you, I cannot hinder you. But you must take
+the consequences, and I haven’t the shadow of a doubt what these will be.
+Meanwhile, I and my party mean to go. As for the Pict, I know nothing of
+him; the Saxon I would trust with my life, and what is far dearer to me,
+the life of my daughter. He has proved his good faith already in such a
+way that I for one shall never doubt him again.”
+
+Preparations for departure were hastily made. Indeed there was little to
+prepare. The party had simply nothing with them except their arms. Every
+one had to walk—for food they had to trust to what they might find on the
+road. But before they started the Count loosed with his own hand the
+chief’s bonds. The chief put his hand upon his heart, and then lifted it
+to the sky with the same gesture of appeal that he made before.
+
+It is sufficient to say that he kept his word, for the party reached the
+coast without molestation.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX.
+
+                            CEDRIC IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+For several weeks life passed at the villa with little change or incident.
+But the Count, though he kept a cheerful face, and talked gaily of the
+future to his daughter and Carna, felt more acutely every day how full his
+position was of anxieties and difficulties. First came, as it always does
+come first, the question of money. It had never been a very easy matter to
+provide for the expenses of the fleet. Again and again the Count had drawn
+on his private means, which were happily very large. But these had lately
+been crippled by the troubled condition of the provinces in which his
+estates were situated, and even if they had been untouched the burden that
+now threatened to fall upon them would have been too great for them to
+bear. Some of the seaport towns would, he hoped, continue to pay their
+contributions. He was personally popular, and his influence would do
+something. Then, again, he could still give at least some return for the
+money. The sea-coast must be protected from the enemy, and no one could
+protect it so cheaply and so effectually as he. From the inland towns,
+which had always grumbled at having to pay an impost from which they saw
+no visible advantage, nothing was to be hoped. And any expectation of
+money from the authorities at home was quite out of the question.
+
+One thing was quite certain: the establishment must be reduced within much
+narrower limits. He must diminish the fleet, and lessen also the range of
+shore which he professed to defend. He could not henceforth pretend to go
+north of the mouth of the Thamesis. For the coast southward and westward
+he might be able to provide more or less effectually. More he could not
+do.
+
+One of the first necessities of the changed position in which he found
+himself was that he must give up the villa on the east coast. It would be
+a matter for after consideration whether the island of Vectis was not too
+much out of the way. But till that point could be settled, it would have
+to be his head-quarters. To carry out these new arrangements, and to wind
+up affairs in the region which he was preparing to relinquish, a voyage
+became necessary. On this voyage the Count started early in April. He
+arranged for disposing of that part of the fleet which he could not hope
+to keep in his own pay. Some of the oldest galleys were broken up; others
+were handed over to the authorities of the coast-towns, on the
+understanding that they were to man and pay them themselves. A few picked
+men were taken from the crews by the Count; the rest, excepting such as
+were re-engaged by the local authorities, were discharged. When this had
+been done, and the villa had been dismantled, the Count prepared to return
+to the island.
+
+Here, meanwhile, there had been trouble. The Saxon had quietly returned to
+his work at the forge, and would have been perfectly content, as far as
+could be judged from his demeanour, if only he had been left alone, and
+permitted to pay as before his distant worship to Carna. But to some
+members of the villa household he was an object of dislike. They were
+jealous of the favour in which the Count and the Count’s family held him.
+They were naturally not at all pleased at what they could not but
+acknowledge his great superiority in strength, and as Christians, though
+not particularly zealous in their performance of most of their duties,
+they felt themselves to be unquestionably zealous and sincere in their
+hatred and contempt for a pagan. The Saxon, on the other hand, heartily
+despised those by whom he was surrounded. They were slaves, or little
+better than slaves, and he was a freeman and a chief, though the gods had
+made him a prisoner. He went to and fro among them with a scorn which was
+not the less evident because it was not expressed in words.
+
+For a time this enforced silence helped to keep the peace; Cedric knew
+nothing of the British tongue, or of the mongrel Latin which sometimes
+took its place, and the other inhabitants of the villa nothing of Saxon.
+There were angry and contemptuous looks on both sides, but there was
+nothing more; or if there were words, these were harmless, because they
+were not understood. But by degrees this was changed. Cedric had
+intelligence of no common kind—indeed he was something of a poet among his
+own people—he had many motives for learning the language of those among
+whom he dwelt, his adoration for Carna being one of the most powerful, and
+he had, too, opportunities for learning. The peddler taught him much, and
+Carna, who never forgot her zealous desire for his conversion, taught him
+more. The end was that he picked up much of the British language with
+extraordinary rapidity, and, in little more than six months after his
+capture, could express himself with some ease and fluency.
+
+This was very well in its way, but it had the unfortunate result that he
+began to understand and be understood. Every day the relations between him
+and the domestics and artizans employed about the villa became worse and
+worse, and it was not long before matters came to a crisis.
+
+Cedric had repeatedly noticed that the tools which he used in the forge
+had been hidden or mischievously damaged. He was too proud to complain,
+and indeed his temper was curiously patient in any matter where he did not
+conceive his honour to be involved. He said nothing about the matter,
+searched for his missing tools, and if he could not find them, continued
+to do without them, and repaired the injuries as best he could. The
+offender, of course, grew bolder with impunity, and at last the limits of
+Cedric’s endurance were reached and passed. Coming into the forge at an
+unusually early hour one morning, he caught the doer of the mischief in
+the very commission of a more serious piece of mischief than he had yet
+ventured, namely, cutting a hole in the bellows. He lifted the offender by
+the skin of the neck—he was a lad of about sixteen, and son of the chief
+bailiff of the farm attached to the villa—shook him, as a dog shakes a
+rat, yet without forgetting that he was but a boy, dipped him head
+foremost in the bath of the forge, and then let him go, more dead than
+alive from the fear that he felt at finding himself in the hands of the
+great giant.
+
+Unluckily at the very moment when the young rascal was being dismissed in
+a paroxysm of howling with a contemptuous kick, his father entered the
+yard. No one about the place was more prejudiced against the Saxon, or
+more jealous of the favour in which he stood with the Count and his
+family. He had too, in its very worst form, the ungovernable Celtic
+temper, and now, when he saw his son, a spoilt boy whom everybody else
+disliked, ill-treated as he thought by the prisoner, he was fairly carried
+out of himself.
+
+“Pagan dog!” he cried, “do you dare to touch with your beast’s foot a
+Christian boy?” and he struck at the Saxon with a long cart whip which he
+had in his hand.
+
+The end of the lash caught the Saxon’s cheek, on which it raised an
+ugly-looking wheal. Even in the height of his passion the Briton stood
+aghast at the change which came in a moment over the form and features of
+the Saxon. One or two of the bystanders had seen him face to face with an
+enemy, and had wondered how strangely calm he had seemed to be, showing no
+sign of excitement, except a certain glitter in his eyes. He had a very
+different look now. “The form of his visage was changed,” as it was in the
+Babylonian king(47) when he found himself, for the first time in his life,
+confronted by a point-blank refusal to obey. A consuming anger, like the
+Berseker rage of his kinsmen of after times, the Vikings, seemed to
+possess and transform him. His features worked, as if caught by some
+strange malady, his eyes literally blazed with fury, his whole figure
+seemed to dilate. The luckless bailiff was seized round the middle, lifted
+from the ground as easily as if he had been a child in arms, and hurled
+with a crash, like a bolt from a catapult, against the wall. He lay there
+bleeding from nose and mouth, while the horror-stricken Britons stood
+helpless and afraid to move.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric’s Fury.]
+
+“Dogs of slaves,” cried Cedric, “do you dare to growl at your master;” and
+he swept through the terrified crowd, laying them low on either side.
+Happily at the moment he had no weapon in his hand, but he seized a bar of
+iron from the anvil of the forge, and swinging it round his head,
+prepared, it seemed, to deal about him an indiscriminate destruction. What
+would have followed it is impossible to say. In his fury and in his
+absolute mastery over that shrinking crowd, he was like a tiger in the
+midst of a flock of sheep. But at the critical moment, before his hand had
+dealt a single blow, the apparition of Carna interposed between him and
+his victims. The uproar in the court had reached her in her chamber, and
+brought her ready to play her accustomed part of peacemaker. Now she
+stood, her figure framed like a picture, in the door which opened on the
+court from the part of the villa which she occupied. She wore a simple
+dress of white, fastened with a blue girdle; her long chestnut hair fell
+in loose waves to her waist, for she had not had time to arrange it in
+more orderly fashion. Her face was pale and troubled, her eyes wide open
+with a sad surprise. It was indeed another Cedric that she saw from the
+one whom she had known. Was this terrible savage, who looked more like
+some dreadful spirit from the abyss than a human creature, the gentle
+giant in whose mute homage she had felt such an innocent pleasure, the
+hopeful pupil whom she was teaching, as she hoped, to put away savage ways
+for the mild and peaceful behaviour of a Christian. As for Cedric, he
+seemed paralyzed at the vision that presented itself to him. The sight of
+the girl always moved him strangely; now she reminded him of the time when
+he had first seen her by the bedside of his dying brother; and the
+remembrance completed, if anything was needed to complete, the impression.
+The fury that had transfigured him seemed to pass away; his hand loosed
+its hold on the weapon which he held. His adversaries did not fail to use
+the opportunity. They had been too genuinely frightened to let it slip
+when it came. Indeed they may be excused for feeling that this most
+formidable enemy had to be secured against doing any more damage. The
+moment they saw him unarmed they sprang with one movement on him and
+overpowered him. Even then, if he had offered resistance, they might have
+had no small trouble, perhaps might have failed in securing him. But he
+stood passive, and allowed his hands to be bound without a struggle, and
+followed without difficulty when he was led to the room where offenders
+were commonly confined. Some of the meaner spirits in the household were
+disposed to visit their feelings of annoyance and humiliation on his head,
+now that he seemed to be in their power. But others felt a salutary dread
+of rousing the sleeping lion whose rage they had seen could be so
+terrible. Carna too did not abandon her _protegé_. He was chained, indeed,
+to a staple in the wall of the room which served as his prison. This
+seemed nothing more than a necessary precaution. But the girl let it be
+distinctly understood that no cruelty must be used to him, and she took
+care herself that his supply of food should be plentiful and good.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                               THE ESCAPE.
+
+
+The prisoner seemed to submit to his fate with patience. He thanked the
+attendant who brought him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposed
+of the food with an appetite which seemed to indicate a cheerful temper. A
+visit which the peddler paid him the second day of his imprisonment was
+apparently received as a welcome relief. The two had a long and friendly
+conversation, nor did Cedric utter a word of complaint against his
+treatment.
+
+In reality the young chief was keeping under his rage with an effort
+almost unbearably painful. That he should be chained like a dog to the
+wall was an intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of a long
+line of chiefs which boasted the blood of the great Odin himself! The iron
+did indeed enter into his soul, and the seeming calm of his outward
+patience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury. It was only the hope of
+freedom that kept him calm. It was that he might not diminish this hope,
+this almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction that he ate
+and drank with such seeming cheerfulness. He would want, he knew, all his
+strength for an escape. He would support it and husband it to the utmost.
+
+And for an escape, unknown to his keepers, he was steadily preparing. The
+chain which bound him to the wall was fastened round his right arm and
+leg, and the fastening would have seemed secure to any ordinary observer.
+But such an observer would not have made the necessary allowance for the
+young man’s ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand was large and
+muscular; far too much so, one would have thought, to pass through the
+ring which had been welded round the arms. But he possessed an unusual
+power of contracting it. To exercise this power was indeed a painful
+effort, causing something like an agonizing cramp; still it was an effort
+that could be made, and made without disabling the limb. It could not,
+however, be done twice, because the hand, recovering its shape from the
+extraordinary pressure to which it had been subjected, would infallibly
+swell. Cedric, accordingly, after satisfying himself that it could be
+done, postponed actually doing it till the moment of escape had arrived.
+The fastening of the leg was less manageable. He would not have scrupled
+to do as the Spartan prisoner is said to have done, and cut off the foot
+which impeded his escape, but he had positively nothing with which this
+could be done. The only alternative was to drag the staple from the wall,
+and to carry it and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong as it
+was, it was light. The staple at first seemed obstinate. It had indeed
+been subjected to tests which satisfied the villa blacksmith of its
+capacity of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all the enormous
+strength which the young giant could bring to bear, weakened its hold, and
+at last it gave. The prisoner was prudent enough not to complete the
+separation of the iron from the walls. It would have been difficult to
+replace it so as to escape the notice of the attendant. Accordingly the
+drag was relaxed as soon as the first indications of yielding were felt.
+The time for attempting the escape was a subject of much anxious
+deliberation. The obvious course would have been to choose some hour
+between midnight and dawn; but Cedric had heard from time to time the step
+of some one walking up and down before his prison, and he guessed that it
+might be guarded at night, but left during the day-time, on the
+presumption that the captive would scarcely make an effort to escape while
+it was light. It was this accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortly
+after sunrise the attendant paid him his customary visit, bringing with
+him the morning meal. Cedric pretended to be but half awake, and,
+returning his salutation in a mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on his
+side, as if to continue his slumbers. But the moment after the man had
+left the room he was at work. He dragged his hand through the ring, at the
+cost of a pang which taxed his endurance to the utmost; pulled the staple
+from the wall, wound the chain round his leg, and wrenching away one of
+the iron bars of the window, dropped through the opening thus made on to
+the ground. His calculation was correct. The ground was clear. Then
+another question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to escape as
+he was? He knew where a boat was commonly kept, and it had been his plan
+to take this and row out to sea in the hope of meeting some one of his
+countrymen’s galleys. If he once got off from the shore he was free, for
+if the worst came to the worst, he could at least die as a free man
+should. But should he go unarmed, and with the hampering chain about his
+leg? A moment’s consideration—no more was possible—decided him. He would
+make one more bold effort. The forge was close at hand, and he knew from
+having worked there that at that hour in the morning it was commonly
+empty, the workmen leaving it for their morning meal. There he could find
+what he wanted, a file to release himself from the chain, and a weapon.
+
+The forge was empty, as he had expected. The question was, How long would
+it remain so? The workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The fire
+had not died down to the lowest, showing that the bellows had been
+recently at work, and a piece of iron that had been left, half-wrought, on
+the anvil, was still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near it.
+It might be safest to take a file and escape with it at once. On the other
+hand, it would be far better to release himself at once from his
+encumbrance, in the event of having to run or fight for his life. He might
+count, he thought, upon half an hour, and he resolved to file away the
+chain then and there. With admirable coolness he sat down and applied all
+the strength and skill which he possessed to the work, and had finished it
+in little more than half the time which he had reckoned to have
+undisturbed. He then caught up a sword which hung on one of the walls. It
+was an old-fashioned weapon, but Cedric, who knew good iron when it came
+in his way, had tried its temper, and knew it to be capable of doing good
+service.
+
+So far everything had favoured him, nor did his good fortune desert him
+now. He found the boat, which was one commonly used for fishing by the
+inmates of the villa, ready furnished with oars and a small mast and sail.
+There were even, by good luck, a small jar of water, some broken food in a
+hamper, left by a party which had been using it the day before, with some
+fishing lines. These, Cedric thought to himself, might be useful if he
+failed to fall in with any of his countrymen.
+
+Jumping on board, he plied his sculls rapidly, going in the direction of
+the sea, and keeping as close under the shore as possible, so as to be out
+of sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution was unnecessary.
+His absence was not discovered till shortly afternoon, when the attendant,
+bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond measure to find the room
+empty. But another danger threatened him, a danger which he had not indeed
+forgotten, but against which he had known it to be impossible to take any
+precautions. This was the chance of meeting with the Count’s squadron as
+it was returning to the island; and it was this that he actually
+encountered.
+
+Just as he had reached the mouth of the Haven and was turning his boat
+eastward, he saw within a hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys.
+It was not the Count’s own vessel, for this had been delayed by an
+accident to the rigging, and was now many miles behind, but was in charge
+of the second-in-command. The recognition was mutual. Cedric’s tall figure
+was not one that could be easily mistaken, nor could it be doubted that he
+was attempting an escape. Had the Count been there he would probably have
+parleyed with the fugitive. The officer in command was not so considerate.
+
+“Shoot,” he cried, “he is trying to escape,” and as he spoke he seized a
+bow which lay on deck, and took aim at the Saxon. His order was
+immediately observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at the boat.
+They all fell short, for Cedric had by this time increased his distance.
+In a minute or two, however, the ship was put about, and then began to
+gain rapidly on the solitary rower.
+
+Another volley was discharged, and this time one of the arrows took
+effect, wounding the fugitive slightly in the left arm. The situation was
+desperate. To remain in the boat was to await certain death. A third
+volley would unquestionably be fatal. Cedric jumped overboard, but still
+clung to the side of the boat. It was only just in time. The third volley
+was discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of the boat so thick as
+to show plainly what the fate of the occupant would have been. Still,
+though he had escaped for the moment, Cedric’s fate seemed sealed. The
+boat had given him shelter for the time, but to go on clinging to it would
+be to ensure his capture. He left it, and after making a few vigorous
+strokes, threw up his arms from the surface of the water, and uttering a
+loud cry, disappeared.
+
+His quick eye had discerned a great mass of sea-weed floating on the water
+about fifty yards away, and his ready intelligence had seen a chance,
+small indeed and almost desperate, but still a chance of escape. Swimming
+under water to the sea-weed, he was able to come to the surface and to
+take breath under its shelter.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric’s Escape.]
+
+On board the galley every one of course supposed him to have sunk. His
+action of the lifted arms and the loud cry had been natural enough to
+deceive the most wary observer. The boat was righted and secured by a
+rope, and the galley pursued its way to the villa, while Cedric was left
+to make the best of his way to the land.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                                A VISITOR.
+
+
+The day after Cedric’s disappearance the Count returned to the island. The
+prospect before him had not by any means lightened. Britain, conquered,
+oppressed, protected, for nearly four hundred years, governed sometimes
+ill and sometimes well, according to the varying characters of the Roman
+legates, but never allowed to do anything for herself, was not ready at a
+moment’s notice to be independent and stand alone. The Count was much too
+shrewd a man to hope that she would. Still, even he had not realized how
+bad things would be; and when he came to see them face to face he felt
+something like disappointment, and even despair. A man will often make up
+his mind to the general fact of failure, and yet be almost as much vexed
+at the details of failure, when it comes, as if he had expected success.
+
+The fact was that the Count had found little or no disposition in the
+native States to take up and carry on the work which he was being
+compelled to give up. They would make no sacrifices, or even efforts. They
+refused to work together. Each reckoned on its own chance of escaping the
+common danger, and would not contribute to the defence that might possibly
+be wanted for its neighbours, and not for itself. Then jealousies and
+enmities, hitherto kept in check by the strong hand of a master, began to
+break out. The cities seemed likely, not only not to combine against Picts
+and Saxons, but actually to go to war among themselves. The Count felt all
+the pain that comes to an honest and capable man when he has to face the
+breaking up of a bad system which he has inherited from predecessors less
+high principled than himself. It happens very often that revolutions come
+in the days, not of the worst offenders, but of the men who are making
+sincere endeavours to do their duty. And so it was with the Count.
+
+It was in a very gloomy and depressed condition of mind, therefore, that
+he returned to the villa. And almost every day brought news of fresh
+troubles and disasters. Some of the Roman houses scattered through the
+country had been attacked and burnt of late. Since the central authority
+had been weakened the Roman residents had sometimes begun to behave in a
+lawless and oppressive way to their British neighbours, and these were
+taking their revenge with the cruelty that is always natural to the
+oppressed. Tragical tales of villas surrounded by infuriated crowds of
+Britons, of masters and families shut up within the walls, and perishing
+in the fires that consumed them, were brought to the Count by the scared
+survivors who had contrived to escape from the general destruction.
+
+The Count’s personal difficulties were considerable. He had a considerable
+colony now settled near the villa, and many of its members were helpless
+and dependent people. The question of feeding them would soon become an
+urgent one. At present he could use the surplus stores which would no
+longer be wanted now that his squadron had been so reduced in strength.
+And there was another question that pressed upon his mind—that of defence.
+Already he had had to contract his operations. With single pirate vessels,
+or even small squadrons of two or three, he would be able to deal, but
+anything stronger would have to be left alone. With the few ships that
+were left to him it would be madness to run any risk. And what, he could
+not help thinking, if the Saxons were to attack the villa itself? It had
+been built as a pleasure residence, and though now fortified as far as
+circumstances permitted, could not be held against a strong force. Should
+he continue to occupy, or should he retire to the camp of the Great
+Harbour, which would at least be a more defensible position?
+
+It may easily be imagined that these anxieties, which had been troubling
+his thoughts during the whole time of his absence, were not relieved when
+he heard the story of what had happened during his absence. He owed the
+Saxon more than he could ever repay, for he shuddered to think what would
+have happened to Carna but for his strength and energy. And apart from
+this feeling of gratitude, he admired the man’s splendid courage and
+tenacity. He had even come to rely upon him for services of unusual
+difficulty and danger. And now, to think that he was lost to them by the
+stupid perversity and jealousy of a set of slaves!
+
+The said slaves had a bad time with their master for some days after his
+return. Good-humoured and kind as he was, yet he was a Roman—in other
+words, he had inherited the lordly temper of a race which had ruled the
+world for five hundred years, and any contradiction that thwarted him in
+one of his serious convictions or purposes, broke through the veneer of
+refinement and culture that commonly concealed the sterner part of his
+nature. A Christian master could not crucify an offender—indeed,
+crucifixion had been long since forbidden by the law—but he had almost
+unlimited power over life and limb. Life, indeed, the Count was too
+conscientious a follower of his religion to touch, but he had no scruple
+about going to the very utmost verge of severity in the use of minor
+punishments. As for his daughter, she was only too like her father to be
+any check on his anger, and for the first time in her life Carna found her
+mediation useless.
+
+“Girl,” he said to her on one occasion, when she had urged her
+intercession with tears, “you do not know what mischief these foolish,
+cowardly knaves have done. One thing I see plainly, that as soon as ever
+the Saxons know the weakness of the position we shall not be able to hold
+it any longer. There is nothing to hinder them from coming and burning the
+whole place over our heads; nothing in the way of fortifications, and
+certainly nothing in the way of garrison. They did not know all this
+before, but they are sure to know it soon; and we shall see the
+consequences before many months are over.”
+
+In the course of the summer occurred an incident which diverted the
+Count’s attention for a time, though it did not lessen his perplexities.
+
+One morning a small trading vessel entered the haven near the villa. Her
+business, it was found, was to land a stranger, who had bargained for a
+passage to the island. The trader had come from a port of Western Gaul,
+and had then taken her passenger on board. Who he was the captain could
+not say, except that he had the appearance of a Roman gentleman. The day
+after they had set sail an illness, which had evidently been upon him when
+he came on board, had increased to such an extent that he had lost
+consciousness. Two or three days of delirium had been succeeded by stupor;
+in this condition the unfortunate man still lay. But while still conscious
+he had written down his destination, and added an appeal to the compassion
+of his future host. The Count read on the paper which the merchant captain
+handed to him a few words written in a trembling hand. They ran as
+follows:—
+
+
+“_In case I should not be able to speak for myself, I invoke by these
+words the compassionate protection of the Count Ælius. Let him not fear to
+receive me, but believe that I am unfortunate rather than guilty, and that
+there is between us the tie of a great common affection._”
+
+
+The Count did not recognize the stranger, though a dim impression of
+having seen him before floated across his mind; and there was something in
+his appearance which agreed with the trading captain’s conviction that he
+was a man of birth and position. In any case Ælius was not one who was
+inclined to resist such an appeal to his compassion. The stranger, still
+unconscious, was landed, together with a few effects which were said to
+belong to him, and at once handed over to the care of Carna. All her
+diligence and watchfulness as a nurse, and all the skill of the old
+physician, were wanted before the patient could be brought back to life.
+For fourteen days he lay hovering on the very verge of death, mostly sunk
+in a stupor so complete that it was barely possible to perceive either
+pulse or breath; sometimes muttering in delirium a few broken sentences,
+of which all that physician and nurse were able to distinguish was that
+they were certainly Latin, and that they seemed to be verse.
+
+It was on the morning of the fifteenth day that there came a change. Carna
+sat by the window of the sick man’s room. It had a southern aspect, and
+the sunshine came with a softened brilliance through the thick tinted
+glass, and brought out the exquisite tints of the girl’s glossy hair, as
+she sat bending over the embroidery with which she was employing her
+nimble, never-idle fingers.
+
+“By heaven! another, fairer Proserpine!” said the sick man.
+
+The girl turned her head at the sound of the clearly pronounced words
+which her practised ear distinguished at once from the strained or blurred
+utterances of delirium.
+
+She held up her finger to her lips. “Do not speak,” she said; “you have
+been very ill, and must not tire yourself.”
+
+“Lady,” said the sick man, with a smile, “you must at least let me ask you
+where I am.”
+
+“Yes, you shall hear, if you will promise to ask no more questions, but to
+be content with what you are told. You are with friends, in the island of
+Vectis, in the house of Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore. And now be quiet,
+and don’t spoil all our pains in making yourself ill again.”
+
+She gave him a little broth which was being kept hot by the fire in
+readiness for the time when he should recover consciousness; and after
+this had been disposed of, and she had found by feeling his pulse that he
+was free from fever, a small quantity of well diluted wine.
+
+“And now,” she said, “you must sleep”—a command which he was ready enough
+to obey.
+
+After this his recovery was rapid. For a time, indeed, the cautious old
+physician, though he did not forbid conversation, prohibited any reference
+to business. “You will want, of course,” he said, “to tell your story, and
+to make your plans for the future; that will excite you, and, till you are
+stronger, may bring about a relapse. Be content for a while with the
+ladies’ company”—Ælia, now that no nursing had to be done, was often with
+her foster-sister—“the Count will see you when I give permission.”
+
+And much talk the ladies had with him, and greatly astonished they were at
+the variety and brilliance of his conversation. He seemed equally familiar
+with books and men. He had read everything—so at least thought the two
+girls, who were sufficiently well educated to recognize a full mind when
+they came across it—he had been everywhere, he had seen everybody. He
+never boasted of his intimacy with great people, and indeed very seldom
+mentioned a name, but his allusions showed that he was equally familiar
+with courts and camps. It would have puzzled more experienced persons than
+the sisters to guess who this man of the world, who was also a man of
+letters, could possibly be.
+
+At the end of another week the physician removed his prohibition, and the
+Count, who had hitherto judged it better not to agitate his guest by his
+presence, now paid a visit to his room.
+
+After a few kindly inquiries as to his health, the Count went on,
+“Understand me, sir, that I have no wish to force any confidence from you.
+My good fortune gave me the chance of serving you, but it has not given me
+the right of asking you questions which you might not care to answer. You
+are welcome to my hospitality as long as you choose to remain here, and
+you may command my help when you wish to go. But of course, if you care to
+give me your confidence, it may make the help a great deal more
+effective.”
+
+“Yours is a true hospitality,” answered the stranger, with a smile, “but
+it is right that you should know who I am, and how I came to be here; and
+I have only been waiting for the good Strabo’s leave to tell you. But may
+your daughter and her sister be present? I have a sad story to relate, but
+there is nothing in it which is unfit for them to hear, and they have been
+good enough to show some interest in an unhappy man.”
+
+“They shall come, if you wish it,” said the Count, “indeed they have been
+almost dying of curiosity.”
+
+It was to this audience that the stranger told his story.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                          THE STRANGER’S STORY.
+
+
+“I have found out that my name is known to these ladies, though they are
+not aware that it belongs to me. You, sir, have very probably not found
+time among your many cares to give any thought to the trifles which, if I
+may say so much of myself, have made me famous. I am Claudius Claudianus.”
+
+“What! the poet!” cried the Count, “the Virgil of these later days?”
+
+The poet blushed with pleasure to hear the compliment, which, extravagant
+as it may seem to us, did not strike him as being anything out of the way.
+For had not his statue been set up in Trajan’s Forum at Rome, an honour
+which none of his predecessors had been thought worthy to receive?
+
+“Ah! sir,” he replied, “you are too good. But it would have been well for
+me if I had contented myself with following Virgil; unfortunately I must
+also imitate Juvenal. Praise of the fallen may be forgiven, but there is
+no pardon for satire against those that succeed. Enmity lasts longer than
+friendship, and I have made enemies whom nothing can appease.”
+
+  [Illustration: Claudian’s Tale.]
+
+“But what of Stilicho?” said the Count. “Surely he has not ceased to be
+your friend. Doubtless you owe much to him, but he owes more, I venture to
+say, to you. He may have given you wealth, but you have given him
+immortality.”(48)
+
+“Ah! sir,” said Claudian, “have you not then heard?”
+
+“Heard!” cried the Count; “we hear nothing here. We always were cut off
+from the rest of the world; but for the last nine months we might as well
+have been living in the moon, for all that has reached us of what is going
+on elsewhere.”
+
+“You did not know, then, that Stilicho was dead?”
+
+“Dead! But how?”
+
+“Killed by the order of the Emperor.”
+
+“What! killed? by the Emperor’s orders? It is impossible. The man who
+saved the Empire, the very best soldier we have had since Cæsar! And you
+say that the Emperor ordered him to be killed?”
+
+The Count rose from his seat, and walked about in incontrollable emotion.
+
+“So they have killed him! Fools and madmen that they are! There never was
+such a man. I knew him well. He was always ready, always cheerful, as gay
+in a battle as at a wedding; as brave as a lion, and yet never doing
+anything by force that he could contrive by stratagem. But tell me—they
+had, or pretended to have, some cause. What was it?”
+
+“They said he was a traitor, that he wanted the Empire for himself, or for
+his son, that he intrigued with the barbarians.”
+
+“Well, he was fond of power; and who can wonder that he was dissatisfied
+when he saw in what hands it was lodged? But tell me—what do you think?”
+
+“I don’t say,” resumed Claudian, “that he was blameless, but he had an
+impossible task—he had to save the Empire without soldiers. He did it
+again and again; he played off one barbarian power against another with
+consummate skill; and filled his legion one day with the enemies whom he
+had routed the day before. But this could not be done without intrigues,
+without devices which, taken by themselves, looked like treason. But it is
+idle to speak of the past. He lies in a dishonoured grave, and the Empire
+of Augustus is tottering to its fall.”
+
+“Tell me of his end,” said the Count. “You saw it?”
+
+“Yes,” said the poet; “I saw it, and, I am ashamed to say, survived it.
+Well, I will tell you my tale. You know he might have had the Empire; the
+soldiers offered it to him; Alaric and his Goths would have been delighted
+to help him. But he refused. He was loyal to the last. He would not even
+fly. There are many places where he would have been safe——”
+
+“Yes,” interrupted the Count; “he would have been safe here, if I know
+anything of Britain.”
+
+“Well, he would go to none of them. He went to the one place where safety
+was impossible. He went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna every one, from the
+Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an enemy. He wanted to make them
+trust him by trusting them—as if one disarmed a tiger by going into his
+lair! He had two or three of his chief officers with him, besides myself,
+and as many slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind among us. Stilicho
+made a point of our being unarmed. Well, we had not an encouraging
+greeting when we entered the city. Every one, as you may suppose,
+recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose, in the whole Empire,
+who was better known. No one who had ever seen Stilicho could forget that
+towering form, that white head.(49) There were sullen looks as we walked
+through the streets, and hisses, and even some stone throwing. However, we
+got safe to our lodgings, and passed the night without disturbance. The
+next day, as we were standing in the market-place, an old Vandal
+soldier—one of the general’s countrymen, you know—put a flower in his hand
+as he walked by, without saying a word, or even looking at him; for it
+would have been as much as his life was worth to be seen communicating
+with us. ‘An old comrade,’ said Stilicho, who never forgot a face. ‘He
+served with me in Greece.’ The flower was a little red thing; the
+‘shepherd’s hourglass’ they call it, because it shuts when there is rain
+coming. It was a warning. There was danger close at hand. The general
+said, ‘We must take sanctuary.’ Then he called me to him. ‘Leave me,
+Claudian,’ he said; ‘you cannot take sanctuary with us, for you are not a
+baptized man. I do not count much on the Church’s protection; but still it
+may give me time to make my defence to the Emperor. So you must look out
+for your own safety. But surely they can’t be base enough to harm you, for
+what you have done?’ ‘I don’t know about that, my Lord,’ I answered; ‘you
+remember the fable of the trumpeter.(50) Anyhow, I shall follow you as far
+as I can.’ Well, he went into the great church—what used to be the
+Basilica before Constantine’s time—and took sanctuary by the altar. I did
+not go further than the nave. In the course of an hour or so comes the
+bishop, with the archdeacon and two or three priests, and following them
+one of the great officers of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was
+now crowded from end to end; the people had climbed up into the pulpit,
+and every accessible spot from which they could get a view of what was
+going on. I think that there was a reaction in the general’s favour. No
+one, whose heart was not flint, could see the man who had saved the
+Empire, and that not once or twice, a suppliant for his life. Well, I
+could not see for myself what went on, but I heard the story afterwards.
+The bishop brought a safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the
+chamberlain brought it, and the bishop gave it to Stilicho, with his own
+guarantee. I can’t believe that a man of peace and truth, as he calls
+himself, could have been a party to so base a fraud—he must have been
+deceived himself. Well, the safe-conduct promised that the general should
+be heard in his own defence; and he wanted nothing more. I doubt whether a
+trial would have served him; but they never intended to give him even so
+much. As soon as he was out of the church I could see what was meant, for
+I followed him. The chamberlain’s body-guard drew their swords. Well, I
+was wrong to say that he had no friends in Ravenna. He had a friend even
+in that crew of hirelings—another of his old soldiers, I daresay. I told
+you that Stilicho had neither armour nor weapon. Well, in a moment, no one
+could see how, there was a long sword lying at his feet. He took it up;
+and, verily, if he had used it, he would at least have sold his life
+dearly. The general was a great swordsman, as good a swordsman as he was a
+general. But no; he would not condescend to it; after a soldier’s first
+impulse to take the weapon, he made no use of it. He pointed it to the
+ground, and stood facing his enemies. Ah! it was a noble sight—that grand
+old man looking steadfastly at that crew of murderers. For a few moments
+they seemed cowed. No one lifted his hand—then some double-dyed villain
+crept behind and stabbed him. He staggered forward, and immediately there
+were a dozen swords hacking at him. At least his was no lingering death.
+They cut off that grand white head and carried it to the Emperor; his body
+they threw into the pit where they bury the slaves. And that was the end
+of the saviour of the Empire.”
+
+“And about yourself?” said the Count.
+
+“Well,” went on the poet, “I have since thought that if I had been a man I
+should have died with him. But when I knew that he was dead, I was coward
+enough to fly. You would not care to hear how I spent the next few days. I
+had a few gold pieces in my pocket, and I found a wretched lodging in one
+of the worst parts of the city, and I lay there in hiding. One day I was
+having my morning meal at a wine shop, when a shabbily dressed old man,
+who sat next, turned to me in a meaning way, and, pouring a few drops out
+of his wine cup, said, ‘To Apollo and the Muses.’ That is a crime
+now-a-days, in some places at least, Ravenna among them; and he wanted, I
+suppose, to put me at my ease. ‘Will you not do the same,’ he went on, ‘of
+all men in the world there is no one who has better cause.’ Pardon me,
+illustrious Count, if I repeat his flatteries. ‘Whom do you take me for?’
+said I, for one gets to be a sad coward after a few days’ hiding, and I
+was unwilling to declare myself. He replied by repeating some of my verses
+in so meaning a way that I could not misunderstand him. ‘These
+wine-bibbers here,’ he went on, ‘don’t know one verse from another, but
+they might catch up a name. Come along with me; I will give you a flask of
+something better than this sour stuff.’ Well, we went to his house, which
+was close to the harbour. He was the owner, I found, of two or three small
+trading vessels. The house was a veritable temple of the Muses, ornamented
+with busts of the poets—my own I was flattered to see among them—and
+containing an excellent library of books. Manlius—that was my friend’s
+name—had heard me recite at Rome; and he recognized me partly from memory,
+partly from my resemblance to the bust. To make a long story short, he
+entertained me most hospitably for several days, while we discussed the
+question what was to become of me. Home I could not go, not, at least,
+till there should be a change in the Emperor’s surroundings. The further I
+got from Italy the more chance there would be of safety. We thought of
+North-western Gaul or Britain, or of getting across the Rhine. The end of
+it was that the good fellow took me across Italy, disguised as his
+servant, to Genoa, where he had correspondents. From Genoa I went to
+Marseilles, and from Marseilles overland to Narbonne, using now the
+character of a bookseller’s agent, one which I thought myself better
+qualified to sustain than any other. At Narbonne I found employment as a
+bookseller’s assistant, till I could get a letter from my wife in Africa
+with some money. That came in due course, and then I set off on my travels
+again, still working northwards. Then, sir, I thought of you. I had often
+heard the great man speak of you. You served under him against the
+Bastarnæ,(51) I think, and it occurred to me that for Stilicho’s sake you
+might give me shelter. Not that it matters much to me. To Stilicho I owe
+so much that I can scarcely imagine life without him. He gave me honour,
+wealth, even,” added the poet, with a sad little smile, “even my wife, for
+it was not my courting, but the Lady Serena’s(52) letter that won her for
+me. But to go on, I found an honest trader, and bargained with him to
+bring me here. I had been sickening for some time, and I remember little
+or nothing from the time of my embarking. There, sir, you have my history
+carried up to the latest point.”
+
+“We will put off the future to another day,” said the Count; “meanwhile
+you may count on me for anything that I can do.”
+
+“Your kindness does much to reconcile me to life,” said the poet, “and now
+I will retire, for I feel a little tired.”
+
+“Ah,” said Carna half to herself, when he had left the room, “now I
+understand about Proserpine.”
+
+“About Proserpine? What do you mean?” asked Ælia.
+
+“Why, when he came to himself for the first time I was sitting in the
+window with a piece of embroidery work in my hand, and I heard him whisper
+something about Proserpine.” Carna suppressed the flattering epithet.
+“Don’t you remember that passage where he describes the tapestry which
+Proserpine was working for her mother, and how we admired it, and thought
+we would work something of the kind for ourselves, only we could not get
+any design?”
+
+“Yes, I remember,” replied the other, “and you have had a Pluto, too, to
+carry you off. Luckily he was not so successful as the god.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                             NEWS FROM ITALY.
+
+
+The Count’s difficulties did not seem to diminish as the year advanced.
+Money grew scarcer and scarcer, till it was only by pledging his personal
+credit to the merchants of Londinium and other towns in Britain that he
+was able to find the pay for the crews of his little squadron. His credit
+happily was still good, a character of twenty years without a single
+suspicion on his integrity standing him in good stead. Then a disaster
+happened to one of the few ships that he had retained. After a fierce
+encounter with a Saxon galley, in which its crew had been much weakened,
+it had been caught in a storm and driven on the deadly western shore of
+the island, still dreaded under the name of the Needles by those who
+navigate the Channel. The ship became a complete wreck and only a small
+portion of the crew escaped with their lives, all the disabled men being
+lost.
+
+But the Count’s chief perplexities were within rather than without. For
+more than twenty years he had yielded an unquestioning obedience to the
+authorities at home. It is true that very little had been demanded of him.
+He had been given a free hand, and left to do his duty with very little
+interference, if with very little help. But now in the news of Stilicho’s
+death his loyalty had received a tremendous shock. How was he to bear
+himself to a ruler who was capable of committing so great a crime? True,
+he knew enough of the Emperor to be sure that he was only a tool in the
+hands of others, but this did not make the matter one whit better. Such
+tools are often more mischievous than men who are actively wicked. What
+then was he to do? Should he join the usurper Constantine, of whose
+astonishing success in Gaul and Spain he had heard the most glowing
+reports? His pride forbad it—an Ælius doing homage to a man who but twelve
+months before had been a private soldier! The thought was impossible.
+Should he retire into private life? But would not that be to shirk his
+duty, not to mention the fact that to retire is the one thing which in
+troubled times a man in a conspicuous position cannot do. One thing,
+indeed, was evident—that a decision would have to be made speedily. His
+position was rapidly becoming untenable, and he would have to make up his
+mind, without much delay, as to the best way of getting out of it. In the
+end it happened to him as it happens to so many of us, that his mind was
+made up for him.
+
+One day, towards the end of August, he was about to seek in a day’s sport
+a little relief from his many cares. It was still about four hours to
+noon, and he was sitting under a cherry tree (one of his own planting) in
+the villa garden, and sharing a slight meal of milk and wheaten cakes with
+his daughter and Carna, both of whom he had persuaded to accompany him. A
+young Briton stood by holding in a leash a couple of dogs very much like
+the greyhounds of our own times; another carried a bow and a quiver; a
+third had a game bag of leather, with a netted front, slung across his
+shoulders.
+
+The sailing-master of one of the galleys approached and saluted.
+
+“There is a galley,” he said, “coming up the Haven, and I thought that you
+should know at once, since it seems to have something of importance on
+board.”
+
+“What makes you think so?” said the Count.
+
+“I have been watching it for the last hour,” said the man. “At first I
+thought it was a little trading vessel; but I noticed that as soon as it
+entered the Haven it hoisted the Labarum.”(53)
+
+“The Labarum!” exclaimed the Count; “I have not seen that flying from any
+mast but my own for a year past. Well, that ought to mean something.”
+
+It was the etiquette to go as far as was possible to meet an Imperial
+messenger, just as a host receives a very distinguished guest on his
+door-step, and the Count, after hastily exchanging his hunting-dress for a
+toga, went to the little pier at which the galley would land its
+passenger. He had not to wait many minutes before it arrived, and a
+handsome young man, with a short military cloak over his traveller’s
+dress, leapt lightly ashore. The Count saluted. The stranger, who was for
+a time the representative of the Emperor, received the greeting with the
+dignified gesture of a superior.
+
+“Do I address Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore?” he asked.
+
+“I am he,” the Count briefly replied.
+
+“I bring the commands of Augustus,” said the messenger, producing from a
+pocket in his tunic a vellum roll, bound with a broad purple cord, and
+bearing the Imperial seal.
+
+The Count received the missive with a profound inclination, and put it to
+his lips. At the same time the messenger uncovered, and changed his
+haughty demeanour for the behaviour usual to a young officer in the
+presence of his superior.
+
+“It will be more respectful and more convenient to read his Majesty’s
+gracious communication in private. Will you please come with me to my
+house?”
+
+He led the way to the villa, and introduced the visitor into the little
+room which he used for the transaction of business. He then cut with his
+dagger the purple cord which fastened the package containing the despatch,
+and, after again putting the document to his lips, proceeded to read it.
+Its contents were seemingly not agreeable, for his face darkened as he
+went on. He made no remark, however, beyond simply asking the messenger—
+
+“May I presume that you have a general acquaintance with the contents of
+this document?”
+
+“I have,” replied the young man.
+
+“Then you will know that the answer is not one which can be given in a
+moment. But,” and he went on with a rapid change of voice and manner,
+“_cras seria_.(54) I was just on the point of going out for a few hours’
+hunting when your arrival was announced. Will you come with me? I have
+nothing very great to show you, though we have some big game here too, if
+we had time to look for it, but if you will condescend to anything so
+small as hare-hunting, I can show you some sport.”
+
+The Imperial messenger was an Italian of the north of the Peninsula, who
+had been fond of following the chase on the slopes of the Apennines before
+chance had made him a courtier. He accepted the invitation with pleasure,
+and the party made the best of their way to the high ground now known as
+Arreton Downs.
+
+“Ah!” said the Count, as he pointed northward to where the great Anderida
+Forest(55) might be seen stretching far beyond the range of sight, “there
+is the place for sport; a wilder country I have never seen, no, nor finer
+game. There are wild boars of which I have never seen the like in Italy,
+no, nor in the Hercynian Wood(56) itself, where I used to hunt years ago.
+Last year I killed one which measured six feet from snout to tail. There
+are wolves, too, and bears, and wild oxen; splendid fellows these last, as
+fierce as lions, and almost as big as elephants. But to-day we must be
+content with humbler sport.”
+
+This humbler game, however, afforded plenty of amusement, and they
+returned with a bag of eight fine hares—a very fair burden for the carrier
+of the game-bag—and an excellent appetite for dinner.
+
+The meal, to which the Count had invited the captains of his galleys and
+the principal persons in the little colony which was now gathered about
+the villa, passed off very well. The young Italian was loud in his praises
+of everything. “Your oysters,” he said, “all the world knows, but some of
+your other dishes are a surprise. The turbot, for instance, how
+incomparably superior to the flabby and tasteless things which they bring
+us from our own coasts. The colder water of the seas is, I suppose, the
+cause. The hares, too, how fine and fleshy! You seem to be amazingly well
+off in the way of food in this corner of the world.”
+
+“Ah!” said the Count, with a sigh, “we should do very well, if the rest of
+the world would only leave us alone. But our neighbours cannot be content
+without a share of some of our good things, and they have a very rough and
+disagreeable way of asking for it.”
+
+The speaker went on to draw for the benefit of his guest a vivid picture
+of the trouble which the Saxons were giving by sea and the Picts by land,
+till the Italian exclaimed—
+
+“Ah! I see that you too have your disagreeables. I began to think that
+this was a land of peace and plenty, where one might find a pleasant
+refuge. But these barbarians, in one shape or another, are everywhere. We
+are fallen upon evil times indeed.”
+
+“Yes,” said the Count, “evil times, and no one knows how to deal with
+them; and if God does send us a capable man, we treat him as if he were an
+enemy.”
+
+When the tables had been cleared, the Count rose and proposed the toast of
+the Emperor’s health; but he did this without a single word of compliment,
+a significant omission that did not fail to attract the attention of all
+who were present. He then proceeded, and again without any preface, to
+read to the company the despatch which had been put into his hands the day
+before. It ran thus:
+
+
+“_Flavius Honorius Augustus to the faithful and valiant Lucius Ælius,
+Count of the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+“_Our Imperial care for the dominions, which by Divine Providence have
+been committed to our trust, bids us combine the safety of the seat of our
+government with the welfare of the provinces. For, seeing that these are
+mutually related, as are the head and the limbs in the body of man, it is
+manifest that neither can prosper without the other. Our well-beloved and
+faithful province of Britain has now for many generations been protected
+by our invincible legions and fleets. But even as there comes a time when
+the most careful fathers judge it to be not only needless but even harmful
+to keep their children in dependence upon themselves, so do we now judge
+that our province may now with great advantage, not only to us—for of this
+we think little—but also to itself, defend itself __with its own
+resources. We charge you, therefore, our well-beloved and faithful Ælius,
+as having supreme command of the fleets of the said province of Britain,
+to withdraw them as soon as you conveniently may, but not without leaving
+our loyal subjects the assurance of our fatherly love and of the unfailing
+protection of our majesty. The Ever-Blessed Trinity keep and prosper both
+you and all that are committed to your charge. Given at Ravenna, the
+twelfth day before the Kalends of August,_(_57_)_ in the year of our Lord
+408, and the fifteenth year of our reign._”
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Count receiving the letter of Honorius.]
+
+The reading of the despatch was followed by a dead silence. Every one had
+felt for some time that the present state of affairs could not last. Only
+a man of the vigorous character of the Count, and having long years of
+excellent service to fall back upon, could have maintained it so long, but
+it was impossible not to see that it must soon end. A solitary commander,
+without resources or support, could not maintain himself on the remotest
+borders of the Empire. Yet to know that the moment for the change had come
+was disturbing. The fleet, reduced as it had been to a petty squadron, was
+still, while it remained, the symbol of Imperial power, and seemed to be
+worth more in the way of protection than it really was. When this was
+withdrawn, Britain would be really left to itself; and this prospect,
+however it might be regarded elsewhere, was not agreeable to any one of
+the Count’s guests.
+
+The Count was the first to break the silence. “This,” he said, “is
+manifestly a matter that calls for serious thought. Let us postpone it
+till to-morrow, and for the present turn ourselves to matters more
+suitable for a festive occasion. Perhaps my friend Claudian will give us
+the recitation of something with which he has already charmed the ears of
+our fellow-countrymen elsewhere.”
+
+The poet, not more reluctant than his brother-countryman to exhibit his
+genius, at once signified his willingness to comply with this request, and
+gave a recitation from an unfinished poem which he had then in hand. We
+may give a specimen, put into the best English that we can command—
+
+  “The elemental order there she drew,
+    And Jove’s high dwellings; there you saw
+  The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew
+      To harmony and law;
+
+  “How Nature set in order due and rank
+    Her atoms, raised the light on high,
+  And to the middle place the weightier sank;
+      There lustrous shone the sky,
+
+  “The heavens were pink with flame, the ocean rolled,
+    The great world hung in mid suspense.
+  Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold
+      The starry fires intense,
+
+  “Bade ocean flow in purple, and the shore
+    With gems upraised. Divinely wrought,
+  The threads embossed to swelling billows bore
+      Strange likeness; you had thought
+
+  “They dashed the seaweed on the rocks, or crept
+    Hoarse murmuring thro’ the thirsty sands.
+  Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept
+      With red distinct the lands
+
+  “Leaguered with burnings; all the region showed
+    Scorched into blackness, and the thread
+  Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed;
+      On either hand were spread
+
+  “The realms of life, lapt in a milder breath
+    Kindly to men; and next appear,
+  On this extreme and that, dull lands of death:
+      She made them dark and drear
+
+  “With year-long frost, and saddened all the hue
+    With endless winter; last she showed
+  What seats her sire’s grim brother holds; nor knew
+      The fated dark abode.”(58)
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                              CONSULTATION.
+
+
+The next morning the Count invited the Imperial messenger to a private
+conference. His daughter and Carna were present, as was also Claudian.
+
+“You have the latest news,” the Count began. “Pray let us have them. Here
+we know nothing. But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed that
+you did not hoist the standard till you were within the Haven. You did
+not, I suppose, think it a safe flag to sail under.”
+
+“Well,” replied the messenger, “I thought it better to have no flag at
+all. But, to tell the truth, the Labarum is not just now exactly the best
+passport in the world.”
+
+“You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?” the Count went on. “How are matters
+there?”
+
+“Constantine, with the legions he brought from here, and those that have
+joined him since, is pretty well master of the country, and of Spain too.”
+
+“And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let these provinces go without a
+struggle? Spain was the first province that Rome ever had, and Gaul was
+the second. None, I take it, have been so steadily profitable, and now we
+are to lose them.”
+
+He rose from his seat, and walked up and down the room in an agitation
+which he could not conceal.
+
+“And the only man who could keep the Empire together is gone; butchered,
+as if he were a criminal!”
+
+The messenger said nothing to this outburst. He went on, “I believe his
+Majesty proposes to admit Constantine to a share of the Imperial honours,
+to make him Cæsar of Gaul and Spain.”
+
+“What!” said the Count. “Do not my ears deceive me? This fellow, whom I
+have seen wearing the collar for the neglect of duty, recognized as his
+colleague by Augustus!”(59)
+
+“I do not pretend to know his Majesty’s purposes, I can only say what is
+reported at head-quarters, and, it would seem, on good authority. But,”
+continued the speaker, in a voice from which he had studiously banished
+all kind of emphasis, and looking as he spoke at the ceiling of the room,
+“your lordship is aware that the honours thus unexpectedly bestowed do not
+always turn out to the advantage of those who receive them.”
+
+“What do you mean?” asked the Count.
+
+“I mean that what is given may be taken away—and taken away with very
+handsome interest for the loan—when the proper time comes. Your lordship
+has not forgotten the name of Carausius.”(60)
+
+“Well,” said the Count, “this is not the old way Rome had of dealing with
+her enemies. But, ‘other times, other manners.’ Tell me now, if the
+Augustus has arranged or is going to arrange with Constantine, what about
+Alaric?”
+
+“Oh! he will be quiet for a time, or should be, if there is any truth in a
+barbarian’s oath. You have heard how he marched on Rome?”
+
+“No, indeed,” replied the Count. “I have heard nothing here, except, quite
+early in the year, a vague rumour that he was on the move again. But tell
+me—has Augustus given _him_, too, a share in the Empire?”
+
+“Not exactly; but I will tell what has taken place. He marched on Rome.”
+
+“Yes,” interjected the Count, “and there was no Stilicho to save it!”
+
+“The city was almost helpless. Even the walls had not been kept in repair,
+and if they had, there was no proper force to man them. The only thing
+possible was to make peace on the best terms that they could. I happened
+to be in Alaric’s camp with a letter, under a flag of truce, the very day
+that the ambassadors came out to treat with the king, and I saw the whole
+affair. I don’t mind saying that it was not one to make a man feel proud
+of being a Roman. The barbarians, it seemed to me, had not only all the
+strength on their side, but the dignity also. Alaric himself is a splendid
+specimen of humanity, every inch a king, the tallest and handsomest man in
+his army, and that, too, an army of giants. It was a contrast, I can tell
+you, between him and the two miserable, pettifogging creatures that
+represented the Senate. At first they tried what a little brag could do.
+‘Give us an honourable peace,’ said their spokesman, ‘or you will repent
+of having driven to despair a nation of warriors, a nation that has
+conquered the world.’ The king laughed; he knew what the Romans have come
+to. ‘The thicker the hay,’ he said, ‘the easier to mow.’ And then he fixed
+the ransom that he would take for retiring from before the walls. Brennus
+throwing his sword into the scales was moderation in comparison to him.
+‘Give me,’ he said, ‘all the gold and silver, coined or uncoined, private
+property or public that you have, and all the other property that the
+envoys whom I shall send think worth taking; and hand over to me all the
+slaves that you have of the nations of the North, Goths, or Huns, or
+Vandals. You are pleased to call them barbarians, but they are more fit to
+be masters than you; and I will not suffer them to be in a bondage so
+unworthy. Your Greeks, and Africans, and Asiatics, and such like cattle
+you may keep.’ The ambassadors were pale with dismay. If they had taken
+back such an answer, the Romans had at least enough spirit left to tear
+them in pieces. ‘What do you leave us, then?’ they said. ‘Your lives!’ he
+thundered out. In the end, however, he softened somewhat. Five thousand
+pounds of gold and thirty thousand pounds of silver, and I don’t know how
+much silk, and cloth, and spices, were what he finally asked. I know the
+city was stripped pretty bare before the Senate could make up the sum. I
+am told that the treasuries of the churches had to be emptied. Well, as I
+said, Alaric, if he keeps his bargain, ought to be quiet for a time, but
+you will see that the Emperor has need of all his friends round him, and
+all the strength which he can bring together. That is what I have to say
+by way of explanation of the despatch that I brought.”
+
+“May I ask you to leave us for a while?” said the Count to the young
+Italian.
+
+When he had left the room the Count turned to his daughter, and said—
+
+“And this is our country! This is Rome! The Emperor, forsooth, has need of
+all his friends. His friends indeed! I little thought that the day would
+come when I should feel ashamed of the title. But tell me, daughter; what
+shall we do? Shall we go?”
+
+“What else can we do?” asked the girl.
+
+“I have thought much about the matter since I heard the dreadful news of
+Stilicho’s death, and have had all kinds of wild schemes in my head. I
+have felt that I could not go back and touch in friendship the hands that
+murdered him. Sometimes I thought, while Cedric was here, that we would
+take him with us, and sail eastward. I have had many a hard fight with
+these Saxons, but at least they are men, and brave men, too, who are true
+to their friends, if they hate their enemies. But that is now at an end.
+But is there no other way to go? What say you, Claudian—have you any
+counsel to give us?”
+
+“I would not advise you to sail eastward,” said the poet. “We know pretty
+well what lies that way; tribes of barbarians, of whom the less we see the
+better, with all respect to your friend Cedric, who seems to have been a
+fine fellow. But why not westward? You will laugh at me for believing in
+the Islands of the Blest. Well, I do not mean to say that there is a
+country where Achilles and the rest of the heroes are living in immortal
+joy and peace. If there is, it is not one which any ship, built by the art
+of man, can reach. But I do believe that there is a country. These old
+tales, depend upon it, have something more in them than mere fancy. Why,
+my lord, should not you be the one to find it?”
+
+“Yes, let us go, dear father,” said Ælia, “and leave this dreadful world
+with all its troubles and quarrels behind us. Don’t you think so, Carna?”
+
+Carna only smiled sadly.
+
+“Or,” continued the poet, “there is the land beyond the north, the country
+of the blessed Hyperboreans, that old Herodotus talks about. Why should we
+not go there? Or, if that sounds too wild, there is Africa, with regions
+rich and fertile beyond all doubt that are waiting to be explored. These
+at least are no matter of legend. We know where they are. Let us search
+for them. Whatever world we may find, it can hardly be worse than that
+which we are leaving behind.”
+
+“And what says Carna?” said the Count, turning, with an affectionate look,
+to his adopted daughter.
+
+The girl thus appealed to flushed painfully. For a moment she seemed about
+to speak, but not a syllable passed her lips.
+
+“Speak,” cried the Count; “you always see clearer and farther than the
+rest of us.”
+
+“My father,” the girl went on, “I will speak from my heart, as I know you
+always wish me to do. Forgive me if I seem to teach when it is my part to
+learn and to obey. But, if you ask what I think you should do, I say, ‘Go
+home to Rome or Ravenna, or wherever else the Emperor bids you.’ After
+all, it is your country, and it never needed the help of good and brave
+men more than it does now.”
+
+“By heaven! Claudian,” cried the Count, after a brief silence, “the girl
+is right, as she always is. These are not the times for an honest man to
+turn his back upon his country. If I could reach the Islands of the Blest,
+or the happy people who live beyond the north, as easily as I can walk
+across this room, I would not do it; and after all, what is the world
+without Rome to a Roman? What say you, Claudian?”
+
+“I am but a poor singer, who has lost all that made him sing. I could do
+little in any case, and I doubt whether those who killed Stilicho will
+have anything but the axe for Stilicho’s friend. Still, I go with you. It
+is not for a Roman to say that Rome is unworthy.”
+
+“So that is settled,” exclaimed the Count.
+
+“Oh, Carna,” cried Ælia, throwing her arms round her sister, “shall we
+ever be as happy again as we have been in this dear place?”
+
+Carna clung to her, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+“Does it trouble you so much to go?” asked the Count. “Surely the place is
+not so much to you. You can be happy, wherever you may be, with those you
+love.”
+
+The girl lifted up a tear-stained face to him.
+
+“Father,” she said—“more than father, for you have loved me without any
+tie of kindred—I cannot go, my home is here.”
+
+“Nay, child, what are you saying? Your home has been with us ever since
+you were a babe in arms, and it is so still; or,” he added, with a smile,
+“are you going to leave us for a husband?”
+
+The girl blushed crimson as she shook her head. When she could recover her
+speech, choked, as it was, with sobs, she said—
+
+“You asked me just now what you should do, and I said ‘Go home to your
+country.’ Can I do less myself? Rome is your country, and Britain is mine.
+And oh, if Rome wants all her sons and daughters, how much more does this
+poor Britain!”
+
+“But where will you live?” broke in the Count’s daughter; “Where will you
+be safe? Think of the dreadful things you have gone through within the
+last few months! How can you bear to face them with your friends gone?
+And, dearest Carna,” she went on, as she clasped her still closer, “how
+can I live without you?”
+
+“My dearest sister,” sobbed the girl, “don’t make it harder than it is. It
+breaks my heart to part from you, but I cannot doubt what my duty is. And
+I am not without hope. There are brave men here, and men who love their
+country, and I cannot but trust that they will be able to do something. Of
+course, we shall stumble, for we have not been used to go alone, but I do
+hope that we shall not fall altogether.”
+
+“But, Carna, what can you do?” said Ælia. “You seem to be sacrificing
+yourself for nothing.”
+
+“Not for nothing; it is something if I can only sit at home and pray. But
+it must be at home that I must pray. God would not hear me if I were to
+put myself in some safe, comfortable place, and then pretend to care for
+the poor people whom I had left behind.”
+
+She hurried from the room when she had said this, as if she could not
+trust herself against persuasions that touched her heart so nearly.
+
+“Carna is right,” said the Count, when she had gone, “but I feel as if she
+were going to her death.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                                FAREWELL!
+
+
+The resolution to return to Italy once made, the Count lost no time in
+carrying it out. His own preparations for departure did not cost him much
+trouble. He began by offering freedom to all the slaves in his household.
+The difficulty was in inducing them to accept it. So kind a master had he
+been—in spite of an occasional outburst of temper—and so uncertain were
+the prospects of a quiet life in Britain, that very few felt any eagerness
+to be independent, and the boon had to be forced upon them or made
+acceptable by a considerable bribe. With the free population that since
+the departure of the legions had gathered in increasing numbers about the
+villa it was still more difficult to deal. Many of them were quite
+helpless people whom it seemed equally difficult to take and to leave
+behind. To all that were of Italian birth, or that had kinsfolk or friends
+on the Continent who might be reasonably expected to give them a home, the
+Count offered a passage. For others employment was found in Londinium and
+other towns. But, when all that was possible had been done, there was a
+helpless remnant, about whom the Count felt much as the occupants of the
+last boat must feel at the sight of the poor creatures whom they are
+forced to leave behind on a sinking ship.
+
+Carna had quitted the villa very soon after her resolution to remain in
+Britain had been made. It was indeed too painful to remain there, for,
+though the Count had confessed that she was right, his daughter remained
+unconvinced, and assailed her with incessant entreaties and reproaches
+which went very near to breaking her heart. She made her home with the old
+priest whose wife was a distant kinswoman of her own, and found, as such
+tender hearts always will, a solace for her own sorrows in relieving the
+troubles of others.
+
+About the middle of September all was ready for a start. The two
+serviceable ships that were left to the Count were loaded to their utmost
+capacity with the persons and property of the departing colony. Their
+sailing masters had indeed remonstrated as strongly as they dared.
+
+“We _may_ get safely across,” said the senior of them, “if all goes better
+than we have any right to expect. But if it comes on to blow we shall
+hardly be able to handle our ships; and if we meet with the pirates—well,
+a man might as well go into battle with his hands tied.”
+
+The Count refused to listen to these protests. Even the suggestion that
+the cargo should be divided, and part left for a second voyage he scouted,
+“It will not do,” he said, “the poor people would fancy they were being
+left behind, and I am not at all sure that they would not be right. It is
+only too likely that if we once get to the other side we should _not_ come
+back. No! we will sink or swim together.”
+
+About an hour before noon on the fifteenth of the month, the crews were
+ready to weigh anchor. The Count and his daughter, who had just taken
+their last view of the villa which had been their home for so many years,
+were standing on the little jetty, ready to step into the boat that was to
+convey them to the ship. Carna and the old priest and his wife were with
+them, and the hour of farewell had come. Ælia, if she had not reconciled
+herself to separation from her sister, at least saw that it was
+inevitable, and was resolved not to make the parting bitterer than it must
+needs be. She affected a cheerfulness which she did not feel.
+
+“Good-bye, Carna,” she cried, throwing her arms round the girl’s neck.
+“Good-bye! now we are going like swallows in the autumn, and very likely
+shall come back like them in the spring. Meanwhile keep the nest as warm
+for us as you can.”
+
+“Remember, Carna,” said the Count, “that you have a home as long as either
+I or my daughter have a roof over our heads. You are doing your duty in
+staying, but there is a limit even to duty. As long as you can be of
+service, stop; I would not have it otherwise; but don’t sacrifice yourself
+and those that love you for nothing.”
+
+Carna’s heart was too full to let her speak. She caught the Count’s hands
+and kissed them. Then she turned to Ælia, and taking her gold cross and
+chain—the only ornament that she wore—hung it round her sister’s neck.
+When she had succeeded in choking down her sobs, she whispered, “Take
+this, and, if you will give me yours, we will bear each other’s crosses,
+and, perhaps, they will be a little lighter. But oh, how heavy!”
+
+“Kneel, my children,” said the old priest, and the little group knelt
+down, while the rowers in the boat uncovered their heads. After repeating
+the paternoster and a few simple words of prayer, he raised his hand and
+blessed them, then fell on his knees beside them. After two or three
+minutes of silent supplication the Count rose, and almost lifted his
+daughter into the boat, so broken down was she with the passion of her
+grief. Carna remained on her knees, her face buried in her hands. To have
+looked up and seen father and sister go was more than she dared to do. For
+the struggle that she fancied was over had begun again in her heart, and
+she could not feel sure even then that duty would prevail. The Count
+gently laid his hand upon her head and blessed her, then stepped into the
+boat. As the rowers dipped their oars in the water, a gleam of sunshine
+burst through the clouds, and lighted as with a glory the head of the
+kneeling girl.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                                MARTIANUS.
+
+
+The little community that remained in the neighbourhood of the villa after
+the departure of the Count and his household had plenty to occupy their
+thoughts and hands. The Count had behaved with a liberality and a
+discretion that were both equally characteristic of him. All the stock of
+what may be called the home farm, all the agricultural implements, the
+cattle, sheep, and pigs, and as much of the stores of corn that he could
+spare, he had made over to the priest and two other principal persons in
+the settlement for the benefit of the community at large. This was an
+excellent start, and removed all immediate anxiety for the future. The
+stores of provisions had been increased by opportune purchases before the
+resolution to go had been taken, and enough was left to last, if managed
+with due economy, over the coming winter.
+
+Carna found plenty of employment of the kind in which she found her
+greatest pleasure. There was indeed a terrible gap in her life; not only
+had she lost those whom she had loved all her life as father and sister,
+but her intellectual interests had dropped away from her. Many of the
+books at the villa had indeed been left with her, but then there was no
+one to whom to talk about them. The old priest never opened a volume
+except it was a service book; his wife could not even read. But the time
+never hung heavily upon her hands, for there was plenty of work to do
+among the sick and sorry. As the autumn went on an epidemic, which a
+modern doctor would probably have described as measles, broke out among
+the children, and Carna spent her days and nights in ministering to the
+little sufferers. The one relief that she allowed herself—and there was no
+little sadness mixed with the pleasure which it gave her—was to spend an
+hour, when she could snatch one from her many cares, in the deserted rooms
+of the villa. The indulgence was rare, not only because her leisure was
+infrequent, but because she was conscious of feeling somewhat relaxed
+after it for the effort of her daily life; but when it came it was
+precious. Not a room, not a picture on the walls, not a pattern in the
+tesselated pavements, that did not call up a hundred associations, and
+make the past in which she had enjoyed so much happiness live again in her
+fancy. The dwelling was under the charge of an old couple, who gladly kept
+it clean in exchange for the shelter of two or three of the rooms, and
+Carna was free to wander about it as she would, while she felt a certain
+security in the knowledge that the place was not wholly deserted.
+
+The autumn and winter passed without any incident of importance. News from
+the Continent had never been very regular during that season of the year,
+and now it came only at the rarest intervals. All that the settlement
+heard went to show that there was but little chance of the return of the
+legions. Constantine, after some changes of fortune, had made himself
+master of Gaul and Spain, and had established a kingdom which looked so
+much as if it might last, that he had been regularly acknowledged by
+Honorius as a partner in the Empire. But it would be long before he could
+spare money or men for adding Britain to his dominions. From Britain
+itself the news was mostly of the most dismal kind. The Picts, indeed,
+were not as troublesome as usual. Happily for their neighbours on the
+south, their attention had been occupied by the tribes on the north, who
+had been driven by a season of unusual scarcity to forage for themselves.
+The robbers, in fact, had been obliged to defend themselves against being
+robbed, and Britain had had in consequence a quiet time. But the people
+used it to quarrel among themselves. There were scores of chiefs who had
+each his pedigree, by which he traced his lineage to some king of the
+pre-Roman days, and which gave him, he fancied, a title to rule over his
+neighbours. And besides these personal jealousies, there was a great
+division which split the nation into two hostile factions. There were
+Britons, who held to Roman ways, and among them, to the religion which
+Rome had given, and there were Britons who looked back to the old
+independent days, and to the faith which their fore-fathers had held long
+before the name of Christ had been heard out of or in the land of His
+birth. The former party was by far the more numerous, but its adherents
+were those who had suffered most by Britain’s four centuries of servitude;
+in the latter the virtues of freedom had been kept alive by a carefully
+cherished tradition. They were few in number; but they were vigorous and
+enthusiastic, even fanatical. It was clear that this strife within would
+cause at least as much trouble as would come from enemies without.
+
+It was about seven months after the Count’s departure when Carna paid one
+of her customary visits to the villa. She had been unusually busy for
+three or four weeks previously, and had not found time to come. As she
+passed through the garden, on her way to the house, she noticed that the
+place looked somewhat neater and less neglected than usual. This, however,
+did not surprise her, as she had gently remonstrated with the old keeper
+for doing so little, and, in her usual kindly way, had followed up her
+reproof with a little present. Accordingly she passed on without thinking
+more of the matter to the little sitting-room which she had once shared
+with Ælia, and prepared to spend an hour of quiet enjoyment with a book.
+Her books, indeed, she kept for these visits to the villa. Not only was
+her time elsewhere closely occupied, but her hostess, kindly and
+affectionate as she generally was, could not conceal her dislike of the
+volumes which Carna loved so dearly.
+
+In the midst of her reading she was startled by the unaccustomed sound of
+footsteps. She lifted her eyes from the page and saw a sight so unexpected
+that for a few moments she could not collect her thoughts or believe her
+eyes.
+
+The British chief Martianus stood before her.
+
+She had seen him last at the Great Temple, and the recollections of those
+days and nights of horror, her capture, her hurried journey, and the
+interrupted sacrifice, crowded upon her, and almost overpowered her. Nor
+could she help giving one thought to the question—if this man’s presence
+recalls such horrors in the past, what does it not mean for the future?
+Still, the courage which had supported her so bravely before did not fail
+her now. She rose from her seat and calmly faced the intruder, while she
+waited for him to speak.
+
+Martianus began in a tone of the deepest respect. “Lady, I am truly glad
+that you condescend to honour this poor house of mine with your presence.”
+
+“This house of yours!” repeated the girl, with astonishment.
+
+“Lady, doubtless you do not know that this villa was built by its former
+owner on land which belonged to my family, and which was taken from them
+by force. I do not speak of the Count—he was too honourable a man to do
+anything of the kind—I speak of the former owner, or so-called owner, from
+whom he purchased it. In the Count’s time I said nothing of my claim. I
+would not have troubled him for the world. But now that he has gone, and
+practically given up the place, I am justified, I think, in asserting my
+ownership.”
+
+“I know nothing of these matters,” said Carna, coldly, “but I will take
+care not to intrude again.”
+
+“Intrusion!” said the chief. “Did I not say that there is no one who would
+be more welcome here? We were friends once, in the good Count’s time; why
+should we not be so again? and more,” he added in a whisper.
+
+“Friends with you! Surely that is impossible. You cannot wish it yourself,
+after what has happened. You seem to forget.”
+
+“Lady, Carna—I used to call you Carna when you were a child—I do try to
+forget that dreadful night. I was overborne by those double-dyed villains,
+Carausius and Ambiorix. Believe me, it was against my will that I took any
+part in that dreadful business. And you will remember I never lifted a
+hand against you, no, nor against that base champion of yours. You will do
+me that justice. Carausius, thank Heaven! has got his deserts, and I have
+broken with Ambiorix.”
+
+  [Illustration: Carna and Martianus.]
+
+Carna remained silent.
+
+Martianus resolved to try another appeal, and, presuming that the girl’s
+recollections of the scene might be confused by fear, did not scruple to
+depart considerably from the truth.
+
+“I implore you to believe that I could not have allowed that horrible deed
+to be accomplished. If that base fellow who had the privilege of saving
+you had not appeared, I was ready myself to interfere. I know that I ought
+to have done so before; it has been a ceaseless regret to me that I did
+not. But I wanted to keep on terms with those two, and I held back till
+the last moment. Forgive me my irresolution, Carna, but do not believe
+that I could have been one of the murderers.”
+
+The girl’s recollections of the scene, which were quite free from the
+confusion which Martianus had imagined, did not agree with this account of
+his behaviour, but she did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+
+“Let it be as you will,” she said, with a cold dignity, “but you can
+imagine that these recollections are not pleasing to me. And now I will
+bid you farewell.”
+
+She stepped forward as she spoke with the intention of at once leaving the
+room, but Martianus barred the way. Dropping on one knee, he caught her
+hand. For a moment Carna, who had still something of the child in her,
+felt a strong impulse to use the hand that was still free in dealing him a
+vigorous blow. But her womanly dignity prevailed: she only wrenched her
+hand away with something like violence. There was something in the foppish
+appearance and insincere manner of Martianus that set her more decidedly
+against him than even the recollection of the plot in which he had been
+concerned.
+
+“I will listen to what you have to say, but do not touch me.”
+
+“You give me little encouragement,” Martianus began, “but still I will
+speak. I say nothing about myself, only about my country—your country and
+mine. I know how you love it. We have all heard what sacrifices you have
+made for it, how you gave up home and friends sooner than leave it. Make,
+if I must put it so, one sacrifice more. You are the heiress of the great
+Caradoc, the noblest king that Britain ever had, whom even the Romans were
+compelled to admire. I can reckon among my ancestors Cunobelin. Apart our
+claims might be disputed; together they will make a title which no one can
+dispute to the crown of Britain. Yes, Carna, it is nothing less than
+that—the crown of Britain that is in question.”
+
+“A crown does not tempt me,” said Carna, looking the speaker straight in
+the face.
+
+“Ah! it is not that,” replied the suitor; “you mistake me. I never dreamed
+of tempting you. I know only too well that it would be impossible. But
+think what a British crown really means. It means a united Britain, strong
+against the Picts, strong against the Saxons; and without it—think what
+that would mean. Every tribe—for we should split up into tribes again—for
+itself; every chief working for his own hand; the Picts plundering the
+inland, the Saxons harrying the coast. Oh, Carna! as you love your
+country—I don’t speak of myself, though that, too, might come in time, if
+a man’s devotion is of any avail—but if you love your country, do not say
+no.”
+
+It was a powerful appeal, and touched Carna’s heart at the point where it
+was most accessible. And she was so candid and transparent a soul that
+what she felt in her heart she soon showed in her face.
+
+Martianus saw his advantage, but, happily for Carna, did not press it as
+he might have done. The fact was that he was so conscious of his own
+insincerity and falsehood that his courage failed him, and he dared not
+press his suit any further. Had he gone on, he might have entangled the
+girl in a promise which her feeling for truth would not have permitted her
+to break, which would have made her even shut her eyes to the truth. As it
+was, he thought it his best policy to rest content with the progress that
+he had made. He raised Carna’s hand respectfully to his lips, and, with a
+low salutation, opened the door.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                                 A RIVAL.
+
+
+It was a fact that Martianus had taken possession of the villa in the
+island, on the strength of a claim which was far less definite than he had
+chosen to represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming, and the
+place was important in the minds of the British population as having been
+the dwelling of the last representative of Roman power. The new occupant
+might seem to have succeeded to the position of the one who had lately
+quitted it. It flattered the man’s vanity, too, to put himself in the
+place, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the Shore, while he could use
+the appliances of the villa, which were comfortable and even luxurious, to
+gratify his taste for what he called the pleasures of civilized life. His
+establishment would probably have failed to satisfy the fastidious taste
+of a Roman gentleman; the cooking was barbarous, and the service generally
+rude. Still there was a certain imitation, which imposed at least upon the
+ignorant, of Roman refinement, and Martianus flattered himself that he was
+at least a passable successor of Count Ælius.
+
+Meanwhile he pursued his suit to Carna with a good deal of craft. He was a
+diligent attendant at the village church, and professed to feel such an
+interest in the teaching of the old priest that the ministrations in
+church must be supplemented by conversations at home. To Carna he said
+little or nothing about his personal claims, but he was eloquent on the
+subject of the future of Britain. About this she was never tired of
+hearing, and in hearing him speak of it, which he did with a certain
+eloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality began to grow fainter
+in her mind. The maiden faith which “glorifies clown and satyr” began to
+make this schemer, who indeed was not without ability and accomplishments,
+look like a genuine patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they were
+simply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity of praising him to
+their young kinswoman. On the whole, his suit made some progress. It was
+only when he seemed to put forward any personal claim, or ventured to
+address to Carna any personal compliments, that she decidedly shrank from
+him. He was quite shrewd enough to see this, and though it was a very
+unpleasant experience for his vanity as well as for his love, he did not
+fail to guide his conduct by it. As long as he talked about Britain, its
+wrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he was sure of a
+favourable hearing.
+
+Martianus had other things to think of besides his suit to Carna. As he
+said, he had broken entirely with Ambiorix. He had found that the strength
+of the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated, and that in fact the
+time for its revival had gone by for ever. Any chance, too, of even
+temporary success that it might have had had been lost with the life of
+Carausius. The priest had held many threads of secret intrigue in his
+hands, and there was no one to take them up, when they dropped from his
+hand. And Ambiorix, besides being worth but little as an ally, had wanted
+too much, for he was not of a temper to be satisfied with the second
+place.
+
+Still Martianus was well aware that his rival would have to be reckoned
+with sooner or later. If he could induce Carna to become his wife, and
+thus unite her family claim to his own, this reckoning might be got
+through with care and success. If he had to rely upon himself the chances
+would be decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which he found himself
+was this. On the one hand, to hasten his suit might be to ruin it
+altogether; Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something more
+substantial than his own assertion of his pretensions. On the other hand,
+there was the danger of being attacked and crushed before he could make
+his appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a man of even desperate
+courage, and would not suffer himself to be effaced without a struggle.
+
+Martianus did his best to guard himself against this danger. He
+strengthened the fortifications which the Count had made round the villa,
+laid up a store of provisions which might be sufficient for a prolonged
+siege, and used all his resources—he was one of the richest men in
+Britain—to get together as large and effective a garrison as possible.
+
+These precautions were not taken a day too soon. About the beginning of
+June he received intelligence from his agents on the mainland that
+Ambiorix was preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with the news to
+the priest’s house.
+
+“You know,” he said, “that my house has always been at your disposal, but,
+much as I should have liked to receive you as my guests, I would not press
+the invitation upon you. But now, in the face of what I have just heard,
+your coming is a necessity. Ambiorix and his followers are almost on the
+way to attack us, and there is no place of safety but the villa.”
+
+The proposition was most distasteful to Carna, who shuddered at the
+thought of entering her old home in such society. At first she was
+disposed to be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus was not
+incapable of exaggerating, and even of inventing, when he had an object to
+serve. Compelled, by the proofs which the chief advanced, to acknowledge
+that the danger was real, she took refuge in the argument that “it did not
+concern them.”
+
+“We are too insignificant to be harmed,” she said.
+
+“Pardon me, Carna,” replied Martianus. “You surely know better than that
+about yourself. And if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on your
+own account, think of your host. There is nothing that Ambiorix hates with
+so deadly a hatred as a Christian priest.”
+
+The old priest, a worthy man, but not of the stuff of which martyrs are
+made, was terribly alarmed at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled to
+acknowledge that this fear was not without reason, and reluctantly
+consented to the removal. Her mind once made up, she found abundance of
+occupation in making it as little grievous to others as might be. The
+villa could not hold any great number of inmates in addition to the
+garrison, and of course it was necessary that the number of non-combatants
+should be as small as possible. Some of the inhabitants of the settlement
+could, of course, remain safely in their homes. They had little or nothing
+to be robbed of, and the expected assailants had no other reason for
+harming them. But many households had to be broken up, and as only very
+few could be received at the villa, there were many painful scenes to be
+gone through, and Carna was unceasingly busy giving all the comfort and
+help that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly in temper, put all
+his resources at her disposal, and his readiness to assist put him higher
+in her favour than he had ever been before.
+
+Nor was she sorry that she had found shelter within the fortifications of
+the villa when the next morning revealed the presence of the invaders.
+They had come across in the night to the number of several hundreds, and
+could be seen from the windows of the villa. And a very singular sight
+they were. A spectator might have imagined himself to have been carried
+back more than four centuries and a half, and to be looking on the hosts
+which had gathered to oppose the landing of the first Cæsar. These
+warriors who came up shouting to the palisade which formed the outer
+defence of the villa seemed to be absolute barbarians; no one could have
+believed that for many generations they had been subjects of a civilized
+power. They had, in fact, deliberately thrown off all the signs of that
+subjection. It was the dream of Ambiorix to have Britain such as she might
+have been had Rome never conquered her. It was a hopeless attempt, this
+rolling back the course of time by four centuries, but in such matters as
+dress and equipment something could be done. Accordingly, his troops were
+such as the troops of Cassibelan might have been had they suddenly risen
+from their graves. Most of them were naked to the waist; what clothing
+they had was chiefly of skins, though some wore gaily-coloured trews. All
+wore their hair falling over their shoulders, and long, drooping
+moustaches, but no beard or whisker. All the exposed parts of their bodies
+were dyed a deep indigo-blue, by the application of woad. Ambiorix had
+been very anxious to revive the chariots of his ancestors, but had been
+compelled to give up the idea. In any case he could not have transported
+them to the island. He had been at great pains to instruct them in the
+genuine British war-cries, as far as tradition had preserved them. Here,
+again, the result had been somewhat disappointing. There were things which
+they had learnt from Rome which they could not put off as easily as their
+dress; and the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged as they
+surged up to the defences were a curious mixture of the British and Latin
+tongues.
+
+The battle at first went decidedly against the assailants. The Count had
+left behind him a catapult among other effects which he had not thought it
+worth while to remove; and Martianus, who had practised some of the
+garrison in the use of it, brought it into play with considerable effect.
+The very first discharge killed one of the lesser chiefs, and a little
+later in the day Ambiorix himself was badly bruised by one of the stones
+propelled from it. Meanwhile the defenders escaped almost wholly without
+injury. There was no need for them to leave the shelter of the buildings.
+As long as they kept within this the bows and slings of the enemy failed
+to harm them. One or two rash young recruits exposed themselves
+unnecessarily, and were wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, about
+an hour before sunset, called off his men, the garrison found that the
+casualties had been very slight and few.
+
+During the night the besiegers were not idle. They constructed a
+mantelet(61) of wicker work covered with stout hides, and brought it out
+close to the palisade—an operation which the besieged, with a culpable
+carelessness, allowed them to do unmolested. From under cover of this they
+plied long poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for Ambiorix was
+not so obstinate a conservative as to go back to the axe of bronze), and
+hacked away at the palisade. The catapult produced no effect on this
+erection, and though arrows, discharged almost perpendicularly into the
+air so as to fall just on the other side of it, inflicted some injury, the
+work went on without interruption. Martianus, seeing this, headed a sally
+in person, and, after a sharp struggle, succeeded in possessing himself of
+it. The wicker work was broken in pieces, and the hides carried off within
+the line of defences.
+
+The next three days passed without incident, and the inmates of the villa
+began to hope that the danger had passed over. In reality, however, the
+besiegers were collecting materials for the construction of another
+mantelet on a much larger scale. As much of this as was possible was put
+together out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the fourth day
+an erection of considerable size could be seen about fifty yards from the
+palisade. It soon became evident that the new plan of the assailants was
+to try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped round with tow, and, when
+this had been lighted, were discharged into the enclosure. Some mischief
+was done, not so much to the buildings, for it was not difficult to put
+out the fire if the arrows happened to fall on an inflammable place, but
+to the garrison. The men who had to extinguish the flames could not avoid
+exposing themselves, and those who exposed themselves were frequently hit
+by the slingers and archers. On the whole, however, little progress was
+made, and when, in the course of the evening, a heavy rain came on, and
+the wind, which had hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died away,
+the discharge ceased.
+
+It was now necessary for Ambiorix to bring matters to a crisis. His
+followers had nearly exhausted the store of provisions which they had
+brought with them, and, as he was unwilling to alienate the inhabitants of
+the island by resorting to plunder, he did not see how he could replenish
+it. Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct assault, and this he
+did in the early dawn of the sixth day after his arrival. Under cover of a
+heavy mist which rolled in from the sea, and helped by the neglect of the
+sentinels, who, never very watchful, had relaxed their care altogether
+when the light became visible, he brought his men close up to the palisade
+at the spot where an opening had been left, closed with a strong gate. For
+a few minutes, such was the supineness of the garrison, the assailants
+were allowed to batter and hew at this undisturbed. When some of the
+defenders had been rallied to the spot, the work was more than half done.
+Ambiorix, who was now entirely recovered from the injury received on the
+first day of the siege, plied his axe with extraordinary energy, and his
+immediate followers, whom he had carefully selected for their courage and
+strength, followed his example. By the time Martianus arrived on the scene
+the gate had been broken down, and the assailants were pouring into the
+enclosure.
+
+The garrison, who were outnumbered in the proportion of nearly three to
+one, were at once ordered to fall back into the quadrangle of the villa.
+They formed a line across the open side where they were covered by the
+archers and slingers posted on the roofs of the various buildings. Here a
+long and fierce struggle ensued. The defenders had some advantage in their
+position, and were better drilled and disciplined; the assailants, on the
+other hand, had the courage of fanaticism. When an hour had passed, and
+the combatants, by mutual consent, paused to take breath, both sides had
+lost many in killed and wounded, but neither had gained any considerable
+advantage.
+
+Carna meanwhile had been busy ministering to the needs of the wounded, and
+was scarcely aware of the true position of affairs, the room in which she
+was at work not commanding a view of the space in which the struggle was
+going on. Chancing, however, to leave it for a moment in search of
+something which she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken place. In
+a moment her resolution was taken. During the siege her thoughts had been
+taken up, not with the danger to herself and the other inmates of the
+villa, but with the terrible fact that Britons were fighting against
+Britons. Long before she would have attempted to put an end to their cruel
+strife, if she had seen any hope of success. She would not have hesitated
+risking her life in the attempt. Indeed she had proposed to Martianus that
+she should go with a party bearing a flag of truce, and seek an interview
+with the hostile commander. He had met her with a courteous and peremptory
+refusal, and she had been compelled to acquiesce. But now it seemed to her
+that her chance was come. Taking advantage of the pause in the struggle,
+she ran between the combatants, and threw herself on her knees with her
+face towards the assailants.
+
+A murmur of astonishment and admiration ran through both the ranks. She
+seemed to be a visitor from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and,
+at the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.
+
+“Britons, brothers,” she cried, in a sweet but penetrating voice, which
+made itself heard through the throng, “what is this? Britons, brothers,
+have you forgotten what you are? Your masters have left you. You carry
+arms which have been forbidden to you for more than four hundred years,
+and must you first use them against your own countrymen? Have you no
+enemies abroad that you must look for them at home?”
+
+A shriek of terror, followed by a wild war cry, which, though strange to
+many of the crowd, was only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast,
+gave a fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from without were there.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                          AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.
+
+
+Cedric, after making good his escape from the villa, as has been related,
+had nearly died of hunger on the shore to which he had managed to make his
+way. When he was almost at his last gasp, a Saxon galley had touched at
+the very spot to supply itself with water. Fortunately for him it was
+commanded by a kinsman of his own, who persuaded the crew—the Saxon
+adventurers had to be dealt with by persuasion rather than by command—to
+return home with their passenger. This probably saved his life; his
+mother, a skilful leech, whose fame was spread abroad among the dwellers
+on the coast, nursed him back into health. Still he had suffered long and
+much; and it was not till the summer was far advanced that he was allowed
+to join an expedition. His noble birth, his reputation for strength and
+courage, not a little enhanced, of course, by his late escape, and the
+personal fascination that he exercised on all about him, pointed him out,
+young as he was, for command.
+
+Carna had been unceasingly in his thoughts since the day when he had last
+seen her. During the delirium of his illness her name had been continually
+on his lips, and one of the earliest confidences of his recovery was the
+story of his love for this Christian maiden of the west. His mother was
+touched by the story. The girl’s passionate desire for the welfare of the
+son that was dead (which she appreciated without comprehending its
+motive), and the very heroism which the son that was living had shown in
+defending her, combined to move her heart. That any living woman could
+resist the attraction of such a champion as her son, she did not believe
+for a moment, in spite of all that Cedric could say about the height of
+saintliness on which Carna stood; and by degrees the young chief himself
+found his worshipping devotion mingled with hopes that were very sweet to
+his heart.
+
+It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as he was at sea, and the
+destination of their voyage became a question, his thoughts at once turned
+to the island. Approaching it with caution, for he was too good a leader
+to risk an encounter with the superior force of the Roman squadron, he
+learnt with surprise that the Count had departed. Of Carna his informant,
+a fisherman who found it answer his purpose to give what information he
+could to the Saxons, could tell him nothing, and Cedric naturally supposed
+that she had gone with the family into which she had been adopted. The
+news struck a strange chill into his heart, but at the same time it
+relieved him of considerable perplexity. His course was now clear; if the
+Romans were gone there was nothing to be feared. He knew the approaches to
+the villa, and how weak were its defences, and he felt sure that a British
+garrison would not be a match for his own vigorous Saxons.
+
+He reached the island two days after the landing of Ambiorix. Acting as
+his own spy on the strength of his knowledge of the country, he soon found
+out the position of affairs, and thought that he could not do better than
+wait to see how things would turn out. The galleys—Cedric had two under
+his command—lay in hiding at some little distance from the Haven, and
+meanwhile every detail of the struggle was watched, unknown to the
+combatants, by scouts who carried news of its progress to their chief. The
+gathering of the troops previous to the attack on the fortifications had
+been observed and rightly understood by these men. Cedric had been at once
+informed of what was in progress, had landed his crews, amounting in all
+to about two hundred, and marched with all the speed that was possible to
+the scene of action. As the news had reached him not long after midnight
+he was able to reach the spot very soon after the attack had commenced.
+
+The battle-cry of the Saxons, terrible to those who knew it, scarcely less
+terrible, with its shrillness and fierceness, to those to whom it was
+strange, arrested the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the
+rear of the attacking party. There could be seen, running swiftly up the
+ascent which led to the palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge
+standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which was wrought in black
+the raven of Odin. Behind him came, in a loose order which served to
+conceal their scanty number, Cedric’s warriors, a sturdy race, whose tall
+stature was made to seem almost gigantic by the height to which their hair
+was dressed. They were formidable foes, but still there were brave men in
+both the British parties who would have had the courage to stand up
+against them. Unhappily one of the panics which defy all reason and all
+individual courage began among the inland Britons at the sight of these
+strange enemies; and, once begun, it could not be checked. Ambiorix,
+indeed, with a few of his immediate followers, faced the enemy, but was
+quickly swept away by the rush of their onset. Martianus, with some of the
+garrison, carrying Carna along with him, took refuge in the villa, and
+hastily secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country, or hid
+themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was there any thought of
+resistance, and the Saxons won their victory almost without losing a drop
+of blood.
+
+Cedric’s eyes, sharpened as they were by love, had caught a glimpse of
+Carna, as she was swept in the throng of fugitives within the doors of the
+villa, and he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence of the place
+against assailants so determined would have been hopeless, even had the
+garrison been as resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and demoralized. A
+few sturdy blows from Cedric’s battle-axe brought the principal door to
+the ground, and he rushed across the fragments into the hall, followed by
+some ten of his attendants. The rest he had signed to remain without.
+Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all the tumult, was surrounded by a
+group of terrified men and women, stood facing him. The crimson mounted to
+her forehead as she met his eyes, for she saw, as no woman could fail to
+see, the love that was in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.
+
+“Spare these poor creatures,” she said, pointing to her terrified
+companions.
+
+“Your lives are safe,” said Cedric in British. “Go with this man,” and he
+pointed to one of his attendants, to whom at the same time he gave some
+brief directions. He turned to Carna: “Lady,” he said, “this is no time
+for many words; and I could not say them if it were, for my tongue is
+ill-taught in your language. But you cannot have failed to see my heart.
+It is yours, and all that I have. Come and be a queen in my home and among
+my people.”
+
+The girl’s eyes, which she had turned to the ground at his first address,
+were now lifted to meet his gaze. “I cannot leave my people,” she said.
+
+“Yet,” he answered, “the good women of whom you used to tell me, whose
+lives are written in that holy book of yours, left their own people to
+follow their husbands.”
+
+“Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they followed was the God whom they
+worshipped in their own homes. You worship strange gods, with whom I can
+have no fellowship.”
+
+“Come with me and teach the truth to my people and me,” cried the young
+man, feeling that there was nothing which he would not do to win this
+bright, brave, beautiful maiden.
+
+“Listen, Cedric,” she answered—it was the first time that she had called
+him by his name, and he thought that he had never known before what a name
+it was—“You told me some time since that you would sooner go into the
+everlasting darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom
+you believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve; and
+I have honoured you for it. Will you give it up for the love of a woman?
+If you did, I could honour you no more, and you are too good to have a
+wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I will pray for you. Perhaps God
+will hear me, and give you light, and bring us together to the blessed
+Christ, but it cannot be here.”
+
+She caught his right hand which he had reached out in the earnestness of
+his speaking, and lifted it to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression
+of her gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it of a woman’s love.
+But she never faltered for one instant in the resolve that was to separate
+them.
+
+Behind Cedric stood a burly, middle-aged warrior, his father’s
+foster-brother. He had watched the scene with an intense interest, and
+though of course he could not understand what was said, had a very shrewd
+notion of the turn which affairs were taking. Perhaps he saw, too,
+expressed in the girl’s tone something of a feeling which the young man
+was too rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was ill-content that
+his young chief should miss the bride on whom his heart was set, and who
+seemed so worthy of him.
+
+“A noble maiden!” he whispered to Cedric, “and fit to be the wife and
+mother of kings; and I think that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I
+warrant that it will not be long before she forgives us.”
+
+“Peace!” said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him, “Peace! Would you have me
+wed a slave? My wife must come to me freely, or come not at all.”
+
+He spoke to Carna again. “Your will is my law. If you say that we must
+part, I go. But, lady, you must leave this house. My people are set upon
+burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I would.”
+
+Without another word, she obeyed his bidding, and passed into the court,
+followed by Cedric and his attendants.
+
+Meanwhile some of the Saxon crews had been busy with their torches, and
+the flames were beginning to gain a mastery over the building. Before many
+minutes had passed the sheds and outbuildings, which were, to a great
+extent, constructed of wood, were in a blaze, while dense volumes of smoke
+rolled out of the windows of the villa itself. Carna stood spellbound by
+the sight, at once so terrible and so grand. The spectacle of a burning
+house exercises a curious fascination even on those for whom it means loss
+and disaster, and Carna, even in that supreme crisis of her life, could
+not help gazing at the conflagration, and even admiring unconsciously the
+splendid contrasts of light and darkness which it produced.
+
+It seemed as if that day was about to sweep away all her past. She had
+torn from her heart her half-acknowledged love; she saw the home of her
+childhood and youth vanishing into smoke and ashes; and now another actor
+in the bygone of her life was to disappear for ever.
+
+Martianus had observed the scene from the chamber in which he had taken
+refuge, and had misunderstood it. He fancied that the girl, whom, though
+no formal betrothal had bound her to him, he regarded as his own, was
+going of her own accord with this Saxon robber, in whom, of course, he
+recognized the champion who had saved her life at the Great Temple. The
+thought stung him to madness. With all his foppery and frivolity, he had
+the courage of his race. He might probably have escaped unnoticed from the
+burning building. But, disdaining flight, he rushed at Cedric, heedless of
+the odds which he was challenging.
+
+The chief’s followers, knowing their master’s temper, stood aside to let
+the conflict be decided without their interference. It was fierce, but it
+was brief. Martianus was a skilled swordsman, but a life of indolence, if
+not of excess, had slackened his sinews and unsteadied his nerves. He
+parried some of his antagonist’s blows with sufficient adroitness, but his
+defence grew weaker and weaker, and he could not save himself from one or
+two severe wounds. Giving way before the fierce, unremitting attack of his
+antagonist, he came without knowing it to the edge of the well, stumbled
+over the raised parapet that surrounded it, and fell headlong into its
+depths.(62)
+
+The sight of the conflict had diverted Carna’s attention from the burning
+house. She did not wait to see its issue, but at once quitted the
+precincts of the villa. Some of the survivors of the garrison, the old
+priest and his wife, and the rest of the non-combatants, followed her. Not
+only did they feel that it was she who had saved them from the swords of
+the Saxons, but they recognized in her calmness and courage the qualities
+of a true leader, and were sure that they could not do better than follow
+her guidance. Her own plans had been formed for some time. She saw that
+the strength of Britain was in the great cities. If the country,
+disorganized as it was, was to be made capable again of order and
+self-defence, the impulse must come from them, the centres of its civil
+and religious life. Londinium, where the Count’s name was well-known and
+respected, and where she had some connections of her own, was her
+destination. There she hoped to be able to do something for her people.
+
+The first step was to leave the neighbourhood of the villa, and with the
+helpless companions who now, she saw, looked to her for guidance, to make
+her way to the north of the island, and from thence to the mainland.
+Making a short pause till the stragglers had come up, she addressed a few
+words of counsel and comfort to the fugitives.
+
+“Dear friends,” she said, “God has delivered us from the hands of the
+heathen, and will bring us safe to the haven where we would be. But this
+is no place for us. We will go to where we may serve Him in peace and
+quietness.”
+
+Her clear, firm tones, which seemed inspired with all the confidence of an
+unfaltering faith, seemed to breathe in their turn new courage into the
+terrified crowd. They received them with a murmur of assent, and without
+an expression of fear or doubt, followed her as she led the way to the
+summit of the neighbouring downs.
+
+Arrived at this spot, she paused and turned, as if to take a last look at
+the scenes in which her past life had been spent. The landscape lay calm
+and smiling about her. Every feature in it was familiar to her eyes; there
+was not one with which she had not some happy association. But now the
+sight had lost its power; her soul was occupied with more profound
+emotions. The home of her childhood lay beneath her feet, a blackened
+ruin; and there, upon the sea, could be seen flashing in the sunlight the
+oars of the Saxons’ departing galleys.
+
+It was a contrast full of significance, and the girl, in whose pure and
+enthusiastic soul there seemed to be something of a prophetic power,
+caught some of its meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days of
+the Roman domination. It had had its uses, it had done its work, but it
+had become corrupt and feeble, and it was passing away for ever. And the
+future was there, symbolized in the Saxon ships that, brightened by the
+sunshine, were speeding their way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous
+and hopeful life, across the waters. That was the new power that was to
+shake this worn-out civilization, and raise in the course of the ages a
+fair fabric of its own.
+
+For the moment the present, with all its misery and desolation, mastered
+the girl’s spirit with an overpowering sense of loss. Thoughts of her
+ruined home, her helpless country, and her own personal loss, though
+almost unacknowledged to herself, in the final parting with the young hero
+of her life, came upon her with a force which broke down all her
+fortitude. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+Then her fortitude and her conscience reasserted themselves. “Courage, my
+friends,” she cried, “God hath not deserted us, nor our dear country. We
+have sinned much, and we shall have much to bear. But He has chosen this
+land for a great work, and He will make all things work together for good
+till He has accomplished it.” She was silent for a few moments. When she
+began to speak again, some mighty inspiration seemed to carry her beyond
+the present and out of herself. “Yes,” she cried, “God hath great things
+in store for this dear country of ours. I see a great blackness of
+darkness. From many houses, great and fair, where the rulers of the land
+lived delicately, shall go up to heaven the smoke of a great burning, and
+the fields shall be untilled and desolate, and the rivers shall run red
+with blood. But beyond the darkness I see a light, and the light shines
+upon a land that is fair as the garden of the Lord; and therein I behold
+great cities thronged with men, and in the midst of them stately houses of
+God, such as have never yet been built by skill of human hand. And the
+people that work and worship there are not of our race, nor yet wholly
+strange. For the Lord shall make to Himself a people from out of them that
+know Him not, even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull down His
+Church shall build it again, and they shall carry His name to many lands,
+for the sea shall be covered with their ships; and they shall rule over
+the nations from the one end of heaven to the other.”
+
+  [Illustration: Carna on the Hillside.]
+
+She sank upon her knees, and remained wrapt in prayer, while the crowd
+stood round and watched her with awe-stricken faces. When she rose again
+to her feet she was calm. Resolutely she set her face from the scene of
+her past life, and went her way to meet the future that lay before her.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                                 AT LAST.
+
+
+It was nearly sunset on the second day of the great battle of Badon
+Hill.(63) The long, desperate fight was over, and the great British
+champion had turned back for a time the tide of Saxon invasion. The
+heathen dead lay, rank by rank, as they had fallen, every man in his
+place, in the great wedge-like formation which had resisted all the
+efforts of the Britons during the first day of the struggle, and had been
+with difficulty broken through on the second.
+
+The King was sitting amidst a circle of his knights on the top of the
+hill, resting from his toils. His cross-hilted sword stood fixed in the
+ground before him. On one side lay his helmet, bearing for its crest a
+dragon wrought in gold; on the other, his shield, on which was blazoned
+the figure of the Virgin.
+
+A priest approached, walking in front of a party of four who were carrying
+a litter, and who, at a sign from their leader, set it down before the
+King.
+
+“My lord,” said the priest, “I was traversing the field to see whether I
+could serve any of the wounded with my ministrations, when word was
+brought to me that a Saxon desired to talk with me. He could speak the
+British tongue, it was told me, a thing almost unheard of among these
+barbarians. I did not delay to visit the man, and finding that he desired
+above all things to speak to your lordship, I took it upon myself to order
+that he should be brought.”
+
+The wounded man raised himself with some difficulty, and by the help of
+one of the bearers, into a sitting posture. He was of almost gigantic
+proportions, and though his hair and beard were white as snow, showed
+little of the waste and emaciation of age.
+
+One of the King’s knights recognized him at once.
+
+“I noted him,” said he, “for a long time during the battle. He was in the
+front rank, and stood close to a young chief, whose guardian he seemed to
+be. I observed that he was content to ward off blows that were aimed at
+the young man, but never dealt any himself. What came to him and his
+charge afterwards I do not know, for the tide of battle carried me away.”
+
+“What do you want?” said the King.
+
+“My lord King,” said the old man, speaking British fluently, though with a
+foreign accent, “the knight speaks true. Neither to-day, nor yesterday,
+nor indeed through all the years during which my people have fought with
+yours, have I stained my hands with British blood. Indeed for forty years
+I have not set foot on this island. But this year I was constrained to
+come, for the young Prince of my people, Logrin by name, was with the
+army, and his father had given him into my charge, and I could not leave
+him. All day, therefore, I stood by him, and warded off the blows with
+such strength and skill as I had, and when his death hour came, for he
+fell on the morning of the second day, I cared no more for my own life. So
+much I say that you may listen to me the more willingly, though report
+says of you that you are generous, not to friends only, but also to foes.
+But I have something to say that is of more moment. Many years ago I was a
+prisoner in this land, having been taken by one of the ships of Count
+Ælius. Many things happened to me during my sojourn here of which it does
+not concern me to speak, except of this. There was in the household of the
+Count a maiden, his daughter by adoption, but of British birth, Carna by
+name. She was very anxious to bring me to faith in her Master, Christ; and
+I was no little moved by her words, and still more by the example of her
+goodness. But I loved her, and this love seemed to hinder me, for how
+could I tell whether it were truth itself or the love that was persuading
+me? And would not he be the basest of men who for love of a woman should
+leave the faith of his fathers? So I remained, though it was half against
+my own mind, in my unbelief, and when she would not take me for her
+husband, being unbaptized, we parted, and I saw her no more. But her
+words, and the memory of her, have dwelt with me unceasingly, and now that
+God has brought me back to this land, I desire to have that which once I
+refused. But tell me, my lord King, have you any knowledge of this lady
+Carna?”
+
+“Yes,” said the King, “I know her well, and by the ordering of God, as I
+do not doubt, she is in this very place this day, for she gives her whole
+time to ministering to such as are in trouble or sorrow. She shall be sent
+for forthwith, and the archbishop also, who will, if he thinks fit,
+administer to you the holy rite of baptism.”
+
+Cedric, for as my readers will have guessed it was he, bowed his head in
+assent, and after swallowing a cordial which the King’s physician put to
+his lips, sank back upon the litter.
+
+In about half an hour Carna appeared. She was dressed in the garb of a
+religious house, for she had taken the vows, and she was followed by a
+small company of holy women who, like her, had devoted their lives to the
+service of their poor and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Time
+had dealt gently with her, as he often does with gentle souls. The glossy
+chestnut hair of the past was changed indeed to a silvery white, and her
+face was wasted with fast and vigil; but her complexion was clear and
+delicate as of old, and her eyes as lustrous and deep.
+
+When she saw and recognized the wounded man—for she did recognize him at
+once—a sweet and tender smile came over her face. Her gift of intuition
+seemed to tell her that her prayers were answered, and that the soul for
+which her supplications had gone up day by day, from youth to age, had
+been given to her.
+
+“Carna,” said the dying man, “God has brought me back to you after many
+years, and before it is too late. Your God is my God, and your country my
+country—but not here. Once I could not own it, fearing lest my love should
+be leading me into falsehood; but all things are now made clear. But, my
+lord King,” he went on, feebly turning his head to Arthur, “bid them make
+haste, for I would be baptized before I die, and my time is short.”
+
+The priest had departed on another errand, and the King was perplexed. The
+physician whispered in his ear—
+
+“He has not many moments to live.”
+
+“Baptize him, my lord King, yourself,” said Carna; “it is lawful in case
+of need, and none can do it more fittingly.”
+
+“I will willingly be his sponsor,” said the knight who had first spoken,
+“for there was never braver man wielded axe or sword.”
+
+The King dipped his hand in a golden cup that stood on the table by his
+chair, sprinkled the water thrice on the dying man, as he pronounced the
+solemn formula, and signed on his forehead the sign of the Cross. He then
+put the cross-shaped hilt of his sword to the lips of the newly baptized.
+Cedric devoutly kissed it. The next minute he was dead.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+          UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 A reference to the well-known salutation of the gladiators as they
+      passed the Emperor in his seat at the Public Games. “Ave Cæsar
+      Imperator! Morituri te salutant.” _Hail! Cæsar Emperor, the doomed
+      to death salute thee._
+
+    2 Now known all over the world as Portsmouth Harbour.
+
+    3 Honorius and Arcadius, who ruled over the Western and Eastern
+      Empires respectively, were the weak sons of the vigorous Theodosius.
+
+    4 Marcus was the first of three usurpers successively saluted Emperor
+      by the legions of Britain.
+
+    5 Vespasian, appointed by Claudius in A.D. 52 to the command of the
+      second legion, had made extensive conquests in Britain adding, among
+      other places, the Isle of Wight (Vectis) to the Empire.
+
+    6 The observation of omens, or signs, supposed to indicate the future,
+      was one of the duties of a commanding officer.
+
+    7 When one of the vine-sticks used in administering corporal
+      punishment to the Roman soldiers was broken on the culprit’s back,
+      he would at once call for another. A milder disciplinarian would
+      probably consider that when the stick was broken the punishment
+      might end.
+
+    8 “Decimation” was a common military punishment in cases of mutiny or
+      bad behaviour on the field of battle. Every tenth man, taken by lot,
+      was put to death.
+
+    9 It would seem that the myth which made the Empress Helena, the
+      mother of Constantine, into a British princess, had already grown
+      up. She was, in fact, the daughter of a tavern-keeper, and in no way
+      connected with Britain.
+
+   10 A _donative_ was a distribution of money made to the soldiers on
+      such occasions as the accession of an Emperor.
+
+   11 Lymne, in Kent, now some miles inward, on the edge of Romney Marsh.
+
+   12 Constantinople.
+
+   13 His capital is said to have been near the ancient Caieta and modern
+      Gaieta.
+
+   14 The “five” are, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
+      Aurelius, whose united reigns extended from 97 to 180 A.D.—a period
+      of peace and prosperity such as Rome never enjoyed again.
+
+   15 The hills that run as far as Arreton and the valley of the Medina.
+
+   16 Brading Haven.
+
+   17 The villa consisted, it will be seen, of the three parts which were
+      commonly found in establishments of this kind. These were called
+      respectively the _Urbana_, containing the rooms in which the family
+      resided, and including also the garden terraces, &c.; the _Rustica_,
+      occupied by slaves and workmen but in this case, as will be seen,
+      partly used for another purpose; and the _Fructuaria_, containing
+      cellars for wine, &c., barns, granaries, and storehouses of various
+      kinds.
+
+   18 The British bishops were notoriously poor, and their clergy were
+      doubtless still more slenderly provided for.
+
+   19 Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris.
+
+   20 Now Lyons.
+
+   21 The Elbe.
+
+   22 Probably the Channel Islands, always a dangerous place for
+      navigation.
+
+   23 Perhaps something like the early Saxon poem which we know under the
+      name of Beowulf.
+
+   24 Possibly the reason why so much buried money belonging to the later
+      days of the Roman occupation of Britain has been found.
+
+   25 Ireland. A similar incident is mentioned by Tacitus in his life of
+      Agricola. An Irish petty king, driven from his throne by internal
+      troubles, came to the Roman general and promised, if he were
+      restored, to bring the island under the dominion of Rome. This is
+      the first notice of the country that occurs in history.
+
+   26 This was exactly what had happened not many years before to St.
+      Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
+
+   27 Probably somewhere near Wexford.
+
+   28 With us tables are cleared after a meal; with the Romans they seem
+      to have been actually removed.
+
+   29 Theodosius ordered a massacre at Thessalonica on account of some
+      offence offered to him by the populace of that city.
+
+   30 Chichester.
+
+   31 Pevensey.
+
+   32 Boulogne.
+
+   33 Commonly known by his Romanized name of Caractacus.
+
+   34 Streets of Rome.
+
+   35 This river, of course, must have been the Avon.
+
+   36 Winchester.
+
+   37 Salisbury.
+
+   38 Now known as Downton, a small market town, about five miles south of
+      Salisbury.
+
+   39 A trilith consists of two upright stones with a third placed across.
+
+   40 “How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the
+      hill?”—PSALM xi. 1.
+
+   41 Commonly called Jerome.
+
+   42 John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398, at Constantinople 398-404.
+
+   43 Winchester.
+
+   44 Calleva Attrebatium, now known as Silchester, one of the most
+      perfect specimens of a Roman camp to be seen in this country.
+
+   45 Princeps Civitatis.
+
+   46 The wall of Antoninus, built to defend Northern Britain from the
+      Caledonians, and held by Roman forces till far on in the fourth
+      century.
+
+   47 Daniel iii. 19.
+
+   48 It may be as well to say a few words about Stilicho. He was the son
+      of a Vandal captain, and attracted by his skill and courage the
+      favourable notice of the Emperor Theodosius, who gave him his niece
+      Serena in marriage. His influence continued to increase, and in
+      course of time Theodosius made him and his wife guardians of his
+      young son Honorius, whom he shortly afterwards proclaimed Augustus,
+      and Emperor of the West. In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was
+      divided between his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius
+      the East. Stilicho’s daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius,
+      and his influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the
+      Empire, conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates, and
+      driving back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by the
+      very terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was engaged in a
+      struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over whom he won, in the
+      year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near the modern Turin, and
+      whom he defeated again in the following year under the walls of
+      Verona. He is said to have conceived the idea of securing the Empire
+      for his own son, and for this purpose to have entered into intrigues
+      with his old enemy Alaric. However this may be, it is certain that
+      he fell into disgrace. His end is related in this chapter. The poet
+      Claudian employed himself in writing the praises of Stilicho and
+      invectives against his rivals Rufinus and Eutropius.
+
+           49 “Stilichonis apex et cognita fulsit
+        Canities.”
+
+      “There shone Stilicho’s towering head and well-known locks of
+      white”—a passage quoted from Claudian by D’Israeli, with exquisite
+      propriety, in his eulogium on the Duke of Wellington, in the House
+      of Commons, November, 1852.
+
+   50 In one of Æsop’s fables, a trumpeter, taken prisoner, begs for his
+      life, pleading that he has never struck a blow in battle; but is
+      told that he has done much worse in encouraging others to fight by
+      his martial music.
+
+   51 A tribe that occupied a region included in what is now known as
+      Russian Poland.
+
+   52 Serena was wife to Stilicho, and, as has been said before, niece to
+      the Emperor Theodosius.
+
+   53 The Imperial standard (see page 21).
+
+   54 Business to-morrow.
+
+   55 The Forest of Anderida occupied a great part of Hampshire and nearly
+      the whole of Sussex, except a strip of land along the coast. It must
+      have measured a hundred miles from east to west.
+
+   56 The Black Forest, part of which was known to the Romans.
+
+   57 July 21st.
+
+   58 This is the translation of a passage from the first book of an
+      unfinished poem by Claudian, entitled _De Raptu Proserpinæ_, “The
+      Carrying off Proserpine.” It is an amplification of the legend that
+      Pluto, god of the region of the dead, carried off Proserpine,
+      daughter of Ceres, to be his wife and queen, while she was gathering
+      flowers in the fields of Enna in Sicily. The passage translated
+      occurs in the first book, and describes the tapestry with which
+      Proserpine is busy, as a gift to her absent mother. The poem breaks
+      off in the third book, while relating the search which the mother
+      makes for her lost daughter.
+
+   59 This was actually done about this time, and with the result
+      foreshadowed in the conversation given above.
+
+   60 Carausius had held, towards the end of the third century, the same
+      command as that of the Count of the Saxon Shore, had rebelled
+      against the Emperor, made himself master of Britain and all the
+      Western Seas, and had then proclaimed himself Augustus. The Emperor
+      Diocletian made several attempts to reduce him, but, finding that
+      this could not be done, acknowledged him as a partner in the Empire.
+      Six years later Carausius was murdered by one of his lieutenants,
+      Allectus, who doubtless hoped thus to bring himself into favour at
+      Rome.
+
+   61 Mantelet: a shield of wood, metal, or rope, for the protection of
+      sappers, &c.
+
+   62 A skeleton has been found in the well of the Brading Villa.
+
+   63 The battle of Badon Hill, fought in 451, seems to be a well
+      authenticated historical fact. King Arthur defeated the Saxons after
+      a fierce conflict which lasted for two days. Badon Hill is near
+      Bath.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation (“countryside”, “country-side”; “headquarters”,
+“head-quarters”) have not been changed.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page 19, “tomount” changed to “to mount”
+      page 23, quote mark added after “mishap.”
+      page 33, “Lasetrygones” changed to “Laestrygones”
+      page 76, “asid” changed to “said”
+      page 79, quote mark added after “letter-carriers.”
+      page 87, single quote mark changed to double quote mark after
+      “long.”
+      page 111, “oga” changed to “toga”
+      page 115, quote mark added after “free.”
+      page 139, quote mark added after “wanted.”
+      page 156, “eemed” changed to “seemed”
+      page 157, “greal” changed to “great”
+      page 178, period added after “Sorbiodunum”, comma changed to period
+      after “them”
+      page 233, quote mark added after “man.”
+      page 255, “Or” changed to “On”
+      page 288, “inot” changed to “into”
+      page 297, quote mark added after “man,”
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+                                 CREDITS
+
+
+October 31, 2013
+
+            Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1
+            Produced by sp1nd, Stefan Cramme, and the Online Distributed
+            Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+            produced from images generously made available by The Internet
+            Archive)
+
+
+
+                      A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG
+
+
+This file should be named 44083‐0.txt or 44083‐0.zip.
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/0/8/44083/
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one — the old editions will be
+renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
+owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
+and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
+General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
+distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the Project
+Gutenberg™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
+trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
+receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
+this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given away
+— you may do practically _anything_ with public domain eBooks.
+Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+                    THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+
+
+_Please read this before you distribute or use this work._
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
+any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”),
+you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg™
+License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+                                Section 1.
+
+
+General Terms of Use & Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
+
+
+                                   1.A.
+
+
+By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic work,
+you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the
+terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright)
+agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this
+agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of
+Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee
+for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work
+and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may
+obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set
+forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+
+                                   1.B.
+
+
+“Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used on or
+associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be
+bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that you can
+do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even without complying
+with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are
+a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you
+follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to
+Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+
+                                   1.C.
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” or
+PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an individual
+work is in the public domain in the United States and you are located in
+the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying,
+distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on
+the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
+course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of
+promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project
+Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for
+keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can
+easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you
+share it without charge with others.
+
+
+                                   1.D.
+
+
+The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you
+can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant
+state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the laws of
+your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before
+downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating
+derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work.
+The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of
+any work in any country outside the United States.
+
+
+                                   1.E.
+
+
+Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+
+                                  1.E.1.
+
+
+The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access
+to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently whenever
+any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the phrase
+“Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg”
+is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or
+distributed:
+
+
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
+    or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
+    included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+                                  1.E.2.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived from the
+public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with
+permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and
+distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or
+charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the
+phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you
+must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7
+or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.3.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply
+with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed
+by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project
+Gutenberg™ License for all works posted with the permission of the
+copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+
+                                  1.E.4.
+
+
+Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ License
+terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any
+other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.
+
+
+                                  1.E.5.
+
+
+Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic
+work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying
+the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with active links or immediate
+access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License.
+
+
+                                  1.E.6.
+
+
+You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed,
+marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word
+processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than
+“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version posted
+on the official Project Gutenberg™ web site (http://www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other form.
+Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™ License as
+specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+
+                                  1.E.7.
+
+
+Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing,
+copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless you comply
+with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.8.
+
+
+You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or
+distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided that
+
+    - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+      the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you
+      already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to
+      the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to
+      donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60
+      days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally
+      required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments
+      should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4,
+      “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+      Archive Foundation.”
+
+    - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+      you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+      does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License.
+      You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the
+      works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and
+      all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.
+
+    - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+      any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+      electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+      receipt of the work.
+
+    - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+      distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
+
+
+                                  1.E.9.
+
+
+If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ electronic
+work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this
+agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the owner of the
+Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in
+Section 3 below.
+
+
+                                   1.F.
+
+
+                                  1.F.1.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to
+identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these
+efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they
+may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to,
+incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright
+or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk
+or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot
+be read by your equipment.
+
+
+                                  1.F.2.
+
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES — Except for the “Right of
+Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg™
+trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg™
+electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for
+damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE
+NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH
+OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE
+FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT
+WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
+PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY
+OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.3.
+
+
+LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND — If you discover a defect in this
+electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund
+of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to
+the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a
+physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation.
+The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect
+to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the
+work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose
+to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in
+lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a
+refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+
+                                  1.F.4.
+
+
+Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
+paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ’AS-IS,’ WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.5.
+
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the
+exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or
+limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state
+applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make
+the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state
+law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement
+shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+
+                                  1.F.6.
+
+
+INDEMNITY — You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark
+owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of
+Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and
+any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution
+of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs
+and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from
+any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of
+this or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect
+you cause.
+
+
+                               Section  2.
+
+
+           Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™
+
+
+Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic
+works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including
+obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the
+efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks
+of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance
+they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s goals and ensuring
+that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain freely available for
+generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for
+Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To learn more about the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations
+can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation web page at
+http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+                                Section 3.
+
+
+   Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state of
+Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service.
+The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification number is 64-6221541.
+Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. Contributions to the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full
+extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
+
+The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr.
+S. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 North
+1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact information
+can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official page at
+http://www.pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+                                Section 4.
+
+
+  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                                Foundation
+
+
+Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the
+number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment
+including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are
+particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States.
+Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable
+effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these
+requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not
+received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or
+determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have
+not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition against
+accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who approach us
+with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any
+statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside the
+United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation methods
+and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways including
+checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, please
+visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+                                Section 5.
+
+
+      General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works.
+
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg™
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with
+anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg™
+eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed editions,
+all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless a copyright
+notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance
+with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook’s eBook
+number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, compressed
+(zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected _editions_ of our eBooks replace the old file and take over the
+old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed.
+_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including how
+to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation,
+how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email
+newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+***FINIS***
+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/44083-0.zip b/44083-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6a262c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-0.zip
diff --git a/44083-8.txt b/44083-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..549cae3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7620 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of the Saxon Shore by Alfred John
+Church
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Count of the Saxon Shore
+
+Author: Alfred John Church
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2013 [Ebook #44083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Burning of the Villa.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               The COUNT
+                           of the SAXON SHORE
+                                  _or_
+                          The Villa in VECTIS
+
+          _A TALE OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS FROM BRITAIN_
+
+                                 BY THE
+                      REV. ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A.
+                    _Author of "Stories from Homer"_
+
+                       WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
+                               RUTH PUTNAM
+
+
+
+_Fifth Thousand_
+
+
+London
+SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
+38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+
+
+
+
+
+                       Entered at Stationers' Hall
+                             By SEELEY & CO.
+
+                 COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 1887
+                   (For the United States of America).
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE.
+
+
+"Count of the Saxon Shore" was a title bestowed by Maximian (colleague of
+Diocletian in the Empire from 286 to 305 A.D.) on the officer whose task
+it was to protect the coasts of Britain and Gaul from the attacks of the
+Saxon pirates. It appears to have existed down to the abandonment of
+Britain by the Romans.
+
+So little is known from history about the last years of the Roman
+occupation that the writer of fiction has almost a free hand. In this
+story a novel, but, it is hoped, not an improbable, view is taken of an
+important event--the withdrawal of the legions. This is commonly assigned
+to the year 410, when the Emperor Honorius formally withdrew the Imperial
+protection from Britain. But the usurper Constantine had actually removed
+the British army two years before; and, as he was busied with the conquest
+of Gaul and Spain for a considerable time after, it is not likely that
+they were ever sent back.
+
+                                                                  A. J. C.
+                                                                     R. P.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                            PAGE
+     I.   A BRITISH C�SAR                             1
+    II.   AN ELECTION                                13
+   III.   A PRIZE                                    21
+    IV.   THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND                    32
+     V.   CARNA                                      47
+    VI.   THE SAXON                                  57
+   VII.   A PRETENDER'S DIFFICULTIES                 70
+  VIII.   THE NEWS IN THE CAMP                       83
+    IX.   THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS               94
+     X.   DANGERS AHEAD                             107
+    XI.   THE PRIEST'S DEMAND                       115
+   XII.   LOST                                      124
+  XIII.   WHAT DOES IT MEAN?                        135
+   XIV.   THE PURSUIT                               144
+    XV.   THE PURSUIT (_continued_)                 152
+   XVI.   THE GREAT TEMPLE                          164
+  XVII.   THE BRITISH VILLAGE                       173
+ XVIII.   THE PICTS                                 182
+   XIX.   THE SIEGE                                 194
+    XX.   CEDRIC IN TROUBLE                         207
+   XXI.   THE ESCAPE                                216
+  XXII.   A VISITOR                                 224
+ XXIII.   THE STRANGER'S STORY                      234
+  XXIV.   NEWS FROM ITALY                           245
+   XXV.   CONSULTATION                              256
+  XXVI.   FAREWELL!                                 266
+ XXVII.   MARTIANUS                                 271
+XXVIII.   A RIVAL                                   281
+  XXIX.   AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL                     293
+   XXX.   AT LAST                                   306
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+THE BURNING OF THE VILLA                        _Frontispiece_
+                                                          PAGE
+CONSTANTINE ELECTED EMPEROR                                 18
+THE _PANTHER_ AND THE SAXON PIRATES                         28
+CEDRIC AT THE FORGE                                         58
+JAVELIN THROWING                                            78
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS                               104
+BRITISH CONSPIRATORS                                       112
+THE CAPTURE OF CARNA                                       128
+THE SACRIFICE                                              166
+CEDRIC AND THE PICT                                        196
+CEDRIC'S FURY                                              212
+CEDRIC'S ESCAPE                                            222
+CLAUDIAN'S TALE                                            234
+THE COUNT RECEIVING THE LETTER OF HONORIUS                 252
+CARNA AND MARTIANUS                                        276
+CARNA ON THE HILLSIDE                                      304
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     _THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE._
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             A BRITISH C�SAR.
+
+
+"Hail! C�sar Emperor, the starving salute thee!"(1) and the speaker made a
+military salute to a silver coin, evidently brand-new from the mint (which
+did not seem, by the way, to turn out very good work), and bearing the
+superscription, "Gratianus C�sar Imperator Felicissimus." He was a soldier
+of middle age, whose jovial face did not show any sign of the fate which
+he professed to have so narrowly escaped, and formed one of a group which
+was lounging about the _Qu�storium_, or, as we may put it, the paymaster's
+office of the camp at the head of the Great Harbour.(2) A very curious
+medley of nationalities was that group. There were Gauls; there were
+Germans from the Rhine bank, some of them of the pure Teuton type, with
+fair complexions, bright blue eyes, and reddish golden hair, and
+remarkably tall of stature, others showing an admixture of the Celtic
+blood of their Gallic neighbours in their dark hair and hazel eyes; there
+were swarthy Spaniards, fierce-looking men from the Eastern Adriatic,
+showing some signs of Greek parentage in their regular features and
+graceful figures; there were two or three who seemed to have an admixture
+of Asian or even African blood in them; it might be said, in fact, there
+were representatives of every province of the Empire, Italy only excepted.
+They had been just receiving their pay, long in arrear, and now
+considerably short of the proper amount, and containing not a few coins
+which the receivers seemed to think of doubtful value.
+
+"Let me look at his Imperial Majesty," said another speaker; and he
+scanned the features of the new C�sar--features never very dignified, and
+certainly not flattered by the rude coinage--with something like contempt.
+"Well, he does not look exactly as a C�sar should; but what does it
+matter? This will go down with Rufus at the wine-shop and Priscus the
+sausage-seller, as well as the head of the great Augustus himself."
+
+"Ah!" said a third speaker, picking out from a handful of silver a coin
+which bore the head of Theodosius, "this was an Emperor worth fighting
+under. I made my first campaign with him against Maximus, another British
+C�sar, by the way; and he was every inch a soldier. If his son were like
+him(3) things would be smoother than they are."
+
+"Do you think," said the second speaker, after first throwing a cautious
+glance to see whether any officer of rank was in hearing--"do you think we
+have made a change for the better from Marcus?(4) He at all events used to
+be more liberal with his money than his present majesty. You remember he
+gave us ten silver pieces each. Now we don't even get our proper pay."
+
+"Marcus, my dear fellow," said the other speaker, "had a full military
+chest to draw upon, and it was not difficult to be generous. Gratianus has
+to squeeze every denarius out of the citizens. I heard them say, when the
+money came into the camp yesterday, that it was a loan from the Londinium
+merchants. I wonder what interest they will get, and when they will see
+the principal again."
+
+"Hang the fat rascals!" said the other. "Why should they sleep soft, and
+eat and drink the best of everything, while we poor soldiers, who keep
+them and their money-bags safe, have to go bare and hungry?"
+
+"Come, come, comrades," interrupted the first soldier who had spoken; "no
+more grumbling, or some of us will find the centurion after us with his
+vine-sticks."
+
+The group broke up, most of them making the best of their way to spend
+some of their unaccustomed riches at the wine-shop, a place from which
+they had lately kept an enforced absence. Three or four of the number,
+however, who seemed, from a sign that passed between them, to have some
+secret understanding, remained in close conversation--a conversation which
+they carried on in undertones, and which they adjourned to one of the
+tents to finish without risk of being disturbed or overheard.
+
+The camp in which our story opens was a square enclosure, measuring some
+five hundred yards each way, and surrounded by a massive wall, not less
+than four feet in thickness, in the construction of which stone, brick,
+and tile had, in Roman fashion, been used together. The defences were
+completed by strong towers of a rounded shape, which had been erected at
+frequent intervals. The camp had, as usual, its four gates. That which
+opened upon the sea--for the sea washed the southern front--was famous in
+military tradition as the gate by which the second legion had embarked to
+take part in the Jewish War and the famous siege of Jerusalem. Vespasian,
+who had begun in Britain the great career which ended in the throne, had
+experienced its valour and discipline in more than one campaign,(5) and
+had paid it the high compliment of making a special request for its
+services when he was appointed to conduct what threatened to be a
+formidable war. This glorious recollection was proudly cherished in the
+camp, though more than three centuries had passed, changing as they went
+the aspect of the camp, till it looked at least as much like a town as a
+military post. The troops were housed in huts stoutly built of timber,
+which a visitor would have found comfortably furnished by a long
+succession of occupants. The quarters of the tribune and higher centurions
+were commodious dwellings of brick; and the headquarters of the legate, or
+commanding officer, with its handsome chambers, its baths, and tesselated
+pavements, might well have been a mansion at Rome. There was a street of
+regular shape, in which provisions, clothes, and even ornaments could be
+bought. Roman discipline, though somewhat relaxed, did not indeed permit
+the dealers to remain within the fortifications at night, but the shops
+were tenanted by day, and did a thriving business, not only with the
+soldiers, but with the Britons of the neighbourhood, who found the camp a
+convenient resort, where they could market to advantage, besides gossiping
+to their hearts' content. The relations between the soldiers and their
+native neighbours were indeed friendly in the extreme. The legion had had
+its headquarters in the camp of the Great Harbour for many generations,
+though it had occasionally gone on foreign service. Lately, too, the
+policy which had recruited the British legion with soldiers from the
+Continent, had been relaxed, partly from carelessness, partly because it
+was necessary to fill up the ranks as could best be done, and there was
+but little choice of men. Thus service became very much an inheritance.
+The soldiers married British women, and their children, growing up, became
+soldiers in turn. Many recruits still came from Gaul, Spain, and the mouth
+of the Rhine, and elsewhere, but quite as many of the troops were by this
+time, in part or in whole, British.
+
+Another change which the three centuries and a half since Vespasian's time
+had brought about was in religion. The temple of Mars, which had stood
+near the headquarters, and where the legate had been accustomed to take
+the auspices,(6) was now a Christian Church, duly served by a priest of
+British birth.
+
+About a couple of hours later in the day a shout of "The Emperor! the
+Emperor!" was raised in the camp, and the soldiers, flocking out from the
+mess-tents in which most of them were sitting, lined in a dense throng the
+avenue which led from the chief gate to headquarters.
+
+Gratianus, who was followed by a few officers of superior rank and a small
+escort of cavalry, rode slowly between the lines of soldiers. His
+reception was not as hearty as he had expected to find. He had, as the
+soldiers had hinted, made vast exertions to raise a sum of money in
+Londinium--then, as now, the wealthiest municipality in the island. Himself
+a native of the place, and connected with some of its richest citizens, he
+had probably got together more than any one else would have done in like
+circumstances. But all his persuasions and promises, even his offer of
+twenty per cent. interest, had not been able to extract from the Londinium
+burghers the full sum that was required; and the soldiers, who the day
+before would have loudly proclaimed that they would be thankful for the
+smallest instalment, were now almost furious because they had not been
+paid in full. A few shouts of "Hail, C�sar! Hail, Gratianus! Hail,
+Britannicus!" greeted him on the road to his quarters; but these came from
+the front lines only, and chiefly from the centurions and
+deputy-centurions, while the great body of the soldiers maintained an
+ominous silence, sometimes broken by a sullen murmur.
+
+Gratianus was not a man fitted to deal with sudden emergencies. He was
+rash and he was ambitious, but he wanted steadfast courage, and he was
+hampered by scruples of which an usurper must rid himself at once if he
+hopes to keep himself safe in his seat. He might have appealed frankly to
+the soldiers--asked them what it was they complained of, and taken them
+frankly into his confidence; or he might have overawed them by an example
+of severity, fixing on some single act of insubordination or insolence,
+and sending the offender to instant execution. He was not bold enough for
+either course, and the opportunity passed, as quickly as opportunities do
+in such times, hopelessly out of his reach.
+
+The temper of the soldiers grew more excited and dangerous as the day went
+on. For many weeks past want of money had kept them sober against their
+will, and now that the long-expected pay-day had come they crowded the
+wine-shops inside and outside the camp, and drank almost as wildly as an
+Australian shepherd when he comes down to the town after a six months'
+solitude. As anything can set highly combustible materials on fire, so the
+most trivial and meaningless incident will turn a tipsy mob into a crowd
+of bloodthirsty madmen. Just before sunset a messenger entered the camp
+bringing a despatch from one of the outlying forts. One of those
+prodigious lies which seem always ready to start into existence when they
+are wanted for mischief at once ran like wild-fire through the camp.
+Gratianus was bringing together troops from other parts of the province,
+and was going to disarm and decimate the garrison of the Great Camp. The
+unfortunate messenger was seized before he could make his way to
+headquarters, seriously injured, and robbed of the despatch which he was
+carrying. Some of the centurions ventured to interfere and endeavour to
+put down the tumult. Two or three who were popular with the men were
+good-humouredly disarmed; others, who were thought too rigorous in
+discipline, were roughly handled and thrown into the military prison; one,
+who had earned for himself the nick-name of "Old Hand me the other,"(7)
+was killed on the spot. The furious crowd then rushed to headquarters,
+where Gratianus was entertaining a company of officers of high rank, and
+clamoured that they must see the Emperor. He came out and mounted the
+hustings, which stood near the front of the buildings, and from which it
+was usual to address gatherings of the soldiers.
+
+For a moment the men, not altogether lost to the sense of discipline, were
+hushed into silence and order by the sight of the Emperor as he stood on
+the platform in his Imperial purple, his figure thrown into bold relief by
+the torches which his attendants held behind him.
+
+"What do you want, my children?" he said; but there was a tremble in his
+voice which put fresh courage into the failing hearts of the mutineers.
+
+"Give us our pay, give us our arrears!" answered a soldier in one of the
+back rows, emboldened to speak by finding himself out of sight.
+
+The cry was taken up by the whole multitude. "Our pay! Our pay!" was
+shouted from thousands of throats.
+
+Gratianus stood perplexed and irresolute, visibly cowering before the
+storm. At this moment one of the tribunes stepped forward and whispered in
+his ear. What he said was this: "Say to them, 'Follow me, and I will give
+you all you ask and more.'"
+
+It was a happy suggestion, one of the vague promises that commit to
+nothing, and if the unlucky usurper could have given it with confidence,
+with an air that gave it a meaning, he might have been saved, at least for
+a time. But his nerve, his presence of mind was hopelessly lost. "Follow
+me--where? Whither am I to lead them?" he asked, in a hurried, agitated
+whisper.
+
+His adviser shrugged his shoulders and was silent. He saw that he was not
+comprehended.
+
+Gratianus continued to stand silent and irresolute, with his helpless,
+despairing gaze fixed upon the crowd. Then came a great surging movement
+from the back of the crowd, and the front ranks were almost forced up the
+steps of the platform. The unlucky prince turned as if to flee. The
+movement sealed his fate. A stone hurled from the back of the crowd struck
+him on the side of the face. Half stunned by the blow, he leaned against
+one of the attendants, and the blood could be seen pouring down his face,
+pale with terror, and looking ghastly in the flaming torchlight. The next
+moment the attendant flung down his torch and fled--an example followed by
+all his companions. Then all was in darkness; and it only wanted darkness
+to make a score of hands busy in the deed of blood.
+
+As Gratianus lay prostrate on the ground the first blow was aimed by a
+brother of his predecessor, Marcus, who had been quietly waiting for an
+opportunity of vengeance. In another minute he had ceased to live. His
+head was severed from the body and fixed on the top of a pike. One of the
+murderers seized a smouldering torch, and, blowing it into flame, held it
+up while another exhibited the bleeding head, and cried, "The tyrant has
+his deserts!" But by this time the mad rage of the crowd had subsided. The
+horror of the deed had sobered them. Many began to remember little acts of
+kindness which the murdered man had done them, and the feeling of wrong
+was lost in a revulsion of pity. In a few moments more the crowd was
+scattered. Silent and remorseful the men went to their quarters, and the
+camp was quiet again. But another British C�sar had gone the way of a long
+line of unlucky predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+                               AN ELECTION.
+
+
+The camp next day was covered with gloom. The soldiers moved silent and
+with downcast faces along the avenues, or discharged in a mechanical way
+their routine duties. The guards were turned out, the sentries relieved,
+and the general order of service maintained without any action on the part
+of the officers--at least of those who held superior rank. These remained
+in the seclusion of their tents; and it may be said that those who were
+conscious of being popular were almost as much alarmed as those who knew
+that they were disliked. If the latter dreaded the vengeance of those whom
+they had offended, the others were scarcely less alarmed by the
+possibility of being elected to the perilous dignity which had just proved
+fatal to Gratianus. The country people, whose presence generally gave an
+air of cheerfulness and activity to the camp, were too much alarmed to
+come. The trading booths inside the gates were empty, and only a very few
+stalls were occupied in the market, which was held every day outside them.
+
+The funeral of the late prince was celebrated with some pomp. The soldiers
+attended it in crowds, and manifested their grief, and, it would seem,
+their remorse, by groans and tears. They were ready even to give proofs of
+their repentance by the summary execution of those who had taken an active
+part in the bloody deed. But here, one of the centurions, whose cheerful,
+genial manners made him an unfailing favourite with the men, had the
+courage to check them. "No, my men," said he; "we were all mad last night,
+and we must all take the blame."
+
+Two days passed without any incident of importance. On the third the
+question of a successor began to be discussed. One of the other garrisons
+might be beforehand with them, and they would have either to accept a
+chief who would owe his best favours to others, or risk their lives in an
+unprofitable struggle with him. In the afternoon a general assembly of the
+troops was held, the officers still holding aloof, though some of them
+mixed, _incognito_, so to speak, in the crowd.
+
+Of course, the first difficulty was to find any one who would take the
+lead. At last the genial centurion, who has been mentioned above as a
+well-established favourite with the soldiers, was pushed to the front. His
+speech was short and sensible. "Comrades," he said, "I doubt whether what
+I have to say will please you; but I shall say it all the same. You know
+that I always speak my mind. We have not done very well in the new ways.
+Let us try the old. I propose that we take the oath to Honorius Augustus."
+
+A deep murmur of discontent ran through the assembly, and showed that the
+speaker had presumed at least as far as was safe on his popularity with
+the troops.
+
+"Does Decius," cried a burly German from the crowd--Decius was the name of
+the centurion--"does Decius recommend that we should trust to the mercy of
+Honorius? Very good, perhaps, for himself; for the giver of such advice
+could scarcely fail of a reward; but for us it means decimation(8) at the
+least."
+
+A shout of applause showed that the speaker had expressed the feelings of
+his audience.
+
+"I propose that we all take the oath to Decius himself!" said a Batavian;
+"he is a brave man and an honest, and what do we want more?"
+
+The good Decius had heard undismayed the angry disapproval which his loyal
+proposal had called forth; but the mention of his name as a possible
+candidate for the throne overwhelmed him with terror. His jovial face grew
+pale as death; the sweat stood in large drops upon his forehead; he
+trembled as he had never trembled in the face of an enemy.
+
+"Comrades," he stammered, "what have I done that you should treat me thus?
+If I have offended or injured you, kill me, but not this."
+
+More than half possessed by a spirit of mischief, the assembly answered
+this piteous appeal by continuous shouts of "Long live the Emperor
+Decius!"
+
+The good man grew desperate. He drew his sword from the scabbard, and
+pointed it at his own heart. "At least," he cried, "you can't forbid me
+this escape."
+
+The bystanders wrested the weapon from him; but the joke had gone far
+enough, and the man was too genuinely popular for the soldiers to allow
+him to be tormented beyond endurance. A voice from the crowd shouted,
+"Long live the Centurion Decius!" to which another answered, "Long live
+Decius the subject!" and the worthy man felt that the danger was over.
+
+A number of candidates, most of whom were probably as little desirous of
+the honour as Decius, were now proposed in succession.
+
+"I name the Tribune Manilius," said one of the soldiers.
+
+The name was received with a shout of laughter.
+
+"Let him learn first to be Emperor at home!" cried a voice from the back
+of the assembly, a sally which had considerable success, as his wife was a
+well-known termagant, and his two sons the most frequent inmates of the
+military prison.
+
+"I name the Centurion Pisinna."
+
+"Very good, if he does not pledge the purple," for Pisinna was notoriously
+impecunious.
+
+"I name the Tribune Cetronius."
+
+"Very good as Emperor of the baggage-guard." Cetronius had, to say the
+least, no high reputation for personal courage, and was supposed to prefer
+the least exposed parts on the field.
+
+A number of other names were mentioned only to be dismissed with more or
+less contumely. Tired of this sport--for it really was nothing more--the
+crowd cried out for a speech from a well-known orator of the camp, whose
+fluency, not unmixed with shrewdness and humour, had gained him a
+considerable reputation among his comrades.
+
+"Comrades," he began, "if you have not yet found a candidate worthy of
+your suffrages, it is not because such do not exist among you. Can it be
+believed that Britain is less worthy to produce the Emperor than Gaul, or
+Spain, or Thrace, or even the effeminate Syria? Was it not from Britain
+that there came forth the greatest of the successors of Augustus, the
+Second Romulus, Flavius Aurelius Constantinus?"(9)
+
+The orator was not permitted to proceed any further. The name Constantinus
+ran like an electric shock through the whole assembly, and a thousand
+voices took up the cry, "Long live Constantinus, Emperor Augustus!" while
+all eyes were turned to one of the back rows of the meeting, where a
+soldier who happened to bear that name was standing. Some of his comrades
+caught him by the arm, hurried him to the front, and from thence on to the
+hustings. He was greeted with a perfect uproar of applause, partly, of
+course, ironical, but partly the expression of a genuine feeling that the
+right man had been found, and found by some sort of Divine assistance. The
+soldiers were, as has been said, a strange medley of men, scarcely able to
+understand each other, and alike only in being savage, ignorant, and
+superstitious. They had been unlucky in choosing for themselves, and now
+it might be well to have the choice made for them. And at least the new
+man had a name which all of them knew and reverenced, as far as they
+reverenced anything.
+
+  [Illustration: Constantine elected Emperor.]
+
+Whether he had anything but a name might have seemed perhaps somewhat
+doubtful. He had reached middle age, for he had two sons already grown up,
+but had never risen above the rank of a private soldier. It might be said,
+perhaps, that he had shown some ability in thus avoiding promotion--not
+always a desirable thing in troublous times; but there was the fact that
+he was nearly fifty years of age, and was not even a deputy-centurion. On
+the other hand, he was a respectable man, ignorant indeed, for, like most
+of his comrades, he could neither read nor write, but with a certain
+practical shrewdness, so good-humoured that he had never made an enemy,
+known to be remarkably brave, a great athlete in his youth, and still of a
+strength beyond the average.
+
+His sudden and strange elevation did not seem to throw him in the least
+off his balance. He had been perfectly content to go without promotion,
+and now he seemed equally content to receive the highest promotion of all.
+He stood calmly facing the excited mob, as unmoved as if he had been a
+private soldier on the parade ground. A slight flush, indeed, might have
+been seen to mount to his face when the cloak of imperial purple was
+thrown over his shoulders, and the peaked diadem put upon his head. He
+must have been less than man not to have felt some thrill either of fear
+or pride at the touch of what had brought two of his comrades to their
+graves within the space of less than half a year; but he showed no other
+sign of emotion.
+
+The officers, seeing the turn things had taken, had now come to the front,
+and the senior tribune, taking the new Emperor by the hand, led him to the
+edge of the hustings, and said, "Comrades, I present to you Aurelius
+Constantinus, chosen by the providence of God and the choice of the army
+to be Emperor of Britain and the West. The Blessed and Undivided Trinity
+order it for the best." A ringing shout of approval went up in response.
+The tribunes then took the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor in
+person. These again administered it to the centurions, and the centurions
+swore in great batches of the soldiers. The new-made prince meanwhile
+stood unmoved, it might almost be said insensible, so strange was his
+composure in the face of his sudden elevation. All that he said--the
+result, it seemed, of a whisper from one of his sons--were a few words,
+which, however, had all the success of a most eloquent oration.
+
+"Comrades, I promise you a donative(10) within the space of a month."
+
+The assembly broke up in great good-humour, and the newly-made Emperor,
+attended by the officers, went to take possession of headquarters.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                                 A PRIZE.
+
+
+It was a bright morning some three weeks after the occurrences related in
+the last chapter, when a squadron of four Roman galleys swept round the
+point which is now known as the South Foreland. The leader of the four,
+all of which, indeed, lay so close together as to be within easy hailing
+distance, bore on its mainmast the _Labarum_, or Imperial standard,
+showing on a ground of purple a cross, a crown, and the sacred initials,
+all wrought in gold. It was the flagship, so to speak, of the great Count
+himself, one of the most important lieutenants of the Empire, whose task
+it was to guard the shores of Britain and Northern Gaul from the pirate
+swarms that issued from the harbours of the North Sea and the Baltic. The
+Count himself was on board, coming south from his villa on the eastern
+shore--for the stations of which he had the charge extended as far as the
+Wash--to his winter residence in the sunny island of Vectis.
+
+The Count was a tall man of middle age, and wore over his tunic a military
+cloak reaching to the hips, and clasped at the neck with a handsome device
+in gold, representing a hunting-dog with his teeth fixed in a stag. His
+head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat of felt. The only weapon that he
+carried was a short sword, which, with its plain hilt and leather
+scabbard, was evidently meant for use rather than show. His whole
+appearance and bearing, indeed, were those of a man of action and energy.
+His eyes were bright and piercing; his nose showed, strongly pronounced,
+the curve which has always been associated with the ability to command;
+the contour of his chin and lips, as far as could be seen through a short
+curling beard and moustache, worn as a prudent defence against the
+climate, betokened firmness. Still, the expression of the face was not
+unkindly. As a great writer says of one whom Britain had had good reason
+in earlier days both to fear and to love, "one would easily believe him to
+be a good man, and willingly believe him to be great."
+
+At the time when our story opens he was standing in conversation with the
+helmsman, a weather-beaten old sailor, whose dark Southern complexion had
+been deepened by the sun and winds of more than fifty years of service
+into an almost African hue.
+
+"The wind will hardly serve us as well as it has," said the Count, as his
+practised eye, familiar with every yard of the coast, perceived that they
+were well abreast of the extreme southern point of the coast.
+
+"No, my lord," said the old man, "we shall have to take as long a tack as
+we can to the south. There is a deal of west in the wind--more, I think,
+than there was an hour since. Castor and Pollux--I beg your lordship's
+pardon, the blessed Saints--defend us from anything like a westerly gale."
+
+"Ah! old croaker," replied the Count, with a laugh, "I verily believe that
+you will be half disappointed if we get to our journey's end without some
+mishap."
+
+"Good words, good words, my lord," said the old man, hastily crossing
+himself, while he muttered something, which, if it could have been
+overheard, would have been scarcely suitable to that act of devotion.
+"Heaven bring us safe to our journey's end! Of course it is your
+lordship's business to give orders, and ours to go to the bottom, if it is
+to be so. But I must say, saving your presence, that it is against all
+rules of a sailor's craft as I have known it, man and boy, for nigh upon
+threescore years, to be at sea near about a month after the autumn
+equinox.
+
+  'Never let your keel be wet,
+  When the Pleiades have set;
+  Never let your keel be dry,
+  When the Crown is in the sky.'
+
+That is what my father used to say, and his fathers before him, for I do
+not know how many generations, for we have always followed the sea."
+
+"Very well for them, perhaps," said the Count, "in the days when a man
+would almost as soon go into a lion's den as venture out of sight of land.
+But the world is too busy to let us waste half our year on shore."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know all about that," answered the old man, who was
+privileged to have the last word even with so great a personage as the
+Count; "but there is a proverb, 'Much haste, little speed,' and I have
+always found it quite as true by sea as by land."
+
+Meanwhile the proper signals had been given to the rest of the squadron,
+and the whole four were now heading south, with a point or two to the
+west, the _Panther_--for that was the name of the flagship--still slightly
+leading the way, with her consorts in close company. In this order they
+made about twelve miles, the wind freshening somewhat as they drew further
+away from the British shore, and, being nearly aft, carrying them briskly
+along.
+
+"Fine sailing, fine sailing," said the old helmsman, drawn almost in spite
+of himself into an exclamation of delight, as the _Panther_, rushing
+through the water with an almost even keel, began to widen the gap between
+herself and her nearest follower. The short waves, which just broke in
+sparkling foam, the brilliant sunshine, almost bringing back summer with
+its noonday heat, and the sea with a blue which recalled, though but
+faintly, the deep tint of his native Mediterranean, combined to gladden
+the old man's soul. "But we need not put about now," he said to himself.
+"If this wind holds we shall fetch Lemanis(11) without requiring to tack."
+
+He was about to give the necessary orders to trim the sails, when he was
+stopped by a shout from the look-out man at the bow, "A sail on the
+starboard side!" Just within the range of a keen sight, in the
+south-western horizon, the sunlight fell on what was evidently a sail. But
+the distance was too great to let even the keenest sight distinguish what
+kind of craft it might be, or which way it was moving. The Count, who had
+gone below for his mid-day meal, was of course informed of the news. He
+came at once upon deck, and lost no time in making up his mind.
+
+"If she is an enemy," he said to the old helmsman, "she will be eastward
+bound; though I never knew a pirate keep the sea quite so late in the
+year. If she is a friend she will probably be sailing westward, or even
+coming our way--but it does not matter which. If she has anything to tell
+us, we shall be sure to hear it sooner or later. But it will never do to
+let a pirate escape if we can help it. Any one who is out so late as the
+middle of October must have had good reason for stopping, and can hardly
+fail to be worth catching. Quintus, put her right before the wind, and
+clap on every inch of canvas."
+
+The course of the squadron was now changed to nearly due south-east. All
+eyes, of course, were bent on the strange craft, and before an hour had
+passed it was evident that the Count had been right in his guess. There
+were four ships; they were long and low in the water, of the build which
+was only too well known along the coasts of Gaul and Britain, where no
+river or creek, if it gave as much as three or four feet of water, was
+safe from their attack. In short, they were Saxon pirates, and were now
+moving eastward with all the speed that sails and oars could give them.
+The question that every one on board the _Panther_ was putting to himself
+with intense interest was, "Shall we be able to intercept them?" For the
+present the Count's ship had the advantage of speed, thanks to the wind
+abaft the beam. But a stern chase would be useless. On equal terms the
+pirates were at least as quick as their pursuers. The light, too, of the
+autumn day would soon fail, and with the light every chance of success
+would be gone.
+
+For a time it seemed as if the escape of the pirate was certain. "Curse
+the scoundrels!" cried the Count, as he paced impatiently up and down the
+after deck. "If it would only come on to blow in real earnest we should
+have them. Anyhow, I would sooner that we should all founder together than
+that they should get off scot free."
+
+The _Panther_, which had left her consorts about a mile in the rear, was
+now near enough for her crew to see distinctly the outlines of the pirate
+ships, to mark the glitter of the shields that were ranged along the
+gunwales, and to catch the rhythmic rise and fall of the long sweeping
+oars. The Saxons were evidently straining every nerve to make good their
+escape, and it seemed scarcely possible that they could fail. Then came a
+turn of fortune--the very thing, in fact, that the Count had prayed for.
+For a time--only a very few moments--the wind freshened to something like
+the force of a gale. The masts of the _Panther_ were strained to the
+utmost of their strength; they groaned and bent like whips under the
+sudden pressure on the canvas, but the seasoned timber stood the sudden
+call upon it bravely. How the Count blessed himself that he had never
+passed over a piece of bad workmanship or bad material! The good ship took
+a wild plunge forward, but nothing gave way. But the last of the four
+pirates was not so fortunate. She had one tall mast, carrying a
+fore-and-aft sail, so large as to be quite out of proportion to her size.
+The wind struck her nearly sideways, and she heeled over till her keel
+could almost be seen. For a moment it was doubtful whether she would not
+capsize. Then the mast gave. The vessel righted at once, but only to lie
+utterly helpless on the water, with all her starboard oars hopelessly
+entangled with the canvas and rigging. What the Count would have done had
+his ship been entirely in hand it is difficult to say. No speedier or more
+effective way of dealing with the enemy than running her down could have
+been practised. The _Panther_ had three or four times the tonnage of her
+adversary, whose lightness and low bulwarks made her easily accessible to
+this kind of attack. Nor would the pirates have a chance of showing the
+desperate valour which the Roman boarding-parties had learnt to respect
+and almost to fear. The only argument on the other side would have been
+that prisoners and booty would probably be lost. But, as a matter of fact,
+the Count had no opportunity of weighing the _pros_ and _cons_ in the
+matter. The _Panther_, driving as she was straight before the wind, was
+practically unmanageable. She struck the pirate craft with a tremendous
+crash amidships, and cut her almost literally in half. One blow, and one
+only, did the pirates strike at their conquerors. When escape had become
+manifestly impossible by the fall of the mast, the Saxon warriors had
+dropped their oars, and seizing their bows had discharged a volley of
+arrows against the Roman ship. The hurry and confusion of the moment did
+not favour accurate aim, and most of the missiles flew wide of the mark;
+but one seemed to have been destined to fulfil the helmsman's expectations
+of evil to come. It struck the old man on the left side, inflicting a
+fatal wound. In the first confusion of the shock the incident was not
+noticed, for the brave fellow stuck gallantly to the tiller, propping
+himself up against it while he kept the _Panther_ steadily before the
+wind. In fact, loss of blood had brought him nearly to his end before it
+was even known that he had been wounded. Then, in a moment, the Count was
+at his side.
+
+  [Illustration: The Panther and the Saxon Pirate.]
+
+"Carry him to my own cabin," he said.
+
+The old man raised his hand in a gesture that seemed to refuse the service
+which half a dozen stout sailors were at once ready to render him. "Nay,"
+said he, "it is idle; this arrow has sped me. But let me die here, where I
+can see the waves and the sky. I have known them, man and boy, threescore
+years--aye, and more, for my father would take me on his ship when I was a
+tiny chap of three feet high. Nay, no cabin for me; 'tis almost as bad as
+dying in one's bed."
+
+His voice grew feeble. The Count stopped, and asked whether there was
+anything that he could do for him.
+
+"Nay," said the old man, "nothing; I have neither chick nor child. 'Tis
+all as well as I could have wished. But mark, my lord, I was right about
+sailing in October. Any one that knows the sea would be sure that trouble
+must come of it."
+
+The next moment he was past speaking or hearing.
+
+It was his privilege, we must remember, to have the last word.
+
+The _Panther_ meanwhile had been brought to the wind. Her consorts, too,
+had come up, and a search was made for any survivors of the encounter that
+might be still afloat. Some had been killed outright by the concussion;
+others had been so hurt that they could make no effort to save themselves.
+They would not, however, have made it if they could. Those that had
+escaped uninjured evidently preferred drowning to a Roman prison. With
+grim resolution they straightened their arms to their sides and went down.
+Only two survivors were picked up. These, evidently twins from their close
+resemblance to each other, were found clinging to a fragment of timber.
+One had been grievously hurt, the other had not suffered any injury.
+
+The wounded man, who had received an almost fatal blow upon the head, had
+lost the power to move, and was holding on to life more than half
+unconsciously; and his brother, moved by that passionate love so often
+found between twins, had sacrificed himself--that is, the honour which he
+counted dearer than life--to save him. Had he had only himself to think of,
+he would have been the first to go down a free man to the bottom of the
+sea; but his brother was almost helpless, and he could not leave him.
+
+When it was evident that all further search would be useless, the squadron
+set their sails for Lemanis, which, thanks to a further change in the wind
+to the northward, they were able to reach before midnight.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+                         THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND.
+
+
+Count �lius was a man of the best Roman type, a man of "primitive virtue,"
+as the classical writers would have put it, though this virtue had been
+softened, refined, and purified by civilizing and instructing influences,
+of which the old Roman heroes--the Fabiuses, the Catos, the Scipios--had
+known nothing. In the antiquity of his lineage there was scarcely a man in
+the Empire who could pretend to compare with him. For the most part, the
+old houses from which had come the Consuls and Dictators of the Republic
+had died out. The old nobility had gone, and the new nobility had followed
+it. The great name of Fabius, saved by an accident from extinction, when
+its three hundred gallant sons, each of them "fit to command an army,"
+perished in one day by the craft of the Etruscan foe, had passed away.
+There was no living representative of the conqueror of Carthage, or of the
+conqueror of Corinth. Even the _parvenus_ of the Empire had in their turn
+disappeared. The generals and senators, both of the old Rome and of the
+new,(12) bore names which would have sounded strange and barbarous to
+Cicero or even to Tacitus. An �lius then, one who claimed to trace his
+descent to a time even earlier than the legendary age, to a race which was
+domiciled in Italy long before even �neas had brought thither the gods of
+Troy, was an almost singular phenomenon in a generation of new men. And
+nothing less than this was the pedigree claimed by the �lii. Their
+remotest ancestor--the Count never could hear an allusion to it without a
+smile--was the famous cannibal king who ruled over the Laestrygones, a
+tribe of Western Italy,(13) and from whose jaws the prudent Ulysses so
+narrowly escaped. The pride of ancient descent is not particular as to the
+character of a progenitor, so he be sufficiently remote; and one branch of
+the �lii had always delighted to recall by their surname their connection
+with this man-eating hero. But the race had not lacked glories of its own
+in historical times. They had had soldiers, statesmen, and men of letters
+among them. One of them had been made immortal by the friendship of
+Horace. Another, an adopted son, it was true, better known by the famous
+name of Sejanus, had nearly made himself master of the throne of the
+C�sars. About a hundred years later this crowning glory of human ambition
+had fallen to it in the person of Hadrian, third in the list of the "five
+good Emperors";(14) though indeed there were purists in the matter of
+genealogy who stoutly denied that this great soldier and scholar had any
+of the real �lian blood in him.
+
+The Count's father had held civil office at Carthage, and the young �lius
+had there, for a short time, been a pupil of Aurelius Augustinus, then
+known as an eloquent teacher of rhetoric, afterwards to become the most
+famous doctor of the Western Church. But his bent was not for the
+profession of the law, and his father, though disappointed at his
+preference for a soldier's career, would not stand in his way. His first
+experience of warfare was gained on a day of terrible disaster. His
+father's influence had secured him a position which seemed in every way
+desirable. He was attached to the staff of Trajanus, a general of division
+in the army of the Emperor Valens. By great exertions, travelling night
+and day, at the hottest period of the year, the young �lius contrived to
+report himself to his commander on the eve of the great battle of
+Adrianople. He had borne himself with admirable courage and
+self-possession during that terrible day, more disastrous to the Roman
+arms than even Cann� itself. He had helped to carry the wounded Emperor to
+a cottage near the field of battle, and had barely escaped with his life,
+cutting his way with desperate resolution through the enemy, when this
+place of refuge was surrounded and burnt by the barbarians. After this
+unfortunate beginning he betook himself for a time to the employments of
+peace, obtaining an office under Government at Milan, where he renewed his
+acquaintance with his old teacher, Augustine. Then another opening, in
+what was still his favourite profession, presented itself. The young
+soldier's gallant conduct on the disastrous day of Adrianople had not been
+forgotten by some who had witnessed it, and when Stilicho, then the rising
+general of the Empire, was looking about for officers to fill posts upon
+his staff, the name of �lius was mentioned to him. Under Stilicho he
+served with much distinction, and it was on Stilicho's recommendation that
+he was appointed to the post which, when our story opens, he had held for
+nearly twenty years.
+
+His position during this period had been one of singular difficulty. The
+tie between the Empire and Britain was very loose. More than once during
+�lius' tenure of office it had seemed to be broken altogether. Pretender
+after pretender had risen against the central power, and had declared his
+province independent, and himself an Emperor. The Count of the Saxon Shore
+had contrived to keep himself neutral, so to speak, during these troubles.
+His own office, that of defending the eastern and southern shores of the
+island against the attacks of the Saxon pirates, he had filled with
+remarkable vigilance and skill. And the usurpers had been content to leave
+him undisturbed. His sailors were profoundly attached to him, and any
+attempt to interfere with him would have thrown a considerable weight into
+the opposite scale. And he and his work were necessary. Whether Britain
+was subject to Rome or independent of it, it was equally important that
+its coasts should not be harried by pirates. If �lius would provide for
+this--and he did provide for it, with an almost unvarying success--he might
+be left alone, and not required to give in his allegiance to the new
+claimant of the throne. This allegiance he never did give in. He was
+always the faithful servant of those who appointed him, and, whoever might
+happen to be the temporary master of Britain, regularly addressed his
+despatches and reports to the central authority in Italy. On the other
+hand, he did not feel himself bound to take direct steps towards asserting
+that authority in the island. He had to keep the pirates in check, and
+that was occupation quite sufficient to keep all his energies employed.
+Thus, as has been said, he observed a kind of neutrality, always loyal to
+the Roman Emperor, but willing to be on friendly terms with the rebel
+generals of Britain as long as they left him alone, let him do his work of
+defending the coast, and did not make any demands upon him which his
+conscience would not allow him to satisfy.
+
+Having thus sketched the career of the Count, we must now say something
+about the house, which now--it was early in the afternoon of the day
+following the events described in the last chapter--was just coming into
+sight.
+
+The villa was the Count's private property, and had been purchased by him
+immediately on his arrival in the island, for a reason which will be given
+hereafter. It was a handsome house, and complete in its way, with all that
+was necessary for a comfortable residence, but not one of the largest of
+its kind. Indeed, it may be said that what may be called the "living" part
+of it was unusually small for the dwelling of so distinguished a person as
+the Count. It had been found large enough by its previous owners, men of
+moderate means and, it so happened, of small families; and the Count,
+feeling that his occupation of it might be terminated at any time, had not
+cared to add to it. Its situation was remarkably pleasing. Behind it was a
+sheltering range of hills,(15) keeping off the force of the south-westerly
+winds, and then richly covered with wood. It was not too near the sea, the
+Romans not finding that the ceaseless disturbance of rising and falling
+tides was an element of pleasure, though they could not get too close to
+their own tideless Mediterranean; but it was within an easy distance of
+the Haven.(16) The convenience of this neighbourhood had indeed been one
+of the Count's reasons for selecting this spot. But if the harsh, grating
+sound of the waves upon the shingle did not reach the ears of the dwellers
+in the villa, and the force of the sea winds was somewhat broken for them
+by intervening cliffs, they still enjoyed all the freshness and vitality
+of an air that had come across many a league of water. The climate, too,
+was genial, mild without being too soft, mostly free from damp, though not
+exempt from occasional mist, seldom troubled by frost or snow, and, on the
+whole, not unlike some of the more temperate regions of Italy.
+
+The villa, with its belongings, occupied three sides of a square, or
+rather rectangle, and was built nearly to the points of the compass. The
+eastern side of the square was open, thus giving a prospect seawards. The
+western contained the principal living rooms. The northern, too, was
+partly occupied by bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, for which there was no
+room in the comparatively small portion which had been originally intended
+for the residence of the owner and his family. Some of the workmen
+employed lived in cottages outside the villa enclosure. The southern was
+devoted to storehouses, workshops, and all the miscellaneous buildings
+which made a Roman villa, as far as possible, an establishment complete in
+itself. The open space was occupied by a pretty garden, which will be more
+particularly described hereafter.(17)
+
+The eastward front of the villa was occupied for the greater part of its
+length by a colonnade or corridor. A low wall of about four feet in height
+separated this from the garden; above the wall it was open to the air; but
+an overhanging roof helped greatly to shelter it, while the view into the
+garden was unimpeded. The floor was adorned with a handsome tesselated
+pavement, the principal device of which was a representation of the
+favourite subject of Orpheus attracting beasts and birds by his lyre. The
+proprietor from whom the Count had purchased the villa had brought it from
+Italy. He was a Christian of artistic tastes, and, like his
+fellow-believers, had delighted to trace in the old myth a spiritual
+meaning, the power of the teaching of Christ to subdue to the Divine
+obedience the savage, animal nature of man. He had displaced for it the
+original design, which, indeed, was nothing better than a commonplace
+representation of dancing figures which had satisfied the earlier owners.
+The artist had included among the listeners animals, some of which, as the
+monkey, the Thracian minstrel could hardly have seen, and, with a certain
+touch of humour, he had adorned the monkey's head with a Phrygian cap,
+like that which Orpheus himself wore, to indicate probably that the monkey
+is the caricature of man. The inner wall was ornamented with a bold design
+of C�sar's first landing in Britain, worked in fresco. Seats and tables
+were arranged along it at intervals, and the whole corridor was thus made
+to furnish a pleasant promenade in winter and a charming resort when the
+weather was warm.
+
+At the south end of the corridor was the Count's own apartment, or study,
+as it would be called in a modern house. One window looked into the
+corridor, into which a door also opened; another, which was built out into
+the shape of a bow, so as to catch as much of the sun as the aspect
+allowed, looked into the garden. Part of it was formed of lattices, which
+admitted of being completely closed when the weather required such
+protection; the rest was glazed with glass, which would have seemed rough
+to the present generation, but was quite as good as most people were
+content to have in their houses fifty years ago. The pavement was
+tesselated, and presented various designs, a Bacchante, and a pair of
+gladiators among them. These, however, were commonly covered with thick
+woollen rugs, the villa being chiefly used as a winter residence. The
+Count had not forgotten his early studies, and some handsome bookcases
+contained his favourite authors, among which were to be found the great
+classic poets of Rome, Tacitus, for whom he had a special regard, some
+writers on the military art, Cato and Columella on agriculture, and, not
+least honoured, though some, at least, of their contents had but little
+interest for him--for, sincere Christian as he was, he cared little for
+controversy--the numerous treatises of his friend and teacher, Augustine.
+Behind this room was a simple furnished bed-chamber, showing in an almost
+bare simplicity the characteristic tastes of a soldier.
+
+At the other end of the corridor was a door leading to the principal
+chamber in this part of the villa. This measured altogether close upon
+forty feet in length, but it was divided, or rather could be divided, into
+two by columns which stood about halfway down its longer sides, and
+between which a curtain could be hung. When the chamber was occupied in
+summer it might be used as a whole; in the winter the smaller part, which
+looked out into the garden, could be shut off from the rest by drawing the
+curtain, and so made a comfortable room, warmed from below by hot air from
+the furnace, which had been constructed at the western end of the northern
+wing of the villa. Much artistic skill had been expended on the pavements
+of the apartment, and the smaller chamber was very richly decorated in
+this way. In the middle was a large head of Medusa, and the rest was
+filled with beautifully-worked scenes illustrating the pleasures of a
+pastoral life. It was the custom of the Count's family to use the larger
+portion of the whole chamber as a dining-room, the smaller as a ladies'
+boudoir. On the rare occasion of some large entertainment being given, the
+whole was thrown into one.
+
+The ladies of the family, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, had their
+own apartments at the western end of the north wing, part of which was
+shut off for their occupation and for their immediate attendants. A
+covered way connected this with the portion occupied by the Count.
+
+It would be needless to describe the rest of the villa. It was like the
+houses of its kind, houses which the Romans erected wherever they went in
+as close an imitation as they could make of what they were accustomed to
+at home.
+
+The garden, however, must not be wholly passed over. Spacious and handsome
+as it was, it in part presented a stiff and unnatural appearance, looking,
+in fact, somewhat theatrical, as contrasted with the pastoral sunniness of
+the landscape. A Roman gardener had been brought from Rome--one skilled in
+all the arts of his craft. It was he who had terraced the slope with so
+much regularity, had planted stiff box hedges--and, above all, it was his
+taste which led him to cut and train box and laburnum shrubs into
+fantastic imitations of other forms. The poor trees were forced to abandon
+their own natural shapes, and to pose as vases, geometrical figures, and
+animals of various kinds. There was even a ship of box surrounded by a
+broad channel of water, so that the spectator, making large demands on his
+imagination, might imagine that the little mock vessel was moored on a
+still sheet of water. Among the box trees were stone fountains badly
+copied from classic models. But these had not remained in their bare
+crudity. The loving British ivy had crept close around them, and added a
+grace which the sculptor had failed to give. The Roman gardener would have
+liked to banish this intruder, or to at least train it into the positions
+prescribed by horticultural rules, but he had been bidden to let it run at
+its own sweet will; and so it had, and had flourished, well nursed by the
+soft and humid atmosphere.
+
+Scattered at regular intervals through the green were flower-beds stocked
+with plants, which were either native to the island, or had been brought
+hither with great care from the capital. There were roses in several
+varieties, strange-shaped orchids, which had been found growing wild at
+lower levels of the island, and adopted into this civilized garden to
+ornament it with their unique beauty. Gay geraniums and other flowers made
+throughout the summer bright patches of colour in striking contrast to the
+dark green.
+
+These beds were enclosed by borders. Between these enclosures were
+curiously-cut letters of growing box, which perpetuated--at least for the
+life-time of the shrub--the gardener's own name or that of his master, or
+classic titles, to serve as designations for certain portions of the
+place. In the midst of the garden several luxuriant oaks and graceful elms
+had been allowed to retain in their native freedom the shapes into which
+they had been growing for so many years. They cast wide shadows, and gave
+a softened aspect to the unnatural shapes of the trained growths.
+
+Beyond the floral division of the garden was another enclosure for pear
+and apple trees. They stood on a green sward, soft as velvet, and of a
+deeper hue than Italian suns permit to the grass on which they smile.
+Here, too, were foreign embellishments. The monotony of the uniform rows
+of fruit trees was varied by pyramids of box, and the whole orchard was
+surrounded by a belt of plane trees.
+
+A circle of oaks had been left at the summit of one of the terraces. Thick
+hedges were planted between the trees, making a dense wall, in which
+openings were cut for the view, so that the vista was visible, like a
+picture set in a dark frame. This green room, roofed by the sky, was paved
+with a mosaic of the bright coloured chalk from the cliffs at the western
+end of the island, and contained an oblong basin of water shaped like a
+table. The water flowed through so gently that the surface always seemed
+at rest, and yet never grew warm. Couches were placed at this fountain
+table, and from time to time repasts were served here, certain viands
+being placed in dishes shaped like swans or boats, which floated
+gracefully on the watery surface. The more solid meats were placed on the
+broad marble edges of the basin.
+
+This sylvan retreat seemed made for a meeting of naiads and nereids. In
+short, the spot was so sheltered, the outlook over sea and land both near
+and across the strait so fair, that one could well believe even Pliny's
+famed Tuscan garden, which may have suggested some features of this
+British one, was not more happily placed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                                  CARNA.
+
+
+When �lius had come, some eighteen years before the beginning of our
+story, to take up his command on the coast of Britain, he had brought with
+him his young wife. This lady, always delicate in health, had not long
+survived her transplantation to a northern climate. Six months after her
+arrival in Britain she had died in giving birth to a daughter. The child
+was entrusted to the care of a British woman, wife of the sailing master
+of one of the Roman ships, who had reared her together with her own
+daughter. When little �lia was but a few weeks old her foster-mother had
+become a widow, her husband having met with his death in a desperate
+encounter with one of the Saxon cruisers. This misfortune had been
+followed by another, the loss of her two elder children, who had been
+carried off by a malarious fever. The widow, thus doubly bereaved, had
+thankfully accepted the Count's offer that she should take the post of
+mother of the maids in his household. Her foster-daughter, a feeble little
+thing, whom she had the greatest difficulty in rearing, was as dear to her
+as was her own child, and the new arrangement ensured that she should not
+be separated from her. For ten years she was as happy as a woman who had
+lost so much could hope to be. She had the pleasure of seeing her delicate
+nursling pass safely through childhood, and grow into a handsome, vigorous
+girl. Then her own call came; and feeling that her earthly work was done,
+she had been glad to meet it. The Count, who was a frequent visitor to her
+deathbed, had no difficulty in promising her that the two children should
+never be separated. Indeed he could not have divided the pair even had he
+wished. Every wish of the ten-year-old �lia was as a law to him, and �lia
+would have simply broken her heart to lose her playmate and sister Carna.
+
+The two friends were curiously unlike in person and disposition. �lia was
+a Roman of the Romans. Her hair was of a shining blue-black hue, and so
+abundant that when unbound it fell almost to her knees. Her black eyes,
+soft and lustrous in repose, and shaded with lashes of the very longest,
+could give an almost formidable flash when anything had roused her to
+anger. Her complexion was a rich brown, relieved by a slight ruddy tinge;
+her features regular, less delicately carved, indeed, than the Greek type,
+but full of expression, which was tender or fiery, according to her mood.
+Her figure was somewhat small, but beautifully formed. If �lia was
+unmistakably Roman, Carna showed equally clearly one of the finest British
+types. She was tall, overtopping her companion by at least a head; her
+hair, which fell in curls about her shoulders, was of a glossy chestnut;
+her eyes of the very deepest blue; her complexion, half-way between blonde
+and brunette, mantled with a delicate colour, which deepened, when her
+emotions were touched, into an exquisite blush; her forehead was somewhat
+low, but broad, and with a rare promise both of artistic power and of
+intelligence; her nose would have been pronounced by a casual observer to
+be the most faulty feature in her face; and it is true that its outline
+was not perfect. But the same observer, after a brief acquaintance, would
+probably have retracted his censure, and owned that this feature suited
+the rest of her face, and would have been less charming if it had been
+more perfect. �lia was impulsive and quick of temper, honest and
+affectionate, but not caring to go below the surface of things, and
+without a particle of imagination. Carna, on the other hand, seemed the
+gentlest of women. Those blue eyes of hers were ready to express affection
+and pity; but no one--not even �lia, who could be exceedingly provoking at
+times--had ever seen a flash of anger in them. But her nature had depths in
+it that none suspected to be there; it was richly endowed with all the
+best gifts of her Celtic race. She had a world of her own with which the
+gay Roman girl, whom she loved so dearly, and with whom she seemed to
+share all her thoughts, had nothing to do. Music touched her soul in a way
+of which �lia, who could sing very charmingly, and play with no little
+expression on the _cithara_, had no conception. And though she had never
+written, or even composed, a verse, and possibly would never write or
+compose one, she was a poetess. At present all her soul was given to
+religion, religion full of the imagination and enthusiasm which has made
+saints of so many women of her race. The good British priest, to whose
+flock she belonged, a worthy man who eked out his scanty income(18) by
+working a small farm, was perplexed by her enthusiasm. She was not
+satisfied with the duties of adorning the little church where he
+ministered, and its humble altar-cloths and vestments, by the skill of her
+nimble fingers, of aiding the chants with the rich tones of her beautiful
+voice, of ministering to the sick. She performed these, indeed, with
+devotion, but she demanded more, and the good man did not know how to
+satisfy her. In addition to her other gifts Carna had that of being a born
+nurse. It was her first impulse to fly to the help of anything--whether it
+was man, or beast, or bird--that was sick or hurt, just as it was �lia's
+impulse, though she mastered it at any strong call of duty, to avoid the
+sight of suffering. She had now heard that a prisoner had been brought in
+desperately wounded, and she could not rest till she knew whether she
+could do anything for the poor creature's soul or body. �lia was as
+scornful as her love for her foster-sister allowed her to be.
+
+"My dearest Carna," she cried, "what on earth can make you trouble
+yourself in this fashion about this miserable creature? They are the worst
+plagues in this world, these Saxons, and it would be a blessing to the
+world if it were well quit of the whole race of them! A set of pagan
+dogs!"
+
+"Oh, sister," said Carna, her eyes brimming with tears, "that is the worst
+of it. A pagan, who has never heard of the Blessed Lord, and now, they
+say, he is dying! What shall we do for him?"
+
+"But surely," returned the other, "he is no worse off than his threescore
+companions who went to the bottom the other day."
+
+"God be good to them," said Carna, "but then we did not know them, and
+that seems to make a difference. And to think that this poor creature
+should be so near to the way and not find it. But I must go and see him."
+
+"It will only tear your poor, tender heart for no purpose. You had far
+better come and talk to father."
+
+Carna was not to be persuaded, but hurried to the chamber to which the
+wounded man had been borne.
+
+It was evident at first sight that the end was not far off. The dying
+Saxon lay stretched on a rude pallet. He was a young man, who could
+scarcely have seen as many as twenty summers, for the down was hardly to
+be seen on his upper lip and chin. His face, which was curiously fair for
+one who had followed from infancy an outdoor life, was deadly pale, a
+pathetic contrast with the red-gold hair which fell in curly profusion
+about it. His eyes, in which the fire was almost quenched, were wide open,
+and fixed with an unchanging gaze upon a figure that stood motionless at
+the foot of the bed. This was his brother, who had been permitted by the
+humanity of the Count to be present. They had been exchanging a few
+sentences, but the dying man was now too far gone to speak, and the two
+could only look their last farewell to each other. It was a pitiful thing
+to see the twins, so like in feature and form, but now so different, the
+one, prisoner as he was, full of life and strength, the other on the very
+threshold of death.
+
+By the side of the wounded man stood the household physician, a
+venerable-looking slave, who had acquired such knowledge of medicine and
+surgery as sufficed for the treatment of the commoner ailments and
+accidents. This case was beyond his skill, or indeed the skill of any man.
+He could do nothing but from time to time put a few drops of cordial
+between the sufferer's lips. Next to the physician stood the priest, and
+his skill, too, seemed to be at fault. A messenger, sent by Carna, had
+warned him that a dying man required his ministrations, but had added no
+further particulars, and the worthy man, who was busy at the time in
+littering down his cattle, had hastily changed his working dress for his
+priestly habiliments, and had come ready, as he thought, to administer the
+last consolations of the Church to a dying Christian. The case utterly
+perplexed him. He had tried the two languages with which he was familiar,
+and found them useless. No one had been able to understand a single word
+of the dialogue which had passed between the brothers. The dying stranger
+was as hopelessly separated from him and the means of grace that he could
+command as if he had been a thousand miles away. He could not even
+venture--for his theology was of the narrowest type--to commend to the mercy
+of God the passing soul of this unbaptized heathen.
+
+Carna understood the situation at a glance. She saw death in the Saxon's
+face; she saw the hopeless perplexity in the expression of the priest.
+
+"Father," she cried, "can you do nothing, nothing at all for this poor
+soul?"
+
+"My daughter," said the priest, "I am helpless. He knows nothing; he
+understands nothing."
+
+"Can you not baptize him?"
+
+"Baptize him without a profession of repentance, without a confession of
+faith! Impossible!"
+
+"Will you let him perish before your eyes without an effort to save him?"
+
+"Child," said the priest, with some impatience in his tone, "I have told
+you that I am helpless. It was not I that brought these things about."
+
+The girl cast an agonized look about the room, as of one that appealed for
+help, and seized a crucifix that hung upon the wall. She threw herself
+upon her knees by the bedside, and after pressing the symbol of Redemption
+passionately to her lips, held it to the mouth of the dying man. The
+Saxon, on his first entrance into the room, had removed his look from his
+brother and fixed it steadfastly on this beautiful apparition. Clad in
+white from head to foot, with a golden girdle about her waist, her eyes
+shining with excitement, her whole face transfigured by a passion of pity,
+she seemed to him a vision from another world, one of the Walhalla maidens
+of whom his mother had talked to him in days gone by. His lips closed
+feebly on the crucifix which she held to them; a smile lighted up his
+fading eyes, and he muttered with his last breath "Valkyria." The girl
+heard the word and remembered without understanding it. The next moment he
+was dead, and one of the women standing by stepped forward and closed his
+eyes.
+
+Carna burst into a passion of tears.
+
+"He is gone," she cried, amidst her sobs, "he is gone, and we could not
+help him."
+
+The priest was silent. He had no consolation to offer. Indeed, but that he
+recognized the girl's saintliness--a saintliness to which he, worthy man as
+he was, had no pretensions--he would have thought her grief foolish. But
+the old physician could not keep silence.
+
+"Pardon me, lady," he said, "if I seem to reprove you. I pray you not to
+suffer your zeal for the salvation of souls to overpower your faith. Do
+you think that the All-Father does not love this poor stranger as well as
+you, nay, better than you can love him? that He cannot care for him as
+well? that you, forsooth, must save him out of His hands? Nay, my
+daughter--pardon an old man for the word--do not so distrust Him."
+
+"You are right, father, as always," said the girl. "I have been selfish
+and faithless. I was angry, I suppose, to find myself baffled and
+helpless. You must set me a penance, father," she added, turning to the
+priest.
+
+The Saxon meanwhile had contrived by his gestures to make his guards
+understand that he wished to take his farewell of his dead brother. They
+allowed him to approach the bed. He stooped and kissed the lips of the
+dead, and then, choking down the sobs which convulsed his breast, turned
+away, seemingly calm and unmoved. But as he passed Carna he contrived to
+catch with his manacled hands one of the flowing sleeves of her white
+robe, and to lift the hem to his lips.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+                                THE SAXON.
+
+
+It was not easy to know what should be done with the survivor of the two
+Saxon captives. The villa had no proper provision for the safe custody of
+prisoners; and the problem of keeping a man under lock and key, without a
+quite disproportionate amount of trouble, was as difficult as it would be
+in the ordinary country house of modern times.
+
+"I shall send him to the camp at the Great Harbour," said the Count, a few
+days after the scene described in our last chapter. "It is quite
+impossible to keep him unless we chain him hand and foot, or set half a
+dozen men to guard him; and even then he is such a giant that he might
+easily overpower them. At the camp they have got a prison, and stocks
+which would hold him as fast as death."
+
+Carna's face clouded over when she heard the Count's determination, but
+she said nothing. The lively �lia broke in--
+
+"My dear father, you will break poor Carna's heart if you do anything of
+the kind. She is bent on making a convert of the noble savage. And anyhow,
+whatever else she may induce him to worship, he seems ready, from what I
+have seen, to worship her. And besides, what harm can he do? He has no
+arms, and he can't speak a word of any language known here. If he were to
+run away he would either be killed or be starved to death."
+
+"Well, Carna," said the Count, with a smile, "what do you say? Will you
+stand surety for this young pagan? Or shall I make him your slave, and
+then, if he runs away, it will be your loss?"
+
+"I hope," said the girl, "that you won't send him to the camp, where, I
+fear, they hold the lives of such as he very cheap."
+
+"Well," replied the Count, "we will keep him here, at all events for the
+present, and I will give the bailiff orders to give him something to do in
+the safest place that he can think of."
+
+Accordingly the young Saxon was set to work at the forge attached to the
+villa, and proved himself a willing and serviceable labourer. No more
+suitable choice, indeed, could have been made. That he was a man of some
+rank at home everything about him seemed to show--nothing more than his
+hands, which were delicate, and unusually small in proportion to his
+almost gigantic stature. But the greatest chief among his people would not
+have disdained the hammer and anvil. Was not Thor a mighty smith? And was
+it not almost as much a great warrior's business to make a good sword as
+to wield it well when it was made? So the young man, whose mighty
+shoulders and muscular arms were regarded with respect and even
+astonishment by his British fellow-workmen, laboured with a will, showing
+himself no mean craftsman in the blacksmith's art. Sometimes, as he plied
+the hammer, he would chant to himself, in a low voice, what sounded like a
+war-song. Otherwise he remained absolutely silent, not even attempting to
+pick up the few common words which daily intercourse with his companions
+gave him the opportunity of learning. There was an air of dignity about
+him which seemed to forbid any of the little affronts to which a prisoner
+would naturally be exposed; his evidently enormous strength, too, was a
+thing which even the most stupid of his companions respected. Silent,
+self-contained, and impassive, he moved quietly about his daily tasks; it
+was only when he caught a glimpse of Carna that his features were lighted
+up for a moment with a smile.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric at the Forge.]
+
+The idea of opening up any communication with him seemed hopeless, when an
+unexpected, but still quite natural, way out of the difficulty presented
+itself. An old peddler, who was accustomed to supply the inmates of the
+villa with silks and jewellery, and who sometimes had a book in his pack
+for Carna, paid in due course one of his periodical visits. The old man
+was a Gaul by birth, a native of one of the States on the eastern bank of
+the Rhine, and in youth he had been an adventurous trader, extending his
+journeys eastward and northward as far as the shores of the Baltic. The
+risk was great, for the Germans of the interior looked with suspicion on
+the visits of civilized strangers; but, on the other hand, the profits
+were considerable. Amber, in pieces of a size and clearness seldom matched
+on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, and beautiful furs, as of the seal and
+the sea-otter, could be bought at very low prices from these
+unsophisticated tribes, and sold again to the wealthy ladies of
+Lutetia(19) and Lugdunum(20) at a very considerable advantage. In these
+wanderings Antrix--for that was the peddler's name--had acquired a good
+knowledge of the language--substantially the same, though divided into
+several dialects--spoken by the German tribes; and, indeed, without such
+knowledge his trading adventures would have been neither safe nor
+profitable. As he approached old age Antrix had judged it expedient to
+transfer his business from Gaul to Britain. Gaul he found to be a
+dangerous place for a peaceable trader, having lost more than once all the
+profits of a journey, and, indeed, a good deal more, by one of the
+marauding bands by whom the country was periodically overrun. Britain, or
+at least the southern district of Britain, was certainly safer, and it was
+this that for the last ten years he had been accustomed to traverse, till
+he had become a well-known and welcome visitor at every villa and
+settlement along the coast.
+
+Here then chance, or, as Carna preferred to think, Providence, had
+provided an interpreter; and it so happened that, whether by another piece
+of good fortune, or an additional interposition, his services were made
+permanently useful. The old man had found his journeys becoming in the
+winter too laborious for his strength, and it was not very difficult to
+persuade him to make his home in the villa for two or three months till
+the severity of the season should have passed. Every one was pleased at
+the arrangement. Antrix was an admirable teller of tales, and his had been
+an adventurous life, full of incident, with which he knew how to make the
+winter night less long. The Count saw a rare opportunity, such as had
+never come to him before, of learning something about the hardy
+freebooters whom it was his business to overawe; and Carna had the
+liveliest hopes of making a proselyte, if she could only make herself, and
+the message in which she had so profound a faith, understood.
+
+The young Saxon's resolution and pride did not long hold out against the
+unexpected delight of being able once more to converse in his own
+language, and he soon began to talk with perfect freedom--for, he had no
+idea of having anything to conceal--about his home and his people. He was
+the son, they learnt from him, of the chief of one of the Saxon
+settlements near the mouth of the Albis.(21) The people lived by hunting
+and fishing, and, more or less, by cultivating the soil. But life was
+hard. The settlements were crowded; game was growing scarce, and had to be
+followed further afield every year; the climate, too, was very uncertain,
+and the crops sometimes failed altogether. In short, they could not live
+without what they were able to pick up in their expeditions to richer
+countries and more temperate climates. On this point the young Saxon was
+perfectly frank. The idea that there was anything of which a warrior could
+possibly be ashamed in taking what he could by the strong hand had
+evidently never crossed his mind. To rob a neighbour or fellow-tribesman
+he counted shameful--so much could be gathered from expressions that he let
+drop; as to others, his simple morality was this--to keep what you had, to
+take what others could not keep. The Count found him curiously well
+informed on what may be called the politics of Europe. He was well aware
+of the decay of the Roman power. Kinsmen and neighbours of his own had
+made their way south to get their share in the spoil of the Empire. Some,
+he had heard, had stopped to take service with the enemy; some had come
+back with marvellous tales of the wealth and luxury which they had seen.
+About Britain itself he had very clear views. The substance of what he
+said to the Count was this: "You won't stop here very long. My father says
+that you have been weakening your fleet and armies here for years past,
+and that you will soon take them away altogether. Then we shall come and
+take the country. It will hardly be in his time, he says. Perhaps it may
+not be in mine. It is only you that hinder us; it is only you that we are
+afraid of. We shall have the island; we must have it. Our own country is
+too small and too barren to keep us."
+
+Of his own adventures the young Saxon had little to say. This was the
+first voyage that he and his brother had taken. Their father was in
+failing health, and their mother, who had but one other child, a girl some
+ten years younger, had kept them at home, till she had been unwillingly
+persuaded that they were losing caste by taking no part in the warlike
+excursions of their countrymen. "We had a fairly successful time," went on
+the young chief, with the absolute unconsciousness of wrong with which a
+hunter might relate his exploits; "took two merchantmen that had good
+cargoes on board, and had a right royal fight with the people of a town on
+the Gallic coast. We killed thirty of them; and only five of our warriors
+went to the Walhalla. Then we turned homeward, but our ship struck on a
+rock near some islands far to the west,(22) and had almost gone to the
+bottom. With great labour we dragged her ashore, and set to work repairing
+her; but our chief smith and carpenter had fallen in the battle, and we
+were a long time in making her fit for sea. This was the reason why we
+were going home so late, and also why we lagged behind our comrades when
+you were chasing us. By rights we were the best crew and had the swiftest
+ship, but she had been clumsily mended, and dragged terribly in the
+water."
+
+The Count listened to all this with the greatest interest, and plied the
+speaker with questions, all of which he answered with perfect frankness.
+He found out how many warriors the settlement could muster, what were the
+relations with their neighbours, whether there had been any definite plans
+for a common expedition. On the whole, he came to the conclusion that
+though there was no danger of an overpowering migration from this quarter
+such as Western and Southern Europe had suffered from in former times,
+these sea-faring tribes of the East would be an increasing danger to
+Britain as years went on. Personally the prospect did not concern him
+greatly; his fortunes were not bound up with the island. Still he loved
+the place and its people; it troubled him to see what dark days were in
+store for them. And taking a wider view--for he was a man of large
+sympathies--he was grieved to see another black cloud in an horizon already
+so dark. Would anything civilized be left, he thought to himself, when
+every part of Europe has been swept by these hosts of barbarians?
+
+Before long another source of interest was discovered in the young Saxon.
+The Count happened to overhear him chanting to himself, and though he
+could not distinguish the words, he recognized in the rhythm something
+like the camp-songs that he had often listened to from German warriors in
+Stilicho's camp. Here again the peddler's services as an interpreter were
+put in requisition, and though the old man's Latin, which went little
+beyond his practical wants as a trader, fell lamentably short of what was
+wanted, enough was heard to interest the villa family, which had a
+literary turn, very much. What the young man had sung to himself was an
+early Saga, a curious romance(23) of heroes fighting with monsters, as
+unlike as can be conceived to anything to be found in Roman poetry--verse
+in its rudest shape, but still making itself felt as a real poet's work.
+
+Lastly, Carna, now that she had found a way of communicating her thoughts,
+threw herself with ardour into the work of proselytizing the stranger.
+Here the peddler was more at home in his task as interpreter. Carna used
+the dialect of South Britain, with which he was far more familiar than he
+was with Latin--it differed indeed but little from his native speech. The
+topics too were familiar, for he had been brought up in the Christian
+faith, and though he scarcely understood the girl's zeal, he was quite
+willing to help her as much as he could.
+
+Carna found her task much more difficult than she had expected. She had
+thought in her simple faith that it would be enough for her to tell to the
+young heathen the story of the Crucified Christ for him to fall down at
+once and worship. He listened with profound attention and respect. This,
+perhaps, he would have accorded to anything that came from her lips; but,
+beyond this, the story itself profoundly interested him. But it must be
+confessed that there was a good deal in it which did not commend itself to
+his warrior's ideal of what the God whom he could worship should be. He
+was a soldier, and he could scarcely conceive of anything great or good
+that was outside a soldier's virtues. The gods of his own heaven, Odin and
+Thor and Balder, were great conquerors, armed with armour which no mortal
+blow could pierce, wielders of sword and hammer which were too heavy for
+any mortal arm to wield. He could bow down to them because they were
+greater, immeasurably greater than himself, in the qualities and gifts
+which he most honoured. Now he was called upon to receive a quite
+different set of ideas, to set up a quite different standard of
+excellence. The story of the Gospels touched him. It roused him almost to
+fury when he heard how the good man who had gone about healing the sick
+and feeding the hungry had been put shamefully to death by His own
+countrymen, by those who knew best what He had done. If Carna had bidden
+him avenge the man who had been so ungratefully treated, he would have
+performed her bidding with pleasure. But to worship this Crucified One, to
+depose for Him Odin, Lord of Battles--that seemed impossible.
+
+Still he was impressed, and impressed chiefly by the way in which the
+preacher seemed to translate into her own life the principles of the faith
+which she tried to set forth to him. She had told him that this Crucified
+One had died for him. He could not understand why He should have done so,
+why He should not have led His twelve legions of angels against the
+wicked, swept them off from the face of the earth, and established by
+force of arms a kingdom of justice. Still the idea of so much having been
+given, so much endured for his sake touched him, especially when he saw
+how passionately in earnest was this wonderful creature, this beautiful
+prophetess, as, with the German reverence for women, he was ready to
+regard her, how eager she was to do him good, how little, as he could not
+but feel, she thought of herself in comparison with others.
+
+As long as Carna dwelt on these topics she made good way; when she
+wandered away from them, as naturally she sometimes did, she was not so
+successful. One day it unluckily occurred to her that she would appeal to
+his fears.
+
+"Do not refuse to listen," she said to him, "for if He is infinitely good
+to those who love Him, He can also be angry with those who love Him not."
+
+"What will He do with them?" asked the young Saxon.
+
+"He will send them to suffer in everlasting fire."
+
+"Ah!" answered the youth, "I have heard from our wise men of such a place
+into which Odin drives cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false
+to their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting cold, and this
+indeed seems to me to be worse than fire."
+
+"Yes," said Carna, "there is such a place of torment, and it is kept not
+only for the wicked, as you say, but for all who do not believe."
+
+"Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who do not own Him as their
+Master, and call themselves by His name?"
+
+"Yes--and think how terrible a thing it would be if it should happen to
+you."
+
+"And that is why you are so anxious to persuade me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And why you were so troubled about my brother when you could not make him
+understand before he died?"
+
+"Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should pass away when safety was in
+his reach."
+
+"And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him to that place because he
+did not know Him?"
+
+"I fear that it must be so."
+
+"Then He shall send me also. For how am I better because I have lived
+longer? No--I will be with my brother, whom I loved, and with my own
+people."
+
+And neither for that day nor for many days to come would he speak again on
+this subject. Carna was greatly troubled; but she began to think whether
+there might not be something in what the young man had said.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                       A PRETENDER'S DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+Our story must now go back a little, and take up the course of events at
+the camp, where the look of affairs was not promising. The donative
+promised by Constantine on the day of his election had been paid, but this
+had been done only after the greatest exertions in wringing money out of
+unlucky traders, farmers, and even peasants, who had been already squeezed
+almost dry. All that had any coin left were beginning to bury it,(24) and
+though the collectors of taxes, or loans, or gifts, or whatever else the
+frequent requisition of money might be called, had ingenious ways of
+discovering or making their owners give up these hoards, it was quite
+evident that very little more could be got out of Britain. The military
+chest meanwhile was becoming alarmingly empty, and though money was still
+found somehow for the larger camps, some of the less important garrisons
+had been left for months with almost nothing in the way of pay. What was
+to be done was a pressing question, which had to be answered in some way
+within a few days. If it was not so answered, it was tolerably plain that
+Constantine would meet the fate of Marcus and Gratianus. The Emperor
+himself (if we are to give him this title) seemed to be very little
+troubled by the prospect, and remained stolidly calm. His elevation indeed
+had made the least possible difference to him. He drank a better kind of
+wine, and perhaps a little more--for his cups had been limited by his
+means--but he did not run into excess. He was still the same simple,
+contented, good-natured man that he had always been. But his sons were of
+another temper, though curiously differing from each other. Constans the
+elder was an enthusiast, almost a fanatic, a man of strong religious
+feeling, who would have followed the religious life if it had been
+possible, and who now, finding himself possessed of power, had schemes of
+using it to promote his favourite schemes. Julian the younger had
+ambitions of a more commonplace kind. But both the brothers were agreed in
+holding on to the power that had been so strangely put into their father's
+hands, hands which, as he had very little will of his own, were
+practically theirs.
+
+A council was held at which Constantine, his two sons, and three of the
+officers of highest rank were present, and the urgent question of the day
+was anxiously debated.
+
+Julian began the discussion.
+
+"The army," he said, "must be employed, or it will find mischief to do at
+home which all of us will be sorry for."
+
+"I have some one to introduce to your Majesty," said one of the officers
+present, "who may have something to say which will influence your
+decision. He is from Ierne,(25) and brings me a letter from the commander
+at Uriconium. He came last night."
+
+"Let him enter," said Constantine, with his usual dull phlegmatic voice.
+
+The tribune went to the door of the chamber, and despatched a message to
+his quarters. In a few minutes the stranger was introduced into the
+council. He was a man verging upon middle age, somewhat short of stature,
+with a great bush of fiery-red hair, which stood up from his head with a
+very fierce look, a long, shaggy beard of the same colour, eyes of the
+deepest blue, very bright and piercing, but with a wandering and unsteady
+look in them, and a ruddy complexion which deepened to an intense colour
+on his cheek bones and other prominent parts of his face. Around his neck
+he wore a heavy twisted collar of remarkably red gold. Massive rings of
+the same metal adorned his fingers. His dress was of undyed wool, and very
+rudely shaped, a curious contrast to the richness of his ornaments. He was
+followed into the room by an interpreter, a young native of Northern
+Britain, who had been carried off by Irish pirates from one of the
+ecclesiastical schools. He had been taught Latin before his captivity,
+and, while a captive, had made himself acquainted with the Irish language,
+which indeed did not differ very much from that spoken in Britain.(26) His
+task of interpreter was not by any means an easy one to fulfil. The Prince
+broke out into a rapid torrent of complaint, invective, and entreaty,
+which left the young man, who was not very expert in either of the
+languages with which he had to deal, hopelessly behind. Then seeing that
+he was not followed, he turned on his unlucky attendant and dealt him a
+blow upon the ear that sent him staggering across the room. Then he seemed
+to remember himself, and began to tell his story again at a more moderate
+rate of speed, though he still from time to time, when he came to some
+peculiarly exciting part in the tale of his wrongs, broke out into a rapid
+eloquence that baffled all interpretation. The upshot of the story was
+this--
+
+He was, or rather had been, a small king in South-eastern Ireland,(27) the
+eldest of four brothers, having succeeded his father about ten years
+before. There had been a quarrel about the division of some property. The
+Prince was a little obscure in his description of the property; indeed it
+was a matter about which he was shrewd enough to say as little as
+possible. But his hearers had no difficulty in presuming that it consisted
+of spoil carried off from Britain. The quarrel had come to blows. All the
+nation had been divided into parties in the dispute. Finally he had been
+compelled by his ungrateful subjects to fly for his life. Would the
+Emperor bring him back? He was liberal, even extravagant, in his offers.
+He would bring the whole island under his dominion. (As a matter of fact,
+his dominions had never reached more than seventy miles inland, and he had
+contrived to make himself so hated during his ten years' reign that he had
+scarcely a friend or follower left.) And what an island it was! There
+never was such a place. The sheep were fatter, the cows gave more milk
+than in any other place in the whole world. And there was gold too, gold
+to be had for the picking up; and amber on the shores, and pearls in the
+rivers. In short, it was a treasure-house of wealth, which was waiting for
+the lucky first-comer.
+
+"Are you a Christian?" asked Constans.
+
+The exiled chief would have gladly said that he was, and indeed for a
+moment thought of the audacious fiction that his attachment to the new
+faith had been one of the causes of his expulsion. He was, in fact, a
+savagely bigoted pagan, and had dealt very roughly with one or two
+missionaries who had ventured into his neighbourhood. But he reflected
+that the falsehood would infallibly be detected, and would inevitably do
+him a great deal of harm.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed; "would that I were. But there is nothing that I so
+much desire if only I could attain to that blessing. But I promise to be
+baptized myself, and to have every man, woman, and child within my
+dominions baptized within a month, if you will only bring me back to
+them."
+
+Even Constans thought this zeal to be a little excessive.
+
+"And how many men can you bring into the field?" asked the more practical
+Julian; "and what money can you find for the pay of the soldiers?"
+
+The stranger was taken aback at these direct questions.
+
+"All my subjects, all my treasures are yours," he said, after a pause.
+
+"I don't believe," said one of the tribunes in Latin to Julian, "that he
+has any subjects besides this wretched interpreter, or any treasure beyond
+what he wears on his neck and his fingers."
+
+"Shall he withdraw?" said Julian to his father.
+
+Constantine, who never spoke when he could avoid speaking, answered by a
+nod, and the Irish Prince withdrew.
+
+"Let us have nothing to do," said the practical Julian, "with these Irish
+savages. They may cut their own throats, and welcome, without our helping
+them. The men, too, would rebel at the bare mention of Ierne. It is out of
+the world in their eyes, and I think they are about right. And as to the
+gold and pearls, I don't believe in them."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said Constans; "but it would be a great work to
+bring over a new nation to the orthodox faith."
+
+Julian answered with a laugh. "My good brother, we are not all such
+zealous missionaries as you. I am afraid that preaching is not exactly the
+work which our friends the soldiers are looking out for."
+
+"What does your Majesty say to an expedition to chastise those thieving
+Picts? They grow more insolent every day."
+
+This was the suggestion of one of the tribunes.
+
+"What is to be got?" was Julian's answer.
+
+"Glory!" answered the tribune.
+
+"Glory! What is that?--the men want pay and plunder. These bare-legged
+villains haven't so much as a rag that you can take from them, and they
+have a shrewd way of giving at least as many hard blows as they take.
+No!--we will leave the Picts alone, and only too thankful if they will do
+the same for us!"
+
+"The Count of the Shore has not yet taken the oath to his Majesty," said
+an officer who had not spoken before. "We might give some employment to
+the men in bringing him to reason."
+
+Constantine spoke for the first time since the council had begun its
+sitting--"The Count is a good man and does his business well. Leave him
+alone."
+
+Other suggestions were made and discussed without any sensible approach to
+a conclusion, and the council broke up, but with an understanding that it
+should meet again with as little delay as possible.
+
+On the afternoon of that very day an incident occurred which convinced
+every one--if further conviction was needed--that delay would certainly be
+fatal.
+
+A party of soldiers was practising javelin throwing, and Constantine, who
+had been particularly expert in this exercise in his youth, stood watching
+the game. He had stepped up to examine the mark made by one of the weapons
+on the wooden figure at which the men were throwing, when a javelin passed
+most perilously near his head and buried itself in the wood. It could not
+have been an accident; no one could have been so recklessly careless as to
+throw under the circumstances. Constantine was as imperturbable as usual.
+Without a sign of fear or anger, he said, "Comrades, you mistake; I am not
+made of wood," and, signing to his attendants, walked quietly away. The
+incident, however, made a great impression upon him, and a still greater
+upon his sons.
+
+  [Illustration: Javelin throwing.]
+
+The consultation was renewed and prolonged far into the night, and, as no
+conclusion was reached, continued on the next day. About noon an
+unexpected adviser appeared upon the scene.
+
+A message was brought into the council-chamber that a merchant from Gaul
+had something of importance to communicate to the Emperor. The man was
+admitted, after having been first searched by way of precaution. His dress
+was sober in cut and colour, and he had a small pack such as the wandering
+dealers in jewellery and similar light articles were accustomed to carry.
+Otherwise he was little like a trader; indeed, it did not need a very
+acute or practised hand to detect in him a soldier's bearing, and even
+that of one who was accustomed to command.
+
+"You have something to tell us?" said Julian.
+
+"Yes, I have," said the stranger, "but let me first show you my
+credentials."
+
+He spoke in passable Latin, but with a decided accent, which, strongly
+marked as it was, was not recognized by any of those present. At the same
+time he produced from a silken purse, which he wore like a girdle round
+his waist, a small square of parchment. It was a letter written in a
+minute but very clear hand, and it had evidently been put for the security
+of the bearer, who could thus more easily dispose of it in case of need,
+into the smallest possible compass. This was handed to Constantine, who,
+in turn, passed it on to his elder son Constans, he being the only one
+present who could read and write with fluency. It ran thus:
+
+
+"_Alaric, the son of Baltha, King of the Goths, Emperor of the World, to
+Marcus, Emperor of Britain and the West, greeting._"
+
+
+A grim smile passed over Constantine's face as he heard this address. He
+muttered to himself, "'Marcus,' indeed! Those who write to the Emperor of
+Britain must have speedy letter-carriers." The letter proceeded thus:
+
+
+"_I desire friendship and alliance with the nations who are wearied and
+worn out with the oppressions and cruelties of Rome, and for this purpose
+send this present by my __trusty kinsman and counsellor Atualphus, to you
+who are, I understand, asserting against the common tyrant of the world
+the liberty of Britain and the West. I have not thought it fit to trust
+more to writing, but commend to you the bearer hereof, the aforesaid
+Atualphus, who is acquainted with the mind and purpose of myself and of my
+people, and with whom you may conveniently concert such plans as may best
+serve our common welfare. Farewell. Given at my camp at �mona._"
+
+
+"Marcus is no more," said Julian. "He was unworthy of his dignity. You are
+in the presence of the most excellent Constantine, Emperor of Britain."
+
+"It matters not," said the Goth, with a haughty smile. "My lord the king
+will treat as willingly with one as with another, so he be an enemy of
+Rome!"
+
+"And what does he propose? What would he have us do?"
+
+"Make common cause with him against Honorius and Rome."
+
+"What shall we gain thereby?"
+
+"Half of the Empire of the World."
+
+"How shall that be?"
+
+"The King will march into Italy and attack the Emperor in his own land.
+The Emperor will withdraw all the legions that he yet controls for his own
+defence. With them the King will deal. Then comes your opportunity. What
+does it profit you to remain in this island, where nothing is to be won
+either of glory or of riches. Cross over into Gaul and Spain, which,
+wearied with oppression and desiring above all things to throw off the
+Roman yoke, will gladly welcome you. Your C�sar shall reign on this side
+of the Alps and the Pyrenees. The future may bring other things, but that
+may suffice for the present."
+
+The plan, so bold, and yet, it would seem, so feasible, and presenting a
+ready escape out of a situation that seemed hopeless, struck every one
+present with a delighted surprise. Even the phlegmatic Constantine was
+roused. "It shall be done," he said.
+
+Some further conversation followed, which it is not necessary to relate.
+Ways and means were discussed. Questions were asked about the strength and
+temper of the forces in Gaul and Spain, about the feeling of the towns,
+and a hundred other matters, with all of which Atualphus showed a
+curiously intimate knowledge. When the Goth retired from the council, he
+left very little doubt or hesitation behind him.
+
+"They are heretics--these Goths," grumbled Constans; "obstinate Arians
+every one of them, I told----"
+
+"You shall convert them, my brother," answered Julian, "when you are
+Bishop of Rome. When we divide the West between us, that shall be your
+portion."
+
+"It shall be done," said Constantine again, as he rose from his chair.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE NEWS IN THE CAMP.
+
+
+That afternoon a banquet, which was as handsomely set out as the very
+short notice permitted, was given to all the officers in the camp. When
+the tables were removed,(28) Constantine, who had been carefully primed by
+his sons with what he was to say, addressed his guests. His words were few
+and to the point. "Britain," he said, "has been long enough ruled by
+others. It is now time that she should begin herself to rule. It was the
+error of those who went before me to be content with the limits of this
+island. But here there is not enough to content us. Beyond the sea,
+separated from us by only a few hours' journey, lie wealthy provinces
+which wait for our coming. A kindlier sky, more fertile fields, richer and
+fairer cities than ours are there. We have only to show ourselves, in
+short, to be both welcomed and obeyed. Half the victories which we have
+won here to no profit over poverty-stricken barbarians would have sufficed
+to give us riches even beyond our desires. Henceforth let us use our arms
+where they may win something for us beyond empty honour and wounds. Follow
+me, and within a year you shall be masters both of Gaul and Spain."
+
+The younger guests received this oration with shouts of applause; visions
+of promotion and prize-money, and even of the spoil of some of the wealthy
+cities of the mainland floated before them. The older men did not show
+this enthusiasm. Many of them were attached to Britain by ties that they
+were very loth to break. They had little to hope, but much to fear, from a
+change. Still, they saw the necessity for doing something; another year
+such as that which had just passed would thoroughly demoralize the army of
+Britain. Legions that get into the habit of making emperors and killing
+them for their pastime must be dealt with by vigorous remedies, and the
+easiest and best of these was active service. In any case it would have
+been impolitic to show dissent. Many feigned, therefore, a joy which they
+did not feel, and shouted approval when the Senior Tribune exclaimed,
+"Comrades, drink to our chief, Constantine Augustus, Emperor of Britain
+and the West."
+
+The revel was kept up late into the night, the young Goth distinguishing
+himself by the marvellous depth of his draughts and the equally marvellous
+strength of his head.
+
+The Emperor retired early from the scene, and Constans, who had little
+liking for these boisterous scenes, followed his example, as did most of
+the older men. One of these, the cheery centurion, who has been mentioned
+more than once, we may follow to his home.
+
+Outside the camp had grown up a village of considerable size, though it
+consisted for the most part of humble dwellings. There were two or three
+taverns, or rather drinking-shops, where the soldiers could carouse on the
+thin, sour wine of the British vineyards, or, if the length of their
+purses permitted, on metheglin, a more potent drink, made from the
+fermentation of honey. A Jew, driven by the restless speculation of his
+race, had established himself in a shop where he sold cheap ornaments to
+the soldiers' wives, and advanced money to their husbands on the security
+of their pay. A tailor displayed tunics and cloaks, and a shoemaker sold
+boots warranted to resist the cold and wet of the island climate. There
+were a few cottages occupied by the grooms and stablemen who attended to
+the horses employed in the camp, by fishermen who plied their trade in the
+neighbouring waters, and other persons of a variety of miscellaneous
+employments in one way or other connected with the camp. But just outside
+the main street, at the end nearest to the camp, stood a house of somewhat
+greater pretensions. It was indeed a humble imitation of the Roman villa,
+being built round three sides of an irregular square, which was itself
+occupied by a grass plot and a few flower beds. It was to this that the
+Centurion Decius bent his steps after the conversation related in the last
+chapter. It was evidently with the reluctant step of the bearer of bad
+news that he proceeded on his way. As soon as he entered the enclosure his
+approach was observed from within. Two blooming girls, whose ages may have
+been seventeen and fifteen respectively, ran gaily to meet him. A woman
+some twenty-five years older, but still youthful of aspect and handsome,
+followed at a more sober pace.
+
+"What is the matter, father?" cried the elder of the girls, who had been
+quick to perceive that all was not right.
+
+The centurion held up his hand and made a signal for silence. "Hush," he
+said; "I have something to tell you, but it must not be here. Let us go
+indoors."
+
+"Shall the children leave us alone?" said the centurion's wife, who had
+now come up.
+
+"No," he answered, wearily, "let them be with us while they can," he added
+in a low voice, which only the wife's ears, made keenly alive by affection
+and fear, could catch.
+
+The gaiety of the young people was quenched, for, without having any idea
+of what had happened, they could see plainly enough that something was
+disturbing their parents; and it was with fast beating hearts that they
+waited for his explanation.
+
+"Our happy days here are over, my dearest," said the centurion, drawing
+his wife to him, and tenderly kissing her, as soon as they were within
+doors.
+
+"You mean," said she, "that the order has come."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "we are to leave as soon as the transports can be
+collected. The resolution was made to-day and will be announced to the
+army to-morrow. It is no secret, I suppose, or will not be for long."
+
+"And where are we to go?" cried the elder of the girls, whose face
+brightened as the thought of seeing a little more of the world, of a home
+in one of the cities of Gaul, possibly in Rome itself, flitted across her
+mind.
+
+The poor centurion changed colour. The girl's question brought up the
+difficulty which he knew had to be faced, but which he would gladly have
+put off as long as he could.
+
+"We shall go to Gaul, certainly; where I cannot say," he answered, after a
+long pause, and in a hesitating voice.
+
+"Oh, how delightful!" cried the girl; "exactly the thing that Lucia and I
+have been longing for. And Rome? Surely we shall go to Rome, father? Are
+you not glad to hear it, mother? I am sure that we are all tired of this
+cold, foggy place."
+
+The mother said nothing. If she did not exactly see the whole of the
+situation, she had at least an housewife's horror of a move. The poor
+father moved uneasily upon his chair.
+
+"The legion will go," he said, "but your mother and you----"
+
+"Oh, Lucius," cried the poor wife, "you do not, cannot mean that we are
+not to go with you!"
+
+"Nothing is settled," he replied, "it is true; but I am much troubled
+about it. _You_ might go, though I do not like the idea of your following
+the camp; but these dear girls--and yet they cannot be separated from you."
+
+The unhappy wife saw the truth only too clearly. If the times had been
+quiet, she might herself have possibly accompanied the legion in its march
+southward; but even then she could not have taken her daughters with her,
+her daughters whom she never allowed to go within the precincts of the
+camp, except on the one day, the Emperor's birthday, when all the
+officers' families were expected to be present at the ceremony of saluting
+the Imperial likeness. And this had of late been omitted when it was
+difficult to say from day to day what Emperor the troops acknowledged. The
+centurion had spoken only too truly; the legion might go, but they must
+stay behind. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+"Lucia," cried the elder girl to her sister, "we will enlist; we will take
+the oath; I should make just as good a soldier as many of the Briton lads
+they are filling up the cohorts with now; though you, I must allow, are a
+little too small," she added, ruefully, as she looked at her sister's
+plump little figure, too hopelessly feminine ever to admit the possibility
+of a disguise. "Cheer up, mother," she went on, "we shall find a way out
+of the difficulty somehow." And she threw her arms round the weeping
+woman, and kissed her repeatedly.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes, broken at last by the timid,
+hesitating voice of the younger girl.
+
+"But must you go, father?" she said. "Surely they don't keep soldiers in
+the camp for ever. And have you not served long enough? You were in the
+legion, I have heard you say, before even Maria was born."
+
+"My child," said the centurion, "it is true that my time is at least on
+the point of being finished. Yet I can't leave the service just now. Just
+because I am the oldest officer the Legate counts on me, and I can't
+desert him. It would be almost as bad as asking for one's discharge on the
+eve of a battle. And besides, though I don't like troubling your young
+spirits with such matters, I cannot afford it. Were I to resign now I
+should get no pension, or next to none. But in a year or two's time, when
+things are settled down, I hope to get something worth having--some post,
+perhaps, that would give me a chance of making a home for you."
+
+A fifth person, who had hitherto taken no part in the conversation, and
+whose presence in the room had been almost forgotten by every one, now
+broke in, with a voice which startled the hearers by its unusual clearness
+and precision. Lena, mother of the centurion's wife, had nearly completed
+her eightieth year. Commonly, she sat in the chimney corner, unheeding, to
+all appearances, of the life that went on about her, and dozing away the
+day. In her prime, and even down to old age, she had been a woman of
+remarkable activity, ruling her daughter's household as despotically as in
+former days she had ruled her own. Then a sudden and severe illness had
+prostrated her, and she had seemed to shrink at once into feebleness and
+helplessness of mind and body. Her daughter and granddaughters tended her
+carefully and lovingly; but she seemed scarcely to take any notice of
+them. The only thing that ever seemed to rouse her attention was the sight
+of her son-in-law when he chanced to enter the chamber without disarming.
+The shine of the steel brought a fire again into her dim, sunken eyes. It
+was probably this that had now roused her; and her attention, once
+awakened, had been kept alive by what she heard.
+
+"And at whose bidding are you going?" she said, in a startlingly clear
+voice to come from one so feeble; "this Honorius, as he calls himself, a
+feeble creature who has never drawn a sword in his life! Now, if it had
+been his father! He was a man to obey. He did deserve to be called
+Emperor. I saw him forty years ago--just after you were born, daughter--when
+he came with his father. A splendid young fellow he was; and one who would
+have his own way, too! How he gave those turbulent Greeks at Thessalonica
+their deserts! Fifteen thousand of them!(29) That was an Emperor worth
+having!"
+
+"Oh! mother," cried her daughter, horrified to see the old woman's
+ferocity, softened, she had hoped, by age and infirmity, roused again in
+all its old strength. "Oh! mother, don't say such dreadful things. That
+was an awful crime in Theodosius, and he had to do penance for it in the
+church."
+
+"Ay," muttered the old woman, "I can fancy it did not please the priests.
+But why," she went on, raising her voice again, "why does not Britain have
+an Emperor of her own?"
+
+"So she has, mother," said the centurion. "You forget our Lord
+Constantine."
+
+"Our Lord Constantine!" she repeated. "Who is Constantine? Why, I remember
+his mother--a slave girl--whom the Irish pirates carried off from somewhere
+in the North. Constantine's father bought her, and married her. Why should
+he be Emperor? I could make as good a one any day out of a faggot stick."
+
+"Peace, dear mother," said the centurion, soothingly, afraid that her
+words might have other listeners.
+
+"Why not you," went on the old woman, unheeding; "you are better born."
+
+"I, Emperor!" cried the centurion. "Speak good words, dearest mother."
+
+"Well," said the old woman, dropping her voice again, "they are poor
+creatures now-a-days." And she relapsed into silence, looking again as
+wholly indifferent to the present as if the strange outburst of rage and
+impatience which her family had just witnessed had never taken place.
+
+The family discussed the position of affairs anxiously till far into the
+night.
+
+"And what will happen," said the wife, "when the legions are gone?"
+
+"There will be a British kingdom, I suppose; and, if it were united, it
+might stand. But it will not be united. It will be every man for himself."
+
+"And how about the Saxons and the Picts? If the legions hardly protected
+us from them, how will it be when they are gone?"
+
+The centurion's look grew gloomier than ever. "I know," he said, "the
+prospect is a sad one. But I hope that for a year you will be fairly safe;
+and after that I shall hope to send for you. Or you might go over to Gaul.
+But I hope to see the Count of the Shore about these matters. He will give
+me the best advice. Here, of course, you can hardly stay, even if you
+cared to do it; and some place must be found. Meanwhile, make all the
+preparations you can for a move."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+                      THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS.
+
+
+The resolution to leave Britain was announced at a general meeting of the
+soldiers on the following day, and was received by it with tremendous
+enthusiasm. To most who were present, Gaul seemed a land of promise. It
+was from Gaul that almost every article of luxury that they either had or
+wished to have was imported, and some of the necessities of life, as
+notably wine, were known to be both better and cheaper there than in
+Britain. Comfortable quarters in wealthy cities, which were ready to be
+friendly, or could easily be brought to reason if they were not; easy
+campaigns, not against naked Picts, but against civilized enemies who had
+something to lose; and when the time of service was over, a snug little
+farm, with corn land, pasture, and vineyard, and a hard-working native to
+till it--such were the dreams which floated through the soldiers' minds;
+and they were ready to go anywhere with the man who promised to make them
+into realities. Older and more prudent men who knew that there were two
+sides to the question, and the unadventurous, who were well content to
+stay where they were, could not resist the tide of popular feeling, and
+concealed, if they did not abandon, their doubts and scruples. As money
+was scarce, the men volunteered to forego their pay till it could be
+returned to them with large interest in the shape of prize-money. They
+even gave up to the melting pot the silver ornaments from their arms and
+from the trappings of their horses. The messengers who were sent with the
+tidings of the proposed movement to the other camps--which were now mainly
+to be found in the southern part of the island--found the troops everywhere
+well disposed, and within a few days every military station was alive with
+the stir and bustle of preparations for a move.
+
+One of the most pressing cares of the new leaders of the army was the
+securing the means of transport. There was a great number of merchant
+ships, indeed, which could be pressed into the service, and which would
+perform it very well if only the passage in the Channel could be made
+without meeting opposition. The question to be considered was whether they
+could reckon upon this, or would the fleet, which was still supposed to
+acknowledge the authority of Honorius, prevent them from crossing. The
+chief person to be reckoned with in this matter was, of course, the Count
+of the Shore, and a despatch was immediately sent to him. It was the
+production of Constans, and ran thus--
+
+
+"_Constantine, Emperor of Britain and the West, to Lucius �lius, Count of
+the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+"_Having been called to Empire by the unanimous voice of the People and
+Army of Britain, and desiring to give deliverance from tyranny and
+protection from violence to other provinces besides this my Island of
+Britain, I purpose to transport such forces as it may be necessary to use
+for this purpose to the land of Gaul. I call upon you therefore, having
+full confidence in your loyalty, to give me such assistance as may be in
+your power, for the accomplishment of this end, and promise you, on the
+other hand, my favour and protection. Farewell._
+
+"_Given at the Camp of the Great Harbour._"
+
+
+The Count received this communication about ten days after his arrival at
+the villa. The writer would scarcely have been pleased at the comments
+which he made as he read it.
+
+"'Constantine, Emperor.' How many more Emperors are we to have in this
+unlucky island? 'Of Britain and the West.' And I doubt whether he can call
+a foot of ground his own fifty miles from the camp. 'To deliver other
+provinces from oppression and violence.' Why not begin by trying his hand
+at home? 'Full confidence in my loyalty.' Truly valuable praise from so
+excellent a judge in the matter. 'Such assistance as may be in my power.'
+Well, I should be glad to see the last of this crew of adventurers and
+villains; but he sha'n't have my ships."
+
+The Count's position indeed was one of singular difficulty. He had thought
+it best--indeed he had found it necessary, if he was to do his own work--to
+keep on friendly terms with the usurpers who had gone before Constantine.
+It had been quite hopeless for him to attempt to coerce the legions. If
+they chose to make Emperors for themselves, he must let them do it, so
+long as they did not interfere with his liberty as a loyal subject. But
+this was a different matter. Crossing over into Gaul meant downright
+hostility to the authorities in Italy. How could he help it forward? And
+yet how could he prevent it? He had three ships available. All the others
+were laid up for the winter in harbours on the eastern and south-eastern
+shores of the island. With these he might do some damage to the legions in
+their passage; but the passage he could not hope to prevent. And if he did
+prevent it, what would be his own future relations with the army? Clearly
+he could not stay in Vectis, or indeed anywhere in Britain, for there was
+no place which he could hope to hold against a small detachment of the
+army. And to go, though it could easily be done, and would save him a vast
+amount of trouble, would be to give up his whole work, and to leave the
+unhappy inhabitants of the coast without protection from the pirates of
+the East. After long and anxious deliberation, which he did not disdain to
+share with his daughter and Carna, he resolved on a middle course, by
+following which he would neither help nor hinder. The first thing was to
+seek an interview with Constantine or his representatives, and a messenger
+was accordingly despatched suggesting a conference to be held on
+shipboard, under a flag of truce, off the mouth of the Great Harbour.
+
+The proposition was accepted, and three days afterwards the conference was
+held, in the way that the Count had suggested. Each party brought a single
+ship, which was anchored for the greater convenience of carrying on the
+conversation, but was perfectly ready to slip its anchor in case of any
+threatening of treachery. The Count's vessel had the Imperial standard at
+its mast-head; Constantine's, on the other hand, had no distinguishing
+characteristic. Both he and his two sons were present, but the father was
+as silent as usual, and the chief spokesman was Julian.
+
+The Count was very brief in his greetings, and indicated, as plainly as he
+could without saying it in so many words, that he did not acknowledge the
+pretensions of the usurper.
+
+"My lord," he said, "you have asked me to help in the transport of your
+army across the Channel. Briefly then I have not the means. I have but
+three ships ready for sea, and not one of these can I spare."
+
+"The Emperor can command their services," said Julian.
+
+"I have received no instructions from my master," returned the Count, "to
+use them except for the protection of the coast."
+
+"You have them now," said Julian, "and you will refuse to obey them at
+your peril."
+
+"My commission is made out by Flavius Honorius Augustus, and I know no
+other to whom I can yield obedience."
+
+A pause followed this plain speech; the party on board with Constantine
+debated the situation with some heat, Julian maintaining that the Count
+must be brought to reason, the others being anxious to keep on good terms
+with him.
+
+"A single cohort can bring him to order," cried the young Prince.
+
+"Can drive him out of the villa doubtless," said the more prudent
+Constans, "but not bring us an inch nearer getting the ships."
+
+"We may at least count on your friendship," said Constans, Julian retiring
+sulkily from the negotiations; "you will not hinder the passage."
+
+"I have nothing to do with the disposition of the legions," answered the
+Count, "and, as I said before, have no instructions except to defend the
+shore against the Pirates."
+
+"His Majesty will not be ungrateful," said Constans.
+
+"I owe no duty but to Honorius, and desire no favour but from him," was
+the Count's reply, and the conference was at an end.
+
+The result was as favourable as Constantine could have expected. At least
+no opposition would be offered. Preparations for the passage were
+accordingly hurried on with all possible speed. All the towns along the
+coast were put under requisition for all the shipping that they could
+furnish, and, for the most part, were glad enough to answer the call.
+Whatever might happen in the future, it would be at least something to be
+rid of such troublesome neighbours. If other legions were to come, they
+might be more orderly and well-behaved. If these were to be the last,
+perhaps this would be a change for the better. Every one accordingly
+exerted himself to the utmost to supply the demand for transports.
+
+It was a curious medley of vessels that assembled in the Great Harbour in
+the late autumn for the embarkation of the army. Old ships of war that had
+lain high and dry from before the memory of man were hastily pitched over
+and launched. Merchant vessels of every kind were there, from the huge
+hulks that were accustomed to carry heavy cargoes of metal from Cornwall,
+to the light barks that carried on the trade in wine, olive oil, fruit,
+and such light goods between Armorica and Britain; even the fishing
+vessels from the villages along the coast were pressed into the service,
+and laden to the full, sometimes even to a dangerous depth, with military
+material and all the miscellaneous property with which an army of twenty
+thousand men would be likely to be encumbered. The greater part of this
+force had been collected at the Camp of the Great Harbour, which indeed
+was overflowing, and more than overflowing, with troops. But the garrisons
+that were situated to the eastward, as at Regnum(30) and Anderida,(31)
+were to join the fleet as it sailed, while those from the inland and coast
+stations of South and Eastern Britain were to make the best of their way
+to the Portus Lemanus. This was to be the rendezvous for the whole force,
+and the point for commencing the passage. The longer voyage, direct from
+the Great Harbour to the mouth of the Sequana (the Seine) or the
+projecting peninsula, now known as Manche, was dreaded, for the Channel
+had even a worse reputation in those days than it has now. It was
+arranged, accordingly, that the flotilla should sail along the coast as
+far as the Portus Lemanus, and cross from thence to Bononia.(32) The first
+half of November had passed before the preparations for departure were
+completed, and there were some who advised Constantine to delay his
+passage till the following spring. That he knew to be impossible; it was
+better to run any risk of storm or shipwreck than to face the winter with
+an ill-paid and discontented army.
+
+At early dawn, on the fifteenth of the month, the embarkation began, the
+munitions of war, stores, and other baggage having been already, as far as
+was possible, put on board of the heavier transports. The water-gate of
+the camp was thrown open, and at this Constantine, his sons, and his
+principal officers took their place. The priest who served the church
+within the camp offered a few prayers, and solemnly blessed the eagle of
+the Second Legion, which constituted, as has been said, the main part of
+the forces in the camp. When this ceremony was concluded, Constantine
+addressed the army.
+
+"By this gate in the days of our ancestors Vespasian led forth the Second
+Legion, then, as now, one of the chief ornaments and supports of the
+Empire, to execute the judgment of God on the rebellious nation of the
+Jews, and to receive before long as his reward the Empire of Rome. By this
+gate I lead you forth, worthy successors as you are of those who conquered
+with him, to a service not less honourable, and certain to receive no less
+distinguished a reward. Let my name, which recommended me to your favour,
+and this place, already famous as the starting-point of victorious armies,
+be accepted as omens of success. Comrades, follow me on a march which has
+for its end nothing less than the Capitol of Rome."
+
+He then took his seat in a boat manned with a picked crew, and, amidst
+shouts of applause from the assembled soldiers and spectators, was rowed
+to the ship, one of the few war galleys of recent construction that were
+to be found in the fleet. Then began the embarkation of the troops.
+
+It was a singular scene. The news had spread with the greatest rapidity
+through the whole countryside, and the native population had crowded to
+witness the departure. Every point from which the sight could be seen was
+occupied by spectators. Even the slopes of Portsdown were thickly dotted
+by them. Nearer the camp the emotion and excitement were intense. A
+regiment that marches out of a town in which it has been in garrison for a
+year or two leaves many sad hearts behind it; even so brief a space is
+long enough for the binding of many ties. But the legions had been almost
+permanent residents in Britain, and they were bound to its people by bonds
+many and close. And this people was not, it must be remembered, the
+self-restrained English race, so chary of sighs and groans, and so much
+ashamed of tears, but a race of excitable Celts, always ready to express
+all, and even more, than they felt. Wives, children, kinsfolk, friends
+were now to be left behind, and probably left for ever--for who could
+believe that the legions, whose departure had been threatened so long,
+could ever come back?
+
+  [Illustration: The Departure of the Legions.]
+
+The embarkation went on. Some of the lighters could be brought close to
+the shore, and were boarded by gangways. To others of heavier burden the
+men had to be carried in boats. A strong guard had been posted to keep the
+place of embarkation clear. But the guard was powerless, or perhaps
+unwilling--for who could deal harshly with women and children so
+situated?--to check the rush of the excited crowd. Some of the women threw
+themselves on their departing husbands and lovers, clasped them round
+their necks, or hung to their knees. Others sat on the shore rocking
+themselves to and fro, or frozen by the extremity of their grief into
+stillness; some uttered shrill cries; others were sunk in a speechless
+despair. Nor were there wanting scenes of a less harrowing kind. Not a few
+of the departing soldiers were breaking other obligations besides those of
+the heart. Creditors were to be seen clinging to debtors whom they saw
+vanishing out of their sight. The Jew trader from the village outside the
+camp seemed to be in despair. Probably he had secured himself fairly well
+against the consequences of an event which he must have been shrewd enough
+to foresee; but to judge from the bitterness and frequency of his appeals
+he was hopelessly ruined. He swore by the patriarchs and prophets that he
+had always carried on his business at a loss, and that if his debts were
+not now settled in full he should be reduced to beggary. The
+tavern-keepers were also busy, running to and fro, getting, or trying to
+get, payment of scores from customers whom they had trusted. There were
+others who had something to sell, some provisions for the voyage, a cloak,
+or a mantle, and offered it as a bargain--not, however, without a margin of
+profit--to dear friends with whom they were not likely to have dealings
+again. Other noisy claimants for attention were young Britons who wanted
+to enlist. For days past these had been flocking into the camp, and now
+that their last chance was about to disappear, they became importunate in
+the extreme. The numbers of the legions could have been almost doubled
+from these candidates for service.
+
+Slowly, as ship after ship received its complement of men, the turmoil on
+the shore lessened, and about sunset the embarkation was completed. The
+weather was beautifully calm, a light wind blowing from the land during
+the day, and even this falling as the light declined. When the moon
+rose--the time of the full had been chosen for the embarkation--the sea was
+almost calm. Then, amidst a great cry of "Farewell," from the shore, the
+fleet slowly moved down the harbour. All night, making the most of the
+favourable weather, it pursued its way along the coast, being joined as it
+went by other detachments. At the Portus Lemanus it found the fleet which
+carried the garrisons of the eastern stations ready to start, and the
+whole made its way without hindrance across the Channel to Bononia, having
+as prosperous a voyage as had the legions which more than four hundred and
+fifty years before C�sar had brought to the island.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                              DANGERS AHEAD.
+
+
+The winter that followed the departure of the legions was a busy time with
+the Count. He was now almost the only representative of Roman power in
+Southern Britain, and the villa on the island became a place of
+considerable importance. A military force of some strength was gathered
+there. Constantine's enterprise was not universally popular, and many had
+taken any chance that offered itself of escaping from it. Some had
+reached, or very nearly reached, the end of their time of service, and
+claimed their discharge; others were known to be loyal to Rome, and were
+allowed to retire. Not a few of those who found themselves without home or
+employment, and did not happen to have friends or kinsfolk in Britain,
+rallied to the Count. The families, too, of some that had gone with the
+legions were glad to claim such shelter and protection as the
+neighbourhood of the villa could give. Among these were the wife and
+daughters of the Centurion Decius; the old mother had steadily refused to
+accompany them, and, with an aged dependent of nearly the same age,
+continued to occupy the house near the deserted camp. It was an anxious
+matter with the Count what was to be done with these helpless people.
+While things were quiet they could live safely, if not very comfortably,
+in the neighbouring village; but if trouble were to come--and there were
+several quarters from which it might come--they would have to be sheltered
+somewhere in the villa. This never could be made into a really strong
+place; but it might serve well enough for a time and against ordinary
+attack. Some of the outbuildings and domestic offices were fortified as
+well as the position admitted; such material of war as could be got was
+accumulated, and provisions also were stored. The most reliable resource,
+however, was in the ships of war. These were not, as was usual, drawn up
+on the beach for the winter, but were kept at anchor, ready for immediate
+use.
+
+Nor were these precautions unnecessary, for indeed, as we shall see,
+mischief of a very formidable kind was brewing, and indeed had been
+brewing ever since the departure of the legions, and even before that
+event. And it was mischief of a kind of which it may safely be affirmed
+that neither the Count nor any Roman official, had any notion. Britain, to
+all appearance, had for many generations been thoroughly subdued. Any
+Roman, if he had been told that there was any danger of rebellion among
+the Britons, would have laughed the suggestion to scorn. The legions,
+indeed, had often been mutinous and turbulent, and their generals
+ambitious and unscrupulous. The island indeed had gained so bad a
+reputation for loyalty to the Empire that it had been called the mother of
+tyrants, by "tyrant" being meant "usurper." But whenever Rome had been
+defied, she had been defied by her own troops. The Britons had enlisted in
+the rebel armies, but they had never attempted to assert anything like
+British independence. And yet the tradition of independence and liberty
+had always been kept alive. The Celtic race is singularly tenacious of
+such ideas, and also singularly skilful in concealing them from those who
+are its masters for the time, and the Britons were Celts of the purest
+blood. Caradoc(33) and Boadicea, and other heroes and heroines of British
+independence, were household words in many families which were yet
+thoroughly Roman in spirit and manners. Just as the Christianized Jews of
+Spain, though to all appearances devout worshippers at church, still clung
+in secret to the rites of their own worship, so these loyal subjects of
+the Empire, as all the world believed them, cherished in their hearts the
+memory of the free Britain of the past and the hope of a free Britain in
+the future. And the time was now at hand when their leaders thought that
+this hope might be fulfilled.
+
+The Shanklin Chine of to-day is not a little different from the Shanklin
+Chine of fifteen hundred years ago. It has, so to speak, been subdued and
+civilized. Now it is a very pretty and pleasant wood; then it was an
+almost impenetrable thicket, a noted lair of elk and wild boar.
+Inaccessible, however, as it seemed to any one who surveyed it from above,
+there was for those who were in the secret a way of approaching its
+recesses. A little path, the beginning of which it was almost impossible
+to discover without a guide, led up from the sea-end of the ravine to a
+hut which had been constructed about half way up the ascent. It consisted
+of a single chamber, about fourteen feet long, ten broad, and not more
+than seven in height, and was constructed of roughly-hewn logs, the
+interstices of which were filled with clay. The walls, however, were not
+visible, for they were covered with hangings of a dark blue material,
+something like serge. The floor was strewn with rushes. In the centre of
+the apartment there was a hearth, having over it an aperture in the roof,
+not, however, opening directly into the outer air, by which the smoke
+might escape. On this hearth two or three logs were smouldering with a
+dull heat which it would have been easy to fan into flame. There were two
+windows unglazed, but closed with rough wooden lattices.
+
+On three settles, roughly but strongly made of oak, which, with a
+rudely-polished slab of wood that served for table, constituted all the
+furniture of the hut, sat three confederates, and behind each stood a
+stalwart attendant armed with a wicker shield which hung from his neck,
+and a long Gallic sword. The three chiefs were curiously different in
+appearance. One, as far, at least, as dress and manner were concerned,
+might have passed anywhere for a genuine Roman. He was taller, it is true,
+than the Romans commonly were; and his complexion, though dark rather than
+fair, had a ruddier hue than was often seen under the more glowing skin of
+Italy; still he might have walked down the Sacred Way or the Saburra(34)
+unnoticed save as an exceptionally handsome man, of that fair beauty which
+the southern nations especially admire. His hair was carefully curled and
+perfumed; his face as carefully shaven, and showing no trace of beard,
+moustache, or whisker. His toga of brilliant white, his long-sleeved tunic
+of some dark purple stuff, his elegant sandals, were all such as a dandy
+of the Palatine might have worn. The one thing which would have been
+singular in a Roman street was the under-garment reaching to his knees,
+which he had assumed in consideration of the cold and wet of the insular
+climate. His fingers were loaded with rings, one of them a sapphire of
+unusual size, on which was engraved a likeness of the feeble features of
+the Emperor Honorius; on his left wrist might be seen a bracelet of gold.
+
+If Martianus--for that was the name of the personage whom we have been
+describing--might have been easily mistaken for a Roman, the chief who sat
+facing him on the opposite side of the hearth was as manifestly a Briton.
+His hair fell over his shoulders in long natural curls which suggested no
+suspicion of the barber's or the perfumer's art. His upper lip was covered
+with a moustache which drooped to his chin. His body was covered with a
+sleeveless coat skilfully made of otters' skins. Both arms were bare, and
+were plentifully painted with woad. On his legs he wore a garment
+something like the "trews" or short trowsers which the Highland regiments
+sometimes wear in lieu of the kilt; his feet were enveloped in rude boots
+of hide which were laced round his ankles. His ornaments were a massive
+chain of twisted gold, which he wore round his neck, and a single ring,
+rudely wrought of British gold, in which was set a British pearl of
+immense size but indifferent hue. He had a Roman name, as he could on
+occasion wear Roman costume, and speak the Latin tongue. In the present
+company he was known and addressed by his native name of Ambiorix.
+
+  [Illustration: British Conspirators.]
+
+The third conspirator had the appearance of a middle-class provincial. He
+wore the tunic that formed part of a Roman's ordinary dress, but not the
+toga, which was replaced by a garment somewhat resembling a short cloak.
+But under the garb of a well-to-do townsman was concealed a very
+remarkable career and character. Carausius--for this was the name by which
+he was generally known--was one of the last representatives of the ancient
+Druid priesthood. The glory and power of this remarkable caste, which had
+once held itself superior to the kings of Britain, were departed. Indeed,
+it was almost dangerous to hold the ancient faith, and practise the
+ancient worship. Since the publication of the edict by which Constantine
+had made Christianity the Imperial religion, the adherents of the old
+religion had become fewer and feebler. Some of the chiefs and nobles still
+held it in secret, or were, at least, ready to return to it, if it should
+ever again become powerful; but its adherents were mostly to be found
+among the poorer classes. Even these in the towns were, in name at least,
+mostly Christians; it was only the dwellers in the remoter and wilder
+parts of the country that remained faithful. But these scattered adherents
+revered the name of Carausius, who was believed to possess all the wisdom
+of his class, and was indeed credited with mysterious powers over nature
+and the gift of prophecy. From the Roman population all this was a secret,
+and the secret was remarkably well kept. Carausius was supposed to be
+nothing more than an ordinary farmer. His Roman neighbours would have been
+astonished in the last degree if they could have seen him presiding at one
+of the Druid ceremonies, in his white robes curiously embroidered with
+mystic figures, his chaplet of golden oak-leaves, and the headless spear,
+which was to him what the crozier was to a Christian bishop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+                           THE PRIEST'S DEMAND.
+
+
+"So the time has come at last," said Ambiorix; "at last the yoke is broken
+from off the neck of Britain. Blessed be the day that saw the legions of
+the oppressor depart!"
+
+"Yes," replied Martianus, "but will they not return? They have gone
+before; but have they not come back? I take it these Romans get too much
+out of us to let us go willingly."
+
+"I have no fear of their return. If Honorius can make terms with this
+Constantine and his army, he will never send them back here; he wants them
+too much at home. He has got King Alaric to reckon with, and he has been
+long since drawing every soldier that he can from the provinces into
+Italy. No, depend upon it, at last Britain is free."
+
+"Free; yes, if it has not forgotten how to move."
+
+"We haven't all learnt to play the slave," said Ambiorix fiercely, as he
+started from his seat. "There are some who have not sold their birthright
+for the delights of the bath and the banquet, and who are too proud to ape
+the manners of their masters."
+
+"Peace, my son," interposed the aged priest; "Martianus is not the less
+able to help the cause of our country because he seems to be the friend of
+those who oppress it."
+
+"These are but the wild words of youth, father," said Martianus. "By a
+wise man they are forgotten as soon as they are heard. But let us hear
+what Ambiorix has to tell us about the force which we can bring into the
+field."
+
+The young chief entered into details which it is impossible to reproduce.
+Preparations had been made over nearly the whole of Britain, though the
+more northerly parts, owing to the perpetual attacks of their neighbours
+the Picts, had little to contribute in the way of help. Ambiorix knew how
+many men could be relied upon in every district; he was acquainted with
+the disposition of the representatives of the chief British families; he
+knew what each would want for himself, to whom he would be prepared to
+yield precedence, from whom he would claim precedence for himself. All his
+views and calculations were those of a sanguine temper; but he certainly
+could show--on paper at least, as we should say--a very respectable amount
+of strength. When he had finished his account of the resources of Britain,
+Martianus, who, whatever his faults, had at least a genuine admiration for
+ability, held out his hand--
+
+"This is wonderful!" he said. "You have a true genius for rule. That you
+should keep the threads of so complicated a business all so distinct is
+simply wonderful. You certainly give me hopes that I never had before."
+
+"I never doubted for a moment," returned the young man, "but that when
+this Roman incubus was removed all would go well. Besides, who is there to
+attack us? We have no enemies."
+
+"No enemies!" replied the other, in a tone of surprise. "Do you forget the
+Saxons by sea and the Picts by land."
+
+"I believe that neither will trouble us. They are not our enemies, but the
+enemies of Rome. They have harassed--they were quite right in harassing--the
+oppressors of the world: they will respect, I am sure, the liberties of a
+free people. When Britain is as independent as they are we shall be
+friends."
+
+Martianus could not help smiling sarcastically. "That is very fine. One
+would think that you had been a pupil in one of the schools of rhetoric
+which you so much despise. The most famous of our declaimers could not
+have put it better. But I am afraid that there will be some difficulty in
+explaining all this to them."
+
+"In any case, we can defend ourselves," returned the young chief, "though
+I do not think that the need will occur."
+
+"Let us hope not," said Martianus, but his tone was not confident or
+cheerful.
+
+There were, it may easily be supposed, not a few other subjects for
+discussion, and the conversation lasted for a long time, the young chief
+showing throughout such a mastery of details as greatly impressed his
+companions. When he had finished a brief silence followed. It was broken
+by the priest. There was a special solemnity in his tone, which seemed to
+claim an authority for his utterances, quite different from the position
+that he had taken up while politics or military matters were being
+discussed.
+
+"My children," he said, "this is a grave matter. The weal or woe of
+Britain for many generations is at stake. If we fail, we may well be
+undone for ever. You cannot enter on so great an enterprise without the
+favour of the gods, and the favour of the gods is not easily to be won.
+For many years they have lacked the sacrifice which they most prize. I
+myself, though I have completed my threescore years and ten, have but once
+only been privileged so to honour them. The time has come for this
+sacrifice to be offered once more. Have I your consent, my children? But
+indeed I need not ask. This is a matter in which I cannot be mistaken, and
+from which I cannot go back."
+
+The young chief nodded assent, but said nothing. He was evidently
+disturbed.
+
+"What do you mean, father?" he said.
+
+"The sacrifice which the gods most prize," answered the old man, "is also
+that which is most prized by men. The most perfect offering which we can
+present to them is the most perfect creature they themselves have made.
+Sheep and oxen may suffice for common needs; but at such a time as this,
+when Britain itself is at stake, we must appease the gods with the blood
+of MAN."
+
+Martianus grew pale. "It is not possible," he stammered.
+
+"Not only possible, but necessary," calmly returned the priest. "Our
+fathers were commonly content to offer those who had offended against the
+laws; but in times of special necessity they chose the noblest victims.
+Even our kings have given up their sons and their daughters. So it must be
+now."
+
+All this was absolutely horrible to Martianus. He did not believe indeed
+in Christianity, but it had influenced him as it had influenced all the
+world. Whether he was at heart much the better may be doubted. But he was
+softer, more refined; he shrank from visible horrors, from open
+cruelty--though he could be cruelly selfish on occasion--and from bloodshed,
+though he would not stretch out a finger to save a neighbour's life. And
+what the priest said was as new and unexpected to him as it was hideous.
+He had no idea that this savage faith had survived in Britain.
+
+"Father," he said, "such a thing would ruin us. Such a deed would raise
+the whole country against us. A human sacrifice! It is monstrous!"
+
+"You are right so far," returned the priest, "the country must not know
+it. Britain is utterly corrupted by this new faith, a superstition fit
+only for women, and children, and slaves; and I don't doubt but that it
+would lift up its hands in horror at this holy solemnity. But there is no
+need that it should know it. It must be done secretly--so much I concede."
+
+"And the victim?"
+
+"Well, the days are passed when a Druid could lay his command on Britain's
+noblest, and be obeyed without a murmur. The victim must be taken by
+force, and secretly."
+
+"And have you any such victim in your thoughts?"
+
+The priest hesitated for a moment; but it was only for a moment. He
+resumed in a low voice, which it evidently cost him an effort to keep
+steady--
+
+"I have not forgotten the necessity of a choice; indeed for months past it
+has been without ceasing in my mind, and now the choice is made. The
+victim whom the gods should have is a maiden, beautiful and pure. She is
+of noble descent, though her father was compelled, by poverty and the
+oppression of the Roman tyrants, to follow a humble occupation. Thus she
+is worthy to be offered. And yet no true Briton will regret her fate, for
+she has deserted the faith of her ancestors for the base superstition of
+the Cross."
+
+"And her name, father?" said both of the conspirators together.
+
+Again the priest hesitated; a close observer might even have seen a trace
+of agitation in that stern countenance.
+
+"It is Carna," he said, after a pause, which raised the suspense of his
+hearers almost to agony. "It is Carna, adopted daughter of Count �lius."
+
+And he looked steadfastly at his companions' faces, as if he would have
+said, "I dare you to challenge my decision."
+
+The two started simultaneously to their feet. Not long before, young
+Ambiorix, who was then not yet possessed by the fanatical patriotism which
+now mastered him, had admired her beauty and sweetness of manner, and had
+had day-dreams of her as the goddess of his own hearth. Then a stronger
+love had come in the place of the old. It was not of woman, but of Britain
+free among the nations, as she had been before the restless eagles of the
+South had found her, that he thought day and night. Still, he could not
+calmly hear her doomed to a horrible death, and for a moment he was ready
+to rebel against the sentence of the priest.
+
+The older man was terribly agitated. He had been for many years on the
+friendliest footing with the Count, a frequent guest at his table, almost
+an intimate of the house. And Carna was an especial favourite with him.
+Her sweetness, her simplicity, and a pathetic resemblance that she bore to
+a dead daughter of his own, touched him on the best side of his nature.
+
+"Priest," he thundered, "it shall not be. I would sooner the whole scheme
+came to ruin; I would sooner die. A curse on your hideous worship!"
+
+The priest had now crushed down the risings of human feelings which his
+training had not sufficed to eradicate.
+
+"You have sworn by the gods," he said, "and you cannot go back. If you do
+not hesitate to betray Britain, at least you will not dare to betray
+yourself. You know the power I can command. Go back from your promise to
+follow my leading, and you are a dead man. You are faithful?" he went on,
+turning to Ambiorix. "You do not draw back?"
+
+The young chief returned a muttered assent.
+
+The older man, meanwhile, was in a miserable condition of indecision and
+terror. Unbeliever as he was, having long since given up the faith of his
+fathers, and never accepted the doctrine of the church but with the
+emptiest formality, he had not put from his breast the superstitious fear
+that commonly lingers when belief is gone. And he knew that the priest's
+threatened vengeance on himself was no empty boast. The strength of
+Druidism had passed, but it still had fanatics at its command, whose
+daggers would find their way sooner or later to his heart. The cold,
+cynical look with which he had entered on the conference had given place
+to mingled looks of rage, remorse, and fear.
+
+"You must have your own way," he muttered, sullenly.
+
+"My son," said the priest, in a tone which he made studiously cautious,
+"what is one life in comparison with the happiness and glory of our
+nation? You, I know, would shrink from no sacrifice, and, believe me," he
+added in a lower voice, for he had to play off the two rivals against each
+other, "believe me, whatever sacrifice you make shall not miss its
+reward."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                                  LOST.
+
+
+Carna was known all over the neighbourhood of the villa as the best and
+kindest of nurses, always ready to help in cases of sickness, and able to
+command the services of the household physician where her own medical
+skill was at fault. It was therefore with no surprise that the morning
+after the consultation, recorded in the last chapter, she was told that
+her help was wanted in a case of urgent need. The woman who had brought
+the message was a stranger. She was the daughter, she said, of an old
+woman living at Uricum, a small hamlet about four miles from the villa.
+She had happened to come the day before on a visit to her mother, and
+found her very ill; they had no medicines in the house, and indeed should
+not have known how to use them if they had. Would the lady come, and, if
+she thought proper, bring the physician with her? The place mentioned was
+on the limits of the district with which Carna was acquainted. It could
+only be approached by a path through the forest; and the girl had not
+visited it more than two or three times in her life. She had a vague
+remembrance, however, of the patient's name. On sending for the physician,
+it was found that he was out, having been called away, Carna was told, to
+a case which, he had said before starting, would probably occupy him for
+the greater part of the day. On hearing this, she made up her mind to
+start without waiting for him. The illness was very probably of a simple
+kind, though it might be violent in degree. Very likely it was a case in
+which the nurse would be more wanted than the doctor. She provided herself
+with two or three simple remedies which she learnt to employ in the
+ordinary maladies of the country, of which feverish colds were the most
+common, and started, taking with her as companion and protector a stately
+Milesian dog, or mastiff, who was always delighted to play the part of a
+guard in her country walks. Her own pet dog, a long-haired little
+creature, something of the Spanish kind, whom she had intended to leave at
+home, contrived to free himself from the custody to which he had been
+assigned, and stealthily followed her, cunningly keeping out of sight till
+the party had gone too far for him to be conveniently sent back. He then
+showed himself with extravagant gestures of contrition, was tenderly
+reproached, pardoned, and allowed to go on.
+
+During the walk the messenger was curiously silent, and answered all
+Carna's questions about her mother and her affairs in the very briefest
+fashion. All that could be got from her was that she lived on the main
+land, about twenty miles inland, in a northerly direction, and that since
+her marriage, now twenty years ago, she had seen very little of her
+mother. When they reached the outskirts of the hamlet she pointed out her
+mother's house, and, making an excuse that she had an errand for a
+neighbour, disappeared. Carna, seeing nothing but a certain surliness of
+temper, possibly only shyness, in her companion, went on without
+suspicion. She reached the house, and knocked at the door. There was no
+answer. She knocked again. Still all was silence. Looking a little more
+closely at the place she could see no signs of habitation, no smoke, for
+instance, making its way out of the thatch (for chimneys did not yet
+exist, at least, in the poorer dwellings). The next thing was to peep in
+at the window, a wooden lattice, which had been left partially open. The
+room into which she looked was perfectly bare.
+
+A suspicion rushed into her mind that she had been tricked, and that
+danger of some unknown kind was at hand. The strange sympathy which often
+makes the dog so quick to understand the feelings of man, made the big
+mastiff, Malcho, uneasy. With a low growl, showing uneasiness rather than
+fear or anger, he ranged himself at her side.
+
+As she stood considering what was next to be done, a party of six men, one
+of whom led a horse, issued from the wood which bordered the little garden
+of the cottage.
+
+"Can you tell me where I shall find one Utta, who, I am told, is sick, and
+wishful to see me? Can it be that I have mistaken the house?"
+
+"Utta, my lady," said one of the party, "is not to be found any more. She
+died a week since."
+
+"But," said Carna, with rising anger, "a woman, who said that she was her
+daughter, told me, not more than two hours ago, that she was sick, and
+desired to see me. Why have I been brought here for nothing?"
+
+"Pardon me, lady," returned the first speaker, in a tone in which respect
+and command were curiously blended, "but you have not been brought for
+nothing. You have a better work to do than ministering to a sick old
+woman."
+
+As he spoke he moved forwards. But he had not taken two steps before the
+great dog, who had been watching the speakers, we might say almost
+listening to their talk with the most eager attention, sprang furiously at
+him, and laid him prostrate on the ground. His companions rushed to rescue
+their leader from the dog and to seize the girl. They did not accomplish
+either of their objects with impunity. The gallant creature turned from
+one assailant to another with a strength and a fury which made him a most
+formidable antagonist, and he had inflicted some frightful wounds before
+he was made senseless by repeated blows from the weapons of the
+assailants. Nor was Carna overpowered without a struggle. Weapons she had
+none, except a little dagger, meant for use in needlework, which hung at
+her side; but she used this not without effect. She clenched her fist, and
+dealt two or three blows, of which her antagonists bore the marks upon
+their faces for days to come. Finally she wrenched herself from the grasp
+of the assailants as a last resource, and endeavoured to fly, but it was a
+hopeless effort. Before she had run more than a few yards she was
+overtaken. Her captors used no more violence than they could help.
+Probably had they been less unwilling to hurt her, she could not have
+resisted so long. Finding her so strong and so determined, they were
+obliged to bind her hands and feet; but they did this with all the
+gentleness compatible with an evident resolve to make her bonds secure. In
+the midst of her terror and distress Carna could not help observing with
+astonishment that the cords which they used were of silk. Then finding
+herself absolutely helpless, she said--
+
+"Do not bind me as though I were a slave. On the faith of a Christian, I
+will not attempt to escape."
+
+"Lady, we trust you," said the leader of the party, and at the same time
+directed one of his companions to unbind the ropes. "Be comforted," he
+went on; "we do not intend you harm; on the contrary, high honour is in
+store for you."
+
+  [Illustration: The Capture of Carna.]
+
+Carna was scarcely reassured by these mysterious words, but she had now
+recovered her calmness. Summoning up all her courage--and it was far beyond
+even the average of a singularly fearless race--she intimated to her
+captors that she was ready to follow them without further delay. They
+mounted her upon the horse, which, as has been said, one of them was
+holding, and started in a northerly direction. Two of the party had been
+so severely injured by the hound, that they were obliged to stay behind.
+One of the others held the bridle of the horse, and led him forward at an
+ambling pace; the others followed behind.
+
+The way of the party lay entirely along rough forest-paths which seemed
+from their appearance, often grown over as they were with branches and
+creepers, to be but seldom traversed. Night had fallen some hours before
+they reached the northern coast of the island. Their way had lain in a
+north-westerly direction, and they emerged near to the arm of the sea now
+known as Fishbourne Creek. Here they found a rowing boat in waiting.
+
+Carna's captors now handed over their charge to the boat party, which was
+under the command of the young chief whom we know by the name of Ambiorix.
+He received his prisoner with a dignified civility, made her as
+comfortable as he could with rugs and wraps in the stern of the boat, and
+then gave orders to start. The journey across the channel, which we now
+know as the Solent, occupied some hours, though the night was calm, and
+the ebbing tide mostly in the rowers' favour, the shortest route not being
+taken, but a north-westerly direction still followed. The morning was just
+beginning to break when the coast was reached near the spot where
+Lymington now stands. The party hurriedly disembarked, put the girl on a
+rough litter which they had with them in the boat, and carried her to a
+dwelling some half-mile inland, and surrounded by the woods which here
+almost touched high-water mark. Carna found a tolerable chamber allotted
+to her, where she was waited upon by an elderly woman who seemed bent on
+doing everything that she could for her comfort. The girl was of the
+elastic temper which soon recovers itself even under the most depressing
+circumstances. She had the wisdom, too, to feel that, if she was to help
+herself, she must keep up her strength to the very best of her power. She
+did not refuse the simple but well-cooked meal which her attendant served
+to her, after she had enjoyed the refreshment of a bath. And then
+overpowered by the fatigue of a journey which had lasted not much less
+than twenty-four hours, she sank into a deep sleep.
+
+It was dark when her attendant gently roused her and told her that in an
+hour she would be required to resume her journey, in which, as Carna heard
+with some pleasure, she was herself to be her companion. A start was made
+about three hours before midnight, and the journey was continued till an
+hour before dawn. This plan was followed till their destination was
+reached. The party was evidently careful to keep its movements secret.
+Their way lay as before, by woodland paths, leading them through the
+district now known as the New Forest. They travelled but slowly, more
+slowly indeed than they had done on the island, for the paths were still
+rougher, and, in fact, almost undistinguishable. Carna, too, was the only
+one of the company that had a horse, and her female attendant, who was
+neither young nor active, could manage but a few miles at a time. It was
+the morning of the second day after they had left the coast before they
+reached the edge of the great forest known as the Natanleah. Some five
+miles to the west lay Sorbiodunum, now Salisbury. This was a Roman town of
+some importance, and had of course to be avoided by the party, who,
+indeed, were anxious, as Carna could gather from a few scattered words
+that were let drop in her presence, as to the way in which the rest of
+their journey was to be accomplished. The country was open, cultivated,
+and comparatively populous, the inhabitants being, for the most part,
+thoroughly Latinized. Two Roman roads, too, had to be crossed before their
+destination was reached.
+
+The day was spent as usual in concealment and repose. An hour after
+nightfall the party started. They had now managed to procure another horse
+for Carna's attendant; and as the ground was fairly level, unenclosed,
+and, at that time of year, unencumbered by crops, they moved rapidly
+onwards. The moon had now risen, and Carna, for the first time, could at
+least see where they were going. She was still, however, at a loss to know
+what part of the country they had reached. At midnight a halt was called,
+and the leader of the party proceeded to blindfold the captive's eyes. But
+if he wanted to keep her in ignorance of the locality, he was a little too
+late. The girl's quick sight had caught a glimpse in the distance of the
+huge circle of earth walls, now known as Amesbury. She had never seen the
+place, but it was known to her in the chronicles of her people. There, as
+she had read with a patriotism which all her Roman surroundings had not
+been able to quench, her countrymen had more than once held at bay the
+legions of Rome. She knew roughly the situation of the famous camp of the
+Belg�, and she was sure that these massive fortifications, just seen for a
+moment in the moonlight, could be none others than those of which she had
+read so often.
+
+When the bandage was removed, she found herself in a chamber larger and
+more comfortably furnished than any she had hitherto occupied on her
+journey. Part of the palace of one of the old kings of the Belg� was still
+standing, and the travellers had taken up their quarters in it. The
+Amesbury camp was indeed as safe a place as they could have chosen. It was
+a spot which no Roman, much less a Briton living under Roman protection,
+would care to visit. The whole countryside believed that it was haunted by
+the spirits of the great chiefs and warriors who had been buried within
+its precincts, and of the slaves who had been killed to furnish them with
+service and attendance in the unseen world. The scanty remnant who still
+clung to the Druid faith found their account in encouraging these
+superstitions. More than one appearance had been arranged to terrify
+sceptical or curious persons who had been rash enough to visit the vast
+circle of embankments. For many years before the time of our story the
+enclosure had been untrodden except by the few who were in the secret of
+the Druid initiation. Here, then, the party waited securely with their
+prisoner till the time should come for the solemn visit to _Choir Gawr_,
+the Great Temple, known to us by the name of Stonehenge.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                            WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
+
+
+It was some time before the prolonged absence of Carna caused any alarm at
+the villa. When she was on one of her errands of kindness among the sick,
+it was difficult to say when she would return. But in the course of the
+afternoon the old physician returned, not a little wrath that he had been
+sent on a fool's errand. He had been told that an old farmer, living close
+to the north-west of the island some seven or eight miles from the villa
+was lying dangerously ill, and he had found the supposed patient in
+vigorous health, and not a little angry at being supposed to be anything
+else. This seemed to make things look somewhat serious. It was easy to
+guess that the trick played upon the physician had something to do with
+the message brought to Carna. It was remembered that the stranger had
+asked that he should accompany the girl; it was at least possible that she
+knew him to be out of the way, and that she would not have made the
+request had she not known it.
+
+While the Count, who had just returned from an inspection of his crews,
+was talking the matter over with his daughter and two of his officers who
+happened to be present, a new cause for suspicion and alarm presented
+itself. Carna's pet dog had found its way back with a bit of broken cord
+round its neck, and refused to be comforted, tearing and pulling at the
+dresses of the attendant, and saying, as plainly as a dog could say it,
+that there was something wrong, that it must be attended to at once, and
+that he would show them how to do it, if they would only follow him. When
+the rope round his neck was examined more closely, it was found that it
+had been gnawed in two. "He has been tied up and has broken away," said
+the Count, when this was pointed out to him. "And if I know the dear
+little thing," broke in �lia, "he would not have left his mistress as long
+as he could be near her. I am sure that some mischief has happened to
+her." And this was the general impression, though, who could have ventured
+on so audacious an outrage it was impossible to guess.
+
+What had happened, as the reader may possibly guess, was this. The dog had
+remained with Carna, showing his love, not by fierce resistance like that
+made by his powerful companion, for which he had the sagacity to know he
+had not sufficient strength, but by keeping as close to her as he could.
+After she had been made a prisoner, and while the party were preparing for
+a start, he had been tied to a tree. It had been intended that he should
+go with his mistress, for whom, as has been said, her captors showed
+throughout a certain consideration, but it so happened that in the bustle
+of departure he was forgotten. When he saw her go and found himself left
+behind, he set himself with all his might to gnaw the rope which fastened
+him to the tree. This task took him a long time, for he was an old dog,
+and his teeth were not as good as they had been. Finding himself free he
+started in headlong pursuit, easily tracking the party by the scent, but
+after a while he halted; a happy thought--is it possible that, in the teeth
+of all accumulated evidences, any one can deny that dogs can think?--a
+happy _thought_ then struck his mind, quickened to its utmost capacity of
+intelligence by love and grief. We may translate it into human language
+thus: "If I follow her and overtake her, what good can I do? but if I go
+back and make the people at home understand that something has happened to
+her, then I can help her to some purpose." This was his conclusion,
+anyhow. How he arrived at it only He knows who makes all things great and
+small, and "divideth to all severally as He will." He turned back, ran
+with breathless speed to the villa, and did all that could be done, short
+of speaking, to show that his dear mistress was in trouble.
+
+Meanwhile, however, much time had been lost, and the day was already far
+advanced. Anxious as was the Count to set out, he could not but perceive
+that haste might defeat the object of his journey. To start when the light
+was failing would probably be to miss important signs of what had
+happened, and, very possibly, to risk success. All preparations, however,
+were made. The men who were to form the pursuing party were chosen. As it
+may be supposed, there was no lack of volunteers. There was not a single
+being at the villa or its dependencies that would not have given a great
+deal and borne a great deal to see Carna again in safety. But it would be
+possible to take only a small number, if the pursuit was to be rapid and
+effective. Some of the most active of the crews of the war-ships
+accordingly were chosen, sailors having then as now a cheerful activity
+that makes them particularly valuable members of a land expedition. The
+Count added others from his own establishment, and he determined to
+conduct the party himself. It was arranged that it should start the
+following day, as soon as it should be sufficiently light.
+
+One of the slaves who was early astir on the following morning found fixed
+to an outside gate of the villa a document, rudely written and roughly
+folded, which bore the Count's address. It was found, when opened, to
+contain the following message, expressed in ungrammatical Latin, mingled
+with one or two British words:
+
+
+"_She whom you seek is not far off, and may be recovered by you if you are
+wise. If you attempt to regain her by force, she will be lost to you
+altogether. But if you wish to have her again with you safely and without
+trouble, send one whom you can trust with a hundred gold pieces at
+midnight three days after the receiving of this letter to the place to
+which she was yesterday fetched. Let your messenger go alone, and ask no
+questions then or afterwards._"
+
+
+"So she is held to ransom by a set of brigands," cried the Count, when he
+had read this document. "I should not have thought that such a thing had
+been possible in Britain. But the times have been getting worse and worse.
+We have long been weakening our hold upon the province, and we had better
+clear out altogether, if we cannot do better than this. But I suppose we
+have no choice. We must not endanger the dear girl's life. But now the
+question is about the money. I do not think that I have so much in gold in
+the house; but we can borrow somewhere what is wanted."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Count's secretary, whom he had summoned to consult
+with him, "the peddler can help you. He has the reputation of being richer
+than he looks."
+
+"Well," replied the Count, "that would be a simple way out of the
+difficulty, if it can be managed. Meanwhile, let me see what I have got of
+my own at hand."
+
+It was found that eighty gold pieces were forthcoming, and the peddler was
+summoned and asked whether he could make up the balance.
+
+"My Lord," said the man when he was brought into the Count's presence and
+had heard the story, "I will make no idle pretence of poverty. I have what
+you want, and it is entirely at your lordship's service. But will you let
+me see the letter in which this demand for ransom is made?"
+
+The Count handed him the document, and he examined it long and carefully.
+
+"My lord," he said, "the more I look at this, the more I am confirmed in
+certain suspicions which have been growing up in my mind. I have been
+thinking of this matter, and of other matters which seem to me to be
+connected with it all the night. It will take long to explain, and, of
+course, after all I may be wrong; still, I think you would do well to hear
+what I have got to say."
+
+The Count, who had previously had reasons for thinking well of the
+peddler's intelligence, bade him proceed.
+
+"In the first place," continued the man, "I think this letter is a blind.
+It is made to look like the work of some very rude and ignorant person.
+But the pretence is not well kept up. You will see, if you look at the
+handwriting a little more closely, that it is feigned. The writer was
+perfectly able to make it a great deal better than it is, if he had so
+chosen, and he has sometimes forgotten his part. Some of the letters, some
+even of the words, particularly of the small words, about which he would
+naturally be less careful, are quite well-formed. Now a really bad writer,
+I mean one who writes badly because he does not know how to write well, is
+always bad; every letter he forms is misshapen."
+
+The Count examined the document and acknowledged that this comment upon it
+was just. And he began to see too what was naturally more apparent to him,
+as an educated man, than it was to the peddler, that the style was hardly
+what would have been expected from an ignorant scribe.
+
+"What, then, is your conclusion?" he asked.
+
+"About that," returned the other, "I am not so certain. That this is a
+blind, as I said, I am sure; and this talk about the ransom consequently
+is a deception. 'Three days,' you see it says. That would be three days
+lost. No, my lord, it is not by robbers that this has been planned."
+
+"What then?" cried the Count, flushing a fiery red as a sudden thought
+occurred to him. "Carna is very beautiful. Do you think----"
+
+"No," said the peddler, "I think not. A lover would not lay so elaborate a
+plot as I fancy I can see here. I think the Lady Carna is a hostage, or----"
+
+He paused, and continued after a few minutes of silence. "I have much to
+piece together, and it would take long, and lose much precious time. That
+is the last thing that we should do. They have got too much start already.
+We must not let them improve it more than we can help. You will let me go
+with you, and I shall have leisure to put all I have got to say together
+without hindering you. But the sooner we are on their track the better."
+
+To this the Count readily agreed, and preparations for immediate departure
+were made. It was with difficulty that �lia could be persuaded that she
+must be left behind. But when it was pointed out to her that her presence
+must inevitably make the progress of the party more slow, and increase
+their anxieties, she reluctantly gave way. At the last moment an
+unexpected addition was made to the party in the person of the Saxon
+prisoner.
+
+"My lord," said the peddler, to whom the young man had communicated his
+earnest desire to be allowed to go; "it may seem a strange thing for me to
+say, but you cannot have a better helper in this matter than this young
+fellow. He is as strong as any horse, and as keen and intelligent a youth
+as I ever saw. And in this case too his wits will be doubly sharp, and his
+arm doubly strong, for he worships the very ground that the Lady Carna
+treads upon."
+
+"Very well," replied the Count, with a smile, "let him go. After all, it
+is quite as safe to take a lion about with one, as to leave him at home."
+
+The pet dog was, of course, a valued member of the expedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                               THE PURSUIT.
+
+
+The task of tracing the lost girl was at first easy enough. She and the
+stranger, who, it now seemed, had been sent to entrap her, had been seen
+proceeding in the direction mentioned in the message. The neighbourhood of
+the villa was mostly cultivated ground, and there had been people at work
+in the fields who had noticed the girl's well-known figure. Beyond this
+belt of cultivated country, which might have been about a mile broad,
+there was only one road which it was possible for her to have taken.
+Following this, and reaching the hamlet at the further end of which, as we
+have seen, the abduction had taken place, they still found themselves on
+the right track. A child had seen two people, one of them, she said, a
+pretty lady, pass by on the morning of the day before. The lady had
+smiled, and said a few words to her in her own language, and had given her
+a sweetmeat. Further on the traces of what they were looking for became
+still more evident. There were marks of struggle on the ground, for Carna,
+as we have seen, had not suffered herself to be taken without resistance;
+a button was found on the ground, which the peddler at once identified as
+one of his own selling. And a little off the path, the tree was found to
+which the dog had been tied, with the fragment of string still attached to
+it. Curiously enough, no traces of the great dog could be found.
+
+Nor did the next step in the pursuit delay them long. There were, it is
+true, three paths through the forest, which closed in the hamlet on every
+side except that by which the party had approached it. Carna's pet dog at
+once decided for the searchers which of the three they should follow. He
+discovered the scent very quickly, ran at the top of his speed along the
+path thus distinguished from the others for about a hundred yards, and
+then, coming back, implored the party, so to speak, by his gestures, that
+they should come with him. It was evident that the path had been traversed
+by a party of considerable size, whose tracks, the marks of a horse's
+hoofs among them, were still fresh in the ground, soft as it was with the
+winter rains. The dog was evidently satisfied that they were right, for he
+ran quietly on, now and then giving a very soft little whine. It wanted
+still an hour or so of sunset when the party emerged out of the forest
+upon the shore.
+
+Here it might have seemed at first all trace was lost. The tide had flowed
+and ebbed twice since the girl had been there, and had swept away all
+marks of footsteps. The dog too was no longer a guide. The poor little
+creature's distress indeed was pitiful, as he ran to and fro upon the
+shore with a plaintive whine.
+
+The Count asked his companions for their opinions.
+
+"Have they taken to the wood again, do you think? or have they crossed the
+water? they may have gone a mile or more along the shore and then entered
+the forest. In that case it seems hopeless to recover the track."
+
+"It is my opinion," said the peddler, "that they have crossed to the
+mainland; but it is only an opinion, and I have little or nothing to urge
+for it."
+
+Other members of the party had different views; and, on the whole, opinion
+was adverse to the peddler's view; and the Count was about to order a
+search in the direction of the wood further along the shore, when the
+attention of the party was arrested by a shout from the Saxon.
+
+The discussion had been carried on in a language which he had still some
+difficulty in understanding, and he had been pacing backwards and forwards
+along the shore, seemingly lost in thought, but really watching everything
+with that keen attention to all outward objects which is one of the
+characteristics of uncivilized man. It was thus that something caught his
+eye. He plunged his hand into one of the little rock-pools upon the shore,
+and drew it out. It was a small gold trinket, which the girl had dropped
+in the forlorn hope that it might be found. Its weight, for it was an
+almost solid piece of metal, had kept it in the place where it fell, and
+as the night and day had been uniformly calm, there had been no sufficient
+movement of the water to disturb it. With a cry of delight the Saxon held
+it up, and the Count recognized it at once.
+
+"Ah!" said the peddler, "I knew the fellow would be of use to us. If the
+Lady Carna is anywhere on the earth he would find her. This proves, my
+lord, that they have crossed the sea. They would certainly have not come
+down so far from the shore as this."
+
+This seemed too probable to admit of any doubt. Happily it had occurred to
+the Count that it would be well to have some kind of vessel at his
+command, and he had ordered a pinnace to start from the haven as soon as
+it could be got ready, and to coast along the shore of the island,
+watching for any signal that might be given. The land party had
+outstripped the ship, which, indeed, had not started till somewhat later.
+Still, it might be expected very soon. Meanwhile there was an opportunity
+for discussing the aspect which the affair now bore.
+
+After various opinions had been given, the Count turned to the peddler.
+"And what do you think of the affair?"
+
+"I have a notion," the man replied, "but it may be only a fancy--still I
+seem to myself to have a notion of what their purpose is."
+
+"Do you mean," pursued the Count, as the other paused, and seemed almost
+unwilling to speak, "do you mean that they think of holding her as a kind
+of hostage against me? Do they fancy that I shall not be able to act
+against them, and shall hinder my colleagues from acting, as long as she
+is in their power? or will they keep her as something to make terms about
+if they fail?"
+
+The other was still silent for a few minutes, and seemed to be collecting
+his thoughts. At last he said:
+
+"My lord, what I am going to tell you may seem as foolish as a dream. I
+should have gone on saying nothing about it, as I have said nothing about
+it hitherto, if things had not happened which makes it a crime for me to
+be silent any longer. You find it difficult to believe that a rebellion is
+possible among a nation which you have always looked upon as thoroughly
+subdued. But what will you say if I tell you that this rebellion has been
+preparing for generations, and that the Druids have been, and are, at the
+bottom of it."
+
+"Druids!" cried the Count, "I did not know that there were any Druids. I
+thought that the last of them had disappeared years ago."
+
+"Not so," replied the peddler; "the people who rule do not know what is
+going on about them. Now I have been among this people the greater part of
+my life. I have seen them, not as they show themselves to you, but as they
+are. You think that they are Christians--not very good Christians, perhaps,
+but still not worse than other people--and believing the Creeds, if they
+believe anything. Now I know for a certainty that many of them are no more
+Christians now than their fathers were three hundred and fifty years ago.
+I have seen sometimes, when no one knew that I saw, what they really
+worshipped. I have pieced together many little things. I have heard hints
+dropped unawares, and I know that there is a secret society, which has
+existed ever since the island was conquered, which has for its object the
+bringing back of the old faith. I could name--if things turn out as I
+expect they will, I will name--men whom you believe to be quiet,
+respectable citizens, but who are the heads of a conspiracy reaching all
+over Britain, against Rome and the Christian Church. You never see them
+except in the tunic and the cap, but they can wear on occasion the Druid's
+robe and crown."
+
+"But tell me," said the Count, with a certain impatience, "what has this
+got to do with my daughter?"
+
+"This, my lord," answered the other, "that if the Druids are making the
+great effort for which they have been preparing for no one knows how many
+years, they will begin it with all the solemnity that is possible--in a
+word, with the great sacrifice. This, I suppose, has not been practised
+for many generations, but it has not been forgotten. To speak plainly, I
+believe that the Lady Carna has been carried off for the victim."
+
+The Count staggered back as if he had been struck. "Impossible!" he cried.
+"Such things cannot be in Britain: and why should they fix upon her?"
+
+"For two reasons," said the peddler. "She is of royal race. You very
+likely do not know or care about such things. All Britons to you will be
+much about the same; but they do not forget it. Yes, though her father was
+nothing more than a sailor, she is descended from Cassibelan. And then she
+is a Christian. These are the two reasons why they have chosen her--this is
+what they honour her for, and this is what they hate her for."
+
+"But where," cried the Count, "where is this monstrous thing to be done?"
+
+"That," replied the other, "I think I know. It can hardly be done anywhere
+but at the Great Temple, the Choir Gawr, as they call it themselves."
+
+"And where is this Great Temple?"
+
+"About forty miles inland, in a nearly northerly direction. I have seen
+the place once, and I can find my way to it, I believe; but, to make sure,
+I will find a guide."
+
+"And when?"
+
+"At the full moon. I should say."
+
+"And how much does it want to the full moon now?"
+
+"It will be full moon to-morrow night."
+
+"We have to cross then to the mainland--and the galley is not in sight--to
+find a guide, and to travel forty miles, and all before to-morrow night.
+Well, it must be done. To think of these wretches murdering my dear
+Carna!"
+
+"Do not fear, my lord; we shall do it," said the peddler; but added, in a
+low voice, "if nothing happens."
+
+At that moment the galley came in sight. "That is right," cried the Count;
+"anyhow, we begin well; no time will be lost in getting across."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+                        THE PURSUIT (_CONTINUED_).
+
+
+The signal previously agreed was promptly hoisted by the party on shore,
+and as promptly observed and obeyed by the crew of the galley which had
+been for some time on the watch for some communication.
+
+"My lord," said the peddler, when they had embarked, "if I may suggest, we
+should not make a straight passage to the mainland from here, but steer
+for the north-west. Some eight miles beyond the western point of the
+island there is a river flowing into the sea, and a fishing village at the
+mouth. I know the place well, and have one or two good friends there. We
+shall get a guide there; I have in my mind the very man who will suit us
+well in that capacity. Indeed the river(35) itself would be no bad guide.
+The Great Temple lies but a few miles westward from its upper course. The
+road will be easy too along the valley, which is mostly clear of wood."
+
+"Then," said the Count, "the Temple cannot be far from Sorbiodunum. Why
+not make for the Great Harbour, and go by the Great Road to Venta(36) and
+from Venta to Sorbiodunum.(37) The travelling would be much easier."
+
+"I have thought of that," said the other, "but I think my plan the best.
+The distance is far less, and, what is quite as important, we shall not be
+expected to come that way. Depend upon it there will be an ambuscade laid
+somewhere along the road; for they will feel sure that we shall try and
+come that way."
+
+It was evident anyhow that as far as the sea voyage was concerned the man
+was right. The tide was ebbing slowly, and an east wind, already high and
+still rising, was blowing. To make way against wind and tide to the Great
+Harbour would be in any case a laborious business; and if the wind
+increased to a gale as it threatened to do, might become impossible. The
+galley had been chosen for swiftness rather than seaworthy qualities in
+rough weather, and might fail in the attempt to work back. On the other
+hand both wind and tide thoroughly favoured a westward voyage.
+
+Indeed she moved gaily on with a strong breeze, that in the phraseology of
+to-day would be called a half-gale, blowing due aft, and scarcely felt the
+heavy sea, seeming to leave the waves behind, as the rowers bent their
+backs to their work. The Saxon had now taken his place on one of the
+thwarts, and his gigantic strength, put it was evident with a will into
+the labour, seemed of itself to drive the galley forwards. In an
+incredibly short time the river mouth was reached, the galley stranded,
+and the guide, who, by great good luck, had just returned from a fishing
+voyage, engaged.
+
+But now an unforeseen obstacle opposed itself. A few specks of rain had
+been felt by the party as they went, and then as the day went on, began to
+change to snow. And now the wind almost suddenly died away, and at the
+same time the fall of snow grew heavier. The face of the guide fell.
+
+"My lord," he said, "I hear that your business is urgent and cannot wait.
+But I must tell you that the weather looks very bad, and that the
+prospects of our journey are almost as unfavourable as they can be. We
+shall have a very heavy fall of snow, and if the wind gets up again, and
+it begins to drift, we shall be blocked, and possibly unable to get either
+backwards or forwards."
+
+"We must go," said the Count, in a determined voice, "though the snow were
+over our heads."
+
+After a very short interval allowed for refreshment, the party started. At
+first the snow was no very serious obstacle; but after a couple of hours
+incessant and rapid fall, it began to make movement very difficult. The
+progress of the travellers grew slower and slower, and the Count began to
+calculate that at their present rate of speed they could but barely arrive
+in time. It was an immense relief when the sky almost suddenly cleared,
+and showed the moon still evidently somewhat short of the full. But the
+relief was only temporary. The clearer weather was the result of a change
+of wind, which had suddenly veered to a point westward of north and which
+was rapidly increasing in force. And now occurred the thing which the
+peddler's knowledge of the country and the weather had suggested to
+him--the snow began to drift. At first the party was hardly conscious of
+the change; indeed for a time the way was somewhat clearer and easier than
+before; then as they came to a slight depression, the snow was felt to be
+certainly deeper. Still three or four miles were traversed without any
+particular difficulty. Then the leader of the party suddenly plunged into
+a drift considerably above his knees. This obstacle, however, was
+surmounted, or rather avoided by making a _d�tour_. But still the wind
+rose higher and higher, and as it rose, not only did its force hinder the
+party's advance, but the drifts grew now formidably deep. Some of the
+party began to lag behind; the Count himself, who was past his prime,
+began to acknowledge to himself, with an agony of anger and fear in his
+heart, that his strength was failing. Still they struggled on, leaving one
+or two of the strugglers to make the best of their way back, or, it might
+well be, to perish in the snow, till about half the distance was
+traversed. They had now reached a little hamlet,(38) on the outskirts of
+which there happened to be a small villa. It was shut up, the proprietor
+chancing to be absent, but it was put at the disposal of the party by the
+person who was in charge. Fires were hastily lighted, and the travellers,
+most of whom had almost reached the end of their powers of endurance, were
+refreshed with warmth and food.
+
+The Count held a council of war. The situation indeed seemed nothing less
+than desperate. Two out of the party of twenty-five--their numbers had been
+increased by a contingent taken from the crew of the galley--were missing.
+They had fallen out on the march, and it was too probable that they had
+perished in the snow. Of the remainder but four or five seemed fit for any
+further exertion. By far the freshest and most vigorous of them was the
+Saxon. The fatigues of the night had scarcely told on his gigantic
+strength. The Italians, and even the Britons, natives of the southern
+parts of the island, and little accustomed to heavy falls of snow, looked
+at him with astonishment. As for him, he was full of impatience at the
+delay.
+
+The Count was in an agony of doubt and distress. His own strength had
+failed so completely that all his spirit--and there was no braver man in
+the armies of Rome--could not have dragged him a hundred yards further. And
+he saw that many of his followers were in little better case. And yet to
+give up the pursuit! to leave Carna, the sweetest, gentlest of women, dear
+to him as a daughter of his own, to this hideous death! The thought was
+too dreadful.
+
+"When do they perform their horrible rites?" said the Count to the
+peddler.
+
+"When the full moon shines through the great south entrance of the
+Temple," was the answer.
+
+"And when will that be?"
+
+"To-night, and about an hour before midnight, as far as I can guess."
+
+"And what must be done? What is your advice?"
+
+"There seems to me only one thing possible. Those who can must press on. I
+count a great deal on the Saxon. His strength and endurance are such as I
+never saw in any man, and they now seem to be increased manyfold. Anything
+that can be done by mortal man, he, you may be sure, will do. Our guide
+too has happily something still left in him; and there are three or four
+others who are equal to going on after they have had a little rest. I
+should say, let them get two or three hours' sleep, and then push on to
+Sorbiodunum. That is not far from here, and they can easily reach it
+before noon to-day, after allowing a fair time for rest. Perhaps they may
+get some help there, though the place is not what it was. It is some years
+since I paid it a visit, and then I found it in a very declining
+condition, so much so that it was not worth my while to go there again.
+There were not more than two or three Roman traders there, and they made
+but a very poor living out of their business."
+
+This seemed to be the best course practicable under the circumstances. The
+Saxon, with whom the peddler held a long conversation, was for pressing on
+at once, and would almost have gone alone, but for want of a guide. When
+he understood the state of the case he yielded to what he perceived to be
+a necessity, and throwing himself down on the hearth was almost
+immediately buried in a profound sleep, an example which was soon followed
+by the rest of the party, the Count and the peddler excepted.
+
+Not more than two hours could be allowed for rest. The guide and the three
+sailors who had volunteered to go on were roused with no little
+difficulty; the young Saxon was wide awake in a moment. The party partook
+hastily of a meal of bread, meat, and hot wine and water, which the
+peddler had been busying himself in preparing while they slept, and, after
+stowing away some provisions for the day, started on their journey about
+two hours before noon.
+
+Sorbiodunum was reached without much difficulty. But there a great
+disappointment awaited them. The peddler's anticipations were more than
+fulfilled, for the town was almost deserted. Only one Roman remained
+there. He was an old man who had married a British wife, and who
+cultivated a farm which had descended to her from her father. When the
+guide handed to him the letter which the Count had addressed to the
+authorities of the town, begging for any help which they could give in
+saving the liberty and life of a person very dear to himself, he shook his
+head. When he heard the whole of the guide's story, he became still more
+depressed.
+
+"Authorities!" he said, "there are no authorities. I am the only Roman
+left in the place, and I do not know where to look for a single man to
+help you. As for the Great Temple on the plain there is not a creature
+here who would dare to go near it. They think it haunted by spirits and
+demons. And indeed there _are_ strange stories about it. To tell you the
+plain truth, I should not much care to go there myself. No; I see nothing
+to be done. But I will ask my wife. Perhaps her woman's wit will help us."
+
+Bidding the party be seated, he left the room in which he had received
+them, and entered the kitchen, where his wife was busy with her domestic
+affairs.
+
+In about half an hour he returned. His expression was now a shade more
+cheerful than before.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "I was right about the woman's wit. She _has_ thought of
+something. You must know that my wife is a very devout Christian--for
+myself I am a Christian too, but I must own that I don't see so much in it
+as she does--and that she has brought up our children in that way of
+thinking. Now, our eldest son is a priest in a village some seven miles
+hence, and his people are devoted to him. If there is any one in this
+neighbourhood who can give you the help you want it is he. He has only got
+to say the word and his people will follow him to the end of the world.
+Here is a proof of it. Four years ago a strong party of Picts came this
+way, ravaging and plundering wherever they went. There were not more than
+fifty of them, but the people were as terrified as if they were so many
+demons. If you think this place a desert now, what would you have thought
+it then? There was not a single person left in it--at least a single person
+that could help himself--for the cowards had the meanness to leave some of
+the old and the sick behind them. But my son was not going to let the
+robbers have it all their own way--you know he has something of the Roman
+in him--and he went about talking to his people in such a way, that they
+plucked up spirit, and fell on the Picts one night when they were
+expecting nothing less than an attack, and gave such an account of them,
+that the country has not been troubled since with the like of them. Well,
+as I say, he is the man to help you. I have my younger son here working
+with me on the farm; he is just such another as his elder brother, and
+would have been a priest too if he had not felt it to be his duty to stay
+and help me. I will bring him in, and he shall hear the whole story and
+carry it to his brother. That is the best hope that I can give you, and I
+really think that it is worth something. What I can do for you does not go
+beyond hospitality, but to that you are heartily welcome. You have some
+hours before you. If you start an hour after sunset you will be in ample
+time. And, in fact, you had better not start before, because the less that
+is seen of your movements the better. I don't know that any of the people
+about here are infected with the Druid superstition, though I have had one
+or two hints to that effect, hints which what you have just told me helps
+to explain. But, in any case, the more secret you are the better. Besides,
+my son's Party cannot reach the Great Temple till long after dark.
+Meanwhile take some rest and refreshment, for, believe me, you have
+something before you."
+
+This advice was so obviously right, that the guide, who was in command of
+the party, had no hesitation in accepting it.
+
+About six o'clock another start was made. At first, though the weather
+looked threatening, no serious obstacle presented itself. The snow was
+somewhat deep on the ground, but there were no serious drifts on their
+way, a way which, indeed, for some distance from the town lay under the
+leeward side of a wood. But they had not gone more than a mile and a half
+when a disastrous change in their circumstances occurred. The wind rose
+almost suddenly to the height of a gale, and brought with it a fall of
+snow, separated by the rapid movement of the air into a very fine powder,
+and working its way through the clothing of the traveller with a
+penetrating power which nothing could resist. Still, benumbed as they
+were, almost blinded by the icy particles which were whirled with all the
+force of the tempest against their faces, they struggled on for more than
+half the distance which lay between them and their destination. Then the
+three sailors cried out simultaneously that they must halt, and the guide
+unwillingly owned that he must follow their example. Only the Saxon was
+left to go on, and he, with a gesture which it was impossible to mistake,
+declared his intention of persevering. Just at that moment the clouds
+parted in the east, and the full moon showed the landscape with a singular
+clearness, its most conspicuous feature being the gigantic stones of the
+Great Temple, which could be seen about two miles to the northward. The
+guide pointed to them, and the Saxon, when they caught his eye, leapt
+forward with an energy which nothing seemed to have abated, and, with a
+gesture of farewell to his companions, plunged into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                            THE GREAT TEMPLE.
+
+
+The Great Temple, or Stonehenge as it is now called, though its decay had
+already commenced, still preserved the form which we have now some
+difficulty in tracing. There was an outer circle consisting of thirty huge
+triliths,(39) the greater part of which were still standing in the
+position in which the unsparing labour of a long past generation had
+placed them. Within this there was a circle of forty single stones, this
+circle again containing two ovals. One of these ovals was composed of five
+triliths, even larger than those which stood in the outer circle; the
+other was made of nineteen upright stones. At the upper end of this stood
+the altar, a low, flat structure of blue marble.
+
+All the preparations for the sacrifice were complete when Cedric--for we
+may as well henceforth call the Saxon by the name which he bore among his
+countrymen--reached the spot. Carna was being led by two of the subordinate
+priests to the altar, where Caradoc stood, robed for the rite which he was
+about to perform. The sky had now again cleared, and the moon, riding high
+in the heavens, poured a flood of silver light through the south entrance,
+and fell on the priest's impassive face as he stood fronting the light,
+while it glittered on his crown of gold and gave a dazzling brilliancy to
+his white robe. In his hand he held a knife of flint, with which it was
+the custom to give the first blow to the victim, though innovation had so
+far prevailed even in the Druid worship that the sacrifice was completed
+with a weapon of steel. But this latter lay at his feet, and was concealed
+by the fall of his robe. It was not, indeed, supposed to be used. The
+attendants, who were also dressed in white, were rough and brutal
+creatures, selected for their office because they could be trusted to
+carry out any orders without remonstrance or hesitation. Yet even they
+seemed touched by the girl's dignity and courage, as she walked with head
+erect and unfaltering gait between them. Had she hesitated, or hung back,
+or struggled, doubtless they would not have hesitated to drag her to the
+altar; but walking as she did with a proud resignation to her fate, they
+showed her a rude respect by letting their hands rest as lightly as
+possible, so as to give no sense of constraint, upon her arms. On either
+side of the priest stood Martianus and Ambiorix. The younger man had
+braced himself to what, fanatical patriot as he was, was evidently a
+hateful task. He looked steadfastly and unflinchingly at the scene; but
+his face was deadly pale, and the blood trickled down his chin as he bit
+his lip in the unconscious effort to maintain a stern composure. Martianus
+was overwhelmed with shame and horror. If there was one softer heart among
+the "stern, black-bearded kings" who of old in Aulis watched the daughter
+of Agamemnon die, he must have looked and felt as Martianus did in the
+Great Temple that night. Cursing again and again in his heart the ambition
+which had led him to mix himself up with this fanatical crew, but too much
+a craven at heart to protest, he stood trembling with agitation, mostly
+keeping his eyes shut or fixed upon the earth, but sometimes compelled by
+a fascination which he could not resist to lift them, and take in the
+horror of the scene. Each of the chiefs had an armed attendant standing
+behind him. Besides these there were no spectators of the scene, though
+guards were disposed at each of the entrances which led to the central
+shrine. Even these had been kept in ignorance of what was to be done, and
+they were too deeply imbued with the traditional awe felt for the Great
+Temple to think of playing the spy.
+
+  [Illustration: The Sacrifice.]
+
+The priest, after observing the position of the moon, and seeing that the
+shadows fell now almost straight towards the north, began the invocation
+which was the preliminary of the sacrifice. It was for this that the Saxon
+was waiting, as he stood in the shadow of one of the huge triliths. He
+crept silently out of his concealment, entirely unobserved, so intent were
+all present on the scene that was being enacted. His first object was the
+priest. This had been laid down for him in the instructions given him by
+the peddler before he started; and indeed his own instinct would have
+dictated the act. The priest put out of the way, the sacrifice would, for
+the time at least, be stopped; for so high a solemnity could not be
+performed but by one of the very highest rank. Time would thus be gained,
+and with time anything might happen. One firm thrust between the shoulders
+sent the Saxon's sword right through the priest's body, so that the point
+stood out an inch or two from the priest. Without a cry the man fell
+forward, deluging with his blood the stone of sacrifice. The ministrants
+who stood on either side of Carna were paralysed with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could recover themselves Cedric had dragged his weapon
+out of the priest's body, sheathed it, and thrown himself on them. Two
+blows, delivered almost simultaneously by fists that had almost the force
+of sledge hammers, levelled them both senseless to the ground. He then
+caught the girl up in his arms. A full-grown woman--and Carna had a stature
+beyond the average of her sex--is no light burden, but Cedric's strength
+was, as has been said before, exceptionally great, and now it seemed
+doubled by the fierce excitement of the hour. To escape with her by
+running was, he knew, impossible. For such a task no fleetness of foot, no
+strength, would be sufficient. To attempt would be to expose himself to
+certain death, and Carna to as certain re-capture. But his quick eye had
+caught sight of a place where he might hold out, at least for a time,
+against a much superior strength of assailants. One of the triliths had
+partially fallen, the huge cross-stone having been so displaced that it
+formed an angle with one of its supports, and so afforded a protection to
+the back and sides of a fighter who managed to ensconce himself in the
+niche, and who would so have only his front to protect. Setting Carna
+behind him, and making her understand by a movement of the hand that she
+must crouch as low as she could upon the ground, he prepared to hold his
+position. The odds against him were not so heavy as might have been
+supposed. The two ministrants were unarmed. Of the four left, the two
+chiefs and their attendants, one was a middle-aged man, who had never been
+expert in arms; and who, whatever his skill and strength, would scarcely
+have cared to use them in such a conflict. Ambiorix, indeed, was of
+another temper. The gloomy, fanatical doggedness with which he had looked
+on at the preparations for the sacrifice gave way to a fierce delight when
+he saw an enemy before him with whom he could cross swords. In his inmost
+soul he had hated the thought of the sacrifice; but yet the man who had
+hindered it, and with it the weal of Britain, was a foe whom it would be
+pleasure to smite to the ground. But fierce as was his temper, it was full
+of chivalry. He would not dishonour himself by bringing odds against an
+enemy. Signing to the armed attendants to stand back, he advanced to
+challenge Cedric. The Saxon, in height and strength, was more than a match
+for his antagonist. But he was hampered by his position, especially by the
+presence of the girl. The weapon, too, with which he was armed--a short
+Roman sword--was strange to him. He thought with regret of his own good
+steel, an heirloom come down to him from warriors of the past, and
+inscribed with magic Runic rhymes, that was then lying at the bottom of
+the Channel. The change, however, was not really so much to his
+disadvantage as he thought. The stones behind him would have hindered the
+long sweeping blow which made the great Saxon swords especially
+formidable. Altogether it might have seemed as if Cedric must inevitably
+be worsted in the struggle. The British chief, though he hated the customs
+and even the civilization of the Roman conquerors, had not disdained to
+learn what they could teach him in the use of arms. They were acknowledged
+masters in that, and he accepted the maxim that it was right to be
+instructed even by one's bitterest enemy. Accordingly he knew all that a
+fencing master could teach him; and all the Saxon's agility, quickness of
+eye, and strength, could not counterbalance the advantage. Before many
+minutes had passed Cedric was bleeding from two wounds, neither of them
+very serious, but sufficient to hamper and weaken him. One had been
+inflicted on the sword-arm, and threatened to disable him altogether
+before long. He felt this himself, and took his resolve. "The curse of
+Thor upon this foolish toy!" he cried, in his native tongue, as he threw
+the short sword straight in the face of his enemy; and followed up the
+strange missile by leaping on his antagonist, both of whose arms he
+fastened down to his sides with a supreme exertion of strength. Gigantic
+strength, indeed, was the only thing which gave so desperate a resort the
+chance of success, and this might well have failed, if the adversary had
+not been entirely unprepared for the movement. Once held in this
+tremendous clasp, Ambiorix was as helpless as a kid in the hug of a bear.
+Cedric fairly lifted him off his feet, and threw him backwards. His head
+struck one of the great stones in his fall, and he lay senseless and
+helpless on the ground.
+
+The struggle was over so quickly that the attendants had no time to
+interfere; nor when it was finished did they feel any great eagerness to
+engage so formidable a champion. Still they advanced, and Martianus, who
+felt himself unable to maintain any longer in the face of what had
+happened his attitude of inaction, advanced with them. By this time Carna,
+who had been almost stunned by the rapid succession of startling
+incidents, had recovered her self-possession. She lifted herself from the
+ground, and stepped between Cedric and the three antagonists who stood
+confronting him.
+
+"Martianus," she cried, "what are you doing here? What mixes you up with
+these horrible doings--you, my father's friend, you, a Christian man?"
+
+The Briton stood silent, cursing in his heart the hideous enterprise which
+had not even the poor merit of success. He was spared the necessity of
+speaking by an exclamation from one of the ministrants.
+
+"See!" cried the man, "there is a party coming. It is not likely that they
+are friends--let us be off."
+
+And indeed the moonlight clearly showed a number of persons who were
+rapidly advancing up one of the great avenues.
+
+Martianus did not hesitate.
+
+"You are right," he said to the man, "we must go. The priest's body must
+be left. It is useless to cumber ourselves with the dead; we shall have as
+much as we can do to escape ourselves, but take the sacred things. They at
+least must not fall into the hands of the enemy. And you," he went on,
+addressing himself to the two attendants, "take up your master and carry
+him off. We have something of a start, and it is possible that they may
+not pursue us."
+
+His directions were at once obeyed. The priest's body was stripped of its
+robes and ornaments. Ambiorix, who still lay unconscious on the ground,
+was carried by the united efforts of the soldiers and ministrants, and the
+whole party had started in the direction of Amesbury before the
+new-comers, who proved to be the priest Flavius, with a party of his
+people, reached the Temple.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                           THE BRITISH VILLAGE.
+
+
+The British priest's home was at a populous village on the banks of the
+Avon, now known by the name of Netton, and as this was some miles nearer
+than Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the party whom his
+opportune arrival had rescued from danger. Once arrived there, it would be
+easy to send a messenger to the town, and await further instructions. A
+litter was hastily constructed for Carna, who, though her spirits and
+courage were still unbroken, was somewhat exhausted by excitement and
+fatigue. The Saxon's wounds were dressed and bound up by the priest, who
+united some knowledge of medicine and surgery to his other
+accomplishments, and was indeed scarcely less well qualified for the cure
+of bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor looked somewhat grave when he
+saw how deep the sword-cuts were, and how much blood had been lost, but
+Cedric made light of his injuries, scorned the idea of being carried, and
+indeed seemed to find no difficulty in keeping close to Carna's litter on
+the homeward journey.
+
+Netton--we are unable to give the British name of the village--was reached
+some time before dawn. At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himself
+with two or three hours' sleep, was ready to perform his office at his
+little church. It was the first day of the week, and the building was
+crowded. It was an oblong building, with a semicircular eastern end, that
+resembled that kind of chancel which is known by the name of an apse. It
+had been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied the shape that
+seems to have been used in the earliest Christian buildings, that of the
+_schola_ or meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations. The body of
+the building was of timber. The eastern end, or sanctuary, had a little
+more pretension to ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung with
+somewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with symbolic designs.
+
+Few of the party which had accompanied the priest the night before were
+prevented by their fatigue from being present. The Britons were always a
+devout people, and in Netton their priest had gained such an influence
+over them, that they were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.
+Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but the priest's wife--he had
+followed the usual practice of the British Church in marrying before
+ordination--had absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion. Cedric,
+who would otherwise have been present in whatever part of the building was
+open to an unbaptized person, was still buried in a profound slumber. The
+service was in Latin, a language of which most if not all the worshippers
+knew enough to be able to follow the prayers. Such portions of the
+Scriptures as were read were accompanied by the priest with occasional
+expositions in the British language; and the sermon, except the text,
+which was in Latin, and taken from the recently published Vulgate of St.
+Jerome, was wholly in that tongue. The preacher's text was from the
+Psalms, "Quomodo dicitis anim� me�, Transmigra in montem sicut
+passer?"(40) and was mostly concerned with the troubles of the time. He
+had in an uncommon degree the national gift of eloquence, and stirred the
+hearts of his hearers to their inmost depths. He warned them that
+troublous times were approaching, such as neither they nor their fathers
+had seen were approaching, and that they would have to resist unto blood
+for the faith into which they had been baptized.
+
+"Antichrist," he cried, adapting to the day, as Christian preachers have
+done in every age, the language of the apostles--"Antichrist is at hand!
+You see him in these heathen hosts who are threatening you on every side;
+these Saxon pirates from the east, who are ravaging our shores; these
+Pictish ravagers from the north, who every year are penetrating further
+and further into the land. Yes," he added, with a telling reference to the
+event of the night before, "and even in apostates of British blood, who
+have preserved in your midst the hideous superstitions from which our
+ancestors turned to worship the blessed Christ; and as it was in the days
+of the blessed Paul, so is it now: 'He that letteth will let till he be
+taken out of the way,' The Roman power has kept these forces in check, but
+it will keep them no more. The time is short. They are gathering every day
+in greater strength, and you must gird yourselves to meet them."
+Therefore, he went on, they must be strong and quit them like men. They
+must gird on them, and make complete in every point, their spiritual
+armour--the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Divine Word, the
+all-covering shield of faith; nor must they forget the temporal weapons
+with which the outward enemies who assail the body must be met. "He that
+hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one," cried the preacher,
+in his final apostrophe to his people, "and he will find that as his day
+so shall his strength be, and that the Lord can deliver by few as by many,
+Gideon's three hundred, as by the eight hundred thousand men that drew
+sword in Israel."
+
+Wrought by the eloquence of the orator to an almost incontrollable
+excitement, the whole congregation sprang to their feet, as if they were
+asking to be led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden change from
+the stirring tone of the trumpet to the sweet music of the flute, the
+preacher touched another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never quite
+broken with tears, he besought them to cleanse their hearts; he reminded
+them that the armies of the Lamb of God must be clothed in the white robe
+of righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak, charity to the
+fallen, were as needed for Christ's soldiers as steadfastness and courage,
+till many a cheek was wet with tears of contrition and repentance.
+
+In the course of the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger was despatched to
+Sorbiodunum. By the time he reached that town the Count and his party had
+arrived, excepting one who had been left behind, still too exhausted by
+his forced march to move. Some, too, had been sent back in the hope that
+they might not be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce been
+left behind during the journey through the snow. As there was now no
+immediate necessity of haste, �lius allowed his followers to rest and
+refresh themselves for the remainder of the day at Sorbiodunum. The
+following morning he went on to Netton, where he found, to his great
+delight, that Carna had apparently suffered no harm from her perilous
+adventures. His gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of words to
+express. Though it somewhat hurt his Roman pride that a barbarian should
+ever have the strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not suffer
+his vexation to take anything from the hearty warmth of his thanks. Cedric
+received them with the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which both Britons
+and Italians could not help resenting in their hearts, while they
+reluctantly admired his surpassing strength.
+
+Three days were spent in Netton with much comfort to the party, the priest
+and his people showing them as liberal an hospitality as their means
+admitted, and refusing the recompense which the Count almost forced upon
+them.
+
+"Take something for your poor," said �lius, when his arguments were
+exhausted.
+
+"My people," answered the priest, "must not lose one of the most precious
+privileges of their Christian life, the sweet compulsion of having to
+minister to the necessities of those who want their help."
+
+"Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your church," the Count went on.
+
+The good man hesitated for a moment. His church was dear to his heart, and
+he would gladly have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could make it.
+
+"My lord," he replied, after his brief hesitation, "in happier times, and
+in another place, I would not refuse your generous offer. But now the
+poorer we are the better. I should like to see our altar-vessels of gold,
+but it would not be well to tempt the barbarians to a deadly sin, and to
+expose Christian lives to worse peril than that they now stand in, by such
+treasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to be spread abroad.
+Our chalices, and flagons, and patens are now of lead, thinly covered for
+decency's sake with silver, and they are of no value to any but those who
+use them. No, my lord, leave our church with at least such safety as
+poverty can give. But there are places in the world, I would fain believe,
+though indeed in these days I scarce know where they are, where Christian
+men worship God in security, and where the treasures of the church are
+safe from robbery. Let your gift be given there, when you find the
+occasion. And if you will let me know the place I shall be happy with
+imagining it, without the anxious care of its custody."
+
+With this answer the Count was compelled to be content, till at least next
+morning, by which time Carna's ready wit had suggested that the priest
+could hardly refuse a gift of books.
+
+"My lord," said the good man, when the Count renewed his offer in its
+fresh shape on the following day, "your determined generosity has overcome
+me. Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my people's. I
+sometimes feel that they are starved, or at the best ill-fed with
+spiritual food. I can speak to them of their every-day duties, but I
+cannot build them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself, and
+where is the knowledge to come from? Of books I have none but my Bible and
+my Service-book, and two small books of homilies. If I had some of the
+commentaries and homilies of the two great doctors of our Church,
+Hieronymus(41) and Augustine, I should be well content. I have heard of
+the great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, John the Golden
+Mouth,(42) but, alas, I cannot read Greek."
+
+"You shall have them as soon as they can be got," said the Count.
+
+In the course of the day the search party sent back from Sorbiodunum
+returned. They had found one of the stragglers still alive, and had
+brought him on to the village where the first halt had been made. There he
+was being carefully tended, but there was no chance of his being restored
+to health for many weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terrible
+account to give. Only a few mangled remains could be discovered, the poor
+creatures having been manifestly devoured by wolves. All that could be
+hoped was that they had expired before they were attacked.
+
+The Count had now nothing to detain him, and as he was for many reasons
+anxious to be at home, where a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him,
+he determined to start on the following day. His route was first to
+Sorbiodunum. There he would be on the main road leading to Venta
+Belgarum.(43) From Venta, by following another main road he and his party
+would make their way easily to the Camp of the Great Harbour.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                                THE PICTS.
+
+
+The journey to Venta Belgarum was accomplished in safety, and, by dint of
+starting long before sunrise, in a single day. The distance was a little
+more than twenty miles, and the road, which was so straight that the end
+of the journey might almost have been seen from the beginning, lay almost
+through an open country. This was favourable for speed, as there was
+little or no need to reconnoitre the ground in advance. It was just after
+sunrise when the party reached the spot where the traces of the great camp
+of Constantius Chlorus may still be seen. It had even then ceased to be
+occupied, but the soldiers' huts were still standing, and the avenues,
+though overgrown with grass, looked as if they might easily be thronged
+again with all the busy life of a camp. The Count called a halt for a few
+minutes, and pointed out the locality to Carna.
+
+"See," said he, with a sigh, "there Constantius had his camp, the great
+Constantius to whom we owe so much."
+
+"And was Constantine himself ever there?" cried the girl, to whom the
+first Christian Emperor was the object of an admiration which we, knowing
+as we do more about him, can hardly share.
+
+"I doubt it," returned the Count. "Constantius made it and held it during
+his campaigns with Allectus. But, my child, I was thinking not of its
+past, but of its future. It will never be occupied again."
+
+"Why should it?" exclaimed the girl, almost forgetting in her excitement
+that she was speaking to a Roman. "Why should it? Why should not Britain
+be happy and safe and free without the legions? Forgive me, father," she
+added, remembering herself again; "I am the last person in the world who
+should be ungrateful to Rome."
+
+"I don't blame you," said the Count, and as he looked at the maiden's
+flashing eyes and remembered how bravely she had gone through terrors
+which would have driven most women out of their senses, he thought to
+himself--"Ah, if there were but a few thousand men who had half the spirit
+of this woman in them, the end might be different. My child," he went on,
+"I would not discourage you, but there are dark days before this island.
+She has enemies by sea and land, and I doubt whether she has the strength
+to strike a sufficient blow for herself. I am thankful that you will be
+safely away before it comes."
+
+Carna was about to speak, but checked herself. It was not the time she
+felt to speak out her heart.
+
+For some time after this little or nothing of interest occurred; but as
+the party approached within a few miles of Venta the scene underwent a
+remarkable change. The road had hitherto been almost entirely deserted; it
+was now thronged: but the face of every passenger was turned towards
+Venta, not a single traveller was going the other way. Every by-way and
+bridle-path and foot-path that touched the road contributed to swell the
+throng. In fact, the whole countryside was in motion. And the fugitives,
+for their manifest hurry and alarm proclaimed to be nothing less, carried
+all their property with them. Carts laden with rustic furniture, on the
+top of which women and children were perched, waggons loaded with the
+harvest of the year, droves of sheep and cattle helped to crowd the road
+till it was almost impassable. And still the hurrying pace, the fearful
+anxious glances cast behind showed that it was some terrible danger from
+which this timid multitude was flying. For some time, so stupified with
+fear were the fugitives, �lius could get no rational answer to the
+questions which he put. "The Picts! The Picts! They are upon us!" at last
+said a man whom a sudden catastrophe that brought a great pile of
+household goods to the ground, had compelled to halt, and who was glad to
+get the help of the Count's attendants to restore them, all help from
+neighbours being utterly out of the question when all were selfishly
+intent on saving their own lives and property. When his property had been
+set in its place again the man thanked the Count very heartily, and was
+collected enough to tell all he knew.
+
+"There is no doubt that the Picts are not far off. I have not seen
+anything of them myself, thank heaven! but I could see the fires last
+night all along the sky to the north."
+
+"Have they ever been here before?"
+
+"Never quite here. You see, sir, the camp at Calleva(44) kept them in
+check. A party did slip by, I know, some little way to the westward, and I
+was glad to hear they got rather roughly handled. But, generally, they did
+not like to come anywhere near the camps. But now these are deserted, and
+there is nothing to keep them back."
+
+"But why don't you defend yourselves?"
+
+"Ah, sir, we have not the strength, nor even the arms. You are a Roman, I
+see, and, if I may judge, a man in authority, and you know that I am
+speaking the truth. You have not allowed us to do anything for ourselves,
+and how can we do it now at a few months' notice?"
+
+The Count made no answer; indeed, none was possible.
+
+"And you expect to find shelter at Venta?"
+
+"I don't say that I expect it, but it is our only chance. The place has at
+least walls."
+
+"And any one to man them?"
+
+"There should be some old soldiers, but how many I cannot say; anyhow,
+scarcely enough for a garrison."
+
+When the Count learned the situation he felt that his best course would be
+to press on with his party to Venta with all the speed possible. The chief
+authority of the town was in the hands of a native, who had the title of
+Head of the City.(45) It was possible that this officer might be a man of
+courage and capacity; but it was far more likely that he would be quite
+unequal to the emergency. In either case the Count felt that his advice
+and personal influence might be of very great use. Even the twenty stout
+soldiers whom he had with him would be no inconsiderable addition to the
+fighting force of the place. Accordingly he gave orders to his followers
+to quicken their pace. Fortunately the greater part of the fugitives was
+behind them; still it was no easy task for the party to make its way
+through the struggling masses of human beings and cattle, and it was past
+sunset when they rode up to the gates of Venta.
+
+It was evident that the bad news had already arrived. The gates were
+closely shut, while the walls were crowded with spectators anxiously
+looking northwards for signs of the approaching enemy. The porter was at
+first unwilling to admit the strangers, peering anxiously through the
+wicket at them, and declaring that he must first consult his superior. One
+of the spectators on the wall happened, however, to recognize the Count,
+and the party was admitted without further question, and rode up at once
+to the quarters of the Commander of the Town.
+
+If he had hoped to find an official with whom it would be possible or
+profitable to co-operate in the _Princeps_ of Venta, the Count was very
+much disappointed. He was an elderly man, who had realized a fair fortune
+by contracting for the provisioning of the army in Southern Britain, and
+had done very fairly as long as he had nothing to do but execute the
+orders of the military governor. Left to himself he was absolutely
+helpless. Indeed he had been taking refuge from his anxieties in the
+wine-cup, and the Count found him at least half intoxicated. At the moment
+of the party's arrival the poor creature had reached the valorous stage of
+drunkenness, and was loud in his declarations that there was no possible
+danger.
+
+"They will know better," he said, "than to come near Venta. If they do,
+very few will go back. Indeed I should like nothing better than to give
+them a lesson. You shall see something worth looking at if you will give
+us the pleasure of your company in our little town for a day or two."
+
+Another cup, which he drained to the prosperity of Britain and the
+confusion of her enemies, changed his mood. He now seemed to have
+forgotten all about the invaders, insisted on recognizing a dear friend of
+past times in the Count, and invited him to spend the rest of the day in
+talking over old times.
+
+The Count did not waste many minutes with the old man, but when he left
+the house the darkness had already closed in. After finding with some
+difficulty accommodation for Carna, he returned to the gate, anxious to
+learn for himself how things were going on. He found the place a scene of
+frightful confusion. The warders had abandoned their office as hopeless.
+An incessant stream of fugitives, men, women, and children, mingled with
+carts and waggons of every shape and size, was pouring into the town.
+Every now and then one of these vehicles, brought out perhaps in the
+sudden emergency from the repose of years, broke down and blocked the way.
+Then the living torrent began to rage at the obstacle, as a river in flood
+roars about a tree which has fallen across its current. Shortly the
+offending vehicle would be removed by main force, and with a very scanty
+regard for its contents. Then the uproar lulled again, though there never
+ceased a babel of voices, cursing, entreating, complaining, quarrelling,
+through all the gamut of notes, from the deepest base to the shrillest
+treble. The wall was crowded with the inhabitants of the town, and every
+eye was fixed intently on the northern horizon. There, as was only too
+plainly to be seen, the sky was reddened with a dull glow, which might
+have been described as a sunrise out of place, but that it was brightened
+now and then for a moment by a shoot of flame. "Where are they?" "How soon
+will they be here?" were the questions which every one was asking, and
+which no one attempted to answer. The Count made his way with some
+difficulty along the top of the rampart in search of some one from whom he
+might hope to get some rational account of the situation. At last he found
+among the spectators an old man, whose bearing struck him as having
+something soldierly about it. A nearer look showed him a military
+decoration. He lost no time in addressing him.
+
+"Comrade," he said, "I see that you have followed the eagles."
+
+The veteran recognized something of the tone of command in the Count's
+voice, and made a military salute.
+
+"Yes, sir, so I have, though my sword has been hanging up for more than
+thirty years."
+
+"And what do you think of the prospect?"
+
+"Badly, sir, badly. This is just what I feared; but it has come even
+sooner than I looked for it. Things have been very bad for some time in
+the north ever since the garrisons were taken from the Wall,(46) but,
+except for a troop of robbers now and then, we were fairly safe here. But
+now that these barbarians know that the legions are gone, there will be no
+stopping them."
+
+"They are the Picts, I hear. Have you ever had to do with them?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have seen as much of them as ever I want to see. I came to
+this island thirty-nine years ago with Theodosius, grandfather, you know,
+of the Augustus;" and the old man, who was steadfastly loyal to the
+Emperor, bared his head as he spoke. "I am a Batavian from the island of
+the Rhine, and was then a deputy-centurion in Theodosius' army. We found
+Britain full of the savages. They had positively over-run the whole
+country as far as the southern sea, and only the walled towns had escaped
+them, and these were almost in despair. I shall never forget how the
+people at Londinium crowded about the general, kissing his hands and feet,
+when he rode into the town. But I must not tire you with an old soldier's
+stories. You ask me about the Picts. They are the worst savages I ever
+saw, and I have had some experience too. They go naked but for some kind
+of a skin girdle about their loins, and they are hideously painted, and
+their hair is more like a beast's than a man's, and then they eat human
+flesh. Ah, sir, you may shake your head, but I know it. We used to find
+dead bodies with the fleshy parts cut off where they had been. I shudder
+to think of what I saw in those days. Well, we gave them a good lesson,
+drove them back to their own country, and an awful country it is, all
+lakes and mountains, with not so much as a blade of corn from one end to
+the other. But now they will be as bad as ever."
+
+"But you are safe here in Venta, I suppose?"
+
+"Safe! I wish we were. If we had a proper garrison here, there is no one
+to command them. You have seen the _Princeps_?"
+
+The Count said nothing, but his silence was significant.
+
+"But there is no garrison. There are not more than fifty men in the place
+who have ever carried arms."
+
+"But surely the people will defend themselves. You, as an old soldier,
+know very well that civilians, who would be quite useless in the field,
+may do good service behind walls."
+
+"True, sir, if they have two things--a spirit and a leader; and these
+people, as far as I can tell, have neither."
+
+"That is a bad look out. But tell me--how soon do you think the enemy will
+be here?"
+
+"Not to-night, certainly; perhaps not to-morrow. And indeed it is just
+possible that they may not come at all. You see that they get a great
+quantity of plunder in the country without much trouble or danger, and
+they may leave the towns alone. Barbarians mostly don't care to knock
+their heads against stone walls, and of course they think us a great deal
+stronger than we are."
+
+After making an appointment with his new acquaintance for a meeting on the
+following day, the Count rejoined his party.
+
+The next day the _Princeps_ called a meeting of the principal burgesses of
+the town, at which the Count, in consideration of his rank as a Roman
+official, was invited to attend. The tone of the meeting was better than
+he had expected. There were one or two resolute men among the local
+magistrates, and these contrived to communicate something of their spirit
+to the rest. A general levy of the inhabitants between the ages of sixteen
+and sixty was to be made. The town was divided into districts, and
+recruiting officers were appointed for each. By an unanimous vote of the
+meeting the Count was requested to take the chief command. The delay of
+the invaders gave some time for carrying out these preparations for
+defence. A force was speedily raised, sufficient, as far at least as
+numbers were concerned, to garrison the walls. This was divided into
+companies, each having two watches, which were to be on duty alternately.
+The whole extent of work was divided among them, and the town was stored
+with such missiles as could be collected or manufactured, while Carna
+busied herself among the women, organizing the supply of food and drink
+for the guards of the wall, and preparations for the care of the wounded.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                                THE SIEGE.
+
+
+Day after day the burgesses of Venta awaited the course of events. For
+some time they hoped that, after all, the town might not be visited by the
+invaders. The lurid glow of the skies by night, and the clouds of smoke by
+day, sometimes borne by the wind so close to the town that the smell could
+be distinctly recognized, proved that they were still near. But though the
+effects of their work of ruin were visible enough, of the barbarians
+themselves no one had yet caught a glimpse. But towards the evening of the
+seventh day after the Count's arrival a party was seen to emerge from a
+wood, distant about half a mile from the gates. There were four in all;
+two of them were mounted on small and very shaggy ponies, the others were
+on foot. The party advanced till they were about a hundred yards from the
+wall, and though the fading light prevented them from being seen very
+clearly, there could be no doubt that they were some of the dreaded Picts.
+
+A debate, which seemed, from the gesticulations of the speakers to be of a
+somewhat violent kind, was carried on for a time among the savages. Then
+one of the mounted men rode, with all the speed to which his diminutive
+horse could be urged, almost up to the gates of the town. He wore a
+deer-skin robe of the very simplest construction, with holes through which
+his head and arms were thrust. His legs were bare. Round his neck was hung
+a bow of a very rude kind. In his right hand he carried a short spear.
+With the butt of this he struck violently at the gate, as if demanding
+entrance, and after waiting a few seconds, as it seemed for an answer,
+turned his pony's head and began to ride back to his party. He had almost
+reached them before the defenders of the wall had recovered from the
+astonishment which his audacity had caused them. Then one who was armed
+with a bow discharged at the retreating figure an arrow, which more by
+good luck than skill, for scarcely any aim had been taken, struck the Pict
+on the neck. He did not fall from his horse, but swayed heavily to one
+side, catching at the animal's mane to steady himself. His three
+companions rushed forward to help him, and in another moment would have
+carried him off, but for the resolution and activity of the Saxon, who
+with the Count was standing on the rampart close to the gate. He lowered
+himself by his hands from the wall, a height of about fifteen feet, itself
+no small feat of activity, and ran at his full speed, a speed which, as
+has been said before, was quite uncommon. Hampered as they were by having
+to keep their wounded companion in the saddle, the Picts could move but
+slowly, and were soon overtaken. With two blows, delivered with all his
+gigantic strength, Cedric levelled two of them to the ground, and, seizing
+the wounded chief, threw him over his shoulder, then turning ran towards
+the gate. For a moment the third Pict stood too astonished to move. Cedric
+had thus a start of some yards, and before he could be overtaken, had got
+so close to the wall as to be under the protection of the archers and
+slingers who lined it. The next moment the wicket of the gate was opened,
+and the prisoner secured.
+
+It was evident that he was a prize of some value, for a rudely wrought
+chain of gold round his neck showed that he was a chief. He had ridden up
+to the gate against the advice of his followers, as it was guessed, under
+the influences of copious draughts of metheglin. The effect of the liquor,
+together with the pain of his wound and the shock of his capture, had been
+to make him insensible when he was brought into the town. While he was in
+this state his wound was dressed by a slave who had some surgical skill,
+and who declared that though serious it was not mortal. When he recovered
+consciousness he behaved more like a wild beast than a man. His first act
+was to tear furiously at the bandage which had been applied to his wound.
+The attendants mastered him with difficulty, for he fought with the
+ferocity of a wild cat, and then bound his hands and feet. Thus rendered
+helpless, he raved at the top of his voice till sheer exhaustion reduced
+him to silence, a silence which was soon followed by sleep.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric and the Pict.]
+
+The night passed without any attack. It was evident that the Picts were in
+considerable force, for their watch fires were to be seen scattered over a
+wide extent of country, and there was much anxious talk in the town about
+the chances of a siege. Few indeed in Venta closed their eyes that night,
+and with the earliest morning the whole town was astir. The invaders, of
+course, had no notion of how a siege should be conducted, nor had they the
+necessary mechanical means even if they had known how to use them. Their
+arrows did but little harm, for their bows were ill made, and had but a
+small range, nothing like that which was commanded by the better weapons
+of the defenders. With the sling, however, they were singularly expert,
+and inflicted no small damage, making indeed some parts of the walls
+scarcely tenable. But as they could do nothing without showing themselves,
+they suffered more loss than they inflicted. In the early days of the
+siege especially, a catapult, which the garrison worked from the walls,
+did great damage among them. After awhile they were careful not to collect
+in such numbers as to give a fair mark for this piece of artillery.
+
+The townspeople were greatly elated at their success, and when, about a
+fortnight after the first appearance of the invaders before the walls, two
+days had passed without one of them being visible, concluded that,
+hopeless of making any impression upon the place, they had disappeared.
+
+They were soon undeceived. It was growing dusk on the third day after the
+supposed departure of the enemy, when a heavily laden cart was drawn up to
+the western gate of the city. The driver, apparently a country man,
+knocked for admittance. By rights, at such an hour, it should have been
+refused, but the vigilance of the watch had begun to slacken, most of the
+besieged believing that the danger was practically over. Accordingly, no
+difficulty was made about throwing open the gates. But, once thrown open,
+they were not so easily closed. Just as the cart was passing through the
+opening in the wall one of the wheels came off, and the vehicle broke down
+hopelessly. Commonly it would not have taken long to clear the obstacle
+out of the way. There was usually a throng of people about the gates and
+on the walls, and a multitude of willing hands would have been ready to
+lend their help. But just at this moment the gates and walls were almost
+deserted. Even-song was going on in the Church of Venta, and a preacher of
+some local fame was expected to enlarge on the Divine mercy shown in the
+deliverance of the town from the barbarians. The keepers of the gate
+would, therefore, have been at a loss even if they had seen the necessity
+of bestirring themselves. As it was, they were content to do nothing. They
+amused themselves by standing by and laughing at the rustic driver as he
+slowly unladed from his vehicle its miscellaneous cargo, the contents, it
+seemed, of one of the country-side cottages, from which the terror of the
+invasion had driven their inhabitants. The process of unloading, carried
+on slowly and with much grumbling, was scarcely half finished, when one of
+the warders, chancing to look behind him, caught sight of a body of men
+rapidly approaching through the darkness. A number of Picts had concealed
+themselves in the wood mentioned before as distant about half a mile from
+the wall, and when they saw the gate blocked by the broken-down cart--a
+part, it need hardly be said, of the stratagem--had made a rush to get to
+it before the obstacle could be removed. A hasty alarm was raised, and
+some of the citizens who were in hearing ran up. But it was too late. The
+rustic driver, a villain whose treacherous services had been bought by the
+enemy, had quickened his work when he saw his employers approaching, and
+contrived to finish the unloading of the cart at the very moment of their
+coming up. In a few moments some of them had clambered over the empty
+vehicle, struck down the guards, and disabled the fastenings of the gates.
+Before many minutes had passed the whole of the ground outside the gates
+seemed to swarm with the enemy, and though the townspeople had now begun
+to make a rally in force, it was too late to make any effectual effort to
+keep them out. The situation would in any case have been full of danger.
+At Venta it was hopeless. A garrison of veterans might have kept their
+heads, but there were not more than sixty or seventy among the defenders
+of Venta who had ever seen service in the field; and the citizen soldiers
+were fairly panic-stricken when they saw themselves actually facing a
+furious, yelling crowd of barbarians, cruel and savage creatures in
+reality, and commonly reported to be even worse than they were. Without
+even striking a blow they turned and fled. The Count, whom the alarm had
+just reached, was met, and, for a time, carried away by the tide of
+fugitives. Still he was able to rally a few men to his side for a last
+effort. Some of his own followers were with him, and the rest could be
+fetched in a few moments. The gallant old centurion, in spite of his
+seventy years, was prompt with the offer of his sword; and, as always
+happens, the infection of courage spread not less rapidly than the
+infection of cowardice. Altogether a compact body of about a hundred men
+were collected. Well armed and well disciplined they turned a steadfast
+face to the enemy, and were able to make their retreat to a little fort
+which stood on a hill to the south-east of the town. Carna, the priest of
+Venta and his family, and a few other non-combatants were with them. More,
+in the terrible confusion of the scene, it was impossible to rescue. All
+through the trying time Cedric distinguished himself by his coolness and
+courage. When once he had seen Carna safely bestowed in the centre of the
+party, and had also seen that the person of the Pictish chief was secured
+(having the presence of mind to foresee that he would be a valuable
+hostage), he took up a position in the extreme rear of the retreat, and
+performed prodigies of valour in keeping the pursuers at bay.
+
+The occupation of the fort could, of course, do nothing more than give
+them a breathing space. Though it had been for some time unoccupied, its
+defences were tolerably perfect, and it might have been held against a
+barbarian enemy as long as provisions held out. Unfortunately this was the
+weak part of their position. Of provisions they had very little. Luckily
+the place had latterly been used as a warehouse, and contained some sacks
+of flour. A few sheep were feeding in a meadow hard by, and were hastily
+driven within the defences. Happily there was a well within the walls.
+
+That night was a dismal experience which none of the party ever forgot. A
+confused noise came up from the town, where the savages were busy with
+plunder and massacre. Every now and then some piercing shriek was heard,
+curdling the blood of all the listeners. At other times the loud crash of
+some falling building could be distinguished. Towards midnight flames
+could be seen bursting out from various parts of the town, and before an
+hour had passed, every eye was fixed on a hideous spectacle, on which it
+was an agony to look, but from which it yet seemed impossible to turn.
+Venta was on fire. The flames could be seen to catch street after street,
+and distinctly against the lurid background of the burning houses could be
+seen, flitting here and there, as they busied themselves with the work of
+destruction, the dark shapes of the barbarians. When the morning dawned
+only a few detached buildings, among them the church, a basilica of some
+size, built by the munificence of the Empress Helena, were standing.
+
+The party in the fort reviewed their position anxiously. The civilians
+were for the most part in favour of staying where they were. They felt the
+substantial protection of the stout walls which surrounded them, and were
+indisposed to leave it. The military men, on the other hand, recognized
+facts more clearly and more completely. The protection of the fort was
+worth this and this only--that it gave them time to reflect. To stand a
+siege would be to ensure destruction.
+
+"We must cut our way through," said the Count. "If we do not try it now we
+shall have to try it three or four days hence, and try it with less
+courage, and hope, and strength, and probably fewer men than we have now."
+
+"Cut our way through all those thousands of savages!" said the _Princeps_,
+who was one of the few who had escaped from the town. "No; we should be
+fools to leave the shelter of these walls."
+
+"Shelter!" cried the old centurion; "will they shelter you against famine?
+No; let us go while we have strength to walk."
+
+"But how," said another of the townspeople, "how will you do all the three
+things at once--retreat, and fight, and save the women? A few of the men
+may get through, but it will be as much as they can do to take care of
+themselves."
+
+The argument was only too clear, and the Count turned away with a groan of
+despair. The prospect seemed hopeless. All the comfort that he could find
+was in the thought that he and Carna should anyhow, not fall alive into
+the hands of the barbarians.
+
+But now Cedric came again to the rescue with the happy thought which had
+made him carry off the Pictish chief. He said nothing to any of his
+companions; but he managed the affair with the prisoner, and managed it
+with an astonishing speed and success. He pointed to a party of the
+chief's fellow-countrymen who were approaching the fort, by way, it
+appeared, of reconnoitring its defences, and intimated that he wished to
+open communications with them, showing at the same time, by holding up two
+of his fingers, that not more than two were to approach. The chief, whose
+intelligence was sharpened by a keen sense of his danger, by a shrill
+piercing whistle, twice repeated, conveyed this intimation to his
+countrymen, and two of them approached to within speaking distance of the
+walls. Cedric now addressed himself to the task of making his prisoner
+understand that his life and liberty depended upon his inducing his
+countrymen to retire. This was not very easily done. The expressive
+gestures of drawing a knife across the throat was readily understood; and
+at last by a pantomime of signs he was made to comprehend that this would
+be the result, if his countrymen were to approach the walls. Then the
+other alternative was expressed. One of the bonds with which he was
+secured was partially loosed, and this action was accompanied by a
+sweeping gesture of the hand towards the north, which was to indicate that
+that must be their way, if he was to be freed. A light of comprehension
+gradually dawned in the chief's eye, and the Saxon had little doubt that
+he had made his meaning intelligible. Whether the man could be trusted to
+keep the engagement was what neither he nor any one could say. But it was
+clear that the risk had to be run, for the only possible hope of escape
+lay in this direction. A conversation followed between the chief and his
+countrymen, accompanied by signs which were intended to convey to the
+Saxon the purport of what he was saying. When it was over, they
+disappeared, and the chief, turning to Cedric, raised his hands to the sky
+in a gesture which the latter interpreted, and rightly interpreted, to
+mean that he was calling the powers above to witness his fidelity to the
+engagement which he had made.
+
+Cedric then communicated the result of his negotiations through his
+interpreter the peddler to the Count. It was not received with unanimous
+approval by the party in the fort. The _Princeps_ especially protested
+loudly against trusting their lives to the good faith of a couple of
+savages. "A Pict and a Saxon!" he cried, "the worst enemies that Britain
+has, and you think that they are going to save us!" He was quickly
+overruled by the Count, who let him understand quite plainly that he would
+be left to shift for himself unless he availed himself of this chance of
+escape.
+
+"Do as you please," was �lius's first utterance, "you have authority over
+the fort, and if you choose to defend it with as many of your friends as
+you can induce to stay with you, I cannot hinder you. But you must take
+the consequences, and I haven't the shadow of a doubt what these will be.
+Meanwhile, I and my party mean to go. As for the Pict, I know nothing of
+him; the Saxon I would trust with my life, and what is far dearer to me,
+the life of my daughter. He has proved his good faith already in such a
+way that I for one shall never doubt him again."
+
+Preparations for departure were hastily made. Indeed there was little to
+prepare. The party had simply nothing with them except their arms. Every
+one had to walk--for food they had to trust to what they might find on the
+road. But before they started the Count loosed with his own hand the
+chief's bonds. The chief put his hand upon his heart, and then lifted it
+to the sky with the same gesture of appeal that he made before.
+
+It is sufficient to say that he kept his word, for the party reached the
+coast without molestation.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX.
+
+                            CEDRIC IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+For several weeks life passed at the villa with little change or incident.
+But the Count, though he kept a cheerful face, and talked gaily of the
+future to his daughter and Carna, felt more acutely every day how full his
+position was of anxieties and difficulties. First came, as it always does
+come first, the question of money. It had never been a very easy matter to
+provide for the expenses of the fleet. Again and again the Count had drawn
+on his private means, which were happily very large. But these had lately
+been crippled by the troubled condition of the provinces in which his
+estates were situated, and even if they had been untouched the burden that
+now threatened to fall upon them would have been too great for them to
+bear. Some of the seaport towns would, he hoped, continue to pay their
+contributions. He was personally popular, and his influence would do
+something. Then, again, he could still give at least some return for the
+money. The sea-coast must be protected from the enemy, and no one could
+protect it so cheaply and so effectually as he. From the inland towns,
+which had always grumbled at having to pay an impost from which they saw
+no visible advantage, nothing was to be hoped. And any expectation of
+money from the authorities at home was quite out of the question.
+
+One thing was quite certain: the establishment must be reduced within much
+narrower limits. He must diminish the fleet, and lessen also the range of
+shore which he professed to defend. He could not henceforth pretend to go
+north of the mouth of the Thamesis. For the coast southward and westward
+he might be able to provide more or less effectually. More he could not
+do.
+
+One of the first necessities of the changed position in which he found
+himself was that he must give up the villa on the east coast. It would be
+a matter for after consideration whether the island of Vectis was not too
+much out of the way. But till that point could be settled, it would have
+to be his head-quarters. To carry out these new arrangements, and to wind
+up affairs in the region which he was preparing to relinquish, a voyage
+became necessary. On this voyage the Count started early in April. He
+arranged for disposing of that part of the fleet which he could not hope
+to keep in his own pay. Some of the oldest galleys were broken up; others
+were handed over to the authorities of the coast-towns, on the
+understanding that they were to man and pay them themselves. A few picked
+men were taken from the crews by the Count; the rest, excepting such as
+were re-engaged by the local authorities, were discharged. When this had
+been done, and the villa had been dismantled, the Count prepared to return
+to the island.
+
+Here, meanwhile, there had been trouble. The Saxon had quietly returned to
+his work at the forge, and would have been perfectly content, as far as
+could be judged from his demeanour, if only he had been left alone, and
+permitted to pay as before his distant worship to Carna. But to some
+members of the villa household he was an object of dislike. They were
+jealous of the favour in which the Count and the Count's family held him.
+They were naturally not at all pleased at what they could not but
+acknowledge his great superiority in strength, and as Christians, though
+not particularly zealous in their performance of most of their duties,
+they felt themselves to be unquestionably zealous and sincere in their
+hatred and contempt for a pagan. The Saxon, on the other hand, heartily
+despised those by whom he was surrounded. They were slaves, or little
+better than slaves, and he was a freeman and a chief, though the gods had
+made him a prisoner. He went to and fro among them with a scorn which was
+not the less evident because it was not expressed in words.
+
+For a time this enforced silence helped to keep the peace; Cedric knew
+nothing of the British tongue, or of the mongrel Latin which sometimes
+took its place, and the other inhabitants of the villa nothing of Saxon.
+There were angry and contemptuous looks on both sides, but there was
+nothing more; or if there were words, these were harmless, because they
+were not understood. But by degrees this was changed. Cedric had
+intelligence of no common kind--indeed he was something of a poet among his
+own people--he had many motives for learning the language of those among
+whom he dwelt, his adoration for Carna being one of the most powerful, and
+he had, too, opportunities for learning. The peddler taught him much, and
+Carna, who never forgot her zealous desire for his conversion, taught him
+more. The end was that he picked up much of the British language with
+extraordinary rapidity, and, in little more than six months after his
+capture, could express himself with some ease and fluency.
+
+This was very well in its way, but it had the unfortunate result that he
+began to understand and be understood. Every day the relations between him
+and the domestics and artizans employed about the villa became worse and
+worse, and it was not long before matters came to a crisis.
+
+Cedric had repeatedly noticed that the tools which he used in the forge
+had been hidden or mischievously damaged. He was too proud to complain,
+and indeed his temper was curiously patient in any matter where he did not
+conceive his honour to be involved. He said nothing about the matter,
+searched for his missing tools, and if he could not find them, continued
+to do without them, and repaired the injuries as best he could. The
+offender, of course, grew bolder with impunity, and at last the limits of
+Cedric's endurance were reached and passed. Coming into the forge at an
+unusually early hour one morning, he caught the doer of the mischief in
+the very commission of a more serious piece of mischief than he had yet
+ventured, namely, cutting a hole in the bellows. He lifted the offender by
+the skin of the neck--he was a lad of about sixteen, and son of the chief
+bailiff of the farm attached to the villa--shook him, as a dog shakes a
+rat, yet without forgetting that he was but a boy, dipped him head
+foremost in the bath of the forge, and then let him go, more dead than
+alive from the fear that he felt at finding himself in the hands of the
+great giant.
+
+Unluckily at the very moment when the young rascal was being dismissed in
+a paroxysm of howling with a contemptuous kick, his father entered the
+yard. No one about the place was more prejudiced against the Saxon, or
+more jealous of the favour in which he stood with the Count and his
+family. He had too, in its very worst form, the ungovernable Celtic
+temper, and now, when he saw his son, a spoilt boy whom everybody else
+disliked, ill-treated as he thought by the prisoner, he was fairly carried
+out of himself.
+
+"Pagan dog!" he cried, "do you dare to touch with your beast's foot a
+Christian boy?" and he struck at the Saxon with a long cart whip which he
+had in his hand.
+
+The end of the lash caught the Saxon's cheek, on which it raised an
+ugly-looking wheal. Even in the height of his passion the Briton stood
+aghast at the change which came in a moment over the form and features of
+the Saxon. One or two of the bystanders had seen him face to face with an
+enemy, and had wondered how strangely calm he had seemed to be, showing no
+sign of excitement, except a certain glitter in his eyes. He had a very
+different look now. "The form of his visage was changed," as it was in the
+Babylonian king(47) when he found himself, for the first time in his life,
+confronted by a point-blank refusal to obey. A consuming anger, like the
+Berseker rage of his kinsmen of after times, the Vikings, seemed to
+possess and transform him. His features worked, as if caught by some
+strange malady, his eyes literally blazed with fury, his whole figure
+seemed to dilate. The luckless bailiff was seized round the middle, lifted
+from the ground as easily as if he had been a child in arms, and hurled
+with a crash, like a bolt from a catapult, against the wall. He lay there
+bleeding from nose and mouth, while the horror-stricken Britons stood
+helpless and afraid to move.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric's Fury.]
+
+"Dogs of slaves," cried Cedric, "do you dare to growl at your master;" and
+he swept through the terrified crowd, laying them low on either side.
+Happily at the moment he had no weapon in his hand, but he seized a bar of
+iron from the anvil of the forge, and swinging it round his head,
+prepared, it seemed, to deal about him an indiscriminate destruction. What
+would have followed it is impossible to say. In his fury and in his
+absolute mastery over that shrinking crowd, he was like a tiger in the
+midst of a flock of sheep. But at the critical moment, before his hand had
+dealt a single blow, the apparition of Carna interposed between him and
+his victims. The uproar in the court had reached her in her chamber, and
+brought her ready to play her accustomed part of peacemaker. Now she
+stood, her figure framed like a picture, in the door which opened on the
+court from the part of the villa which she occupied. She wore a simple
+dress of white, fastened with a blue girdle; her long chestnut hair fell
+in loose waves to her waist, for she had not had time to arrange it in
+more orderly fashion. Her face was pale and troubled, her eyes wide open
+with a sad surprise. It was indeed another Cedric that she saw from the
+one whom she had known. Was this terrible savage, who looked more like
+some dreadful spirit from the abyss than a human creature, the gentle
+giant in whose mute homage she had felt such an innocent pleasure, the
+hopeful pupil whom she was teaching, as she hoped, to put away savage ways
+for the mild and peaceful behaviour of a Christian. As for Cedric, he
+seemed paralyzed at the vision that presented itself to him. The sight of
+the girl always moved him strangely; now she reminded him of the time when
+he had first seen her by the bedside of his dying brother; and the
+remembrance completed, if anything was needed to complete, the impression.
+The fury that had transfigured him seemed to pass away; his hand loosed
+its hold on the weapon which he held. His adversaries did not fail to use
+the opportunity. They had been too genuinely frightened to let it slip
+when it came. Indeed they may be excused for feeling that this most
+formidable enemy had to be secured against doing any more damage. The
+moment they saw him unarmed they sprang with one movement on him and
+overpowered him. Even then, if he had offered resistance, they might have
+had no small trouble, perhaps might have failed in securing him. But he
+stood passive, and allowed his hands to be bound without a struggle, and
+followed without difficulty when he was led to the room where offenders
+were commonly confined. Some of the meaner spirits in the household were
+disposed to visit their feelings of annoyance and humiliation on his head,
+now that he seemed to be in their power. But others felt a salutary dread
+of rousing the sleeping lion whose rage they had seen could be so
+terrible. Carna too did not abandon her _proteg�_. He was chained, indeed,
+to a staple in the wall of the room which served as his prison. This
+seemed nothing more than a necessary precaution. But the girl let it be
+distinctly understood that no cruelty must be used to him, and she took
+care herself that his supply of food should be plentiful and good.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                               THE ESCAPE.
+
+
+The prisoner seemed to submit to his fate with patience. He thanked the
+attendant who brought him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposed
+of the food with an appetite which seemed to indicate a cheerful temper. A
+visit which the peddler paid him the second day of his imprisonment was
+apparently received as a welcome relief. The two had a long and friendly
+conversation, nor did Cedric utter a word of complaint against his
+treatment.
+
+In reality the young chief was keeping under his rage with an effort
+almost unbearably painful. That he should be chained like a dog to the
+wall was an intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of a long
+line of chiefs which boasted the blood of the great Odin himself! The iron
+did indeed enter into his soul, and the seeming calm of his outward
+patience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury. It was only the hope of
+freedom that kept him calm. It was that he might not diminish this hope,
+this almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction that he ate
+and drank with such seeming cheerfulness. He would want, he knew, all his
+strength for an escape. He would support it and husband it to the utmost.
+
+And for an escape, unknown to his keepers, he was steadily preparing. The
+chain which bound him to the wall was fastened round his right arm and
+leg, and the fastening would have seemed secure to any ordinary observer.
+But such an observer would not have made the necessary allowance for the
+young man's ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand was large and
+muscular; far too much so, one would have thought, to pass through the
+ring which had been welded round the arms. But he possessed an unusual
+power of contracting it. To exercise this power was indeed a painful
+effort, causing something like an agonizing cramp; still it was an effort
+that could be made, and made without disabling the limb. It could not,
+however, be done twice, because the hand, recovering its shape from the
+extraordinary pressure to which it had been subjected, would infallibly
+swell. Cedric, accordingly, after satisfying himself that it could be
+done, postponed actually doing it till the moment of escape had arrived.
+The fastening of the leg was less manageable. He would not have scrupled
+to do as the Spartan prisoner is said to have done, and cut off the foot
+which impeded his escape, but he had positively nothing with which this
+could be done. The only alternative was to drag the staple from the wall,
+and to carry it and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong as it
+was, it was light. The staple at first seemed obstinate. It had indeed
+been subjected to tests which satisfied the villa blacksmith of its
+capacity of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all the enormous
+strength which the young giant could bring to bear, weakened its hold, and
+at last it gave. The prisoner was prudent enough not to complete the
+separation of the iron from the walls. It would have been difficult to
+replace it so as to escape the notice of the attendant. Accordingly the
+drag was relaxed as soon as the first indications of yielding were felt.
+The time for attempting the escape was a subject of much anxious
+deliberation. The obvious course would have been to choose some hour
+between midnight and dawn; but Cedric had heard from time to time the step
+of some one walking up and down before his prison, and he guessed that it
+might be guarded at night, but left during the day-time, on the
+presumption that the captive would scarcely make an effort to escape while
+it was light. It was this accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortly
+after sunrise the attendant paid him his customary visit, bringing with
+him the morning meal. Cedric pretended to be but half awake, and,
+returning his salutation in a mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on his
+side, as if to continue his slumbers. But the moment after the man had
+left the room he was at work. He dragged his hand through the ring, at the
+cost of a pang which taxed his endurance to the utmost; pulled the staple
+from the wall, wound the chain round his leg, and wrenching away one of
+the iron bars of the window, dropped through the opening thus made on to
+the ground. His calculation was correct. The ground was clear. Then
+another question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to escape as
+he was? He knew where a boat was commonly kept, and it had been his plan
+to take this and row out to sea in the hope of meeting some one of his
+countrymen's galleys. If he once got off from the shore he was free, for
+if the worst came to the worst, he could at least die as a free man
+should. But should he go unarmed, and with the hampering chain about his
+leg? A moment's consideration--no more was possible--decided him. He would
+make one more bold effort. The forge was close at hand, and he knew from
+having worked there that at that hour in the morning it was commonly
+empty, the workmen leaving it for their morning meal. There he could find
+what he wanted, a file to release himself from the chain, and a weapon.
+
+The forge was empty, as he had expected. The question was, How long would
+it remain so? The workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The fire
+had not died down to the lowest, showing that the bellows had been
+recently at work, and a piece of iron that had been left, half-wrought, on
+the anvil, was still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near it.
+It might be safest to take a file and escape with it at once. On the other
+hand, it would be far better to release himself at once from his
+encumbrance, in the event of having to run or fight for his life. He might
+count, he thought, upon half an hour, and he resolved to file away the
+chain then and there. With admirable coolness he sat down and applied all
+the strength and skill which he possessed to the work, and had finished it
+in little more than half the time which he had reckoned to have
+undisturbed. He then caught up a sword which hung on one of the walls. It
+was an old-fashioned weapon, but Cedric, who knew good iron when it came
+in his way, had tried its temper, and knew it to be capable of doing good
+service.
+
+So far everything had favoured him, nor did his good fortune desert him
+now. He found the boat, which was one commonly used for fishing by the
+inmates of the villa, ready furnished with oars and a small mast and sail.
+There were even, by good luck, a small jar of water, some broken food in a
+hamper, left by a party which had been using it the day before, with some
+fishing lines. These, Cedric thought to himself, might be useful if he
+failed to fall in with any of his countrymen.
+
+Jumping on board, he plied his sculls rapidly, going in the direction of
+the sea, and keeping as close under the shore as possible, so as to be out
+of sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution was unnecessary.
+His absence was not discovered till shortly afternoon, when the attendant,
+bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond measure to find the room
+empty. But another danger threatened him, a danger which he had not indeed
+forgotten, but against which he had known it to be impossible to take any
+precautions. This was the chance of meeting with the Count's squadron as
+it was returning to the island; and it was this that he actually
+encountered.
+
+Just as he had reached the mouth of the Haven and was turning his boat
+eastward, he saw within a hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys.
+It was not the Count's own vessel, for this had been delayed by an
+accident to the rigging, and was now many miles behind, but was in charge
+of the second-in-command. The recognition was mutual. Cedric's tall figure
+was not one that could be easily mistaken, nor could it be doubted that he
+was attempting an escape. Had the Count been there he would probably have
+parleyed with the fugitive. The officer in command was not so considerate.
+
+"Shoot," he cried, "he is trying to escape," and as he spoke he seized a
+bow which lay on deck, and took aim at the Saxon. His order was
+immediately observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at the boat.
+They all fell short, for Cedric had by this time increased his distance.
+In a minute or two, however, the ship was put about, and then began to
+gain rapidly on the solitary rower.
+
+Another volley was discharged, and this time one of the arrows took
+effect, wounding the fugitive slightly in the left arm. The situation was
+desperate. To remain in the boat was to await certain death. A third
+volley would unquestionably be fatal. Cedric jumped overboard, but still
+clung to the side of the boat. It was only just in time. The third volley
+was discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of the boat so thick as
+to show plainly what the fate of the occupant would have been. Still,
+though he had escaped for the moment, Cedric's fate seemed sealed. The
+boat had given him shelter for the time, but to go on clinging to it would
+be to ensure his capture. He left it, and after making a few vigorous
+strokes, threw up his arms from the surface of the water, and uttering a
+loud cry, disappeared.
+
+His quick eye had discerned a great mass of sea-weed floating on the water
+about fifty yards away, and his ready intelligence had seen a chance,
+small indeed and almost desperate, but still a chance of escape. Swimming
+under water to the sea-weed, he was able to come to the surface and to
+take breath under its shelter.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric's Escape.]
+
+On board the galley every one of course supposed him to have sunk. His
+action of the lifted arms and the loud cry had been natural enough to
+deceive the most wary observer. The boat was righted and secured by a
+rope, and the galley pursued its way to the villa, while Cedric was left
+to make the best of his way to the land.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                                A VISITOR.
+
+
+The day after Cedric's disappearance the Count returned to the island. The
+prospect before him had not by any means lightened. Britain, conquered,
+oppressed, protected, for nearly four hundred years, governed sometimes
+ill and sometimes well, according to the varying characters of the Roman
+legates, but never allowed to do anything for herself, was not ready at a
+moment's notice to be independent and stand alone. The Count was much too
+shrewd a man to hope that she would. Still, even he had not realized how
+bad things would be; and when he came to see them face to face he felt
+something like disappointment, and even despair. A man will often make up
+his mind to the general fact of failure, and yet be almost as much vexed
+at the details of failure, when it comes, as if he had expected success.
+
+The fact was that the Count had found little or no disposition in the
+native States to take up and carry on the work which he was being
+compelled to give up. They would make no sacrifices, or even efforts. They
+refused to work together. Each reckoned on its own chance of escaping the
+common danger, and would not contribute to the defence that might possibly
+be wanted for its neighbours, and not for itself. Then jealousies and
+enmities, hitherto kept in check by the strong hand of a master, began to
+break out. The cities seemed likely, not only not to combine against Picts
+and Saxons, but actually to go to war among themselves. The Count felt all
+the pain that comes to an honest and capable man when he has to face the
+breaking up of a bad system which he has inherited from predecessors less
+high principled than himself. It happens very often that revolutions come
+in the days, not of the worst offenders, but of the men who are making
+sincere endeavours to do their duty. And so it was with the Count.
+
+It was in a very gloomy and depressed condition of mind, therefore, that
+he returned to the villa. And almost every day brought news of fresh
+troubles and disasters. Some of the Roman houses scattered through the
+country had been attacked and burnt of late. Since the central authority
+had been weakened the Roman residents had sometimes begun to behave in a
+lawless and oppressive way to their British neighbours, and these were
+taking their revenge with the cruelty that is always natural to the
+oppressed. Tragical tales of villas surrounded by infuriated crowds of
+Britons, of masters and families shut up within the walls, and perishing
+in the fires that consumed them, were brought to the Count by the scared
+survivors who had contrived to escape from the general destruction.
+
+The Count's personal difficulties were considerable. He had a considerable
+colony now settled near the villa, and many of its members were helpless
+and dependent people. The question of feeding them would soon become an
+urgent one. At present he could use the surplus stores which would no
+longer be wanted now that his squadron had been so reduced in strength.
+And there was another question that pressed upon his mind--that of defence.
+Already he had had to contract his operations. With single pirate vessels,
+or even small squadrons of two or three, he would be able to deal, but
+anything stronger would have to be left alone. With the few ships that
+were left to him it would be madness to run any risk. And what, he could
+not help thinking, if the Saxons were to attack the villa itself? It had
+been built as a pleasure residence, and though now fortified as far as
+circumstances permitted, could not be held against a strong force. Should
+he continue to occupy, or should he retire to the camp of the Great
+Harbour, which would at least be a more defensible position?
+
+It may easily be imagined that these anxieties, which had been troubling
+his thoughts during the whole time of his absence, were not relieved when
+he heard the story of what had happened during his absence. He owed the
+Saxon more than he could ever repay, for he shuddered to think what would
+have happened to Carna but for his strength and energy. And apart from
+this feeling of gratitude, he admired the man's splendid courage and
+tenacity. He had even come to rely upon him for services of unusual
+difficulty and danger. And now, to think that he was lost to them by the
+stupid perversity and jealousy of a set of slaves!
+
+The said slaves had a bad time with their master for some days after his
+return. Good-humoured and kind as he was, yet he was a Roman--in other
+words, he had inherited the lordly temper of a race which had ruled the
+world for five hundred years, and any contradiction that thwarted him in
+one of his serious convictions or purposes, broke through the veneer of
+refinement and culture that commonly concealed the sterner part of his
+nature. A Christian master could not crucify an offender--indeed,
+crucifixion had been long since forbidden by the law--but he had almost
+unlimited power over life and limb. Life, indeed, the Count was too
+conscientious a follower of his religion to touch, but he had no scruple
+about going to the very utmost verge of severity in the use of minor
+punishments. As for his daughter, she was only too like her father to be
+any check on his anger, and for the first time in her life Carna found her
+mediation useless.
+
+"Girl," he said to her on one occasion, when she had urged her
+intercession with tears, "you do not know what mischief these foolish,
+cowardly knaves have done. One thing I see plainly, that as soon as ever
+the Saxons know the weakness of the position we shall not be able to hold
+it any longer. There is nothing to hinder them from coming and burning the
+whole place over our heads; nothing in the way of fortifications, and
+certainly nothing in the way of garrison. They did not know all this
+before, but they are sure to know it soon; and we shall see the
+consequences before many months are over."
+
+In the course of the summer occurred an incident which diverted the
+Count's attention for a time, though it did not lessen his perplexities.
+
+One morning a small trading vessel entered the haven near the villa. Her
+business, it was found, was to land a stranger, who had bargained for a
+passage to the island. The trader had come from a port of Western Gaul,
+and had then taken her passenger on board. Who he was the captain could
+not say, except that he had the appearance of a Roman gentleman. The day
+after they had set sail an illness, which had evidently been upon him when
+he came on board, had increased to such an extent that he had lost
+consciousness. Two or three days of delirium had been succeeded by stupor;
+in this condition the unfortunate man still lay. But while still conscious
+he had written down his destination, and added an appeal to the compassion
+of his future host. The Count read on the paper which the merchant captain
+handed to him a few words written in a trembling hand. They ran as
+follows:--
+
+
+"_In case I should not be able to speak for myself, I invoke by these
+words the compassionate protection of the Count �lius. Let him not fear to
+receive me, but believe that I am unfortunate rather than guilty, and that
+there is between us the tie of a great common affection._"
+
+
+The Count did not recognize the stranger, though a dim impression of
+having seen him before floated across his mind; and there was something in
+his appearance which agreed with the trading captain's conviction that he
+was a man of birth and position. In any case �lius was not one who was
+inclined to resist such an appeal to his compassion. The stranger, still
+unconscious, was landed, together with a few effects which were said to
+belong to him, and at once handed over to the care of Carna. All her
+diligence and watchfulness as a nurse, and all the skill of the old
+physician, were wanted before the patient could be brought back to life.
+For fourteen days he lay hovering on the very verge of death, mostly sunk
+in a stupor so complete that it was barely possible to perceive either
+pulse or breath; sometimes muttering in delirium a few broken sentences,
+of which all that physician and nurse were able to distinguish was that
+they were certainly Latin, and that they seemed to be verse.
+
+It was on the morning of the fifteenth day that there came a change. Carna
+sat by the window of the sick man's room. It had a southern aspect, and
+the sunshine came with a softened brilliance through the thick tinted
+glass, and brought out the exquisite tints of the girl's glossy hair, as
+she sat bending over the embroidery with which she was employing her
+nimble, never-idle fingers.
+
+"By heaven! another, fairer Proserpine!" said the sick man.
+
+The girl turned her head at the sound of the clearly pronounced words
+which her practised ear distinguished at once from the strained or blurred
+utterances of delirium.
+
+She held up her finger to her lips. "Do not speak," she said; "you have
+been very ill, and must not tire yourself."
+
+"Lady," said the sick man, with a smile, "you must at least let me ask you
+where I am."
+
+"Yes, you shall hear, if you will promise to ask no more questions, but to
+be content with what you are told. You are with friends, in the island of
+Vectis, in the house of �lius, Count of the Saxon Shore. And now be quiet,
+and don't spoil all our pains in making yourself ill again."
+
+She gave him a little broth which was being kept hot by the fire in
+readiness for the time when he should recover consciousness; and after
+this had been disposed of, and she had found by feeling his pulse that he
+was free from fever, a small quantity of well diluted wine.
+
+"And now," she said, "you must sleep"--a command which he was ready enough
+to obey.
+
+After this his recovery was rapid. For a time, indeed, the cautious old
+physician, though he did not forbid conversation, prohibited any reference
+to business. "You will want, of course," he said, "to tell your story, and
+to make your plans for the future; that will excite you, and, till you are
+stronger, may bring about a relapse. Be content for a while with the
+ladies' company"--�lia, now that no nursing had to be done, was often with
+her foster-sister--"the Count will see you when I give permission."
+
+And much talk the ladies had with him, and greatly astonished they were at
+the variety and brilliance of his conversation. He seemed equally familiar
+with books and men. He had read everything--so at least thought the two
+girls, who were sufficiently well educated to recognize a full mind when
+they came across it--he had been everywhere, he had seen everybody. He
+never boasted of his intimacy with great people, and indeed very seldom
+mentioned a name, but his allusions showed that he was equally familiar
+with courts and camps. It would have puzzled more experienced persons than
+the sisters to guess who this man of the world, who was also a man of
+letters, could possibly be.
+
+At the end of another week the physician removed his prohibition, and the
+Count, who had hitherto judged it better not to agitate his guest by his
+presence, now paid a visit to his room.
+
+After a few kindly inquiries as to his health, the Count went on,
+"Understand me, sir, that I have no wish to force any confidence from you.
+My good fortune gave me the chance of serving you, but it has not given me
+the right of asking you questions which you might not care to answer. You
+are welcome to my hospitality as long as you choose to remain here, and
+you may command my help when you wish to go. But of course, if you care to
+give me your confidence, it may make the help a great deal more
+effective."
+
+"Yours is a true hospitality," answered the stranger, with a smile, "but
+it is right that you should know who I am, and how I came to be here; and
+I have only been waiting for the good Strabo's leave to tell you. But may
+your daughter and her sister be present? I have a sad story to relate, but
+there is nothing in it which is unfit for them to hear, and they have been
+good enough to show some interest in an unhappy man."
+
+"They shall come, if you wish it," said the Count, "indeed they have been
+almost dying of curiosity."
+
+It was to this audience that the stranger told his story.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                          THE STRANGER'S STORY.
+
+
+"I have found out that my name is known to these ladies, though they are
+not aware that it belongs to me. You, sir, have very probably not found
+time among your many cares to give any thought to the trifles which, if I
+may say so much of myself, have made me famous. I am Claudius Claudianus."
+
+"What! the poet!" cried the Count, "the Virgil of these later days?"
+
+The poet blushed with pleasure to hear the compliment, which, extravagant
+as it may seem to us, did not strike him as being anything out of the way.
+For had not his statue been set up in Trajan's Forum at Rome, an honour
+which none of his predecessors had been thought worthy to receive?
+
+"Ah! sir," he replied, "you are too good. But it would have been well for
+me if I had contented myself with following Virgil; unfortunately I must
+also imitate Juvenal. Praise of the fallen may be forgiven, but there is
+no pardon for satire against those that succeed. Enmity lasts longer than
+friendship, and I have made enemies whom nothing can appease."
+
+  [Illustration: Claudian's Tale.]
+
+"But what of Stilicho?" said the Count. "Surely he has not ceased to be
+your friend. Doubtless you owe much to him, but he owes more, I venture to
+say, to you. He may have given you wealth, but you have given him
+immortality."(48)
+
+"Ah! sir," said Claudian, "have you not then heard?"
+
+"Heard!" cried the Count; "we hear nothing here. We always were cut off
+from the rest of the world; but for the last nine months we might as well
+have been living in the moon, for all that has reached us of what is going
+on elsewhere."
+
+"You did not know, then, that Stilicho was dead?"
+
+"Dead! But how?"
+
+"Killed by the order of the Emperor."
+
+"What! killed? by the Emperor's orders? It is impossible. The man who
+saved the Empire, the very best soldier we have had since C�sar! And you
+say that the Emperor ordered him to be killed?"
+
+The Count rose from his seat, and walked about in incontrollable emotion.
+
+"So they have killed him! Fools and madmen that they are! There never was
+such a man. I knew him well. He was always ready, always cheerful, as gay
+in a battle as at a wedding; as brave as a lion, and yet never doing
+anything by force that he could contrive by stratagem. But tell me--they
+had, or pretended to have, some cause. What was it?"
+
+"They said he was a traitor, that he wanted the Empire for himself, or for
+his son, that he intrigued with the barbarians."
+
+"Well, he was fond of power; and who can wonder that he was dissatisfied
+when he saw in what hands it was lodged? But tell me--what do you think?"
+
+"I don't say," resumed Claudian, "that he was blameless, but he had an
+impossible task--he had to save the Empire without soldiers. He did it
+again and again; he played off one barbarian power against another with
+consummate skill; and filled his legion one day with the enemies whom he
+had routed the day before. But this could not be done without intrigues,
+without devices which, taken by themselves, looked like treason. But it is
+idle to speak of the past. He lies in a dishonoured grave, and the Empire
+of Augustus is tottering to its fall."
+
+"Tell me of his end," said the Count. "You saw it?"
+
+"Yes," said the poet; "I saw it, and, I am ashamed to say, survived it.
+Well, I will tell you my tale. You know he might have had the Empire; the
+soldiers offered it to him; Alaric and his Goths would have been delighted
+to help him. But he refused. He was loyal to the last. He would not even
+fly. There are many places where he would have been safe----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted the Count; "he would have been safe here, if I know
+anything of Britain."
+
+"Well, he would go to none of them. He went to the one place where safety
+was impossible. He went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna every one, from the
+Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an enemy. He wanted to make them
+trust him by trusting them--as if one disarmed a tiger by going into his
+lair! He had two or three of his chief officers with him, besides myself,
+and as many slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind among us. Stilicho
+made a point of our being unarmed. Well, we had not an encouraging
+greeting when we entered the city. Every one, as you may suppose,
+recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose, in the whole Empire,
+who was better known. No one who had ever seen Stilicho could forget that
+towering form, that white head.(49) There were sullen looks as we walked
+through the streets, and hisses, and even some stone throwing. However, we
+got safe to our lodgings, and passed the night without disturbance. The
+next day, as we were standing in the market-place, an old Vandal
+soldier--one of the general's countrymen, you know--put a flower in his hand
+as he walked by, without saying a word, or even looking at him; for it
+would have been as much as his life was worth to be seen communicating
+with us. 'An old comrade,' said Stilicho, who never forgot a face. 'He
+served with me in Greece.' The flower was a little red thing; the
+'shepherd's hourglass' they call it, because it shuts when there is rain
+coming. It was a warning. There was danger close at hand. The general
+said, 'We must take sanctuary.' Then he called me to him. 'Leave me,
+Claudian,' he said; 'you cannot take sanctuary with us, for you are not a
+baptized man. I do not count much on the Church's protection; but still it
+may give me time to make my defence to the Emperor. So you must look out
+for your own safety. But surely they can't be base enough to harm you, for
+what you have done?' 'I don't know about that, my Lord,' I answered; 'you
+remember the fable of the trumpeter.(50) Anyhow, I shall follow you as far
+as I can.' Well, he went into the great church--what used to be the
+Basilica before Constantine's time--and took sanctuary by the altar. I did
+not go further than the nave. In the course of an hour or so comes the
+bishop, with the archdeacon and two or three priests, and following them
+one of the great officers of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was
+now crowded from end to end; the people had climbed up into the pulpit,
+and every accessible spot from which they could get a view of what was
+going on. I think that there was a reaction in the general's favour. No
+one, whose heart was not flint, could see the man who had saved the
+Empire, and that not once or twice, a suppliant for his life. Well, I
+could not see for myself what went on, but I heard the story afterwards.
+The bishop brought a safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the
+chamberlain brought it, and the bishop gave it to Stilicho, with his own
+guarantee. I can't believe that a man of peace and truth, as he calls
+himself, could have been a party to so base a fraud--he must have been
+deceived himself. Well, the safe-conduct promised that the general should
+be heard in his own defence; and he wanted nothing more. I doubt whether a
+trial would have served him; but they never intended to give him even so
+much. As soon as he was out of the church I could see what was meant, for
+I followed him. The chamberlain's body-guard drew their swords. Well, I
+was wrong to say that he had no friends in Ravenna. He had a friend even
+in that crew of hirelings--another of his old soldiers, I daresay. I told
+you that Stilicho had neither armour nor weapon. Well, in a moment, no one
+could see how, there was a long sword lying at his feet. He took it up;
+and, verily, if he had used it, he would at least have sold his life
+dearly. The general was a great swordsman, as good a swordsman as he was a
+general. But no; he would not condescend to it; after a soldier's first
+impulse to take the weapon, he made no use of it. He pointed it to the
+ground, and stood facing his enemies. Ah! it was a noble sight--that grand
+old man looking steadfastly at that crew of murderers. For a few moments
+they seemed cowed. No one lifted his hand--then some double-dyed villain
+crept behind and stabbed him. He staggered forward, and immediately there
+were a dozen swords hacking at him. At least his was no lingering death.
+They cut off that grand white head and carried it to the Emperor; his body
+they threw into the pit where they bury the slaves. And that was the end
+of the saviour of the Empire."
+
+"And about yourself?" said the Count.
+
+"Well," went on the poet, "I have since thought that if I had been a man I
+should have died with him. But when I knew that he was dead, I was coward
+enough to fly. You would not care to hear how I spent the next few days. I
+had a few gold pieces in my pocket, and I found a wretched lodging in one
+of the worst parts of the city, and I lay there in hiding. One day I was
+having my morning meal at a wine shop, when a shabbily dressed old man,
+who sat next, turned to me in a meaning way, and, pouring a few drops out
+of his wine cup, said, 'To Apollo and the Muses.' That is a crime
+now-a-days, in some places at least, Ravenna among them; and he wanted, I
+suppose, to put me at my ease. 'Will you not do the same,' he went on, 'of
+all men in the world there is no one who has better cause.' Pardon me,
+illustrious Count, if I repeat his flatteries. 'Whom do you take me for?'
+said I, for one gets to be a sad coward after a few days' hiding, and I
+was unwilling to declare myself. He replied by repeating some of my verses
+in so meaning a way that I could not misunderstand him. 'These
+wine-bibbers here,' he went on, 'don't know one verse from another, but
+they might catch up a name. Come along with me; I will give you a flask of
+something better than this sour stuff.' Well, we went to his house, which
+was close to the harbour. He was the owner, I found, of two or three small
+trading vessels. The house was a veritable temple of the Muses, ornamented
+with busts of the poets--my own I was flattered to see among them--and
+containing an excellent library of books. Manlius--that was my friend's
+name--had heard me recite at Rome; and he recognized me partly from memory,
+partly from my resemblance to the bust. To make a long story short, he
+entertained me most hospitably for several days, while we discussed the
+question what was to become of me. Home I could not go, not, at least,
+till there should be a change in the Emperor's surroundings. The further I
+got from Italy the more chance there would be of safety. We thought of
+North-western Gaul or Britain, or of getting across the Rhine. The end of
+it was that the good fellow took me across Italy, disguised as his
+servant, to Genoa, where he had correspondents. From Genoa I went to
+Marseilles, and from Marseilles overland to Narbonne, using now the
+character of a bookseller's agent, one which I thought myself better
+qualified to sustain than any other. At Narbonne I found employment as a
+bookseller's assistant, till I could get a letter from my wife in Africa
+with some money. That came in due course, and then I set off on my travels
+again, still working northwards. Then, sir, I thought of you. I had often
+heard the great man speak of you. You served under him against the
+Bastarn�,(51) I think, and it occurred to me that for Stilicho's sake you
+might give me shelter. Not that it matters much to me. To Stilicho I owe
+so much that I can scarcely imagine life without him. He gave me honour,
+wealth, even," added the poet, with a sad little smile, "even my wife, for
+it was not my courting, but the Lady Serena's(52) letter that won her for
+me. But to go on, I found an honest trader, and bargained with him to
+bring me here. I had been sickening for some time, and I remember little
+or nothing from the time of my embarking. There, sir, you have my history
+carried up to the latest point."
+
+"We will put off the future to another day," said the Count; "meanwhile
+you may count on me for anything that I can do."
+
+"Your kindness does much to reconcile me to life," said the poet, "and now
+I will retire, for I feel a little tired."
+
+"Ah," said Carna half to herself, when he had left the room, "now I
+understand about Proserpine."
+
+"About Proserpine? What do you mean?" asked �lia.
+
+"Why, when he came to himself for the first time I was sitting in the
+window with a piece of embroidery work in my hand, and I heard him whisper
+something about Proserpine." Carna suppressed the flattering epithet.
+"Don't you remember that passage where he describes the tapestry which
+Proserpine was working for her mother, and how we admired it, and thought
+we would work something of the kind for ourselves, only we could not get
+any design?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," replied the other, "and you have had a Pluto, too, to
+carry you off. Luckily he was not so successful as the god."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                             NEWS FROM ITALY.
+
+
+The Count's difficulties did not seem to diminish as the year advanced.
+Money grew scarcer and scarcer, till it was only by pledging his personal
+credit to the merchants of Londinium and other towns in Britain that he
+was able to find the pay for the crews of his little squadron. His credit
+happily was still good, a character of twenty years without a single
+suspicion on his integrity standing him in good stead. Then a disaster
+happened to one of the few ships that he had retained. After a fierce
+encounter with a Saxon galley, in which its crew had been much weakened,
+it had been caught in a storm and driven on the deadly western shore of
+the island, still dreaded under the name of the Needles by those who
+navigate the Channel. The ship became a complete wreck and only a small
+portion of the crew escaped with their lives, all the disabled men being
+lost.
+
+But the Count's chief perplexities were within rather than without. For
+more than twenty years he had yielded an unquestioning obedience to the
+authorities at home. It is true that very little had been demanded of him.
+He had been given a free hand, and left to do his duty with very little
+interference, if with very little help. But now in the news of Stilicho's
+death his loyalty had received a tremendous shock. How was he to bear
+himself to a ruler who was capable of committing so great a crime? True,
+he knew enough of the Emperor to be sure that he was only a tool in the
+hands of others, but this did not make the matter one whit better. Such
+tools are often more mischievous than men who are actively wicked. What
+then was he to do? Should he join the usurper Constantine, of whose
+astonishing success in Gaul and Spain he had heard the most glowing
+reports? His pride forbad it--an �lius doing homage to a man who but twelve
+months before had been a private soldier! The thought was impossible.
+Should he retire into private life? But would not that be to shirk his
+duty, not to mention the fact that to retire is the one thing which in
+troubled times a man in a conspicuous position cannot do. One thing,
+indeed, was evident--that a decision would have to be made speedily. His
+position was rapidly becoming untenable, and he would have to make up his
+mind, without much delay, as to the best way of getting out of it. In the
+end it happened to him as it happens to so many of us, that his mind was
+made up for him.
+
+One day, towards the end of August, he was about to seek in a day's sport
+a little relief from his many cares. It was still about four hours to
+noon, and he was sitting under a cherry tree (one of his own planting) in
+the villa garden, and sharing a slight meal of milk and wheaten cakes with
+his daughter and Carna, both of whom he had persuaded to accompany him. A
+young Briton stood by holding in a leash a couple of dogs very much like
+the greyhounds of our own times; another carried a bow and a quiver; a
+third had a game bag of leather, with a netted front, slung across his
+shoulders.
+
+The sailing-master of one of the galleys approached and saluted.
+
+"There is a galley," he said, "coming up the Haven, and I thought that you
+should know at once, since it seems to have something of importance on
+board."
+
+"What makes you think so?" said the Count.
+
+"I have been watching it for the last hour," said the man. "At first I
+thought it was a little trading vessel; but I noticed that as soon as it
+entered the Haven it hoisted the Labarum."(53)
+
+"The Labarum!" exclaimed the Count; "I have not seen that flying from any
+mast but my own for a year past. Well, that ought to mean something."
+
+It was the etiquette to go as far as was possible to meet an Imperial
+messenger, just as a host receives a very distinguished guest on his
+door-step, and the Count, after hastily exchanging his hunting-dress for a
+toga, went to the little pier at which the galley would land its
+passenger. He had not to wait many minutes before it arrived, and a
+handsome young man, with a short military cloak over his traveller's
+dress, leapt lightly ashore. The Count saluted. The stranger, who was for
+a time the representative of the Emperor, received the greeting with the
+dignified gesture of a superior.
+
+"Do I address Lucius �lius, Count of the Saxon Shore?" he asked.
+
+"I am he," the Count briefly replied.
+
+"I bring the commands of Augustus," said the messenger, producing from a
+pocket in his tunic a vellum roll, bound with a broad purple cord, and
+bearing the Imperial seal.
+
+The Count received the missive with a profound inclination, and put it to
+his lips. At the same time the messenger uncovered, and changed his
+haughty demeanour for the behaviour usual to a young officer in the
+presence of his superior.
+
+"It will be more respectful and more convenient to read his Majesty's
+gracious communication in private. Will you please come with me to my
+house?"
+
+He led the way to the villa, and introduced the visitor into the little
+room which he used for the transaction of business. He then cut with his
+dagger the purple cord which fastened the package containing the despatch,
+and, after again putting the document to his lips, proceeded to read it.
+Its contents were seemingly not agreeable, for his face darkened as he
+went on. He made no remark, however, beyond simply asking the messenger--
+
+"May I presume that you have a general acquaintance with the contents of
+this document?"
+
+"I have," replied the young man.
+
+"Then you will know that the answer is not one which can be given in a
+moment. But," and he went on with a rapid change of voice and manner,
+"_cras seria_.(54) I was just on the point of going out for a few hours'
+hunting when your arrival was announced. Will you come with me? I have
+nothing very great to show you, though we have some big game here too, if
+we had time to look for it, but if you will condescend to anything so
+small as hare-hunting, I can show you some sport."
+
+The Imperial messenger was an Italian of the north of the Peninsula, who
+had been fond of following the chase on the slopes of the Apennines before
+chance had made him a courtier. He accepted the invitation with pleasure,
+and the party made the best of their way to the high ground now known as
+Arreton Downs.
+
+"Ah!" said the Count, as he pointed northward to where the great Anderida
+Forest(55) might be seen stretching far beyond the range of sight, "there
+is the place for sport; a wilder country I have never seen, no, nor finer
+game. There are wild boars of which I have never seen the like in Italy,
+no, nor in the Hercynian Wood(56) itself, where I used to hunt years ago.
+Last year I killed one which measured six feet from snout to tail. There
+are wolves, too, and bears, and wild oxen; splendid fellows these last, as
+fierce as lions, and almost as big as elephants. But to-day we must be
+content with humbler sport."
+
+This humbler game, however, afforded plenty of amusement, and they
+returned with a bag of eight fine hares--a very fair burden for the carrier
+of the game-bag--and an excellent appetite for dinner.
+
+The meal, to which the Count had invited the captains of his galleys and
+the principal persons in the little colony which was now gathered about
+the villa, passed off very well. The young Italian was loud in his praises
+of everything. "Your oysters," he said, "all the world knows, but some of
+your other dishes are a surprise. The turbot, for instance, how
+incomparably superior to the flabby and tasteless things which they bring
+us from our own coasts. The colder water of the seas is, I suppose, the
+cause. The hares, too, how fine and fleshy! You seem to be amazingly well
+off in the way of food in this corner of the world."
+
+"Ah!" said the Count, with a sigh, "we should do very well, if the rest of
+the world would only leave us alone. But our neighbours cannot be content
+without a share of some of our good things, and they have a very rough and
+disagreeable way of asking for it."
+
+The speaker went on to draw for the benefit of his guest a vivid picture
+of the trouble which the Saxons were giving by sea and the Picts by land,
+till the Italian exclaimed--
+
+"Ah! I see that you too have your disagreeables. I began to think that
+this was a land of peace and plenty, where one might find a pleasant
+refuge. But these barbarians, in one shape or another, are everywhere. We
+are fallen upon evil times indeed."
+
+"Yes," said the Count, "evil times, and no one knows how to deal with
+them; and if God does send us a capable man, we treat him as if he were an
+enemy."
+
+When the tables had been cleared, the Count rose and proposed the toast of
+the Emperor's health; but he did this without a single word of compliment,
+a significant omission that did not fail to attract the attention of all
+who were present. He then proceeded, and again without any preface, to
+read to the company the despatch which had been put into his hands the day
+before. It ran thus:
+
+
+"_Flavius Honorius Augustus to the faithful and valiant Lucius �lius,
+Count of the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+"_Our Imperial care for the dominions, which by Divine Providence have
+been committed to our trust, bids us combine the safety of the seat of our
+government with the welfare of the provinces. For, seeing that these are
+mutually related, as are the head and the limbs in the body of man, it is
+manifest that neither can prosper without the other. Our well-beloved and
+faithful province of Britain has now for many generations been protected
+by our invincible legions and fleets. But even as there comes a time when
+the most careful fathers judge it to be not only needless but even harmful
+to keep their children in dependence upon themselves, so do we now judge
+that our province may now with great advantage, not only to us--for of this
+we think little--but also to itself, defend itself __with its own
+resources. We charge you, therefore, our well-beloved and faithful �lius,
+as having supreme command of the fleets of the said province of Britain,
+to withdraw them as soon as you conveniently may, but not without leaving
+our loyal subjects the assurance of our fatherly love and of the unfailing
+protection of our majesty. The Ever-Blessed Trinity keep and prosper both
+you and all that are committed to your charge. Given at Ravenna, the
+twelfth day before the Kalends of August,_(_57_)_ in the year of our Lord
+408, and the fifteenth year of our reign._"
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Count receiving the letter of Honorius.]
+
+The reading of the despatch was followed by a dead silence. Every one had
+felt for some time that the present state of affairs could not last. Only
+a man of the vigorous character of the Count, and having long years of
+excellent service to fall back upon, could have maintained it so long, but
+it was impossible not to see that it must soon end. A solitary commander,
+without resources or support, could not maintain himself on the remotest
+borders of the Empire. Yet to know that the moment for the change had come
+was disturbing. The fleet, reduced as it had been to a petty squadron, was
+still, while it remained, the symbol of Imperial power, and seemed to be
+worth more in the way of protection than it really was. When this was
+withdrawn, Britain would be really left to itself; and this prospect,
+however it might be regarded elsewhere, was not agreeable to any one of
+the Count's guests.
+
+The Count was the first to break the silence. "This," he said, "is
+manifestly a matter that calls for serious thought. Let us postpone it
+till to-morrow, and for the present turn ourselves to matters more
+suitable for a festive occasion. Perhaps my friend Claudian will give us
+the recitation of something with which he has already charmed the ears of
+our fellow-countrymen elsewhere."
+
+The poet, not more reluctant than his brother-countryman to exhibit his
+genius, at once signified his willingness to comply with this request, and
+gave a recitation from an unfinished poem which he had then in hand. We
+may give a specimen, put into the best English that we can command--
+
+  "The elemental order there she drew,
+    And Jove's high dwellings; there you saw
+  The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew
+      To harmony and law;
+
+  "How Nature set in order due and rank
+    Her atoms, raised the light on high,
+  And to the middle place the weightier sank;
+      There lustrous shone the sky,
+
+  "The heavens were pink with flame, the ocean rolled,
+    The great world hung in mid suspense.
+  Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold
+      The starry fires intense,
+
+  "Bade ocean flow in purple, and the shore
+    With gems upraised. Divinely wrought,
+  The threads embossed to swelling billows bore
+      Strange likeness; you had thought
+
+  "They dashed the seaweed on the rocks, or crept
+    Hoarse murmuring thro' the thirsty sands.
+  Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept
+      With red distinct the lands
+
+  "Leaguered with burnings; all the region showed
+    Scorched into blackness, and the thread
+  Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed;
+      On either hand were spread
+
+  "The realms of life, lapt in a milder breath
+    Kindly to men; and next appear,
+  On this extreme and that, dull lands of death:
+      She made them dark and drear
+
+  "With year-long frost, and saddened all the hue
+    With endless winter; last she showed
+  What seats her sire's grim brother holds; nor knew
+      The fated dark abode."(58)
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                              CONSULTATION.
+
+
+The next morning the Count invited the Imperial messenger to a private
+conference. His daughter and Carna were present, as was also Claudian.
+
+"You have the latest news," the Count began. "Pray let us have them. Here
+we know nothing. But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed that
+you did not hoist the standard till you were within the Haven. You did
+not, I suppose, think it a safe flag to sail under."
+
+"Well," replied the messenger, "I thought it better to have no flag at
+all. But, to tell the truth, the Labarum is not just now exactly the best
+passport in the world."
+
+"You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?" the Count went on. "How are matters
+there?"
+
+"Constantine, with the legions he brought from here, and those that have
+joined him since, is pretty well master of the country, and of Spain too."
+
+"And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let these provinces go without a
+struggle? Spain was the first province that Rome ever had, and Gaul was
+the second. None, I take it, have been so steadily profitable, and now we
+are to lose them."
+
+He rose from his seat, and walked up and down the room in an agitation
+which he could not conceal.
+
+"And the only man who could keep the Empire together is gone; butchered,
+as if he were a criminal!"
+
+The messenger said nothing to this outburst. He went on, "I believe his
+Majesty proposes to admit Constantine to a share of the Imperial honours,
+to make him C�sar of Gaul and Spain."
+
+"What!" said the Count. "Do not my ears deceive me? This fellow, whom I
+have seen wearing the collar for the neglect of duty, recognized as his
+colleague by Augustus!"(59)
+
+"I do not pretend to know his Majesty's purposes, I can only say what is
+reported at head-quarters, and, it would seem, on good authority. But,"
+continued the speaker, in a voice from which he had studiously banished
+all kind of emphasis, and looking as he spoke at the ceiling of the room,
+"your lordship is aware that the honours thus unexpectedly bestowed do not
+always turn out to the advantage of those who receive them."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the Count.
+
+"I mean that what is given may be taken away--and taken away with very
+handsome interest for the loan--when the proper time comes. Your lordship
+has not forgotten the name of Carausius."(60)
+
+"Well," said the Count, "this is not the old way Rome had of dealing with
+her enemies. But, 'other times, other manners.' Tell me now, if the
+Augustus has arranged or is going to arrange with Constantine, what about
+Alaric?"
+
+"Oh! he will be quiet for a time, or should be, if there is any truth in a
+barbarian's oath. You have heard how he marched on Rome?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied the Count. "I have heard nothing here, except, quite
+early in the year, a vague rumour that he was on the move again. But tell
+me--has Augustus given _him_, too, a share in the Empire?"
+
+"Not exactly; but I will tell what has taken place. He marched on Rome."
+
+"Yes," interjected the Count, "and there was no Stilicho to save it!"
+
+"The city was almost helpless. Even the walls had not been kept in repair,
+and if they had, there was no proper force to man them. The only thing
+possible was to make peace on the best terms that they could. I happened
+to be in Alaric's camp with a letter, under a flag of truce, the very day
+that the ambassadors came out to treat with the king, and I saw the whole
+affair. I don't mind saying that it was not one to make a man feel proud
+of being a Roman. The barbarians, it seemed to me, had not only all the
+strength on their side, but the dignity also. Alaric himself is a splendid
+specimen of humanity, every inch a king, the tallest and handsomest man in
+his army, and that, too, an army of giants. It was a contrast, I can tell
+you, between him and the two miserable, pettifogging creatures that
+represented the Senate. At first they tried what a little brag could do.
+'Give us an honourable peace,' said their spokesman, 'or you will repent
+of having driven to despair a nation of warriors, a nation that has
+conquered the world.' The king laughed; he knew what the Romans have come
+to. 'The thicker the hay,' he said, 'the easier to mow.' And then he fixed
+the ransom that he would take for retiring from before the walls. Brennus
+throwing his sword into the scales was moderation in comparison to him.
+'Give me,' he said, 'all the gold and silver, coined or uncoined, private
+property or public that you have, and all the other property that the
+envoys whom I shall send think worth taking; and hand over to me all the
+slaves that you have of the nations of the North, Goths, or Huns, or
+Vandals. You are pleased to call them barbarians, but they are more fit to
+be masters than you; and I will not suffer them to be in a bondage so
+unworthy. Your Greeks, and Africans, and Asiatics, and such like cattle
+you may keep.' The ambassadors were pale with dismay. If they had taken
+back such an answer, the Romans had at least enough spirit left to tear
+them in pieces. 'What do you leave us, then?' they said. 'Your lives!' he
+thundered out. In the end, however, he softened somewhat. Five thousand
+pounds of gold and thirty thousand pounds of silver, and I don't know how
+much silk, and cloth, and spices, were what he finally asked. I know the
+city was stripped pretty bare before the Senate could make up the sum. I
+am told that the treasuries of the churches had to be emptied. Well, as I
+said, Alaric, if he keeps his bargain, ought to be quiet for a time, but
+you will see that the Emperor has need of all his friends round him, and
+all the strength which he can bring together. That is what I have to say
+by way of explanation of the despatch that I brought."
+
+"May I ask you to leave us for a while?" said the Count to the young
+Italian.
+
+When he had left the room the Count turned to his daughter, and said--
+
+"And this is our country! This is Rome! The Emperor, forsooth, has need of
+all his friends. His friends indeed! I little thought that the day would
+come when I should feel ashamed of the title. But tell me, daughter; what
+shall we do? Shall we go?"
+
+"What else can we do?" asked the girl.
+
+"I have thought much about the matter since I heard the dreadful news of
+Stilicho's death, and have had all kinds of wild schemes in my head. I
+have felt that I could not go back and touch in friendship the hands that
+murdered him. Sometimes I thought, while Cedric was here, that we would
+take him with us, and sail eastward. I have had many a hard fight with
+these Saxons, but at least they are men, and brave men, too, who are true
+to their friends, if they hate their enemies. But that is now at an end.
+But is there no other way to go? What say you, Claudian--have you any
+counsel to give us?"
+
+"I would not advise you to sail eastward," said the poet. "We know pretty
+well what lies that way; tribes of barbarians, of whom the less we see the
+better, with all respect to your friend Cedric, who seems to have been a
+fine fellow. But why not westward? You will laugh at me for believing in
+the Islands of the Blest. Well, I do not mean to say that there is a
+country where Achilles and the rest of the heroes are living in immortal
+joy and peace. If there is, it is not one which any ship, built by the art
+of man, can reach. But I do believe that there is a country. These old
+tales, depend upon it, have something more in them than mere fancy. Why,
+my lord, should not you be the one to find it?"
+
+"Yes, let us go, dear father," said �lia, "and leave this dreadful world
+with all its troubles and quarrels behind us. Don't you think so, Carna?"
+
+Carna only smiled sadly.
+
+"Or," continued the poet, "there is the land beyond the north, the country
+of the blessed Hyperboreans, that old Herodotus talks about. Why should we
+not go there? Or, if that sounds too wild, there is Africa, with regions
+rich and fertile beyond all doubt that are waiting to be explored. These
+at least are no matter of legend. We know where they are. Let us search
+for them. Whatever world we may find, it can hardly be worse than that
+which we are leaving behind."
+
+"And what says Carna?" said the Count, turning, with an affectionate look,
+to his adopted daughter.
+
+The girl thus appealed to flushed painfully. For a moment she seemed about
+to speak, but not a syllable passed her lips.
+
+"Speak," cried the Count; "you always see clearer and farther than the
+rest of us."
+
+"My father," the girl went on, "I will speak from my heart, as I know you
+always wish me to do. Forgive me if I seem to teach when it is my part to
+learn and to obey. But, if you ask what I think you should do, I say, 'Go
+home to Rome or Ravenna, or wherever else the Emperor bids you.' After
+all, it is your country, and it never needed the help of good and brave
+men more than it does now."
+
+"By heaven! Claudian," cried the Count, after a brief silence, "the girl
+is right, as she always is. These are not the times for an honest man to
+turn his back upon his country. If I could reach the Islands of the Blest,
+or the happy people who live beyond the north, as easily as I can walk
+across this room, I would not do it; and after all, what is the world
+without Rome to a Roman? What say you, Claudian?"
+
+"I am but a poor singer, who has lost all that made him sing. I could do
+little in any case, and I doubt whether those who killed Stilicho will
+have anything but the axe for Stilicho's friend. Still, I go with you. It
+is not for a Roman to say that Rome is unworthy."
+
+"So that is settled," exclaimed the Count.
+
+"Oh, Carna," cried �lia, throwing her arms round her sister, "shall we
+ever be as happy again as we have been in this dear place?"
+
+Carna clung to her, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+"Does it trouble you so much to go?" asked the Count. "Surely the place is
+not so much to you. You can be happy, wherever you may be, with those you
+love."
+
+The girl lifted up a tear-stained face to him.
+
+"Father," she said--"more than father, for you have loved me without any
+tie of kindred--I cannot go, my home is here."
+
+"Nay, child, what are you saying? Your home has been with us ever since
+you were a babe in arms, and it is so still; or," he added, with a smile,
+"are you going to leave us for a husband?"
+
+The girl blushed crimson as she shook her head. When she could recover her
+speech, choked, as it was, with sobs, she said--
+
+"You asked me just now what you should do, and I said 'Go home to your
+country.' Can I do less myself? Rome is your country, and Britain is mine.
+And oh, if Rome wants all her sons and daughters, how much more does this
+poor Britain!"
+
+"But where will you live?" broke in the Count's daughter; "Where will you
+be safe? Think of the dreadful things you have gone through within the
+last few months! How can you bear to face them with your friends gone?
+And, dearest Carna," she went on, as she clasped her still closer, "how
+can I live without you?"
+
+"My dearest sister," sobbed the girl, "don't make it harder than it is. It
+breaks my heart to part from you, but I cannot doubt what my duty is. And
+I am not without hope. There are brave men here, and men who love their
+country, and I cannot but trust that they will be able to do something. Of
+course, we shall stumble, for we have not been used to go alone, but I do
+hope that we shall not fall altogether."
+
+"But, Carna, what can you do?" said �lia. "You seem to be sacrificing
+yourself for nothing."
+
+"Not for nothing; it is something if I can only sit at home and pray. But
+it must be at home that I must pray. God would not hear me if I were to
+put myself in some safe, comfortable place, and then pretend to care for
+the poor people whom I had left behind."
+
+She hurried from the room when she had said this, as if she could not
+trust herself against persuasions that touched her heart so nearly.
+
+"Carna is right," said the Count, when she had gone, "but I feel as if she
+were going to her death."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                                FAREWELL!
+
+
+The resolution to return to Italy once made, the Count lost no time in
+carrying it out. His own preparations for departure did not cost him much
+trouble. He began by offering freedom to all the slaves in his household.
+The difficulty was in inducing them to accept it. So kind a master had he
+been--in spite of an occasional outburst of temper--and so uncertain were
+the prospects of a quiet life in Britain, that very few felt any eagerness
+to be independent, and the boon had to be forced upon them or made
+acceptable by a considerable bribe. With the free population that since
+the departure of the legions had gathered in increasing numbers about the
+villa it was still more difficult to deal. Many of them were quite
+helpless people whom it seemed equally difficult to take and to leave
+behind. To all that were of Italian birth, or that had kinsfolk or friends
+on the Continent who might be reasonably expected to give them a home, the
+Count offered a passage. For others employment was found in Londinium and
+other towns. But, when all that was possible had been done, there was a
+helpless remnant, about whom the Count felt much as the occupants of the
+last boat must feel at the sight of the poor creatures whom they are
+forced to leave behind on a sinking ship.
+
+Carna had quitted the villa very soon after her resolution to remain in
+Britain had been made. It was indeed too painful to remain there, for,
+though the Count had confessed that she was right, his daughter remained
+unconvinced, and assailed her with incessant entreaties and reproaches
+which went very near to breaking her heart. She made her home with the old
+priest whose wife was a distant kinswoman of her own, and found, as such
+tender hearts always will, a solace for her own sorrows in relieving the
+troubles of others.
+
+About the middle of September all was ready for a start. The two
+serviceable ships that were left to the Count were loaded to their utmost
+capacity with the persons and property of the departing colony. Their
+sailing masters had indeed remonstrated as strongly as they dared.
+
+"We _may_ get safely across," said the senior of them, "if all goes better
+than we have any right to expect. But if it comes on to blow we shall
+hardly be able to handle our ships; and if we meet with the pirates--well,
+a man might as well go into battle with his hands tied."
+
+The Count refused to listen to these protests. Even the suggestion that
+the cargo should be divided, and part left for a second voyage he scouted,
+"It will not do," he said, "the poor people would fancy they were being
+left behind, and I am not at all sure that they would not be right. It is
+only too likely that if we once get to the other side we should _not_ come
+back. No! we will sink or swim together."
+
+About an hour before noon on the fifteenth of the month, the crews were
+ready to weigh anchor. The Count and his daughter, who had just taken
+their last view of the villa which had been their home for so many years,
+were standing on the little jetty, ready to step into the boat that was to
+convey them to the ship. Carna and the old priest and his wife were with
+them, and the hour of farewell had come. �lia, if she had not reconciled
+herself to separation from her sister, at least saw that it was
+inevitable, and was resolved not to make the parting bitterer than it must
+needs be. She affected a cheerfulness which she did not feel.
+
+"Good-bye, Carna," she cried, throwing her arms round the girl's neck.
+"Good-bye! now we are going like swallows in the autumn, and very likely
+shall come back like them in the spring. Meanwhile keep the nest as warm
+for us as you can."
+
+"Remember, Carna," said the Count, "that you have a home as long as either
+I or my daughter have a roof over our heads. You are doing your duty in
+staying, but there is a limit even to duty. As long as you can be of
+service, stop; I would not have it otherwise; but don't sacrifice yourself
+and those that love you for nothing."
+
+Carna's heart was too full to let her speak. She caught the Count's hands
+and kissed them. Then she turned to �lia, and taking her gold cross and
+chain--the only ornament that she wore--hung it round her sister's neck.
+When she had succeeded in choking down her sobs, she whispered, "Take
+this, and, if you will give me yours, we will bear each other's crosses,
+and, perhaps, they will be a little lighter. But oh, how heavy!"
+
+"Kneel, my children," said the old priest, and the little group knelt
+down, while the rowers in the boat uncovered their heads. After repeating
+the paternoster and a few simple words of prayer, he raised his hand and
+blessed them, then fell on his knees beside them. After two or three
+minutes of silent supplication the Count rose, and almost lifted his
+daughter into the boat, so broken down was she with the passion of her
+grief. Carna remained on her knees, her face buried in her hands. To have
+looked up and seen father and sister go was more than she dared to do. For
+the struggle that she fancied was over had begun again in her heart, and
+she could not feel sure even then that duty would prevail. The Count
+gently laid his hand upon her head and blessed her, then stepped into the
+boat. As the rowers dipped their oars in the water, a gleam of sunshine
+burst through the clouds, and lighted as with a glory the head of the
+kneeling girl.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                                MARTIANUS.
+
+
+The little community that remained in the neighbourhood of the villa after
+the departure of the Count and his household had plenty to occupy their
+thoughts and hands. The Count had behaved with a liberality and a
+discretion that were both equally characteristic of him. All the stock of
+what may be called the home farm, all the agricultural implements, the
+cattle, sheep, and pigs, and as much of the stores of corn that he could
+spare, he had made over to the priest and two other principal persons in
+the settlement for the benefit of the community at large. This was an
+excellent start, and removed all immediate anxiety for the future. The
+stores of provisions had been increased by opportune purchases before the
+resolution to go had been taken, and enough was left to last, if managed
+with due economy, over the coming winter.
+
+Carna found plenty of employment of the kind in which she found her
+greatest pleasure. There was indeed a terrible gap in her life; not only
+had she lost those whom she had loved all her life as father and sister,
+but her intellectual interests had dropped away from her. Many of the
+books at the villa had indeed been left with her, but then there was no
+one to whom to talk about them. The old priest never opened a volume
+except it was a service book; his wife could not even read. But the time
+never hung heavily upon her hands, for there was plenty of work to do
+among the sick and sorry. As the autumn went on an epidemic, which a
+modern doctor would probably have described as measles, broke out among
+the children, and Carna spent her days and nights in ministering to the
+little sufferers. The one relief that she allowed herself--and there was no
+little sadness mixed with the pleasure which it gave her--was to spend an
+hour, when she could snatch one from her many cares, in the deserted rooms
+of the villa. The indulgence was rare, not only because her leisure was
+infrequent, but because she was conscious of feeling somewhat relaxed
+after it for the effort of her daily life; but when it came it was
+precious. Not a room, not a picture on the walls, not a pattern in the
+tesselated pavements, that did not call up a hundred associations, and
+make the past in which she had enjoyed so much happiness live again in her
+fancy. The dwelling was under the charge of an old couple, who gladly kept
+it clean in exchange for the shelter of two or three of the rooms, and
+Carna was free to wander about it as she would, while she felt a certain
+security in the knowledge that the place was not wholly deserted.
+
+The autumn and winter passed without any incident of importance. News from
+the Continent had never been very regular during that season of the year,
+and now it came only at the rarest intervals. All that the settlement
+heard went to show that there was but little chance of the return of the
+legions. Constantine, after some changes of fortune, had made himself
+master of Gaul and Spain, and had established a kingdom which looked so
+much as if it might last, that he had been regularly acknowledged by
+Honorius as a partner in the Empire. But it would be long before he could
+spare money or men for adding Britain to his dominions. From Britain
+itself the news was mostly of the most dismal kind. The Picts, indeed,
+were not as troublesome as usual. Happily for their neighbours on the
+south, their attention had been occupied by the tribes on the north, who
+had been driven by a season of unusual scarcity to forage for themselves.
+The robbers, in fact, had been obliged to defend themselves against being
+robbed, and Britain had had in consequence a quiet time. But the people
+used it to quarrel among themselves. There were scores of chiefs who had
+each his pedigree, by which he traced his lineage to some king of the
+pre-Roman days, and which gave him, he fancied, a title to rule over his
+neighbours. And besides these personal jealousies, there was a great
+division which split the nation into two hostile factions. There were
+Britons, who held to Roman ways, and among them, to the religion which
+Rome had given, and there were Britons who looked back to the old
+independent days, and to the faith which their fore-fathers had held long
+before the name of Christ had been heard out of or in the land of His
+birth. The former party was by far the more numerous, but its adherents
+were those who had suffered most by Britain's four centuries of servitude;
+in the latter the virtues of freedom had been kept alive by a carefully
+cherished tradition. They were few in number; but they were vigorous and
+enthusiastic, even fanatical. It was clear that this strife within would
+cause at least as much trouble as would come from enemies without.
+
+It was about seven months after the Count's departure when Carna paid one
+of her customary visits to the villa. She had been unusually busy for
+three or four weeks previously, and had not found time to come. As she
+passed through the garden, on her way to the house, she noticed that the
+place looked somewhat neater and less neglected than usual. This, however,
+did not surprise her, as she had gently remonstrated with the old keeper
+for doing so little, and, in her usual kindly way, had followed up her
+reproof with a little present. Accordingly she passed on without thinking
+more of the matter to the little sitting-room which she had once shared
+with �lia, and prepared to spend an hour of quiet enjoyment with a book.
+Her books, indeed, she kept for these visits to the villa. Not only was
+her time elsewhere closely occupied, but her hostess, kindly and
+affectionate as she generally was, could not conceal her dislike of the
+volumes which Carna loved so dearly.
+
+In the midst of her reading she was startled by the unaccustomed sound of
+footsteps. She lifted her eyes from the page and saw a sight so unexpected
+that for a few moments she could not collect her thoughts or believe her
+eyes.
+
+The British chief Martianus stood before her.
+
+She had seen him last at the Great Temple, and the recollections of those
+days and nights of horror, her capture, her hurried journey, and the
+interrupted sacrifice, crowded upon her, and almost overpowered her. Nor
+could she help giving one thought to the question--if this man's presence
+recalls such horrors in the past, what does it not mean for the future?
+Still, the courage which had supported her so bravely before did not fail
+her now. She rose from her seat and calmly faced the intruder, while she
+waited for him to speak.
+
+Martianus began in a tone of the deepest respect. "Lady, I am truly glad
+that you condescend to honour this poor house of mine with your presence."
+
+"This house of yours!" repeated the girl, with astonishment.
+
+"Lady, doubtless you do not know that this villa was built by its former
+owner on land which belonged to my family, and which was taken from them
+by force. I do not speak of the Count--he was too honourable a man to do
+anything of the kind--I speak of the former owner, or so-called owner, from
+whom he purchased it. In the Count's time I said nothing of my claim. I
+would not have troubled him for the world. But now that he has gone, and
+practically given up the place, I am justified, I think, in asserting my
+ownership."
+
+"I know nothing of these matters," said Carna, coldly, "but I will take
+care not to intrude again."
+
+"Intrusion!" said the chief. "Did I not say that there is no one who would
+be more welcome here? We were friends once, in the good Count's time; why
+should we not be so again? and more," he added in a whisper.
+
+"Friends with you! Surely that is impossible. You cannot wish it yourself,
+after what has happened. You seem to forget."
+
+"Lady, Carna--I used to call you Carna when you were a child--I do try to
+forget that dreadful night. I was overborne by those double-dyed villains,
+Carausius and Ambiorix. Believe me, it was against my will that I took any
+part in that dreadful business. And you will remember I never lifted a
+hand against you, no, nor against that base champion of yours. You will do
+me that justice. Carausius, thank Heaven! has got his deserts, and I have
+broken with Ambiorix."
+
+  [Illustration: Carna and Martianus.]
+
+Carna remained silent.
+
+Martianus resolved to try another appeal, and, presuming that the girl's
+recollections of the scene might be confused by fear, did not scruple to
+depart considerably from the truth.
+
+"I implore you to believe that I could not have allowed that horrible deed
+to be accomplished. If that base fellow who had the privilege of saving
+you had not appeared, I was ready myself to interfere. I know that I ought
+to have done so before; it has been a ceaseless regret to me that I did
+not. But I wanted to keep on terms with those two, and I held back till
+the last moment. Forgive me my irresolution, Carna, but do not believe
+that I could have been one of the murderers."
+
+The girl's recollections of the scene, which were quite free from the
+confusion which Martianus had imagined, did not agree with this account of
+his behaviour, but she did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+
+"Let it be as you will," she said, with a cold dignity, "but you can
+imagine that these recollections are not pleasing to me. And now I will
+bid you farewell."
+
+She stepped forward as she spoke with the intention of at once leaving the
+room, but Martianus barred the way. Dropping on one knee, he caught her
+hand. For a moment Carna, who had still something of the child in her,
+felt a strong impulse to use the hand that was still free in dealing him a
+vigorous blow. But her womanly dignity prevailed: she only wrenched her
+hand away with something like violence. There was something in the foppish
+appearance and insincere manner of Martianus that set her more decidedly
+against him than even the recollection of the plot in which he had been
+concerned.
+
+"I will listen to what you have to say, but do not touch me."
+
+"You give me little encouragement," Martianus began, "but still I will
+speak. I say nothing about myself, only about my country--your country and
+mine. I know how you love it. We have all heard what sacrifices you have
+made for it, how you gave up home and friends sooner than leave it. Make,
+if I must put it so, one sacrifice more. You are the heiress of the great
+Caradoc, the noblest king that Britain ever had, whom even the Romans were
+compelled to admire. I can reckon among my ancestors Cunobelin. Apart our
+claims might be disputed; together they will make a title which no one can
+dispute to the crown of Britain. Yes, Carna, it is nothing less than
+that--the crown of Britain that is in question."
+
+"A crown does not tempt me," said Carna, looking the speaker straight in
+the face.
+
+"Ah! it is not that," replied the suitor; "you mistake me. I never dreamed
+of tempting you. I know only too well that it would be impossible. But
+think what a British crown really means. It means a united Britain, strong
+against the Picts, strong against the Saxons; and without it--think what
+that would mean. Every tribe--for we should split up into tribes again--for
+itself; every chief working for his own hand; the Picts plundering the
+inland, the Saxons harrying the coast. Oh, Carna! as you love your
+country--I don't speak of myself, though that, too, might come in time, if
+a man's devotion is of any avail--but if you love your country, do not say
+no."
+
+It was a powerful appeal, and touched Carna's heart at the point where it
+was most accessible. And she was so candid and transparent a soul that
+what she felt in her heart she soon showed in her face.
+
+Martianus saw his advantage, but, happily for Carna, did not press it as
+he might have done. The fact was that he was so conscious of his own
+insincerity and falsehood that his courage failed him, and he dared not
+press his suit any further. Had he gone on, he might have entangled the
+girl in a promise which her feeling for truth would not have permitted her
+to break, which would have made her even shut her eyes to the truth. As it
+was, he thought it his best policy to rest content with the progress that
+he had made. He raised Carna's hand respectfully to his lips, and, with a
+low salutation, opened the door.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                                 A RIVAL.
+
+
+It was a fact that Martianus had taken possession of the villa in the
+island, on the strength of a claim which was far less definite than he had
+chosen to represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming, and the
+place was important in the minds of the British population as having been
+the dwelling of the last representative of Roman power. The new occupant
+might seem to have succeeded to the position of the one who had lately
+quitted it. It flattered the man's vanity, too, to put himself in the
+place, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the Shore, while he could use
+the appliances of the villa, which were comfortable and even luxurious, to
+gratify his taste for what he called the pleasures of civilized life. His
+establishment would probably have failed to satisfy the fastidious taste
+of a Roman gentleman; the cooking was barbarous, and the service generally
+rude. Still there was a certain imitation, which imposed at least upon the
+ignorant, of Roman refinement, and Martianus flattered himself that he was
+at least a passable successor of Count �lius.
+
+Meanwhile he pursued his suit to Carna with a good deal of craft. He was a
+diligent attendant at the village church, and professed to feel such an
+interest in the teaching of the old priest that the ministrations in
+church must be supplemented by conversations at home. To Carna he said
+little or nothing about his personal claims, but he was eloquent on the
+subject of the future of Britain. About this she was never tired of
+hearing, and in hearing him speak of it, which he did with a certain
+eloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality began to grow fainter
+in her mind. The maiden faith which "glorifies clown and satyr" began to
+make this schemer, who indeed was not without ability and accomplishments,
+look like a genuine patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they were
+simply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity of praising him to
+their young kinswoman. On the whole, his suit made some progress. It was
+only when he seemed to put forward any personal claim, or ventured to
+address to Carna any personal compliments, that she decidedly shrank from
+him. He was quite shrewd enough to see this, and though it was a very
+unpleasant experience for his vanity as well as for his love, he did not
+fail to guide his conduct by it. As long as he talked about Britain, its
+wrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he was sure of a
+favourable hearing.
+
+Martianus had other things to think of besides his suit to Carna. As he
+said, he had broken entirely with Ambiorix. He had found that the strength
+of the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated, and that in fact the
+time for its revival had gone by for ever. Any chance, too, of even
+temporary success that it might have had had been lost with the life of
+Carausius. The priest had held many threads of secret intrigue in his
+hands, and there was no one to take them up, when they dropped from his
+hand. And Ambiorix, besides being worth but little as an ally, had wanted
+too much, for he was not of a temper to be satisfied with the second
+place.
+
+Still Martianus was well aware that his rival would have to be reckoned
+with sooner or later. If he could induce Carna to become his wife, and
+thus unite her family claim to his own, this reckoning might be got
+through with care and success. If he had to rely upon himself the chances
+would be decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which he found himself
+was this. On the one hand, to hasten his suit might be to ruin it
+altogether; Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something more
+substantial than his own assertion of his pretensions. On the other hand,
+there was the danger of being attacked and crushed before he could make
+his appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a man of even desperate
+courage, and would not suffer himself to be effaced without a struggle.
+
+Martianus did his best to guard himself against this danger. He
+strengthened the fortifications which the Count had made round the villa,
+laid up a store of provisions which might be sufficient for a prolonged
+siege, and used all his resources--he was one of the richest men in
+Britain--to get together as large and effective a garrison as possible.
+
+These precautions were not taken a day too soon. About the beginning of
+June he received intelligence from his agents on the mainland that
+Ambiorix was preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with the news to
+the priest's house.
+
+"You know," he said, "that my house has always been at your disposal, but,
+much as I should have liked to receive you as my guests, I would not press
+the invitation upon you. But now, in the face of what I have just heard,
+your coming is a necessity. Ambiorix and his followers are almost on the
+way to attack us, and there is no place of safety but the villa."
+
+The proposition was most distasteful to Carna, who shuddered at the
+thought of entering her old home in such society. At first she was
+disposed to be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus was not
+incapable of exaggerating, and even of inventing, when he had an object to
+serve. Compelled, by the proofs which the chief advanced, to acknowledge
+that the danger was real, she took refuge in the argument that "it did not
+concern them."
+
+"We are too insignificant to be harmed," she said.
+
+"Pardon me, Carna," replied Martianus. "You surely know better than that
+about yourself. And if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on your
+own account, think of your host. There is nothing that Ambiorix hates with
+so deadly a hatred as a Christian priest."
+
+The old priest, a worthy man, but not of the stuff of which martyrs are
+made, was terribly alarmed at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled to
+acknowledge that this fear was not without reason, and reluctantly
+consented to the removal. Her mind once made up, she found abundance of
+occupation in making it as little grievous to others as might be. The
+villa could not hold any great number of inmates in addition to the
+garrison, and of course it was necessary that the number of non-combatants
+should be as small as possible. Some of the inhabitants of the settlement
+could, of course, remain safely in their homes. They had little or nothing
+to be robbed of, and the expected assailants had no other reason for
+harming them. But many households had to be broken up, and as only very
+few could be received at the villa, there were many painful scenes to be
+gone through, and Carna was unceasingly busy giving all the comfort and
+help that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly in temper, put all
+his resources at her disposal, and his readiness to assist put him higher
+in her favour than he had ever been before.
+
+Nor was she sorry that she had found shelter within the fortifications of
+the villa when the next morning revealed the presence of the invaders.
+They had come across in the night to the number of several hundreds, and
+could be seen from the windows of the villa. And a very singular sight
+they were. A spectator might have imagined himself to have been carried
+back more than four centuries and a half, and to be looking on the hosts
+which had gathered to oppose the landing of the first C�sar. These
+warriors who came up shouting to the palisade which formed the outer
+defence of the villa seemed to be absolute barbarians; no one could have
+believed that for many generations they had been subjects of a civilized
+power. They had, in fact, deliberately thrown off all the signs of that
+subjection. It was the dream of Ambiorix to have Britain such as she might
+have been had Rome never conquered her. It was a hopeless attempt, this
+rolling back the course of time by four centuries, but in such matters as
+dress and equipment something could be done. Accordingly, his troops were
+such as the troops of Cassibelan might have been had they suddenly risen
+from their graves. Most of them were naked to the waist; what clothing
+they had was chiefly of skins, though some wore gaily-coloured trews. All
+wore their hair falling over their shoulders, and long, drooping
+moustaches, but no beard or whisker. All the exposed parts of their bodies
+were dyed a deep indigo-blue, by the application of woad. Ambiorix had
+been very anxious to revive the chariots of his ancestors, but had been
+compelled to give up the idea. In any case he could not have transported
+them to the island. He had been at great pains to instruct them in the
+genuine British war-cries, as far as tradition had preserved them. Here,
+again, the result had been somewhat disappointing. There were things which
+they had learnt from Rome which they could not put off as easily as their
+dress; and the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged as they
+surged up to the defences were a curious mixture of the British and Latin
+tongues.
+
+The battle at first went decidedly against the assailants. The Count had
+left behind him a catapult among other effects which he had not thought it
+worth while to remove; and Martianus, who had practised some of the
+garrison in the use of it, brought it into play with considerable effect.
+The very first discharge killed one of the lesser chiefs, and a little
+later in the day Ambiorix himself was badly bruised by one of the stones
+propelled from it. Meanwhile the defenders escaped almost wholly without
+injury. There was no need for them to leave the shelter of the buildings.
+As long as they kept within this the bows and slings of the enemy failed
+to harm them. One or two rash young recruits exposed themselves
+unnecessarily, and were wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, about
+an hour before sunset, called off his men, the garrison found that the
+casualties had been very slight and few.
+
+During the night the besiegers were not idle. They constructed a
+mantelet(61) of wicker work covered with stout hides, and brought it out
+close to the palisade--an operation which the besieged, with a culpable
+carelessness, allowed them to do unmolested. From under cover of this they
+plied long poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for Ambiorix was
+not so obstinate a conservative as to go back to the axe of bronze), and
+hacked away at the palisade. The catapult produced no effect on this
+erection, and though arrows, discharged almost perpendicularly into the
+air so as to fall just on the other side of it, inflicted some injury, the
+work went on without interruption. Martianus, seeing this, headed a sally
+in person, and, after a sharp struggle, succeeded in possessing himself of
+it. The wicker work was broken in pieces, and the hides carried off within
+the line of defences.
+
+The next three days passed without incident, and the inmates of the villa
+began to hope that the danger had passed over. In reality, however, the
+besiegers were collecting materials for the construction of another
+mantelet on a much larger scale. As much of this as was possible was put
+together out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the fourth day
+an erection of considerable size could be seen about fifty yards from the
+palisade. It soon became evident that the new plan of the assailants was
+to try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped round with tow, and, when
+this had been lighted, were discharged into the enclosure. Some mischief
+was done, not so much to the buildings, for it was not difficult to put
+out the fire if the arrows happened to fall on an inflammable place, but
+to the garrison. The men who had to extinguish the flames could not avoid
+exposing themselves, and those who exposed themselves were frequently hit
+by the slingers and archers. On the whole, however, little progress was
+made, and when, in the course of the evening, a heavy rain came on, and
+the wind, which had hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died away,
+the discharge ceased.
+
+It was now necessary for Ambiorix to bring matters to a crisis. His
+followers had nearly exhausted the store of provisions which they had
+brought with them, and, as he was unwilling to alienate the inhabitants of
+the island by resorting to plunder, he did not see how he could replenish
+it. Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct assault, and this he
+did in the early dawn of the sixth day after his arrival. Under cover of a
+heavy mist which rolled in from the sea, and helped by the neglect of the
+sentinels, who, never very watchful, had relaxed their care altogether
+when the light became visible, he brought his men close up to the palisade
+at the spot where an opening had been left, closed with a strong gate. For
+a few minutes, such was the supineness of the garrison, the assailants
+were allowed to batter and hew at this undisturbed. When some of the
+defenders had been rallied to the spot, the work was more than half done.
+Ambiorix, who was now entirely recovered from the injury received on the
+first day of the siege, plied his axe with extraordinary energy, and his
+immediate followers, whom he had carefully selected for their courage and
+strength, followed his example. By the time Martianus arrived on the scene
+the gate had been broken down, and the assailants were pouring into the
+enclosure.
+
+The garrison, who were outnumbered in the proportion of nearly three to
+one, were at once ordered to fall back into the quadrangle of the villa.
+They formed a line across the open side where they were covered by the
+archers and slingers posted on the roofs of the various buildings. Here a
+long and fierce struggle ensued. The defenders had some advantage in their
+position, and were better drilled and disciplined; the assailants, on the
+other hand, had the courage of fanaticism. When an hour had passed, and
+the combatants, by mutual consent, paused to take breath, both sides had
+lost many in killed and wounded, but neither had gained any considerable
+advantage.
+
+Carna meanwhile had been busy ministering to the needs of the wounded, and
+was scarcely aware of the true position of affairs, the room in which she
+was at work not commanding a view of the space in which the struggle was
+going on. Chancing, however, to leave it for a moment in search of
+something which she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken place. In
+a moment her resolution was taken. During the siege her thoughts had been
+taken up, not with the danger to herself and the other inmates of the
+villa, but with the terrible fact that Britons were fighting against
+Britons. Long before she would have attempted to put an end to their cruel
+strife, if she had seen any hope of success. She would not have hesitated
+risking her life in the attempt. Indeed she had proposed to Martianus that
+she should go with a party bearing a flag of truce, and seek an interview
+with the hostile commander. He had met her with a courteous and peremptory
+refusal, and she had been compelled to acquiesce. But now it seemed to her
+that her chance was come. Taking advantage of the pause in the struggle,
+she ran between the combatants, and threw herself on her knees with her
+face towards the assailants.
+
+A murmur of astonishment and admiration ran through both the ranks. She
+seemed to be a visitor from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and,
+at the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.
+
+"Britons, brothers," she cried, in a sweet but penetrating voice, which
+made itself heard through the throng, "what is this? Britons, brothers,
+have you forgotten what you are? Your masters have left you. You carry
+arms which have been forbidden to you for more than four hundred years,
+and must you first use them against your own countrymen? Have you no
+enemies abroad that you must look for them at home?"
+
+A shriek of terror, followed by a wild war cry, which, though strange to
+many of the crowd, was only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast,
+gave a fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from without were there.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                          AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.
+
+
+Cedric, after making good his escape from the villa, as has been related,
+had nearly died of hunger on the shore to which he had managed to make his
+way. When he was almost at his last gasp, a Saxon galley had touched at
+the very spot to supply itself with water. Fortunately for him it was
+commanded by a kinsman of his own, who persuaded the crew--the Saxon
+adventurers had to be dealt with by persuasion rather than by command--to
+return home with their passenger. This probably saved his life; his
+mother, a skilful leech, whose fame was spread abroad among the dwellers
+on the coast, nursed him back into health. Still he had suffered long and
+much; and it was not till the summer was far advanced that he was allowed
+to join an expedition. His noble birth, his reputation for strength and
+courage, not a little enhanced, of course, by his late escape, and the
+personal fascination that he exercised on all about him, pointed him out,
+young as he was, for command.
+
+Carna had been unceasingly in his thoughts since the day when he had last
+seen her. During the delirium of his illness her name had been continually
+on his lips, and one of the earliest confidences of his recovery was the
+story of his love for this Christian maiden of the west. His mother was
+touched by the story. The girl's passionate desire for the welfare of the
+son that was dead (which she appreciated without comprehending its
+motive), and the very heroism which the son that was living had shown in
+defending her, combined to move her heart. That any living woman could
+resist the attraction of such a champion as her son, she did not believe
+for a moment, in spite of all that Cedric could say about the height of
+saintliness on which Carna stood; and by degrees the young chief himself
+found his worshipping devotion mingled with hopes that were very sweet to
+his heart.
+
+It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as he was at sea, and the
+destination of their voyage became a question, his thoughts at once turned
+to the island. Approaching it with caution, for he was too good a leader
+to risk an encounter with the superior force of the Roman squadron, he
+learnt with surprise that the Count had departed. Of Carna his informant,
+a fisherman who found it answer his purpose to give what information he
+could to the Saxons, could tell him nothing, and Cedric naturally supposed
+that she had gone with the family into which she had been adopted. The
+news struck a strange chill into his heart, but at the same time it
+relieved him of considerable perplexity. His course was now clear; if the
+Romans were gone there was nothing to be feared. He knew the approaches to
+the villa, and how weak were its defences, and he felt sure that a British
+garrison would not be a match for his own vigorous Saxons.
+
+He reached the island two days after the landing of Ambiorix. Acting as
+his own spy on the strength of his knowledge of the country, he soon found
+out the position of affairs, and thought that he could not do better than
+wait to see how things would turn out. The galleys--Cedric had two under
+his command--lay in hiding at some little distance from the Haven, and
+meanwhile every detail of the struggle was watched, unknown to the
+combatants, by scouts who carried news of its progress to their chief. The
+gathering of the troops previous to the attack on the fortifications had
+been observed and rightly understood by these men. Cedric had been at once
+informed of what was in progress, had landed his crews, amounting in all
+to about two hundred, and marched with all the speed that was possible to
+the scene of action. As the news had reached him not long after midnight
+he was able to reach the spot very soon after the attack had commenced.
+
+The battle-cry of the Saxons, terrible to those who knew it, scarcely less
+terrible, with its shrillness and fierceness, to those to whom it was
+strange, arrested the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the
+rear of the attacking party. There could be seen, running swiftly up the
+ascent which led to the palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge
+standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which was wrought in black
+the raven of Odin. Behind him came, in a loose order which served to
+conceal their scanty number, Cedric's warriors, a sturdy race, whose tall
+stature was made to seem almost gigantic by the height to which their hair
+was dressed. They were formidable foes, but still there were brave men in
+both the British parties who would have had the courage to stand up
+against them. Unhappily one of the panics which defy all reason and all
+individual courage began among the inland Britons at the sight of these
+strange enemies; and, once begun, it could not be checked. Ambiorix,
+indeed, with a few of his immediate followers, faced the enemy, but was
+quickly swept away by the rush of their onset. Martianus, with some of the
+garrison, carrying Carna along with him, took refuge in the villa, and
+hastily secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country, or hid
+themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was there any thought of
+resistance, and the Saxons won their victory almost without losing a drop
+of blood.
+
+Cedric's eyes, sharpened as they were by love, had caught a glimpse of
+Carna, as she was swept in the throng of fugitives within the doors of the
+villa, and he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence of the place
+against assailants so determined would have been hopeless, even had the
+garrison been as resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and demoralized. A
+few sturdy blows from Cedric's battle-axe brought the principal door to
+the ground, and he rushed across the fragments into the hall, followed by
+some ten of his attendants. The rest he had signed to remain without.
+Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all the tumult, was surrounded by a
+group of terrified men and women, stood facing him. The crimson mounted to
+her forehead as she met his eyes, for she saw, as no woman could fail to
+see, the love that was in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.
+
+"Spare these poor creatures," she said, pointing to her terrified
+companions.
+
+"Your lives are safe," said Cedric in British. "Go with this man," and he
+pointed to one of his attendants, to whom at the same time he gave some
+brief directions. He turned to Carna: "Lady," he said, "this is no time
+for many words; and I could not say them if it were, for my tongue is
+ill-taught in your language. But you cannot have failed to see my heart.
+It is yours, and all that I have. Come and be a queen in my home and among
+my people."
+
+The girl's eyes, which she had turned to the ground at his first address,
+were now lifted to meet his gaze. "I cannot leave my people," she said.
+
+"Yet," he answered, "the good women of whom you used to tell me, whose
+lives are written in that holy book of yours, left their own people to
+follow their husbands."
+
+"Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they followed was the God whom they
+worshipped in their own homes. You worship strange gods, with whom I can
+have no fellowship."
+
+"Come with me and teach the truth to my people and me," cried the young
+man, feeling that there was nothing which he would not do to win this
+bright, brave, beautiful maiden.
+
+"Listen, Cedric," she answered--it was the first time that she had called
+him by his name, and he thought that he had never known before what a name
+it was--"You told me some time since that you would sooner go into the
+everlasting darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom
+you believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve; and
+I have honoured you for it. Will you give it up for the love of a woman?
+If you did, I could honour you no more, and you are too good to have a
+wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I will pray for you. Perhaps God
+will hear me, and give you light, and bring us together to the blessed
+Christ, but it cannot be here."
+
+She caught his right hand which he had reached out in the earnestness of
+his speaking, and lifted it to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression
+of her gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it of a woman's love.
+But she never faltered for one instant in the resolve that was to separate
+them.
+
+Behind Cedric stood a burly, middle-aged warrior, his father's
+foster-brother. He had watched the scene with an intense interest, and
+though of course he could not understand what was said, had a very shrewd
+notion of the turn which affairs were taking. Perhaps he saw, too,
+expressed in the girl's tone something of a feeling which the young man
+was too rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was ill-content that
+his young chief should miss the bride on whom his heart was set, and who
+seemed so worthy of him.
+
+"A noble maiden!" he whispered to Cedric, "and fit to be the wife and
+mother of kings; and I think that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I
+warrant that it will not be long before she forgives us."
+
+"Peace!" said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him, "Peace! Would you have me
+wed a slave? My wife must come to me freely, or come not at all."
+
+He spoke to Carna again. "Your will is my law. If you say that we must
+part, I go. But, lady, you must leave this house. My people are set upon
+burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I would."
+
+Without another word, she obeyed his bidding, and passed into the court,
+followed by Cedric and his attendants.
+
+Meanwhile some of the Saxon crews had been busy with their torches, and
+the flames were beginning to gain a mastery over the building. Before many
+minutes had passed the sheds and outbuildings, which were, to a great
+extent, constructed of wood, were in a blaze, while dense volumes of smoke
+rolled out of the windows of the villa itself. Carna stood spellbound by
+the sight, at once so terrible and so grand. The spectacle of a burning
+house exercises a curious fascination even on those for whom it means loss
+and disaster, and Carna, even in that supreme crisis of her life, could
+not help gazing at the conflagration, and even admiring unconsciously the
+splendid contrasts of light and darkness which it produced.
+
+It seemed as if that day was about to sweep away all her past. She had
+torn from her heart her half-acknowledged love; she saw the home of her
+childhood and youth vanishing into smoke and ashes; and now another actor
+in the bygone of her life was to disappear for ever.
+
+Martianus had observed the scene from the chamber in which he had taken
+refuge, and had misunderstood it. He fancied that the girl, whom, though
+no formal betrothal had bound her to him, he regarded as his own, was
+going of her own accord with this Saxon robber, in whom, of course, he
+recognized the champion who had saved her life at the Great Temple. The
+thought stung him to madness. With all his foppery and frivolity, he had
+the courage of his race. He might probably have escaped unnoticed from the
+burning building. But, disdaining flight, he rushed at Cedric, heedless of
+the odds which he was challenging.
+
+The chief's followers, knowing their master's temper, stood aside to let
+the conflict be decided without their interference. It was fierce, but it
+was brief. Martianus was a skilled swordsman, but a life of indolence, if
+not of excess, had slackened his sinews and unsteadied his nerves. He
+parried some of his antagonist's blows with sufficient adroitness, but his
+defence grew weaker and weaker, and he could not save himself from one or
+two severe wounds. Giving way before the fierce, unremitting attack of his
+antagonist, he came without knowing it to the edge of the well, stumbled
+over the raised parapet that surrounded it, and fell headlong into its
+depths.(62)
+
+The sight of the conflict had diverted Carna's attention from the burning
+house. She did not wait to see its issue, but at once quitted the
+precincts of the villa. Some of the survivors of the garrison, the old
+priest and his wife, and the rest of the non-combatants, followed her. Not
+only did they feel that it was she who had saved them from the swords of
+the Saxons, but they recognized in her calmness and courage the qualities
+of a true leader, and were sure that they could not do better than follow
+her guidance. Her own plans had been formed for some time. She saw that
+the strength of Britain was in the great cities. If the country,
+disorganized as it was, was to be made capable again of order and
+self-defence, the impulse must come from them, the centres of its civil
+and religious life. Londinium, where the Count's name was well-known and
+respected, and where she had some connections of her own, was her
+destination. There she hoped to be able to do something for her people.
+
+The first step was to leave the neighbourhood of the villa, and with the
+helpless companions who now, she saw, looked to her for guidance, to make
+her way to the north of the island, and from thence to the mainland.
+Making a short pause till the stragglers had come up, she addressed a few
+words of counsel and comfort to the fugitives.
+
+"Dear friends," she said, "God has delivered us from the hands of the
+heathen, and will bring us safe to the haven where we would be. But this
+is no place for us. We will go to where we may serve Him in peace and
+quietness."
+
+Her clear, firm tones, which seemed inspired with all the confidence of an
+unfaltering faith, seemed to breathe in their turn new courage into the
+terrified crowd. They received them with a murmur of assent, and without
+an expression of fear or doubt, followed her as she led the way to the
+summit of the neighbouring downs.
+
+Arrived at this spot, she paused and turned, as if to take a last look at
+the scenes in which her past life had been spent. The landscape lay calm
+and smiling about her. Every feature in it was familiar to her eyes; there
+was not one with which she had not some happy association. But now the
+sight had lost its power; her soul was occupied with more profound
+emotions. The home of her childhood lay beneath her feet, a blackened
+ruin; and there, upon the sea, could be seen flashing in the sunlight the
+oars of the Saxons' departing galleys.
+
+It was a contrast full of significance, and the girl, in whose pure and
+enthusiastic soul there seemed to be something of a prophetic power,
+caught some of its meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days of
+the Roman domination. It had had its uses, it had done its work, but it
+had become corrupt and feeble, and it was passing away for ever. And the
+future was there, symbolized in the Saxon ships that, brightened by the
+sunshine, were speeding their way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous
+and hopeful life, across the waters. That was the new power that was to
+shake this worn-out civilization, and raise in the course of the ages a
+fair fabric of its own.
+
+For the moment the present, with all its misery and desolation, mastered
+the girl's spirit with an overpowering sense of loss. Thoughts of her
+ruined home, her helpless country, and her own personal loss, though
+almost unacknowledged to herself, in the final parting with the young hero
+of her life, came upon her with a force which broke down all her
+fortitude. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+Then her fortitude and her conscience reasserted themselves. "Courage, my
+friends," she cried, "God hath not deserted us, nor our dear country. We
+have sinned much, and we shall have much to bear. But He has chosen this
+land for a great work, and He will make all things work together for good
+till He has accomplished it." She was silent for a few moments. When she
+began to speak again, some mighty inspiration seemed to carry her beyond
+the present and out of herself. "Yes," she cried, "God hath great things
+in store for this dear country of ours. I see a great blackness of
+darkness. From many houses, great and fair, where the rulers of the land
+lived delicately, shall go up to heaven the smoke of a great burning, and
+the fields shall be untilled and desolate, and the rivers shall run red
+with blood. But beyond the darkness I see a light, and the light shines
+upon a land that is fair as the garden of the Lord; and therein I behold
+great cities thronged with men, and in the midst of them stately houses of
+God, such as have never yet been built by skill of human hand. And the
+people that work and worship there are not of our race, nor yet wholly
+strange. For the Lord shall make to Himself a people from out of them that
+know Him not, even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull down His
+Church shall build it again, and they shall carry His name to many lands,
+for the sea shall be covered with their ships; and they shall rule over
+the nations from the one end of heaven to the other."
+
+  [Illustration: Carna on the Hillside.]
+
+She sank upon her knees, and remained wrapt in prayer, while the crowd
+stood round and watched her with awe-stricken faces. When she rose again
+to her feet she was calm. Resolutely she set her face from the scene of
+her past life, and went her way to meet the future that lay before her.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                                 AT LAST.
+
+
+It was nearly sunset on the second day of the great battle of Badon
+Hill.(63) The long, desperate fight was over, and the great British
+champion had turned back for a time the tide of Saxon invasion. The
+heathen dead lay, rank by rank, as they had fallen, every man in his
+place, in the great wedge-like formation which had resisted all the
+efforts of the Britons during the first day of the struggle, and had been
+with difficulty broken through on the second.
+
+The King was sitting amidst a circle of his knights on the top of the
+hill, resting from his toils. His cross-hilted sword stood fixed in the
+ground before him. On one side lay his helmet, bearing for its crest a
+dragon wrought in gold; on the other, his shield, on which was blazoned
+the figure of the Virgin.
+
+A priest approached, walking in front of a party of four who were carrying
+a litter, and who, at a sign from their leader, set it down before the
+King.
+
+"My lord," said the priest, "I was traversing the field to see whether I
+could serve any of the wounded with my ministrations, when word was
+brought to me that a Saxon desired to talk with me. He could speak the
+British tongue, it was told me, a thing almost unheard of among these
+barbarians. I did not delay to visit the man, and finding that he desired
+above all things to speak to your lordship, I took it upon myself to order
+that he should be brought."
+
+The wounded man raised himself with some difficulty, and by the help of
+one of the bearers, into a sitting posture. He was of almost gigantic
+proportions, and though his hair and beard were white as snow, showed
+little of the waste and emaciation of age.
+
+One of the King's knights recognized him at once.
+
+"I noted him," said he, "for a long time during the battle. He was in the
+front rank, and stood close to a young chief, whose guardian he seemed to
+be. I observed that he was content to ward off blows that were aimed at
+the young man, but never dealt any himself. What came to him and his
+charge afterwards I do not know, for the tide of battle carried me away."
+
+"What do you want?" said the King.
+
+"My lord King," said the old man, speaking British fluently, though with a
+foreign accent, "the knight speaks true. Neither to-day, nor yesterday,
+nor indeed through all the years during which my people have fought with
+yours, have I stained my hands with British blood. Indeed for forty years
+I have not set foot on this island. But this year I was constrained to
+come, for the young Prince of my people, Logrin by name, was with the
+army, and his father had given him into my charge, and I could not leave
+him. All day, therefore, I stood by him, and warded off the blows with
+such strength and skill as I had, and when his death hour came, for he
+fell on the morning of the second day, I cared no more for my own life. So
+much I say that you may listen to me the more willingly, though report
+says of you that you are generous, not to friends only, but also to foes.
+But I have something to say that is of more moment. Many years ago I was a
+prisoner in this land, having been taken by one of the ships of Count
+�lius. Many things happened to me during my sojourn here of which it does
+not concern me to speak, except of this. There was in the household of the
+Count a maiden, his daughter by adoption, but of British birth, Carna by
+name. She was very anxious to bring me to faith in her Master, Christ; and
+I was no little moved by her words, and still more by the example of her
+goodness. But I loved her, and this love seemed to hinder me, for how
+could I tell whether it were truth itself or the love that was persuading
+me? And would not he be the basest of men who for love of a woman should
+leave the faith of his fathers? So I remained, though it was half against
+my own mind, in my unbelief, and when she would not take me for her
+husband, being unbaptized, we parted, and I saw her no more. But her
+words, and the memory of her, have dwelt with me unceasingly, and now that
+God has brought me back to this land, I desire to have that which once I
+refused. But tell me, my lord King, have you any knowledge of this lady
+Carna?"
+
+"Yes," said the King, "I know her well, and by the ordering of God, as I
+do not doubt, she is in this very place this day, for she gives her whole
+time to ministering to such as are in trouble or sorrow. She shall be sent
+for forthwith, and the archbishop also, who will, if he thinks fit,
+administer to you the holy rite of baptism."
+
+Cedric, for as my readers will have guessed it was he, bowed his head in
+assent, and after swallowing a cordial which the King's physician put to
+his lips, sank back upon the litter.
+
+In about half an hour Carna appeared. She was dressed in the garb of a
+religious house, for she had taken the vows, and she was followed by a
+small company of holy women who, like her, had devoted their lives to the
+service of their poor and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Time
+had dealt gently with her, as he often does with gentle souls. The glossy
+chestnut hair of the past was changed indeed to a silvery white, and her
+face was wasted with fast and vigil; but her complexion was clear and
+delicate as of old, and her eyes as lustrous and deep.
+
+When she saw and recognized the wounded man--for she did recognize him at
+once--a sweet and tender smile came over her face. Her gift of intuition
+seemed to tell her that her prayers were answered, and that the soul for
+which her supplications had gone up day by day, from youth to age, had
+been given to her.
+
+"Carna," said the dying man, "God has brought me back to you after many
+years, and before it is too late. Your God is my God, and your country my
+country--but not here. Once I could not own it, fearing lest my love should
+be leading me into falsehood; but all things are now made clear. But, my
+lord King," he went on, feebly turning his head to Arthur, "bid them make
+haste, for I would be baptized before I die, and my time is short."
+
+The priest had departed on another errand, and the King was perplexed. The
+physician whispered in his ear--
+
+"He has not many moments to live."
+
+"Baptize him, my lord King, yourself," said Carna; "it is lawful in case
+of need, and none can do it more fittingly."
+
+"I will willingly be his sponsor," said the knight who had first spoken,
+"for there was never braver man wielded axe or sword."
+
+The King dipped his hand in a golden cup that stood on the table by his
+chair, sprinkled the water thrice on the dying man, as he pronounced the
+solemn formula, and signed on his forehead the sign of the Cross. He then
+put the cross-shaped hilt of his sword to the lips of the newly baptized.
+Cedric devoutly kissed it. The next minute he was dead.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+          UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 A reference to the well-known salutation of the gladiators as they
+      passed the Emperor in his seat at the Public Games. "Ave C�sar
+      Imperator! Morituri te salutant." _Hail! C�sar Emperor, the doomed
+      to death salute thee._
+
+    2 Now known all over the world as Portsmouth Harbour.
+
+    3 Honorius and Arcadius, who ruled over the Western and Eastern
+      Empires respectively, were the weak sons of the vigorous Theodosius.
+
+    4 Marcus was the first of three usurpers successively saluted Emperor
+      by the legions of Britain.
+
+    5 Vespasian, appointed by Claudius in A.D. 52 to the command of the
+      second legion, had made extensive conquests in Britain adding, among
+      other places, the Isle of Wight (Vectis) to the Empire.
+
+    6 The observation of omens, or signs, supposed to indicate the future,
+      was one of the duties of a commanding officer.
+
+    7 When one of the vine-sticks used in administering corporal
+      punishment to the Roman soldiers was broken on the culprit's back,
+      he would at once call for another. A milder disciplinarian would
+      probably consider that when the stick was broken the punishment
+      might end.
+
+    8 "Decimation" was a common military punishment in cases of mutiny or
+      bad behaviour on the field of battle. Every tenth man, taken by lot,
+      was put to death.
+
+    9 It would seem that the myth which made the Empress Helena, the
+      mother of Constantine, into a British princess, had already grown
+      up. She was, in fact, the daughter of a tavern-keeper, and in no way
+      connected with Britain.
+
+   10 A _donative_ was a distribution of money made to the soldiers on
+      such occasions as the accession of an Emperor.
+
+   11 Lymne, in Kent, now some miles inward, on the edge of Romney Marsh.
+
+   12 Constantinople.
+
+   13 His capital is said to have been near the ancient Caieta and modern
+      Gaieta.
+
+   14 The "five" are, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
+      Aurelius, whose united reigns extended from 97 to 180 A.D.--a period
+      of peace and prosperity such as Rome never enjoyed again.
+
+   15 The hills that run as far as Arreton and the valley of the Medina.
+
+   16 Brading Haven.
+
+   17 The villa consisted, it will be seen, of the three parts which were
+      commonly found in establishments of this kind. These were called
+      respectively the _Urbana_, containing the rooms in which the family
+      resided, and including also the garden terraces, &c.; the _Rustica_,
+      occupied by slaves and workmen but in this case, as will be seen,
+      partly used for another purpose; and the _Fructuaria_, containing
+      cellars for wine, &c., barns, granaries, and storehouses of various
+      kinds.
+
+   18 The British bishops were notoriously poor, and their clergy were
+      doubtless still more slenderly provided for.
+
+   19 Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris.
+
+   20 Now Lyons.
+
+   21 The Elbe.
+
+   22 Probably the Channel Islands, always a dangerous place for
+      navigation.
+
+   23 Perhaps something like the early Saxon poem which we know under the
+      name of Beowulf.
+
+   24 Possibly the reason why so much buried money belonging to the later
+      days of the Roman occupation of Britain has been found.
+
+   25 Ireland. A similar incident is mentioned by Tacitus in his life of
+      Agricola. An Irish petty king, driven from his throne by internal
+      troubles, came to the Roman general and promised, if he were
+      restored, to bring the island under the dominion of Rome. This is
+      the first notice of the country that occurs in history.
+
+   26 This was exactly what had happened not many years before to St.
+      Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
+
+   27 Probably somewhere near Wexford.
+
+   28 With us tables are cleared after a meal; with the Romans they seem
+      to have been actually removed.
+
+   29 Theodosius ordered a massacre at Thessalonica on account of some
+      offence offered to him by the populace of that city.
+
+   30 Chichester.
+
+   31 Pevensey.
+
+   32 Boulogne.
+
+   33 Commonly known by his Romanized name of Caractacus.
+
+   34 Streets of Rome.
+
+   35 This river, of course, must have been the Avon.
+
+   36 Winchester.
+
+   37 Salisbury.
+
+   38 Now known as Downton, a small market town, about five miles south of
+      Salisbury.
+
+   39 A trilith consists of two upright stones with a third placed across.
+
+   40 "How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the
+      hill?"--PSALM xi. 1.
+
+   41 Commonly called Jerome.
+
+   42 John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398, at Constantinople 398-404.
+
+   43 Winchester.
+
+   44 Calleva Attrebatium, now known as Silchester, one of the most
+      perfect specimens of a Roman camp to be seen in this country.
+
+   45 Princeps Civitatis.
+
+   46 The wall of Antoninus, built to defend Northern Britain from the
+      Caledonians, and held by Roman forces till far on in the fourth
+      century.
+
+   47 Daniel iii. 19.
+
+   48 It may be as well to say a few words about Stilicho. He was the son
+      of a Vandal captain, and attracted by his skill and courage the
+      favourable notice of the Emperor Theodosius, who gave him his niece
+      Serena in marriage. His influence continued to increase, and in
+      course of time Theodosius made him and his wife guardians of his
+      young son Honorius, whom he shortly afterwards proclaimed Augustus,
+      and Emperor of the West. In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was
+      divided between his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius
+      the East. Stilicho's daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius,
+      and his influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the
+      Empire, conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates, and
+      driving back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by the
+      very terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was engaged in a
+      struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over whom he won, in the
+      year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near the modern Turin, and
+      whom he defeated again in the following year under the walls of
+      Verona. He is said to have conceived the idea of securing the Empire
+      for his own son, and for this purpose to have entered into intrigues
+      with his old enemy Alaric. However this may be, it is certain that
+      he fell into disgrace. His end is related in this chapter. The poet
+      Claudian employed himself in writing the praises of Stilicho and
+      invectives against his rivals Rufinus and Eutropius.
+
+           49 "Stilichonis apex et cognita fulsit
+        Canities."
+
+      "There shone Stilicho's towering head and well-known locks of
+      white"--a passage quoted from Claudian by D'Israeli, with exquisite
+      propriety, in his eulogium on the Duke of Wellington, in the House
+      of Commons, November, 1852.
+
+   50 In one of �sop's fables, a trumpeter, taken prisoner, begs for his
+      life, pleading that he has never struck a blow in battle; but is
+      told that he has done much worse in encouraging others to fight by
+      his martial music.
+
+   51 A tribe that occupied a region included in what is now known as
+      Russian Poland.
+
+   52 Serena was wife to Stilicho, and, as has been said before, niece to
+      the Emperor Theodosius.
+
+   53 The Imperial standard (see page 21).
+
+   54 Business to-morrow.
+
+   55 The Forest of Anderida occupied a great part of Hampshire and nearly
+      the whole of Sussex, except a strip of land along the coast. It must
+      have measured a hundred miles from east to west.
+
+   56 The Black Forest, part of which was known to the Romans.
+
+   57 July 21st.
+
+   58 This is the translation of a passage from the first book of an
+      unfinished poem by Claudian, entitled _De Raptu Proserpin�_, "The
+      Carrying off Proserpine." It is an amplification of the legend that
+      Pluto, god of the region of the dead, carried off Proserpine,
+      daughter of Ceres, to be his wife and queen, while she was gathering
+      flowers in the fields of Enna in Sicily. The passage translated
+      occurs in the first book, and describes the tapestry with which
+      Proserpine is busy, as a gift to her absent mother. The poem breaks
+      off in the third book, while relating the search which the mother
+      makes for her lost daughter.
+
+   59 This was actually done about this time, and with the result
+      foreshadowed in the conversation given above.
+
+   60 Carausius had held, towards the end of the third century, the same
+      command as that of the Count of the Saxon Shore, had rebelled
+      against the Emperor, made himself master of Britain and all the
+      Western Seas, and had then proclaimed himself Augustus. The Emperor
+      Diocletian made several attempts to reduce him, but, finding that
+      this could not be done, acknowledged him as a partner in the Empire.
+      Six years later Carausius was murdered by one of his lieutenants,
+      Allectus, who doubtless hoped thus to bring himself into favour at
+      Rome.
+
+   61 Mantelet: a shield of wood, metal, or rope, for the protection of
+      sappers, &c.
+
+   62 A skeleton has been found in the well of the Brading Villa.
+
+   63 The battle of Badon Hill, fought in 451, seems to be a well
+      authenticated historical fact. King Arthur defeated the Saxons after
+      a fierce conflict which lasted for two days. Badon Hill is near
+      Bath.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation ("countryside", "country-side"; "headquarters",
+"head-quarters") have not been changed.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page 19, "tomount" changed to "to mount"
+      page 23, quote mark added after "mishap."
+      page 33, "Lasetrygones" changed to "Laestrygones"
+      page 76, "asid" changed to "said"
+      page 79, quote mark added after "letter-carriers."
+      page 87, single quote mark changed to double quote mark after
+      "long."
+      page 111, "oga" changed to "toga"
+      page 115, quote mark added after "free."
+      page 139, quote mark added after "wanted."
+      page 156, "eemed" changed to "seemed"
+      page 157, "greal" changed to "great"
+      page 178, period added after "Sorbiodunum", comma changed to period
+      after "them"
+      page 233, quote mark added after "man."
+      page 255, "Or" changed to "On"
+      page 288, "inot" changed to "into"
+      page 297, quote mark added after "man,"
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+                                 CREDITS
+
+
+October 31, 2013
+
+            Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1
+            Produced by sp1nd, Stefan Cramme, and the Online Distributed
+            Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+            produced from images generously made available by The Internet
+            Archive)
+
+
+
+                      A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG
+
+
+This file should be named 44083-8.txt or 44083-8.zip.
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/0/8/44083/
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one -- the old editions will be
+renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
+owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
+and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
+General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
+distributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works to protect the Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
+trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
+receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
+this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given away
+-- you may do practically _anything_ with public domain eBooks.
+Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+                    THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+
+
+_Please read this before you distribute or use this work._
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
+any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Gutenberg"),
+you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+                                Section 1.
+
+
+General Terms of Use & Redistributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works
+
+
+                                   1.A.
+
+
+By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work,
+you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the
+terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright)
+agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this
+agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee
+for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work
+and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may
+obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set
+forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+
+                                   1.B.
+
+
+"Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used on or
+associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be
+bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that you can
+do with most Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works even without complying
+with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are
+a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works if you
+follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+
+                                   1.C.
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" or
+PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an individual
+work is in the public domain in the United States and you are located in
+the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying,
+distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on
+the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
+course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} mission of
+promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for
+keeping the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} name associated with the work. You can
+easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License when you
+share it without charge with others.
+
+
+                                   1.D.
+
+
+The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you
+can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant
+state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the laws of
+your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before
+downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating
+derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work.
+The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of
+any work in any country outside the United States.
+
+
+                                   1.E.
+
+
+Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+
+                                  1.E.1.
+
+
+The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access
+to, the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License must appear prominently whenever
+any copy of a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work (any work on which the phrase
+"Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Gutenberg"
+is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or
+distributed:
+
+
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
+    or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
+    included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+                                  1.E.2.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work is derived from the
+public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with
+permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and
+distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or
+charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you
+must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7
+or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.3.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work is posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply
+with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed
+by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License for all works posted with the permission of the
+copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+
+                                  1.E.4.
+
+
+Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License
+terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any
+other work associated with Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}.
+
+
+                                  1.E.5.
+
+
+Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic
+work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying
+the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with active links or immediate
+access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License.
+
+
+                                  1.E.6.
+
+
+You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed,
+marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word
+processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version posted
+on the official Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} web site (http://www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other form.
+Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License as
+specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+
+                                  1.E.7.
+
+
+Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing,
+copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works unless you comply
+with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.8.
+
+
+You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or
+distributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works provided that
+
+    - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+      the use of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works calculated using the method you
+      already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to
+      the owner of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} trademark, but he has agreed to
+      donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60
+      days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally
+      required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments
+      should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4,
+      "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+      Archive Foundation."
+
+    - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+      you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+      does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License.
+      You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the
+      works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and
+      all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works.
+
+    - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+      any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+      electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+      receipt of the work.
+
+    - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+      distribution of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works.
+
+
+                                  1.E.9.
+
+
+If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic
+work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this
+agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the owner of the
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in
+Section 3 below.
+
+
+                                   1.F.
+
+
+                                  1.F.1.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to
+identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works in creating the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} collection. Despite these
+efforts, Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works, and the medium on which they
+may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to,
+incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright
+or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk
+or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot
+be read by your equipment.
+
+
+                                  1.F.2.
+
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES -- Except for the "Right of
+Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for
+damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE
+NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH
+OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE
+FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT
+WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
+PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY
+OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.3.
+
+
+LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND -- If you discover a defect in this
+electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund
+of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to
+the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a
+physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation.
+The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect
+to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the
+work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose
+to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in
+lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a
+refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+
+                                  1.F.4.
+
+
+Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
+paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.5.
+
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the
+exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or
+limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state
+applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make
+the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state
+law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement
+shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+
+                                  1.F.6.
+
+
+INDEMNITY -- You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark
+owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and
+any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution
+of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs
+and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from
+any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of
+this or any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work, and (c) any Defect
+you cause.
+
+
+                               Section  2.
+
+
+           Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic
+works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including
+obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the
+efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks
+of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance
+they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}'s goals and ensuring
+that the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} collection will remain freely available for
+generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} and future generations. To learn more about the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations
+can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation web page at
+http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+                                Section 3.
+
+
+   Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state of
+Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service.
+The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is 64-6221541.
+Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. Contributions to the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full
+extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr.
+S. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 North
+1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact information
+can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page at
+http://www.pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+                                Section 4.
+
+
+  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                                Foundation
+
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the
+number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment
+including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are
+particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States.
+Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable
+effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these
+requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not
+received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or
+determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have
+not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition against
+accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who approach us
+with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any
+statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside the
+United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation methods
+and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways including
+checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, please
+visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+                                Section 5.
+
+
+      General Information About Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works.
+
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with
+anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} eBooks are often created from several printed editions,
+all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless a copyright
+notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance
+with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's eBook
+number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, compressed
+(zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected _editions_ of our eBooks replace the old file and take over the
+old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed.
+_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}, including how
+to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation,
+how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email
+newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+***FINIS***
+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/44083-8.zip b/44083-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06a8764
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-8.zip
diff --git a/44083-h.zip b/44083-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e776d4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h.zip
diff --git a/44083-h/44083-h.html b/44083-h/44083-h.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6baf92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/44083-h.html
@@ -0,0 +1,11685 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
+<head>
+  <meta name="generator" content=
+  "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 25 March 2009), see www.w3.org" />
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+  <link rel="schema.DC" href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" />
+  <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Alfred John Church" />
+  <meta name="DC.Title" content="The Count of the Saxon Shore" />
+  <meta name="DC.Date" content="October 31, 2013" />
+  <meta name="DC.Language" content="English" />
+  <meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Project Gutenberg" />
+  <meta name="DC.Identifier" content=
+  "http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/44083" />
+  <meta name="DC.Rights" content="This text is in the public domain." />
+
+  <title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of the Saxon Shore by
+  Alfred John Church</title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[*/
+  /* 
+  The Gnutenberg Press - default CSS2 stylesheet
+
+  Any generated element will have a class "tei" and a class "tei-elem"
+  where elem is the element name in TEI. 
+  The order of statements is important !!! 
+  */
+
+  .tei                            { margin: 0; padding: 0; 
+                                  font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal }
+
+  .block                          { display: block; }
+  .inline                         { display: inline; }
+  .floatleft                      { float: left;  margin: 1em 2em 1em 0; }
+  .floatright                     { float: right; margin: 1em 0 1em 2em; }
+  .shaded                         { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; 
+                                  padding: 1em; background-color: #eee; }
+  .boxed                          { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; 
+                                  padding: 1em; border: 1px solid black; }
+
+  body.tei                        { margin: 4ex 10%; text-align: justify }
+  div.tei                         { margin: 2em 0em }
+  p.tei                           { margin: 0em 0em 1em 0em; text-indent: 0em; }
+  blockquote.tei                  { margin: 2em 4em }
+
+  div.tei-lg                      { margin: 1em 0em; }
+  div.tei-l                       { margin: 0em; text-align: left; }
+  div.tei-tb                      { text-align: center; }
+  div.tei-epigraph                { margin: 0em 0em 1em 10em; }
+  div.tei-dateline                { margin: 1ex 0em; text-align: right }
+  div.tei-salute                  { margin: 1ex 0em; }
+  div.tei-signed                  { margin: 1ex 0em; text-align: right }
+  div.tei-byline                  { margin: 1ex 0em; }
+
+                                /* calculate from size of body = 80% */
+  div.tei-marginnote              { margin: 0em 0em 0em -12%; width: 11%; float: left; }
+
+  div.tei-sp                      { margin: 1em 0em 1em  2em }
+  div.tei-speaker                 { margin: 0em 0em 1em -2em;
+                                  font-weight: bold; text-indent: 0em }
+  div.tei-stage                   { margin: 1em 0em; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic }
+  span.tei-stage                  { font-weight: normal; font-style: italic }
+
+  div.tei-eg                      { padding: 1em; 
+                                  color: black; background-color: #eee }
+
+  hr.doublepage                   { margin: 4em 0em; height: 5px; }
+  hr.page                         { margin: 4em 0em; height: 2px; }
+
+  ul.tei-index                    { list-style-type: none }
+
+  dl.tei                          { margin: 1em 0em }
+
+  dt.tei-notelabel                { font-weight: normal; text-align: right; 
+                                  float: left; width: 3em }
+  dd.tei-notetext                 { margin: 0em 0em 1ex 4em }
+
+  span.tei-pb                     { position: absolute; left: 1%; width: 8%;
+                                  font-style: normal; }
+
+  span.code                       { font-family: monospace; font-size: 110%; }
+
+  ul.tei-castlist                 { margin: 0em; list-style-type: none }
+  li.tei-castitem                 { margin: 0em; }
+  table.tei-castgroup             { margin: 0em; }
+  ul.tei-castgroup                { margin: 0em; list-style-type: none; 
+                                  padding-right: 2em; border-right: solid black 2px; }
+  caption.tei-castgroup-head      { caption-side: right; width: 50%; text-align: left; 
+                                  vertical-align: middle; padding-left: 2em; }
+  *.tei-roledesc                  { font-style: italic }
+  *.tei-set                       { font-style: italic }
+
+  table.rules                     { border-collapse: collapse; }
+  table.rules caption,
+  table.rules th,
+  table.rules td                  { border: 1px solid black; }
+
+  table.tei                       { border-collapse: collapse; }
+  table.tei-list                  { width: 100% }
+
+  th.tei-head-table               { padding: 0.5ex 1em }
+
+  th.tei-cell                     { padding: 0em 1em }
+  td.tei-cell                     { padding: 0em 1em }
+
+  td.tei-item                     { padding: 0; font-weight: normal; 
+                                  vertical-align: top; text-align: left; }
+  th.tei-label,
+  td.tei-label                    { width: 3em; padding: 0; font-weight: normal; 
+                                  vertical-align: top; text-align: right; }
+
+  th.tei-label-gloss,
+  td.tei-label-gloss              { text-align: left }
+
+  td.tei-item-gloss,
+  th.tei-headItem-gloss           { padding-left: 4em; }       
+
+  img.tei-formula                 { vertical-align: middle; }
+
+  /*]]>*/
+  </style>
+</head>
+
+<body class="tei">
+  <div lang="en" class="tei tei-text" style=
+  "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em" xml:lang="en">
+    <div class="tei tei-front" style=
+    "margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div id="pgheader" class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em">The Project
+            Gutenberg EBook of The Count of the Saxon Shore by Alfred John
+            Church</p>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This eBook is
+            for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+            restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
+            it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License <a href=
+            "#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">included with this eBook</a> or
+            online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class=
+            "tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a></p>
+          </div>
+          <pre class="pre tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+Title: The Count of the Saxon Shore
+
+Author: Alfred John Church
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2013 [Ebook #44083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+</pre>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"></div>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="frontis"
+        id="frontis" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig1" id=
+        "fig1"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_002.jpg" alt="The Burning of the Villa" title=
+          "The Burning of the Villa." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Burning of the
+            Villa.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src=
+        "images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover image" /></div>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-titlePage" style="text-align: center">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div><a name=
+        "Pgi" id="Pgi" class="tei tei-anchor" style="text-align: center"></a>
+        <span class="tei tei-docTitle" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-titlePart" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 173%">The</span>
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 173%; font-variant: small-caps">Count</span></span><br />
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">of the</span> <span class="tei tei-hi"
+        style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 173%; font-variant: small-caps">Saxon
+        Shore</span></span></span><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">or</span></span><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 144%">The Villa in VECTIS</span></span></span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 120%; font-style: italic; font-variant: small-caps">A
+        Tale of the Departure of the Romans from
+        Britain</span></span></span></span><br />
+        <br />
+
+        <div class="tei tei-byline" style="text-align: center">
+          BY THE<br />
+          <span class="tei tei-docAuthor" style=
+          "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+          "text-align: center"><span style=
+          "font-size: 120%; font-variant: small-caps">Rev.</span></span>
+          <span style="font-size: 120%">ALFRED J. CHURCH,
+          M.A.</span></span><br />
+          <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+          "font-style: italic">Author of “Stories from
+          Homer”</span></span><br />
+          <br />
+          WITH THE COLLABORATION OF<br />
+          RUTH PUTNAM<br />
+        </div><br />
+        <br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style="font-style: italic">Fifth
+        Thousand</span></span></span><br />
+        <br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-docImprint" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-pubPlace" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 120%">London</span></span><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-publisher" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">SEELEY, SERVICE
+        &amp; CO. LIMITED</span></span><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-pubPlace" style="text-align: center">38
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-variant: small-caps">Great Russell
+        Street</span></span></span></span>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div><a name=
+        "Pgii" id="Pgii" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+        "text-align: center"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.75em"><span style=
+        "font-size: 75%">Entered at Stationers’ Hall</span><br />
+        <span style="font-size: 75%">By SEELEY &amp; CO.</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.75em"><span class="tei tei-hi"
+        style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 75%; font-variant: small-caps">Copyright by G. P.
+        Putnam’s Sons</span></span><span style="font-size: 75%">,
+        1887</span><br />
+        <span style="font-size: 75%">(For the United States of
+        America).</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgiii" id="Pgiii" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc2" id="toc2"></a> <a name="pdf3"
+        id="pdf3"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">PREFACE.</span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Count of the Saxon Shore”</span> was a title bestowed by
+        Maximian (colleague of Diocletian in the Empire from 286 to 305
+        <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-size: 75%">A.D.</span></span>) on the officer whose task it was
+        to protect the coasts of Britain and Gaul from the attacks of the
+        Saxon pirates. It appears to have existed down to the abandonment of
+        Britain by the Romans.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So little is known
+        from history about the last years of the Roman occupation that the
+        writer of fiction has almost a free hand. In this story a novel, but,
+        it is hoped, not an improbable, view is taken of an important
+        event—the withdrawal of the legions. This is commonly assigned to the
+        year 410, when the Emperor Honorius formally withdrew the Imperial
+        protection from Britain. But the usurper Constantine had actually
+        removed the British army two years before; and, as he was busied with
+        the conquest of Gaul and Spain for a considerable time after, it is
+        not likely that they were ever sent back.</p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-signed" style="text-align: right">
+          A. J. C.
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-dateline" style="text-align: right">
+          R. P.
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgiv" id="Pgiv" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgv" id="Pgv" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc4" id="toc4"></a> <a name="pdf5"
+        id="pdf5"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CONTENTS.</span></h1><a name="Pgvi" id=
+        "Pgvi" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <table summary="This is a table" cellspacing="0" class=
+        "tei tei-table" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+          <colgroup span="3"></colgroup>
+
+          <tbody>
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span class=
+              "tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style=
+              "font-size: 75%">CHAP.</span></span></td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell"></td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span class=
+              "tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style=
+              "font-size: 75%">PAGE</span></span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">I.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">A BRITISH CÆSAR</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg001" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">1</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">II.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">AN ELECTION</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg013" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">13</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">III.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">A PRIZE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg021" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">21</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">IV.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg032" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">32</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">V.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CARNA</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg047" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">47</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VI.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE SAXON</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg057" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">57</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg070" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">70</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VIII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE NEWS IN THE CAMP</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg083" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">83</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">IX.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg094" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">94</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">X.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">DANGERS AHEAD</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg107" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">107</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XI.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE PRIEST’S DEMAND</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg115" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">115</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">LOST</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg124" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">124</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XIII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">WHAT DOES IT MEAN?</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg135" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">135</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XIV.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE PURSUIT</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg144" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">144</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XV.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE PURSUIT (<span class=
+              "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">continued</span></span>)</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg152" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">152</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XVI.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE GREAT TEMPLE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg164" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">164</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XVII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE BRITISH VILLAGE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg173" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">173</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XVIII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE PICTS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg182" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">182</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XIX.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE SIEGE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg194" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">194</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XX.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CEDRIC IN TROUBLE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg207" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">207</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXI.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE ESCAPE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg216" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">216</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">A VISITOR</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg224" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">224</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXIII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE STRANGER’S STORY</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg234" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">234</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXIV.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">NEWS FROM ITALY</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg245" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">245</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXV.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CONSULTATION</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg256" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">256</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXVI.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">FAREWELL!</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg266" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">266</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXVII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">MARTIANUS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg271" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">271</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXVIII.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">A RIVAL</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg281" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">281</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXIX.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg293" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">293</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XXX.</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">AT LAST</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#Pg306" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">306</a></td>
+            </tr>
+          </tbody>
+        </table>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgvii" id="Pgvii" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc6" id="toc6"></a> <a name="pdf7"
+        id="pdf7"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</span></h1>
+
+        <table summary="This is a table" cellspacing="0" class=
+        "tei tei-table" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+          <colgroup span="2"></colgroup>
+
+          <tbody>
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE BURNING OF THE VILLA</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#frontis" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right"><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+              "text-align: right"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">Frontispiece</span></span></a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell"></td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span class=
+              "tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style=
+              "font-size: 75%">PAGE</span></span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CONSTANTINE ELECTED EMPEROR</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig018" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">18</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE <span class=
+              "tei tei-hi"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">PANTHER</span></span> AND THE SAXON
+              PIRATES</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig028" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">28</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CEDRIC AT THE FORGE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig058" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">58</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">JAVELIN THROWING</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig078" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">78</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig104" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">104</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">BRITISH CONSPIRATORS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig112" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">112</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE CAPTURE OF CARNA</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig128" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">128</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE SACRIFICE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig166" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">166</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CEDRIC AND THE PICT</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig196" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">196</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CEDRIC’S FURY</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig212" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">212</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CEDRIC’S ESCAPE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig222" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">222</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CLAUDIAN’S TALE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig234" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">234</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">THE COUNT RECEIVING THE LETTER OF
+              HONORIUS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig252" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">252</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CARNA AND MARTIANUS</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig276" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">276</a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-row">
+              <td class="tei tei-cell">CARNA ON THE HILLSIDE</td>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href=
+              "#fig304" class="tei tei-ref" style=
+              "text-align: right">304</a></td>
+            </tr>
+          </tbody>
+        </table>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgviii" id="Pgviii" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+    <div class="tei tei-body" style=
+    "margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+      <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page1">[pg 1]</span><a name="Pg001" id=
+      "Pg001" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+      <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em">
+      <span style="font-size: 173%; font-style: italic">THE COUNT OF THE
+      SAXON SHORE.</span></p>
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <a name="toc8" id="toc8"></a> <a name="pdf9" id="pdf9"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER I.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">A BRITISH CÆSAR.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Hail! Cæsar Emperor, the starving salute
+        thee!”</span><a id="noteref_1" name="noteref_1" href=
+        "#note_1"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">1</span></span></a> and the
+        speaker made a military salute to a silver coin, evidently brand-new
+        from the mint (which did not seem, by the way, to turn out very good
+        work), and bearing the superscription, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Gratianus Cæsar Imperator Felicissimus.”</span> He was a
+        soldier of middle age, whose jovial face did not show any sign of the
+        fate which he professed to have so narrowly escaped, and formed one
+        of a group which was lounging about the <span lang="la" class=
+        "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Quæstorium</span></span>, or, as we may put it,
+        the paymaster’s office of the camp at the head of the Great
+        Harbour.<a id="noteref_2" name="noteref_2" href=
+        "#note_2"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">2</span></span></a>
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page2">[pg 2]</span><a name="Pg002" id=
+        "Pg002" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>A very curious medley of
+        nationalities was that group. There were Gauls; there were Germans
+        from the Rhine bank, some of them of the pure Teuton type, with fair
+        complexions, bright blue eyes, and reddish golden hair, and
+        remarkably tall of stature, others showing an admixture of the Celtic
+        blood of their Gallic neighbours in their dark hair and hazel eyes;
+        there were swarthy Spaniards, fierce-looking men from the Eastern
+        Adriatic, showing some signs of Greek parentage in their regular
+        features and graceful figures; there were two or three who seemed to
+        have an admixture of Asian or even African blood in them; it might be
+        said, in fact, there were representatives of every province of the
+        Empire, Italy only excepted. They had been just receiving their pay,
+        long in arrear, and now considerably short of the proper amount, and
+        containing not a few coins which the receivers seemed to think of
+        doubtful value.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let me look at his Imperial Majesty,”</span> said
+        another speaker; and he scanned the features of the new
+        Cæsar—features never very dignified, and certainly not flattered by
+        the rude coinage—with something like contempt. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well, he does not look exactly as a Cæsar should; but
+        what does it matter? This will go down with Rufus at the wine-shop
+        and Priscus the sausage-seller, as well as the head of the great
+        Augustus himself.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> said a third speaker, picking out from
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page3">[pg 3]</span><a name="Pg003" id=
+        "Pg003" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a handful of silver a coin which
+        bore the head of Theodosius, <span class="tei tei-q">“this was an
+        Emperor worth fighting under. I made my first campaign with him
+        against Maximus, another British Cæsar, by the way; and he was every
+        inch a soldier. If his son were like him<a id="noteref_3" name=
+        "noteref_3" href="#note_3"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">3</span></span></a> things
+        would be smoother than they are.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do you think,”</span> said the second speaker, after
+        first throwing a cautious glance to see whether any officer of rank
+        was in hearing—<span class="tei tei-q">“do you think we have made a
+        change for the better from Marcus?<a id="noteref_4" name="noteref_4"
+        href="#note_4"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">4</span></span></a> He at all
+        events used to be more liberal with his money than his present
+        majesty. You remember he gave us ten silver pieces each. Now we don’t
+        even get our proper pay.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Marcus, my dear fellow,”</span> said the other speaker,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“had a full military chest to draw upon, and
+        it was not difficult to be generous. Gratianus has to squeeze every
+        denarius out of the citizens. I heard them say, when the money came
+        into the camp yesterday, that it was a loan from the Londinium
+        merchants. I wonder what interest they will get, and when they will
+        see the principal again.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Hang the fat rascals!”</span> said the other.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Why <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page4">[pg
+        4]</span><a name="Pg004" id="Pg004" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>should
+        they sleep soft, and eat and drink the best of everything, while we
+        poor soldiers, who keep them and their money-bags safe, have to go
+        bare and hungry?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Come, come, comrades,”</span> interrupted the first
+        soldier who had spoken; <span class="tei tei-q">“no more grumbling,
+        or some of us will find the centurion after us with his
+        vine-sticks.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The group broke
+        up, most of them making the best of their way to spend some of their
+        unaccustomed riches at the wine-shop, a place from which they had
+        lately kept an enforced absence. Three or four of the number,
+        however, who seemed, from a sign that passed between them, to have
+        some secret understanding, remained in close conversation—a
+        conversation which they carried on in undertones, and which they
+        adjourned to one of the tents to finish without risk of being
+        disturbed or overheard.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The camp in which
+        our story opens was a square enclosure, measuring some five hundred
+        yards each way, and surrounded by a massive wall, not less than four
+        feet in thickness, in the construction of which stone, brick, and
+        tile had, in Roman fashion, been used together. The defences were
+        completed by strong towers of a rounded shape, which had been erected
+        at frequent intervals. The camp had, as usual, its four gates. That
+        which opened upon the sea—for <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page5">[pg
+        5]</span><a name="Pg005" id="Pg005" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the
+        sea washed the southern front—was famous in military tradition as the
+        gate by which the second legion had embarked to take part in the
+        Jewish War and the famous siege of Jerusalem. Vespasian, who had
+        begun in Britain the great career which ended in the throne, had
+        experienced its valour and discipline in more than one
+        campaign,<a id="noteref_5" name="noteref_5" href=
+        "#note_5"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">5</span></span></a> and had
+        paid it the high compliment of making a special request for its
+        services when he was appointed to conduct what threatened to be a
+        formidable war. This glorious recollection was proudly cherished in
+        the camp, though more than three centuries had passed, changing as
+        they went the aspect of the camp, till it looked at least as much
+        like a town as a military post. The troops were housed in huts
+        stoutly built of timber, which a visitor would have found comfortably
+        furnished by a long succession of occupants. The quarters of the
+        tribune and higher centurions were commodious dwellings of brick; and
+        the headquarters of the legate, or commanding officer, with its
+        handsome chambers, its baths, and tesselated pavements, might well
+        have been a mansion at Rome. There was a street of regular shape, in
+        which provisions, clothes, and even ornaments could <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page6">[pg 6]</span><a name="Pg006" id="Pg006"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>be bought. Roman discipline, though
+        somewhat relaxed, did not indeed permit the dealers to remain within
+        the fortifications at night, but the shops were tenanted by day, and
+        did a thriving business, not only with the soldiers, but with the
+        Britons of the neighbourhood, who found the camp a convenient resort,
+        where they could market to advantage, besides gossiping to their
+        hearts’ content. The relations between the soldiers and their native
+        neighbours were indeed friendly in the extreme. The legion had had
+        its headquarters in the camp of the Great Harbour for many
+        generations, though it had occasionally gone on foreign service.
+        Lately, too, the policy which had recruited the British legion with
+        soldiers from the Continent, had been relaxed, partly from
+        carelessness, partly because it was necessary to fill up the ranks as
+        could best be done, and there was but little choice of men. Thus
+        service became very much an inheritance. The soldiers married British
+        women, and their children, growing up, became soldiers in turn. Many
+        recruits still came from Gaul, Spain, and the mouth of the Rhine, and
+        elsewhere, but quite as many of the troops were by this time, in part
+        or in whole, British.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Another change
+        which the three centuries and a half since Vespasian’s time had
+        brought about was in religion. The temple of Mars, which had stood
+        near the headquarters, and where the legate had been <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page7">[pg 7]</span><a name="Pg007" id="Pg007"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>accustomed to take the auspices,<a id=
+        "noteref_6" name="noteref_6" href="#note_6"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">6</span></span></a> was now a
+        Christian Church, duly served by a priest of British birth.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">About a couple of
+        hours later in the day a shout of <span class="tei tei-q">“The
+        Emperor! the Emperor!”</span> was raised in the camp, and the
+        soldiers, flocking out from the mess-tents in which most of them were
+        sitting, lined in a dense throng the avenue which led from the chief
+        gate to headquarters.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gratianus, who was
+        followed by a few officers of superior rank and a small escort of
+        cavalry, rode slowly between the lines of soldiers. His reception was
+        not as hearty as he had expected to find. He had, as the soldiers had
+        hinted, made vast exertions to raise a sum of money in
+        Londinium—then, as now, the wealthiest municipality in the island.
+        Himself a native of the place, and connected with some of its richest
+        citizens, he had probably got together more than any one else would
+        have done in like circumstances. But all his persuasions and
+        promises, even his offer of twenty per cent. interest, had not been
+        able to extract from the Londinium burghers the full sum that was
+        required; and the soldiers, who the day before would have loudly
+        proclaimed that they would be thankful for the smallest instalment,
+        were now almost furious because they had not been paid in full. A few
+        shouts of <span class="tei tei-q">“Hail, Cæsar! Hail, <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page8">[pg 8]</span><a name="Pg008" id="Pg008"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Gratianus! Hail, Britannicus!”</span>
+        greeted him on the road to his quarters; but these came from the
+        front lines only, and chiefly from the centurions and
+        deputy-centurions, while the great body of the soldiers maintained an
+        ominous silence, sometimes broken by a sullen murmur.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gratianus was not
+        a man fitted to deal with sudden emergencies. He was rash and he was
+        ambitious, but he wanted steadfast courage, and he was hampered by
+        scruples of which an usurper must rid himself at once if he hopes to
+        keep himself safe in his seat. He might have appealed frankly to the
+        soldiers—asked them what it was they complained of, and taken them
+        frankly into his confidence; or he might have overawed them by an
+        example of severity, fixing on some single act of insubordination or
+        insolence, and sending the offender to instant execution. He was not
+        bold enough for either course, and the opportunity passed, as quickly
+        as opportunities do in such times, hopelessly out of his reach.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The temper of the
+        soldiers grew more excited and dangerous as the day went on. For many
+        weeks past want of money had kept them sober against their will, and
+        now that the long-expected pay-day had come they crowded the
+        wine-shops inside and outside the camp, and drank almost as wildly as
+        an Australian shepherd when he comes down to the town <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page9">[pg 9]</span><a name="Pg009" id="Pg009"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>after a six months’ solitude. As anything
+        can set highly combustible materials on fire, so the most trivial and
+        meaningless incident will turn a tipsy mob into a crowd of
+        bloodthirsty madmen. Just before sunset a messenger entered the camp
+        bringing a despatch from one of the outlying forts. One of those
+        prodigious lies which seem always ready to start into existence when
+        they are wanted for mischief at once ran like wild-fire through the
+        camp. Gratianus was bringing together troops from other parts of the
+        province, and was going to disarm and decimate the garrison of the
+        Great Camp. The unfortunate messenger was seized before he could make
+        his way to headquarters, seriously injured, and robbed of the
+        despatch which he was carrying. Some of the centurions ventured to
+        interfere and endeavour to put down the tumult. Two or three who were
+        popular with the men were good-humouredly disarmed; others, who were
+        thought too rigorous in discipline, were roughly handled and thrown
+        into the military prison; one, who had earned for himself the
+        nick-name of <span class="tei tei-q">“Old Hand me the
+        other,”</span><a id="noteref_7" name="noteref_7" href=
+        "#note_7"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">7</span></span></a> was
+        killed on the spot. The furious crowd then rushed to headquarters,
+        where Gratianus was entertaining <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page10">[pg 10]</span><a name="Pg010" id="Pg010" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>a company of officers of high rank, and
+        clamoured that they must see the Emperor. He came out and mounted the
+        hustings, which stood near the front of the buildings, and from which
+        it was usual to address gatherings of the soldiers.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For a moment the
+        men, not altogether lost to the sense of discipline, were hushed into
+        silence and order by the sight of the Emperor as he stood on the
+        platform in his Imperial purple, his figure thrown into bold relief
+        by the torches which his attendants held behind him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What do you want, my children?”</span> he said; but
+        there was a tremble in his voice which put fresh courage into the
+        failing hearts of the mutineers.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Give us our pay, give us our arrears!”</span> answered a
+        soldier in one of the back rows, emboldened to speak by finding
+        himself out of sight.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The cry was taken
+        up by the whole multitude. <span class="tei tei-q">“Our pay! Our
+        pay!”</span> was shouted from thousands of throats.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gratianus stood
+        perplexed and irresolute, visibly cowering before the storm. At this
+        moment one of the tribunes stepped forward and whispered in his ear.
+        What he said was this: <span class="tei tei-q">“Say to them,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Follow me, and I will give you all you ask
+        and more.’</span> ”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a happy
+        suggestion, one of the vague promises that commit to nothing, and if
+        the unlucky usurper could have given it with confidence, with an air
+        that <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page11">[pg 11]</span><a name=
+        "Pg011" id="Pg011" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>gave it a meaning, he
+        might have been saved, at least for a time. But his nerve, his
+        presence of mind was hopelessly lost. <span class="tei tei-q">“Follow
+        me—where? Whither am I to lead them?”</span> he asked, in a hurried,
+        agitated whisper.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His adviser
+        shrugged his shoulders and was silent. He saw that he was not
+        comprehended.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Gratianus
+        continued to stand silent and irresolute, with his helpless,
+        despairing gaze fixed upon the crowd. Then came a great surging
+        movement from the back of the crowd, and the front ranks were almost
+        forced up the steps of the platform. The unlucky prince turned as if
+        to flee. The movement sealed his fate. A stone hurled from the back
+        of the crowd struck him on the side of the face. Half stunned by the
+        blow, he leaned against one of the attendants, and the blood could be
+        seen pouring down his face, pale with terror, and looking ghastly in
+        the flaming torchlight. The next moment the attendant flung down his
+        torch and fled—an example followed by all his companions. Then all
+        was in darkness; and it only wanted darkness to make a score of hands
+        busy in the deed of blood.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As Gratianus lay
+        prostrate on the ground the first blow was aimed by a brother of his
+        predecessor, Marcus, who had been quietly waiting for an opportunity
+        of vengeance. In another minute he had ceased to live. His head was
+        severed from the body <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page12">[pg
+        12]</span><a name="Pg012" id="Pg012" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and
+        fixed on the top of a pike. One of the murderers seized a smouldering
+        torch, and, blowing it into flame, held it up while another exhibited
+        the bleeding head, and cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“The tyrant has
+        his deserts!”</span> But by this time the mad rage of the crowd had
+        subsided. The horror of the deed had sobered them. Many began to
+        remember little acts of kindness which the murdered man had done
+        them, and the feeling of wrong was lost in a revulsion of pity. In a
+        few moments more the crowd was scattered. Silent and remorseful the
+        men went to their quarters, and the camp was quiet again. But another
+        British Cæsar had gone the way of a long line of unlucky
+        predecessors.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page13">[pg 13]</span><a name="Pg013"
+        id="Pg013" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc10" id=
+        "toc10"></a> <a name="pdf11" id="pdf11"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER II.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">AN ELECTION.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The camp next day
+        was covered with gloom. The soldiers moved silent and with downcast
+        faces along the avenues, or discharged in a mechanical way their
+        routine duties. The guards were turned out, the sentries relieved,
+        and the general order of service maintained without any action on the
+        part of the officers—at least of those who held superior rank. These
+        remained in the seclusion of their tents; and it may be said that
+        those who were conscious of being popular were almost as much alarmed
+        as those who knew that they were disliked. If the latter dreaded the
+        vengeance of those whom they had offended, the others were scarcely
+        less alarmed by the possibility of being elected to the perilous
+        dignity which had just proved fatal to Gratianus. The country people,
+        whose presence generally gave an air of cheerfulness and activity to
+        the camp, were too much alarmed to come. The <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page14">[pg 14]</span><a name="Pg014" id="Pg014" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>trading booths inside the gates were empty, and
+        only a very few stalls were occupied in the market, which was held
+        every day outside them.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The funeral of the
+        late prince was celebrated with some pomp. The soldiers attended it
+        in crowds, and manifested their grief, and, it would seem, their
+        remorse, by groans and tears. They were ready even to give proofs of
+        their repentance by the summary execution of those who had taken an
+        active part in the bloody deed. But here, one of the centurions,
+        whose cheerful, genial manners made him an unfailing favourite with
+        the men, had the courage to check them. <span class="tei tei-q">“No,
+        my men,”</span> said he; <span class="tei tei-q">“we were all mad
+        last night, and we must all take the blame.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Two days passed
+        without any incident of importance. On the third the question of a
+        successor began to be discussed. One of the other garrisons might be
+        beforehand with them, and they would have either to accept a chief
+        who would owe his best favours to others, or risk their lives in an
+        unprofitable struggle with him. In the afternoon a general assembly
+        of the troops was held, the officers still holding aloof, though some
+        of them mixed, <span lang="it" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang=
+        "it"><span style="font-style: italic">incognito</span></span>, so to
+        speak, in the crowd.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Of course, the
+        first difficulty was to find any one who would take the lead. At last
+        the genial centurion, who has been mentioned above as a
+        well-<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page15">[pg 15]</span><a name=
+        "Pg015" id="Pg015" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>established favourite
+        with the soldiers, was pushed to the front. His speech was short and
+        sensible. <span class="tei tei-q">“Comrades,”</span> he said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“I doubt whether what I have to say will
+        please you; but I shall say it all the same. You know that I always
+        speak my mind. We have not done very well in the new ways. Let us try
+        the old. I propose that we take the oath to Honorius
+        Augustus.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A deep murmur of
+        discontent ran through the assembly, and showed that the speaker had
+        presumed at least as far as was safe on his popularity with the
+        troops.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Does Decius,”</span> cried a burly German from the
+        crowd—Decius was the name of the centurion—<span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“does Decius recommend that we should trust to the mercy
+        of Honorius? Very good, perhaps, for himself; for the giver of such
+        advice could scarcely fail of a reward; but for us it means
+        decimation<a id="noteref_8" name="noteref_8" href=
+        "#note_8"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">8</span></span></a> at the
+        least.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A shout of
+        applause showed that the speaker had expressed the feelings of his
+        audience.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I propose that we all take the oath to Decius
+        himself!”</span> said a Batavian; <span class="tei tei-q">“he is a
+        brave man and an honest, and what do we want more?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The good Decius
+        had heard undismayed the angry <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page16">[pg 16]</span><a name="Pg016" id="Pg016" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>disapproval which his loyal proposal had called
+        forth; but the mention of his name as a possible candidate for the
+        throne overwhelmed him with terror. His jovial face grew pale as
+        death; the sweat stood in large drops upon his forehead; he trembled
+        as he had never trembled in the face of an enemy.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrades,”</span> he stammered, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“what have I done that you should treat me thus? If I
+        have offended or injured you, kill me, but not this.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">More than half
+        possessed by a spirit of mischief, the assembly answered this piteous
+        appeal by continuous shouts of <span class="tei tei-q">“Long live the
+        Emperor Decius!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The good man grew
+        desperate. He drew his sword from the scabbard, and pointed it at his
+        own heart. <span class="tei tei-q">“At least,”</span> he cried,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“you can’t forbid me this escape.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The bystanders
+        wrested the weapon from him; but the joke had gone far enough, and
+        the man was too genuinely popular for the soldiers to allow him to be
+        tormented beyond endurance. A voice from the crowd shouted,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Long live the Centurion Decius!”</span> to
+        which another answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“Long live Decius the
+        subject!”</span> and the worthy man felt that the danger was
+        over.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A number of
+        candidates, most of whom were probably as little desirous of the
+        honour as Decius, were now proposed in succession.</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page17">[pg 17]</span><a name="Pg017" id="Pg017"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I name the Tribune Manilius,”</span> said one of the
+        soldiers.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The name was
+        received with a shout of laughter.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let him learn first to be Emperor at home!”</span> cried
+        a voice from the back of the assembly, a sally which had considerable
+        success, as his wife was a well-known termagant, and his two sons the
+        most frequent inmates of the military prison.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I name the Centurion Pisinna.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Very good, if he does not pledge the purple,”</span> for
+        Pisinna was notoriously impecunious.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I name the Tribune Cetronius.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Very good as Emperor of the baggage-guard.”</span>
+        Cetronius had, to say the least, no high reputation for personal
+        courage, and was supposed to prefer the least exposed parts on the
+        field.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A number of other
+        names were mentioned only to be dismissed with more or less
+        contumely. Tired of this sport—for it really was nothing more—the
+        crowd cried out for a speech from a well-known orator of the camp,
+        whose fluency, not unmixed with shrewdness and humour, had gained him
+        a considerable reputation among his comrades.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrades,”</span> he began, <span class="tei tei-q">“if
+        you have not yet found a candidate worthy of your suffrages, it is
+        not because such do not exist among you. Can it be believed that
+        Britain is less worthy to produce the Emperor than Gaul, or Spain, or
+        Thrace, or even the effeminate <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page18">[pg 18]</span><a name="Pg018" id="Pg018" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>Syria? Was it not from Britain that there came
+        forth the greatest of the successors of Augustus, the Second Romulus,
+        Flavius Aurelius Constantinus?”</span><a id="noteref_9" name=
+        "noteref_9" href="#note_9"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">9</span></span></a></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The orator was not
+        permitted to proceed any further. The name Constantinus ran like an
+        electric shock through the whole assembly, and a thousand voices took
+        up the cry, <span class="tei tei-q">“Long live Constantinus, Emperor
+        Augustus!”</span> while all eyes were turned to one of the back rows
+        of the meeting, where a soldier who happened to bear that name was
+        standing. Some of his comrades caught him by the arm, hurried him to
+        the front, and from thence on to the hustings. He was greeted with a
+        perfect uproar of applause, partly, of course, ironical, but partly
+        the expression of a genuine feeling that the right man had been
+        found, and found by some sort of Divine assistance. The soldiers
+        were, as has been said, a strange medley of men, scarcely able to
+        understand each other, and alike only in being savage, ignorant, and
+        superstitious. They had been unlucky in choosing for themselves, and
+        now it might be well to have the choice made for them. And at least
+        the new man had a name which all of them knew and reverenced, as far
+        as they reverenced anything.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig018"
+        id="fig018" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig12" id=
+        "fig12"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_029.jpg" alt="Constantine elected Emperor"
+          title="Constantine elected Emperor." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Constantine elected
+            Emperor.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page19">[pg 19]</span><a name=
+        "Pg019" id="Pg019" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Whether he had
+        anything but a name might have seemed perhaps somewhat doubtful. He
+        had reached middle age, for he had two sons already grown up, but had
+        never risen above the rank of a private soldier. It might be said,
+        perhaps, that he had shown some ability in thus avoiding
+        promotion—not always a desirable thing in troublous times; but there
+        was the fact that he was nearly fifty years of age, and was not even
+        a deputy-centurion. On the other hand, he was a respectable man,
+        ignorant indeed, for, like most of his comrades, he could neither
+        read nor write, but with a certain practical shrewdness, so
+        good-humoured that he had never made an enemy, known to be remarkably
+        brave, a great athlete in his youth, and still of a strength beyond
+        the average.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His sudden and
+        strange elevation did not seem to throw him in the least off his
+        balance. He had been perfectly content to go without promotion, and
+        now he seemed equally content to receive the highest promotion of
+        all. He stood calmly facing the excited mob, as unmoved as if he had
+        been a private soldier on the parade ground. A slight flush, indeed,
+        might have been seen <a name="corr019" id="corr019" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">to mount</span> to
+        his face when the cloak of imperial purple was thrown over his
+        shoulders, and the peaked diadem put upon his head. He must have been
+        less than man not to have felt some thrill either of fear or pride at
+        the touch of what had brought two of his comrades to their graves
+        within the space <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page20">[pg
+        20]</span><a name="Pg020" id="Pg020" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of
+        less than half a year; but he showed no other sign of emotion.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The officers,
+        seeing the turn things had taken, had now come to the front, and the
+        senior tribune, taking the new Emperor by the hand, led him to the
+        edge of the hustings, and said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Comrades, I
+        present to you Aurelius Constantinus, chosen by the providence of God
+        and the choice of the army to be Emperor of Britain and the West. The
+        Blessed and Undivided Trinity order it for the best.”</span> A
+        ringing shout of approval went up in response. The tribunes then took
+        the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor in person. These again
+        administered it to the centurions, and the centurions swore in great
+        batches of the soldiers. The new-made prince meanwhile stood unmoved,
+        it might almost be said insensible, so strange was his composure in
+        the face of his sudden elevation. All that he said—the result, it
+        seemed, of a whisper from one of his sons—were a few words, which,
+        however, had all the success of a most eloquent oration.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrades, I promise you a donative<a id="noteref_10"
+        name="noteref_10" href="#note_10"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">10</span></span></a> within
+        the space of a month.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The assembly broke
+        up in great good-humour, and the newly-made Emperor, attended by the
+        officers, went to take possession of headquarters.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page21">[pg 21]</span><a name="Pg021"
+        id="Pg021" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc13" id=
+        "toc13"></a><a name="pdf14" id="pdf14"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER III.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">A PRIZE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a bright
+        morning some three weeks after the occurrences related in the last
+        chapter, when a squadron of four Roman galleys swept round the point
+        which is now known as the South Foreland. The leader of the four, all
+        of which, indeed, lay so close together as to be within easy hailing
+        distance, bore on its mainmast the <span lang="la" class=
+        "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Labarum</span></span>, or Imperial standard,
+        showing on a ground of purple a cross, a crown, and the sacred
+        initials, all wrought in gold. It was the flagship, so to speak, of
+        the great Count himself, one of the most important lieutenants of the
+        Empire, whose task it was to guard the shores of Britain and Northern
+        Gaul from the pirate swarms that issued from the harbours of the
+        North Sea and the Baltic. The Count himself was on board, coming
+        south from his villa on the eastern shore—for the stations of which
+        he had the charge extended as far as the Wash—to his winter residence
+        in the sunny island of Vectis.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page22">[pg 22]</span><a name="Pg022" id="Pg022" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count was a
+        tall man of middle age, and wore over his tunic a military cloak
+        reaching to the hips, and clasped at the neck with a handsome device
+        in gold, representing a hunting-dog with his teeth fixed in a stag.
+        His head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat of felt. The only
+        weapon that he carried was a short sword, which, with its plain hilt
+        and leather scabbard, was evidently meant for use rather than show.
+        His whole appearance and bearing, indeed, were those of a man of
+        action and energy. His eyes were bright and piercing; his nose
+        showed, strongly pronounced, the curve which has always been
+        associated with the ability to command; the contour of his chin and
+        lips, as far as could be seen through a short curling beard and
+        moustache, worn as a prudent defence against the climate, betokened
+        firmness. Still, the expression of the face was not unkindly. As a
+        great writer says of one whom Britain had had good reason in earlier
+        days both to fear and to love, <span class="tei tei-q">“one would
+        easily believe him to be a good man, and willingly believe him to be
+        great.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At the time when
+        our story opens he was standing in conversation with the helmsman, a
+        weather-beaten old sailor, whose dark Southern complexion had been
+        deepened by the sun and winds of more than fifty years of service
+        into an almost African hue.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The wind will hardly serve us as well as it has,”</span>
+        said the Count, as his practised eye, familiar with <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page23">[pg 23]</span><a name="Pg023" id="Pg023"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>every yard of the coast, perceived that
+        they were well abreast of the extreme southern point of the
+        coast.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No, my lord,”</span> said the old man, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“we shall have to take as long a tack as we can to the
+        south. There is a deal of west in the wind—more, I think, than there
+        was an hour since. Castor and Pollux—I beg your lordship’s pardon,
+        the blessed Saints—defend us from anything like a westerly
+        gale.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah! old croaker,”</span> replied the Count, with a
+        laugh, <span class="tei tei-q">“I verily believe that you will be
+        half disappointed if we get to our journey’s end without some
+        <a name="corr023" id="corr023" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">mishap.</span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Good words, good words, my lord,”</span> said the old
+        man, hastily crossing himself, while he muttered something, which, if
+        it could have been overheard, would have been scarcely suitable to
+        that act of devotion. <span class="tei tei-q">“Heaven bring us safe
+        to our journey’s end! Of course it is your lordship’s business to
+        give orders, and ours to go to the bottom, if it is to be so. But I
+        must say, saving your presence, that it is against all rules of a
+        sailor’s craft as I have known it, man and boy, for nigh upon
+        threescore years, to be at sea near about a month after the autumn
+        equinox.</span></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            ’Never let your keel be wet,
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            When the Pleiades have set;
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            Never let your keel be dry,
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            When the Crown is in the sky.’
+          </div>
+        </div><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page24">[pg 24]</span><a name=
+        "Pg024" id="Pg024" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">That is what my father used to say, and his fathers
+        before him, for I do not know how many generations, for we have
+        always followed the sea.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Very well for them, perhaps,”</span> said the Count,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“in the days when a man would almost as soon
+        go into a lion’s den as venture out of sight of land. But the world
+        is too busy to let us waste half our year on shore.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, yes, I know all about that,”</span> answered the
+        old man, who was privileged to have the last word even with so great
+        a personage as the Count; <span class="tei tei-q">“but there is a
+        proverb, <span class="tei tei-q">‘Much haste, little speed,’</span>
+        and I have always found it quite as true by sea as by
+        land.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meanwhile the
+        proper signals had been given to the rest of the squadron, and the
+        whole four were now heading south, with a point or two to the west,
+        the <span class="tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>—for that was the name of
+        the flagship—still slightly leading the way, with her consorts in
+        close company. In this order they made about twelve miles, the wind
+        freshening somewhat as they drew further away from the British shore,
+        and, being nearly aft, carrying them briskly along.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Fine sailing, fine sailing,”</span> said the old
+        helmsman, drawn almost in spite of himself into an exclamation of
+        delight, as the <span class="tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>, rushing through the water
+        with an almost even keel, began to widen the gap between herself and
+        her nearest follower. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page25">[pg
+        25]</span><a name="Pg025" id="Pg025" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>The
+        short waves, which just broke in sparkling foam, the brilliant
+        sunshine, almost bringing back summer with its noonday heat, and the
+        sea with a blue which recalled, though but faintly, the deep tint of
+        his native Mediterranean, combined to gladden the old man’s soul.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“But we need not put about now,”</span> he
+        said to himself. <span class="tei tei-q">“If this wind holds we shall
+        fetch Lemanis<a id="noteref_11" name="noteref_11" href=
+        "#note_11"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">11</span></span></a> without
+        requiring to tack.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He was about to
+        give the necessary orders to trim the sails, when he was stopped by a
+        shout from the look-out man at the bow, <span class="tei tei-q">“A
+        sail on the starboard side!”</span> Just within the range of a keen
+        sight, in the south-western horizon, the sunlight fell on what was
+        evidently a sail. But the distance was too great to let even the
+        keenest sight distinguish what kind of craft it might be, or which
+        way it was moving. The Count, who had gone below for his mid-day
+        meal, was of course informed of the news. He came at once upon deck,
+        and lost no time in making up his mind.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“If she is an enemy,”</span> he said to the old helmsman,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“she will be eastward bound; though I never
+        knew a pirate keep the sea quite so late in the year. If she is a
+        friend she will probably be sailing westward, or even coming our
+        way—but it does not matter which. If she has anything to tell us, we
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page26">[pg 26]</span><a name="Pg026"
+        id="Pg026" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>shall be sure to hear it sooner
+        or later. But it will never do to let a pirate escape if we can help
+        it. Any one who is out so late as the middle of October must have had
+        good reason for stopping, and can hardly fail to be worth catching.
+        Quintus, put her right before the wind, and clap on every inch of
+        canvas.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The course of the
+        squadron was now changed to nearly due south-east. All eyes, of
+        course, were bent on the strange craft, and before an hour had passed
+        it was evident that the Count had been right in his guess. There were
+        four ships; they were long and low in the water, of the build which
+        was only too well known along the coasts of Gaul and Britain, where
+        no river or creek, if it gave as much as three or four feet of water,
+        was safe from their attack. In short, they were Saxon pirates, and
+        were now moving eastward with all the speed that sails and oars could
+        give them. The question that every one on board the <span class=
+        "tei tei-name"><span style="font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>
+        was putting to himself with intense interest was, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Shall we be able to intercept them?”</span> For the
+        present the Count’s ship had the advantage of speed, thanks to the
+        wind abaft the beam. But a stern chase would be useless. On equal
+        terms the pirates were at least as quick as their pursuers. The
+        light, too, of the autumn day would soon fail, and with the light
+        every chance of success would be gone.</p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page27">[pg 27]</span><a name="Pg027" id="Pg027" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For a time it
+        seemed as if the escape of the pirate was certain. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Curse the scoundrels!”</span> cried the Count, as he
+        paced impatiently up and down the after deck. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“If it would only come on to blow in real earnest we
+        should have them. Anyhow, I would sooner that we should all founder
+        together than that they should get off scot free.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The <span class=
+        "tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>, which had left her
+        consorts about a mile in the rear, was now near enough for her crew
+        to see distinctly the outlines of the pirate ships, to mark the
+        glitter of the shields that were ranged along the gunwales, and to
+        catch the rhythmic rise and fall of the long sweeping oars. The
+        Saxons were evidently straining every nerve to make good their
+        escape, and it seemed scarcely possible that they could fail. Then
+        came a turn of fortune—the very thing, in fact, that the Count had
+        prayed for. For a time—only a very few moments—the wind freshened to
+        something like the force of a gale. The masts of the <span class=
+        "tei tei-name"><span style="font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>
+        were strained to the utmost of their strength; they groaned and bent
+        like whips under the sudden pressure on the canvas, but the seasoned
+        timber stood the sudden call upon it bravely. How the Count blessed
+        himself that he had never passed over a piece of bad workmanship or
+        bad material! The good ship took a wild plunge forward, but nothing
+        gave way. But the last of the four pirates was not so fortunate. She
+        had one tall <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page28">[pg
+        28]</span><a name="Pg028" id="Pg028" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mast,
+        carrying a fore-and-aft sail, so large as to be quite out of
+        proportion to her size. The wind struck her nearly sideways, and she
+        heeled over till her keel could almost be seen. For a moment it was
+        doubtful whether she would not capsize. Then the mast gave. The
+        vessel righted at once, but only to lie utterly helpless on the
+        water, with all her starboard oars hopelessly entangled with the
+        canvas and rigging. What the Count would have done had his ship been
+        entirely in hand it is difficult to say. No speedier or more
+        effective way of dealing with the enemy than running her down could
+        have been practised. The <span class="tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span> had three or four times
+        the tonnage of her adversary, whose lightness and low bulwarks made
+        her easily accessible to this kind of attack. Nor would the pirates
+        have a chance of showing the desperate valour which the Roman
+        boarding-parties had learnt to respect and almost to fear. The only
+        argument on the other side would have been that prisoners and booty
+        would probably be lost. But, as a matter of fact, the Count had no
+        opportunity of weighing the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">pros</span></span> and <span class=
+        "tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">cons</span></span> in
+        the matter. The <span class="tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>, driving as she was
+        straight before the wind, was practically unmanageable. She struck
+        the pirate craft with a tremendous crash amidships, and cut her
+        almost literally in half. One blow, and one only, did the pirates
+        strike at their conquerors. When escape had become manifestly
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page29">[pg 29]</span><a name="Pg029"
+        id="Pg029" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>impossible by the fall of the
+        mast, the Saxon warriors had dropped their oars, and seizing their
+        bows had discharged a volley of arrows against the Roman ship. The
+        hurry and confusion of the moment did not favour accurate aim, and
+        most of the missiles flew wide of the mark; but one seemed to have
+        been destined to fulfil the helmsman’s expectations of evil to come.
+        It struck the old man on the left side, inflicting a fatal wound. In
+        the first confusion of the shock the incident was not noticed, for
+        the brave fellow stuck gallantly to the tiller, propping himself up
+        against it while he kept the <span class="tei tei-name"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Panther</span></span> steadily before the wind.
+        In fact, loss of blood had brought him nearly to his end before it
+        was even known that he had been wounded. Then, in a moment, the Count
+        was at his side.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig028"
+        id="fig028" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig15" id=
+        "fig15"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_041.jpg" alt="The Panther and the Saxon Pirate"
+          title="The Panther and the Saxon Pirate." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Panther and the Saxon
+            Pirate.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Carry him to my own cabin,”</span> he said.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The old man raised
+        his hand in a gesture that seemed to refuse the service which half a
+        dozen stout sailors were at once ready to render him. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Nay,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“it is
+        idle; this arrow has sped me. But let me die here, where I can see
+        the waves and the sky. I have known them, man and boy, threescore
+        years—aye, and more, for my father would take me on his ship when I
+        was a tiny chap of three feet high. Nay, no cabin for me; ’tis almost
+        as bad as dying in one’s bed.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His voice grew
+        feeble. The Count stopped, and <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page30">[pg 30]</span><a name="Pg030" id="Pg030" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>asked whether there was anything that he could
+        do for him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Nay,”</span> said the old man, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“nothing; I have neither chick nor child. ’Tis all as
+        well as I could have wished. But mark, my lord, I was right about
+        sailing in October. Any one that knows the sea would be sure that
+        trouble must come of it.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The next moment he
+        was past speaking or hearing.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was his
+        privilege, we must remember, to have the last word.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The <span class=
+        "tei tei-name"><span style="font-style: italic">Panther</span></span>
+        meanwhile had been brought to the wind. Her consorts, too, had come
+        up, and a search was made for any survivors of the encounter that
+        might be still afloat. Some had been killed outright by the
+        concussion; others had been so hurt that they could make no effort to
+        save themselves. They would not, however, have made it if they could.
+        Those that had escaped uninjured evidently preferred drowning to a
+        Roman prison. With grim resolution they straightened their arms to
+        their sides and went down. Only two survivors were picked up. These,
+        evidently twins from their close resemblance to each other, were
+        found clinging to a fragment of timber. One had been grievously hurt,
+        the other had not suffered any injury.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The wounded man,
+        who had received an almost fatal blow upon the head, had lost the
+        power to move, and was holding on to life more than half
+        un<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page31">[pg 31]</span><a name="Pg031"
+        id="Pg031" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>consciously; and his brother,
+        moved by that passionate love so often found between twins, had
+        sacrificed himself—that is, the honour which he counted dearer than
+        life—to save him. Had he had only himself to think of, he would have
+        been the first to go down a free man to the bottom of the sea; but
+        his brother was almost helpless, and he could not leave him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When it was
+        evident that all further search would be useless, the squadron set
+        their sails for Lemanis, which, thanks to a further change in the
+        wind to the northward, they were able to reach before midnight.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page32">[pg 32]</span><a name="Pg032"
+        id="Pg032" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc16" id=
+        "toc16"></a> <a name="pdf17" id="pdf17"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER IV.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Count Ælius was a
+        man of the best Roman type, a man of <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“primitive virtue,”</span> as the classical writers would
+        have put it, though this virtue had been softened, refined, and
+        purified by civilizing and instructing influences, of which the old
+        Roman heroes—the Fabiuses, the Catos, the Scipios—had known nothing.
+        In the antiquity of his lineage there was scarcely a man in the
+        Empire who could pretend to compare with him. For the most part, the
+        old houses from which had come the Consuls and Dictators of the
+        Republic had died out. The old nobility had gone, and the new
+        nobility had followed it. The great name of Fabius, saved by an
+        accident from extinction, when its three hundred gallant sons, each
+        of them <span class="tei tei-q">“fit to command an army,”</span>
+        perished in one day by the craft of the Etruscan foe, had passed
+        away. There was no living representative of the conqueror of
+        Carthage, or of the conqueror <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page33">[pg 33]</span><a name="Pg033" id="Pg033" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>of Corinth. Even the <span lang="fr" class=
+        "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="fr"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">parvenus</span></span> of the Empire had in
+        their turn disappeared. The generals and senators, both of the old
+        Rome and of the new,<a id="noteref_12" name="noteref_12" href=
+        "#note_12"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">12</span></span></a> bore
+        names which would have sounded strange and barbarous to Cicero or
+        even to Tacitus. An Ælius then, one who claimed to trace his descent
+        to a time even earlier than the legendary age, to a race which was
+        domiciled in Italy long before even Æneas had brought thither the
+        gods of Troy, was an almost singular phenomenon in a generation of
+        new men. And nothing less than this was the pedigree claimed by the
+        Ælii. Their remotest ancestor—the Count never could hear an allusion
+        to it without a smile—was the famous cannibal king who ruled over the
+        <a name="corr033" id="corr033" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">Laestrygones</span>,
+        a tribe of Western Italy,<a id="noteref_13" name="noteref_13" href=
+        "#note_13"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">13</span></span></a> and from
+        whose jaws the prudent Ulysses so narrowly escaped. The pride of
+        ancient descent is not particular as to the character of a
+        progenitor, so he be sufficiently remote; and one branch of the Ælii
+        had always delighted to recall by their surname their connection with
+        this man-eating hero. But the race had not lacked glories of its own
+        in historical times. They had had soldiers, statesmen, and men of
+        letters among them. One of them had been made immortal by the
+        friendship of Horace. Another, an adopted <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page034">[pg 034]</span><a name="Pg034" id="Pg034" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>son, it was true, better known by the famous
+        name of Sejanus, had nearly made himself master of the throne of the
+        Cæsars. About a hundred years later this crowning glory of human
+        ambition had fallen to it in the person of Hadrian, third in the list
+        of the <span class="tei tei-q">“five good Emperors”</span>;<a id=
+        "noteref_14" name="noteref_14" href="#note_14"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">14</span></span></a> though
+        indeed there were purists in the matter of genealogy who stoutly
+        denied that this great soldier and scholar had any of the real Ælian
+        blood in him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count’s father
+        had held civil office at Carthage, and the young Ælius had there, for
+        a short time, been a pupil of Aurelius Augustinus, then known as an
+        eloquent teacher of rhetoric, afterwards to become the most famous
+        doctor of the Western Church. But his bent was not for the profession
+        of the law, and his father, though disappointed at his preference for
+        a soldier’s career, would not stand in his way. His first experience
+        of warfare was gained on a day of terrible disaster. His father’s
+        influence had secured him a position which seemed in every way
+        desirable. He was attached to the staff of Trajanus, a general of
+        division in the army of the Emperor Valens. By great exertions,
+        travelling night and day, at the hottest period of the year, the
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page35">[pg 35]</span><a name="Pg035"
+        id="Pg035" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>young Ælius contrived to report
+        himself to his commander on the eve of the great battle of
+        Adrianople. He had borne himself with admirable courage and
+        self-possession during that terrible day, more disastrous to the
+        Roman arms than even Cannæ itself. He had helped to carry the wounded
+        Emperor to a cottage near the field of battle, and had barely escaped
+        with his life, cutting his way with desperate resolution through the
+        enemy, when this place of refuge was surrounded and burnt by the
+        barbarians. After this unfortunate beginning he betook himself for a
+        time to the employments of peace, obtaining an office under
+        Government at Milan, where he renewed his acquaintance with his old
+        teacher, Augustine. Then another opening, in what was still his
+        favourite profession, presented itself. The young soldier’s gallant
+        conduct on the disastrous day of Adrianople had not been forgotten by
+        some who had witnessed it, and when Stilicho, then the rising general
+        of the Empire, was looking about for officers to fill posts upon his
+        staff, the name of Ælius was mentioned to him. Under Stilicho he
+        served with much distinction, and it was on Stilicho’s recommendation
+        that he was appointed to the post which, when our story opens, he had
+        held for nearly twenty years.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His position
+        during this period had been one of singular difficulty. The tie
+        between the Empire and Britain was very loose. More than once during
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page36">[pg 36]</span><a name="Pg036"
+        id="Pg036" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Ælius’ tenure of office it had
+        seemed to be broken altogether. Pretender after pretender had risen
+        against the central power, and had declared his province independent,
+        and himself an Emperor. The Count of the Saxon Shore had contrived to
+        keep himself neutral, so to speak, during these troubles. His own
+        office, that of defending the eastern and southern shores of the
+        island against the attacks of the Saxon pirates, he had filled with
+        remarkable vigilance and skill. And the usurpers had been content to
+        leave him undisturbed. His sailors were profoundly attached to him,
+        and any attempt to interfere with him would have thrown a
+        considerable weight into the opposite scale. And he and his work were
+        necessary. Whether Britain was subject to Rome or independent of it,
+        it was equally important that its coasts should not be harried by
+        pirates. If Ælius would provide for this—and he did provide for it,
+        with an almost unvarying success—he might be left alone, and not
+        required to give in his allegiance to the new claimant of the throne.
+        This allegiance he never did give in. He was always the faithful
+        servant of those who appointed him, and, whoever might happen to be
+        the temporary master of Britain, regularly addressed his despatches
+        and reports to the central authority in Italy. On the other hand, he
+        did not feel himself bound to take direct steps towards asserting
+        that authority in the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page37">[pg
+        37]</span><a name="Pg037" id="Pg037" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>island. He had to keep the pirates in check, and
+        that was occupation quite sufficient to keep all his energies
+        employed. Thus, as has been said, he observed a kind of neutrality,
+        always loyal to the Roman Emperor, but willing to be on friendly
+        terms with the rebel generals of Britain as long as they left him
+        alone, let him do his work of defending the coast, and did not make
+        any demands upon him which his conscience would not allow him to
+        satisfy.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Having thus
+        sketched the career of the Count, we must now say something about the
+        house, which now—it was early in the afternoon of the day following
+        the events described in the last chapter—was just coming into
+        sight.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The villa was the
+        Count’s private property, and had been purchased by him immediately
+        on his arrival in the island, for a reason which will be given
+        hereafter. It was a handsome house, and complete in its way, with all
+        that was necessary for a comfortable residence, but not one of the
+        largest of its kind. Indeed, it may be said that what may be called
+        the <span class="tei tei-q">“living”</span> part of it was unusually
+        small for the dwelling of so distinguished a person as the Count. It
+        had been found large enough by its previous owners, men of moderate
+        means and, it so happened, of small families; and the Count, feeling
+        that his occupation of it might be terminated at any time, had not
+        cared to add to it. Its situation was re<span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page38">[pg 38]</span><a name="Pg038" id="Pg038" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>markably pleasing. Behind it was a sheltering
+        range of hills,<a id="noteref_15" name="noteref_15" href=
+        "#note_15"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">15</span></span></a> keeping
+        off the force of the south-westerly winds, and then richly covered
+        with wood. It was not too near the sea, the Romans not finding that
+        the ceaseless disturbance of rising and falling tides was an element
+        of pleasure, though they could not get too close to their own
+        tideless Mediterranean; but it was within an easy distance of the
+        Haven.<a id="noteref_16" name="noteref_16" href=
+        "#note_16"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">16</span></span></a> The
+        convenience of this neighbourhood had indeed been one of the Count’s
+        reasons for selecting this spot. But if the harsh, grating sound of
+        the waves upon the shingle did not reach the ears of the dwellers in
+        the villa, and the force of the sea winds was somewhat broken for
+        them by intervening cliffs, they still enjoyed all the freshness and
+        vitality of an air that had come across many a league of water. The
+        climate, too, was genial, mild without being too soft, mostly free
+        from damp, though not exempt from occasional mist, seldom troubled by
+        frost or snow, and, on the whole, not unlike some of the more
+        temperate regions of Italy.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The villa, with
+        its belongings, occupied three sides of a square, or rather
+        rectangle, and was built nearly to the points of the compass. The
+        eastern side of the square was open, thus giving a prospect
+        sea<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page39">[pg 39]</span><a name="Pg039"
+        id="Pg039" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>wards. The western contained
+        the principal living rooms. The northern, too, was partly occupied by
+        bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, for which there was no room in the
+        comparatively small portion which had been originally intended for
+        the residence of the owner and his family. Some of the workmen
+        employed lived in cottages outside the villa enclosure. The southern
+        was devoted to storehouses, workshops, and all the miscellaneous
+        buildings which made a Roman villa, as far as possible, an
+        establishment complete in itself. The open space was occupied by a
+        pretty garden, which will be more particularly described
+        hereafter.<a id="noteref_17" name="noteref_17" href=
+        "#note_17"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">17</span></span></a></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The eastward front
+        of the villa was occupied for the greater part of its length by a
+        colonnade or corridor. A low wall of about four feet in height
+        separated this from the garden; above the wall it was open to the
+        air; but an overhanging roof helped greatly to shelter it, while the
+        view into the garden was unimpeded. The floor was adorned with a
+        handsome tesselated pavement, the principal device <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page40">[pg 40]</span><a name="Pg040" id="Pg040"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of which was a representation of the
+        favourite subject of Orpheus attracting beasts and birds by his lyre.
+        The proprietor from whom the Count had purchased the villa had
+        brought it from Italy. He was a Christian of artistic tastes, and,
+        like his fellow-believers, had delighted to trace in the old myth a
+        spiritual meaning, the power of the teaching of Christ to subdue to
+        the Divine obedience the savage, animal nature of man. He had
+        displaced for it the original design, which, indeed, was nothing
+        better than a commonplace representation of dancing figures which had
+        satisfied the earlier owners. The artist had included among the
+        listeners animals, some of which, as the monkey, the Thracian
+        minstrel could hardly have seen, and, with a certain touch of humour,
+        he had adorned the monkey’s head with a Phrygian cap, like that which
+        Orpheus himself wore, to indicate probably that the monkey is the
+        caricature of man. The inner wall was ornamented with a bold design
+        of Cæsar’s first landing in Britain, worked in fresco. Seats and
+        tables were arranged along it at intervals, and the whole corridor
+        was thus made to furnish a pleasant promenade in winter and a
+        charming resort when the weather was warm.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At the south end
+        of the corridor was the Count’s own apartment, or study, as it would
+        be called in a modern house. One window looked into the corridor,
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page41">[pg 41]</span><a name="Pg041"
+        id="Pg041" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>into which a door also opened;
+        another, which was built out into the shape of a bow, so as to catch
+        as much of the sun as the aspect allowed, looked into the garden.
+        Part of it was formed of lattices, which admitted of being completely
+        closed when the weather required such protection; the rest was glazed
+        with glass, which would have seemed rough to the present generation,
+        but was quite as good as most people were content to have in their
+        houses fifty years ago. The pavement was tesselated, and presented
+        various designs, a Bacchante, and a pair of gladiators among them.
+        These, however, were commonly covered with thick woollen rugs, the
+        villa being chiefly used as a winter residence. The Count had not
+        forgotten his early studies, and some handsome bookcases contained
+        his favourite authors, among which were to be found the great classic
+        poets of Rome, Tacitus, for whom he had a special regard, some
+        writers on the military art, Cato and Columella on agriculture, and,
+        not least honoured, though some, at least, of their contents had but
+        little interest for him—for, sincere Christian as he was, he cared
+        little for controversy—the numerous treatises of his friend and
+        teacher, Augustine. Behind this room was a simple furnished
+        bed-chamber, showing in an almost bare simplicity the characteristic
+        tastes of a soldier.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At the other end
+        of the corridor was a door leading to the principal chamber in this
+        part of the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page042">[pg
+        042]</span><a name="Pg042" id="Pg042" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>villa. This measured altogether close upon forty
+        feet in length, but it was divided, or rather could be divided, into
+        two by columns which stood about halfway down its longer sides, and
+        between which a curtain could be hung. When the chamber was occupied
+        in summer it might be used as a whole; in the winter the smaller
+        part, which looked out into the garden, could be shut off from the
+        rest by drawing the curtain, and so made a comfortable room, warmed
+        from below by hot air from the furnace, which had been constructed at
+        the western end of the northern wing of the villa. Much artistic
+        skill had been expended on the pavements of the apartment, and the
+        smaller chamber was very richly decorated in this way. In the middle
+        was a large head of Medusa, and the rest was filled with
+        beautifully-worked scenes illustrating the pleasures of a pastoral
+        life. It was the custom of the Count’s family to use the larger
+        portion of the whole chamber as a dining-room, the smaller as a
+        ladies’ boudoir. On the rare occasion of some large entertainment
+        being given, the whole was thrown into one.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The ladies of the
+        family, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, had their own
+        apartments at the western end of the north wing, part of which was
+        shut off for their occupation and for their immediate attendants. A
+        covered way connected this with the portion occupied by the
+        Count.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page43">[pg 43]</span><a name=
+        "Pg043" id="Pg043" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It would be
+        needless to describe the rest of the villa. It was like the houses of
+        its kind, houses which the Romans erected wherever they went in as
+        close an imitation as they could make of what they were accustomed to
+        at home.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The garden,
+        however, must not be wholly passed over. Spacious and handsome as it
+        was, it in part presented a stiff and unnatural appearance, looking,
+        in fact, somewhat theatrical, as contrasted with the pastoral
+        sunniness of the landscape. A Roman gardener had been brought from
+        Rome—one skilled in all the arts of his craft. It was he who had
+        terraced the slope with so much regularity, had planted stiff box
+        hedges—and, above all, it was his taste which led him to cut and
+        train box and laburnum shrubs into fantastic imitations of other
+        forms. The poor trees were forced to abandon their own natural
+        shapes, and to pose as vases, geometrical figures, and animals of
+        various kinds. There was even a ship of box surrounded by a broad
+        channel of water, so that the spectator, making large demands on his
+        imagination, might imagine that the little mock vessel was moored on
+        a still sheet of water. Among the box trees were stone fountains
+        badly copied from classic models. But these had not remained in their
+        bare crudity. The loving British ivy had crept close around them, and
+        added a grace which the sculptor had failed to give. The Roman
+        gardener would have liked to banish <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page44">[pg 44]</span><a name="Pg044" id="Pg044" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>this intruder, or to at least train it into the
+        positions prescribed by horticultural rules, but he had been bidden
+        to let it run at its own sweet will; and so it had, and had
+        flourished, well nursed by the soft and humid atmosphere.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Scattered at
+        regular intervals through the green were flower-beds stocked with
+        plants, which were either native to the island, or had been brought
+        hither with great care from the capital. There were roses in several
+        varieties, strange-shaped orchids, which had been found growing wild
+        at lower levels of the island, and adopted into this civilized garden
+        to ornament it with their unique beauty. Gay geraniums and other
+        flowers made throughout the summer bright patches of colour in
+        striking contrast to the dark green.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">These beds were
+        enclosed by borders. Between these enclosures were curiously-cut
+        letters of growing box, which perpetuated—at least for the life-time
+        of the shrub—the gardener’s own name or that of his master, or
+        classic titles, to serve as designations for certain portions of the
+        place. In the midst of the garden several luxuriant oaks and graceful
+        elms had been allowed to retain in their native freedom the shapes
+        into which they had been growing for so many years. They cast wide
+        shadows, and gave a softened aspect to the unnatural shapes of the
+        trained growths.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page45">[pg
+        45]</span><a name="Pg045" id="Pg045" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Beyond the floral
+        division of the garden was another enclosure for pear and apple
+        trees. They stood on a green sward, soft as velvet, and of a deeper
+        hue than Italian suns permit to the grass on which they smile. Here,
+        too, were foreign embellishments. The monotony of the uniform rows of
+        fruit trees was varied by pyramids of box, and the whole orchard was
+        surrounded by a belt of plane trees.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A circle of oaks
+        had been left at the summit of one of the terraces. Thick hedges were
+        planted between the trees, making a dense wall, in which openings
+        were cut for the view, so that the vista was visible, like a picture
+        set in a dark frame. This green room, roofed by the sky, was paved
+        with a mosaic of the bright coloured chalk from the cliffs at the
+        western end of the island, and contained an oblong basin of water
+        shaped like a table. The water flowed through so gently that the
+        surface always seemed at rest, and yet never grew warm. Couches were
+        placed at this fountain table, and from time to time repasts were
+        served here, certain viands being placed in dishes shaped like swans
+        or boats, which floated gracefully on the watery surface. The more
+        solid meats were placed on the broad marble edges of the basin.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This sylvan
+        retreat seemed made for a meeting of naiads and nereids. In short,
+        the spot was so <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page46">[pg
+        46]</span><a name="Pg046" id="Pg046" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>sheltered, the outlook over sea and land both
+        near and across the strait so fair, that one could well believe even
+        Pliny’s famed Tuscan garden, which may have suggested some features
+        of this British one, was not more happily placed.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page47">[pg 47]</span><a name="Pg047"
+        id="Pg047" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc18" id=
+        "toc18"></a> <a name="pdf19" id="pdf19"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER V.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">CARNA.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When Ælius had
+        come, some eighteen years before the beginning of our story, to take
+        up his command on the coast of Britain, he had brought with him his
+        young wife. This lady, always delicate in health, had not long
+        survived her transplantation to a northern climate. Six months after
+        her arrival in Britain she had died in giving birth to a daughter.
+        The child was entrusted to the care of a British woman, wife of the
+        sailing master of one of the Roman ships, who had reared her together
+        with her own daughter. When little Ælia was but a few weeks old her
+        foster-mother had become a widow, her husband having met with his
+        death in a desperate encounter with one of the Saxon cruisers. This
+        misfortune had been followed by another, the loss of her two elder
+        children, who had been carried off by a malarious fever. The widow,
+        thus doubly bereaved, had thankfully accepted the Count’s offer that
+        she <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page48">[pg 48]</span><a name=
+        "Pg048" id="Pg048" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>should take the post of
+        mother of the maids in his household. Her foster-daughter, a feeble
+        little thing, whom she had the greatest difficulty in rearing, was as
+        dear to her as was her own child, and the new arrangement ensured
+        that she should not be separated from her. For ten years she was as
+        happy as a woman who had lost so much could hope to be. She had the
+        pleasure of seeing her delicate nursling pass safely through
+        childhood, and grow into a handsome, vigorous girl. Then her own call
+        came; and feeling that her earthly work was done, she had been glad
+        to meet it. The Count, who was a frequent visitor to her deathbed,
+        had no difficulty in promising her that the two children should never
+        be separated. Indeed he could not have divided the pair even had he
+        wished. Every wish of the ten-year-old Ælia was as a law to him, and
+        Ælia would have simply broken her heart to lose her playmate and
+        sister Carna.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The two friends
+        were curiously unlike in person and disposition. Ælia was a Roman of
+        the Romans. Her hair was of a shining blue-black hue, and so abundant
+        that when unbound it fell almost to her knees. Her black eyes, soft
+        and lustrous in repose, and shaded with lashes of the very longest,
+        could give an almost formidable flash when anything had roused her to
+        anger. Her complexion was a rich brown, relieved by a slight ruddy
+        tinge; her features regular, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page49">[pg
+        49]</span><a name="Pg049" id="Pg049" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>less
+        delicately carved, indeed, than the Greek type, but full of
+        expression, which was tender or fiery, according to her mood. Her
+        figure was somewhat small, but beautifully formed. If Ælia was
+        unmistakably Roman, Carna showed equally clearly one of the finest
+        British types. She was tall, overtopping her companion by at least a
+        head; her hair, which fell in curls about her shoulders, was of a
+        glossy chestnut; her eyes of the very deepest blue; her complexion,
+        half-way between blonde and brunette, mantled with a delicate colour,
+        which deepened, when her emotions were touched, into an exquisite
+        blush; her forehead was somewhat low, but broad, and with a rare
+        promise both of artistic power and of intelligence; her nose would
+        have been pronounced by a casual observer to be the most faulty
+        feature in her face; and it is true that its outline was not perfect.
+        But the same observer, after a brief acquaintance, would probably
+        have retracted his censure, and owned that this feature suited the
+        rest of her face, and would have been less charming if it had been
+        more perfect. Ælia was impulsive and quick of temper, honest and
+        affectionate, but not caring to go below the surface of things, and
+        without a particle of imagination. Carna, on the other hand, seemed
+        the gentlest of women. Those blue eyes of hers were ready to express
+        affection and pity; but no one—not even Ælia, who could be
+        exceedingly provoking at times—had ever seen a <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page50">[pg 50]</span><a name="Pg050" id="Pg050"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>flash of anger in them. But her nature had
+        depths in it that none suspected to be there; it was richly endowed
+        with all the best gifts of her Celtic race. She had a world of her
+        own with which the gay Roman girl, whom she loved so dearly, and with
+        whom she seemed to share all her thoughts, had nothing to do. Music
+        touched her soul in a way of which Ælia, who could sing very
+        charmingly, and play with no little expression on the <span lang="la"
+        class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">cithara</span></span>, had no conception. And
+        though she had never written, or even composed, a verse, and possibly
+        would never write or compose one, she was a poetess. At present all
+        her soul was given to religion, religion full of the imagination and
+        enthusiasm which has made saints of so many women of her race. The
+        good British priest, to whose flock she belonged, a worthy man who
+        eked out his scanty income<a id="noteref_18" name="noteref_18" href=
+        "#note_18"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">18</span></span></a> by
+        working a small farm, was perplexed by her enthusiasm. She was not
+        satisfied with the duties of adorning the little church where he
+        ministered, and its humble altar-cloths and vestments, by the skill
+        of her nimble fingers, of aiding the chants with the rich tones of
+        her beautiful voice, of ministering to the sick. She performed these,
+        indeed, with devotion, but she demanded more, and the good man did
+        not know how to satisfy her. In addition to her other gifts Carna had
+        that of being <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page51">[pg
+        51]</span><a name="Pg051" id="Pg051" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a
+        born nurse. It was her first impulse to fly to the help of
+        anything—whether it was man, or beast, or bird—that was sick or hurt,
+        just as it was Ælia’s impulse, though she mastered it at any strong
+        call of duty, to avoid the sight of suffering. She had now heard that
+        a prisoner had been brought in desperately wounded, and she could not
+        rest till she knew whether she could do anything for the poor
+        creature’s soul or body. Ælia was as scornful as her love for her
+        foster-sister allowed her to be.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My dearest Carna,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“what on earth can make you trouble yourself in this
+        fashion about this miserable creature? They are the worst plagues in
+        this world, these Saxons, and it would be a blessing to the world if
+        it were well quit of the whole race of them! A set of pagan
+        dogs!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh, sister,”</span> said Carna, her eyes brimming with
+        tears, <span class="tei tei-q">“that is the worst of it. A pagan, who
+        has never heard of the Blessed Lord, and now, they say, he is dying!
+        What shall we do for him?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But surely,”</span> returned the other, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“he is no worse off than his threescore companions who
+        went to the bottom the other day.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“God be good to them,”</span> said Carna, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“but then we did not know them, and that seems to make a
+        difference. And to think that this poor creature should be so near to
+        the way and not find it. But I must go and see
+        him.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page52">[pg
+        52]</span><a name="Pg052" id="Pg052" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It will only tear your poor, tender heart for no
+        purpose. You had far better come and talk to father.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna was not to
+        be persuaded, but hurried to the chamber to which the wounded man had
+        been borne.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was evident at
+        first sight that the end was not far off. The dying Saxon lay
+        stretched on a rude pallet. He was a young man, who could scarcely
+        have seen as many as twenty summers, for the down was hardly to be
+        seen on his upper lip and chin. His face, which was curiously fair
+        for one who had followed from infancy an outdoor life, was deadly
+        pale, a pathetic contrast with the red-gold hair which fell in curly
+        profusion about it. His eyes, in which the fire was almost quenched,
+        were wide open, and fixed with an unchanging gaze upon a figure that
+        stood motionless at the foot of the bed. This was his brother, who
+        had been permitted by the humanity of the Count to be present. They
+        had been exchanging a few sentences, but the dying man was now too
+        far gone to speak, and the two could only look their last farewell to
+        each other. It was a pitiful thing to see the twins, so like in
+        feature and form, but now so different, the one, prisoner as he was,
+        full of life and strength, the other on the very threshold of
+        death.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By the side of the
+        wounded man stood the household physician, a venerable-looking slave,
+        who had <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page53">[pg 53]</span><a name=
+        "Pg053" id="Pg053" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>acquired such knowledge
+        of medicine and surgery as sufficed for the treatment of the commoner
+        ailments and accidents. This case was beyond his skill, or indeed the
+        skill of any man. He could do nothing but from time to time put a few
+        drops of cordial between the sufferer’s lips. Next to the physician
+        stood the priest, and his skill, too, seemed to be at fault. A
+        messenger, sent by Carna, had warned him that a dying man required
+        his ministrations, but had added no further particulars, and the
+        worthy man, who was busy at the time in littering down his cattle,
+        had hastily changed his working dress for his priestly habiliments,
+        and had come ready, as he thought, to administer the last
+        consolations of the Church to a dying Christian. The case utterly
+        perplexed him. He had tried the two languages with which he was
+        familiar, and found them useless. No one had been able to understand
+        a single word of the dialogue which had passed between the brothers.
+        The dying stranger was as hopelessly separated from him and the means
+        of grace that he could command as if he had been a thousand miles
+        away. He could not even venture—for his theology was of the narrowest
+        type—to commend to the mercy of God the passing soul of this
+        unbaptized heathen.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna understood
+        the situation at a glance. She saw death in the Saxon’s face; she saw
+        the hopeless perplexity in the expression of the
+        priest.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page54">[pg
+        54]</span><a name="Pg054" id="Pg054" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Father,”</span> she cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“can
+        you do nothing, nothing at all for this poor soul?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My daughter,”</span> said the priest, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I am helpless. He knows nothing; he understands
+        nothing.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Can you not baptize him?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Baptize him without a profession of repentance, without
+        a confession of faith! Impossible!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Will you let him perish before your eyes without an
+        effort to save him?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Child,”</span> said the priest, with some impatience in
+        his tone, <span class="tei tei-q">“I have told you that I am
+        helpless. It was not I that brought these things about.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl cast an
+        agonized look about the room, as of one that appealed for help, and
+        seized a crucifix that hung upon the wall. She threw herself upon her
+        knees by the bedside, and after pressing the symbol of Redemption
+        passionately to her lips, held it to the mouth of the dying man. The
+        Saxon, on his first entrance into the room, had removed his look from
+        his brother and fixed it steadfastly on this beautiful apparition.
+        Clad in white from head to foot, with a golden girdle about her
+        waist, her eyes shining with excitement, her whole face transfigured
+        by a passion of pity, she seemed to him a vision from another world,
+        one of the Walhalla maidens of whom his mother had talked to him in
+        days gone by. His lips closed feebly on the crucifix which she held
+        to them; a smile lighted up his fading eyes, and he <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page55">[pg 55]</span><a name="Pg055" id="Pg055"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>muttered with his last breath <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Valkyria.”</span> The girl heard the word and remembered
+        without understanding it. The next moment he was dead, and one of the
+        women standing by stepped forward and closed his eyes.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna burst into a
+        passion of tears.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“He is gone,”</span> she cried, amidst her sobs,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“he is gone, and we could not help
+        him.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The priest was
+        silent. He had no consolation to offer. Indeed, but that he
+        recognized the girl’s saintliness—a saintliness to which he, worthy
+        man as he was, had no pretensions—he would have thought her grief
+        foolish. But the old physician could not keep silence.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Pardon me, lady,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“if I seem to reprove you. I pray you not to suffer your
+        zeal for the salvation of souls to overpower your faith. Do you think
+        that the All-Father does not love this poor stranger as well as you,
+        nay, better than you can love him? that He cannot care for him as
+        well? that you, forsooth, must save him out of His hands? Nay, my
+        daughter—pardon an old man for the word—do not so distrust
+        Him.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You are right, father, as always,”</span> said the girl.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“I have been selfish and faithless. I was
+        angry, I suppose, to find myself baffled and helpless. You must set
+        me a penance, father,”</span> she added, turning to the
+        priest.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page56">[pg
+        56]</span><a name="Pg056" id="Pg056" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Saxon
+        meanwhile had contrived by his gestures to make his guards understand
+        that he wished to take his farewell of his dead brother. They allowed
+        him to approach the bed. He stooped and kissed the lips of the dead,
+        and then, choking down the sobs which convulsed his breast, turned
+        away, seemingly calm and unmoved. But as he passed Carna he contrived
+        to catch with his manacled hands one of the flowing sleeves of her
+        white robe, and to lift the hem to his lips.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page57">[pg 57]</span><a name="Pg057"
+        id="Pg057" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc20" id=
+        "toc20"></a> <a name="pdf21" id="pdf21"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER VI.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE SAXON.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was not easy to
+        know what should be done with the survivor of the two Saxon captives.
+        The villa had no proper provision for the safe custody of prisoners;
+        and the problem of keeping a man under lock and key, without a quite
+        disproportionate amount of trouble, was as difficult as it would be
+        in the ordinary country house of modern times.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I shall send him to the camp at the Great
+        Harbour,”</span> said the Count, a few days after the scene described
+        in our last chapter. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is quite impossible
+        to keep him unless we chain him hand and foot, or set half a dozen
+        men to guard him; and even then he is such a giant that he might
+        easily overpower them. At the camp they have got a prison, and stocks
+        which would hold him as fast as death.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna’s face
+        clouded over when she heard the Count’s determination, but she said
+        nothing. The lively Ælia broke in—</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page58">[pg 58]</span><a name="Pg058" id="Pg058" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My dear father, you will break poor Carna’s heart if you
+        do anything of the kind. She is bent on making a convert of the noble
+        savage. And anyhow, whatever else she may induce him to worship, he
+        seems ready, from what I have seen, to worship her. And besides, what
+        harm can he do? He has no arms, and he can’t speak a word of any
+        language known here. If he were to run away he would either be killed
+        or be starved to death.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well, Carna,”</span> said the Count, with a smile,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“what do you say? Will you stand surety for
+        this young pagan? Or shall I make him your slave, and then, if he
+        runs away, it will be your loss?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I hope,”</span> said the girl, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that you won’t send him to the camp, where, I fear, they
+        hold the lives of such as he very cheap.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> replied the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“we will keep him here, at all events for the present,
+        and I will give the bailiff orders to give him something to do in the
+        safest place that he can think of.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Accordingly the
+        young Saxon was set to work at the forge attached to the villa, and
+        proved himself a willing and serviceable labourer. No more suitable
+        choice, indeed, could have been made. That he was a man of some rank
+        at home everything about him seemed to show—nothing more than his
+        hands, which were delicate, and unusually small in proportion to his
+        almost gigantic stature. But the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page59">[pg 59]</span><a name="Pg059" id="Pg059" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>greatest chief among his people would not have
+        disdained the hammer and anvil. Was not Thor a mighty smith? And was
+        it not almost as much a great warrior’s business to make a good sword
+        as to wield it well when it was made? So the young man, whose mighty
+        shoulders and muscular arms were regarded with respect and even
+        astonishment by his British fellow-workmen, laboured with a will,
+        showing himself no mean craftsman in the blacksmith’s art. Sometimes,
+        as he plied the hammer, he would chant to himself, in a low voice,
+        what sounded like a war-song. Otherwise he remained absolutely
+        silent, not even attempting to pick up the few common words which
+        daily intercourse with his companions gave him the opportunity of
+        learning. There was an air of dignity about him which seemed to
+        forbid any of the little affronts to which a prisoner would naturally
+        be exposed; his evidently enormous strength, too, was a thing which
+        even the most stupid of his companions respected. Silent,
+        self-contained, and impassive, he moved quietly about his daily
+        tasks; it was only when he caught a glimpse of Carna that his
+        features were lighted up for a moment with a smile.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig058"
+        id="fig058" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig22" id=
+        "fig22"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_073.jpg" alt="Cedric at the Forge" title=
+          "Cedric at the Forge." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Cedric at the Forge.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The idea of
+        opening up any communication with him seemed hopeless, when an
+        unexpected, but still quite natural, way out of the difficulty
+        presented itself. An old peddler, who was accustomed to <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page60">[pg 60]</span><a name="Pg060" id="Pg060"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>supply the inmates of the villa with silks
+        and jewellery, and who sometimes had a book in his pack for Carna,
+        paid in due course one of his periodical visits. The old man was a
+        Gaul by birth, a native of one of the States on the eastern bank of
+        the Rhine, and in youth he had been an adventurous trader, extending
+        his journeys eastward and northward as far as the shores of the
+        Baltic. The risk was great, for the Germans of the interior looked
+        with suspicion on the visits of civilized strangers; but, on the
+        other hand, the profits were considerable. Amber, in pieces of a size
+        and clearness seldom matched on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, and
+        beautiful furs, as of the seal and the sea-otter, could be bought at
+        very low prices from these unsophisticated tribes, and sold again to
+        the wealthy ladies of Lutetia<a id="noteref_19" name="noteref_19"
+        href="#note_19"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">19</span></span></a> and
+        Lugdunum<a id="noteref_20" name="noteref_20" href=
+        "#note_20"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">20</span></span></a> at a
+        very considerable advantage. In these wanderings Antrix—for that was
+        the peddler’s name—had acquired a good knowledge of the
+        language—substantially the same, though divided into several
+        dialects—spoken by the German tribes; and, indeed, without such
+        knowledge his trading adventures would have been neither safe nor
+        profitable. As he approached old age Antrix had judged it expedient
+        to transfer his business from Gaul to Britain. Gaul <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page61">[pg 61]</span><a name="Pg061" id="Pg061"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>he found to be a dangerous place for a
+        peaceable trader, having lost more than once all the profits of a
+        journey, and, indeed, a good deal more, by one of the marauding bands
+        by whom the country was periodically overrun. Britain, or at least
+        the southern district of Britain, was certainly safer, and it was
+        this that for the last ten years he had been accustomed to traverse,
+        till he had become a well-known and welcome visitor at every villa
+        and settlement along the coast.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Here then chance,
+        or, as Carna preferred to think, Providence, had provided an
+        interpreter; and it so happened that, whether by another piece of
+        good fortune, or an additional interposition, his services were made
+        permanently useful. The old man had found his journeys becoming in
+        the winter too laborious for his strength, and it was not very
+        difficult to persuade him to make his home in the villa for two or
+        three months till the severity of the season should have passed.
+        Every one was pleased at the arrangement. Antrix was an admirable
+        teller of tales, and his had been an adventurous life, full of
+        incident, with which he knew how to make the winter night less long.
+        The Count saw a rare opportunity, such as had never come to him
+        before, of learning something about the hardy freebooters whom it was
+        his business to overawe; and Carna had the liveliest hopes of making
+        a proselyte, if she <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page62">[pg
+        62]</span><a name="Pg062" id="Pg062" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>could
+        only make herself, and the message in which she had so profound a
+        faith, understood.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young Saxon’s
+        resolution and pride did not long hold out against the unexpected
+        delight of being able once more to converse in his own language, and
+        he soon began to talk with perfect freedom—for, he had no idea of
+        having anything to conceal—about his home and his people. He was the
+        son, they learnt from him, of the chief of one of the Saxon
+        settlements near the mouth of the Albis.<a id="noteref_21" name=
+        "noteref_21" href="#note_21"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">21</span></span></a> The
+        people lived by hunting and fishing, and, more or less, by
+        cultivating the soil. But life was hard. The settlements were
+        crowded; game was growing scarce, and had to be followed further
+        afield every year; the climate, too, was very uncertain, and the
+        crops sometimes failed altogether. In short, they could not live
+        without what they were able to pick up in their expeditions to richer
+        countries and more temperate climates. On this point the young Saxon
+        was perfectly frank. The idea that there was anything of which a
+        warrior could possibly be ashamed in taking what he could by the
+        strong hand had evidently never crossed his mind. To rob a neighbour
+        or fellow-tribesman he counted shameful—so much could be gathered
+        from expressions that he let drop; as to others, his simple morality
+        was this—to keep what you had, to take what others could not keep.
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page63">[pg 63]</span><a name="Pg063"
+        id="Pg063" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>The Count found him curiously
+        well informed on what may be called the politics of Europe. He was
+        well aware of the decay of the Roman power. Kinsmen and neighbours of
+        his own had made their way south to get their share in the spoil of
+        the Empire. Some, he had heard, had stopped to take service with the
+        enemy; some had come back with marvellous tales of the wealth and
+        luxury which they had seen. About Britain itself he had very clear
+        views. The substance of what he said to the Count was this:
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“You won’t stop here very long. My father
+        says that you have been weakening your fleet and armies here for
+        years past, and that you will soon take them away altogether. Then we
+        shall come and take the country. It will hardly be in his time, he
+        says. Perhaps it may not be in mine. It is only you that hinder us;
+        it is only you that we are afraid of. We shall have the island; we
+        must have it. Our own country is too small and too barren to keep
+        us.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Of his own
+        adventures the young Saxon had little to say. This was the first
+        voyage that he and his brother had taken. Their father was in failing
+        health, and their mother, who had but one other child, a girl some
+        ten years younger, had kept them at home, till she had been
+        unwillingly persuaded that they were losing caste by taking no part
+        in the warlike excursions of their countrymen. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We had a fairly successful <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page64">[pg 64]</span><a name="Pg064" id="Pg064" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>time,”</span> went on the young chief, with the
+        absolute unconsciousness of wrong with which a hunter might relate
+        his exploits; <span class="tei tei-q">“took two merchantmen that had
+        good cargoes on board, and had a right royal fight with the people of
+        a town on the Gallic coast. We killed thirty of them; and only five
+        of our warriors went to the Walhalla. Then we turned homeward, but
+        our ship struck on a rock near some islands far to the west,<a id=
+        "noteref_22" name="noteref_22" href="#note_22"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">22</span></span></a> and had
+        almost gone to the bottom. With great labour we dragged her ashore,
+        and set to work repairing her; but our chief smith and carpenter had
+        fallen in the battle, and we were a long time in making her fit for
+        sea. This was the reason why we were going home so late, and also why
+        we lagged behind our comrades when you were chasing us. By rights we
+        were the best crew and had the swiftest ship, but she had been
+        clumsily mended, and dragged terribly in the water.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count listened
+        to all this with the greatest interest, and plied the speaker with
+        questions, all of which he answered with perfect frankness. He found
+        out how many warriors the settlement could muster, what were the
+        relations with their neighbours, whether there had been any definite
+        plans for a common expedition. On the whole, he came to the
+        conclusion that though there was no danger of an overpowering
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page65">[pg 65]</span><a name="Pg065"
+        id="Pg065" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>migration from this quarter
+        such as Western and Southern Europe had suffered from in former
+        times, these sea-faring tribes of the East would be an increasing
+        danger to Britain as years went on. Personally the prospect did not
+        concern him greatly; his fortunes were not bound up with the island.
+        Still he loved the place and its people; it troubled him to see what
+        dark days were in store for them. And taking a wider view—for he was
+        a man of large sympathies—he was grieved to see another black cloud
+        in an horizon already so dark. Would anything civilized be left, he
+        thought to himself, when every part of Europe has been swept by these
+        hosts of barbarians?</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Before long
+        another source of interest was discovered in the young Saxon. The
+        Count happened to overhear him chanting to himself, and though he
+        could not distinguish the words, he recognized in the rhythm
+        something like the camp-songs that he had often listened to from
+        German warriors in Stilicho’s camp. Here again the peddler’s services
+        as an interpreter were put in requisition, and though the old man’s
+        Latin, which went little beyond his practical wants as a trader, fell
+        lamentably short of what was wanted, enough was heard to interest the
+        villa family, which had a literary turn, very much. What the young
+        man had sung to himself was an early Saga, a curious romance<a id=
+        "noteref_23" name="noteref_23" href="#note_23"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">23</span></span></a> of
+        heroes fighting with monsters, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page66">[pg 66]</span><a name="Pg066" id="Pg066" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>as unlike as can be conceived to anything to be
+        found in Roman poetry—verse in its rudest shape, but still making
+        itself felt as a real poet’s work.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Lastly, Carna, now
+        that she had found a way of communicating her thoughts, threw herself
+        with ardour into the work of proselytizing the stranger. Here the
+        peddler was more at home in his task as interpreter. Carna used the
+        dialect of South Britain, with which he was far more familiar than he
+        was with Latin—it differed indeed but little from his native speech.
+        The topics too were familiar, for he had been brought up in the
+        Christian faith, and though he scarcely understood the girl’s zeal,
+        he was quite willing to help her as much as he could.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna found her
+        task much more difficult than she had expected. She had thought in
+        her simple faith that it would be enough for her to tell to the young
+        heathen the story of the Crucified Christ for him to fall down at
+        once and worship. He listened with profound attention and respect.
+        This, perhaps, he would have accorded to anything that came from her
+        lips; but, beyond this, the story itself profoundly interested him.
+        But it must be confessed that there was a good deal in it which did
+        not commend itself to his warrior’s ideal of what the God whom he
+        could worship should be. He was a soldier, and he could scarcely
+        conceive of anything great or good that was outside a soldier’s
+        virtues. The gods of his own <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page67">[pg
+        67]</span><a name="Pg067" id="Pg067" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>heaven, Odin and Thor and Balder, were great
+        conquerors, armed with armour which no mortal blow could pierce,
+        wielders of sword and hammer which were too heavy for any mortal arm
+        to wield. He could bow down to them because they were greater,
+        immeasurably greater than himself, in the qualities and gifts which
+        he most honoured. Now he was called upon to receive a quite different
+        set of ideas, to set up a quite different standard of excellence. The
+        story of the Gospels touched him. It roused him almost to fury when
+        he heard how the good man who had gone about healing the sick and
+        feeding the hungry had been put shamefully to death by His own
+        countrymen, by those who knew best what He had done. If Carna had
+        bidden him avenge the man who had been so ungratefully treated, he
+        would have performed her bidding with pleasure. But to worship this
+        Crucified One, to depose for Him Odin, Lord of Battles—that seemed
+        impossible.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Still he was
+        impressed, and impressed chiefly by the way in which the preacher
+        seemed to translate into her own life the principles of the faith
+        which she tried to set forth to him. She had told him that this
+        Crucified One had died for him. He could not understand why He should
+        have done so, why He should not have led His twelve legions of angels
+        against the wicked, swept them off from the face of the earth, and
+        established by force of arms a kingdom of justice. <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page68">[pg 68]</span><a name="Pg068" id="Pg068"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Still the idea of so much having been
+        given, so much endured for his sake touched him, especially when he
+        saw how passionately in earnest was this wonderful creature, this
+        beautiful prophetess, as, with the German reverence for women, he was
+        ready to regard her, how eager she was to do him good, how little, as
+        he could not but feel, she thought of herself in comparison with
+        others.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As long as Carna
+        dwelt on these topics she made good way; when she wandered away from
+        them, as naturally she sometimes did, she was not so successful. One
+        day it unluckily occurred to her that she would appeal to his
+        fears.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do not refuse to listen,”</span> she said to him,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“for if He is infinitely good to those who
+        love Him, He can also be angry with those who love Him
+        not.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What will He do with them?”</span> asked the young
+        Saxon.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“He will send them to suffer in everlasting
+        fire.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> answered the youth, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have heard from our wise men of such a place into
+        which Odin drives cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false
+        to their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting cold, and
+        this indeed seems to me to be worse than fire.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> said Carna, <span class="tei tei-q">“there
+        is such a place of torment, and it is kept not only for the wicked,
+        as you say, but for all who do not believe.”</span></p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page69">[pg 69]</span><a name="Pg069" id="Pg069"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who do not
+        own Him as their Master, and call themselves by His name?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes—and think how terrible a thing it would be if it
+        should happen to you.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And that is why you are so anxious to persuade
+        me?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And why you were so troubled about my brother when you
+        could not make him understand before he died?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should pass away
+        when safety was in his reach.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him to that
+        place because he did not know Him?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I fear that it must be so.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Then He shall send me also. For how am I better because
+        I have lived longer? No—I will be with my brother, whom I loved, and
+        with my own people.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And neither for
+        that day nor for many days to come would he speak again on this
+        subject. Carna was greatly troubled; but she began to think whether
+        there might not be something in what the young man had said.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page70">[pg 70]</span><a name="Pg070"
+        id="Pg070" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc23" id=
+        "toc23"></a> <a name="pdf24" id="pdf24"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER VII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Our story must now
+        go back a little, and take up the course of events at the camp, where
+        the look of affairs was not promising. The donative promised by
+        Constantine on the day of his election had been paid, but this had
+        been done only after the greatest exertions in wringing money out of
+        unlucky traders, farmers, and even peasants, who had been already
+        squeezed almost dry. All that had any coin left were beginning to
+        bury it,<a id="noteref_24" name="noteref_24" href=
+        "#note_24"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">24</span></span></a> and
+        though the collectors of taxes, or loans, or gifts, or whatever else
+        the frequent requisition of money might be called, had ingenious ways
+        of discovering or making their owners give up these hoards, it was
+        quite evident that very little more could be got out of Britain. The
+        military chest meanwhile was becoming alarmingly empty, <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page71">[pg 71]</span><a name="Pg071" id="Pg071"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and though money was still found somehow
+        for the larger camps, some of the less important garrisons had been
+        left for months with almost nothing in the way of pay. What was to be
+        done was a pressing question, which had to be answered in some way
+        within a few days. If it was not so answered, it was tolerably plain
+        that Constantine would meet the fate of Marcus and Gratianus. The
+        Emperor himself (if we are to give him this title) seemed to be very
+        little troubled by the prospect, and remained stolidly calm. His
+        elevation indeed had made the least possible difference to him. He
+        drank a better kind of wine, and perhaps a little more—for his cups
+        had been limited by his means—but he did not run into excess. He was
+        still the same simple, contented, good-natured man that he had always
+        been. But his sons were of another temper, though curiously differing
+        from each other. Constans the elder was an enthusiast, almost a
+        fanatic, a man of strong religious feeling, who would have followed
+        the religious life if it had been possible, and who now, finding
+        himself possessed of power, had schemes of using it to promote his
+        favourite schemes. Julian the younger had ambitions of a more
+        commonplace kind. But both the brothers were agreed in holding on to
+        the power that had been so strangely put into their father’s hands,
+        hands which, as he had very little will of his own, were practically
+        theirs.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page72">[pg
+        72]</span><a name="Pg072" id="Pg072" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A council was held
+        at which Constantine, his two sons, and three of the officers of
+        highest rank were present, and the urgent question of the day was
+        anxiously debated.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Julian began the
+        discussion.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The army,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“must
+        be employed, or it will find mischief to do at home which all of us
+        will be sorry for.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have some one to introduce to your Majesty,”</span>
+        said one of the officers present, <span class="tei tei-q">“who may
+        have something to say which will influence your decision. He is from
+        Ierne,<a id="noteref_25" name="noteref_25" href=
+        "#note_25"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">25</span></span></a> and
+        brings me a letter from the commander at Uriconium. He came last
+        night.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let him enter,”</span> said Constantine, with his usual
+        dull phlegmatic voice.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The tribune went
+        to the door of the chamber, and despatched a message to his quarters.
+        In a few minutes the stranger was introduced into the council. He was
+        a man verging upon middle age, somewhat short of stature, with a
+        great bush of fiery-red hair, which stood up from his head with a
+        very fierce look, a long, shaggy beard of the same colour, eyes of
+        the deepest blue, very bright and piercing, but with a <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page73">[pg 73]</span><a name="Pg073" id="Pg073"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>wandering and unsteady look in them, and a
+        ruddy complexion which deepened to an intense colour on his cheek
+        bones and other prominent parts of his face. Around his neck he wore
+        a heavy twisted collar of remarkably red gold. Massive rings of the
+        same metal adorned his fingers. His dress was of undyed wool, and
+        very rudely shaped, a curious contrast to the richness of his
+        ornaments. He was followed into the room by an interpreter, a young
+        native of Northern Britain, who had been carried off by Irish pirates
+        from one of the ecclesiastical schools. He had been taught Latin
+        before his captivity, and, while a captive, had made himself
+        acquainted with the Irish language, which indeed did not differ very
+        much from that spoken in Britain.<a id="noteref_26" name="noteref_26"
+        href="#note_26"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">26</span></span></a> His task
+        of interpreter was not by any means an easy one to fulfil. The Prince
+        broke out into a rapid torrent of complaint, invective, and entreaty,
+        which left the young man, who was not very expert in either of the
+        languages with which he had to deal, hopelessly behind. Then seeing
+        that he was not followed, he turned on his unlucky attendant and
+        dealt him a blow upon the ear that sent him staggering across the
+        room. Then he seemed to remember himself, and began to tell his story
+        again at a more moderate rate of speed, though he still from time to
+        time, when he came to <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page74">[pg
+        74]</span><a name="Pg074" id="Pg074" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>some
+        peculiarly exciting part in the tale of his wrongs, broke out into a
+        rapid eloquence that baffled all interpretation. The upshot of the
+        story was this—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He was, or rather
+        had been, a small king in South-eastern Ireland,<a id="noteref_27"
+        name="noteref_27" href="#note_27"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">27</span></span></a> the
+        eldest of four brothers, having succeeded his father about ten years
+        before. There had been a quarrel about the division of some property.
+        The Prince was a little obscure in his description of the property;
+        indeed it was a matter about which he was shrewd enough to say as
+        little as possible. But his hearers had no difficulty in presuming
+        that it consisted of spoil carried off from Britain. The quarrel had
+        come to blows. All the nation had been divided into parties in the
+        dispute. Finally he had been compelled by his ungrateful subjects to
+        fly for his life. Would the Emperor bring him back? He was liberal,
+        even extravagant, in his offers. He would bring the whole island
+        under his dominion. (As a matter of fact, his dominions had never
+        reached more than seventy miles inland, and he had contrived to make
+        himself so hated during his ten years’ reign that he had scarcely a
+        friend or follower left.) And what an island it was! There never was
+        such a place. The sheep were fatter, the cows gave more milk than in
+        any other place in the whole world. And there was <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page75">[pg 75]</span><a name="Pg075" id="Pg075"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>gold too, gold to be had for the picking
+        up; and amber on the shores, and pearls in the rivers. In short, it
+        was a treasure-house of wealth, which was waiting for the lucky
+        first-comer.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Are you a Christian?”</span> asked Constans.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The exiled chief
+        would have gladly said that he was, and indeed for a moment thought
+        of the audacious fiction that his attachment to the new faith had
+        been one of the causes of his expulsion. He was, in fact, a savagely
+        bigoted pagan, and had dealt very roughly with one or two
+        missionaries who had ventured into his neighbourhood. But he
+        reflected that the falsehood would infallibly be detected, and would
+        inevitably do him a great deal of harm.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No!”</span> he exclaimed; <span class="tei tei-q">“would
+        that I were. But there is nothing that I so much desire if only I
+        could attain to that blessing. But I promise to be baptized myself,
+        and to have every man, woman, and child within my dominions baptized
+        within a month, if you will only bring me back to them.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Even Constans
+        thought this zeal to be a little excessive.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And how many men can you bring into the field?”</span>
+        asked the more practical Julian; <span class="tei tei-q">“and what
+        money can you find for the pay of the soldiers?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The stranger was
+        taken aback at these direct questions.</p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page76">[pg 76]</span><a name="Pg076" id="Pg076" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“All my subjects, all my treasures are yours,”</span> he
+        said, after a pause.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I don’t believe,”</span> said one of the tribunes in
+        Latin to Julian, <span class="tei tei-q">“that he has any subjects
+        besides this wretched interpreter, or any treasure beyond what he
+        wears on his neck and his fingers.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Shall he withdraw?”</span> said Julian to his
+        father.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Constantine, who
+        never spoke when he could avoid speaking, answered by a nod, and the
+        Irish Prince withdrew.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let us have nothing to do,”</span> said the practical
+        Julian, <span class="tei tei-q">“with these Irish savages. They may
+        cut their own throats, and welcome, without our helping them. The
+        men, too, would rebel at the bare mention of Ierne. It is out of the
+        world in their eyes, and I think they are about right. And as to the
+        gold and pearls, I don’t believe in them.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Perhaps you are right,”</span> <a name="corr076" id=
+        "corr076" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">said</span> Constans; <span class="tei tei-q">“but it
+        would be a great work to bring over a new nation to the orthodox
+        faith.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Julian answered
+        with a laugh. <span class="tei tei-q">“My good brother, we are not
+        all such zealous missionaries as you. I am afraid that preaching is
+        not exactly the work which our friends the soldiers are looking out
+        for.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What does your Majesty say to an expedition to chastise
+        those thieving Picts? They grow more insolent every day.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This was the
+        suggestion of one of the tribunes.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page77">[pg 77]</span><a name="Pg077" id="Pg077" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What is to be got?”</span> was Julian’s answer.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Glory!”</span> answered the tribune.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Glory! What is that?—the men want pay and plunder. These
+        bare-legged villains haven’t so much as a rag that you can take from
+        them, and they have a shrewd way of giving at least as many hard
+        blows as they take. No!—we will leave the Picts alone, and only too
+        thankful if they will do the same for us!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The Count of the Shore has not yet taken the oath to his
+        Majesty,”</span> said an officer who had not spoken before.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“We might give some employment to the men in
+        bringing him to reason.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Constantine spoke
+        for the first time since the council had begun its
+        sitting—<span class="tei tei-q">“The Count is a good man and does his
+        business well. Leave him alone.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Other suggestions
+        were made and discussed without any sensible approach to a
+        conclusion, and the council broke up, but with an understanding that
+        it should meet again with as little delay as possible.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On the afternoon
+        of that very day an incident occurred which convinced every one—if
+        further conviction was needed—that delay would certainly be
+        fatal.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A party of
+        soldiers was practising javelin throwing, and Constantine, who had
+        been particularly expert in this exercise in his youth, stood
+        watching the game. He had stepped up to examine the mark <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page78">[pg 78]</span><a name="Pg078" id="Pg078"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>made by one of the weapons on the wooden
+        figure at which the men were throwing, when a javelin passed most
+        perilously near his head and buried itself in the wood. It could not
+        have been an accident; no one could have been so recklessly careless
+        as to throw under the circumstances. Constantine was as imperturbable
+        as usual. Without a sign of fear or anger, he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrades, you mistake; I am not made of wood,”</span>
+        and, signing to his attendants, walked quietly away. The incident,
+        however, made a great impression upon him, and a still greater upon
+        his sons.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig078"
+        id="fig078" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig25" id=
+        "fig25"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_095.jpg" alt="Javelin throwing" title=
+          "Javelin throwing." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Javelin throwing.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The consultation
+        was renewed and prolonged far into the night, and, as no conclusion
+        was reached, continued on the next day. About noon an unexpected
+        adviser appeared upon the scene.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A message was
+        brought into the council-chamber that a merchant from Gaul had
+        something of importance to communicate to the Emperor. The man was
+        admitted, after having been first searched by way of precaution. His
+        dress was sober in cut and colour, and he had a small pack such as
+        the wandering dealers in jewellery and similar light articles were
+        accustomed to carry. Otherwise he was little like a trader; indeed,
+        it did not need a very acute or practised hand to detect in him a
+        soldier’s bearing, and even that of one who was accustomed to
+        command.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page79">[pg
+        79]</span><a name="Pg079" id="Pg079" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You have something to tell us?”</span> said Julian.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, I have,”</span> said the stranger, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“but let me first show you my credentials.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He spoke in
+        passable Latin, but with a decided accent, which, strongly marked as
+        it was, was not recognized by any of those present. At the same time
+        he produced from a silken purse, which he wore like a girdle round
+        his waist, a small square of parchment. It was a letter written in a
+        minute but very clear hand, and it had evidently been put for the
+        security of the bearer, who could thus more easily dispose of it in
+        case of need, into the smallest possible compass. This was handed to
+        Constantine, who, in turn, passed it on to his elder son Constans, he
+        being the only one present who could read and write with fluency. It
+        ran thus:</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Alaric, the son of Baltha, King of the Goths,
+        Emperor of the World, to Marcus, Emperor of Britain and the West,
+        greeting.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A grim smile
+        passed over Constantine’s face as he heard this address. He muttered
+        to himself, <span class="tei tei-q">“ <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘Marcus,’</span> indeed! Those who write to the Emperor
+        of Britain must have speedy <a name="corr079" id="corr079" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">letter-carriers.</span>”</span> The letter proceeded
+        thus:</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">I desire friendship and alliance with the
+        nations who are wearied and worn out with the oppressions and
+        cruelties of Rome, and for this purpose send this present by
+        my</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page80">[pg 80]</span><a name=
+        "Pg080" id="Pg080" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">trusty kinsman and counsellor Atualphus, to you
+        who are, I understand, asserting against the common tyrant of the
+        world the liberty of Britain and the West. I have not thought it fit
+        to trust more to writing, but commend to you the bearer hereof, the
+        aforesaid Atualphus, who is acquainted with the mind and purpose of
+        myself and of my people, and with whom you may conveniently concert
+        such plans as may best serve our common welfare. Farewell. Given at
+        my camp at Æmona.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Marcus is no more,”</span> said Julian. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“He was unworthy of his dignity. You are in the presence
+        of the most excellent Constantine, Emperor of Britain.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It matters not,”</span> said the Goth, with a haughty
+        smile. <span class="tei tei-q">“My lord the king will treat as
+        willingly with one as with another, so he be an enemy of
+        Rome!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what does he propose? What would he have us
+        do?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Make common cause with him against Honorius and
+        Rome.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What shall we gain thereby?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Half of the Empire of the World.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“How shall that be?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The King will march into Italy and attack the Emperor in
+        his own land. The Emperor will withdraw all the legions that he yet
+        controls for his own defence. With them the King will deal. Then
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page81">[pg 81]</span><a name="Pg081"
+        id="Pg081" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>comes your opportunity. What
+        does it profit you to remain in this island, where nothing is to be
+        won either of glory or of riches. Cross over into Gaul and Spain,
+        which, wearied with oppression and desiring above all things to throw
+        off the Roman yoke, will gladly welcome you. Your Cæsar shall reign
+        on this side of the Alps and the Pyrenees. The future may bring other
+        things, but that may suffice for the present.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The plan, so bold,
+        and yet, it would seem, so feasible, and presenting a ready escape
+        out of a situation that seemed hopeless, struck every one present
+        with a delighted surprise. Even the phlegmatic Constantine was
+        roused. <span class="tei tei-q">“It shall be done,”</span> he
+        said.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Some further
+        conversation followed, which it is not necessary to relate. Ways and
+        means were discussed. Questions were asked about the strength and
+        temper of the forces in Gaul and Spain, about the feeling of the
+        towns, and a hundred other matters, with all of which Atualphus
+        showed a curiously intimate knowledge. When the Goth retired from the
+        council, he left very little doubt or hesitation behind him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“They are heretics—these Goths,”</span> grumbled
+        Constans; <span class="tei tei-q">“obstinate Arians every one of
+        them, I told——”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You shall convert them, my brother,”</span> answered
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page82">[pg 82]</span><a name="Pg082"
+        id="Pg082" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Julian, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“when you are Bishop of Rome. When we divide the West
+        between us, that shall be your portion.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It shall be done,”</span> said Constantine again, as he
+        rose from his chair.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page83">[pg 83]</span><a name="Pg083"
+        id="Pg083" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc26" id=
+        "toc26"></a> <a name="pdf27" id="pdf27"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER VIII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE NEWS IN THE CAMP.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That afternoon a
+        banquet, which was as handsomely set out as the very short notice
+        permitted, was given to all the officers in the camp. When the tables
+        were removed,<a id="noteref_28" name="noteref_28" href=
+        "#note_28"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">28</span></span></a>
+        Constantine, who had been carefully primed by his sons with what he
+        was to say, addressed his guests. His words were few and to the
+        point. <span class="tei tei-q">“Britain,”</span> he said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“has been long enough ruled by others. It is
+        now time that she should begin herself to rule. It was the error of
+        those who went before me to be content with the limits of this
+        island. But here there is not enough to content us. Beyond the sea,
+        separated from us by only a few hours’ journey, lie wealthy provinces
+        which wait for our coming. A kindlier sky, more fertile fields,
+        richer and fairer cities than ours are there. We have only to show
+        ourselves, in short, to be both <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page84">[pg 84]</span><a name="Pg084" id="Pg084" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>welcomed and obeyed. Half the victories which we
+        have won here to no profit over poverty-stricken barbarians would
+        have sufficed to give us riches even beyond our desires. Henceforth
+        let us use our arms where they may win something for us beyond empty
+        honour and wounds. Follow me, and within a year you shall be masters
+        both of Gaul and Spain.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The younger guests
+        received this oration with shouts of applause; visions of promotion
+        and prize-money, and even of the spoil of some of the wealthy cities
+        of the mainland floated before them. The older men did not show this
+        enthusiasm. Many of them were attached to Britain by ties that they
+        were very loth to break. They had little to hope, but much to fear,
+        from a change. Still, they saw the necessity for doing something;
+        another year such as that which had just passed would thoroughly
+        demoralize the army of Britain. Legions that get into the habit of
+        making emperors and killing them for their pastime must be dealt with
+        by vigorous remedies, and the easiest and best of these was active
+        service. In any case it would have been impolitic to show dissent.
+        Many feigned, therefore, a joy which they did not feel, and shouted
+        approval when the Senior Tribune exclaimed, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrades, drink to our chief, Constantine Augustus,
+        Emperor of Britain and the West.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The revel was kept
+        up late into the night, the young Goth distinguishing himself by the
+        marvellous depth <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page85">[pg
+        85]</span><a name="Pg085" id="Pg085" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of
+        his draughts and the equally marvellous strength of his head.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Emperor
+        retired early from the scene, and Constans, who had little liking for
+        these boisterous scenes, followed his example, as did most of the
+        older men. One of these, the cheery centurion, who has been mentioned
+        more than once, we may follow to his home.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Outside the camp
+        had grown up a village of considerable size, though it consisted for
+        the most part of humble dwellings. There were two or three taverns,
+        or rather drinking-shops, where the soldiers could carouse on the
+        thin, sour wine of the British vineyards, or, if the length of their
+        purses permitted, on metheglin, a more potent drink, made from the
+        fermentation of honey. A Jew, driven by the restless speculation of
+        his race, had established himself in a shop where he sold cheap
+        ornaments to the soldiers’ wives, and advanced money to their
+        husbands on the security of their pay. A tailor displayed tunics and
+        cloaks, and a shoemaker sold boots warranted to resist the cold and
+        wet of the island climate. There were a few cottages occupied by the
+        grooms and stablemen who attended to the horses employed in the camp,
+        by fishermen who plied their trade in the neighbouring waters, and
+        other persons of a variety of miscellaneous employments in one way or
+        other connected with the camp. But just outside the main <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page86">[pg 86]</span><a name="Pg086" id="Pg086"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>street, at the end nearest to the camp,
+        stood a house of somewhat greater pretensions. It was indeed a humble
+        imitation of the Roman villa, being built round three sides of an
+        irregular square, which was itself occupied by a grass plot and a few
+        flower beds. It was to this that the Centurion Decius bent his steps
+        after the conversation related in the last chapter. It was evidently
+        with the reluctant step of the bearer of bad news that he proceeded
+        on his way. As soon as he entered the enclosure his approach was
+        observed from within. Two blooming girls, whose ages may have been
+        seventeen and fifteen respectively, ran gaily to meet him. A woman
+        some twenty-five years older, but still youthful of aspect and
+        handsome, followed at a more sober pace.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What is the matter, father?”</span> cried the elder of
+        the girls, who had been quick to perceive that all was not right.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The centurion held
+        up his hand and made a signal for silence. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Hush,”</span> he said; <span class="tei tei-q">“I have
+        something to tell you, but it must not be here. Let us go
+        indoors.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Shall the children leave us alone?”</span> said the
+        centurion’s wife, who had now come up.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No,”</span> he answered, wearily, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“let them be with us while they can,”</span> he added in
+        a low voice, which only the wife’s ears, made keenly alive by
+        affection and fear, could catch.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The gaiety of the
+        young people was quenched, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page87">[pg
+        87]</span><a name="Pg087" id="Pg087" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>for,
+        without having any idea of what had happened, they could see plainly
+        enough that something was disturbing their parents; and it was with
+        fast beating hearts that they waited for his explanation.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Our happy days here are over, my dearest,”</span> said
+        the centurion, drawing his wife to him, and tenderly kissing her, as
+        soon as they were within doors.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You mean,”</span> said she, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that the order has come.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> he answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“we
+        are to leave as soon as the transports can be collected. The
+        resolution was made to-day and will be announced to the army
+        to-morrow. It is no secret, I suppose, or will not be for <a name=
+        "corr087" id="corr087" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">long.</span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And where are we to go?”</span> cried the elder of the
+        girls, whose face brightened as the thought of seeing a little more
+        of the world, of a home in one of the cities of Gaul, possibly in
+        Rome itself, flitted across her mind.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The poor centurion
+        changed colour. The girl’s question brought up the difficulty which
+        he knew had to be faced, but which he would gladly have put off as
+        long as he could.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We shall go to Gaul, certainly; where I cannot
+        say,”</span> he answered, after a long pause, and in a hesitating
+        voice.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh, how delightful!”</span> cried the girl; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“exactly the thing that Lucia and I have been longing
+        for. And Rome? Surely we shall go to Rome, father? <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page88">[pg 88]</span><a name="Pg088" id="Pg088"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Are you not glad to hear it, mother? I am
+        sure that we are all tired of this cold, foggy place.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The mother said
+        nothing. If she did not exactly see the whole of the situation, she
+        had at least an housewife’s horror of a move. The poor father moved
+        uneasily upon his chair.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The legion will go,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“but your mother and you——”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh, Lucius,”</span> cried the poor wife, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“you do not, cannot mean that we are not to go with
+        you!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Nothing is settled,”</span> he replied, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“it is true; but I am much troubled about it.
+        <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">You</span></span> might go, though I do not like
+        the idea of your following the camp; but these dear girls—and yet
+        they cannot be separated from you.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The unhappy wife
+        saw the truth only too clearly. If the times had been quiet, she
+        might herself have possibly accompanied the legion in its march
+        southward; but even then she could not have taken her daughters with
+        her, her daughters whom she never allowed to go within the precincts
+        of the camp, except on the one day, the Emperor’s birthday, when all
+        the officers’ families were expected to be present at the ceremony of
+        saluting the Imperial likeness. And this had of late been omitted
+        when it was difficult to say from day to day what Emperor the troops
+        acknowledged. The centurion had spoken only too truly; the legion
+        might go, but they must <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page89">[pg
+        89]</span><a name="Pg089" id="Pg089" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>stay
+        behind. She covered her face with her hands and wept.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Lucia,”</span> cried the elder girl to her sister,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“we will enlist; we will take the oath; I
+        should make just as good a soldier as many of the Briton lads they
+        are filling up the cohorts with now; though you, I must allow, are a
+        little too small,”</span> she added, ruefully, as she looked at her
+        sister’s plump little figure, too hopelessly feminine ever to admit
+        the possibility of a disguise. <span class="tei tei-q">“Cheer up,
+        mother,”</span> she went on, <span class="tei tei-q">“we shall find a
+        way out of the difficulty somehow.”</span> And she threw her arms
+        round the weeping woman, and kissed her repeatedly.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There was silence
+        for a few minutes, broken at last by the timid, hesitating voice of
+        the younger girl.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But must you go, father?”</span> she said. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Surely they don’t keep soldiers in the camp for ever.
+        And have you not served long enough? You were in the legion, I have
+        heard you say, before even Maria was born.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My child,”</span> said the centurion, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“it is true that my time is at least on the point of
+        being finished. Yet I can’t leave the service just now. Just because
+        I am the oldest officer the Legate counts on me, and I can’t desert
+        him. It would be almost as bad as asking for one’s discharge on the
+        eve of a battle. And besides, though I don’t like troubling your
+        young spirits with such matters, I cannot afford it. <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page90">[pg 90]</span><a name="Pg090" id="Pg090"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Were I to resign now I should get no
+        pension, or next to none. But in a year or two’s time, when things
+        are settled down, I hope to get something worth having—some post,
+        perhaps, that would give me a chance of making a home for
+        you.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A fifth person,
+        who had hitherto taken no part in the conversation, and whose
+        presence in the room had been almost forgotten by every one, now
+        broke in, with a voice which startled the hearers by its unusual
+        clearness and precision. Lena, mother of the centurion’s wife, had
+        nearly completed her eightieth year. Commonly, she sat in the chimney
+        corner, unheeding, to all appearances, of the life that went on about
+        her, and dozing away the day. In her prime, and even down to old age,
+        she had been a woman of remarkable activity, ruling her daughter’s
+        household as despotically as in former days she had ruled her own.
+        Then a sudden and severe illness had prostrated her, and she had
+        seemed to shrink at once into feebleness and helplessness of mind and
+        body. Her daughter and granddaughters tended her carefully and
+        lovingly; but she seemed scarcely to take any notice of them. The
+        only thing that ever seemed to rouse her attention was the sight of
+        her son-in-law when he chanced to enter the chamber without
+        disarming. The shine of the steel brought a fire again into her dim,
+        sunken eyes. It was probably this that had now roused her; and her
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page91">[pg 91]</span><a name="Pg091"
+        id="Pg091" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>attention, once awakened, had
+        been kept alive by what she heard.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And at whose bidding are you going?”</span> she said, in
+        a startlingly clear voice to come from one so feeble; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“this Honorius, as he calls himself, a feeble creature
+        who has never drawn a sword in his life! Now, if it had been his
+        father! He was a man to obey. He did deserve to be called Emperor. I
+        saw him forty years ago—just after you were born, daughter—when he
+        came with his father. A splendid young fellow he was; and one who
+        would have his own way, too! How he gave those turbulent Greeks at
+        Thessalonica their deserts! Fifteen thousand of them!<a id=
+        "noteref_29" name="noteref_29" href="#note_29"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">29</span></span></a> That was
+        an Emperor worth having!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh! mother,”</span> cried her daughter, horrified to see
+        the old woman’s ferocity, softened, she had hoped, by age and
+        infirmity, roused again in all its old strength. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh! mother, don’t say such dreadful things. That was an
+        awful crime in Theodosius, and he had to do penance for it in the
+        church.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ay,”</span> muttered the old woman, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I can fancy it did not please the priests. But
+        why,”</span> she went on, raising her voice again, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“why does not Britain have an Emperor of her
+        own?”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page92">[pg
+        92]</span><a name="Pg092" id="Pg092" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“So she has, mother,”</span> said the centurion.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“You forget our Lord Constantine.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Our Lord Constantine!”</span> she repeated. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Who is Constantine? Why, I remember his mother—a slave
+        girl—whom the Irish pirates carried off from somewhere in the North.
+        Constantine’s father bought her, and married her. Why should he be
+        Emperor? I could make as good a one any day out of a faggot
+        stick.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Peace, dear mother,”</span> said the centurion,
+        soothingly, afraid that her words might have other listeners.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Why not you,”</span> went on the old woman, unheeding;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“you are better born.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I, Emperor!”</span> cried the centurion. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Speak good words, dearest mother.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> said the old woman, dropping her voice
+        again, <span class="tei tei-q">“they are poor creatures
+        now-a-days.”</span> And she relapsed into silence, looking again as
+        wholly indifferent to the present as if the strange outburst of rage
+        and impatience which her family had just witnessed had never taken
+        place.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The family
+        discussed the position of affairs anxiously till far into the
+        night.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what will happen,”</span> said the wife,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“when the legions are gone?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“There will be a British kingdom, I suppose; and, if it
+        were united, it might stand. But it <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page93">[pg 93]</span><a name="Pg093" id="Pg093" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>will not be united. It will be every man for
+        himself.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And how about the Saxons and the Picts? If the legions
+        hardly protected us from them, how will it be when they are
+        gone?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The centurion’s
+        look grew gloomier than ever. <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        know,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“the prospect is a sad
+        one. But I hope that for a year you will be fairly safe; and after
+        that I shall hope to send for you. Or you might go over to Gaul. But
+        I hope to see the Count of the Shore about these matters. He will
+        give me the best advice. Here, of course, you can hardly stay, even
+        if you cared to do it; and some place must be found. Meanwhile, make
+        all the preparations you can for a move.”</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page94">[pg 94]</span><a name="Pg094"
+        id="Pg094" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc28" id=
+        "toc28"></a> <a name="pdf29" id="pdf29"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER IX.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The resolution to
+        leave Britain was announced at a general meeting of the soldiers on
+        the following day, and was received by it with tremendous enthusiasm.
+        To most who were present, Gaul seemed a land of promise. It was from
+        Gaul that almost every article of luxury that they either had or
+        wished to have was imported, and some of the necessities of life, as
+        notably wine, were known to be both better and cheaper there than in
+        Britain. Comfortable quarters in wealthy cities, which were ready to
+        be friendly, or could easily be brought to reason if they were not;
+        easy campaigns, not against naked Picts, but against civilized
+        enemies who had something to lose; and when the time of service was
+        over, a snug little farm, with corn land, pasture, and vineyard, and
+        a hard-working native to till it—such were the dreams which floated
+        through the soldiers’ minds; and they were ready to go anywhere with
+        the man <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page95">[pg 95]</span><a name=
+        "Pg095" id="Pg095" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>who promised to make
+        them into realities. Older and more prudent men who knew that there
+        were two sides to the question, and the unadventurous, who were well
+        content to stay where they were, could not resist the tide of popular
+        feeling, and concealed, if they did not abandon, their doubts and
+        scruples. As money was scarce, the men volunteered to forego their
+        pay till it could be returned to them with large interest in the
+        shape of prize-money. They even gave up to the melting pot the silver
+        ornaments from their arms and from the trappings of their horses. The
+        messengers who were sent with the tidings of the proposed movement to
+        the other camps—which were now mainly to be found in the southern
+        part of the island—found the troops everywhere well disposed, and
+        within a few days every military station was alive with the stir and
+        bustle of preparations for a move.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One of the most
+        pressing cares of the new leaders of the army was the securing the
+        means of transport. There was a great number of merchant ships,
+        indeed, which could be pressed into the service, and which would
+        perform it very well if only the passage in the Channel could be made
+        without meeting opposition. The question to be considered was whether
+        they could reckon upon this, or would the fleet, which was still
+        supposed to acknowledge the authority of Honorius, prevent them from
+        crossing. The chief person to be reckoned with in this matter was, of
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page96">[pg 96]</span><a name="Pg096"
+        id="Pg096" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>course, the Count of the Shore,
+        and a despatch was immediately sent to him. It was the production of
+        Constans, and ran thus—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Constantine, Emperor of Britain and the West, to
+        Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore,
+        greeting.</span></span></span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Having been called to Empire by the unanimous
+        voice of the People and Army of Britain, and desiring to give
+        deliverance from tyranny and protection from violence to other
+        provinces besides this my Island of Britain, I purpose to transport
+        such forces as it may be necessary to use for this purpose to the
+        land of Gaul. I call upon you therefore, having full confidence in
+        your loyalty, to give me such assistance as may be in your power, for
+        the accomplishment of this end, and promise you, on the other hand,
+        my favour and protection. Farewell.</span></span></span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Given at the Camp of the Great
+        Harbour.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count received
+        this communication about ten days after his arrival at the villa. The
+        writer would scarcely have been pleased at the comments which he made
+        as he read it.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“ <span class="tei tei-q">‘Constantine, Emperor.’</span>
+        How many more Emperors are we to have in this unlucky island?
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Of Britain and the West.’</span> And I doubt
+        whether he can call a foot of ground his own fifty miles from the
+        camp. <span class="tei tei-q">‘To deliver other provinces from
+        oppression and violence.’</span> Why not begin by trying his hand at
+        home? <span class="tei tei-q">‘Full confidence in my loyalty.’</span>
+        Truly <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page97">[pg 97]</span><a name=
+        "Pg097" id="Pg097" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>valuable praise from so
+        excellent a judge in the matter. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Such
+        assistance as may be in my power.’</span> Well, I should be glad to
+        see the last of this crew of adventurers and villains; but he sha’n’t
+        have my ships.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count’s
+        position indeed was one of singular difficulty. He had thought it
+        best—indeed he had found it necessary, if he was to do his own
+        work—to keep on friendly terms with the usurpers who had gone before
+        Constantine. It had been quite hopeless for him to attempt to coerce
+        the legions. If they chose to make Emperors for themselves, he must
+        let them do it, so long as they did not interfere with his liberty as
+        a loyal subject. But this was a different matter. Crossing over into
+        Gaul meant downright hostility to the authorities in Italy. How could
+        he help it forward? And yet how could he prevent it? He had three
+        ships available. All the others were laid up for the winter in
+        harbours on the eastern and south-eastern shores of the island. With
+        these he might do some damage to the legions in their passage; but
+        the passage he could not hope to prevent. And if he did prevent it,
+        what would be his own future relations with the army? Clearly he
+        could not stay in Vectis, or indeed anywhere in Britain, for there
+        was no place which he could hope to hold against a small detachment
+        of the army. And to go, though it could easily be done, and would
+        save him a vast <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page98">[pg
+        98]</span><a name="Pg098" id="Pg098" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>amount of trouble, would be to give up his whole
+        work, and to leave the unhappy inhabitants of the coast without
+        protection from the pirates of the East. After long and anxious
+        deliberation, which he did not disdain to share with his daughter and
+        Carna, he resolved on a middle course, by following which he would
+        neither help nor hinder. The first thing was to seek an interview
+        with Constantine or his representatives, and a messenger was
+        accordingly despatched suggesting a conference to be held on
+        shipboard, under a flag of truce, off the mouth of the Great
+        Harbour.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The proposition
+        was accepted, and three days afterwards the conference was held, in
+        the way that the Count had suggested. Each party brought a single
+        ship, which was anchored for the greater convenience of carrying on
+        the conversation, but was perfectly ready to slip its anchor in case
+        of any threatening of treachery. The Count’s vessel had the Imperial
+        standard at its mast-head; Constantine’s, on the other hand, had no
+        distinguishing characteristic. Both he and his two sons were present,
+        but the father was as silent as usual, and the chief spokesman was
+        Julian.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count was very
+        brief in his greetings, and indicated, as plainly as he could without
+        saying it in so many words, that he did not acknowledge the
+        pretensions of the usurper.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“you
+        have asked me to help in the transport of your army across the
+        Channel. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page99">[pg 99]</span><a name=
+        "Pg099" id="Pg099" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Briefly then I have not
+        the means. I have but three ships ready for sea, and not one of these
+        can I spare.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The Emperor can command their services,”</span> said
+        Julian.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have received no instructions from my master,”</span>
+        returned the Count, <span class="tei tei-q">“to use them except for
+        the protection of the coast.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You have them now,”</span> said Julian, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“and you will refuse to obey them at your
+        peril.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My commission is made out by Flavius Honorius Augustus,
+        and I know no other to whom I can yield obedience.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A pause followed
+        this plain speech; the party on board with Constantine debated the
+        situation with some heat, Julian maintaining that the Count must be
+        brought to reason, the others being anxious to keep on good terms
+        with him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“A single cohort can bring him to order,”</span> cried
+        the young Prince.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Can drive him out of the villa doubtless,”</span> said
+        the more prudent Constans, <span class="tei tei-q">“but not bring us
+        an inch nearer getting the ships.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We may at least count on your friendship,”</span> said
+        Constans, Julian retiring sulkily from the negotiations; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“you will not hinder the passage.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have nothing to do with the disposition of the
+        legions,”</span> answered the Count, <span class="tei tei-q">“and, as
+        I said <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100">[pg 100]</span><a name=
+        "Pg100" id="Pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>before, have no
+        instructions except to defend the shore against the
+        Pirates.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“His Majesty will not be ungrateful,”</span> said
+        Constans.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I owe no duty but to Honorius, and desire no favour but
+        from him,”</span> was the Count’s reply, and the conference was at an
+        end.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The result was as
+        favourable as Constantine could have expected. At least no opposition
+        would be offered. Preparations for the passage were accordingly
+        hurried on with all possible speed. All the towns along the coast
+        were put under requisition for all the shipping that they could
+        furnish, and, for the most part, were glad enough to answer the call.
+        Whatever might happen in the future, it would be at least something
+        to be rid of such troublesome neighbours. If other legions were to
+        come, they might be more orderly and well-behaved. If these were to
+        be the last, perhaps this would be a change for the better. Every one
+        accordingly exerted himself to the utmost to supply the demand for
+        transports.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a curious
+        medley of vessels that assembled in the Great Harbour in the late
+        autumn for the embarkation of the army. Old ships of war that had
+        lain high and dry from before the memory of man were hastily pitched
+        over and launched. Merchant vessels of every kind were there, from
+        the huge hulks <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101">[pg
+        101]</span><a name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that
+        were accustomed to carry heavy cargoes of metal from Cornwall, to the
+        light barks that carried on the trade in wine, olive oil, fruit, and
+        such light goods between Armorica and Britain; even the fishing
+        vessels from the villages along the coast were pressed into the
+        service, and laden to the full, sometimes even to a dangerous depth,
+        with military material and all the miscellaneous property with which
+        an army of twenty thousand men would be likely to be encumbered. The
+        greater part of this force had been collected at the Camp of the
+        Great Harbour, which indeed was overflowing, and more than
+        overflowing, with troops. But the garrisons that were situated to the
+        eastward, as at Regnum<a id="noteref_30" name="noteref_30" href=
+        "#note_30"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">30</span></span></a> and
+        Anderida,<a id="noteref_31" name="noteref_31" href=
+        "#note_31"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">31</span></span></a> were to
+        join the fleet as it sailed, while those from the inland and coast
+        stations of South and Eastern Britain were to make the best of their
+        way to the Portus Lemanus. This was to be the rendezvous for the
+        whole force, and the point for commencing the passage. The longer
+        voyage, direct from the Great Harbour to the mouth of the Sequana
+        (the Seine) or the projecting peninsula, now known as Manche, was
+        dreaded, for the Channel had even a worse reputation in those days
+        than it has now. It was arranged, accordingly, that the flotilla
+        should sail along the coast as far as the Portus Lemanus, and cross
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a name="Pg102"
+        id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from thence to Bononia.<a id=
+        "noteref_32" name="noteref_32" href="#note_32"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">32</span></span></a> The
+        first half of November had passed before the preparations for
+        departure were completed, and there were some who advised Constantine
+        to delay his passage till the following spring. That he knew to be
+        impossible; it was better to run any risk of storm or shipwreck than
+        to face the winter with an ill-paid and discontented army.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At early dawn, on
+        the fifteenth of the month, the embarkation began, the munitions of
+        war, stores, and other baggage having been already, as far as was
+        possible, put on board of the heavier transports. The water-gate of
+        the camp was thrown open, and at this Constantine, his sons, and his
+        principal officers took their place. The priest who served the church
+        within the camp offered a few prayers, and solemnly blessed the eagle
+        of the Second Legion, which constituted, as has been said, the main
+        part of the forces in the camp. When this ceremony was concluded,
+        Constantine addressed the army.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“By this gate in the days of our ancestors Vespasian led
+        forth the Second Legion, then, as now, one of the chief ornaments and
+        supports of the Empire, to execute the judgment of God on the
+        rebellious nation of the Jews, and to receive before long as his
+        reward the Empire of Rome. By this gate I lead you forth, worthy
+        successors as you are of those <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page103">[pg 103]</span><a name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>who conquered with him, to a service not less
+        honourable, and certain to receive no less distinguished a reward.
+        Let my name, which recommended me to your favour, and this place,
+        already famous as the starting-point of victorious armies, be
+        accepted as omens of success. Comrades, follow me on a march which
+        has for its end nothing less than the Capitol of Rome.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He then took his
+        seat in a boat manned with a picked crew, and, amidst shouts of
+        applause from the assembled soldiers and spectators, was rowed to the
+        ship, one of the few war galleys of recent construction that were to
+        be found in the fleet. Then began the embarkation of the troops.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a singular
+        scene. The news had spread with the greatest rapidity through the
+        whole countryside, and the native population had crowded to witness
+        the departure. Every point from which the sight could be seen was
+        occupied by spectators. Even the slopes of Portsdown were thickly
+        dotted by them. Nearer the camp the emotion and excitement were
+        intense. A regiment that marches out of a town in which it has been
+        in garrison for a year or two leaves many sad hearts behind it; even
+        so brief a space is long enough for the binding of many ties. But the
+        legions had been almost permanent residents in Britain, and they were
+        bound to its people by bonds many and close. And this people was not,
+        it <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a name=
+        "Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>must be remembered, the
+        self-restrained English race, so chary of sighs and groans, and so
+        much ashamed of tears, but a race of excitable Celts, always ready to
+        express all, and even more, than they felt. Wives, children,
+        kinsfolk, friends were now to be left behind, and probably left for
+        ever—for who could believe that the legions, whose departure had been
+        threatened so long, could ever come back?</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig104"
+        id="fig104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig30" id=
+        "fig30"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_123.jpg" alt="The Departure of the Legions"
+          title="The Departure of the Legions." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Departure of the
+            Legions.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The embarkation
+        went on. Some of the lighters could be brought close to the shore,
+        and were boarded by gangways. To others of heavier burden the men had
+        to be carried in boats. A strong guard had been posted to keep the
+        place of embarkation clear. But the guard was powerless, or perhaps
+        unwilling—for who could deal harshly with women and children so
+        situated?—to check the rush of the excited crowd. Some of the women
+        threw themselves on their departing husbands and lovers, clasped them
+        round their necks, or hung to their knees. Others sat on the shore
+        rocking themselves to and fro, or frozen by the extremity of their
+        grief into stillness; some uttered shrill cries; others were sunk in
+        a speechless despair. Nor were there wanting scenes of a less
+        harrowing kind. Not a few of the departing soldiers were breaking
+        other obligations besides those of the heart. Creditors were to be
+        seen clinging to debtors whom they saw vanishing out of their sight.
+        The Jew trader from the village outside the camp <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a name="Pg105" id="Pg105"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>seemed to be in despair. Probably he had
+        secured himself fairly well against the consequences of an event
+        which he must have been shrewd enough to foresee; but to judge from
+        the bitterness and frequency of his appeals he was hopelessly ruined.
+        He swore by the patriarchs and prophets that he had always carried on
+        his business at a loss, and that if his debts were not now settled in
+        full he should be reduced to beggary. The tavern-keepers were also
+        busy, running to and fro, getting, or trying to get, payment of
+        scores from customers whom they had trusted. There were others who
+        had something to sell, some provisions for the voyage, a cloak, or a
+        mantle, and offered it as a bargain—not, however, without a margin of
+        profit—to dear friends with whom they were not likely to have
+        dealings again. Other noisy claimants for attention were young
+        Britons who wanted to enlist. For days past these had been flocking
+        into the camp, and now that their last chance was about to disappear,
+        they became importunate in the extreme. The numbers of the legions
+        could have been almost doubled from these candidates for service.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Slowly, as ship
+        after ship received its complement of men, the turmoil on the shore
+        lessened, and about sunset the embarkation was completed. The weather
+        was beautifully calm, a light wind blowing from the land during the
+        day, and even this falling as the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page106">[pg 106]</span><a name="Pg106" id="Pg106" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>light declined. When the moon rose—the time of
+        the full had been chosen for the embarkation—the sea was almost calm.
+        Then, amidst a great cry of <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Farewell,”</span> from the shore, the fleet slowly moved
+        down the harbour. All night, making the most of the favourable
+        weather, it pursued its way along the coast, being joined as it went
+        by other detachments. At the Portus Lemanus it found the fleet which
+        carried the garrisons of the eastern stations ready to start, and the
+        whole made its way without hindrance across the Channel to Bononia,
+        having as prosperous a voyage as had the legions which more than four
+        hundred and fifty years before Cæsar had brought to the island.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107">[pg 107]</span><a name="Pg107"
+        id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc31" id=
+        "toc31"></a> <a name="pdf32" id="pdf32"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER X.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">DANGERS AHEAD.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The winter that
+        followed the departure of the legions was a busy time with the Count.
+        He was now almost the only representative of Roman power in Southern
+        Britain, and the villa on the island became a place of considerable
+        importance. A military force of some strength was gathered there.
+        Constantine’s enterprise was not universally popular, and many had
+        taken any chance that offered itself of escaping from it. Some had
+        reached, or very nearly reached, the end of their time of service,
+        and claimed their discharge; others were known to be loyal to Rome,
+        and were allowed to retire. Not a few of those who found themselves
+        without home or employment, and did not happen to have friends or
+        kinsfolk in Britain, rallied to the Count. The families, too, of some
+        that had gone with the legions were glad to claim such shelter and
+        protection as the neighbourhood of the villa could give. Among these
+        were the wife and <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108">[pg
+        108]</span><a name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>daughters of the Centurion Decius; the old
+        mother had steadily refused to accompany them, and, with an aged
+        dependent of nearly the same age, continued to occupy the house near
+        the deserted camp. It was an anxious matter with the Count what was
+        to be done with these helpless people. While things were quiet they
+        could live safely, if not very comfortably, in the neighbouring
+        village; but if trouble were to come—and there were several quarters
+        from which it might come—they would have to be sheltered somewhere in
+        the villa. This never could be made into a really strong place; but
+        it might serve well enough for a time and against ordinary attack.
+        Some of the outbuildings and domestic offices were fortified as well
+        as the position admitted; such material of war as could be got was
+        accumulated, and provisions also were stored. The most reliable
+        resource, however, was in the ships of war. These were not, as was
+        usual, drawn up on the beach for the winter, but were kept at anchor,
+        ready for immediate use.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nor were these
+        precautions unnecessary, for indeed, as we shall see, mischief of a
+        very formidable kind was brewing, and indeed had been brewing ever
+        since the departure of the legions, and even before that event. And
+        it was mischief of a kind of which it may safely be affirmed that
+        neither the Count nor any Roman official, had any notion. Britain, to
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span><a name="Pg109"
+        id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>all appearance, had for many
+        generations been thoroughly subdued. Any Roman, if he had been told
+        that there was any danger of rebellion among the Britons, would have
+        laughed the suggestion to scorn. The legions, indeed, had often been
+        mutinous and turbulent, and their generals ambitious and
+        unscrupulous. The island indeed had gained so bad a reputation for
+        loyalty to the Empire that it had been called the mother of tyrants,
+        by <span class="tei tei-q">“tyrant”</span> being meant <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“usurper.”</span> But whenever Rome had been defied, she
+        had been defied by her own troops. The Britons had enlisted in the
+        rebel armies, but they had never attempted to assert anything like
+        British independence. And yet the tradition of independence and
+        liberty had always been kept alive. The Celtic race is singularly
+        tenacious of such ideas, and also singularly skilful in concealing
+        them from those who are its masters for the time, and the Britons
+        were Celts of the purest blood. Caradoc<a id="noteref_33" name=
+        "noteref_33" href="#note_33"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">33</span></span></a> and
+        Boadicea, and other heroes and heroines of British independence, were
+        household words in many families which were yet thoroughly Roman in
+        spirit and manners. Just as the Christianized Jews of Spain, though
+        to all appearances devout worshippers at church, still clung in
+        secret to the rites of their own worship, so these loyal subjects of
+        the Empire, as all the world <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page110">[pg 110]</span><a name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>believed them, cherished in their hearts the
+        memory of the free Britain of the past and the hope of a free Britain
+        in the future. And the time was now at hand when their leaders
+        thought that this hope might be fulfilled.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Shanklin Chine
+        of to-day is not a little different from the Shanklin Chine of
+        fifteen hundred years ago. It has, so to speak, been subdued and
+        civilized. Now it is a very pretty and pleasant wood; then it was an
+        almost impenetrable thicket, a noted lair of elk and wild boar.
+        Inaccessible, however, as it seemed to any one who surveyed it from
+        above, there was for those who were in the secret a way of
+        approaching its recesses. A little path, the beginning of which it
+        was almost impossible to discover without a guide, led up from the
+        sea-end of the ravine to a hut which had been constructed about half
+        way up the ascent. It consisted of a single chamber, about fourteen
+        feet long, ten broad, and not more than seven in height, and was
+        constructed of roughly-hewn logs, the interstices of which were
+        filled with clay. The walls, however, were not visible, for they were
+        covered with hangings of a dark blue material, something like serge.
+        The floor was strewn with rushes. In the centre of the apartment
+        there was a hearth, having over it an aperture in the roof, not,
+        however, opening directly into the outer air, by which the smoke
+        might escape. On this hearth two or <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page111">[pg 111]</span><a name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>three logs were smouldering with a dull heat
+        which it would have been easy to fan into flame. There were two
+        windows unglazed, but closed with rough wooden lattices.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On three settles,
+        roughly but strongly made of oak, which, with a rudely-polished slab
+        of wood that served for table, constituted all the furniture of the
+        hut, sat three confederates, and behind each stood a stalwart
+        attendant armed with a wicker shield which hung from his neck, and a
+        long Gallic sword. The three chiefs were curiously different in
+        appearance. One, as far, at least, as dress and manner were
+        concerned, might have passed anywhere for a genuine Roman. He was
+        taller, it is true, than the Romans commonly were; and his
+        complexion, though dark rather than fair, had a ruddier hue than was
+        often seen under the more glowing skin of Italy; still he might have
+        walked down the Sacred Way or the Saburra<a id="noteref_34" name=
+        "noteref_34" href="#note_34"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">34</span></span></a>
+        unnoticed save as an exceptionally handsome man, of that fair beauty
+        which the southern nations especially admire. His hair was carefully
+        curled and perfumed; his face as carefully shaven, and showing no
+        trace of beard, moustache, or whisker. His <a name="corr111" id=
+        "corr111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">toga</span> of brilliant white, his long-sleeved tunic
+        of some dark purple stuff, his elegant sandals, were all such as a
+        dandy of the Palatine <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112">[pg
+        112]</span><a name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>might have worn. The one thing which would have
+        been singular in a Roman street was the under-garment reaching to his
+        knees, which he had assumed in consideration of the cold and wet of
+        the insular climate. His fingers were loaded with rings, one of them
+        a sapphire of unusual size, on which was engraved a likeness of the
+        feeble features of the Emperor Honorius; on his left wrist might be
+        seen a bracelet of gold.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">If Martianus—for
+        that was the name of the personage whom we have been describing—might
+        have been easily mistaken for a Roman, the chief who sat facing him
+        on the opposite side of the hearth was as manifestly a Briton. His
+        hair fell over his shoulders in long natural curls which suggested no
+        suspicion of the barber’s or the perfumer’s art. His upper lip was
+        covered with a moustache which drooped to his chin. His body was
+        covered with a sleeveless coat skilfully made of otters’ skins. Both
+        arms were bare, and were plentifully painted with woad. On his legs
+        he wore a garment something like the <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“trews”</span> or short trowsers which the Highland
+        regiments sometimes wear in lieu of the kilt; his feet were enveloped
+        in rude boots of hide which were laced round his ankles. His
+        ornaments were a massive chain of twisted gold, which he wore round
+        his neck, and a single ring, rudely wrought of British gold, in which
+        was set a British pearl of immense size but indifferent <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page113">[pg 113]</span><a name="Pg113" id="Pg113"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>hue. He had a Roman name, as he could on
+        occasion wear Roman costume, and speak the Latin tongue. In the
+        present company he was known and addressed by his native name of
+        Ambiorix.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig112"
+        id="fig112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig33" id=
+        "fig33"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_133.jpg" alt="British Conspirators" title=
+          "British Conspirators." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">British Conspirators.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The third
+        conspirator had the appearance of a middle-class provincial. He wore
+        the tunic that formed part of a Roman’s ordinary dress, but not the
+        toga, which was replaced by a garment somewhat resembling a short
+        cloak. But under the garb of a well-to-do townsman was concealed a
+        very remarkable career and character. Carausius—for this was the name
+        by which he was generally known—was one of the last representatives
+        of the ancient Druid priesthood. The glory and power of this
+        remarkable caste, which had once held itself superior to the kings of
+        Britain, were departed. Indeed, it was almost dangerous to hold the
+        ancient faith, and practise the ancient worship. Since the
+        publication of the edict by which Constantine had made Christianity
+        the Imperial religion, the adherents of the old religion had become
+        fewer and feebler. Some of the chiefs and nobles still held it in
+        secret, or were, at least, ready to return to it, if it should ever
+        again become powerful; but its adherents were mostly to be found
+        among the poorer classes. Even these in the towns were, in name at
+        least, mostly Christians; it was only the dwellers in the remoter and
+        wilder parts of the country that remained faithful. But these
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114">[pg 114]</span><a name="Pg114"
+        id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>scattered adherents revered the
+        name of Carausius, who was believed to possess all the wisdom of his
+        class, and was indeed credited with mysterious powers over nature and
+        the gift of prophecy. From the Roman population all this was a
+        secret, and the secret was remarkably well kept. Carausius was
+        supposed to be nothing more than an ordinary farmer. His Roman
+        neighbours would have been astonished in the last degree if they
+        could have seen him presiding at one of the Druid ceremonies, in his
+        white robes curiously embroidered with mystic figures, his chaplet of
+        golden oak-leaves, and the headless spear, which was to him what the
+        crozier was to a Christian bishop.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115">[pg 115]</span><a name="Pg115"
+        id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc34" id=
+        "toc34"></a> <a name="pdf35" id="pdf35"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XI.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE PRIEST’S DEMAND.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“So the time has come at last,”</span> said Ambiorix;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“at last the yoke is broken from off the neck
+        of Britain. Blessed be the day that saw the legions of the oppressor
+        depart!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> replied Martianus, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“but will they not return? They have gone before; but
+        have they not come back? I take it these Romans get too much out of
+        us to let us go willingly.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have no fear of their return. If Honorius can make
+        terms with this Constantine and his army, he will never send them
+        back here; he wants them too much at home. He has got King Alaric to
+        reckon with, and he has been long since drawing every soldier that he
+        can from the provinces into Italy. No, depend upon it, at last
+        Britain is <a name="corr115" id="corr115" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">free.</span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Free; yes, if it has not forgotten how to
+        move.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We haven’t all learnt to play the slave,”</span> said
+        Ambiorix fiercely, as he started from his seat. <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page116">[pg 116]</span><a name="Pg116" id="Pg116"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“There are some
+        who have not sold their birthright for the delights of the bath and
+        the banquet, and who are too proud to ape the manners of their
+        masters.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Peace, my son,”</span> interposed the aged priest;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Martianus is not the less able to help the
+        cause of our country because he seems to be the friend of those who
+        oppress it.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“These are but the wild words of youth, father,”</span>
+        said Martianus. <span class="tei tei-q">“By a wise man they are
+        forgotten as soon as they are heard. But let us hear what Ambiorix
+        has to tell us about the force which we can bring into the
+        field.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young chief
+        entered into details which it is impossible to reproduce.
+        Preparations had been made over nearly the whole of Britain, though
+        the more northerly parts, owing to the perpetual attacks of their
+        neighbours the Picts, had little to contribute in the way of help.
+        Ambiorix knew how many men could be relied upon in every district; he
+        was acquainted with the disposition of the representatives of the
+        chief British families; he knew what each would want for himself, to
+        whom he would be prepared to yield precedence, from whom he would
+        claim precedence for himself. All his views and calculations were
+        those of a sanguine temper; but he certainly could show—on paper at
+        least, as we should say—a very respectable amount of strength. When
+        he had finished his account of the resources <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page117">[pg 117]</span><a name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>of Britain, Martianus, who, whatever his faults,
+        had at least a genuine admiration for ability, held out his hand—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“This is wonderful!”</span> he said. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You have a true genius for rule. That you should keep
+        the threads of so complicated a business all so distinct is simply
+        wonderful. You certainly give me hopes that I never had
+        before.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I never doubted for a moment,”</span> returned the young
+        man, <span class="tei tei-q">“but that when this Roman incubus was
+        removed all would go well. Besides, who is there to attack us? We
+        have no enemies.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No enemies!”</span> replied the other, in a tone of
+        surprise. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do you forget the Saxons by sea
+        and the Picts by land.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I believe that neither will trouble us. They are not our
+        enemies, but the enemies of Rome. They have harassed—they were quite
+        right in harassing—the oppressors of the world: they will respect, I
+        am sure, the liberties of a free people. When Britain is as
+        independent as they are we shall be friends.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus could
+        not help smiling sarcastically. <span class="tei tei-q">“That is very
+        fine. One would think that you had been a pupil in one of the schools
+        of rhetoric which you so much despise. The most famous of our
+        declaimers could not have put it better. But I am afraid that there
+        will be some difficulty in explaining all this to
+        them.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118">[pg
+        118]</span><a name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“In any case, we can defend ourselves,”</span> returned
+        the young chief, <span class="tei tei-q">“though I do not think that
+        the need will occur.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let us hope not,”</span> said Martianus, but his tone
+        was not confident or cheerful.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">There were, it may
+        easily be supposed, not a few other subjects for discussion, and the
+        conversation lasted for a long time, the young chief showing
+        throughout such a mastery of details as greatly impressed his
+        companions. When he had finished a brief silence followed. It was
+        broken by the priest. There was a special solemnity in his tone,
+        which seemed to claim an authority for his utterances, quite
+        different from the position that he had taken up while politics or
+        military matters were being discussed.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My children,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“this is a grave matter. The weal or woe of Britain for
+        many generations is at stake. If we fail, we may well be undone for
+        ever. You cannot enter on so great an enterprise without the favour
+        of the gods, and the favour of the gods is not easily to be won. For
+        many years they have lacked the sacrifice which they most prize. I
+        myself, though I have completed my threescore years and ten, have but
+        once only been privileged so to honour them. The time has come for
+        this sacrifice to be offered once more. Have I your consent, my
+        children? But indeed I need not ask. This is a <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span><a name="Pg119" id="Pg119"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>matter in which I cannot be mistaken, and
+        from which I cannot go back.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young chief
+        nodded assent, but said nothing. He was evidently disturbed.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What do you mean, father?”</span> he said.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The sacrifice which the gods most prize,”</span>
+        answered the old man, <span class="tei tei-q">“is also that which is
+        most prized by men. The most perfect offering which we can present to
+        them is the most perfect creature they themselves have made. Sheep
+        and oxen may suffice for common needs; but at such a time as this,
+        when Britain itself is at stake, we must appease the gods with the
+        blood of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-variant: small-caps">Man</span></span>.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus grew
+        pale. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is not possible,”</span> he
+        stammered.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Not only possible, but necessary,”</span> calmly
+        returned the priest. <span class="tei tei-q">“Our fathers were
+        commonly content to offer those who had offended against the laws;
+        but in times of special necessity they chose the noblest victims.
+        Even our kings have given up their sons and their daughters. So it
+        must be now.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All this was
+        absolutely horrible to Martianus. He did not believe indeed in
+        Christianity, but it had influenced him as it had influenced all the
+        world. Whether he was at heart much the better may be doubted. But he
+        was softer, more refined; he shrank from visible horrors, from open
+        cruelty—though he could be cruelly selfish on occasion—and from
+        blood<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span><a name=
+        "Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>shed, though he would
+        not stretch out a finger to save a neighbour’s life. And what the
+        priest said was as new and unexpected to him as it was hideous. He
+        had no idea that this savage faith had survived in Britain.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Father,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“such a
+        thing would ruin us. Such a deed would raise the whole country
+        against us. A human sacrifice! It is monstrous!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You are right so far,”</span> returned the priest,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“the country must not know it. Britain is
+        utterly corrupted by this new faith, a superstition fit only for
+        women, and children, and slaves; and I don’t doubt but that it would
+        lift up its hands in horror at this holy solemnity. But there is no
+        need that it should know it. It must be done secretly—so much I
+        concede.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And the victim?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well, the days are passed when a Druid could lay his
+        command on Britain’s noblest, and be obeyed without a murmur. The
+        victim must be taken by force, and secretly.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And have you any such victim in your
+        thoughts?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The priest
+        hesitated for a moment; but it was only for a moment. He resumed in a
+        low voice, which it evidently cost him an effort to keep steady—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have not forgotten the necessity of a choice; indeed
+        for months past it has been without ceasing in my mind, and now the
+        choice is made. The victim <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121">[pg
+        121]</span><a name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>whom
+        the gods should have is a maiden, beautiful and pure. She is of noble
+        descent, though her father was compelled, by poverty and the
+        oppression of the Roman tyrants, to follow a humble occupation. Thus
+        she is worthy to be offered. And yet no true Briton will regret her
+        fate, for she has deserted the faith of her ancestors for the base
+        superstition of the Cross.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And her name, father?”</span> said both of the
+        conspirators together.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Again the priest
+        hesitated; a close observer might even have seen a trace of agitation
+        in that stern countenance.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It is Carna,”</span> he said, after a pause, which
+        raised the suspense of his hearers almost to agony. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It is Carna, adopted daughter of Count
+        Ælius.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And he looked
+        steadfastly at his companions’ faces, as if he would have said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“I dare you to challenge my
+        decision.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The two started
+        simultaneously to their feet. Not long before, young Ambiorix, who
+        was then not yet possessed by the fanatical patriotism which now
+        mastered him, had admired her beauty and sweetness of manner, and had
+        had day-dreams of her as the goddess of his own hearth. Then a
+        stronger love had come in the place of the old. It was not of woman,
+        but of Britain free among the nations, as she had been before the
+        restless eagles of the South <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page122">[pg 122]</span><a name="Pg122" id="Pg122" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>had found her, that he thought day and night.
+        Still, he could not calmly hear her doomed to a horrible death, and
+        for a moment he was ready to rebel against the sentence of the
+        priest.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The older man was
+        terribly agitated. He had been for many years on the friendliest
+        footing with the Count, a frequent guest at his table, almost an
+        intimate of the house. And Carna was an especial favourite with him.
+        Her sweetness, her simplicity, and a pathetic resemblance that she
+        bore to a dead daughter of his own, touched him on the best side of
+        his nature.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Priest,”</span> he thundered, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“it shall not be. I would sooner the whole scheme came to
+        ruin; I would sooner die. A curse on your hideous
+        worship!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The priest had now
+        crushed down the risings of human feelings which his training had not
+        sufficed to eradicate.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You have sworn by the gods,”</span> he said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“and you cannot go back. If you do not
+        hesitate to betray Britain, at least you will not dare to betray
+        yourself. You know the power I can command. Go back from your promise
+        to follow my leading, and you are a dead man. You are
+        faithful?”</span> he went on, turning to Ambiorix. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You do not draw back?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The young chief
+        returned a muttered assent.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The older man,
+        meanwhile, was in a miserable condition of indecision and terror.
+        Unbeliever as he was, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123">[pg
+        123]</span><a name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>having long since given up the faith of his
+        fathers, and never accepted the doctrine of the church but with the
+        emptiest formality, he had not put from his breast the superstitious
+        fear that commonly lingers when belief is gone. And he knew that the
+        priest’s threatened vengeance on himself was no empty boast. The
+        strength of Druidism had passed, but it still had fanatics at its
+        command, whose daggers would find their way sooner or later to his
+        heart. The cold, cynical look with which he had entered on the
+        conference had given place to mingled looks of rage, remorse, and
+        fear.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You must have your own way,”</span> he muttered,
+        sullenly.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My son,”</span> said the priest, in a tone which he made
+        studiously cautious, <span class="tei tei-q">“what is one life in
+        comparison with the happiness and glory of our nation? You, I know,
+        would shrink from no sacrifice, and, believe me,”</span> he added in
+        a lower voice, for he had to play off the two rivals against each
+        other, <span class="tei tei-q">“believe me, whatever sacrifice you
+        make shall not miss its reward.”</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124">[pg 124]</span><a name="Pg124"
+        id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc36" id=
+        "toc36"></a><a name="pdf37" id="pdf37"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">LOST.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna was known
+        all over the neighbourhood of the villa as the best and kindest of
+        nurses, always ready to help in cases of sickness, and able to
+        command the services of the household physician where her own medical
+        skill was at fault. It was therefore with no surprise that the
+        morning after the consultation, recorded in the last chapter, she was
+        told that her help was wanted in a case of urgent need. The woman who
+        had brought the message was a stranger. She was the daughter, she
+        said, of an old woman living at Uricum, a small hamlet about four
+        miles from the villa. She had happened to come the day before on a
+        visit to her mother, and found her very ill; they had no medicines in
+        the house, and indeed should not have known how to use them if they
+        had. Would the lady come, and, if she thought proper, bring the
+        physician with her? The place <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page125">[pg 125]</span><a name="Pg125" id="Pg125" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>mentioned was on the limits of the district with
+        which Carna was acquainted. It could only be approached by a path
+        through the forest; and the girl had not visited it more than two or
+        three times in her life. She had a vague remembrance, however, of the
+        patient’s name. On sending for the physician, it was found that he
+        was out, having been called away, Carna was told, to a case which, he
+        had said before starting, would probably occupy him for the greater
+        part of the day. On hearing this, she made up her mind to start
+        without waiting for him. The illness was very probably of a simple
+        kind, though it might be violent in degree. Very likely it was a case
+        in which the nurse would be more wanted than the doctor. She provided
+        herself with two or three simple remedies which she learnt to employ
+        in the ordinary maladies of the country, of which feverish colds were
+        the most common, and started, taking with her as companion and
+        protector a stately Milesian dog, or mastiff, who was always
+        delighted to play the part of a guard in her country walks. Her own
+        pet dog, a long-haired little creature, something of the Spanish
+        kind, whom she had intended to leave at home, contrived to free
+        himself from the custody to which he had been assigned, and
+        stealthily followed her, cunningly keeping out of sight till the
+        party had gone too far for him to be conveniently sent back. He then
+        showed himself <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126">[pg
+        126]</span><a name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with
+        extravagant gestures of contrition, was tenderly reproached,
+        pardoned, and allowed to go on.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">During the walk
+        the messenger was curiously silent, and answered all Carna’s
+        questions about her mother and her affairs in the very briefest
+        fashion. All that could be got from her was that she lived on the
+        main land, about twenty miles inland, in a northerly direction, and
+        that since her marriage, now twenty years ago, she had seen very
+        little of her mother. When they reached the outskirts of the hamlet
+        she pointed out her mother’s house, and, making an excuse that she
+        had an errand for a neighbour, disappeared. Carna, seeing nothing but
+        a certain surliness of temper, possibly only shyness, in her
+        companion, went on without suspicion. She reached the house, and
+        knocked at the door. There was no answer. She knocked again. Still
+        all was silence. Looking a little more closely at the place she could
+        see no signs of habitation, no smoke, for instance, making its way
+        out of the thatch (for chimneys did not yet exist, at least, in the
+        poorer dwellings). The next thing was to peep in at the window, a
+        wooden lattice, which had been left partially open. The room into
+        which she looked was perfectly bare.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A suspicion rushed
+        into her mind that she had been tricked, and that danger of some
+        unknown kind was at hand. The strange sympathy which often
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127">[pg 127]</span><a name="Pg127"
+        id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>makes the dog so quick to
+        understand the feelings of man, made the big mastiff, Malcho, uneasy.
+        With a low growl, showing uneasiness rather than fear or anger, he
+        ranged himself at her side.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As she stood
+        considering what was next to be done, a party of six men, one of whom
+        led a horse, issued from the wood which bordered the little garden of
+        the cottage.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Can you tell me where I shall find one Utta, who, I am
+        told, is sick, and wishful to see me? Can it be that I have mistaken
+        the house?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Utta, my lady,”</span> said one of the party,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“is not to be found any more. She died a week
+        since.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But,”</span> said Carna, with rising anger, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“a woman, who said that she was her daughter, told me,
+        not more than two hours ago, that she was sick, and desired to see
+        me. Why have I been brought here for nothing?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Pardon me, lady,”</span> returned the first speaker, in
+        a tone in which respect and command were curiously blended,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“but you have not been brought for nothing.
+        You have a better work to do than ministering to a sick old
+        woman.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">As he spoke he
+        moved forwards. But he had not taken two steps before the great dog,
+        who had been watching the speakers, we might say almost listening to
+        their talk with the most eager attention, sprang furiously at him,
+        and laid him prostrate on the ground. <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page128">[pg 128]</span><a name="Pg128" id="Pg128" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>His companions rushed to rescue their leader
+        from the dog and to seize the girl. They did not accomplish either of
+        their objects with impunity. The gallant creature turned from one
+        assailant to another with a strength and a fury which made him a most
+        formidable antagonist, and he had inflicted some frightful wounds
+        before he was made senseless by repeated blows from the weapons of
+        the assailants. Nor was Carna overpowered without a struggle. Weapons
+        she had none, except a little dagger, meant for use in needlework,
+        which hung at her side; but she used this not without effect. She
+        clenched her fist, and dealt two or three blows, of which her
+        antagonists bore the marks upon their faces for days to come. Finally
+        she wrenched herself from the grasp of the assailants as a last
+        resource, and endeavoured to fly, but it was a hopeless effort.
+        Before she had run more than a few yards she was overtaken. Her
+        captors used no more violence than they could help. Probably had they
+        been less unwilling to hurt her, she could not have resisted so long.
+        Finding her so strong and so determined, they were obliged to bind
+        her hands and feet; but they did this with all the gentleness
+        compatible with an evident resolve to make her bonds secure. In the
+        midst of her terror and distress Carna could not help observing with
+        astonishment that the cords which they used were of silk. Then
+        finding herself absolutely helpless, she said—</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page129">[pg 129]</span><a name="Pg129" id="Pg129"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do not bind me as though I were a slave. On the faith of
+        a Christian, I will not attempt to escape.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Lady, we trust you,”</span> said the leader of the
+        party, and at the same time directed one of his companions to unbind
+        the ropes. <span class="tei tei-q">“Be comforted,”</span> he went on;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“we do not intend you harm; on the contrary,
+        high honour is in store for you.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig128"
+        id="fig128" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig38" id=
+        "fig38"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_151.jpg" alt="The Capture of Carna" title=
+          "The Capture of Carna." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Capture of Carna.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna was scarcely
+        reassured by these mysterious words, but she had now recovered her
+        calmness. Summoning up all her courage—and it was far beyond even the
+        average of a singularly fearless race—she intimated to her captors
+        that she was ready to follow them without further delay. They mounted
+        her upon the horse, which, as has been said, one of them was holding,
+        and started in a northerly direction. Two of the party had been so
+        severely injured by the hound, that they were obliged to stay behind.
+        One of the others held the bridle of the horse, and led him forward
+        at an ambling pace; the others followed behind.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The way of the
+        party lay entirely along rough forest-paths which seemed from their
+        appearance, often grown over as they were with branches and creepers,
+        to be but seldom traversed. Night had fallen some hours before they
+        reached the northern coast of the island. Their way had lain in a
+        north-westerly direction, and they emerged near to the <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page130">[pg 130]</span><a name="Pg130" id="Pg130"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>arm of the sea now known as Fishbourne
+        Creek. Here they found a rowing boat in waiting.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna’s captors
+        now handed over their charge to the boat party, which was under the
+        command of the young chief whom we know by the name of Ambiorix. He
+        received his prisoner with a dignified civility, made her as
+        comfortable as he could with rugs and wraps in the stern of the boat,
+        and then gave orders to start. The journey across the channel, which
+        we now know as the Solent, occupied some hours, though the night was
+        calm, and the ebbing tide mostly in the rowers’ favour, the shortest
+        route not being taken, but a north-westerly direction still followed.
+        The morning was just beginning to break when the coast was reached
+        near the spot where Lymington now stands. The party hurriedly
+        disembarked, put the girl on a rough litter which they had with them
+        in the boat, and carried her to a dwelling some half-mile inland, and
+        surrounded by the woods which here almost touched high-water mark.
+        Carna found a tolerable chamber allotted to her, where she was waited
+        upon by an elderly woman who seemed bent on doing everything that she
+        could for her comfort. The girl was of the elastic temper which soon
+        recovers itself even under the most depressing circumstances. She had
+        the wisdom, too, to feel that, if she was to help herself, she must
+        keep up her strength to the very best of her power. She <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page131">[pg 131]</span><a name="Pg131" id="Pg131"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>did not refuse the simple but well-cooked
+        meal which her attendant served to her, after she had enjoyed the
+        refreshment of a bath. And then overpowered by the fatigue of a
+        journey which had lasted not much less than twenty-four hours, she
+        sank into a deep sleep.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was dark when
+        her attendant gently roused her and told her that in an hour she
+        would be required to resume her journey, in which, as Carna heard
+        with some pleasure, she was herself to be her companion. A start was
+        made about three hours before midnight, and the journey was continued
+        till an hour before dawn. This plan was followed till their
+        destination was reached. The party was evidently careful to keep its
+        movements secret. Their way lay as before, by woodland paths, leading
+        them through the district now known as the New Forest. They travelled
+        but slowly, more slowly indeed than they had done on the island, for
+        the paths were still rougher, and, in fact, almost undistinguishable.
+        Carna, too, was the only one of the company that had a horse, and her
+        female attendant, who was neither young nor active, could manage but
+        a few miles at a time. It was the morning of the second day after
+        they had left the coast before they reached the edge of the great
+        forest known as the Natanleah. Some five miles to the west lay
+        Sorbiodunum, now Salisbury. This was a Roman town of some
+        impor<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span><a name=
+        "Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tance, and had of
+        course to be avoided by the party, who, indeed, were anxious, as
+        Carna could gather from a few scattered words that were let drop in
+        her presence, as to the way in which the rest of their journey was to
+        be accomplished. The country was open, cultivated, and comparatively
+        populous, the inhabitants being, for the most part, thoroughly
+        Latinized. Two Roman roads, too, had to be crossed before their
+        destination was reached.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The day was spent
+        as usual in concealment and repose. An hour after nightfall the party
+        started. They had now managed to procure another horse for Carna’s
+        attendant; and as the ground was fairly level, unenclosed, and, at
+        that time of year, unencumbered by crops, they moved rapidly onwards.
+        The moon had now risen, and Carna, for the first time, could at least
+        see where they were going. She was still, however, at a loss to know
+        what part of the country they had reached. At midnight a halt was
+        called, and the leader of the party proceeded to blindfold the
+        captive’s eyes. But if he wanted to keep her in ignorance of the
+        locality, he was a little too late. The girl’s quick sight had caught
+        a glimpse in the distance of the huge circle of earth walls, now
+        known as Amesbury. She had never seen the place, but it was known to
+        her in the chronicles of her people. There, as she had read with a
+        patriotism which all her Roman surroundings had not been <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page133">[pg 133]</span><a name="Pg133" id="Pg133"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>able to quench, her countrymen had more
+        than once held at bay the legions of Rome. She knew roughly the
+        situation of the famous camp of the Belgæ, and she was sure that
+        these massive fortifications, just seen for a moment in the
+        moonlight, could be none others than those of which she had read so
+        often.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the bandage
+        was removed, she found herself in a chamber larger and more
+        comfortably furnished than any she had hitherto occupied on her
+        journey. Part of the palace of one of the old kings of the Belgæ was
+        still standing, and the travellers had taken up their quarters in it.
+        The Amesbury camp was indeed as safe a place as they could have
+        chosen. It was a spot which no Roman, much less a Briton living under
+        Roman protection, would care to visit. The whole countryside believed
+        that it was haunted by the spirits of the great chiefs and warriors
+        who had been buried within its precincts, and of the slaves who had
+        been killed to furnish them with service and attendance in the unseen
+        world. The scanty remnant who still clung to the Druid faith found
+        their account in encouraging these superstitions. More than one
+        appearance had been arranged to terrify sceptical or curious persons
+        who had been rash enough to visit the vast circle of embankments. For
+        many years before the time of our story the enclosure had been
+        untrodden except by the few who were in the secret of the Druid
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span><a name="Pg134"
+        id="Pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>initiation. Here, then, the
+        party waited securely with their prisoner till the time should come
+        for the solemn visit to <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Choir Gawr</span></span>, the Great Temple,
+        known to us by the name of Stonehenge.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page135">[pg 135]</span><a name="Pg135"
+        id="Pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc39" id=
+        "toc39"></a> <a name="pdf40" id="pdf40"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XIII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">WHAT DOES IT MEAN?</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was some time
+        before the prolonged absence of Carna caused any alarm at the villa.
+        When she was on one of her errands of kindness among the sick, it was
+        difficult to say when she would return. But in the course of the
+        afternoon the old physician returned, not a little wrath that he had
+        been sent on a fool’s errand. He had been told that an old farmer,
+        living close to the north-west of the island some seven or eight
+        miles from the villa was lying dangerously ill, and he had found the
+        supposed patient in vigorous health, and not a little angry at being
+        supposed to be anything else. This seemed to make things look
+        somewhat serious. It was easy to guess that the trick played upon the
+        physician had something to do with the message brought to Carna. It
+        was remembered that the stranger had asked that he should accompany
+        the girl; it was at least possible that she knew him to be out of the
+        way, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page136">[pg 136]</span><a name=
+        "Pg136" id="Pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and that she would not
+        have made the request had she not known it.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">While the Count,
+        who had just returned from an inspection of his crews, was talking
+        the matter over with his daughter and two of his officers who
+        happened to be present, a new cause for suspicion and alarm presented
+        itself. Carna’s pet dog had found its way back with a bit of broken
+        cord round its neck, and refused to be comforted, tearing and pulling
+        at the dresses of the attendant, and saying, as plainly as a dog
+        could say it, that there was something wrong, that it must be
+        attended to at once, and that he would show them how to do it, if
+        they would only follow him. When the rope round his neck was examined
+        more closely, it was found that it had been gnawed in two.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“He has been tied up and has broken
+        away,”</span> said the Count, when this was pointed out to him.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“And if I know the dear little thing,”</span>
+        broke in Ælia, <span class="tei tei-q">“he would not have left his
+        mistress as long as he could be near her. I am sure that some
+        mischief has happened to her.”</span> And this was the general
+        impression, though, who could have ventured on so audacious an
+        outrage it was impossible to guess.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">What had happened,
+        as the reader may possibly guess, was this. The dog had remained with
+        Carna, showing his love, not by fierce resistance like that made by
+        his powerful companion, for which he had <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page137">[pg 137]</span><a name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>the sagacity to know he had not sufficient
+        strength, but by keeping as close to her as he could. After she had
+        been made a prisoner, and while the party were preparing for a start,
+        he had been tied to a tree. It had been intended that he should go
+        with his mistress, for whom, as has been said, her captors showed
+        throughout a certain consideration, but it so happened that in the
+        bustle of departure he was forgotten. When he saw her go and found
+        himself left behind, he set himself with all his might to gnaw the
+        rope which fastened him to the tree. This task took him a long time,
+        for he was an old dog, and his teeth were not as good as they had
+        been. Finding himself free he started in headlong pursuit, easily
+        tracking the party by the scent, but after a while he halted; a happy
+        thought—is it possible that, in the teeth of all accumulated
+        evidences, any one can deny that dogs can think?—a happy <span class=
+        "tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">thought</span></span>
+        then struck his mind, quickened to its utmost capacity of
+        intelligence by love and grief. We may translate it into human
+        language thus: <span class="tei tei-q">“If I follow her and overtake
+        her, what good can I do? but if I go back and make the people at home
+        understand that something has happened to her, then I can help her to
+        some purpose.”</span> This was his conclusion, anyhow. How he arrived
+        at it only He knows who makes all things great and small, and
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“divideth to all severally as He
+        will.”</span> He turned back, ran with breathless <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page138">[pg 138]</span><a name="Pg138" id="Pg138"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>speed to the villa, and did all that could
+        be done, short of speaking, to show that his dear mistress was in
+        trouble.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meanwhile,
+        however, much time had been lost, and the day was already far
+        advanced. Anxious as was the Count to set out, he could not but
+        perceive that haste might defeat the object of his journey. To start
+        when the light was failing would probably be to miss important signs
+        of what had happened, and, very possibly, to risk success. All
+        preparations, however, were made. The men who were to form the
+        pursuing party were chosen. As it may be supposed, there was no lack
+        of volunteers. There was not a single being at the villa or its
+        dependencies that would not have given a great deal and borne a great
+        deal to see Carna again in safety. But it would be possible to take
+        only a small number, if the pursuit was to be rapid and effective.
+        Some of the most active of the crews of the war-ships accordingly
+        were chosen, sailors having then as now a cheerful activity that
+        makes them particularly valuable members of a land expedition. The
+        Count added others from his own establishment, and he determined to
+        conduct the party himself. It was arranged that it should start the
+        following day, as soon as it should be sufficiently light.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One of the slaves
+        who was early astir on the following morning found fixed to an
+        outside gate of <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139">[pg
+        139]</span><a name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the
+        villa a document, rudely written and roughly folded, which bore the
+        Count’s address. It was found, when opened, to contain the following
+        message, expressed in ungrammatical Latin, mingled with one or two
+        British words:</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">She whom you seek is not far off, and may be
+        recovered by you if you are wise. If you attempt to regain her by
+        force, she will be lost to you altogether. But if you wish to have
+        her again with you safely and without trouble, send one whom you can
+        trust with a hundred gold pieces at midnight three days after the
+        receiving of this letter to the place to which she was yesterday
+        fetched. Let your messenger go alone, and ask no questions then or
+        afterwards.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“So she is held to ransom by a set of brigands,”</span>
+        cried the Count, when he had read this document. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I should not have thought that such a thing had been
+        possible in Britain. But the times have been getting worse and worse.
+        We have long been weakening our hold upon the province, and we had
+        better clear out altogether, if we cannot do better than this. But I
+        suppose we have no choice. We must not endanger the dear girl’s life.
+        But now the question is about the money. I do not think that I have
+        so much in gold in the house; but we can borrow somewhere what is
+        <a name="corr139" id="corr139" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">wanted.</span>”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page140">[pg 140]</span><a name="Pg140" id="Pg140" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Perhaps,”</span> said the Count’s secretary, whom he had
+        summoned to consult with him, <span class="tei tei-q">“the peddler
+        can help you. He has the reputation of being richer than he
+        looks.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> replied the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that would be a simple way out of the difficulty, if it
+        can be managed. Meanwhile, let me see what I have got of my own at
+        hand.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was found that
+        eighty gold pieces were forthcoming, and the peddler was summoned and
+        asked whether he could make up the balance.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My Lord,”</span> said the man when he was brought into
+        the Count’s presence and had heard the story, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I will make no idle pretence of poverty. I have what you
+        want, and it is entirely at your lordship’s service. But will you let
+        me see the letter in which this demand for ransom is
+        made?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count handed
+        him the document, and he examined it long and carefully.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+        more I look at this, the more I am confirmed in certain suspicions
+        which have been growing up in my mind. I have been thinking of this
+        matter, and of other matters which seem to me to be connected with it
+        all the night. It will take long to explain, and, of course, after
+        all I may be wrong; still, I think you would do well to hear what I
+        have got to say.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count, who had
+        previously had reasons for <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page141">[pg
+        141]</span><a name="Pg141" id="Pg141" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>thinking well of the peddler’s intelligence,
+        bade him proceed.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“In the first place,”</span> continued the man,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“I think this letter is a blind. It is made
+        to look like the work of some very rude and ignorant person. But the
+        pretence is not well kept up. You will see, if you look at the
+        handwriting a little more closely, that it is feigned. The writer was
+        perfectly able to make it a great deal better than it is, if he had
+        so chosen, and he has sometimes forgotten his part. Some of the
+        letters, some even of the words, particularly of the small words,
+        about which he would naturally be less careful, are quite
+        well-formed. Now a really bad writer, I mean one who writes badly
+        because he does not know how to write well, is always bad; every
+        letter he forms is misshapen.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count examined
+        the document and acknowledged that this comment upon it was just. And
+        he began to see too what was naturally more apparent to him, as an
+        educated man, than it was to the peddler, that the style was hardly
+        what would have been expected from an ignorant scribe.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What, then, is your conclusion?”</span> he asked.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“About that,”</span> returned the other, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I am not so certain. That this is a blind, as I said, I
+        am sure; and this talk about the ransom consequently is a deception.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Three days,’</span> you see it says. That
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span><a name="Pg142"
+        id="Pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>would be three days lost. No,
+        my lord, it is not by robbers that this has been planned.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What then?”</span> cried the Count, flushing a fiery red
+        as a sudden thought occurred to him. <span class="tei tei-q">“Carna
+        is very beautiful. Do you think——”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No,”</span> said the peddler, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        think not. A lover would not lay so elaborate a plot as I fancy I can
+        see here. I think the Lady Carna is a hostage, or——”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He paused, and
+        continued after a few minutes of silence. <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        have much to piece together, and it would take long, and lose much
+        precious time. That is the last thing that we should do. They have
+        got too much start already. We must not let them improve it more than
+        we can help. You will let me go with you, and I shall have leisure to
+        put all I have got to say together without hindering you. But the
+        sooner we are on their track the better.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">To this the Count
+        readily agreed, and preparations for immediate departure were made.
+        It was with difficulty that Ælia could be persuaded that she must be
+        left behind. But when it was pointed out to her that her presence
+        must inevitably make the progress of the party more slow, and
+        increase their anxieties, she reluctantly gave way. At the last
+        moment an unexpected addition was made to the party in the person of
+        the Saxon prisoner.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> said the peddler, to whom the young
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page143">[pg 143]</span><a name="Pg143"
+        id="Pg143" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>man had communicated his
+        earnest desire to be allowed to go; <span class="tei tei-q">“it may
+        seem a strange thing for me to say, but you cannot have a better
+        helper in this matter than this young fellow. He is as strong as any
+        horse, and as keen and intelligent a youth as I ever saw. And in this
+        case too his wits will be doubly sharp, and his arm doubly strong,
+        for he worships the very ground that the Lady Carna treads
+        upon.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Very well,”</span> replied the Count, with a smile,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“let him go. After all, it is quite as safe
+        to take a lion about with one, as to leave him at home.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The pet dog was,
+        of course, a valued member of the expedition.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144">[pg 144]</span><a name="Pg144"
+        id="Pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc41" id=
+        "toc41"></a> <a name="pdf42" id="pdf42"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XIV.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE PURSUIT.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The task of
+        tracing the lost girl was at first easy enough. She and the stranger,
+        who, it now seemed, had been sent to entrap her, had been seen
+        proceeding in the direction mentioned in the message. The
+        neighbourhood of the villa was mostly cultivated ground, and there
+        had been people at work in the fields who had noticed the girl’s
+        well-known figure. Beyond this belt of cultivated country, which
+        might have been about a mile broad, there was only one road which it
+        was possible for her to have taken. Following this, and reaching the
+        hamlet at the further end of which, as we have seen, the abduction
+        had taken place, they still found themselves on the right track. A
+        child had seen two people, one of them, she said, a pretty lady, pass
+        by on the morning of the day before. The lady had smiled, and said a
+        few words to her in her own language, and had given her a sweetmeat.
+        Further on the traces of what they were looking for became still more
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span><a name="Pg145"
+        id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>evident. There were marks of
+        struggle on the ground, for Carna, as we have seen, had not suffered
+        herself to be taken without resistance; a button was found on the
+        ground, which the peddler at once identified as one of his own
+        selling. And a little off the path, the tree was found to which the
+        dog had been tied, with the fragment of string still attached to it.
+        Curiously enough, no traces of the great dog could be found.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nor did the next
+        step in the pursuit delay them long. There were, it is true, three
+        paths through the forest, which closed in the hamlet on every side
+        except that by which the party had approached it. Carna’s pet dog at
+        once decided for the searchers which of the three they should follow.
+        He discovered the scent very quickly, ran at the top of his speed
+        along the path thus distinguished from the others for about a hundred
+        yards, and then, coming back, implored the party, so to speak, by his
+        gestures, that they should come with him. It was evident that the
+        path had been traversed by a party of considerable size, whose
+        tracks, the marks of a horse’s hoofs among them, were still fresh in
+        the ground, soft as it was with the winter rains. The dog was
+        evidently satisfied that they were right, for he ran quietly on, now
+        and then giving a very soft little whine. It wanted still an hour or
+        so of sunset when the party emerged out of the forest upon the
+        shore.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146">[pg
+        146]</span><a name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Here it might have
+        seemed at first all trace was lost. The tide had flowed and ebbed
+        twice since the girl had been there, and had swept away all marks of
+        footsteps. The dog too was no longer a guide. The poor little
+        creature’s distress indeed was pitiful, as he ran to and fro upon the
+        shore with a plaintive whine.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count asked
+        his companions for their opinions.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Have they taken to the wood again, do you think? or have
+        they crossed the water? they may have gone a mile or more along the
+        shore and then entered the forest. In that case it seems hopeless to
+        recover the track.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It is my opinion,”</span> said the peddler, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that they have crossed to the mainland; but it is only
+        an opinion, and I have little or nothing to urge for it.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Other members of
+        the party had different views; and, on the whole, opinion was adverse
+        to the peddler’s view; and the Count was about to order a search in
+        the direction of the wood further along the shore, when the attention
+        of the party was arrested by a shout from the Saxon.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The discussion had
+        been carried on in a language which he had still some difficulty in
+        understanding, and he had been pacing backwards and forwards along
+        the shore, seemingly lost in thought, but really watching everything
+        with that keen attention to all outward objects which is one of the
+        characteristics <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147">[pg
+        147]</span><a name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of
+        uncivilized man. It was thus that something caught his eye. He
+        plunged his hand into one of the little rock-pools upon the shore,
+        and drew it out. It was a small gold trinket, which the girl had
+        dropped in the forlorn hope that it might be found. Its weight, for
+        it was an almost solid piece of metal, had kept it in the place where
+        it fell, and as the night and day had been uniformly calm, there had
+        been no sufficient movement of the water to disturb it. With a cry of
+        delight the Saxon held it up, and the Count recognized it at
+        once.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> said the peddler, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        knew the fellow would be of use to us. If the Lady Carna is anywhere
+        on the earth he would find her. This proves, my lord, that they have
+        crossed the sea. They would certainly have not come down so far from
+        the shore as this.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This seemed too
+        probable to admit of any doubt. Happily it had occurred to the Count
+        that it would be well to have some kind of vessel at his command, and
+        he had ordered a pinnace to start from the haven as soon as it could
+        be got ready, and to coast along the shore of the island, watching
+        for any signal that might be given. The land party had outstripped
+        the ship, which, indeed, had not started till somewhat later. Still,
+        it might be expected very soon. Meanwhile there was an opportunity
+        for discussing the aspect which the affair now bore.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After various
+        opinions had been given, the Count <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page148">[pg 148]</span><a name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>turned to the peddler. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what do you think of the affair?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have a notion,”</span> the man replied, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“but it may be only a fancy—still I seem to myself to
+        have a notion of what their purpose is.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do you mean,”</span> pursued the Count, as the other
+        paused, and seemed almost unwilling to speak, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“do you mean that they think of holding her as a kind of
+        hostage against me? Do they fancy that I shall not be able to act
+        against them, and shall hinder my colleagues from acting, as long as
+        she is in their power? or will they keep her as something to make
+        terms about if they fail?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The other was
+        still silent for a few minutes, and seemed to be collecting his
+        thoughts. At last he said:</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord, what I am going to tell you may seem as foolish
+        as a dream. I should have gone on saying nothing about it, as I have
+        said nothing about it hitherto, if things had not happened which
+        makes it a crime for me to be silent any longer. You find it
+        difficult to believe that a rebellion is possible among a nation
+        which you have always looked upon as thoroughly subdued. But what
+        will you say if I tell you that this rebellion has been preparing for
+        generations, and that the Druids have been, and are, at the bottom of
+        it.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Druids!”</span> cried the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I did not know <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149">[pg
+        149]</span><a name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that
+        there were any Druids. I thought that the last of them had
+        disappeared years ago.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Not so,”</span> replied the peddler; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“the people who rule do not know what is going on about
+        them. Now I have been among this people the greater part of my life.
+        I have seen them, not as they show themselves to you, but as they
+        are. You think that they are Christians—not very good Christians,
+        perhaps, but still not worse than other people—and believing the
+        Creeds, if they believe anything. Now I know for a certainty that
+        many of them are no more Christians now than their fathers were three
+        hundred and fifty years ago. I have seen sometimes, when no one knew
+        that I saw, what they really worshipped. I have pieced together many
+        little things. I have heard hints dropped unawares, and I know that
+        there is a secret society, which has existed ever since the island
+        was conquered, which has for its object the bringing back of the old
+        faith. I could name—if things turn out as I expect they will, I will
+        name—men whom you believe to be quiet, respectable citizens, but who
+        are the heads of a conspiracy reaching all over Britain, against Rome
+        and the Christian Church. You never see them except in the tunic and
+        the cap, but they can wear on occasion the Druid’s robe and
+        crown.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But tell me,”</span> said the Count, with a certain
+        impatience, <span class="tei tei-q">“what has this got to do with my
+        daughter?”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150">[pg
+        150]</span><a name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“This, my lord,”</span> answered the other, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that if the Druids are making the great effort for which
+        they have been preparing for no one knows how many years, they will
+        begin it with all the solemnity that is possible—in a word, with the
+        great sacrifice. This, I suppose, has not been practised for many
+        generations, but it has not been forgotten. To speak plainly, I
+        believe that the Lady Carna has been carried off for the
+        victim.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count
+        staggered back as if he had been struck. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Impossible!”</span> he cried. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Such things cannot be in Britain: and why should they
+        fix upon her?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“For two reasons,”</span> said the peddler. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“She is of royal race. You very likely do not know or
+        care about such things. All Britons to you will be much about the
+        same; but they do not forget it. Yes, though her father was nothing
+        more than a sailor, she is descended from Cassibelan. And then she is
+        a Christian. These are the two reasons why they have chosen her—this
+        is what they honour her for, and this is what they hate her
+        for.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But where,”</span> cried the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“where is this monstrous thing to be done?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“That,”</span> replied the other, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I think I know. It can hardly be done anywhere but at
+        the Great Temple, the Choir Gawr, as they call it
+        themselves.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And where is this Great Temple?”</span></p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span><a name="Pg151" id="Pg151"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“About forty miles inland, in a nearly northerly
+        direction. I have seen the place once, and I can find my way to it, I
+        believe; but, to make sure, I will find a guide.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And when?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“At the full moon. I should say.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And how much does it want to the full moon
+        now?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It will be full moon to-morrow night.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We have to cross then to the mainland—and the galley is
+        not in sight—to find a guide, and to travel forty miles, and all
+        before to-morrow night. Well, it must be done. To think of these
+        wretches murdering my dear Carna!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do not fear, my lord; we shall do it,”</span> said the
+        peddler; but added, in a low voice, <span class="tei tei-q">“if
+        nothing happens.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At that moment the
+        galley came in sight. <span class="tei tei-q">“That is right,”</span>
+        cried the Count; <span class="tei tei-q">“anyhow, we begin well; no
+        time will be lost in getting across.”</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span><a name="Pg152"
+        id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc43" id=
+        "toc43"></a> <a name="pdf44" id="pdf44"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XV.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE PURSUIT (</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style=
+        "text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%; font-style: italic">continued</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%">).</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The signal
+        previously agreed was promptly hoisted by the party on shore, and as
+        promptly observed and obeyed by the crew of the galley which had been
+        for some time on the watch for some communication.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> said the peddler, when they had
+        embarked, <span class="tei tei-q">“if I may suggest, we should not
+        make a straight passage to the mainland from here, but steer for the
+        north-west. Some eight miles beyond the western point of the island
+        there is a river flowing into the sea, and a fishing village at the
+        mouth. I know the place well, and have one or two good friends there.
+        We shall get a guide there; I have in my mind the very man who will
+        suit us well in that capacity. Indeed the river<a id="noteref_35"
+        name="noteref_35" href="#note_35"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">35</span></span></a> itself
+        would be no bad guide. The Great Temple lies but a few miles westward
+        from its upper course. The road will be easy too along the valley,
+        which is mostly clear of wood.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page153">[pg 153]</span><a name="Pg153" id="Pg153" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Then,”</span> said the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“the Temple cannot be far from Sorbiodunum. Why not make
+        for the Great Harbour, and go by the Great Road to Venta<a id=
+        "noteref_36" name="noteref_36" href="#note_36"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">36</span></span></a> and from
+        Venta to Sorbiodunum.<a id="noteref_37" name="noteref_37" href=
+        "#note_37"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">37</span></span></a> The
+        travelling would be much easier.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have thought of that,”</span> said the other,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“but I think my plan the best. The distance
+        is far less, and, what is quite as important, we shall not be
+        expected to come that way. Depend upon it there will be an ambuscade
+        laid somewhere along the road; for they will feel sure that we shall
+        try and come that way.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was evident
+        anyhow that as far as the sea voyage was concerned the man was right.
+        The tide was ebbing slowly, and an east wind, already high and still
+        rising, was blowing. To make way against wind and tide to the Great
+        Harbour would be in any case a laborious business; and if the wind
+        increased to a gale as it threatened to do, might become impossible.
+        The galley had been chosen for swiftness rather than seaworthy
+        qualities in rough weather, and might fail in the attempt to work
+        back. On the other hand both wind and tide thoroughly favoured a
+        westward voyage.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Indeed she moved
+        gaily on with a strong breeze, that in the phraseology of to-day
+        would be called a half-gale, blowing due aft, and scarcely felt the
+        heavy <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154">[pg 154]</span><a name=
+        "Pg154" id="Pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sea, seeming to leave
+        the waves behind, as the rowers bent their backs to their work. The
+        Saxon had now taken his place on one of the thwarts, and his gigantic
+        strength, put it was evident with a will into the labour, seemed of
+        itself to drive the galley forwards. In an incredibly short time the
+        river mouth was reached, the galley stranded, and the guide, who, by
+        great good luck, had just returned from a fishing voyage,
+        engaged.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But now an
+        unforeseen obstacle opposed itself. A few specks of rain had been
+        felt by the party as they went, and then as the day went on, began to
+        change to snow. And now the wind almost suddenly died away, and at
+        the same time the fall of snow grew heavier. The face of the guide
+        fell.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        hear that your business is urgent and cannot wait. But I must tell
+        you that the weather looks very bad, and that the prospects of our
+        journey are almost as unfavourable as they can be. We shall have a
+        very heavy fall of snow, and if the wind gets up again, and it begins
+        to drift, we shall be blocked, and possibly unable to get either
+        backwards or forwards.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We must go,”</span> said the Count, in a determined
+        voice, <span class="tei tei-q">“though the snow were over our
+        heads.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After a very short
+        interval allowed for refreshment, the party started. At first the
+        snow was no very serious obstacle; but after a couple of hours
+        inces<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page155">[pg 155]</span><a name=
+        "Pg155" id="Pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sant and rapid fall, it
+        began to make movement very difficult. The progress of the travellers
+        grew slower and slower, and the Count began to calculate that at
+        their present rate of speed they could but barely arrive in time. It
+        was an immense relief when the sky almost suddenly cleared, and
+        showed the moon still evidently somewhat short of the full. But the
+        relief was only temporary. The clearer weather was the result of a
+        change of wind, which had suddenly veered to a point westward of
+        north and which was rapidly increasing in force. And now occurred the
+        thing which the peddler’s knowledge of the country and the weather
+        had suggested to him—the snow began to drift. At first the party was
+        hardly conscious of the change; indeed for a time the way was
+        somewhat clearer and easier than before; then as they came to a
+        slight depression, the snow was felt to be certainly deeper. Still
+        three or four miles were traversed without any particular difficulty.
+        Then the leader of the party suddenly plunged into a drift
+        considerably above his knees. This obstacle, however, was surmounted,
+        or rather avoided by making a <span lang="fr" class="tei tei-foreign"
+        xml:lang="fr"><span style="font-style: italic">détour</span></span>.
+        But still the wind rose higher and higher, and as it rose, not only
+        did its force hinder the party’s advance, but the drifts grew now
+        formidably deep. Some of the party began to lag behind; the Count
+        himself, who was past his prime, began to acknowledge to himself,
+        with an agony of anger and fear in <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page156">[pg 156]</span><a name="Pg156" id="Pg156" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>his heart, that his strength was failing. Still
+        they struggled on, leaving one or two of the strugglers to make the
+        best of their way back, or, it might well be, to perish in the snow,
+        till about half the distance was traversed. They had now reached a
+        little hamlet,<a id="noteref_38" name="noteref_38" href=
+        "#note_38"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">38</span></span></a> on the
+        outskirts of which there happened to be a small villa. It was shut
+        up, the proprietor chancing to be absent, but it was put at the
+        disposal of the party by the person who was in charge. Fires were
+        hastily lighted, and the travellers, most of whom had almost reached
+        the end of their powers of endurance, were refreshed with warmth and
+        food.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count held a
+        council of war. The situation indeed <a name="corr156" id="corr156"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">seemed</span>
+        nothing less than desperate. Two out of the party of
+        twenty-five—their numbers had been increased by a contingent taken
+        from the crew of the galley—were missing. They had fallen out on the
+        march, and it was too probable that they had perished in the snow. Of
+        the remainder but four or five seemed fit for any further exertion.
+        By far the freshest and most vigorous of them was the Saxon. The
+        fatigues of the night had scarcely told on his gigantic strength. The
+        Italians, and even the Britons, natives of the southern parts of the
+        island, and little accustomed to heavy falls of snow, looked at him
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157">[pg 157]</span><a name="Pg157"
+        id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with astonishment. As for him,
+        he was full of impatience at the delay.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count was in
+        an agony of doubt and distress. His own strength had failed so
+        completely that all his spirit—and there was no braver man in the
+        armies of Rome—could not have dragged him a hundred yards further.
+        And he saw that many of his followers were in little better case. And
+        yet to give up the pursuit! to leave Carna, the sweetest, gentlest of
+        women, dear to him as a daughter of his own, to this hideous death!
+        The thought was too dreadful.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“When do they perform their horrible rites?”</span> said
+        the Count to the peddler.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“When the full moon shines through the great south
+        entrance of the Temple,”</span> was the answer.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And when will that be?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“To-night, and about an hour before midnight, as far as I
+        can guess.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what must be done? What is your advice?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“There seems to me only one thing possible. Those who can
+        must press on. I count a <a name="corr157" id="corr157" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">great</span> deal on
+        the Saxon. His strength and endurance are such as I never saw in any
+        man, and they now seem to be increased manyfold. Anything that can be
+        done by mortal man, he, you may be sure, will do. Our guide too has
+        happily something still left in him; and there are three or four
+        others who are equal to going on after they have had a little rest. I
+        should say, let <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158">[pg
+        158]</span><a name="Pg158" id="Pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>them
+        get two or three hours’ sleep, and then push on to Sorbiodunum. That
+        is not far from here, and they can easily reach it before noon
+        to-day, after allowing a fair time for rest. Perhaps they may get
+        some help there, though the place is not what it was. It is some
+        years since I paid it a visit, and then I found it in a very
+        declining condition, so much so that it was not worth my while to go
+        there again. There were not more than two or three Roman traders
+        there, and they made but a very poor living out of their
+        business.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This seemed to be
+        the best course practicable under the circumstances. The Saxon, with
+        whom the peddler held a long conversation, was for pressing on at
+        once, and would almost have gone alone, but for want of a guide. When
+        he understood the state of the case he yielded to what he perceived
+        to be a necessity, and throwing himself down on the hearth was almost
+        immediately buried in a profound sleep, an example which was soon
+        followed by the rest of the party, the Count and the peddler
+        excepted.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Not more than two
+        hours could be allowed for rest. The guide and the three sailors who
+        had volunteered to go on were roused with no little difficulty; the
+        young Saxon was wide awake in a moment. The party partook hastily of
+        a meal of bread, meat, and hot wine and water, which the peddler had
+        been busying himself in preparing while they slept, and, after
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span><a name="Pg159"
+        id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>stowing away some provisions
+        for the day, started on their journey about two hours before
+        noon.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Sorbiodunum was
+        reached without much difficulty. But there a great disappointment
+        awaited them. The peddler’s anticipations were more than fulfilled,
+        for the town was almost deserted. Only one Roman remained there. He
+        was an old man who had married a British wife, and who cultivated a
+        farm which had descended to her from her father. When the guide
+        handed to him the letter which the Count had addressed to the
+        authorities of the town, begging for any help which they could give
+        in saving the liberty and life of a person very dear to himself, he
+        shook his head. When he heard the whole of the guide’s story, he
+        became still more depressed.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Authorities!”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“there are no authorities. I am the only Roman left in
+        the place, and I do not know where to look for a single man to help
+        you. As for the Great Temple on the plain there is not a creature
+        here who would dare to go near it. They think it haunted by spirits
+        and demons. And indeed there <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">are</span></span> strange stories about it. To
+        tell you the plain truth, I should not much care to go there myself.
+        No; I see nothing to be done. But I will ask my wife. Perhaps her
+        woman’s wit will help us.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Bidding the party
+        be seated, he left the room in which he had received them, and
+        entered the kitchen, where his wife was busy with her domestic
+        affairs.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page160">[pg
+        160]</span><a name="Pg160" id="Pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In about half an
+        hour he returned. His expression was now a shade more cheerful than
+        before.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I was
+        right about the woman’s wit. She <span class=
+        "tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">has</span></span>
+        thought of something. You must know that my wife is a very devout
+        Christian—for myself I am a Christian too, but I must own that I
+        don’t see so much in it as she does—and that she has brought up our
+        children in that way of thinking. Now, our eldest son is a priest in
+        a village some seven miles hence, and his people are devoted to him.
+        If there is any one in this neighbourhood who can give you the help
+        you want it is he. He has only got to say the word and his people
+        will follow him to the end of the world. Here is a proof of it. Four
+        years ago a strong party of Picts came this way, ravaging and
+        plundering wherever they went. There were not more than fifty of
+        them, but the people were as terrified as if they were so many
+        demons. If you think this place a desert now, what would you have
+        thought it then? There was not a single person left in it—at least a
+        single person that could help himself—for the cowards had the
+        meanness to leave some of the old and the sick behind them. But my
+        son was not going to let the robbers have it all their own way—you
+        know he has something of the Roman in him—and he went about talking
+        to his people in such a way, that they plucked up spirit, and fell on
+        the Picts one night when they were expecting nothing <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page161">[pg 161]</span><a name="Pg161" id="Pg161"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>less than an attack, and gave such an
+        account of them, that the country has not been troubled since with
+        the like of them. Well, as I say, he is the man to help you. I have
+        my younger son here working with me on the farm; he is just such
+        another as his elder brother, and would have been a priest too if he
+        had not felt it to be his duty to stay and help me. I will bring him
+        in, and he shall hear the whole story and carry it to his brother.
+        That is the best hope that I can give you, and I really think that it
+        is worth something. What I can do for you does not go beyond
+        hospitality, but to that you are heartily welcome. You have some
+        hours before you. If you start an hour after sunset you will be in
+        ample time. And, in fact, you had better not start before, because
+        the less that is seen of your movements the better. I don’t know that
+        any of the people about here are infected with the Druid
+        superstition, though I have had one or two hints to that effect,
+        hints which what you have just told me helps to explain. But, in any
+        case, the more secret you are the better. Besides, my son’s Party
+        cannot reach the Great Temple till long after dark. Meanwhile take
+        some rest and refreshment, for, believe me, you have something before
+        you.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This advice was so
+        obviously right, that the guide, who was in command of the party, had
+        no hesitation in accepting it.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page162">[pg 162]</span><a name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">About six o’clock
+        another start was made. At first, though the weather looked
+        threatening, no serious obstacle presented itself. The snow was
+        somewhat deep on the ground, but there were no serious drifts on
+        their way, a way which, indeed, for some distance from the town lay
+        under the leeward side of a wood. But they had not gone more than a
+        mile and a half when a disastrous change in their circumstances
+        occurred. The wind rose almost suddenly to the height of a gale, and
+        brought with it a fall of snow, separated by the rapid movement of
+        the air into a very fine powder, and working its way through the
+        clothing of the traveller with a penetrating power which nothing
+        could resist. Still, benumbed as they were, almost blinded by the icy
+        particles which were whirled with all the force of the tempest
+        against their faces, they struggled on for more than half the
+        distance which lay between them and their destination. Then the three
+        sailors cried out simultaneously that they must halt, and the guide
+        unwillingly owned that he must follow their example. Only the Saxon
+        was left to go on, and he, with a gesture which it was impossible to
+        mistake, declared his intention of persevering. Just at that moment
+        the clouds parted in the east, and the full moon showed the landscape
+        with a singular clearness, its most conspicuous feature being the
+        gigantic stones of the Great Temple, which could be seen about two
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span><a name="Pg163"
+        id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>miles to the northward. The
+        guide pointed to them, and the Saxon, when they caught his eye, leapt
+        forward with an energy which nothing seemed to have abated, and, with
+        a gesture of farewell to his companions, plunged into the
+        darkness.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span><a name="Pg164"
+        id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc45" id=
+        "toc45"></a> <a name="pdf46" id="pdf46"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XVI.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE GREAT TEMPLE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Great Temple,
+        or Stonehenge as it is now called, though its decay had already
+        commenced, still preserved the form which we have now some difficulty
+        in tracing. There was an outer circle consisting of thirty huge
+        triliths,<a id="noteref_39" name="noteref_39" href=
+        "#note_39"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">39</span></span></a> the
+        greater part of which were still standing in the position in which
+        the unsparing labour of a long past generation had placed them.
+        Within this there was a circle of forty single stones, this circle
+        again containing two ovals. One of these ovals was composed of five
+        triliths, even larger than those which stood in the outer circle; the
+        other was made of nineteen upright stones. At the upper end of this
+        stood the altar, a low, flat structure of blue marble.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">All the
+        preparations for the sacrifice were complete when Cedric—for we may
+        as well henceforth <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page165">[pg
+        165]</span><a name="Pg165" id="Pg165" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>call
+        the Saxon by the name which he bore among his countrymen—reached the
+        spot. Carna was being led by two of the subordinate priests to the
+        altar, where Caradoc stood, robed for the rite which he was about to
+        perform. The sky had now again cleared, and the moon, riding high in
+        the heavens, poured a flood of silver light through the south
+        entrance, and fell on the priest’s impassive face as he stood
+        fronting the light, while it glittered on his crown of gold and gave
+        a dazzling brilliancy to his white robe. In his hand he held a knife
+        of flint, with which it was the custom to give the first blow to the
+        victim, though innovation had so far prevailed even in the Druid
+        worship that the sacrifice was completed with a weapon of steel. But
+        this latter lay at his feet, and was concealed by the fall of his
+        robe. It was not, indeed, supposed to be used. The attendants, who
+        were also dressed in white, were rough and brutal creatures, selected
+        for their office because they could be trusted to carry out any
+        orders without remonstrance or hesitation. Yet even they seemed
+        touched by the girl’s dignity and courage, as she walked with head
+        erect and unfaltering gait between them. Had she hesitated, or hung
+        back, or struggled, doubtless they would not have hesitated to drag
+        her to the altar; but walking as she did with a proud resignation to
+        her fate, they showed her a rude respect by letting their hands rest
+        as lightly as pos<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166">[pg
+        166]</span><a name="Pg166" id="Pg166" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>sible, so as to give no sense of constraint,
+        upon her arms. On either side of the priest stood Martianus and
+        Ambiorix. The younger man had braced himself to what, fanatical
+        patriot as he was, was evidently a hateful task. He looked
+        steadfastly and unflinchingly at the scene; but his face was deadly
+        pale, and the blood trickled down his chin as he bit his lip in the
+        unconscious effort to maintain a stern composure. Martianus was
+        overwhelmed with shame and horror. If there was one softer heart
+        among the <span class="tei tei-q">“stern, black-bearded kings”</span>
+        who of old in Aulis watched the daughter of Agamemnon die, he must
+        have looked and felt as Martianus did in the Great Temple that night.
+        Cursing again and again in his heart the ambition which had led him
+        to mix himself up with this fanatical crew, but too much a craven at
+        heart to protest, he stood trembling with agitation, mostly keeping
+        his eyes shut or fixed upon the earth, but sometimes compelled by a
+        fascination which he could not resist to lift them, and take in the
+        horror of the scene. Each of the chiefs had an armed attendant
+        standing behind him. Besides these there were no spectators of the
+        scene, though guards were disposed at each of the entrances which led
+        to the central shrine. Even these had been kept in ignorance of what
+        was to be done, and they were too deeply imbued with the traditional
+        awe felt for the Great Temple to think of playing the spy.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig166"
+        id="fig166" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig47" id=
+        "fig47"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_191.jpg" alt="The Sacrifice" title=
+          "The Sacrifice." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Sacrifice.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page167">[pg 167]</span><a name=
+        "Pg167" id="Pg167" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The priest, after
+        observing the position of the moon, and seeing that the shadows fell
+        now almost straight towards the north, began the invocation which was
+        the preliminary of the sacrifice. It was for this that the Saxon was
+        waiting, as he stood in the shadow of one of the huge triliths. He
+        crept silently out of his concealment, entirely unobserved, so intent
+        were all present on the scene that was being enacted. His first
+        object was the priest. This had been laid down for him in the
+        instructions given him by the peddler before he started; and indeed
+        his own instinct would have dictated the act. The priest put out of
+        the way, the sacrifice would, for the time at least, be stopped; for
+        so high a solemnity could not be performed but by one of the very
+        highest rank. Time would thus be gained, and with time anything might
+        happen. One firm thrust between the shoulders sent the Saxon’s sword
+        right through the priest’s body, so that the point stood out an inch
+        or two from the priest. Without a cry the man fell forward, deluging
+        with his blood the stone of sacrifice. The ministrants who stood on
+        either side of Carna were paralysed with astonishment and dismay.
+        Before they could recover themselves Cedric had dragged his weapon
+        out of the priest’s body, sheathed it, and thrown himself on them.
+        Two blows, delivered almost simultaneously by fists that had almost
+        the force of sledge hammers, levelled them both senseless to
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page168">[pg 168]</span><a name="Pg168"
+        id="Pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the ground. He then caught the
+        girl up in his arms. A full-grown woman—and Carna had a stature
+        beyond the average of her sex—is no light burden, but Cedric’s
+        strength was, as has been said before, exceptionally great, and now
+        it seemed doubled by the fierce excitement of the hour. To escape
+        with her by running was, he knew, impossible. For such a task no
+        fleetness of foot, no strength, would be sufficient. To attempt would
+        be to expose himself to certain death, and Carna to as certain
+        re-capture. But his quick eye had caught sight of a place where he
+        might hold out, at least for a time, against a much superior strength
+        of assailants. One of the triliths had partially fallen, the huge
+        cross-stone having been so displaced that it formed an angle with one
+        of its supports, and so afforded a protection to the back and sides
+        of a fighter who managed to ensconce himself in the niche, and who
+        would so have only his front to protect. Setting Carna behind him,
+        and making her understand by a movement of the hand that she must
+        crouch as low as she could upon the ground, he prepared to hold his
+        position. The odds against him were not so heavy as might have been
+        supposed. The two ministrants were unarmed. Of the four left, the two
+        chiefs and their attendants, one was a middle-aged man, who had never
+        been expert in arms; and who, whatever his skill and strength, would
+        scarcely have cared to use them in <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page169">[pg 169]</span><a name="Pg169" id="Pg169" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>such a conflict. Ambiorix, indeed, was of
+        another temper. The gloomy, fanatical doggedness with which he had
+        looked on at the preparations for the sacrifice gave way to a fierce
+        delight when he saw an enemy before him with whom he could cross
+        swords. In his inmost soul he had hated the thought of the sacrifice;
+        but yet the man who had hindered it, and with it the weal of Britain,
+        was a foe whom it would be pleasure to smite to the ground. But
+        fierce as was his temper, it was full of chivalry. He would not
+        dishonour himself by bringing odds against an enemy. Signing to the
+        armed attendants to stand back, he advanced to challenge Cedric. The
+        Saxon, in height and strength, was more than a match for his
+        antagonist. But he was hampered by his position, especially by the
+        presence of the girl. The weapon, too, with which he was armed—a
+        short Roman sword—was strange to him. He thought with regret of his
+        own good steel, an heirloom come down to him from warriors of the
+        past, and inscribed with magic Runic rhymes, that was then lying at
+        the bottom of the Channel. The change, however, was not really so
+        much to his disadvantage as he thought. The stones behind him would
+        have hindered the long sweeping blow which made the great Saxon
+        swords especially formidable. Altogether it might have seemed as if
+        Cedric must inevitably be worsted in the struggle. The British chief,
+        though he hated <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page170">[pg
+        170]</span><a name="Pg170" id="Pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the
+        customs and even the civilization of the Roman conquerors, had not
+        disdained to learn what they could teach him in the use of arms. They
+        were acknowledged masters in that, and he accepted the maxim that it
+        was right to be instructed even by one’s bitterest enemy. Accordingly
+        he knew all that a fencing master could teach him; and all the
+        Saxon’s agility, quickness of eye, and strength, could not
+        counterbalance the advantage. Before many minutes had passed Cedric
+        was bleeding from two wounds, neither of them very serious, but
+        sufficient to hamper and weaken him. One had been inflicted on the
+        sword-arm, and threatened to disable him altogether before long. He
+        felt this himself, and took his resolve. <span class="tei tei-q">“The
+        curse of Thor upon this foolish toy!”</span> he cried, in his native
+        tongue, as he threw the short sword straight in the face of his
+        enemy; and followed up the strange missile by leaping on his
+        antagonist, both of whose arms he fastened down to his sides with a
+        supreme exertion of strength. Gigantic strength, indeed, was the only
+        thing which gave so desperate a resort the chance of success, and
+        this might well have failed, if the adversary had not been entirely
+        unprepared for the movement. Once held in this tremendous clasp,
+        Ambiorix was as helpless as a kid in the hug of a bear. Cedric fairly
+        lifted him off his feet, and threw him backwards. His head struck one
+        of the great stones <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page171">[pg
+        171]</span><a name="Pg171" id="Pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in
+        his fall, and he lay senseless and helpless on the ground.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The struggle was
+        over so quickly that the attendants had no time to interfere; nor
+        when it was finished did they feel any great eagerness to engage so
+        formidable a champion. Still they advanced, and Martianus, who felt
+        himself unable to maintain any longer in the face of what had
+        happened his attitude of inaction, advanced with them. By this time
+        Carna, who had been almost stunned by the rapid succession of
+        startling incidents, had recovered her self-possession. She lifted
+        herself from the ground, and stepped between Cedric and the three
+        antagonists who stood confronting him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Martianus,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“what are you doing here? What mixes you up with these
+        horrible doings—you, my father’s friend, you, a Christian
+        man?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Briton stood
+        silent, cursing in his heart the hideous enterprise which had not
+        even the poor merit of success. He was spared the necessity of
+        speaking by an exclamation from one of the ministrants.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“See!”</span> cried the man, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“there is a party coming. It is not likely that they are
+        friends—let us be off.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And indeed the
+        moonlight clearly showed a number of persons who were rapidly
+        advancing up one of the great avenues.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus did not
+        hesitate.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You are right,”</span> he said to the man, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“we must <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page172">[pg
+        172]</span><a name="Pg172" id="Pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>go.
+        The priest’s body must be left. It is useless to cumber ourselves
+        with the dead; we shall have as much as we can do to escape
+        ourselves, but take the sacred things. They at least must not fall
+        into the hands of the enemy. And you,”</span> he went on, addressing
+        himself to the two attendants, <span class="tei tei-q">“take up your
+        master and carry him off. We have something of a start, and it is
+        possible that they may not pursue us.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His directions
+        were at once obeyed. The priest’s body was stripped of its robes and
+        ornaments. Ambiorix, who still lay unconscious on the ground, was
+        carried by the united efforts of the soldiers and ministrants, and
+        the whole party had started in the direction of Amesbury before the
+        new-comers, who proved to be the priest Flavius, with a party of his
+        people, reached the Temple.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page173">[pg 173]</span><a name="Pg173"
+        id="Pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc48" id=
+        "toc48"></a> <a name="pdf49" id="pdf49"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XVII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE BRITISH VILLAGE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The British
+        priest’s home was at a populous village on the banks of the Avon, now
+        known by the name of Netton, and as this was some miles nearer than
+        Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the party whom his
+        opportune arrival had rescued from danger. Once arrived there, it
+        would be easy to send a messenger to the town, and await further
+        instructions. A litter was hastily constructed for Carna, who, though
+        her spirits and courage were still unbroken, was somewhat exhausted
+        by excitement and fatigue. The Saxon’s wounds were dressed and bound
+        up by the priest, who united some knowledge of medicine and surgery
+        to his other accomplishments, and was indeed scarcely less well
+        qualified for the cure of bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor
+        looked somewhat grave when he saw how deep the sword-cuts were, and
+        how much blood had been lost, but Cedric made light of his injuries,
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page174">[pg 174]</span><a name="Pg174"
+        id="Pg174" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>scorned the idea of being
+        carried, and indeed seemed to find no difficulty in keeping close to
+        Carna’s litter on the homeward journey.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Netton—we are
+        unable to give the British name of the village—was reached some time
+        before dawn. At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himself with
+        two or three hours’ sleep, was ready to perform his office at his
+        little church. It was the first day of the week, and the building was
+        crowded. It was an oblong building, with a semicircular eastern end,
+        that resembled that kind of chancel which is known by the name of an
+        apse. It had been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied the
+        shape that seems to have been used in the earliest Christian
+        buildings, that of the <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign"
+        xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">schola</span></span>
+        or meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations. The body of the
+        building was of timber. The eastern end, or sanctuary, had a little
+        more pretension to ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung
+        with somewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with symbolic designs.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Few of the party
+        which had accompanied the priest the night before were prevented by
+        their fatigue from being present. The Britons were always a devout
+        people, and in Netton their priest had gained such an influence over
+        them, that they were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.
+        Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page175">[pg 175]</span><a name="Pg175" id="Pg175"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the priest’s wife—he had followed the
+        usual practice of the British Church in marrying before
+        ordination—had absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion.
+        Cedric, who would otherwise have been present in whatever part of the
+        building was open to an unbaptized person, was still buried in a
+        profound slumber. The service was in Latin, a language of which most
+        if not all the worshippers knew enough to be able to follow the
+        prayers. Such portions of the Scriptures as were read were
+        accompanied by the priest with occasional expositions in the British
+        language; and the sermon, except the text, which was in Latin, and
+        taken from the recently published Vulgate of St. Jerome, was wholly
+        in that tongue. The preacher’s text was from the Psalms, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Quomodo dicitis animæ meæ, Transmigra in montem sicut
+        passer?”</span><a id="noteref_40" name="noteref_40" href=
+        "#note_40"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">40</span></span></a> and was
+        mostly concerned with the troubles of the time. He had in an uncommon
+        degree the national gift of eloquence, and stirred the hearts of his
+        hearers to their inmost depths. He warned them that troublous times
+        were approaching, such as neither they nor their fathers had seen
+        were approaching, and that they would have to resist unto blood for
+        the faith into which they had been baptized.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Antichrist,”</span> he cried, adapting to the day, as
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176">[pg 176]</span><a name="Pg176"
+        id="Pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Christian preachers have done
+        in every age, the language of the apostles—<span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Antichrist is at hand! You see him in these heathen
+        hosts who are threatening you on every side; these Saxon pirates from
+        the east, who are ravaging our shores; these Pictish ravagers from
+        the north, who every year are penetrating further and further into
+        the land. Yes,”</span> he added, with a telling reference to the
+        event of the night before, <span class="tei tei-q">“and even in
+        apostates of British blood, who have preserved in your midst the
+        hideous superstitions from which our ancestors turned to worship the
+        blessed Christ; and as it was in the days of the blessed Paul, so is
+        it now: <span class="tei tei-q">‘He that letteth will let till he be
+        taken out of the way,’</span> The Roman power has kept these forces
+        in check, but it will keep them no more. The time is short. They are
+        gathering every day in greater strength, and you must gird yourselves
+        to meet them.”</span> Therefore, he went on, they must be strong and
+        quit them like men. They must gird on them, and make complete in
+        every point, their spiritual armour—the helmet of salvation, the
+        sword of the Divine Word, the all-covering shield of faith; nor must
+        they forget the temporal weapons with which the outward enemies who
+        assail the body must be met. <span class="tei tei-q">“He that hath no
+        sword, let him sell his garment and buy one,”</span> cried the
+        preacher, in his final apostrophe to his people, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“and he will find that as his day so shall his strength
+        be, and that the Lord can <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page177">[pg
+        177]</span><a name="Pg177" id="Pg177" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>deliver by few as by many, Gideon’s three
+        hundred, as by the eight hundred thousand men that drew sword in
+        Israel.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Wrought by the
+        eloquence of the orator to an almost incontrollable excitement, the
+        whole congregation sprang to their feet, as if they were asking to be
+        led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden change from the
+        stirring tone of the trumpet to the sweet music of the flute, the
+        preacher touched another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never
+        quite broken with tears, he besought them to cleanse their hearts; he
+        reminded them that the armies of the Lamb of God must be clothed in
+        the white robe of righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak,
+        charity to the fallen, were as needed for Christ’s soldiers as
+        steadfastness and courage, till many a cheek was wet with tears of
+        contrition and repentance.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the course of
+        the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger was despatched to Sorbiodunum.
+        By the time he reached that town the Count and his party had arrived,
+        excepting one who had been left behind, still too exhausted by his
+        forced march to move. Some, too, had been sent back in the hope that
+        they might not be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce
+        been left behind during the journey through the snow. As there was
+        now no immediate necessity of haste, Ælius allowed his followers to
+        rest and refresh them<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page178">[pg
+        178]</span><a name="Pg178" id="Pg178" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>selves for the remainder of the day at <a name=
+        "corr178" id="corr178" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">Sorbiodunum.</span> The following morning he went on
+        to Netton, where he found, to his great delight, that Carna had
+        apparently suffered no harm from her perilous adventures. His
+        gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of words to express.
+        Though it somewhat hurt his Roman pride that a barbarian should ever
+        have the strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not suffer
+        his vexation to take anything from the hearty warmth of his thanks.
+        Cedric received them with the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which
+        both Britons and Italians could not help resenting in their hearts,
+        while they reluctantly admired his surpassing strength.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Three days were
+        spent in Netton with much comfort to the party, the priest and his
+        people showing them as liberal an hospitality as their means
+        admitted, and refusing the recompense which the Count almost forced
+        upon <a name="corr178a" id="corr178a" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">them.</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Take something for your poor,”</span> said Ælius, when
+        his arguments were exhausted.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My people,”</span> answered the priest, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“must not lose one of the most precious privileges of
+        their Christian life, the sweet compulsion of having to minister to
+        the necessities of those who want their help.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your
+        church,”</span> the Count went on.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The good man
+        hesitated for a moment. His <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page179">[pg
+        179]</span><a name="Pg179" id="Pg179" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>church was dear to his heart, and he would
+        gladly have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could make it.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> he replied, after his brief hesitation,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“in happier times, and in another place, I
+        would not refuse your generous offer. But now the poorer we are the
+        better. I should like to see our altar-vessels of gold, but it would
+        not be well to tempt the barbarians to a deadly sin, and to expose
+        Christian lives to worse peril than that they now stand in, by such
+        treasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to be spread
+        abroad. Our chalices, and flagons, and patens are now of lead, thinly
+        covered for decency’s sake with silver, and they are of no value to
+        any but those who use them. No, my lord, leave our church with at
+        least such safety as poverty can give. But there are places in the
+        world, I would fain believe, though indeed in these days I scarce
+        know where they are, where Christian men worship God in security, and
+        where the treasures of the church are safe from robbery. Let your
+        gift be given there, when you find the occasion. And if you will let
+        me know the place I shall be happy with imagining it, without the
+        anxious care of its custody.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">With this answer
+        the Count was compelled to be content, till at least next morning, by
+        which time Carna’s ready wit had suggested that the priest could
+        hardly refuse a gift of books.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page180">[pg 180]</span><a name="Pg180" id="Pg180" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> said the good man, when the Count
+        renewed his offer in its fresh shape on the following day,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“your determined generosity has overcome me.
+        Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my people’s. I
+        sometimes feel that they are starved, or at the best ill-fed with
+        spiritual food. I can speak to them of their every-day duties, but I
+        cannot build them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself,
+        and where is the knowledge to come from? Of books I have none but my
+        Bible and my Service-book, and two small books of homilies. If I had
+        some of the commentaries and homilies of the two great doctors of our
+        Church, Hieronymus<a id="noteref_41" name="noteref_41" href=
+        "#note_41"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">41</span></span></a> and
+        Augustine, I should be well content. I have heard of the great
+        preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, John the Golden Mouth,<a id=
+        "noteref_42" name="noteref_42" href="#note_42"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">42</span></span></a> but,
+        alas, I cannot read Greek.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You shall have them as soon as they can be got,”</span>
+        said the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the course of
+        the day the search party sent back from Sorbiodunum returned. They
+        had found one of the stragglers still alive, and had brought him on
+        to the village where the first halt had been made. There he was being
+        carefully tended, but there was no chance of his being restored to
+        health for many weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terrible
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181">[pg 181]</span><a name="Pg181"
+        id="Pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>account to give. Only a few
+        mangled remains could be discovered, the poor creatures having been
+        manifestly devoured by wolves. All that could be hoped was that they
+        had expired before they were attacked.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count had now
+        nothing to detain him, and as he was for many reasons anxious to be
+        at home, where a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him, he
+        determined to start on the following day. His route was first to
+        Sorbiodunum. There he would be on the main road leading to Venta
+        Belgarum.<a id="noteref_43" name="noteref_43" href=
+        "#note_43"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">43</span></span></a> From
+        Venta, by following another main road he and his party would make
+        their way easily to the Camp of the Great Harbour.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page182">[pg 182]</span><a name="Pg182"
+        id="Pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc50" id=
+        "toc50"></a> <a name="pdf51" id="pdf51"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XVIII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE PICTS.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The journey to
+        Venta Belgarum was accomplished in safety, and, by dint of starting
+        long before sunrise, in a single day. The distance was a little more
+        than twenty miles, and the road, which was so straight that the end
+        of the journey might almost have been seen from the beginning, lay
+        almost through an open country. This was favourable for speed, as
+        there was little or no need to reconnoitre the ground in advance. It
+        was just after sunrise when the party reached the spot where the
+        traces of the great camp of Constantius Chlorus may still be seen. It
+        had even then ceased to be occupied, but the soldiers’ huts were
+        still standing, and the avenues, though overgrown with grass, looked
+        as if they might easily be thronged again with all the busy life of a
+        camp. The Count called a halt for a few minutes, and pointed out the
+        locality to Carna.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“See,”</span> said he, with a sigh, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“there Constantius had <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page183">[pg 183]</span><a name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>his camp, the great Constantius to whom we owe
+        so much.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And was Constantine himself ever there?”</span> cried
+        the girl, to whom the first Christian Emperor was the object of an
+        admiration which we, knowing as we do more about him, can hardly
+        share.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I doubt it,”</span> returned the Count. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Constantius made it and held it during his campaigns
+        with Allectus. But, my child, I was thinking not of its past, but of
+        its future. It will never be occupied again.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Why should it?”</span> exclaimed the girl, almost
+        forgetting in her excitement that she was speaking to a Roman.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Why should it? Why should not Britain be
+        happy and safe and free without the legions? Forgive me,
+        father,”</span> she added, remembering herself again; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I am the last person in the world who should be
+        ungrateful to Rome.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I don’t blame you,”</span> said the Count, and as he
+        looked at the maiden’s flashing eyes and remembered how bravely she
+        had gone through terrors which would have driven most women out of
+        their senses, he thought to himself—<span class="tei tei-q">“Ah, if
+        there were but a few thousand men who had half the spirit of this
+        woman in them, the end might be different. My child,”</span> he went
+        on, <span class="tei tei-q">“I would not discourage you, but there
+        are dark days before this island. She has enemies by sea and land,
+        and I doubt whether she has the <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page184">[pg 184]</span><a name="Pg184" id="Pg184" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>strength to strike a sufficient blow for
+        herself. I am thankful that you will be safely away before it
+        comes.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna was about to
+        speak, but checked herself. It was not the time she felt to speak out
+        her heart.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For some time
+        after this little or nothing of interest occurred; but as the party
+        approached within a few miles of Venta the scene underwent a
+        remarkable change. The road had hitherto been almost entirely
+        deserted; it was now thronged: but the face of every passenger was
+        turned towards Venta, not a single traveller was going the other way.
+        Every by-way and bridle-path and foot-path that touched the road
+        contributed to swell the throng. In fact, the whole countryside was
+        in motion. And the fugitives, for their manifest hurry and alarm
+        proclaimed to be nothing less, carried all their property with them.
+        Carts laden with rustic furniture, on the top of which women and
+        children were perched, waggons loaded with the harvest of the year,
+        droves of sheep and cattle helped to crowd the road till it was
+        almost impassable. And still the hurrying pace, the fearful anxious
+        glances cast behind showed that it was some terrible danger from
+        which this timid multitude was flying. For some time, so stupified
+        with fear were the fugitives, Ælius could get no rational answer to
+        the questions which he put. <span class="tei tei-q">“The Picts! The
+        Picts! They are upon us!”</span> at last said a man whom a
+        sud<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185">[pg 185]</span><a name=
+        "Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>den catastrophe that
+        brought a great pile of household goods to the ground, had compelled
+        to halt, and who was glad to get the help of the Count’s attendants
+        to restore them, all help from neighbours being utterly out of the
+        question when all were selfishly intent on saving their own lives and
+        property. When his property had been set in its place again the man
+        thanked the Count very heartily, and was collected enough to tell all
+        he knew.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“There is no doubt that the Picts are not far off. I have
+        not seen anything of them myself, thank heaven! but I could see the
+        fires last night all along the sky to the north.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Have they ever been here before?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Never quite here. You see, sir, the camp at
+        Calleva<a id="noteref_44" name="noteref_44" href=
+        "#note_44"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">44</span></span></a> kept
+        them in check. A party did slip by, I know, some little way to the
+        westward, and I was glad to hear they got rather roughly handled.
+        But, generally, they did not like to come anywhere near the camps.
+        But now these are deserted, and there is nothing to keep them
+        back.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But why don’t you defend yourselves?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah, sir, we have not the strength, nor even the arms.
+        You are a Roman, I see, and, if I may judge, a man in authority, and
+        you know that I am <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186">[pg
+        186]</span><a name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>speaking the truth. You have not allowed us to
+        do anything for ourselves, and how can we do it now at a few months’
+        notice?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count made no
+        answer; indeed, none was possible.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And you expect to find shelter at Venta?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I don’t say that I expect it, but it is our only chance.
+        The place has at least walls.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And any one to man them?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“There should be some old soldiers, but how many I cannot
+        say; anyhow, scarcely enough for a garrison.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the Count
+        learned the situation he felt that his best course would be to press
+        on with his party to Venta with all the speed possible. The chief
+        authority of the town was in the hands of a native, who had the title
+        of Head of the City.<a id="noteref_45" name="noteref_45" href=
+        "#note_45"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">45</span></span></a> It was
+        possible that this officer might be a man of courage and capacity;
+        but it was far more likely that he would be quite unequal to the
+        emergency. In either case the Count felt that his advice and personal
+        influence might be of very great use. Even the twenty stout soldiers
+        whom he had with him would be no inconsiderable addition to the
+        fighting force of the place. Accordingly he gave orders to his
+        followers to quicken their pace. Fortunately the greater part
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187">[pg 187]</span><a name="Pg187"
+        id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the fugitives was behind
+        them; still it was no easy task for the party to make its way through
+        the struggling masses of human beings and cattle, and it was past
+        sunset when they rode up to the gates of Venta.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was evident
+        that the bad news had already arrived. The gates were closely shut,
+        while the walls were crowded with spectators anxiously looking
+        northwards for signs of the approaching enemy. The porter was at
+        first unwilling to admit the strangers, peering anxiously through the
+        wicket at them, and declaring that he must first consult his
+        superior. One of the spectators on the wall happened, however, to
+        recognize the Count, and the party was admitted without further
+        question, and rode up at once to the quarters of the Commander of the
+        Town.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">If he had hoped to
+        find an official with whom it would be possible or profitable to
+        co-operate in the <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang=
+        "la"><span style="font-style: italic">Princeps</span></span> of
+        Venta, the Count was very much disappointed. He was an elderly man,
+        who had realized a fair fortune by contracting for the provisioning
+        of the army in Southern Britain, and had done very fairly as long as
+        he had nothing to do but execute the orders of the military governor.
+        Left to himself he was absolutely helpless. Indeed he had been taking
+        refuge from his anxieties in the wine-cup, and the Count found him at
+        least half intoxicated. At the moment of the party’s arrival the poor
+        creature <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188">[pg
+        188]</span><a name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>had
+        reached the valorous stage of drunkenness, and was loud in his
+        declarations that there was no possible danger.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“They will know better,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“than to come near Venta. If they do, very few will go
+        back. Indeed I should like nothing better than to give them a lesson.
+        You shall see something worth looking at if you will give us the
+        pleasure of your company in our little town for a day or
+        two.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Another cup, which
+        he drained to the prosperity of Britain and the confusion of her
+        enemies, changed his mood. He now seemed to have forgotten all about
+        the invaders, insisted on recognizing a dear friend of past times in
+        the Count, and invited him to spend the rest of the day in talking
+        over old times.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count did not
+        waste many minutes with the old man, but when he left the house the
+        darkness had already closed in. After finding with some difficulty
+        accommodation for Carna, he returned to the gate, anxious to learn
+        for himself how things were going on. He found the place a scene of
+        frightful confusion. The warders had abandoned their office as
+        hopeless. An incessant stream of fugitives, men, women, and children,
+        mingled with carts and waggons of every shape and size, was pouring
+        into the town. Every now and then one of these vehicles, brought out
+        perhaps in the sudden emergency from the repose of years, broke down
+        and <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189">[pg 189]</span><a name=
+        "Pg189" id="Pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>blocked the way. Then
+        the living torrent began to rage at the obstacle, as a river in flood
+        roars about a tree which has fallen across its current. Shortly the
+        offending vehicle would be removed by main force, and with a very
+        scanty regard for its contents. Then the uproar lulled again, though
+        there never ceased a babel of voices, cursing, entreating,
+        complaining, quarrelling, through all the gamut of notes, from the
+        deepest base to the shrillest treble. The wall was crowded with the
+        inhabitants of the town, and every eye was fixed intently on the
+        northern horizon. There, as was only too plainly to be seen, the sky
+        was reddened with a dull glow, which might have been described as a
+        sunrise out of place, but that it was brightened now and then for a
+        moment by a shoot of flame. <span class="tei tei-q">“Where are
+        they?”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“How soon will they be
+        here?”</span> were the questions which every one was asking, and
+        which no one attempted to answer. The Count made his way with some
+        difficulty along the top of the rampart in search of some one from
+        whom he might hope to get some rational account of the situation. At
+        last he found among the spectators an old man, whose bearing struck
+        him as having something soldierly about it. A nearer look showed him
+        a military decoration. He lost no time in addressing him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Comrade,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I see
+        that you have followed the eagles.”</span></p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page190">[pg 190]</span><a name="Pg190" id="Pg190"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The veteran
+        recognized something of the tone of command in the Count’s voice, and
+        made a military salute.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, sir, so I have, though my sword has been hanging up
+        for more than thirty years.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what do you think of the prospect?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Badly, sir, badly. This is just what I feared; but it
+        has come even sooner than I looked for it. Things have been very bad
+        for some time in the north ever since the garrisons were taken from
+        the Wall,<a id="noteref_46" name="noteref_46" href=
+        "#note_46"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">46</span></span></a> but,
+        except for a troop of robbers now and then, we were fairly safe here.
+        But now that these barbarians know that the legions are gone, there
+        will be no stopping them.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“They are the Picts, I hear. Have you ever had to do with
+        them?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, sir, I have seen as much of them as ever I want to
+        see. I came to this island thirty-nine years ago with Theodosius,
+        grandfather, you know, of the Augustus;”</span> and the old man, who
+        was steadfastly loyal to the Emperor, bared his head as he spoke.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“I am a Batavian from the island of the
+        Rhine, and was then a deputy-centurion in Theodosius’ army. We found
+        Britain full of the savages. They had positively over-run the whole
+        country as <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page191">[pg
+        191]</span><a name="Pg191" id="Pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>far
+        as the southern sea, and only the walled towns had escaped them, and
+        these were almost in despair. I shall never forget how the people at
+        Londinium crowded about the general, kissing his hands and feet, when
+        he rode into the town. But I must not tire you with an old soldier’s
+        stories. You ask me about the Picts. They are the worst savages I
+        ever saw, and I have had some experience too. They go naked but for
+        some kind of a skin girdle about their loins, and they are hideously
+        painted, and their hair is more like a beast’s than a man’s, and then
+        they eat human flesh. Ah, sir, you may shake your head, but I know
+        it. We used to find dead bodies with the fleshy parts cut off where
+        they had been. I shudder to think of what I saw in those days. Well,
+        we gave them a good lesson, drove them back to their own country, and
+        an awful country it is, all lakes and mountains, with not so much as
+        a blade of corn from one end to the other. But now they will be as
+        bad as ever.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But you are safe here in Venta, I suppose?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Safe! I wish we were. If we had a proper garrison here,
+        there is no one to command them. You have seen the <span lang="la"
+        class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Princeps</span></span>?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count said
+        nothing, but his silence was significant.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But there is no garrison. There are not more than fifty
+        men in the place who have ever carried arms.”</span></p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page192">[pg 192]</span><a name="Pg192" id="Pg192"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But surely the people will defend themselves. You, as an
+        old soldier, know very well that civilians, who would be quite
+        useless in the field, may do good service behind walls.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“True, sir, if they have two things—a spirit and a
+        leader; and these people, as far as I can tell, have
+        neither.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“That is a bad look out. But tell me—how soon do you
+        think the enemy will be here?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Not to-night, certainly; perhaps not to-morrow. And
+        indeed it is just possible that they may not come at all. You see
+        that they get a great quantity of plunder in the country without much
+        trouble or danger, and they may leave the towns alone. Barbarians
+        mostly don’t care to knock their heads against stone walls, and of
+        course they think us a great deal stronger than we are.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After making an
+        appointment with his new acquaintance for a meeting on the following
+        day, the Count rejoined his party.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The next day the
+        <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Princeps</span></span> called a meeting of the
+        principal burgesses of the town, at which the Count, in consideration
+        of his rank as a Roman official, was invited to attend. The tone of
+        the meeting was better than he had expected. There were one or two
+        resolute men among the local magistrates, and these contrived to
+        communicate something of their spirit to the rest. A general levy of
+        the inhabitants <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page193">[pg
+        193]</span><a name="Pg193" id="Pg193" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>between the ages of sixteen and sixty was to be
+        made. The town was divided into districts, and recruiting officers
+        were appointed for each. By an unanimous vote of the meeting the
+        Count was requested to take the chief command. The delay of the
+        invaders gave some time for carrying out these preparations for
+        defence. A force was speedily raised, sufficient, as far at least as
+        numbers were concerned, to garrison the walls. This was divided into
+        companies, each having two watches, which were to be on duty
+        alternately. The whole extent of work was divided among them, and the
+        town was stored with such missiles as could be collected or
+        manufactured, while Carna busied herself among the women, organizing
+        the supply of food and drink for the guards of the wall, and
+        preparations for the care of the wounded.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194">[pg 194]</span><a name="Pg194"
+        id="Pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc52" id=
+        "toc52"></a> <a name="pdf53" id="pdf53"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XIX.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE SIEGE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Day after day the
+        burgesses of Venta awaited the course of events. For some time they
+        hoped that, after all, the town might not be visited by the invaders.
+        The lurid glow of the skies by night, and the clouds of smoke by day,
+        sometimes borne by the wind so close to the town that the smell could
+        be distinctly recognized, proved that they were still near. But
+        though the effects of their work of ruin were visible enough, of the
+        barbarians themselves no one had yet caught a glimpse. But towards
+        the evening of the seventh day after the Count’s arrival a party was
+        seen to emerge from a wood, distant about half a mile from the gates.
+        There were four in all; two of them were mounted on small and very
+        shaggy ponies, the others were on foot. The party advanced till they
+        were about a hundred yards from the wall, and though the fading light
+        prevented them from being seen very clearly, there could be no doubt
+        that they were some of the dreaded Picts.</p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page195">[pg 195]</span><a name="Pg195" id="Pg195" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A debate, which
+        seemed, from the gesticulations of the speakers to be of a somewhat
+        violent kind, was carried on for a time among the savages. Then one
+        of the mounted men rode, with all the speed to which his diminutive
+        horse could be urged, almost up to the gates of the town. He wore a
+        deer-skin robe of the very simplest construction, with holes through
+        which his head and arms were thrust. His legs were bare. Round his
+        neck was hung a bow of a very rude kind. In his right hand he carried
+        a short spear. With the butt of this he struck violently at the gate,
+        as if demanding entrance, and after waiting a few seconds, as it
+        seemed for an answer, turned his pony’s head and began to ride back
+        to his party. He had almost reached them before the defenders of the
+        wall had recovered from the astonishment which his audacity had
+        caused them. Then one who was armed with a bow discharged at the
+        retreating figure an arrow, which more by good luck than skill, for
+        scarcely any aim had been taken, struck the Pict on the neck. He did
+        not fall from his horse, but swayed heavily to one side, catching at
+        the animal’s mane to steady himself. His three companions rushed
+        forward to help him, and in another moment would have carried him
+        off, but for the resolution and activity of the Saxon, who with the
+        Count was standing on the rampart close to the gate. He lowered
+        himself by his hands <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page196">[pg
+        196]</span><a name="Pg196" id="Pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from
+        the wall, a height of about fifteen feet, itself no small feat of
+        activity, and ran at his full speed, a speed which, as has been said
+        before, was quite uncommon. Hampered as they were by having to keep
+        their wounded companion in the saddle, the Picts could move but
+        slowly, and were soon overtaken. With two blows, delivered with all
+        his gigantic strength, Cedric levelled two of them to the ground,
+        and, seizing the wounded chief, threw him over his shoulder, then
+        turning ran towards the gate. For a moment the third Pict stood too
+        astonished to move. Cedric had thus a start of some yards, and before
+        he could be overtaken, had got so close to the wall as to be under
+        the protection of the archers and slingers who lined it. The next
+        moment the wicket of the gate was opened, and the prisoner
+        secured.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was evident
+        that he was a prize of some value, for a rudely wrought chain of gold
+        round his neck showed that he was a chief. He had ridden up to the
+        gate against the advice of his followers, as it was guessed, under
+        the influences of copious draughts of metheglin. The effect of the
+        liquor, together with the pain of his wound and the shock of his
+        capture, had been to make him insensible when he was brought into the
+        town. While he was in this state his wound was dressed by a slave who
+        had some surgical skill, and who declared that though serious it was
+        not mortal. When he recovered consciousness <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page197">[pg 197]</span><a name="Pg197" id="Pg197" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>he behaved more like a wild beast than a man.
+        His first act was to tear furiously at the bandage which had been
+        applied to his wound. The attendants mastered him with difficulty,
+        for he fought with the ferocity of a wild cat, and then bound his
+        hands and feet. Thus rendered helpless, he raved at the top of his
+        voice till sheer exhaustion reduced him to silence, a silence which
+        was soon followed by sleep.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig196"
+        id="fig196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig54" id=
+        "fig54"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_223.jpg" alt="Cedric and the Pict" title=
+          "Cedric and the Pict." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Cedric and the Pict.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The night passed
+        without any attack. It was evident that the Picts were in
+        considerable force, for their watch fires were to be seen scattered
+        over a wide extent of country, and there was much anxious talk in the
+        town about the chances of a siege. Few indeed in Venta closed their
+        eyes that night, and with the earliest morning the whole town was
+        astir. The invaders, of course, had no notion of how a siege should
+        be conducted, nor had they the necessary mechanical means even if
+        they had known how to use them. Their arrows did but little harm, for
+        their bows were ill made, and had but a small range, nothing like
+        that which was commanded by the better weapons of the defenders. With
+        the sling, however, they were singularly expert, and inflicted no
+        small damage, making indeed some parts of the walls scarcely tenable.
+        But as they could do nothing without showing themselves, they
+        suffered more loss than they inflicted. In the early days of the
+        siege especially, a catapult, which the garrison worked <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page198">[pg 198]</span><a name="Pg198" id="Pg198"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from the walls, did great damage among
+        them. After awhile they were careful not to collect in such numbers
+        as to give a fair mark for this piece of artillery.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The townspeople
+        were greatly elated at their success, and when, about a fortnight
+        after the first appearance of the invaders before the walls, two days
+        had passed without one of them being visible, concluded that,
+        hopeless of making any impression upon the place, they had
+        disappeared.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">They were soon
+        undeceived. It was growing dusk on the third day after the supposed
+        departure of the enemy, when a heavily laden cart was drawn up to the
+        western gate of the city. The driver, apparently a country man,
+        knocked for admittance. By rights, at such an hour, it should have
+        been refused, but the vigilance of the watch had begun to slacken,
+        most of the besieged believing that the danger was practically over.
+        Accordingly, no difficulty was made about throwing open the gates.
+        But, once thrown open, they were not so easily closed. Just as the
+        cart was passing through the opening in the wall one of the wheels
+        came off, and the vehicle broke down hopelessly. Commonly it would
+        not have taken long to clear the obstacle out of the way. There was
+        usually a throng of people about the gates and on the walls, and a
+        multitude of willing hands would have been ready to lend their help.
+        But just at this moment the gates and walls were almost deserted.
+        Even-<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page199">[pg 199]</span><a name=
+        "Pg199" id="Pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>song was going on in
+        the Church of Venta, and a preacher of some local fame was expected
+        to enlarge on the Divine mercy shown in the deliverance of the town
+        from the barbarians. The keepers of the gate would, therefore, have
+        been at a loss even if they had seen the necessity of bestirring
+        themselves. As it was, they were content to do nothing. They amused
+        themselves by standing by and laughing at the rustic driver as he
+        slowly unladed from his vehicle its miscellaneous cargo, the
+        contents, it seemed, of one of the country-side cottages, from which
+        the terror of the invasion had driven their inhabitants. The process
+        of unloading, carried on slowly and with much grumbling, was scarcely
+        half finished, when one of the warders, chancing to look behind him,
+        caught sight of a body of men rapidly approaching through the
+        darkness. A number of Picts had concealed themselves in the wood
+        mentioned before as distant about half a mile from the wall, and when
+        they saw the gate blocked by the broken-down cart—a part, it need
+        hardly be said, of the stratagem—had made a rush to get to it before
+        the obstacle could be removed. A hasty alarm was raised, and some of
+        the citizens who were in hearing ran up. But it was too late. The
+        rustic driver, a villain whose treacherous services had been bought
+        by the enemy, had quickened his work when he saw his employers
+        approaching, and contrived to finish the unloading of the cart at the
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page200">[pg 200]</span><a name="Pg200"
+        id="Pg200" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>very moment of their coming up.
+        In a few moments some of them had clambered over the empty vehicle,
+        struck down the guards, and disabled the fastenings of the gates.
+        Before many minutes had passed the whole of the ground outside the
+        gates seemed to swarm with the enemy, and though the townspeople had
+        now begun to make a rally in force, it was too late to make any
+        effectual effort to keep them out. The situation would in any case
+        have been full of danger. At Venta it was hopeless. A garrison of
+        veterans might have kept their heads, but there were not more than
+        sixty or seventy among the defenders of Venta who had ever seen
+        service in the field; and the citizen soldiers were fairly
+        panic-stricken when they saw themselves actually facing a furious,
+        yelling crowd of barbarians, cruel and savage creatures in reality,
+        and commonly reported to be even worse than they were. Without even
+        striking a blow they turned and fled. The Count, whom the alarm had
+        just reached, was met, and, for a time, carried away by the tide of
+        fugitives. Still he was able to rally a few men to his side for a
+        last effort. Some of his own followers were with him, and the rest
+        could be fetched in a few moments. The gallant old centurion, in
+        spite of his seventy years, was prompt with the offer of his sword;
+        and, as always happens, the infection of courage spread not less
+        rapidly than the infection of cowardice. Altogether a compact body of
+        about <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page201">[pg 201]</span><a name=
+        "Pg201" id="Pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a hundred men were
+        collected. Well armed and well disciplined they turned a steadfast
+        face to the enemy, and were able to make their retreat to a little
+        fort which stood on a hill to the south-east of the town. Carna, the
+        priest of Venta and his family, and a few other non-combatants were
+        with them. More, in the terrible confusion of the scene, it was
+        impossible to rescue. All through the trying time Cedric
+        distinguished himself by his coolness and courage. When once he had
+        seen Carna safely bestowed in the centre of the party, and had also
+        seen that the person of the Pictish chief was secured (having the
+        presence of mind to foresee that he would be a valuable hostage), he
+        took up a position in the extreme rear of the retreat, and performed
+        prodigies of valour in keeping the pursuers at bay.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The occupation of
+        the fort could, of course, do nothing more than give them a breathing
+        space. Though it had been for some time unoccupied, its defences were
+        tolerably perfect, and it might have been held against a barbarian
+        enemy as long as provisions held out. Unfortunately this was the weak
+        part of their position. Of provisions they had very little. Luckily
+        the place had latterly been used as a warehouse, and contained some
+        sacks of flour. A few sheep were feeding in a meadow hard by, and
+        were hastily driven within the defences. Happily there was a well
+        within the walls.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202">[pg
+        202]</span><a name="Pg202" id="Pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">That night was a
+        dismal experience which none of the party ever forgot. A confused
+        noise came up from the town, where the savages were busy with plunder
+        and massacre. Every now and then some piercing shriek was heard,
+        curdling the blood of all the listeners. At other times the loud
+        crash of some falling building could be distinguished. Towards
+        midnight flames could be seen bursting out from various parts of the
+        town, and before an hour had passed, every eye was fixed on a hideous
+        spectacle, on which it was an agony to look, but from which it yet
+        seemed impossible to turn. Venta was on fire. The flames could be
+        seen to catch street after street, and distinctly against the lurid
+        background of the burning houses could be seen, flitting here and
+        there, as they busied themselves with the work of destruction, the
+        dark shapes of the barbarians. When the morning dawned only a few
+        detached buildings, among them the church, a basilica of some size,
+        built by the munificence of the Empress Helena, were standing.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The party in the
+        fort reviewed their position anxiously. The civilians were for the
+        most part in favour of staying where they were. They felt the
+        substantial protection of the stout walls which surrounded them, and
+        were indisposed to leave it. The military men, on the other hand,
+        recognized facts more clearly and more completely. The protection
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page203">[pg 203]</span><a name="Pg203"
+        id="Pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the fort was worth this and
+        this only—that it gave them time to reflect. To stand a siege would
+        be to ensure destruction.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We must cut our way through,”</span> said the Count.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“If we do not try it now we shall have to try
+        it three or four days hence, and try it with less courage, and hope,
+        and strength, and probably fewer men than we have now.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Cut our way through all those thousands of
+        savages!”</span> said the <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign"
+        xml:lang="la"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Princeps</span></span>, who was one of the few
+        who had escaped from the town. <span class="tei tei-q">“No; we should
+        be fools to leave the shelter of these walls.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Shelter!”</span> cried the old centurion; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“will they shelter you against famine? No; let us go
+        while we have strength to walk.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But how,”</span> said another of the townspeople,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“how will you do all the three things at
+        once—retreat, and fight, and save the women? A few of the men may get
+        through, but it will be as much as they can do to take care of
+        themselves.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The argument was
+        only too clear, and the Count turned away with a groan of despair.
+        The prospect seemed hopeless. All the comfort that he could find was
+        in the thought that he and Carna should anyhow, not fall alive into
+        the hands of the barbarians.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But now Cedric
+        came again to the rescue with the happy thought which had made him
+        carry off the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page204">[pg
+        204]</span><a name="Pg204" id="Pg204" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>Pictish chief. He said nothing to any of his
+        companions; but he managed the affair with the prisoner, and managed
+        it with an astonishing speed and success. He pointed to a party of
+        the chief’s fellow-countrymen who were approaching the fort, by way,
+        it appeared, of reconnoitring its defences, and intimated that he
+        wished to open communications with them, showing at the same time, by
+        holding up two of his fingers, that not more than two were to
+        approach. The chief, whose intelligence was sharpened by a keen sense
+        of his danger, by a shrill piercing whistle, twice repeated, conveyed
+        this intimation to his countrymen, and two of them approached to
+        within speaking distance of the walls. Cedric now addressed himself
+        to the task of making his prisoner understand that his life and
+        liberty depended upon his inducing his countrymen to retire. This was
+        not very easily done. The expressive gestures of drawing a knife
+        across the throat was readily understood; and at last by a pantomime
+        of signs he was made to comprehend that this would be the result, if
+        his countrymen were to approach the walls. Then the other alternative
+        was expressed. One of the bonds with which he was secured was
+        partially loosed, and this action was accompanied by a sweeping
+        gesture of the hand towards the north, which was to indicate that
+        that must be their way, if he was to be freed. A light of
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page205">[pg 205]</span><a name="Pg205"
+        id="Pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>comprehension gradually dawned
+        in the chief’s eye, and the Saxon had little doubt that he had made
+        his meaning intelligible. Whether the man could be trusted to keep
+        the engagement was what neither he nor any one could say. But it was
+        clear that the risk had to be run, for the only possible hope of
+        escape lay in this direction. A conversation followed between the
+        chief and his countrymen, accompanied by signs which were intended to
+        convey to the Saxon the purport of what he was saying. When it was
+        over, they disappeared, and the chief, turning to Cedric, raised his
+        hands to the sky in a gesture which the latter interpreted, and
+        rightly interpreted, to mean that he was calling the powers above to
+        witness his fidelity to the engagement which he had made.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Cedric then
+        communicated the result of his negotiations through his interpreter
+        the peddler to the Count. It was not received with unanimous approval
+        by the party in the fort. The <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign"
+        xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">Princeps</span></span>
+        especially protested loudly against trusting their lives to the good
+        faith of a couple of savages. <span class="tei tei-q">“A Pict and a
+        Saxon!”</span> he cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“the worst enemies
+        that Britain has, and you think that they are going to save
+        us!”</span> He was quickly overruled by the Count, who let him
+        understand quite plainly that he would be left to shift for himself
+        unless he availed himself of this chance of escape.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do as you please,”</span> was Ælius’s first utterance,
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page206">[pg 206]</span><a name="Pg206"
+        id="Pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“you
+        have authority over the fort, and if you choose to defend it with as
+        many of your friends as you can induce to stay with you, I cannot
+        hinder you. But you must take the consequences, and I haven’t the
+        shadow of a doubt what these will be. Meanwhile, I and my party mean
+        to go. As for the Pict, I know nothing of him; the Saxon I would
+        trust with my life, and what is far dearer to me, the life of my
+        daughter. He has proved his good faith already in such a way that I
+        for one shall never doubt him again.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Preparations for
+        departure were hastily made. Indeed there was little to prepare. The
+        party had simply nothing with them except their arms. Every one had
+        to walk—for food they had to trust to what they might find on the
+        road. But before they started the Count loosed with his own hand the
+        chief’s bonds. The chief put his hand upon his heart, and then lifted
+        it to the sky with the same gesture of appeal that he made
+        before.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It is sufficient
+        to say that he kept his word, for the party reached the coast without
+        molestation.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page207">[pg 207]</span><a name="Pg207"
+        id="Pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc55" id=
+        "toc55"></a> <a name="pdf56" id="pdf56"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XX.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">CEDRIC IN TROUBLE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For several weeks
+        life passed at the villa with little change or incident. But the
+        Count, though he kept a cheerful face, and talked gaily of the future
+        to his daughter and Carna, felt more acutely every day how full his
+        position was of anxieties and difficulties. First came, as it always
+        does come first, the question of money. It had never been a very easy
+        matter to provide for the expenses of the fleet. Again and again the
+        Count had drawn on his private means, which were happily very large.
+        But these had lately been crippled by the troubled condition of the
+        provinces in which his estates were situated, and even if they had
+        been untouched the burden that now threatened to fall upon them would
+        have been too great for them to bear. Some of the seaport towns
+        would, he hoped, continue to pay their contributions. He was
+        personally popular, and his influence would do something. Then,
+        again, he could still <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208">[pg
+        208]</span><a name="Pg208" id="Pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>give
+        at least some return for the money. The sea-coast must be protected
+        from the enemy, and no one could protect it so cheaply and so
+        effectually as he. From the inland towns, which had always grumbled
+        at having to pay an impost from which they saw no visible advantage,
+        nothing was to be hoped. And any expectation of money from the
+        authorities at home was quite out of the question.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One thing was
+        quite certain: the establishment must be reduced within much narrower
+        limits. He must diminish the fleet, and lessen also the range of
+        shore which he professed to defend. He could not henceforth pretend
+        to go north of the mouth of the Thamesis. For the coast southward and
+        westward he might be able to provide more or less effectually. More
+        he could not do.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One of the first
+        necessities of the changed position in which he found himself was
+        that he must give up the villa on the east coast. It would be a
+        matter for after consideration whether the island of Vectis was not
+        too much out of the way. But till that point could be settled, it
+        would have to be his head-quarters. To carry out these new
+        arrangements, and to wind up affairs in the region which he was
+        preparing to relinquish, a voyage became necessary. On this voyage
+        the Count started early in April. He arranged for disposing of that
+        part of the fleet which he could not hope to keep in his own pay.
+        Some of the <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page209">[pg
+        209]</span><a name="Pg209" id="Pg209" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>oldest galleys were broken up; others were
+        handed over to the authorities of the coast-towns, on the
+        understanding that they were to man and pay them themselves. A few
+        picked men were taken from the crews by the Count; the rest,
+        excepting such as were re-engaged by the local authorities, were
+        discharged. When this had been done, and the villa had been
+        dismantled, the Count prepared to return to the island.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Here, meanwhile,
+        there had been trouble. The Saxon had quietly returned to his work at
+        the forge, and would have been perfectly content, as far as could be
+        judged from his demeanour, if only he had been left alone, and
+        permitted to pay as before his distant worship to Carna. But to some
+        members of the villa household he was an object of dislike. They were
+        jealous of the favour in which the Count and the Count’s family held
+        him. They were naturally not at all pleased at what they could not
+        but acknowledge his great superiority in strength, and as Christians,
+        though not particularly zealous in their performance of most of their
+        duties, they felt themselves to be unquestionably zealous and sincere
+        in their hatred and contempt for a pagan. The Saxon, on the other
+        hand, heartily despised those by whom he was surrounded. They were
+        slaves, or little better than slaves, and he was a freeman and a
+        chief, though the gods had made him a prisoner. <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page210">[pg 210]</span><a name="Pg210" id="Pg210"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>He went to and fro among them with a scorn
+        which was not the less evident because it was not expressed in
+        words.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For a time this
+        enforced silence helped to keep the peace; Cedric knew nothing of the
+        British tongue, or of the mongrel Latin which sometimes took its
+        place, and the other inhabitants of the villa nothing of Saxon. There
+        were angry and contemptuous looks on both sides, but there was
+        nothing more; or if there were words, these were harmless, because
+        they were not understood. But by degrees this was changed. Cedric had
+        intelligence of no common kind—indeed he was something of a poet
+        among his own people—he had many motives for learning the language of
+        those among whom he dwelt, his adoration for Carna being one of the
+        most powerful, and he had, too, opportunities for learning. The
+        peddler taught him much, and Carna, who never forgot her zealous
+        desire for his conversion, taught him more. The end was that he
+        picked up much of the British language with extraordinary rapidity,
+        and, in little more than six months after his capture, could express
+        himself with some ease and fluency.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This was very well
+        in its way, but it had the unfortunate result that he began to
+        understand and be understood. Every day the relations between him and
+        the domestics and artizans employed about the <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page211">[pg 211]</span><a name="Pg211" id="Pg211"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>villa became worse and worse, and it was
+        not long before matters came to a crisis.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Cedric had
+        repeatedly noticed that the tools which he used in the forge had been
+        hidden or mischievously damaged. He was too proud to complain, and
+        indeed his temper was curiously patient in any matter where he did
+        not conceive his honour to be involved. He said nothing about the
+        matter, searched for his missing tools, and if he could not find
+        them, continued to do without them, and repaired the injuries as best
+        he could. The offender, of course, grew bolder with impunity, and at
+        last the limits of Cedric’s endurance were reached and passed. Coming
+        into the forge at an unusually early hour one morning, he caught the
+        doer of the mischief in the very commission of a more serious piece
+        of mischief than he had yet ventured, namely, cutting a hole in the
+        bellows. He lifted the offender by the skin of the neck—he was a lad
+        of about sixteen, and son of the chief bailiff of the farm attached
+        to the villa—shook him, as a dog shakes a rat, yet without forgetting
+        that he was but a boy, dipped him head foremost in the bath of the
+        forge, and then let him go, more dead than alive from the fear that
+        he felt at finding himself in the hands of the great giant.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Unluckily at the
+        very moment when the young rascal was being dismissed in a paroxysm
+        of howling with a contemptuous kick, his father entered the
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212">[pg 212]</span><a name="Pg212"
+        id="Pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>yard. No one about the place
+        was more prejudiced against the Saxon, or more jealous of the favour
+        in which he stood with the Count and his family. He had too, in its
+        very worst form, the ungovernable Celtic temper, and now, when he saw
+        his son, a spoilt boy whom everybody else disliked, ill-treated as he
+        thought by the prisoner, he was fairly carried out of himself.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Pagan dog!”</span> he cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“do
+        you dare to touch with your beast’s foot a Christian boy?”</span> and
+        he struck at the Saxon with a long cart whip which he had in his
+        hand.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The end of the
+        lash caught the Saxon’s cheek, on which it raised an ugly-looking
+        wheal. Even in the height of his passion the Briton stood aghast at
+        the change which came in a moment over the form and features of the
+        Saxon. One or two of the bystanders had seen him face to face with an
+        enemy, and had wondered how strangely calm he had seemed to be,
+        showing no sign of excitement, except a certain glitter in his eyes.
+        He had a very different look now. <span class="tei tei-q">“The form
+        of his visage was changed,”</span> as it was in the Babylonian
+        king<a id="noteref_47" name="noteref_47" href="#note_47"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">47</span></span></a> when he
+        found himself, for the first time in his life, confronted by a
+        point-blank refusal to obey. A consuming anger, like the Berseker
+        rage of his kinsmen of after times, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page213">[pg 213]</span><a name="Pg213" id="Pg213" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>the Vikings, seemed to possess and transform
+        him. His features worked, as if caught by some strange malady, his
+        eyes literally blazed with fury, his whole figure seemed to dilate.
+        The luckless bailiff was seized round the middle, lifted from the
+        ground as easily as if he had been a child in arms, and hurled with a
+        crash, like a bolt from a catapult, against the wall. He lay there
+        bleeding from nose and mouth, while the horror-stricken Britons stood
+        helpless and afraid to move.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig212"
+        id="fig212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig57" id=
+        "fig57"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_241.jpg" alt="Cedric’s Fury" title=
+          "Cedric’s Fury." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Cedric’s Fury.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Dogs of slaves,”</span> cried Cedric, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“do you dare to growl at your master;”</span> and he
+        swept through the terrified crowd, laying them low on either side.
+        Happily at the moment he had no weapon in his hand, but he seized a
+        bar of iron from the anvil of the forge, and swinging it round his
+        head, prepared, it seemed, to deal about him an indiscriminate
+        destruction. What would have followed it is impossible to say. In his
+        fury and in his absolute mastery over that shrinking crowd, he was
+        like a tiger in the midst of a flock of sheep. But at the critical
+        moment, before his hand had dealt a single blow, the apparition of
+        Carna interposed between him and his victims. The uproar in the court
+        had reached her in her chamber, and brought her ready to play her
+        accustomed part of peacemaker. Now she stood, her figure framed like
+        a picture, in the door which opened on the court from the part of the
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page214">[pg 214]</span><a name="Pg214"
+        id="Pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>villa which she occupied. She
+        wore a simple dress of white, fastened with a blue girdle; her long
+        chestnut hair fell in loose waves to her waist, for she had not had
+        time to arrange it in more orderly fashion. Her face was pale and
+        troubled, her eyes wide open with a sad surprise. It was indeed
+        another Cedric that she saw from the one whom she had known. Was this
+        terrible savage, who looked more like some dreadful spirit from the
+        abyss than a human creature, the gentle giant in whose mute homage
+        she had felt such an innocent pleasure, the hopeful pupil whom she
+        was teaching, as she hoped, to put away savage ways for the mild and
+        peaceful behaviour of a Christian. As for Cedric, he seemed paralyzed
+        at the vision that presented itself to him. The sight of the girl
+        always moved him strangely; now she reminded him of the time when he
+        had first seen her by the bedside of his dying brother; and the
+        remembrance completed, if anything was needed to complete, the
+        impression. The fury that had transfigured him seemed to pass away;
+        his hand loosed its hold on the weapon which he held. His adversaries
+        did not fail to use the opportunity. They had been too genuinely
+        frightened to let it slip when it came. Indeed they may be excused
+        for feeling that this most formidable enemy had to be secured against
+        doing any more damage. The moment they saw him unarmed they sprang
+        with one movement <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page215">[pg
+        215]</span><a name="Pg215" id="Pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on
+        him and overpowered him. Even then, if he had offered resistance,
+        they might have had no small trouble, perhaps might have failed in
+        securing him. But he stood passive, and allowed his hands to be bound
+        without a struggle, and followed without difficulty when he was led
+        to the room where offenders were commonly confined. Some of the
+        meaner spirits in the household were disposed to visit their feelings
+        of annoyance and humiliation on his head, now that he seemed to be in
+        their power. But others felt a salutary dread of rousing the sleeping
+        lion whose rage they had seen could be so terrible. Carna too did not
+        abandon her <span lang="fr" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang=
+        "fr"><span style="font-style: italic">protegé</span></span>. He was
+        chained, indeed, to a staple in the wall of the room which served as
+        his prison. This seemed nothing more than a necessary precaution. But
+        the girl let it be distinctly understood that no cruelty must be used
+        to him, and she took care herself that his supply of food should be
+        plentiful and good.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216">[pg 216]</span><a name="Pg216"
+        id="Pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc58" id=
+        "toc58"></a> <a name="pdf59" id="pdf59"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXI.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE ESCAPE.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The prisoner
+        seemed to submit to his fate with patience. He thanked the attendant
+        who brought him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposed of the
+        food with an appetite which seemed to indicate a cheerful temper. A
+        visit which the peddler paid him the second day of his imprisonment
+        was apparently received as a welcome relief. The two had a long and
+        friendly conversation, nor did Cedric utter a word of complaint
+        against his treatment.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In reality the
+        young chief was keeping under his rage with an effort almost
+        unbearably painful. That he should be chained like a dog to the wall
+        was an intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of a long
+        line of chiefs which boasted the blood of the great Odin himself! The
+        iron did indeed enter into his soul, and the seeming calm of his
+        outward patience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury.
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217">[pg 217]</span><a name="Pg217"
+        id="Pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>It was only the hope of freedom
+        that kept him calm. It was that he might not diminish this hope, this
+        almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction that he ate
+        and drank with such seeming cheerfulness. He would want, he knew, all
+        his strength for an escape. He would support it and husband it to the
+        utmost.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And for an escape,
+        unknown to his keepers, he was steadily preparing. The chain which
+        bound him to the wall was fastened round his right arm and leg, and
+        the fastening would have seemed secure to any ordinary observer. But
+        such an observer would not have made the necessary allowance for the
+        young man’s ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand was large and
+        muscular; far too much so, one would have thought, to pass through
+        the ring which had been welded round the arms. But he possessed an
+        unusual power of contracting it. To exercise this power was indeed a
+        painful effort, causing something like an agonizing cramp; still it
+        was an effort that could be made, and made without disabling the
+        limb. It could not, however, be done twice, because the hand,
+        recovering its shape from the extraordinary pressure to which it had
+        been subjected, would infallibly swell. Cedric, accordingly, after
+        satisfying himself that it could be done, postponed actually doing it
+        till the moment of escape had arrived. The fastening of the leg was
+        less manageable. He <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page218">[pg
+        218]</span><a name="Pg218" id="Pg218" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>would not have scrupled to do as the Spartan
+        prisoner is said to have done, and cut off the foot which impeded his
+        escape, but he had positively nothing with which this could be done.
+        The only alternative was to drag the staple from the wall, and to
+        carry it and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong as it was,
+        it was light. The staple at first seemed obstinate. It had indeed
+        been subjected to tests which satisfied the villa blacksmith of its
+        capacity of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all the
+        enormous strength which the young giant could bring to bear, weakened
+        its hold, and at last it gave. The prisoner was prudent enough not to
+        complete the separation of the iron from the walls. It would have
+        been difficult to replace it so as to escape the notice of the
+        attendant. Accordingly the drag was relaxed as soon as the first
+        indications of yielding were felt. The time for attempting the escape
+        was a subject of much anxious deliberation. The obvious course would
+        have been to choose some hour between midnight and dawn; but Cedric
+        had heard from time to time the step of some one walking up and down
+        before his prison, and he guessed that it might be guarded at night,
+        but left during the day-time, on the presumption that the captive
+        would scarcely make an effort to escape while it was light. It was
+        this accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortly after sunrise the
+        attendant paid him his customary visit, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page219">[pg 219]</span><a name="Pg219" id="Pg219" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>bringing with him the morning meal. Cedric
+        pretended to be but half awake, and, returning his salutation in a
+        mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on his side, as if to continue
+        his slumbers. But the moment after the man had left the room he was
+        at work. He dragged his hand through the ring, at the cost of a pang
+        which taxed his endurance to the utmost; pulled the staple from the
+        wall, wound the chain round his leg, and wrenching away one of the
+        iron bars of the window, dropped through the opening thus made on to
+        the ground. His calculation was correct. The ground was clear. Then
+        another question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to escape
+        as he was? He knew where a boat was commonly kept, and it had been
+        his plan to take this and row out to sea in the hope of meeting some
+        one of his countrymen’s galleys. If he once got off from the shore he
+        was free, for if the worst came to the worst, he could at least die
+        as a free man should. But should he go unarmed, and with the
+        hampering chain about his leg? A moment’s consideration—no more was
+        possible—decided him. He would make one more bold effort. The forge
+        was close at hand, and he knew from having worked there that at that
+        hour in the morning it was commonly empty, the workmen leaving it for
+        their morning meal. There he could find what he wanted, a file to
+        release himself from the chain, and a weapon.</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page220">[pg 220]</span><a name="Pg220" id="Pg220"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The forge was
+        empty, as he had expected. The question was, How long would it remain
+        so? The workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The fire had not
+        died down to the lowest, showing that the bellows had been recently
+        at work, and a piece of iron that had been left, half-wrought, on the
+        anvil, was still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near it.
+        It might be safest to take a file and escape with it at once. On the
+        other hand, it would be far better to release himself at once from
+        his encumbrance, in the event of having to run or fight for his life.
+        He might count, he thought, upon half an hour, and he resolved to
+        file away the chain then and there. With admirable coolness he sat
+        down and applied all the strength and skill which he possessed to the
+        work, and had finished it in little more than half the time which he
+        had reckoned to have undisturbed. He then caught up a sword which
+        hung on one of the walls. It was an old-fashioned weapon, but Cedric,
+        who knew good iron when it came in his way, had tried its temper, and
+        knew it to be capable of doing good service.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">So far everything
+        had favoured him, nor did his good fortune desert him now. He found
+        the boat, which was one commonly used for fishing by the inmates of
+        the villa, ready furnished with oars and a small mast and sail. There
+        were even, by good luck, a small jar of water, some broken food in a
+        hamper, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page221">[pg 221]</span><a name=
+        "Pg221" id="Pg221" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>left by a party which
+        had been using it the day before, with some fishing lines. These,
+        Cedric thought to himself, might be useful if he failed to fall in
+        with any of his countrymen.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Jumping on board,
+        he plied his sculls rapidly, going in the direction of the sea, and
+        keeping as close under the shore as possible, so as to be out of
+        sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution was unnecessary.
+        His absence was not discovered till shortly afternoon, when the
+        attendant, bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond measure to
+        find the room empty. But another danger threatened him, a danger
+        which he had not indeed forgotten, but against which he had known it
+        to be impossible to take any precautions. This was the chance of
+        meeting with the Count’s squadron as it was returning to the island;
+        and it was this that he actually encountered.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Just as he had
+        reached the mouth of the Haven and was turning his boat eastward, he
+        saw within a hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys. It was
+        not the Count’s own vessel, for this had been delayed by an accident
+        to the rigging, and was now many miles behind, but was in charge of
+        the second-in-command. The recognition was mutual. Cedric’s tall
+        figure was not one that could be easily mistaken, nor could it be
+        doubted that he was attempting an escape. Had the Count been there
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page222">[pg 222]</span><a name="Pg222"
+        id="Pg222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>he would probably have parleyed
+        with the fugitive. The officer in command was not so considerate.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Shoot,”</span> he cried, <span class="tei tei-q">“he is
+        trying to escape,”</span> and as he spoke he seized a bow which lay
+        on deck, and took aim at the Saxon. His order was immediately
+        observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at the boat. They all
+        fell short, for Cedric had by this time increased his distance. In a
+        minute or two, however, the ship was put about, and then began to
+        gain rapidly on the solitary rower.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Another volley was
+        discharged, and this time one of the arrows took effect, wounding the
+        fugitive slightly in the left arm. The situation was desperate. To
+        remain in the boat was to await certain death. A third volley would
+        unquestionably be fatal. Cedric jumped overboard, but still clung to
+        the side of the boat. It was only just in time. The third volley was
+        discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of the boat so thick as
+        to show plainly what the fate of the occupant would have been. Still,
+        though he had escaped for the moment, Cedric’s fate seemed sealed.
+        The boat had given him shelter for the time, but to go on clinging to
+        it would be to ensure his capture. He left it, and after making a few
+        vigorous strokes, threw up his arms from the surface of the water,
+        and uttering a loud cry, disappeared.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">His quick eye had
+        discerned a great mass of sea-weed floating on the water about fifty
+        yards away, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page223">[pg
+        223]</span><a name="Pg223" id="Pg223" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and
+        his ready intelligence had seen a chance, small indeed and almost
+        desperate, but still a chance of escape. Swimming under water to the
+        sea-weed, he was able to come to the surface and to take breath under
+        its shelter.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig222"
+        id="fig222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig60" id=
+        "fig60"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_253.jpg" alt="Cedric’s Escape" title=
+          "Cedric’s Escape." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Cedric’s Escape.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">On board the
+        galley every one of course supposed him to have sunk. His action of
+        the lifted arms and the loud cry had been natural enough to deceive
+        the most wary observer. The boat was righted and secured by a rope,
+        and the galley pursued its way to the villa, while Cedric was left to
+        make the best of his way to the land.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page224">[pg 224]</span><a name="Pg224"
+        id="Pg224" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc61" id=
+        "toc61"></a> <a name="pdf62" id="pdf62"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">A VISITOR.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The day after
+        Cedric’s disappearance the Count returned to the island. The prospect
+        before him had not by any means lightened. Britain, conquered,
+        oppressed, protected, for nearly four hundred years, governed
+        sometimes ill and sometimes well, according to the varying characters
+        of the Roman legates, but never allowed to do anything for herself,
+        was not ready at a moment’s notice to be independent and stand alone.
+        The Count was much too shrewd a man to hope that she would. Still,
+        even he had not realized how bad things would be; and when he came to
+        see them face to face he felt something like disappointment, and even
+        despair. A man will often make up his mind to the general fact of
+        failure, and yet be almost as much vexed at the details of failure,
+        when it comes, as if he had expected success.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The fact was that
+        the Count had found little or no disposition in the native States to
+        take up and carry <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page225">[pg
+        225]</span><a name="Pg225" id="Pg225" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on
+        the work which he was being compelled to give up. They would make no
+        sacrifices, or even efforts. They refused to work together. Each
+        reckoned on its own chance of escaping the common danger, and would
+        not contribute to the defence that might possibly be wanted for its
+        neighbours, and not for itself. Then jealousies and enmities,
+        hitherto kept in check by the strong hand of a master, began to break
+        out. The cities seemed likely, not only not to combine against Picts
+        and Saxons, but actually to go to war among themselves. The Count
+        felt all the pain that comes to an honest and capable man when he has
+        to face the breaking up of a bad system which he has inherited from
+        predecessors less high principled than himself. It happens very often
+        that revolutions come in the days, not of the worst offenders, but of
+        the men who are making sincere endeavours to do their duty. And so it
+        was with the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was in a very
+        gloomy and depressed condition of mind, therefore, that he returned
+        to the villa. And almost every day brought news of fresh troubles and
+        disasters. Some of the Roman houses scattered through the country had
+        been attacked and burnt of late. Since the central authority had been
+        weakened the Roman residents had sometimes begun to behave in a
+        lawless and oppressive way to their British neighbours, and these
+        were taking their revenge with the cruelty that is always natural to
+        the oppressed. <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page226">[pg
+        226]</span><a name="Pg226" id="Pg226" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>Tragical tales of villas surrounded by
+        infuriated crowds of Britons, of masters and families shut up within
+        the walls, and perishing in the fires that consumed them, were
+        brought to the Count by the scared survivors who had contrived to
+        escape from the general destruction.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count’s
+        personal difficulties were considerable. He had a considerable colony
+        now settled near the villa, and many of its members were helpless and
+        dependent people. The question of feeding them would soon become an
+        urgent one. At present he could use the surplus stores which would no
+        longer be wanted now that his squadron had been so reduced in
+        strength. And there was another question that pressed upon his
+        mind—that of defence. Already he had had to contract his operations.
+        With single pirate vessels, or even small squadrons of two or three,
+        he would be able to deal, but anything stronger would have to be left
+        alone. With the few ships that were left to him it would be madness
+        to run any risk. And what, he could not help thinking, if the Saxons
+        were to attack the villa itself? It had been built as a pleasure
+        residence, and though now fortified as far as circumstances
+        permitted, could not be held against a strong force. Should he
+        continue to occupy, or should he retire to the camp of the Great
+        Harbour, which would at least be a more defensible
+        position?</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page227">[pg
+        227]</span><a name="Pg227" id="Pg227" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It may easily be
+        imagined that these anxieties, which had been troubling his thoughts
+        during the whole time of his absence, were not relieved when he heard
+        the story of what had happened during his absence. He owed the Saxon
+        more than he could ever repay, for he shuddered to think what would
+        have happened to Carna but for his strength and energy. And apart
+        from this feeling of gratitude, he admired the man’s splendid courage
+        and tenacity. He had even come to rely upon him for services of
+        unusual difficulty and danger. And now, to think that he was lost to
+        them by the stupid perversity and jealousy of a set of slaves!</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The said slaves
+        had a bad time with their master for some days after his return.
+        Good-humoured and kind as he was, yet he was a Roman—in other words,
+        he had inherited the lordly temper of a race which had ruled the
+        world for five hundred years, and any contradiction that thwarted him
+        in one of his serious convictions or purposes, broke through the
+        veneer of refinement and culture that commonly concealed the sterner
+        part of his nature. A Christian master could not crucify an
+        offender—indeed, crucifixion had been long since forbidden by the
+        law—but he had almost unlimited power over life and limb. Life,
+        indeed, the Count was too conscientious a follower of his religion to
+        touch, but he had no scruple about going to the very utmost verge of
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page228">[pg 228]</span><a name="Pg228"
+        id="Pg228" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>severity in the use of minor
+        punishments. As for his daughter, she was only too like her father to
+        be any check on his anger, and for the first time in her life Carna
+        found her mediation useless.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Girl,”</span> he said to her on one occasion, when she
+        had urged her intercession with tears, <span class="tei tei-q">“you
+        do not know what mischief these foolish, cowardly knaves have done.
+        One thing I see plainly, that as soon as ever the Saxons know the
+        weakness of the position we shall not be able to hold it any longer.
+        There is nothing to hinder them from coming and burning the whole
+        place over our heads; nothing in the way of fortifications, and
+        certainly nothing in the way of garrison. They did not know all this
+        before, but they are sure to know it soon; and we shall see the
+        consequences before many months are over.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the course of
+        the summer occurred an incident which diverted the Count’s attention
+        for a time, though it did not lessen his perplexities.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One morning a
+        small trading vessel entered the haven near the villa. Her business,
+        it was found, was to land a stranger, who had bargained for a passage
+        to the island. The trader had come from a port of Western Gaul, and
+        had then taken her passenger on board. Who he was the captain could
+        not say, except that he had the appearance of a Roman gentleman. The
+        day after they had set sail an illness, which had evidently been upon
+        him when <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page229">[pg
+        229]</span><a name="Pg229" id="Pg229" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>he
+        came on board, had increased to such an extent that he had lost
+        consciousness. Two or three days of delirium had been succeeded by
+        stupor; in this condition the unfortunate man still lay. But while
+        still conscious he had written down his destination, and added an
+        appeal to the compassion of his future host. The Count read on the
+        paper which the merchant captain handed to him a few words written in
+        a trembling hand. They ran as follows:—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">In case I should not be able to speak for
+        myself, I invoke by these words the compassionate protection of the
+        Count Ælius. Let him not fear to receive me, but believe that I am
+        unfortunate rather than guilty, and that there is between us the tie
+        of a great common affection.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count did not
+        recognize the stranger, though a dim impression of having seen him
+        before floated across his mind; and there was something in his
+        appearance which agreed with the trading captain’s conviction that he
+        was a man of birth and position. In any case Ælius was not one who
+        was inclined to resist such an appeal to his compassion. The
+        stranger, still unconscious, was landed, together with a few effects
+        which were said to belong to him, and at once handed over to the care
+        of Carna. All her diligence and watchfulness as a nurse, and all the
+        skill of the old physician, were wanted before the patient could be
+        brought back to life. For fourteen <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page230">[pg 230]</span><a name="Pg230" id="Pg230" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>days he lay hovering on the very verge of death,
+        mostly sunk in a stupor so complete that it was barely possible to
+        perceive either pulse or breath; sometimes muttering in delirium a
+        few broken sentences, of which all that physician and nurse were able
+        to distinguish was that they were certainly Latin, and that they
+        seemed to be verse.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was on the
+        morning of the fifteenth day that there came a change. Carna sat by
+        the window of the sick man’s room. It had a southern aspect, and the
+        sunshine came with a softened brilliance through the thick tinted
+        glass, and brought out the exquisite tints of the girl’s glossy hair,
+        as she sat bending over the embroidery with which she was employing
+        her nimble, never-idle fingers.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“By heaven! another, fairer Proserpine!”</span> said the
+        sick man.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl turned
+        her head at the sound of the clearly pronounced words which her
+        practised ear distinguished at once from the strained or blurred
+        utterances of delirium.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She held up her
+        finger to her lips. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do not speak,”</span>
+        she said; <span class="tei tei-q">“you have been very ill, and must
+        not tire yourself.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Lady,”</span> said the sick man, with a smile,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“you must at least let me ask you where I
+        am.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, you shall hear, if you will promise to ask no more
+        questions, but to be content with what you are <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page231">[pg 231]</span><a name="Pg231" id="Pg231"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>told. You are with friends, in the island
+        of Vectis, in the house of Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore. And now
+        be quiet, and don’t spoil all our pains in making yourself ill
+        again.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She gave him a
+        little broth which was being kept hot by the fire in readiness for
+        the time when he should recover consciousness; and after this had
+        been disposed of, and she had found by feeling his pulse that he was
+        free from fever, a small quantity of well diluted wine.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And now,”</span> she said, <span class="tei tei-q">“you
+        must sleep”</span>—a command which he was ready enough to obey.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After this his
+        recovery was rapid. For a time, indeed, the cautious old physician,
+        though he did not forbid conversation, prohibited any reference to
+        business. <span class="tei tei-q">“You will want, of course,”</span>
+        he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“to tell your story, and to make
+        your plans for the future; that will excite you, and, till you are
+        stronger, may bring about a relapse. Be content for a while with the
+        ladies’ company”</span>—Ælia, now that no nursing had to be done, was
+        often with her foster-sister—<span class="tei tei-q">“the Count will
+        see you when I give permission.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">And much talk the
+        ladies had with him, and greatly astonished they were at the variety
+        and brilliance of his conversation. He seemed equally familiar with
+        books and men. He had read everything—so at least thought the two
+        girls, who were sufficiently well educated to recognize a full mind
+        when they came <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page232">[pg
+        232]</span><a name="Pg232" id="Pg232" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>across it—he had been everywhere, he had seen
+        everybody. He never boasted of his intimacy with great people, and
+        indeed very seldom mentioned a name, but his allusions showed that he
+        was equally familiar with courts and camps. It would have puzzled
+        more experienced persons than the sisters to guess who this man of
+        the world, who was also a man of letters, could possibly be.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">At the end of
+        another week the physician removed his prohibition, and the Count,
+        who had hitherto judged it better not to agitate his guest by his
+        presence, now paid a visit to his room.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">After a few kindly
+        inquiries as to his health, the Count went on, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Understand me, sir, that I have no wish to force any
+        confidence from you. My good fortune gave me the chance of serving
+        you, but it has not given me the right of asking you questions which
+        you might not care to answer. You are welcome to my hospitality as
+        long as you choose to remain here, and you may command my help when
+        you wish to go. But of course, if you care to give me your
+        confidence, it may make the help a great deal more
+        effective.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yours is a true hospitality,”</span> answered the
+        stranger, with a smile, <span class="tei tei-q">“but it is right that
+        you should know who I am, and how I came to be here; and I have only
+        been waiting for the good Strabo’s leave to tell you. But may your
+        daughter and her sister be present? I have a sad story to relate, but
+        there is <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page233">[pg
+        233]</span><a name="Pg233" id="Pg233" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>nothing in it which is unfit for them to hear,
+        and they have been good enough to show some interest in an unhappy
+        <a name="corr233" id="corr233" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">man.</span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“They shall come, if you wish it,”</span> said the Count,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“indeed they have been almost dying of
+        curiosity.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was to this
+        audience that the stranger told his story.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page234">[pg 234]</span><a name="Pg234"
+        id="Pg234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc63" id=
+        "toc63"></a> <a name="pdf64" id="pdf64"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXIII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">THE STRANGER’S STORY.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have found out that my name is known to these ladies,
+        though they are not aware that it belongs to me. You, sir, have very
+        probably not found time among your many cares to give any thought to
+        the trifles which, if I may say so much of myself, have made me
+        famous. I am Claudius Claudianus.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What! the poet!”</span> cried the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“the Virgil of these later days?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The poet blushed
+        with pleasure to hear the compliment, which, extravagant as it may
+        seem to us, did not strike him as being anything out of the way. For
+        had not his statue been set up in Trajan’s Forum at Rome, an honour
+        which none of his predecessors had been thought worthy to
+        receive?</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah! sir,”</span> he replied, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“you are too good. But it would have been well for me if
+        I had contented myself with following Virgil; unfortunately I must
+        also imitate Juvenal. Praise of the fallen may be for<span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page235">[pg 235]</span><a name="Pg235" id="Pg235"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>given, but there is no pardon for satire
+        against those that succeed. Enmity lasts longer than friendship, and
+        I have made enemies whom nothing can appease.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig234"
+        id="fig234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig65" id=
+        "fig65"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_267.jpg" alt="Claudian’s Tale" title=
+          "Claudian’s Tale." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Claudian’s Tale.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But what of Stilicho?”</span> said the Count.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Surely he has not ceased to be your friend.
+        Doubtless you owe much to him, but he owes more, I venture to say, to
+        you. He may have given you wealth, but you have given him
+        immortality.”</span><a id="noteref_48" name="noteref_48" href=
+        "#note_48"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">48</span></span></a></p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page236">[pg 236]</span><a name="Pg236" id="Pg236" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah! sir,”</span> said Claudian, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“have you not then heard?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Heard!”</span> cried the Count; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“we hear nothing here. We always were cut off from the
+        rest of the world; but for the last nine months we might as well have
+        been living in the moon, for all that has reached us of what is going
+        on elsewhere.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You did not know, then, that Stilicho was
+        dead?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Dead! But how?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Killed by the order of the Emperor.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What! killed? by the Emperor’s orders? It is impossible.
+        The man who saved the Empire, the very best soldier we have had since
+        Cæsar! And you say that the Emperor ordered him to be
+        killed?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count rose
+        from his seat, and walked about in incontrollable emotion.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“So they have killed him! Fools and madmen that they are!
+        There never was such a man. I knew him well. He was always ready,
+        always cheerful, as gay in a battle as at a wedding; as brave as a
+        lion, and yet never doing anything by force that he could contrive by
+        stratagem. But tell me—they had, or pretended to have, some cause.
+        What was it?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“They said he was a traitor, that he wanted the Empire
+        for himself, or for his son, that he intrigued with the
+        barbarians.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well, he was fond of power; and who can wonder
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page237">[pg 237]</span><a name="Pg237"
+        id="Pg237" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that he was dissatisfied when
+        he saw in what hands it was lodged? But tell me—what do you
+        think?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I don’t say,”</span> resumed Claudian, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that he was blameless, but he had an impossible task—he
+        had to save the Empire without soldiers. He did it again and again;
+        he played off one barbarian power against another with consummate
+        skill; and filled his legion one day with the enemies whom he had
+        routed the day before. But this could not be done without intrigues,
+        without devices which, taken by themselves, looked like treason. But
+        it is idle to speak of the past. He lies in a dishonoured grave, and
+        the Empire of Augustus is tottering to its fall.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Tell me of his end,”</span> said the Count. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You saw it?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> said the poet; <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        saw it, and, I am ashamed to say, survived it. Well, I will tell you
+        my tale. You know he might have had the Empire; the soldiers offered
+        it to him; Alaric and his Goths would have been delighted to help
+        him. But he refused. He was loyal to the last. He would not even fly.
+        There are many places where he would have been safe——”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> interrupted the Count; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“he would have been safe here, if I know anything of
+        Britain.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well, he would go to none of them. He went to the one
+        place where safety was impossible. He went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna
+        every one, from <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page238">[pg
+        238]</span><a name="Pg238" id="Pg238" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the
+        Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an enemy. He wanted to make
+        them trust him by trusting them—as if one disarmed a tiger by going
+        into his lair! He had two or three of his chief officers with him,
+        besides myself, and as many slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind
+        among us. Stilicho made a point of our being unarmed. Well, we had
+        not an encouraging greeting when we entered the city. Every one, as
+        you may suppose, recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose,
+        in the whole Empire, who was better known. No one who had ever seen
+        Stilicho could forget that towering form, that white head.<a id=
+        "noteref_49" name="noteref_49" href="#note_49"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">49</span></span></a> There
+        were sullen looks as we walked through the streets, and hisses, and
+        even some stone throwing. However, we got safe to our lodgings, and
+        passed the night without disturbance. The next day, as we were
+        standing in the market-place, an old Vandal soldier—one of the
+        general’s countrymen, you know—put a flower in his hand as he walked
+        by, without saying a word, or even looking at him; for it would have
+        been as much <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page239">[pg
+        239]</span><a name="Pg239" id="Pg239" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>as
+        his life was worth to be seen communicating with us. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘An old comrade,’</span> said Stilicho, who never forgot
+        a face. <span class="tei tei-q">‘He served with me in Greece.’</span>
+        The flower was a little red thing; the <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘shepherd’s hourglass’</span> they call it, because it
+        shuts when there is rain coming. It was a warning. There was danger
+        close at hand. The general said, <span class="tei tei-q">‘We must
+        take sanctuary.’</span> Then he called me to him. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘Leave me, Claudian,’</span> he said; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘you cannot take sanctuary with us, for you are not a
+        baptized man. I do not count much on the Church’s protection; but
+        still it may give me time to make my defence to the Emperor. So you
+        must look out for your own safety. But surely they can’t be base
+        enough to harm you, for what you have done?’</span> <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘I don’t know about that, my Lord,’</span> I answered;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘you remember the fable of the
+        trumpeter.<a id="noteref_50" name="noteref_50" href=
+        "#note_50"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">50</span></span></a> Anyhow,
+        I shall follow you as far as I can.’</span> Well, he went into the
+        great church—what used to be the Basilica before Constantine’s
+        time—and took sanctuary by the altar. I did not go further than the
+        nave. In the course of an hour or so comes the bishop, with the
+        archdeacon and two or three priests, and following them one of the
+        great officers of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page240">[pg 240]</span><a name="Pg240"
+        id="Pg240" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>now crowded from end to end;
+        the people had climbed up into the pulpit, and every accessible spot
+        from which they could get a view of what was going on. I think that
+        there was a reaction in the general’s favour. No one, whose heart was
+        not flint, could see the man who had saved the Empire, and that not
+        once or twice, a suppliant for his life. Well, I could not see for
+        myself what went on, but I heard the story afterwards. The bishop
+        brought a safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the chamberlain
+        brought it, and the bishop gave it to Stilicho, with his own
+        guarantee. I can’t believe that a man of peace and truth, as he calls
+        himself, could have been a party to so base a fraud—he must have been
+        deceived himself. Well, the safe-conduct promised that the general
+        should be heard in his own defence; and he wanted nothing more. I
+        doubt whether a trial would have served him; but they never intended
+        to give him even so much. As soon as he was out of the church I could
+        see what was meant, for I followed him. The chamberlain’s body-guard
+        drew their swords. Well, I was wrong to say that he had no friends in
+        Ravenna. He had a friend even in that crew of hirelings—another of
+        his old soldiers, I daresay. I told you that Stilicho had neither
+        armour nor weapon. Well, in a moment, no one could see how, there was
+        a long sword lying at his feet. He took it up; and, verily, if he had
+        used <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page241">[pg 241]</span><a name=
+        "Pg241" id="Pg241" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it, he would at least
+        have sold his life dearly. The general was a great swordsman, as good
+        a swordsman as he was a general. But no; he would not condescend to
+        it; after a soldier’s first impulse to take the weapon, he made no
+        use of it. He pointed it to the ground, and stood facing his enemies.
+        Ah! it was a noble sight—that grand old man looking steadfastly at
+        that crew of murderers. For a few moments they seemed cowed. No one
+        lifted his hand—then some double-dyed villain crept behind and
+        stabbed him. He staggered forward, and immediately there were a dozen
+        swords hacking at him. At least his was no lingering death. They cut
+        off that grand white head and carried it to the Emperor; his body
+        they threw into the pit where they bury the slaves. And that was the
+        end of the saviour of the Empire.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And about yourself?”</span> said the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> went on the poet, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have since thought that if I had been a man I should
+        have died with him. But when I knew that he was dead, I was coward
+        enough to fly. You would not care to hear how I spent the next few
+        days. I had a few gold pieces in my pocket, and I found a wretched
+        lodging in one of the worst parts of the city, and I lay there in
+        hiding. One day I was having my morning meal at a wine shop, when a
+        shabbily dressed old man, who sat next, turned to me in a meaning
+        way, and, pouring a few <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page242">[pg
+        242]</span><a name="Pg242" id="Pg242" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>drops out of his wine cup, said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘To Apollo and the Muses.’</span> That is a crime
+        now-a-days, in some places at least, Ravenna among them; and he
+        wanted, I suppose, to put me at my ease. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘Will you not do the same,’</span> he went on,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘of all men in the world there is no one who
+        has better cause.’</span> Pardon me, illustrious Count, if I repeat
+        his flatteries. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Whom do you take me
+        for?’</span> said I, for one gets to be a sad coward after a few
+        days’ hiding, and I was unwilling to declare myself. He replied by
+        repeating some of my verses in so meaning a way that I could not
+        misunderstand him. <span class="tei tei-q">‘These wine-bibbers
+        here,’</span> he went on, <span class="tei tei-q">‘don’t know one
+        verse from another, but they might catch up a name. Come along with
+        me; I will give you a flask of something better than this sour
+        stuff.’</span> Well, we went to his house, which was close to the
+        harbour. He was the owner, I found, of two or three small trading
+        vessels. The house was a veritable temple of the Muses, ornamented
+        with busts of the poets—my own I was flattered to see among them—and
+        containing an excellent library of books. Manlius—that was my
+        friend’s name—had heard me recite at Rome; and he recognized me
+        partly from memory, partly from my resemblance to the bust. To make a
+        long story short, he entertained me most hospitably for several days,
+        while we discussed the question what was to become of me. Home I
+        could not go, not, at least, till there should be a change in
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page243">[pg 243]</span><a name="Pg243"
+        id="Pg243" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the Emperor’s surroundings. The
+        further I got from Italy the more chance there would be of safety. We
+        thought of North-western Gaul or Britain, or of getting across the
+        Rhine. The end of it was that the good fellow took me across Italy,
+        disguised as his servant, to Genoa, where he had correspondents. From
+        Genoa I went to Marseilles, and from Marseilles overland to Narbonne,
+        using now the character of a bookseller’s agent, one which I thought
+        myself better qualified to sustain than any other. At Narbonne I
+        found employment as a bookseller’s assistant, till I could get a
+        letter from my wife in Africa with some money. That came in due
+        course, and then I set off on my travels again, still working
+        northwards. Then, sir, I thought of you. I had often heard the great
+        man speak of you. You served under him against the Bastarnæ,<a id=
+        "noteref_51" name="noteref_51" href="#note_51"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">51</span></span></a> I think,
+        and it occurred to me that for Stilicho’s sake you might give me
+        shelter. Not that it matters much to me. To Stilicho I owe so much
+        that I can scarcely imagine life without him. He gave me honour,
+        wealth, even,”</span> added the poet, with a sad little smile,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“even my wife, for it was not my courting,
+        but the Lady Serena’s<a id="noteref_52" name="noteref_52" href=
+        "#note_52"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">52</span></span></a> letter
+        that won her for me. But to go on, <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page244">[pg 244]</span><a name="Pg244" id="Pg244" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>I found an honest trader, and bargained with him
+        to bring me here. I had been sickening for some time, and I remember
+        little or nothing from the time of my embarking. There, sir, you have
+        my history carried up to the latest point.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We will put off the future to another day,”</span> said
+        the Count; <span class="tei tei-q">“meanwhile you may count on me for
+        anything that I can do.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Your kindness does much to reconcile me to life,”</span>
+        said the poet, <span class="tei tei-q">“and now I will retire, for I
+        feel a little tired.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah,”</span> said Carna half to herself, when he had left
+        the room, <span class="tei tei-q">“now I understand about
+        Proserpine.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“About Proserpine? What do you mean?”</span> asked
+        Ælia.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Why, when he came to himself for the first time I was
+        sitting in the window with a piece of embroidery work in my hand, and
+        I heard him whisper something about Proserpine.”</span> Carna
+        suppressed the flattering epithet. <span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t you
+        remember that passage where he describes the tapestry which
+        Proserpine was working for her mother, and how we admired it, and
+        thought we would work something of the kind for ourselves, only we
+        could not get any design?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, I remember,”</span> replied the other, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“and you have had a Pluto, too, to carry you off. Luckily
+        he was not so successful as the god.”</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page245">[pg 245]</span><a name="Pg245"
+        id="Pg245" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc66" id=
+        "toc66"></a> <a name="pdf67" id="pdf67"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXIV.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">NEWS FROM ITALY.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count’s
+        difficulties did not seem to diminish as the year advanced. Money
+        grew scarcer and scarcer, till it was only by pledging his personal
+        credit to the merchants of Londinium and other towns in Britain that
+        he was able to find the pay for the crews of his little squadron. His
+        credit happily was still good, a character of twenty years without a
+        single suspicion on his integrity standing him in good stead. Then a
+        disaster happened to one of the few ships that he had retained. After
+        a fierce encounter with a Saxon galley, in which its crew had been
+        much weakened, it had been caught in a storm and driven on the deadly
+        western shore of the island, still dreaded under the name of the
+        Needles by those who navigate the Channel. The ship became a complete
+        wreck and only a small portion of the crew escaped with their lives,
+        all the disabled men being lost.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">But the Count’s
+        chief perplexities were within <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page246">[pg 246]</span><a name="Pg246" id="Pg246" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>rather than without. For more than twenty years
+        he had yielded an unquestioning obedience to the authorities at home.
+        It is true that very little had been demanded of him. He had been
+        given a free hand, and left to do his duty with very little
+        interference, if with very little help. But now in the news of
+        Stilicho’s death his loyalty had received a tremendous shock. How was
+        he to bear himself to a ruler who was capable of committing so great
+        a crime? True, he knew enough of the Emperor to be sure that he was
+        only a tool in the hands of others, but this did not make the matter
+        one whit better. Such tools are often more mischievous than men who
+        are actively wicked. What then was he to do? Should he join the
+        usurper Constantine, of whose astonishing success in Gaul and Spain
+        he had heard the most glowing reports? His pride forbad it—an Ælius
+        doing homage to a man who but twelve months before had been a private
+        soldier! The thought was impossible. Should he retire into private
+        life? But would not that be to shirk his duty, not to mention the
+        fact that to retire is the one thing which in troubled times a man in
+        a conspicuous position cannot do. One thing, indeed, was evident—that
+        a decision would have to be made speedily. His position was rapidly
+        becoming untenable, and he would have to make up his mind, without
+        much delay, as to the best way of getting out of it. In the end
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page247">[pg 247]</span><a name="Pg247"
+        id="Pg247" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it happened to him as it
+        happens to so many of us, that his mind was made up for him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One day, towards
+        the end of August, he was about to seek in a day’s sport a little
+        relief from his many cares. It was still about four hours to noon,
+        and he was sitting under a cherry tree (one of his own planting) in
+        the villa garden, and sharing a slight meal of milk and wheaten cakes
+        with his daughter and Carna, both of whom he had persuaded to
+        accompany him. A young Briton stood by holding in a leash a couple of
+        dogs very much like the greyhounds of our own times; another carried
+        a bow and a quiver; a third had a game bag of leather, with a netted
+        front, slung across his shoulders.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sailing-master
+        of one of the galleys approached and saluted.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“There is a galley,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“coming up the Haven, and I thought that you should know
+        at once, since it seems to have something of importance on
+        board.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What makes you think so?”</span> said the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have been watching it for the last hour,”</span> said
+        the man. <span class="tei tei-q">“At first I thought it was a little
+        trading vessel; but I noticed that as soon as it entered the Haven it
+        hoisted the Labarum.”</span><a id="noteref_53" name="noteref_53"
+        href="#note_53"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">53</span></span></a></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The Labarum!”</span> exclaimed the Count; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page248">[pg
+        248]</span><a name="Pg248" id="Pg248" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>not
+        seen that flying from any mast but my own for a year past. Well, that
+        ought to mean something.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was the
+        etiquette to go as far as was possible to meet an Imperial messenger,
+        just as a host receives a very distinguished guest on his door-step,
+        and the Count, after hastily exchanging his hunting-dress for a toga,
+        went to the little pier at which the galley would land its passenger.
+        He had not to wait many minutes before it arrived, and a handsome
+        young man, with a short military cloak over his traveller’s dress,
+        leapt lightly ashore. The Count saluted. The stranger, who was for a
+        time the representative of the Emperor, received the greeting with
+        the dignified gesture of a superior.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do I address Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon
+        Shore?”</span> he asked.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I am he,”</span> the Count briefly replied.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I bring the commands of Augustus,”</span> said the
+        messenger, producing from a pocket in his tunic a vellum roll, bound
+        with a broad purple cord, and bearing the Imperial seal.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count received
+        the missive with a profound inclination, and put it to his lips. At
+        the same time the messenger uncovered, and changed his haughty
+        demeanour for the behaviour usual to a young officer in the presence
+        of his superior.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“It will be more respectful and more convenient to read
+        his Majesty’s gracious communication in <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page249">[pg 249]</span><a name="Pg249" id="Pg249" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>private. Will you please come with me to my
+        house?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He led the way to
+        the villa, and introduced the visitor into the little room which he
+        used for the transaction of business. He then cut with his dagger the
+        purple cord which fastened the package containing the despatch, and,
+        after again putting the document to his lips, proceeded to read it.
+        Its contents were seemingly not agreeable, for his face darkened as
+        he went on. He made no remark, however, beyond simply asking the
+        messenger—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“May I presume that you have a general acquaintance with
+        the contents of this document?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have,”</span> replied the young man.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Then you will know that the answer is not one which can
+        be given in a moment. But,”</span> and he went on with a rapid change
+        of voice and manner, <span class="tei tei-q">“<span lang="la" class=
+        "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">cras
+        seria</span></span>.<a id="noteref_54" name="noteref_54" href=
+        "#note_54"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">54</span></span></a> I was
+        just on the point of going out for a few hours’ hunting when your
+        arrival was announced. Will you come with me? I have nothing very
+        great to show you, though we have some big game here too, if we had
+        time to look for it, but if you will condescend to anything so small
+        as hare-hunting, I can show you some sport.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Imperial
+        messenger was an Italian of the north of the Peninsula, who had been
+        fond of fol<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page250">[pg
+        250]</span><a name="Pg250" id="Pg250" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>lowing the chase on the slopes of the Apennines
+        before chance had made him a courtier. He accepted the invitation
+        with pleasure, and the party made the best of their way to the high
+        ground now known as Arreton Downs.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> said the Count, as he pointed northward to
+        where the great Anderida Forest<a id="noteref_55" name="noteref_55"
+        href="#note_55"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">55</span></span></a> might be
+        seen stretching far beyond the range of sight, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“there is the place for sport; a wilder country I have
+        never seen, no, nor finer game. There are wild boars of which I have
+        never seen the like in Italy, no, nor in the Hercynian Wood<a id=
+        "noteref_56" name="noteref_56" href="#note_56"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">56</span></span></a> itself,
+        where I used to hunt years ago. Last year I killed one which measured
+        six feet from snout to tail. There are wolves, too, and bears, and
+        wild oxen; splendid fellows these last, as fierce as lions, and
+        almost as big as elephants. But to-day we must be content with
+        humbler sport.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This humbler game,
+        however, afforded plenty of amusement, and they returned with a bag
+        of eight fine hares—a very fair burden for the carrier of the
+        game-bag—and an excellent appetite for dinner.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The meal, to which
+        the Count had invited the captains of his galleys and the principal
+        persons in <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page251">[pg
+        251]</span><a name="Pg251" id="Pg251" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the
+        little colony which was now gathered about the villa, passed off very
+        well. The young Italian was loud in his praises of everything.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Your oysters,”</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“all the world knows, but some of your other dishes are a
+        surprise. The turbot, for instance, how incomparably superior to the
+        flabby and tasteless things which they bring us from our own coasts.
+        The colder water of the seas is, I suppose, the cause. The hares,
+        too, how fine and fleshy! You seem to be amazingly well off in the
+        way of food in this corner of the world.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> said the Count, with a sigh, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“we should do very well, if the rest of the world would
+        only leave us alone. But our neighbours cannot be content without a
+        share of some of our good things, and they have a very rough and
+        disagreeable way of asking for it.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The speaker went
+        on to draw for the benefit of his guest a vivid picture of the
+        trouble which the Saxons were giving by sea and the Picts by land,
+        till the Italian exclaimed—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah! I see that you too have your disagreeables. I began
+        to think that this was a land of peace and plenty, where one might
+        find a pleasant refuge. But these barbarians, in one shape or
+        another, are everywhere. We are fallen upon evil times
+        indeed.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> said the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“evil times, and no one knows how to deal with them; and
+        if God does <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page252">[pg
+        252]</span><a name="Pg252" id="Pg252" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>send
+        us a capable man, we treat him as if he were an enemy.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When the tables
+        had been cleared, the Count rose and proposed the toast of the
+        Emperor’s health; but he did this without a single word of
+        compliment, a significant omission that did not fail to attract the
+        attention of all who were present. He then proceeded, and again
+        without any preface, to read to the company the despatch which had
+        been put into his hands the day before. It ran thus:</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Flavius Honorius Augustus to the faithful and
+        valiant Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore,
+        greeting.</span></span></span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">Our Imperial care for the dominions, which by
+        Divine Providence have been committed to our trust, bids us combine
+        the safety of the seat of our government with the welfare of the
+        provinces. For, seeing that these are mutually related, as are the
+        head and the limbs in the body of man, it is manifest that neither
+        can prosper without the other. Our well-beloved and faithful province
+        of Britain has now for many generations been protected by our
+        invincible legions and fleets. But even as there comes a time when
+        the most careful fathers judge it to be not only needless but even
+        harmful to keep their children in dependence upon themselves, so do
+        we now judge that our province may now with great advantage, not only
+        to us—for of this we think little—but also to itself, defend
+        itself</span> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page253">[pg
+        253]</span><a name="Pg253" id="Pg253" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-style: italic">with its own
+        resources. We charge you, therefore, our well-beloved and faithful
+        Ælius, as having supreme command of the fleets of the said province
+        of Britain, to withdraw them as soon as you conveniently may, but not
+        without leaving our loyal subjects the assurance of our fatherly love
+        and of the unfailing protection of our majesty. The Ever-Blessed
+        Trinity keep and prosper both you and all that are committed to your
+        charge. Given at Ravenna, the twelfth day before the Kalends of
+        August,</span><a id="noteref_57" name="noteref_57" href=
+        "#note_57"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; font-style: italic; vertical-align: super">57</span></span></a>
+        <span style="font-style: italic">in the year of our Lord 408, and the
+        fifteenth year of our reign.</span></span>”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig252"
+        id="fig252" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig68" id=
+        "fig68"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_287.jpg" alt=
+          "The Count receiving the letter of Honorius" title=
+          "The Count receiving the letter of Honorius." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">The Count receiving the letter of
+            Honorius.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The reading of the
+        despatch was followed by a dead silence. Every one had felt for some
+        time that the present state of affairs could not last. Only a man of
+        the vigorous character of the Count, and having long years of
+        excellent service to fall back upon, could have maintained it so
+        long, but it was impossible not to see that it must soon end. A
+        solitary commander, without resources or support, could not maintain
+        himself on the remotest borders of the Empire. Yet to know that the
+        moment for the change had come was disturbing. The fleet, reduced as
+        it had been to a petty squadron, was still, while it remained, the
+        symbol of Imperial power, and seemed to be worth more in the way of
+        protection than <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page254">[pg
+        254]</span><a name="Pg254" id="Pg254" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it
+        really was. When this was withdrawn, Britain would be really left to
+        itself; and this prospect, however it might be regarded elsewhere,
+        was not agreeable to any one of the Count’s guests.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count was the
+        first to break the silence. <span class="tei tei-q">“This,”</span> he
+        said, <span class="tei tei-q">“is manifestly a matter that calls for
+        serious thought. Let us postpone it till to-morrow, and for the
+        present turn ourselves to matters more suitable for a festive
+        occasion. Perhaps my friend Claudian will give us the recitation of
+        something with which he has already charmed the ears of our
+        fellow-countrymen elsewhere.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The poet, not more
+        reluctant than his brother-countryman to exhibit his genius, at once
+        signified his willingness to comply with this request, and gave a
+        recitation from an unfinished poem which he had then in hand. We may
+        give a specimen, put into the best English that we can command—</p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The elemental
+            order there she drew,</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            And Jove’s high dwellings; there you saw
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            To harmony and law;
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“How Nature set
+            in order due and rank</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            Her atoms, raised the light on high,
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            And to the middle place the weightier sank;
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            There lustrous shone the sky,
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The heavens
+            were pink with flame, the ocean rolled,</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            The great world hung in mid suspense.
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            The starry fires intense,
+          </div>
+        </div><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page255">[pg 255]</span><a name=
+        "Pg255" id="Pg255" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Bade ocean flow
+            in purple, and the shore</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            With gems upraised. Divinely wrought,
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            The threads embossed to swelling billows bore
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            Strange likeness; you had thought
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“They dashed the
+            seaweed on the rocks, or crept</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            Hoarse murmuring thro’ the thirsty sands.
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            With red distinct the lands
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Leaguered with
+            burnings; all the region showed</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            Scorched into blackness, and the thread
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed;
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            <a name="corr255" id="corr255" class="tei tei-anchor" style=
+            "text-align: left"></a><span class="tei tei-corr" style=
+            "text-align: left">On</span> either hand were spread
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The realms of
+            life, lapt in a milder breath</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            Kindly to men; and next appear,
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            On this extreme and that, dull lands of death:
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            She made them dark and drear
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“With year-long
+            frost, and saddened all the hue</span>
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">
+            With endless winter; last she showed
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+            What seats her sire’s grim brother holds; nor knew
+          </div>
+
+          <div class="tei tei-l" style=
+          "text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The fated dark
+            abode.”</span><a id="noteref_58" name="noteref_58" href=
+            "#note_58"><span class="tei tei-noteref" style=
+            "text-align: left"><span style=
+            "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">58</span></span></a>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page256">[pg 256]</span><a name="Pg256"
+        id="Pg256" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc69" id=
+        "toc69"></a> <a name="pdf70" id="pdf70"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXV.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">CONSULTATION.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The next morning
+        the Count invited the Imperial messenger to a private conference. His
+        daughter and Carna were present, as was also Claudian.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You have the latest news,”</span> the Count began.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Pray let us have them. Here we know nothing.
+        But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed that you did not
+        hoist the standard till you were within the Haven. You did not, I
+        suppose, think it a safe flag to sail under.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> replied the messenger, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I thought it better to have no flag at all. But, to tell
+        the truth, the Labarum is not just now exactly the best passport in
+        the world.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?”</span> the Count went
+        on. <span class="tei tei-q">“How are matters there?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Constantine, with the legions he brought from here, and
+        those that have joined him since, is pretty well master of the
+        country, and of Spain too.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page257">[pg 257]</span><a name="Pg257" id="Pg257" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let these
+        provinces go without a struggle? Spain was the first province that
+        Rome ever had, and Gaul was the second. None, I take it, have been so
+        steadily profitable, and now we are to lose them.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He rose from his
+        seat, and walked up and down the room in an agitation which he could
+        not conceal.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And the only man who could keep the Empire together is
+        gone; butchered, as if he were a criminal!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The messenger said
+        nothing to this outburst. He went on, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        believe his Majesty proposes to admit Constantine to a share of the
+        Imperial honours, to make him Cæsar of Gaul and Spain.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What!”</span> said the Count. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Do not my ears deceive me? This fellow, whom I have seen
+        wearing the collar for the neglect of duty, recognized as his
+        colleague by Augustus!”</span><a id="noteref_59" name="noteref_59"
+        href="#note_59"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">59</span></span></a></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I do not pretend to know his Majesty’s purposes, I can
+        only say what is reported at head-quarters, and, it would seem, on
+        good authority. But,”</span> continued the speaker, in a voice from
+        which he had studiously banished all kind of emphasis, and looking as
+        he spoke at the ceiling of the room, <span class="tei tei-q">“your
+        lordship is aware that the honours thus unexpectedly bestowed do not
+        always turn out to the advantage of those who receive
+        them.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page258">[pg
+        258]</span><a name="Pg258" id="Pg258" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What do you mean?”</span> asked the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I mean that what is given may be taken away—and taken
+        away with very handsome interest for the loan—when the proper time
+        comes. Your lordship has not forgotten the name of
+        Carausius.”</span><a id="noteref_60" name="noteref_60" href=
+        "#note_60"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">60</span></span></a></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> said the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“this is not the old way Rome had of dealing with her
+        enemies. But, <span class="tei tei-q">‘other times, other
+        manners.’</span> Tell me now, if the Augustus has arranged or is
+        going to arrange with Constantine, what about Alaric?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh! he will be quiet for a time, or should be, if there
+        is any truth in a barbarian’s oath. You have heard how he marched on
+        Rome?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“No, indeed,”</span> replied the Count. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have heard nothing here, except, quite early in the
+        year, a vague rumour that he was on the move again. But tell me—has
+        Augustus given <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">him</span></span>, too, a share in the
+        Empire?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Not exactly; but I will tell what has taken place. He
+        marched on Rome.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page259">[pg
+        259]</span><a name="Pg259" id="Pg259" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> interjected the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“and there was no Stilicho to save it!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“The city was almost helpless. Even the walls had not
+        been kept in repair, and if they had, there was no proper force to
+        man them. The only thing possible was to make peace on the best terms
+        that they could. I happened to be in Alaric’s camp with a letter,
+        under a flag of truce, the very day that the ambassadors came out to
+        treat with the king, and I saw the whole affair. I don’t mind saying
+        that it was not one to make a man feel proud of being a Roman. The
+        barbarians, it seemed to me, had not only all the strength on their
+        side, but the dignity also. Alaric himself is a splendid specimen of
+        humanity, every inch a king, the tallest and handsomest man in his
+        army, and that, too, an army of giants. It was a contrast, I can tell
+        you, between him and the two miserable, pettifogging creatures that
+        represented the Senate. At first they tried what a little brag could
+        do. <span class="tei tei-q">‘Give us an honourable peace,’</span>
+        said their spokesman, <span class="tei tei-q">‘or you will repent of
+        having driven to despair a nation of warriors, a nation that has
+        conquered the world.’</span> The king laughed; he knew what the
+        Romans have come to. <span class="tei tei-q">‘The thicker the
+        hay,’</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">‘the easier to
+        mow.’</span> And then he fixed the ransom that he would take for
+        retiring from before the walls. Brennus throwing his sword into the
+        scales was moderation in comparison to him. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘Give <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page260">[pg
+        260]</span><a name="Pg260" id="Pg260" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>me,’</span> he said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘all the gold and silver, coined or uncoined, private
+        property or public that you have, and all the other property that the
+        envoys whom I shall send think worth taking; and hand over to me all
+        the slaves that you have of the nations of the North, Goths, or Huns,
+        or Vandals. You are pleased to call them barbarians, but they are
+        more fit to be masters than you; and I will not suffer them to be in
+        a bondage so unworthy. Your Greeks, and Africans, and Asiatics, and
+        such like cattle you may keep.’</span> The ambassadors were pale with
+        dismay. If they had taken back such an answer, the Romans had at
+        least enough spirit left to tear them in pieces. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">‘What do you leave us, then?’</span> they said.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Your lives!’</span> he thundered out. In the
+        end, however, he softened somewhat. Five thousand pounds of gold and
+        thirty thousand pounds of silver, and I don’t know how much silk, and
+        cloth, and spices, were what he finally asked. I know the city was
+        stripped pretty bare before the Senate could make up the sum. I am
+        told that the treasuries of the churches had to be emptied. Well, as
+        I said, Alaric, if he keeps his bargain, ought to be quiet for a
+        time, but you will see that the Emperor has need of all his friends
+        round him, and all the strength which he can bring together. That is
+        what I have to say by way of explanation of the despatch that I
+        brought.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“May I ask you to leave us for a while?”</span> said the
+        Count to the young Italian.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page261">[pg 261]</span><a name="Pg261" id="Pg261" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When he had left
+        the room the Count turned to his daughter, and said—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And this is our country! This is Rome! The Emperor,
+        forsooth, has need of all his friends. His friends indeed! I little
+        thought that the day would come when I should feel ashamed of the
+        title. But tell me, daughter; what shall we do? Shall we
+        go?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What else can we do?”</span> asked the girl.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I have thought much about the matter since I heard the
+        dreadful news of Stilicho’s death, and have had all kinds of wild
+        schemes in my head. I have felt that I could not go back and touch in
+        friendship the hands that murdered him. Sometimes I thought, while
+        Cedric was here, that we would take him with us, and sail eastward. I
+        have had many a hard fight with these Saxons, but at least they are
+        men, and brave men, too, who are true to their friends, if they hate
+        their enemies. But that is now at an end. But is there no other way
+        to go? What say you, Claudian—have you any counsel to give
+        us?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I would not advise you to sail eastward,”</span> said
+        the poet. <span class="tei tei-q">“We know pretty well what lies that
+        way; tribes of barbarians, of whom the less we see the better, with
+        all respect to your friend Cedric, who seems to have been a fine
+        fellow. But why not westward? You will laugh at me for believing in
+        the Islands of the Blest. Well, I do not mean to say that there is
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page262">[pg 262]</span><a name="Pg262"
+        id="Pg262" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a country where Achilles and
+        the rest of the heroes are living in immortal joy and peace. If there
+        is, it is not one which any ship, built by the art of man, can reach.
+        But I do believe that there is a country. These old tales, depend
+        upon it, have something more in them than mere fancy. Why, my lord,
+        should not you be the one to find it?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, let us go, dear father,”</span> said Ælia,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“and leave this dreadful world with all its
+        troubles and quarrels behind us. Don’t you think so,
+        Carna?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna only smiled
+        sadly.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Or,”</span> continued the poet, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“there is the land beyond the north, the country of the
+        blessed Hyperboreans, that old Herodotus talks about. Why should we
+        not go there? Or, if that sounds too wild, there is Africa, with
+        regions rich and fertile beyond all doubt that are waiting to be
+        explored. These at least are no matter of legend. We know where they
+        are. Let us search for them. Whatever world we may find, it can
+        hardly be worse than that which we are leaving behind.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“And what says Carna?”</span> said the Count, turning,
+        with an affectionate look, to his adopted daughter.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl thus
+        appealed to flushed painfully. For a moment she seemed about to
+        speak, but not a syllable passed her lips.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Speak,”</span> cried the Count; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“you always see clearer and farther than the rest of
+        us.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page263">[pg
+        263]</span><a name="Pg263" id="Pg263" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My father,”</span> the girl went on, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I will speak from my heart, as I know you always wish me
+        to do. Forgive me if I seem to teach when it is my part to learn and
+        to obey. But, if you ask what I think you should do, I say,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Go home to Rome or Ravenna, or wherever else
+        the Emperor bids you.’</span> After all, it is your country, and it
+        never needed the help of good and brave men more than it does
+        now.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“By heaven! Claudian,”</span> cried the Count, after a
+        brief silence, <span class="tei tei-q">“the girl is right, as she
+        always is. These are not the times for an honest man to turn his back
+        upon his country. If I could reach the Islands of the Blest, or the
+        happy people who live beyond the north, as easily as I can walk
+        across this room, I would not do it; and after all, what is the world
+        without Rome to a Roman? What say you, Claudian?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I am but a poor singer, who has lost all that made him
+        sing. I could do little in any case, and I doubt whether those who
+        killed Stilicho will have anything but the axe for Stilicho’s friend.
+        Still, I go with you. It is not for a Roman to say that Rome is
+        unworthy.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“So that is settled,”</span> exclaimed the Count.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Oh, Carna,”</span> cried Ælia, throwing her arms round
+        her sister, <span class="tei tei-q">“shall we ever be as happy again
+        as we have been in this dear place?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna clung to
+        her, and sobbed as if her heart would break.</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page264">[pg 264]</span><a name="Pg264" id="Pg264"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Does it trouble you so much to go?”</span> asked the
+        Count. <span class="tei tei-q">“Surely the place is not so much to
+        you. You can be happy, wherever you may be, with those you
+        love.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl lifted up
+        a tear-stained face to him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Father,”</span> she said—<span class="tei tei-q">“more
+        than father, for you have loved me without any tie of kindred—I
+        cannot go, my home is here.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Nay, child, what are you saying? Your home has been with
+        us ever since you were a babe in arms, and it is so still;
+        or,”</span> he added, with a smile, <span class="tei tei-q">“are you
+        going to leave us for a husband?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl blushed
+        crimson as she shook her head. When she could recover her speech,
+        choked, as it was, with sobs, she said—</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You asked me just now what you should do, and I said
+        <span class="tei tei-q">‘Go home to your country.’</span> Can I do
+        less myself? Rome is your country, and Britain is mine. And oh, if
+        Rome wants all her sons and daughters, how much more does this poor
+        Britain!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But where will you live?”</span> broke in the Count’s
+        daughter; <span class="tei tei-q">“Where will you be safe? Think of
+        the dreadful things you have gone through within the last few months!
+        How can you bear to face them with your friends gone? And, dearest
+        Carna,”</span> she went on, as she clasped her still closer,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“how can I live without you?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My dearest sister,”</span> sobbed the girl, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“don’t make <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page265">[pg
+        265]</span><a name="Pg265" id="Pg265" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it
+        harder than it is. It breaks my heart to part from you, but I cannot
+        doubt what my duty is. And I am not without hope. There are brave men
+        here, and men who love their country, and I cannot but trust that
+        they will be able to do something. Of course, we shall stumble, for
+        we have not been used to go alone, but I do hope that we shall not
+        fall altogether.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“But, Carna, what can you do?”</span> said Ælia.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“You seem to be sacrificing yourself for
+        nothing.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Not for nothing; it is something if I can only sit at
+        home and pray. But it must be at home that I must pray. God would not
+        hear me if I were to put myself in some safe, comfortable place, and
+        then pretend to care for the poor people whom I had left
+        behind.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She hurried from
+        the room when she had said this, as if she could not trust herself
+        against persuasions that touched her heart so nearly.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Carna is right,”</span> said the Count, when she had
+        gone, <span class="tei tei-q">“but I feel as if she were going to her
+        death.”</span></p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page266">[pg 266]</span><a name="Pg266"
+        id="Pg266" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc71" id=
+        "toc71"></a> <a name="pdf72" id="pdf72"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXVI.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">FAREWELL!</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The resolution to
+        return to Italy once made, the Count lost no time in carrying it out.
+        His own preparations for departure did not cost him much trouble. He
+        began by offering freedom to all the slaves in his household. The
+        difficulty was in inducing them to accept it. So kind a master had he
+        been—in spite of an occasional outburst of temper—and so uncertain
+        were the prospects of a quiet life in Britain, that very few felt any
+        eagerness to be independent, and the boon had to be forced upon them
+        or made acceptable by a considerable bribe. With the free population
+        that since the departure of the legions had gathered in increasing
+        numbers about the villa it was still more difficult to deal. Many of
+        them were quite helpless people whom it seemed equally difficult to
+        take and to leave behind. To all that were of Italian birth, or that
+        had kinsfolk or friends on the Continent who might be reasonably
+        expected to give <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page267">[pg
+        267]</span><a name="Pg267" id="Pg267" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>them
+        a home, the Count offered a passage. For others employment was found
+        in Londinium and other towns. But, when all that was possible had
+        been done, there was a helpless remnant, about whom the Count felt
+        much as the occupants of the last boat must feel at the sight of the
+        poor creatures whom they are forced to leave behind on a sinking
+        ship.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna had quitted
+        the villa very soon after her resolution to remain in Britain had
+        been made. It was indeed too painful to remain there, for, though the
+        Count had confessed that she was right, his daughter remained
+        unconvinced, and assailed her with incessant entreaties and
+        reproaches which went very near to breaking her heart. She made her
+        home with the old priest whose wife was a distant kinswoman of her
+        own, and found, as such tender hearts always will, a solace for her
+        own sorrows in relieving the troubles of others.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">About the middle
+        of September all was ready for a start. The two serviceable ships
+        that were left to the Count were loaded to their utmost capacity with
+        the persons and property of the departing colony. Their sailing
+        masters had indeed remonstrated as strongly as they dared.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">may</span></span> get safely across,”</span>
+        said the senior of them, <span class="tei tei-q">“if all goes better
+        than we have any right to expect. But if it comes on to blow we shall
+        hardly be able to handle our ships; and if we meet with the
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page268">[pg 268]</span><a name="Pg268"
+        id="Pg268" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>pirates—well, a man might as
+        well go into battle with his hands tied.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Count refused
+        to listen to these protests. Even the suggestion that the cargo
+        should be divided, and part left for a second voyage he scouted,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“It will not do,”</span> he said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“the poor people would fancy they were being
+        left behind, and I am not at all sure that they would not be right.
+        It is only too likely that if we once get to the other side we should
+        <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+        "font-style: italic">not</span></span> come back. No! we will sink or
+        swim together.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">About an hour
+        before noon on the fifteenth of the month, the crews were ready to
+        weigh anchor. The Count and his daughter, who had just taken their
+        last view of the villa which had been their home for so many years,
+        were standing on the little jetty, ready to step into the boat that
+        was to convey them to the ship. Carna and the old priest and his wife
+        were with them, and the hour of farewell had come. Ælia, if she had
+        not reconciled herself to separation from her sister, at least saw
+        that it was inevitable, and was resolved not to make the parting
+        bitterer than it must needs be. She affected a cheerfulness which she
+        did not feel.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Good-bye, Carna,”</span> she cried, throwing her arms
+        round the girl’s neck. <span class="tei tei-q">“Good-bye! now we are
+        going like swallows in the autumn, and very likely shall come back
+        like them in the spring. Meanwhile keep the nest as warm for us as
+        you can.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page269">[pg
+        269]</span><a name="Pg269" id="Pg269" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Remember, Carna,”</span> said the Count, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“that you have a home as long as either I or my daughter
+        have a roof over our heads. You are doing your duty in staying, but
+        there is a limit even to duty. As long as you can be of service,
+        stop; I would not have it otherwise; but don’t sacrifice yourself and
+        those that love you for nothing.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna’s heart was
+        too full to let her speak. She caught the Count’s hands and kissed
+        them. Then she turned to Ælia, and taking her gold cross and
+        chain—the only ornament that she wore—hung it round her sister’s
+        neck. When she had succeeded in choking down her sobs, she whispered,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Take this, and, if you will give me yours,
+        we will bear each other’s crosses, and, perhaps, they will be a
+        little lighter. But oh, how heavy!”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Kneel, my children,”</span> said the old priest, and the
+        little group knelt down, while the rowers in the boat uncovered their
+        heads. After repeating the paternoster and a few simple words of
+        prayer, he raised his hand and blessed them, then fell on his knees
+        beside them. After two or three minutes of silent supplication the
+        Count rose, and almost lifted his daughter into the boat, so broken
+        down was she with the passion of her grief. Carna remained on her
+        knees, her face buried in her hands. To have looked up and seen
+        father and sister go was more than she dared to do. For the struggle
+        that she fancied was <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page270">[pg
+        270]</span><a name="Pg270" id="Pg270" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>over
+        had begun again in her heart, and she could not feel sure even then
+        that duty would prevail. The Count gently laid his hand upon her head
+        and blessed her, then stepped into the boat. As the rowers dipped
+        their oars in the water, a gleam of sunshine burst through the
+        clouds, and lighted as with a glory the head of the kneeling
+        girl.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page271">[pg 271]</span><a name="Pg271"
+        id="Pg271" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc73" id=
+        "toc73"></a> <a name="pdf74" id="pdf74"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXVII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">MARTIANUS.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The little
+        community that remained in the neighbourhood of the villa after the
+        departure of the Count and his household had plenty to occupy their
+        thoughts and hands. The Count had behaved with a liberality and a
+        discretion that were both equally characteristic of him. All the
+        stock of what may be called the home farm, all the agricultural
+        implements, the cattle, sheep, and pigs, and as much of the stores of
+        corn that he could spare, he had made over to the priest and two
+        other principal persons in the settlement for the benefit of the
+        community at large. This was an excellent start, and removed all
+        immediate anxiety for the future. The stores of provisions had been
+        increased by opportune purchases before the resolution to go had been
+        taken, and enough was left to last, if managed with due economy, over
+        the coming winter.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna found plenty
+        of employment of the kind in <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page272">[pg 272]</span><a name="Pg272" id="Pg272" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>which she found her greatest pleasure. There was
+        indeed a terrible gap in her life; not only had she lost those whom
+        she had loved all her life as father and sister, but her intellectual
+        interests had dropped away from her. Many of the books at the villa
+        had indeed been left with her, but then there was no one to whom to
+        talk about them. The old priest never opened a volume except it was a
+        service book; his wife could not even read. But the time never hung
+        heavily upon her hands, for there was plenty of work to do among the
+        sick and sorry. As the autumn went on an epidemic, which a modern
+        doctor would probably have described as measles, broke out among the
+        children, and Carna spent her days and nights in ministering to the
+        little sufferers. The one relief that she allowed herself—and there
+        was no little sadness mixed with the pleasure which it gave her—was
+        to spend an hour, when she could snatch one from her many cares, in
+        the deserted rooms of the villa. The indulgence was rare, not only
+        because her leisure was infrequent, but because she was conscious of
+        feeling somewhat relaxed after it for the effort of her daily life;
+        but when it came it was precious. Not a room, not a picture on the
+        walls, not a pattern in the tesselated pavements, that did not call
+        up a hundred associations, and make the past in which she had enjoyed
+        so much happiness live again in her fancy. The dwelling was under the
+        charge of an old couple, who <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page273">[pg 273]</span><a name="Pg273" id="Pg273" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>gladly kept it clean in exchange for the shelter
+        of two or three of the rooms, and Carna was free to wander about it
+        as she would, while she felt a certain security in the knowledge that
+        the place was not wholly deserted.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The autumn and
+        winter passed without any incident of importance. News from the
+        Continent had never been very regular during that season of the year,
+        and now it came only at the rarest intervals. All that the settlement
+        heard went to show that there was but little chance of the return of
+        the legions. Constantine, after some changes of fortune, had made
+        himself master of Gaul and Spain, and had established a kingdom which
+        looked so much as if it might last, that he had been regularly
+        acknowledged by Honorius as a partner in the Empire. But it would be
+        long before he could spare money or men for adding Britain to his
+        dominions. From Britain itself the news was mostly of the most dismal
+        kind. The Picts, indeed, were not as troublesome as usual. Happily
+        for their neighbours on the south, their attention had been occupied
+        by the tribes on the north, who had been driven by a season of
+        unusual scarcity to forage for themselves. The robbers, in fact, had
+        been obliged to defend themselves against being robbed, and Britain
+        had had in consequence a quiet time. But the people used it to
+        quarrel among themselves. There were scores of chiefs who had each
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page274">[pg 274]</span><a name="Pg274"
+        id="Pg274" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his pedigree, by which he
+        traced his lineage to some king of the pre-Roman days, and which gave
+        him, he fancied, a title to rule over his neighbours. And besides
+        these personal jealousies, there was a great division which split the
+        nation into two hostile factions. There were Britons, who held to
+        Roman ways, and among them, to the religion which Rome had given, and
+        there were Britons who looked back to the old independent days, and
+        to the faith which their fore-fathers had held long before the name
+        of Christ had been heard out of or in the land of His birth. The
+        former party was by far the more numerous, but its adherents were
+        those who had suffered most by Britain’s four centuries of servitude;
+        in the latter the virtues of freedom had been kept alive by a
+        carefully cherished tradition. They were few in number; but they were
+        vigorous and enthusiastic, even fanatical. It was clear that this
+        strife within would cause at least as much trouble as would come from
+        enemies without.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was about seven
+        months after the Count’s departure when Carna paid one of her
+        customary visits to the villa. She had been unusually busy for three
+        or four weeks previously, and had not found time to come. As she
+        passed through the garden, on her way to the house, she noticed that
+        the place looked somewhat neater and less neglected than usual. This,
+        however, did not surprise her, as she had gently remonstrated with
+        the old keeper for <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page275">[pg
+        275]</span><a name="Pg275" id="Pg275" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>doing so little, and, in her usual kindly way,
+        had followed up her reproof with a little present. Accordingly she
+        passed on without thinking more of the matter to the little
+        sitting-room which she had once shared with Ælia, and prepared to
+        spend an hour of quiet enjoyment with a book. Her books, indeed, she
+        kept for these visits to the villa. Not only was her time elsewhere
+        closely occupied, but her hostess, kindly and affectionate as she
+        generally was, could not conceal her dislike of the volumes which
+        Carna loved so dearly.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In the midst of
+        her reading she was startled by the unaccustomed sound of footsteps.
+        She lifted her eyes from the page and saw a sight so unexpected that
+        for a few moments she could not collect her thoughts or believe her
+        eyes.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The British chief
+        Martianus stood before her.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She had seen him
+        last at the Great Temple, and the recollections of those days and
+        nights of horror, her capture, her hurried journey, and the
+        interrupted sacrifice, crowded upon her, and almost overpowered her.
+        Nor could she help giving one thought to the question—if this man’s
+        presence recalls such horrors in the past, what does it not mean for
+        the future? Still, the courage which had supported her so bravely
+        before did not fail her now. She rose from her seat and calmly faced
+        the intruder, while she waited for him to speak.</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page276">[pg 276]</span><a name="Pg276" id="Pg276"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus began in
+        a tone of the deepest respect. <span class="tei tei-q">“Lady, I am
+        truly glad that you condescend to honour this poor house of mine with
+        your presence.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“This house of yours!”</span> repeated the girl, with
+        astonishment.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Lady, doubtless you do not know that this villa was
+        built by its former owner on land which belonged to my family, and
+        which was taken from them by force. I do not speak of the Count—he
+        was too honourable a man to do anything of the kind—I speak of the
+        former owner, or so-called owner, from whom he purchased it. In the
+        Count’s time I said nothing of my claim. I would not have troubled
+        him for the world. But now that he has gone, and practically given up
+        the place, I am justified, I think, in asserting my
+        ownership.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I know nothing of these matters,”</span> said Carna,
+        coldly, <span class="tei tei-q">“but I will take care not to intrude
+        again.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Intrusion!”</span> said the chief. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Did I not say that there is no one who would be more
+        welcome here? We were friends once, in the good Count’s time; why
+        should we not be so again? and more,”</span> he added in a
+        whisper.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Friends with you! Surely that is impossible. You cannot
+        wish it yourself, after what has happened. You seem to
+        forget.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Lady, Carna—I used to call you Carna when you were a
+        child—I do try to forget that dreadful <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page277">[pg 277]</span><a name="Pg277" id="Pg277" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>night. I was overborne by those double-dyed
+        villains, Carausius and Ambiorix. Believe me, it was against my will
+        that I took any part in that dreadful business. And you will remember
+        I never lifted a hand against you, no, nor against that base champion
+        of yours. You will do me that justice. Carausius, thank Heaven! has
+        got his deserts, and I have broken with Ambiorix.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig276"
+        id="fig276" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig75" id=
+        "fig75"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_313.jpg" alt="Carna and Martianus" title=
+          "Carna and Martianus." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Carna and Martianus.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna remained
+        silent.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus resolved
+        to try another appeal, and, presuming that the girl’s recollections
+        of the scene might be confused by fear, did not scruple to depart
+        considerably from the truth.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I implore you to believe that I could not have allowed
+        that horrible deed to be accomplished. If that base fellow who had
+        the privilege of saving you had not appeared, I was ready myself to
+        interfere. I know that I ought to have done so before; it has been a
+        ceaseless regret to me that I did not. But I wanted to keep on terms
+        with those two, and I held back till the last moment. Forgive me my
+        irresolution, Carna, but do not believe that I could have been one of
+        the murderers.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl’s
+        recollections of the scene, which were quite free from the confusion
+        which Martianus had imagined, did not agree with this account of his
+        behaviour, but she did not think it worth while to argue the
+        point.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page278">[pg
+        278]</span><a name="Pg278" id="Pg278" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Let it be as you will,”</span> she said, with a cold
+        dignity, <span class="tei tei-q">“but you can imagine that these
+        recollections are not pleasing to me. And now I will bid you
+        farewell.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She stepped
+        forward as she spoke with the intention of at once leaving the room,
+        but Martianus barred the way. Dropping on one knee, he caught her
+        hand. For a moment Carna, who had still something of the child in
+        her, felt a strong impulse to use the hand that was still free in
+        dealing him a vigorous blow. But her womanly dignity prevailed: she
+        only wrenched her hand away with something like violence. There was
+        something in the foppish appearance and insincere manner of Martianus
+        that set her more decidedly against him than even the recollection of
+        the plot in which he had been concerned.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I will listen to what you have to say, but do not touch
+        me.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You give me little encouragement,”</span> Martianus
+        began, <span class="tei tei-q">“but still I will speak. I say nothing
+        about myself, only about my country—your country and mine. I know how
+        you love it. We have all heard what sacrifices you have made for it,
+        how you gave up home and friends sooner than leave it. Make, if I
+        must put it so, one sacrifice more. You are the heiress of the great
+        Caradoc, the noblest king that Britain ever had, whom even the Romans
+        were com<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page279">[pg 279]</span><a name=
+        "Pg279" id="Pg279" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>pelled to admire. I can
+        reckon among my ancestors Cunobelin. Apart our claims might be
+        disputed; together they will make a title which no one can dispute to
+        the crown of Britain. Yes, Carna, it is nothing less than that—the
+        crown of Britain that is in question.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“A crown does not tempt me,”</span> said Carna, looking
+        the speaker straight in the face.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Ah! it is not that,”</span> replied the suitor;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“you mistake me. I never dreamed of tempting
+        you. I know only too well that it would be impossible. But think what
+        a British crown really means. It means a united Britain, strong
+        against the Picts, strong against the Saxons; and without it—think
+        what that would mean. Every tribe—for we should split up into tribes
+        again—for itself; every chief working for his own hand; the Picts
+        plundering the inland, the Saxons harrying the coast. Oh, Carna! as
+        you love your country—I don’t speak of myself, though that, too,
+        might come in time, if a man’s devotion is of any avail—but if you
+        love your country, do not say no.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a powerful
+        appeal, and touched Carna’s heart at the point where it was most
+        accessible. And she was so candid and transparent a soul that what
+        she felt in her heart she soon showed in her face.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus saw his
+        advantage, but, happily for <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page280">[pg
+        280]</span><a name="Pg280" id="Pg280" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>Carna, did not press it as he might have done.
+        The fact was that he was so conscious of his own insincerity and
+        falsehood that his courage failed him, and he dared not press his
+        suit any further. Had he gone on, he might have entangled the girl in
+        a promise which her feeling for truth would not have permitted her to
+        break, which would have made her even shut her eyes to the truth. As
+        it was, he thought it his best policy to rest content with the
+        progress that he had made. He raised Carna’s hand respectfully to his
+        lips, and, with a low salutation, opened the door.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page281">[pg 281]</span><a name="Pg281"
+        id="Pg281" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc76" id=
+        "toc76"></a> <a name="pdf77" id="pdf77"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXVIII.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">A RIVAL.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a fact that
+        Martianus had taken possession of the villa in the island, on the
+        strength of a claim which was far less definite than he had chosen to
+        represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming, and the place
+        was important in the minds of the British population as having been
+        the dwelling of the last representative of Roman power. The new
+        occupant might seem to have succeeded to the position of the one who
+        had lately quitted it. It flattered the man’s vanity, too, to put
+        himself in the place, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the
+        Shore, while he could use the appliances of the villa, which were
+        comfortable and even luxurious, to gratify his taste for what he
+        called the pleasures of civilized life. His establishment would
+        probably have failed to satisfy the fastidious taste of a Roman
+        gentleman; the cooking was barbarous, and the service generally rude.
+        Still there was a certain imitation, which im<span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page282">[pg 282]</span><a name="Pg282" id="Pg282" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>posed at least upon the ignorant, of Roman
+        refinement, and Martianus flattered himself that he was at least a
+        passable successor of Count Ælius.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meanwhile he
+        pursued his suit to Carna with a good deal of craft. He was a
+        diligent attendant at the village church, and professed to feel such
+        an interest in the teaching of the old priest that the ministrations
+        in church must be supplemented by conversations at home. To Carna he
+        said little or nothing about his personal claims, but he was eloquent
+        on the subject of the future of Britain. About this she was never
+        tired of hearing, and in hearing him speak of it, which he did with a
+        certain eloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality began to
+        grow fainter in her mind. The maiden faith which <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“glorifies clown and satyr”</span> began to make this
+        schemer, who indeed was not without ability and accomplishments, look
+        like a genuine patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they were
+        simply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity of praising
+        him to their young kinswoman. On the whole, his suit made some
+        progress. It was only when he seemed to put forward any personal
+        claim, or ventured to address to Carna any personal compliments, that
+        she decidedly shrank from him. He was quite shrewd enough to see
+        this, and though it was a very unpleasant experience for his vanity
+        as well as for his love, he did not fail to guide his con<span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page283">[pg 283]</span><a name="Pg283" id="Pg283"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>duct by it. As long as he talked about
+        Britain, its wrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he was
+        sure of a favourable hearing.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus had
+        other things to think of besides his suit to Carna. As he said, he
+        had broken entirely with Ambiorix. He had found that the strength of
+        the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated, and that in fact
+        the time for its revival had gone by for ever. Any chance, too, of
+        even temporary success that it might have had had been lost with the
+        life of Carausius. The priest had held many threads of secret
+        intrigue in his hands, and there was no one to take them up, when
+        they dropped from his hand. And Ambiorix, besides being worth but
+        little as an ally, had wanted too much, for he was not of a temper to
+        be satisfied with the second place.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Still Martianus
+        was well aware that his rival would have to be reckoned with sooner
+        or later. If he could induce Carna to become his wife, and thus unite
+        her family claim to his own, this reckoning might be got through with
+        care and success. If he had to rely upon himself the chances would be
+        decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which he found himself was
+        this. On the one hand, to hasten his suit might be to ruin it
+        altogether; Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something more
+        substantial than his own assertion of his pretensions. On the other
+        hand, there was the danger of being <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page284">[pg 284]</span><a name="Pg284" id="Pg284" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>attacked and crushed before he could make his
+        appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a man of even desperate
+        courage, and would not suffer himself to be effaced without a
+        struggle.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus did his
+        best to guard himself against this danger. He strengthened the
+        fortifications which the Count had made round the villa, laid up a
+        store of provisions which might be sufficient for a prolonged siege,
+        and used all his resources—he was one of the richest men in
+        Britain—to get together as large and effective a garrison as
+        possible.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">These precautions
+        were not taken a day too soon. About the beginning of June he
+        received intelligence from his agents on the mainland that Ambiorix
+        was preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with the news to the
+        priest’s house.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“You know,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“that
+        my house has always been at your disposal, but, much as I should have
+        liked to receive you as my guests, I would not press the invitation
+        upon you. But now, in the face of what I have just heard, your coming
+        is a necessity. Ambiorix and his followers are almost on the way to
+        attack us, and there is no place of safety but the villa.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The proposition
+        was most distasteful to Carna, who shuddered at the thought of
+        entering her old home in such society. At first she was disposed to
+        be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page285">[pg 285]</span><a name="Pg285" id="Pg285"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was not incapable of exaggerating, and
+        even of inventing, when he had an object to serve. Compelled, by the
+        proofs which the chief advanced, to acknowledge that the danger was
+        real, she took refuge in the argument that <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“it did not concern them.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“We are too insignificant to be harmed,”</span> she
+        said.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Pardon me, Carna,”</span> replied Martianus.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“You surely know better than that about
+        yourself. And if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on your
+        own account, think of your host. There is nothing that Ambiorix hates
+        with so deadly a hatred as a Christian priest.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The old priest, a
+        worthy man, but not of the stuff of which martyrs are made, was
+        terribly alarmed at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled to
+        acknowledge that this fear was not without reason, and reluctantly
+        consented to the removal. Her mind once made up, she found abundance
+        of occupation in making it as little grievous to others as might be.
+        The villa could not hold any great number of inmates in addition to
+        the garrison, and of course it was necessary that the number of
+        non-combatants should be as small as possible. Some of the
+        inhabitants of the settlement could, of course, remain safely in
+        their homes. They had little or nothing to be robbed of, and the
+        expected assailants had no <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page286">[pg
+        286]</span><a name="Pg286" id="Pg286" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>other reason for harming them. But many
+        households had to be broken up, and as only very few could be
+        received at the villa, there were many painful scenes to be gone
+        through, and Carna was unceasingly busy giving all the comfort and
+        help that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly in temper, put
+        all his resources at her disposal, and his readiness to assist put
+        him higher in her favour than he had ever been before.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Nor was she sorry
+        that she had found shelter within the fortifications of the villa
+        when the next morning revealed the presence of the invaders. They had
+        come across in the night to the number of several hundreds, and could
+        be seen from the windows of the villa. And a very singular sight they
+        were. A spectator might have imagined himself to have been carried
+        back more than four centuries and a half, and to be looking on the
+        hosts which had gathered to oppose the landing of the first Cæsar.
+        These warriors who came up shouting to the palisade which formed the
+        outer defence of the villa seemed to be absolute barbarians; no one
+        could have believed that for many generations they had been subjects
+        of a civilized power. They had, in fact, deliberately thrown off all
+        the signs of that subjection. It was the dream of Ambiorix to have
+        Britain such as she might have been had Rome never conquered her. It
+        was a hopeless attempt, this rolling back the course <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page287">[pg 287]</span><a name="Pg287" id="Pg287"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of time by four centuries, but in such
+        matters as dress and equipment something could be done. Accordingly,
+        his troops were such as the troops of Cassibelan might have been had
+        they suddenly risen from their graves. Most of them were naked to the
+        waist; what clothing they had was chiefly of skins, though some wore
+        gaily-coloured trews. All wore their hair falling over their
+        shoulders, and long, drooping moustaches, but no beard or whisker.
+        All the exposed parts of their bodies were dyed a deep indigo-blue,
+        by the application of woad. Ambiorix had been very anxious to revive
+        the chariots of his ancestors, but had been compelled to give up the
+        idea. In any case he could not have transported them to the island.
+        He had been at great pains to instruct them in the genuine British
+        war-cries, as far as tradition had preserved them. Here, again, the
+        result had been somewhat disappointing. There were things which they
+        had learnt from Rome which they could not put off as easily as their
+        dress; and the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged as
+        they surged up to the defences were a curious mixture of the British
+        and Latin tongues.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The battle at
+        first went decidedly against the assailants. The Count had left
+        behind him a catapult among other effects which he had not thought it
+        worth while to remove; and Martianus, who had practised some of the
+        garrison in the use of it, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page288">[pg
+        288]</span><a name="Pg288" id="Pg288" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>brought it <a name="corr288" id="corr288" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">into</span> play with
+        considerable effect. The very first discharge killed one of the
+        lesser chiefs, and a little later in the day Ambiorix himself was
+        badly bruised by one of the stones propelled from it. Meanwhile the
+        defenders escaped almost wholly without injury. There was no need for
+        them to leave the shelter of the buildings. As long as they kept
+        within this the bows and slings of the enemy failed to harm them. One
+        or two rash young recruits exposed themselves unnecessarily, and were
+        wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, about an hour before
+        sunset, called off his men, the garrison found that the casualties
+        had been very slight and few.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">During the night
+        the besiegers were not idle. They constructed a mantelet<a id=
+        "noteref_61" name="noteref_61" href="#note_61"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">61</span></span></a> of
+        wicker work covered with stout hides, and brought it out close to the
+        palisade—an operation which the besieged, with a culpable
+        carelessness, allowed them to do unmolested. From under cover of this
+        they plied long poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for
+        Ambiorix was not so obstinate a conservative as to go back to the axe
+        of bronze), and hacked away at the palisade. The catapult produced no
+        effect on this erection, and though arrows, discharged almost
+        perpendicularly into the air so as to fall just <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page289">[pg 289]</span><a name="Pg289" id="Pg289"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on the other side of it, inflicted some
+        injury, the work went on without interruption. Martianus, seeing
+        this, headed a sally in person, and, after a sharp struggle,
+        succeeded in possessing himself of it. The wicker work was broken in
+        pieces, and the hides carried off within the line of defences.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The next three
+        days passed without incident, and the inmates of the villa began to
+        hope that the danger had passed over. In reality, however, the
+        besiegers were collecting materials for the construction of another
+        mantelet on a much larger scale. As much of this as was possible was
+        put together out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the
+        fourth day an erection of considerable size could be seen about fifty
+        yards from the palisade. It soon became evident that the new plan of
+        the assailants was to try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped
+        round with tow, and, when this had been lighted, were discharged into
+        the enclosure. Some mischief was done, not so much to the buildings,
+        for it was not difficult to put out the fire if the arrows happened
+        to fall on an inflammable place, but to the garrison. The men who had
+        to extinguish the flames could not avoid exposing themselves, and
+        those who exposed themselves were frequently hit by the slingers and
+        archers. On the whole, however, little progress was made, and when,
+        in the course of the evening, a heavy rain came on, and the wind,
+        which had <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page290">[pg
+        290]</span><a name="Pg290" id="Pg290" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died
+        away, the discharge ceased.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was now
+        necessary for Ambiorix to bring matters to a crisis. His followers
+        had nearly exhausted the store of provisions which they had brought
+        with them, and, as he was unwilling to alienate the inhabitants of
+        the island by resorting to plunder, he did not see how he could
+        replenish it. Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct
+        assault, and this he did in the early dawn of the sixth day after his
+        arrival. Under cover of a heavy mist which rolled in from the sea,
+        and helped by the neglect of the sentinels, who, never very watchful,
+        had relaxed their care altogether when the light became visible, he
+        brought his men close up to the palisade at the spot where an opening
+        had been left, closed with a strong gate. For a few minutes, such was
+        the supineness of the garrison, the assailants were allowed to batter
+        and hew at this undisturbed. When some of the defenders had been
+        rallied to the spot, the work was more than half done. Ambiorix, who
+        was now entirely recovered from the injury received on the first day
+        of the siege, plied his axe with extraordinary energy, and his
+        immediate followers, whom he had carefully selected for their courage
+        and strength, followed his example. By the time Martianus arrived on
+        the scene the gate had been broken down, and the assailants were
+        pouring into the enclosure.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page291">[pg 291]</span><a name="Pg291" id="Pg291" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The garrison, who
+        were outnumbered in the proportion of nearly three to one, were at
+        once ordered to fall back into the quadrangle of the villa. They
+        formed a line across the open side where they were covered by the
+        archers and slingers posted on the roofs of the various buildings.
+        Here a long and fierce struggle ensued. The defenders had some
+        advantage in their position, and were better drilled and disciplined;
+        the assailants, on the other hand, had the courage of fanaticism.
+        When an hour had passed, and the combatants, by mutual consent,
+        paused to take breath, both sides had lost many in killed and
+        wounded, but neither had gained any considerable advantage.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna meanwhile
+        had been busy ministering to the needs of the wounded, and was
+        scarcely aware of the true position of affairs, the room in which she
+        was at work not commanding a view of the space in which the struggle
+        was going on. Chancing, however, to leave it for a moment in search
+        of something which she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken
+        place. In a moment her resolution was taken. During the siege her
+        thoughts had been taken up, not with the danger to herself and the
+        other inmates of the villa, but with the terrible fact that Britons
+        were fighting against Britons. Long before she would have attempted
+        to put an end to their cruel strife, if she had seen any hope of
+        success. She would not have hesitated risking her life in the
+        attempt. In<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page292">[pg
+        292]</span><a name="Pg292" id="Pg292" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>deed
+        she had proposed to Martianus that she should go with a party bearing
+        a flag of truce, and seek an interview with the hostile commander. He
+        had met her with a courteous and peremptory refusal, and she had been
+        compelled to acquiesce. But now it seemed to her that her chance was
+        come. Taking advantage of the pause in the struggle, she ran between
+        the combatants, and threw herself on her knees with her face towards
+        the assailants.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A murmur of
+        astonishment and admiration ran through both the ranks. She seemed to
+        be a visitor from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and, at
+        the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Britons, brothers,”</span> she cried, in a sweet but
+        penetrating voice, which made itself heard through the throng,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“what is this? Britons, brothers, have you
+        forgotten what you are? Your masters have left you. You carry arms
+        which have been forbidden to you for more than four hundred years,
+        and must you first use them against your own countrymen? Have you no
+        enemies abroad that you must look for them at home?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A shriek of
+        terror, followed by a wild war cry, which, though strange to many of
+        the crowd, was only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast, gave a
+        fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from without were
+        there.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page293">[pg 293]</span><a name="Pg293"
+        id="Pg293" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc78" id=
+        "toc78"></a> <a name="pdf79" id="pdf79"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXIX.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Cedric, after
+        making good his escape from the villa, as has been related, had
+        nearly died of hunger on the shore to which he had managed to make
+        his way. When he was almost at his last gasp, a Saxon galley had
+        touched at the very spot to supply itself with water. Fortunately for
+        him it was commanded by a kinsman of his own, who persuaded the
+        crew—the Saxon adventurers had to be dealt with by persuasion rather
+        than by command—to return home with their passenger. This probably
+        saved his life; his mother, a skilful leech, whose fame was spread
+        abroad among the dwellers on the coast, nursed him back into health.
+        Still he had suffered long and much; and it was not till the summer
+        was far advanced that he was allowed to join an expedition. His noble
+        birth, his reputation for strength and courage, not a little
+        enhanced, of course, by his late escape, and the personal fascination
+        that <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page294">[pg 294]</span><a name=
+        "Pg294" id="Pg294" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>he exercised on all
+        about him, pointed him out, young as he was, for command.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Carna had been
+        unceasingly in his thoughts since the day when he had last seen her.
+        During the delirium of his illness her name had been continually on
+        his lips, and one of the earliest confidences of his recovery was the
+        story of his love for this Christian maiden of the west. His mother
+        was touched by the story. The girl’s passionate desire for the
+        welfare of the son that was dead (which she appreciated without
+        comprehending its motive), and the very heroism which the son that
+        was living had shown in defending her, combined to move her heart.
+        That any living woman could resist the attraction of such a champion
+        as her son, she did not believe for a moment, in spite of all that
+        Cedric could say about the height of saintliness on which Carna
+        stood; and by degrees the young chief himself found his worshipping
+        devotion mingled with hopes that were very sweet to his heart.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It is not
+        surprising, therefore, that as soon as he was at sea, and the
+        destination of their voyage became a question, his thoughts at once
+        turned to the island. Approaching it with caution, for he was too
+        good a leader to risk an encounter with the superior force of the
+        Roman squadron, he learnt with surprise that the Count had departed.
+        Of Carna his informant, a fisherman who found it answer his purpose
+        to <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page295">[pg 295]</span><a name=
+        "Pg295" id="Pg295" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>give what information
+        he could to the Saxons, could tell him nothing, and Cedric naturally
+        supposed that she had gone with the family into which she had been
+        adopted. The news struck a strange chill into his heart, but at the
+        same time it relieved him of considerable perplexity. His course was
+        now clear; if the Romans were gone there was nothing to be feared. He
+        knew the approaches to the villa, and how weak were its defences, and
+        he felt sure that a British garrison would not be a match for his own
+        vigorous Saxons.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He reached the
+        island two days after the landing of Ambiorix. Acting as his own spy
+        on the strength of his knowledge of the country, he soon found out
+        the position of affairs, and thought that he could not do better than
+        wait to see how things would turn out. The galleys—Cedric had two
+        under his command—lay in hiding at some little distance from the
+        Haven, and meanwhile every detail of the struggle was watched,
+        unknown to the combatants, by scouts who carried news of its progress
+        to their chief. The gathering of the troops previous to the attack on
+        the fortifications had been observed and rightly understood by these
+        men. Cedric had been at once informed of what was in progress, had
+        landed his crews, amounting in all to about two hundred, and marched
+        with all the speed that was possible to the scene of action. As the
+        news had reached him not <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page296">[pg
+        296]</span><a name="Pg296" id="Pg296" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>long
+        after midnight he was able to reach the spot very soon after the
+        attack had commenced.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The battle-cry of
+        the Saxons, terrible to those who knew it, scarcely less terrible,
+        with its shrillness and fierceness, to those to whom it was strange,
+        arrested the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the rear of
+        the attacking party. There could be seen, running swiftly up the
+        ascent which led to the palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge
+        standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which was wrought in
+        black the raven of Odin. Behind him came, in a loose order which
+        served to conceal their scanty number, Cedric’s warriors, a sturdy
+        race, whose tall stature was made to seem almost gigantic by the
+        height to which their hair was dressed. They were formidable foes,
+        but still there were brave men in both the British parties who would
+        have had the courage to stand up against them. Unhappily one of the
+        panics which defy all reason and all individual courage began among
+        the inland Britons at the sight of these strange enemies; and, once
+        begun, it could not be checked. Ambiorix, indeed, with a few of his
+        immediate followers, faced the enemy, but was quickly swept away by
+        the rush of their onset. Martianus, with some of the garrison,
+        carrying Carna along with him, took refuge in the villa, and hastily
+        secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country, or hid
+        themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page297">[pg 297]</span><a name="Pg297" id="Pg297" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>there any thought of resistance, and the Saxons
+        won their victory almost without losing a drop of blood.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Cedric’s eyes,
+        sharpened as they were by love, had caught a glimpse of Carna, as she
+        was swept in the throng of fugitives within the doors of the villa,
+        and he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence of the place
+        against assailants so determined would have been hopeless, even had
+        the garrison been as resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and
+        demoralized. A few sturdy blows from Cedric’s battle-axe brought the
+        principal door to the ground, and he rushed across the fragments into
+        the hall, followed by some ten of his attendants. The rest he had
+        signed to remain without. Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all
+        the tumult, was surrounded by a group of terrified men and women,
+        stood facing him. The crimson mounted to her forehead as she met his
+        eyes, for she saw, as no woman could fail to see, the love that was
+        in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Spare these poor creatures,”</span> she said, pointing
+        to her terrified companions.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Your lives are safe,”</span> said Cedric in British.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Go with this <a name="corr297" id="corr297"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class=
+        "tei tei-corr">man,</span>”</span> and he pointed to one of his
+        attendants, to whom at the same time he gave some brief directions.
+        He turned to Carna: <span class="tei tei-q">“Lady,”</span> he said,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“this is no time for many words; and I could
+        not say them if it were, for my tongue is ill-taught in your
+        language. But you cannot have failed to see <span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page298">[pg 298]</span><a name="Pg298" id="Pg298" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>my heart. It is yours, and all that I have. Come
+        and be a queen in my home and among my people.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The girl’s eyes,
+        which she had turned to the ground at his first address, were now
+        lifted to meet his gaze. <span class="tei tei-q">“I cannot leave my
+        people,”</span> she said.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yet,”</span> he answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+        good women of whom you used to tell me, whose lives are written in
+        that holy book of yours, left their own people to follow their
+        husbands.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they followed was
+        the God whom they worshipped in their own homes. You worship strange
+        gods, with whom I can have no fellowship.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Come with me and teach the truth to my people and
+        me,”</span> cried the young man, feeling that there was nothing which
+        he would not do to win this bright, brave, beautiful maiden.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Listen, Cedric,”</span> she answered—it was the first
+        time that she had called him by his name, and he thought that he had
+        never known before what a name it was—<span class="tei tei-q">“You
+        told me some time since that you would sooner go into the everlasting
+        darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom you
+        believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve;
+        and I have honoured you for it. Will you give it up for the love of a
+        woman? If you did, I could honour you no more, and you are too good
+        to have a wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I <span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page299">[pg 299]</span><a name="Pg299" id="Pg299"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>will pray for you. Perhaps God will hear
+        me, and give you light, and bring us together to the blessed Christ,
+        but it cannot be here.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She caught his
+        right hand which he had reached out in the earnestness of his
+        speaking, and lifted it to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression
+        of her gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it of a woman’s
+        love. But she never faltered for one instant in the resolve that was
+        to separate them.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Behind Cedric
+        stood a burly, middle-aged warrior, his father’s foster-brother. He
+        had watched the scene with an intense interest, and though of course
+        he could not understand what was said, had a very shrewd notion of
+        the turn which affairs were taking. Perhaps he saw, too, expressed in
+        the girl’s tone something of a feeling which the young man was too
+        rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was ill-content that his
+        young chief should miss the bride on whom his heart was set, and who
+        seemed so worthy of him.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“A noble maiden!”</span> he whispered to Cedric,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“and fit to be the wife and mother of kings;
+        and I think that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I warrant
+        that it will not be long before she forgives us.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Peace!”</span> said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Peace! Would you have me wed a slave? My
+        wife must come to me freely, or come not at
+        all.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page300">[pg
+        300]</span><a name="Pg300" id="Pg300" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">He spoke to Carna
+        again. <span class="tei tei-q">“Your will is my law. If you say that
+        we must part, I go. But, lady, you must leave this house. My people
+        are set upon burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I
+        would.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Without another
+        word, she obeyed his bidding, and passed into the court, followed by
+        Cedric and his attendants.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Meanwhile some of
+        the Saxon crews had been busy with their torches, and the flames were
+        beginning to gain a mastery over the building. Before many minutes
+        had passed the sheds and outbuildings, which were, to a great extent,
+        constructed of wood, were in a blaze, while dense volumes of smoke
+        rolled out of the windows of the villa itself. Carna stood spellbound
+        by the sight, at once so terrible and so grand. The spectacle of a
+        burning house exercises a curious fascination even on those for whom
+        it means loss and disaster, and Carna, even in that supreme crisis of
+        her life, could not help gazing at the conflagration, and even
+        admiring unconsciously the splendid contrasts of light and darkness
+        which it produced.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It seemed as if
+        that day was about to sweep away all her past. She had torn from her
+        heart her half-acknowledged love; she saw the home of her childhood
+        and youth vanishing into smoke and ashes; and now another actor in
+        the bygone of her life was to disappear for ever.</p><span class=
+        "tei tei-pb" id="page301">[pg 301]</span><a name="Pg301" id="Pg301"
+        class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Martianus had
+        observed the scene from the chamber in which he had taken refuge, and
+        had misunderstood it. He fancied that the girl, whom, though no
+        formal betrothal had bound her to him, he regarded as his own, was
+        going of her own accord with this Saxon robber, in whom, of course,
+        he recognized the champion who had saved her life at the Great
+        Temple. The thought stung him to madness. With all his foppery and
+        frivolity, he had the courage of his race. He might probably have
+        escaped unnoticed from the burning building. But, disdaining flight,
+        he rushed at Cedric, heedless of the odds which he was
+        challenging.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The chief’s
+        followers, knowing their master’s temper, stood aside to let the
+        conflict be decided without their interference. It was fierce, but it
+        was brief. Martianus was a skilled swordsman, but a life of
+        indolence, if not of excess, had slackened his sinews and unsteadied
+        his nerves. He parried some of his antagonist’s blows with sufficient
+        adroitness, but his defence grew weaker and weaker, and he could not
+        save himself from one or two severe wounds. Giving way before the
+        fierce, unremitting attack of his antagonist, he came without knowing
+        it to the edge of the well, stumbled over the raised parapet that
+        surrounded it, and fell headlong into its depths.<a id="noteref_62"
+        name="noteref_62" href="#note_62"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">62</span></span></a></p><span class="tei tei-pb"
+        id="page302">[pg 302]</span><a name="Pg302" id="Pg302" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The sight of the
+        conflict had diverted Carna’s attention from the burning house. She
+        did not wait to see its issue, but at once quitted the precincts of
+        the villa. Some of the survivors of the garrison, the old priest and
+        his wife, and the rest of the non-combatants, followed her. Not only
+        did they feel that it was she who had saved them from the swords of
+        the Saxons, but they recognized in her calmness and courage the
+        qualities of a true leader, and were sure that they could not do
+        better than follow her guidance. Her own plans had been formed for
+        some time. She saw that the strength of Britain was in the great
+        cities. If the country, disorganized as it was, was to be made
+        capable again of order and self-defence, the impulse must come from
+        them, the centres of its civil and religious life. Londinium, where
+        the Count’s name was well-known and respected, and where she had some
+        connections of her own, was her destination. There she hoped to be
+        able to do something for her people.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The first step was
+        to leave the neighbourhood of the villa, and with the helpless
+        companions who now, she saw, looked to her for guidance, to make her
+        way to the north of the island, and from thence to the mainland.
+        Making a short pause till the stragglers had come up, she addressed a
+        few words of counsel and comfort to the fugitives.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Dear friends,”</span> she said, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“God has delivered us <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page303">[pg 303]</span><a name="Pg303" id="Pg303" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>from the hands of the heathen, and will bring us
+        safe to the haven where we would be. But this is no place for us. We
+        will go to where we may serve Him in peace and quietness.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Her clear, firm
+        tones, which seemed inspired with all the confidence of an
+        unfaltering faith, seemed to breathe in their turn new courage into
+        the terrified crowd. They received them with a murmur of assent, and
+        without an expression of fear or doubt, followed her as she led the
+        way to the summit of the neighbouring downs.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Arrived at this
+        spot, she paused and turned, as if to take a last look at the scenes
+        in which her past life had been spent. The landscape lay calm and
+        smiling about her. Every feature in it was familiar to her eyes;
+        there was not one with which she had not some happy association. But
+        now the sight had lost its power; her soul was occupied with more
+        profound emotions. The home of her childhood lay beneath her feet, a
+        blackened ruin; and there, upon the sea, could be seen flashing in
+        the sunlight the oars of the Saxons’ departing galleys.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was a contrast
+        full of significance, and the girl, in whose pure and enthusiastic
+        soul there seemed to be something of a prophetic power, caught some
+        of its meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days of the Roman
+        domination. It had had its uses, it had done its work, but it had
+        become corrupt and feeble, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page304">[pg
+        304]</span><a name="Pg304" id="Pg304" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and
+        it was passing away for ever. And the future was there, symbolized in
+        the Saxon ships that, brightened by the sunshine, were speeding their
+        way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous and hopeful life, across
+        the waters. That was the new power that was to shake this worn-out
+        civilization, and raise in the course of the ages a fair fabric of
+        its own.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For the moment the
+        present, with all its misery and desolation, mastered the girl’s
+        spirit with an overpowering sense of loss. Thoughts of her ruined
+        home, her helpless country, and her own personal loss, though almost
+        unacknowledged to herself, in the final parting with the young hero
+        of her life, came upon her with a force which broke down all her
+        fortitude. She covered her face with her hands and wept.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Then her fortitude
+        and her conscience reasserted themselves. <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Courage, my friends,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“God hath not deserted us, nor our dear country. We have
+        sinned much, and we shall have much to bear. But He has chosen this
+        land for a great work, and He will make all things work together for
+        good till He has accomplished it.”</span> She was silent for a few
+        moments. When she began to speak again, some mighty inspiration
+        seemed to carry her beyond the present and out of herself.
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> she cried, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“God hath great things in store for this dear
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page305">[pg 305]</span><a name="Pg305"
+        id="Pg305" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>country of ours. I see a great
+        blackness of darkness. From many houses, great and fair, where the
+        rulers of the land lived delicately, shall go up to heaven the smoke
+        of a great burning, and the fields shall be untilled and desolate,
+        and the rivers shall run red with blood. But beyond the darkness I
+        see a light, and the light shines upon a land that is fair as the
+        garden of the Lord; and therein I behold great cities thronged with
+        men, and in the midst of them stately houses of God, such as have
+        never yet been built by skill of human hand. And the people that work
+        and worship there are not of our race, nor yet wholly strange. For
+        the Lord shall make to Himself a people from out of them that know
+        Him not, even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull down His
+        Church shall build it again, and they shall carry His name to many
+        lands, for the sea shall be covered with their ships; and they shall
+        rule over the nations from the one end of heaven to the
+        other.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><a name="fig304"
+        id="fig304" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><a name="fig80" id=
+        "fig80"></a></p>
+
+        <div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center">
+          <img src="images/i_343.jpg" alt="Carna on the Hillside" title=
+          "Carna on the Hillside." />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+            <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Carna on the Hillside.</span></span>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">She sank upon her
+        knees, and remained wrapt in prayer, while the crowd stood round and
+        watched her with awe-stricken faces. When she rose again to her feet
+        she was calm. Resolutely she set her face from the scene of her past
+        life, and went her way to meet the future that lay before her.</p>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="page" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page306">[pg 306]</span><a name="Pg306"
+        id="Pg306" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> <a name="toc81" id=
+        "toc81"></a> <a name="pdf82" id="pdf82"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">CHAPTER XXX.</span><br />
+        <br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style=
+        "font-size: 100%">AT LAST.</span></span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">It was nearly
+        sunset on the second day of the great battle of Badon Hill.<a id=
+        "noteref_63" name="noteref_63" href="#note_63"><span class=
+        "tei tei-noteref"><span style=
+        "font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">63</span></span></a> The
+        long, desperate fight was over, and the great British champion had
+        turned back for a time the tide of Saxon invasion. The heathen dead
+        lay, rank by rank, as they had fallen, every man in his place, in the
+        great wedge-like formation which had resisted all the efforts of the
+        Britons during the first day of the struggle, and had been with
+        difficulty broken through on the second.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The King was
+        sitting amidst a circle of his knights on the top of the hill,
+        resting from his toils. His cross-hilted sword stood fixed in the
+        ground before him. On one side lay his helmet, bearing for its crest
+        a dragon wrought in gold; on the other, his shield, on which was
+        blazoned the figure of the Virgin.</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page307">[pg 307]</span><a name="Pg307" id="Pg307" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">A priest
+        approached, walking in front of a party of four who were carrying a
+        litter, and who, at a sign from their leader, set it down before the
+        King.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord,”</span> said the priest, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I was traversing the field to see whether I could serve
+        any of the wounded with my ministrations, when word was brought to me
+        that a Saxon desired to talk with me. He could speak the British
+        tongue, it was told me, a thing almost unheard of among these
+        barbarians. I did not delay to visit the man, and finding that he
+        desired above all things to speak to your lordship, I took it upon
+        myself to order that he should be brought.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The wounded man
+        raised himself with some difficulty, and by the help of one of the
+        bearers, into a sitting posture. He was of almost gigantic
+        proportions, and though his hair and beard were white as snow, showed
+        little of the waste and emaciation of age.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">One of the King’s
+        knights recognized him at once.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I noted him,”</span> said he, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“for a long time during the battle. He was in the front
+        rank, and stood close to a young chief, whose guardian he seemed to
+        be. I observed that he was content to ward off blows that were aimed
+        at the young man, but never dealt any himself. What came to him and
+        his charge afterwards I do not know, for the tide of battle carried
+        me away.”</span></p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page308">[pg
+        308]</span><a name="Pg308" id="Pg308" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“What do you want?”</span> said the King.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“My lord King,”</span> said the old man, speaking British
+        fluently, though with a foreign accent, <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+        knight speaks true. Neither to-day, nor yesterday, nor indeed through
+        all the years during which my people have fought with yours, have I
+        stained my hands with British blood. Indeed for forty years I have
+        not set foot on this island. But this year I was constrained to come,
+        for the young Prince of my people, Logrin by name, was with the army,
+        and his father had given him into my charge, and I could not leave
+        him. All day, therefore, I stood by him, and warded off the blows
+        with such strength and skill as I had, and when his death hour came,
+        for he fell on the morning of the second day, I cared no more for my
+        own life. So much I say that you may listen to me the more willingly,
+        though report says of you that you are generous, not to friends only,
+        but also to foes. But I have something to say that is of more moment.
+        Many years ago I was a prisoner in this land, having been taken by
+        one of the ships of Count Ælius. Many things happened to me during my
+        sojourn here of which it does not concern me to speak, except of
+        this. There was in the household of the Count a maiden, his daughter
+        by adoption, but of British birth, Carna by name. She was very
+        anxious to bring me to faith in her Master, Christ; and I was no
+        little moved by her words, and still <span class="tei tei-pb" id=
+        "page309">[pg 309]</span><a name="Pg309" id="Pg309" class=
+        "tei tei-anchor"></a>more by the example of her goodness. But I loved
+        her, and this love seemed to hinder me, for how could I tell whether
+        it were truth itself or the love that was persuading me? And would
+        not he be the basest of men who for love of a woman should leave the
+        faith of his fathers? So I remained, though it was half against my
+        own mind, in my unbelief, and when she would not take me for her
+        husband, being unbaptized, we parted, and I saw her no more. But her
+        words, and the memory of her, have dwelt with me unceasingly, and now
+        that God has brought me back to this land, I desire to have that
+        which once I refused. But tell me, my lord King, have you any
+        knowledge of this lady Carna?”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> said the King, <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+        know her well, and by the ordering of God, as I do not doubt, she is
+        in this very place this day, for she gives her whole time to
+        ministering to such as are in trouble or sorrow. She shall be sent
+        for forthwith, and the archbishop also, who will, if he thinks fit,
+        administer to you the holy rite of baptism.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Cedric, for as my
+        readers will have guessed it was he, bowed his head in assent, and
+        after swallowing a cordial which the King’s physician put to his
+        lips, sank back upon the litter.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">In about half an
+        hour Carna appeared. She was dressed in the garb of a religious
+        house, for she had taken the vows, and she was followed by a small
+        <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page310">[pg 310]</span><a name="Pg310"
+        id="Pg310" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>company of holy women who, like
+        her, had devoted their lives to the service of their poor and
+        suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Time had dealt gently with
+        her, as he often does with gentle souls. The glossy chestnut hair of
+        the past was changed indeed to a silvery white, and her face was
+        wasted with fast and vigil; but her complexion was clear and delicate
+        as of old, and her eyes as lustrous and deep.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">When she saw and
+        recognized the wounded man—for she did recognize him at once—a sweet
+        and tender smile came over her face. Her gift of intuition seemed to
+        tell her that her prayers were answered, and that the soul for which
+        her supplications had gone up day by day, from youth to age, had been
+        given to her.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Carna,”</span> said the dying man, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“God has brought me back to you after many years, and
+        before it is too late. Your God is my God, and your country my
+        country—but not here. Once I could not own it, fearing lest my love
+        should be leading me into falsehood; but all things are now made
+        clear. But, my lord King,”</span> he went on, feebly turning his head
+        to Arthur, <span class="tei tei-q">“bid them make haste, for I would
+        be baptized before I die, and my time is short.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The priest had
+        departed on another errand, and the King was perplexed. The physician
+        whispered in his ear—</p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page311">[pg
+        311]</span><a name="Pg311" id="Pg311" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“He has not many moments to live.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“Baptize him, my lord King, yourself,”</span> said Carna;
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“it is lawful in case of need, and none can
+        do it more fittingly.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“I will willingly be his sponsor,”</span> said the knight
+        who had first spoken, <span class="tei tei-q">“for there was never
+        braver man wielded axe or sword.”</span></p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The King dipped
+        his hand in a golden cup that stood on the table by his chair,
+        sprinkled the water thrice on the dying man, as he pronounced the
+        solemn formula, and signed on his forehead the sign of the Cross. He
+        then put the cross-shaped hilt of his sword to the lips of the newly
+        baptized. Cedric devoutly kissed it. The next minute he was dead.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">THE
+        END.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 4.50em">
+        <span style="font-size: 90%">UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS,
+        WOKING AND LONDON.</span></p>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="tei tei-back" style=
+    "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+        <div id="footnotes" class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <a name="toc83" id="toc83"></a>
+
+          <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+          "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+          <span style="font-size: 173%">Footnotes</span></h1>
+
+          <dl class="tei tei-list-footnotes">
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_1" name="note_1" href=
+            "#noteref_1">1.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">A reference to the well-known
+            salutation of the gladiators as they passed the Emperor in his
+            seat at the Public Games. <span class="tei tei-q">“Ave Cæsar
+            Imperator! Morituri te salutant.”</span> <span class=
+            "tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hail! Cæsar
+            Emperor, the doomed to death salute thee.</span></span></dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_2" name="note_2" href=
+            "#noteref_2">2.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Now known all over the world as
+            Portsmouth Harbour.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_3" name="note_3" href=
+            "#noteref_3">3.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Honorius and Arcadius, who ruled
+            over the Western and Eastern Empires respectively, were the weak
+            sons of the vigorous Theodosius.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_4" name="note_4" href=
+            "#noteref_4">4.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Marcus was the first of three
+            usurpers successively saluted Emperor by the legions of
+            Britain.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_5" name="note_5" href=
+            "#noteref_5">5.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Vespasian, appointed by Claudius in
+            <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+            "font-size: 75%">A.D.</span></span> 52 to the command of the
+            second legion, had made extensive conquests in Britain adding,
+            among other places, the Isle of Wight (Vectis) to the
+            Empire.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_6" name="note_6" href=
+            "#noteref_6">6.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The observation of omens, or signs,
+            supposed to indicate the future, was one of the duties of a
+            commanding officer.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_7" name="note_7" href=
+            "#noteref_7">7.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">When one of the vine-sticks used in
+            administering corporal punishment to the Roman soldiers was
+            broken on the culprit’s back, he would at once call for another.
+            A milder disciplinarian would probably consider that when the
+            stick was broken the punishment might end.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_8" name="note_8" href=
+            "#noteref_8">8.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext"><span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Decimation”</span> was a common military punishment
+            in cases of mutiny or bad behaviour on the field of battle. Every
+            tenth man, taken by lot, was put to death.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_9" name="note_9" href=
+            "#noteref_9">9.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">It would seem that the myth which
+            made the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, into a
+            British princess, had already grown up. She was, in fact, the
+            daughter of a tavern-keeper, and in no way connected with
+            Britain.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_10" name="note_10"
+            href="#noteref_10">10.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">A <span lang="la" class=
+            "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">donative</span></span> was a distribution of
+            money made to the soldiers on such occasions as the accession of
+            an Emperor.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_11" name="note_11"
+            href="#noteref_11">11.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Lymne, in Kent, now some miles
+            inward, on the edge of Romney Marsh.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_12" name="note_12"
+            href="#noteref_12">12.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Constantinople.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_13" name="note_13"
+            href="#noteref_13">13.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">His capital is said to have been
+            near the ancient Caieta and modern Gaieta.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_14" name="note_14"
+            href="#noteref_14">14.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“five”</span> are, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus
+            Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, whose united reigns extended from 97
+            to 180 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+            "font-size: 75%">A.D.</span></span>—a period of peace and
+            prosperity such as Rome never enjoyed again.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_15" name="note_15"
+            href="#noteref_15">15.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The hills that run as far as Arreton
+            and the valley of the Medina.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_16" name="note_16"
+            href="#noteref_16">16.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Brading Haven.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_17" name="note_17"
+            href="#noteref_17">17.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The villa consisted, it will be
+            seen, of the three parts which were commonly found in
+            establishments of this kind. These were called respectively the
+            <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang=
+            "la"><span style="font-style: italic">Urbana</span></span>,
+            containing the rooms in which the family resided, and including
+            also the garden terraces, &amp;c.; the <span lang="la" class=
+            "tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Rustica</span></span>, occupied by slaves
+            and workmen but in this case, as will be seen, partly used for
+            another purpose; and the <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign"
+            xml:lang="la"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">Fructuaria</span></span>, containing cellars
+            for wine, &amp;c., barns, granaries, and storehouses of various
+            kinds.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_18" name="note_18"
+            href="#noteref_18">18.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The British bishops were notoriously
+            poor, and their clergy were doubtless still more slenderly
+            provided for.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_19" name="note_19"
+            href="#noteref_19">19.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_20" name="note_20"
+            href="#noteref_20">20.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Now Lyons.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_21" name="note_21"
+            href="#noteref_21">21.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The Elbe.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_22" name="note_22"
+            href="#noteref_22">22.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Probably the Channel Islands, always
+            a dangerous place for navigation.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_23" name="note_23"
+            href="#noteref_23">23.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Perhaps something like the early
+            Saxon poem which we know under the name of Beowulf.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_24" name="note_24"
+            href="#noteref_24">24.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Possibly the reason why so much
+            buried money belonging to the later days of the Roman occupation
+            of Britain has been found.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_25" name="note_25"
+            href="#noteref_25">25.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Ireland. A similar incident is
+            mentioned by Tacitus in his life of Agricola. An Irish petty
+            king, driven from his throne by internal troubles, came to the
+            Roman general and promised, if he were restored, to bring the
+            island under the dominion of Rome. This is the first notice of
+            the country that occurs in history.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_26" name="note_26"
+            href="#noteref_26">26.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">This was exactly what had happened
+            not many years before to St. Patrick, the Apostle of
+            Ireland.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_27" name="note_27"
+            href="#noteref_27">27.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Probably somewhere near
+            Wexford.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_28" name="note_28"
+            href="#noteref_28">28.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">With us tables are cleared after a
+            meal; with the Romans they seem to have been actually
+            removed.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_29" name="note_29"
+            href="#noteref_29">29.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Theodosius ordered a massacre at
+            Thessalonica on account of some offence offered to him by the
+            populace of that city.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_30" name="note_30"
+            href="#noteref_30">30.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Chichester.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_31" name="note_31"
+            href="#noteref_31">31.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Pevensey.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_32" name="note_32"
+            href="#noteref_32">32.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Boulogne.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_33" name="note_33"
+            href="#noteref_33">33.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Commonly known by his Romanized name
+            of Caractacus.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_34" name="note_34"
+            href="#noteref_34">34.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Streets of Rome.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_35" name="note_35"
+            href="#noteref_35">35.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">This river, of course, must have
+            been the Avon.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_36" name="note_36"
+            href="#noteref_36">36.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Winchester.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_37" name="note_37"
+            href="#noteref_37">37.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Salisbury.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_38" name="note_38"
+            href="#noteref_38">38.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Now known as Downton, a small market
+            town, about five miles south of Salisbury.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_39" name="note_39"
+            href="#noteref_39">39.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">A trilith consists of two upright
+            stones with a third placed across.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_40" name="note_40"
+            href="#noteref_40">40.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext"><span class="tei tei-q">“How say ye
+            then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the
+            hill?”</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style=
+            "font-variant: small-caps">Psalm</span></span> xi. 1.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_41" name="note_41"
+            href="#noteref_41">41.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Commonly called Jerome.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_42" name="note_42"
+            href="#noteref_42">42.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398,
+            at Constantinople 398-404.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_43" name="note_43"
+            href="#noteref_43">43.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Winchester.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_44" name="note_44"
+            href="#noteref_44">44.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Calleva Attrebatium, now known as
+            Silchester, one of the most perfect specimens of a Roman camp to
+            be seen in this country.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_45" name="note_45"
+            href="#noteref_45">45.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Princeps Civitatis.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_46" name="note_46"
+            href="#noteref_46">46.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The wall of Antoninus, built to
+            defend Northern Britain from the Caledonians, and held by Roman
+            forces till far on in the fourth century.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_47" name="note_47"
+            href="#noteref_47">47.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Daniel iii. 19.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_48" name="note_48"
+            href="#noteref_48">48.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">It may be as well to say a few words
+            about Stilicho. He was the son of a Vandal captain, and attracted
+            by his skill and courage the favourable notice of the Emperor
+            Theodosius, who gave him his niece Serena in marriage. His
+            influence continued to increase, and in course of time Theodosius
+            made him and his wife guardians of his young son Honorius, whom
+            he shortly afterwards proclaimed Augustus, and Emperor of the
+            West. In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was divided between
+            his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius the East.
+            Stilicho’s daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius, and his
+            influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the Empire,
+            conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates, and driving
+            back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by the very
+            terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was engaged in a
+            struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over whom he won, in the
+            year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near the modern Turin,
+            and whom he defeated again in the following year under the walls
+            of Verona. He is said to have conceived the idea of securing the
+            Empire for his own son, and for this purpose to have entered into
+            intrigues with his old enemy Alaric. However this may be, it is
+            certain that he fell into disgrace. His end is related in this
+            chapter. The poet Claudian employed himself in writing the
+            praises of Stilicho and invectives against his rivals Rufinus and
+            Eutropius.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_49" name="note_49"
+            href="#noteref_49">49.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">
+              <div class="tei tei-lg" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-left: 2.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+                  <span class="tei tei-q" style=
+                  "text-align: left">“Stilichonis apex et cognita
+                  fulsit</span>
+                </div>
+
+                <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">
+                  <span class="tei tei-q" style=
+                  "text-align: left">Canities.”</span>
+                </div>
+              </div><span class="tei tei-q">“There shone Stilicho’s towering
+              head and well-known locks of white”</span>—a passage quoted
+              from Claudian by D’Israeli, with exquisite propriety, in his
+              eulogium on the Duke of Wellington, in the House of Commons,
+              November, 1852.
+            </dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_50" name="note_50"
+            href="#noteref_50">50.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">In one of Æsop’s fables, a
+            trumpeter, taken prisoner, begs for his life, pleading that he
+            has never struck a blow in battle; but is told that he has done
+            much worse in encouraging others to fight by his martial
+            music.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_51" name="note_51"
+            href="#noteref_51">51.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">A tribe that occupied a region
+            included in what is now known as Russian Poland.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_52" name="note_52"
+            href="#noteref_52">52.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Serena was wife to Stilicho, and, as
+            has been said before, niece to the Emperor Theodosius.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_53" name="note_53"
+            href="#noteref_53">53.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The Imperial standard (see page
+            21).</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_54" name="note_54"
+            href="#noteref_54">54.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Business to-morrow.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_55" name="note_55"
+            href="#noteref_55">55.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The Forest of Anderida occupied a
+            great part of Hampshire and nearly the whole of Sussex, except a
+            strip of land along the coast. It must have measured a hundred
+            miles from east to west.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_56" name="note_56"
+            href="#noteref_56">56.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The Black Forest, part of which was
+            known to the Romans.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_57" name="note_57"
+            href="#noteref_57">57.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">July 21st.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_58" name="note_58"
+            href="#noteref_58">58.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">This is the translation of a passage
+            from the first book of an unfinished poem by Claudian, entitled
+            <span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang=
+            "la"><span style="font-style: italic">De Raptu
+            Proserpinæ</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-q">“The Carrying
+            off Proserpine.”</span> It is an amplification of the legend that
+            Pluto, god of the region of the dead, carried off Proserpine,
+            daughter of Ceres, to be his wife and queen, while she was
+            gathering flowers in the fields of Enna in Sicily. The passage
+            translated occurs in the first book, and describes the tapestry
+            with which Proserpine is busy, as a gift to her absent mother.
+            The poem breaks off in the third book, while relating the search
+            which the mother makes for her lost daughter.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_59" name="note_59"
+            href="#noteref_59">59.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">This was actually done about this
+            time, and with the result foreshadowed in the conversation given
+            above.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_60" name="note_60"
+            href="#noteref_60">60.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Carausius had held, towards the end
+            of the third century, the same command as that of the Count of
+            the Saxon Shore, had rebelled against the Emperor, made himself
+            master of Britain and all the Western Seas, and had then
+            proclaimed himself Augustus. The Emperor Diocletian made several
+            attempts to reduce him, but, finding that this could not be done,
+            acknowledged him as a partner in the Empire. Six years later
+            Carausius was murdered by one of his lieutenants, Allectus, who
+            doubtless hoped thus to bring himself into favour at Rome.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_61" name="note_61"
+            href="#noteref_61">61.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">Mantelet: a shield of wood, metal,
+            or rope, for the protection of sappers, &amp;c.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_62" name="note_62"
+            href="#noteref_62">62.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">A skeleton has been found in the
+            well of the Brading Villa.</dd>
+
+            <dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_63" name="note_63"
+            href="#noteref_63">63.</a></dt>
+
+            <dd class="tei tei-notetext">The battle of Badon Hill, fought in
+            451, seems to be a well authenticated historical fact. King
+            Arthur defeated the Saxons after a fierce conflict which lasted
+            for two days. Badon Hill is near Bath.</dd>
+          </dl>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="boxed tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <a name="pdf84" id="pdf84"></a><a name="toc85" id="toc85"></a>
+
+        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+        "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+        <span style="font-size: 173%">Transcriber’s Note</span></h1>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Variations in
+        hyphenation (<span class="tei tei-q">“countryside”</span>,
+        <span class="tei tei-q">“country-side”</span>; <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“headquarters”</span>, <span class=
+        "tei tei-q">“head-quarters”</span>) have not been changed.</p>
+
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Other changes,
+        which have been made to the text:</p>
+
+        <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+          <tbody>
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr019" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 19</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“tomount”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“to mount”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr023" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 23</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“mishap.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr033" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 33</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“Lasetrygones”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“Laestrygones”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr076" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 76</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“asid”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“said”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr079" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 79</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“letter-carriers.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr087" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 87</a>, single quote mark changed to double
+              quote mark after <span class="tei tei-q">“long.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr111" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 111</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“oga”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“toga”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr115" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 115</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“free.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr139" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 139</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“wanted.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr156" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 156</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“eemed”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“seemed”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr157" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 157</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“greal”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“great”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr178" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 178</a>, period added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“Sorbiodunum”</span>, comma changed to period after
+              <a href="#corr178a" class="tei tei-ref"><span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“them”</span></a></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr233" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 233</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“man.”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr255" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 255</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“Or”</span>
+              changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“On”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr288" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 288</a>, <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“inot”</span> changed to <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“into”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+
+            <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+              <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+              <td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr297" class=
+              "tei tei-ref">page 297</a>, quote mark added after <span class=
+              "tei tei-q">“man,”</span></td>
+            </tr>
+          </tbody>
+        </table>
+      </div>
+      <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+      <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+      "margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style=
+        "margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+          <pre class="pre tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+</pre>
+          <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="rightpageheader86" id="rightpageheader86"></a><a name=
+            "pgtoc87" id="pgtoc87"></a><a name="pdf88" id="pdf88"></a>
+
+            <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+            <span style="font-size: 173%">Credits</span></h1>
+
+            <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+              <tbody>
+                <tr>
+                  <th class="tei tei-label tei-label-gloss">October 31,
+                  2013&nbsp;&nbsp;</th>
+                </tr>
+
+                <tr>
+                  <td class="tei tei-item tei-item-gloss">
+                    <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list"
+                    style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+                      <tbody>
+                        <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                          <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+                          <td class="tei tei-item">Project Gutenberg TEI
+                          edition 1</td>
+                        </tr>
+
+                        <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                          <th class="tei tei-label"></th>
+
+                          <td class="tei tei-item"><span class=
+                          "tei tei-respStmt"><span class=
+                          "tei tei-resp">Produced by sp1nd, Stefan Cramme,
+                          and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+                          http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+                          images generously made available by The Internet
+                          Archive)</span></span></td>
+                        </tr>
+                      </tbody>
+                    </table>
+                  </td>
+                </tr>
+              </tbody>
+            </table>
+          </div>
+          <hr class="doublepage" />
+
+          <div class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="rightpageheader89" id="rightpageheader89"></a><a name=
+            "pgtoc90" id="pgtoc90"></a><a name="pdf91" id="pdf91"></a>
+
+            <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+            <span style="font-size: 173%">A Word from Project
+            Gutenberg</span></h1>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This file
+            should be named 44083-h.html or 44083-h.zip.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This and all
+            associated files of various formats will be found in: <a href=
+            "http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/0/8/44083/" class=
+            "block tei tei-xref" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+            <span style=
+            "font-size: 90%">http://www.gutenberg.org</span><span style=
+            "font-size: 90%">/dirs/4/4/0/8/44083/</span></a></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Updated
+            editions will replace the previous one — the old editions will be
+            renamed.</p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Creating the
+            works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a
+            United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+            you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+            permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+            set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply
+            to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
+            to protect the Project Gutenberg™ concept and trademark. Project
+            Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+            charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If
+            you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying
+            with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly
+            any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+            performances and research. They may be modified and printed and
+            given away — you may do practically <em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+            "font-style: italic">anything</span></em> with public domain
+            eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license,
+            especially commercial redistribution.</p>
+          </div>
+          <hr class="page" />
+
+          <div id="pglicense" class="tei tei-div" style=
+          "margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">
+            <a name="rightpageheader92" id="rightpageheader92"></a><a name=
+            "pgtoc93" id="pgtoc93"></a><a name="pdf94" id="pdf94"></a>
+
+            <h1 class="tei tei-head" style=
+            "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em">
+            <span style="font-size: 173%">The Full Project Gutenberg
+            License</span></h1>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><em class=
+            "tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Please read this
+            before you distribute or use this work.</span></em></p>
+
+            <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">To protect the
+            Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of
+            electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any
+            other work associated in any way with the phrase <span class=
+            "tei tei-q">“Project Gutenberg”</span>), you agree to comply with
+            all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg™ License (<a href=
+            "#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">available with this file</a> or
+            online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class=
+            "tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a>).</p>
+
+            <div id="pglicense1" class="tei tei-div" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+              <span style="font-size: 144%">Section 1.</span></h2>
+
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+              <span style="font-size: 120%">General Terms of Use &amp;
+              Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works</span></h2>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1A" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.A.</span></h3>
+
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">By reading
+                or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic work,
+                you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and
+                accept all the terms of this license and intellectual
+                property (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree
+                to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease
+                using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™
+                electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee for
+                obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™
+                electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms
+                of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+                entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+                <a href="#pglicense1E8" class="tei tei-ref">1.E.8.</a></p>
+              </div>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1B" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.B.</span></h3>
+
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                <span class="tei tei-q">“Project Gutenberg”</span> is a
+                registered trademark. It may only be used on or associated in
+                any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be
+                bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things
+                that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
+                even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
+                See paragraph <a href="#pglicense1C" class=
+                "tei tei-ref">1.C</a> below. There are a lot of things you
+                can do with Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow
+                the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future
+                access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph
+                <a href="#pglicense1E" class="tei tei-ref">1.E</a> below.</p>
+              </div>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1C" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.C.</span></h3>
+
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The
+                Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (<span class=
+                "tei tei-q">“the Foundation”</span> or PGLAF), owns a
+                compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg™
+                electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+                collection are in the public domain in the United States. If
+                an individual work is in the public domain in the United
+                States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+                claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing,
+                performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on
+                the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are
+                removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+                Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic
+                works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in
+                compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+                Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can
+                easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping
+                this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+                Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with
+                others.</p>
+              </div>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1D" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.D.</span></h3>
+
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The
+                copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+                what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
+                countries are in a constant state of change. If you are
+                outside the United States, check the laws of your country in
+                addition to the terms of this agreement before downloading,
+                copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating
+                derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+                Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations
+                concerning the copyright status of any work in any country
+                outside the United States.</p>
+              </div>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1E" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.E.</span></h3>
+
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Unless you
+                have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E1" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.1.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The
+                  following sentence, with active links to, or other
+                  immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License
+                  must appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project
+                  Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the phrase <span class=
+                  "tei tei-q">“Project Gutenberg”</span> appears, or with
+                  which the phrase <span class="tei tei-q">“Project
+                  Gutenberg”</span> is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+                  performed, viewed, copied or distributed:</p>
+
+                  <div class="block tei tei-q" style=
+                  "margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em">
+                  <span style="font-size: 90%">This eBook is for the use of
+                  anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+                  whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+                  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+                  with this eBook or online at</span> <a href=
+                  "http://www.gutenberg.org" class=
+                    "tei tei-xref"><span style="font-size: 90%">http://www.gutenberg.org</span></a></p>
+                  </div>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E2" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.2.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">If an
+                  individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived
+                  from the public domain (does not contain a notice
+                  indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+                  copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed
+                  to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or
+                  charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a
+                  work with the phrase <span class="tei tei-q">“Project
+                  Gutenberg”</span> associated with or appearing on the work,
+                  you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs
+                  <a href="#pglicense1E1" class="tei tei-ref">1.E.1</a>
+                  through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work
+                  and the Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in
+                  paragraphs <a href="#pglicense1E8" class=
+                  "tei tei-ref">1.E.8</a> or 1.E.9.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E3" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.3.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">If an
+                  individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted
+                  with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and
+                  distribution must comply with both paragraphs <a href=
+                  "#pglicense1E1" class="tei tei-ref">1.E.1</a> through 1.E.7
+                  and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder.
+                  Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™
+                  License for all works posted with the permission of the
+                  copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E4" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.4.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Do not
+                  unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™
+                  License terms from this work, or any files containing a
+                  part of this work or any other work associated with Project
+                  Gutenberg™.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E5" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.5.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Do not
+                  copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+                  electronic work, or any part of this electronic work,
+                  without prominently displaying the sentence set forth in
+                  paragraph <a href="#pglicense1E1" class=
+                  "tei tei-ref">1.E.1</a> with active links or immediate
+                  access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg™
+                  License.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E6" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.6.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">You may
+                  convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+                  compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form,
+                  including any word processing or hypertext form. However,
+                  if you provide access to or distribute copies of a Project
+                  Gutenberg™ work in a format other than <span class=
+                  "tei tei-q">“Plain Vanilla ASCII”</span> or other format
+                  used in the official version posted on the official Project
+                  Gutenberg™ web site (http://www.gutenberg.org), you must,
+                  at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide
+                  a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of
+                  obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original
+                  <span class="tei tei-q">“Plain Vanilla ASCII”</span> or
+                  other form. Any alternate format must include the full
+                  Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph
+                  <a href="#pglicense1E1" class="tei tei-ref">1.E.1.</a></p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E7" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.7.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Do not
+                  charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+                  performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™
+                  works unless you comply with paragraph <a href=
+                  "#pglicense1E8" class="tei tei-ref">1.E.8</a> or 1.E.9.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E8" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.8.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">You may
+                  charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access
+                  to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
+                  provided that</p>
+
+                  <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list"
+                  style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">
+                    <tbody>
+                      <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                        <th class="tei tei-label">•&nbsp;&nbsp;</th>
+
+                        <td class="tei tei-item">
+                          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                          You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits
+                          you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works
+                          calculated using the method you already use to
+                          calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to
+                          the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but
+                          he has agreed to donate royalties under this
+                          paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                          Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60
+                          days following each date on which you prepare (or
+                          are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+                          returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
+                          as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+                          Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+                          <a href="#pglicense4" class="tei tei-ref">Section
+                          4, <span class="tei tei-q">“Information about
+                          donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                          Foundation.”</span></a></p>
+                        </td>
+                      </tr>
+
+                      <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                        <th class="tei tei-label">•&nbsp;&nbsp;</th>
+
+                        <td class="tei tei-item">
+                          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                          You provide a full refund of any money paid by a
+                          user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail)
+                          within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree
+                          to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
+                          License. You must require such a user to return or
+                          destroy all copies of the works possessed in a
+                          physical medium and discontinue all use of and all
+                          access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
+                          works.</p>
+                        </td>
+                      </tr>
+
+                      <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                        <th class="tei tei-label">•&nbsp;&nbsp;</th>
+
+                        <td class="tei tei-item">
+                          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                          You provide, in accordance with paragraph <a href=
+                          "#pglicense1F3" class="tei tei-ref">1.F.3</a>, a
+                          full refund of any money paid for a work or a
+                          replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic
+                          work is discovered and reported to you within 90
+                          days of receipt of the work.</p>
+                        </td>
+                      </tr>
+
+                      <tr class="tei tei-labelitem">
+                        <th class="tei tei-label">•&nbsp;&nbsp;</th>
+
+                        <td class="tei tei-item">
+                          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                          You comply with all other terms of this agreement
+                          for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™
+                          works.</p>
+                        </td>
+                      </tr>
+                    </tbody>
+                  </table>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1E9" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.E.9.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">If you
+                  wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™
+                  electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+                  are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission
+                  in writing from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                  Foundation and Michael Hart, the owner of the Project
+                  Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth
+                  in <a href="#pglicense3" class="tei tei-ref">Section 3</a>
+                  below.</p>
+                </div>
+              </div>
+
+              <div id="pglicense1F" class="tei tei-div" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                <h3 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+                <span style="font-size: 120%">1.F.</span></h3>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F1" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.1.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Project
+                  Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+                  effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe
+                  and proofread public domain works in creating the Project
+                  Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project
+                  Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they
+                  may be stored, may contain <span class=
+                  "tei tei-q">“Defects,”</span> such as, but not limited to,
+                  incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription
+                  errors, a copyright or other intellectual property
+                  infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium,
+                  a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot
+                  be read by your equipment.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F2" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.2.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">LIMITED
+                  WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES — Except for the
+                  <span class="tei tei-q">“Right of Replacement or
+                  Refund”</span> described in <a href="#pglicense1F3" class=
+                  "tei tei-ref">paragraph 1.F.3</a>, the Project Gutenberg
+                  Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+                  Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a
+                  Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement,
+                  disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and
+                  expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO
+                  REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF
+                  WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN
+                  PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK
+                  OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+                  LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
+                  PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF
+                  THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F3" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.3.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">LIMITED
+                  RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND — If you discover a defect
+                  in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you
+                  can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it
+                  by sending a written explanation to the person you received
+                  the work from. If you received the work on a physical
+                  medium, you must return the medium with your written
+                  explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+                  the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy
+                  in lieu of a refund. If you received the work
+                  electronically, the person or entity providing it to you
+                  may choose to give you a second opportunity to receive the
+                  work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+                  is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+                  without further opportunities to fix the problem.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F4" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.4.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Except
+                  for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
+                  <a href="#pglicense1F3" class="tei tei-ref">paragraph
+                  1.F.3</a>, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO
+                  OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
+                  BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS
+                  FOR ANY PURPOSE.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F5" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.5.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Some
+                  states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+                  warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types
+                  of damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in
+                  this agreement violates the law of the state applicable to
+                  this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make
+                  the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the
+                  applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of
+                  any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+                  remaining provisions.</p>
+                </div>
+
+                <div id="pglicense1F6" class="tei tei-div" style=
+                "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  <h4 class="tei tei-head" style=
+                  "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+                  1.F.6.</h4>
+
+                  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+                  INDEMNITY — You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation,
+                  the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the
+                  Foundation, anyone providing copies of Project Gutenberg™
+                  electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and any
+                  volunteers associated with the production, promotion and
+                  distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works,
+                  harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including
+                  legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+                  the following which you do or cause to occur: (a)
+                  distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b)
+                  alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+                  Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause.</p>
+                </div>
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <div id="pglicense2" class="tei tei-div" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+              <span style="font-size: 144%">Section 2.</span></h2>
+
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+              <span style="font-size: 120%">Information about the Mission of
+              Project Gutenberg™</span></h2>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Project
+              Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of
+              electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+              computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new
+              computers. It exists because of the efforts of hundreds of
+              volunteers and donations from people in all walks of life.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Volunteers
+              and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance
+              they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™'s goals
+              and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain
+              freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+              Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a
+              secure and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future
+              generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+              Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help,
+              see Sections <a href="#pglicense3" class="tei tei-ref">3</a>
+              and <a href="#pglicense4" class="tei tei-ref">4</a> and the
+              Foundation web page at <a href="http://www.pglaf.org" class=
+              "tei tei-xref">http://www.pglaf.org</a>.</p>
+            </div>
+
+            <div id="pglicense3" class="tei tei-div" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+              <span style="font-size: 144%">Section 3.</span></h2>
+
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+              <span style="font-size: 120%">Information about the Project
+              Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation</span></h2>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Project
+              Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit 501(c)(3)
+              educational corporation organized under the laws of the state
+              of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+              Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax
+              identification number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is
+              posted at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf"
+              class=
+              "tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf</a>.
+              Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+              Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+              U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The
+              Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan&nbsp;Dr.
+              S.&nbsp;Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees
+              are scattered throughout numerous locations. Its business
+              office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT
+              84116, (801) 596-1887, email business@pglaf.org. Email contact
+              links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+              Foundation's web site and official page at <a href=
+              "http://www.pglaf.org" class=
+              "tei tei-xref">http://www.pglaf.org</a></p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">For
+              additional contact information:</p>
+
+              <div class="block tei tei-address" style=
+              "margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+              <span class="tei tei-addrLine"><span style=
+              "font-size: 90%">Dr.&nbsp;Gregory
+              B.&nbsp;Newby</span></span><br />
+                <span class="tei tei-addrLine"><span style=
+                "font-size: 90%">Chief Executive and
+                Director</span></span><br />
+                <span class="tei tei-addrLine"><span style=
+                "font-size: 90%">gbnewby@pglaf.org</span></span><br />
+              </div>
+            </div>
+
+            <div id="pglicense4" class="tei tei-div" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+              <span style="font-size: 144%">Section 4.</span></h2>
+
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+              <span style="font-size: 120%">Information about Donations to
+              the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation</span></h2>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Project
+              Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+              public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+              increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that
+              can be freely distributed in machine readable form accessible
+              by the widest array of equipment including outdated equipment.
+              Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important
+              to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The
+              Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+              charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the
+              United States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it
+              takes a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to
+              meet and keep up with these requirements. We do not solicit
+              donations in locations where we have not received written
+              confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or determine the
+              status of compliance for any particular state visit <a href=
+              "http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate" class=
+              "tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate</a></p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">While we
+              cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+              have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no
+              prohibition against accepting unsolicited donations from donors
+              in such states who approach us with offers to donate.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+              International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot
+              make any statements concerning tax treatment of donations
+              received from outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp
+              our small staff.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Please check
+              the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation methods
+              and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways
+              including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+              donate, please visit: <a href=
+              "http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate" class=
+              "tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate</a></p>
+            </div>
+
+            <div id="pglicense5" class="tei tei-div" style=
+            "margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em">
+              <span style="font-size: 144%">Section 5.</span></h2>
+
+              <h2 class="tei tei-head" style=
+              "text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em">
+              <span style="font-size: 120%">General Information About Project
+              Gutenberg™ electronic works.</span></h2>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class=
+              "tei tei-name">Professor Michael S. Hart</span> is the
+              originator of the Project Gutenberg™ concept of a library of
+              electronic works that could be freely shared with anyone. For
+              thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg™
+              eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Project
+              Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed
+              editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the
+              U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+              necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+              edition.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Each eBook
+              is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's eBook
+              number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+              compressed (zipped), HTML and others.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Corrected
+              <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">editions</span></em> of our eBooks replace
+              the old file and take over the old filename and etext number.
+              The replaced older file is renamed. <em class=
+              "tei tei-emph"><span style=
+              "font-style: italic">Versions</span></em> based on separate
+              sources are treated as new eBooks receiving new filenames and
+              etext numbers.</p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Most people
+              start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+              <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org" class="block tei tei-xref"
+              style=
+              "margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+              <span style=
+              "font-size: 90%">http://www.gutenberg.org</span></a></p>
+
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This Web
+              site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including
+              how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+              Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+              subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p>
+            </div>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/44083-h/images/cover.jpg b/44083-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..562f620
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_002.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a071aca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_002.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_029.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_029.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..403e1e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_029.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_041.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_041.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f10b627
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_041.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_073.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_073.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9969754
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_073.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_095.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_095.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..740036b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_095.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_123.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_123.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50fc4b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_123.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_133.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_133.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bfa27e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_133.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_151.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_151.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9754049
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_151.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_191.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_191.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a68414
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_191.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_223.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_223.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6daed6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_223.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_241.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_241.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4cd2d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_241.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_253.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_253.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0550060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_253.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_267.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_267.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef7cc5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_267.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_287.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_287.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25f9f6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_287.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_313.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_313.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70f28c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_313.jpg
diff --git a/44083-h/images/i_343.jpg b/44083-h/images/i_343.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7db72f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-h/images/i_343.jpg
diff --git a/44083-pdf.pdf b/44083-pdf.pdf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eea306c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-pdf.pdf
diff --git a/44083-pdf.zip b/44083-pdf.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60a144c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-pdf.zip
diff --git a/44083-tei.zip b/44083-tei.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0541626
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei.zip
diff --git a/44083-tei/44083-tei.tei b/44083-tei/44083-tei.tei
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e660c68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/44083-tei.tei
@@ -0,0 +1,11185 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
+<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd">
+<TEI.2 lang="en">
+    <teiHeader>
+        <fileDesc>
+            <titleStmt>
+                <title>The Count of the Saxon Shore</title>
+                <author><name reg="Church, Alfred John">Alfred John Church</name></author>
+            </titleStmt>
+            <publicationStmt>
+                <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher>
+                <date value="2013-10-31">October 31, 2013</date>
+                <idno type='etext-no'>44083</idno>
+                <availability>
+                  <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere
+                  at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
+                  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+                  the terms of the Project Gutenberg License online at
+                  www.gutenberg.org/license</p>
+                </availability>
+            </publicationStmt>
+            <sourceDesc>
+                <bibl>
+<title>The Count of the Saxon Shore.</title>
+                <author><name reg="Church, Alfred John">Alfred John Church</name></author>
+<imprint><pubPlace>London</pubPlace>
+<publisher>Seeley, Service &amp; Co.</publisher></imprint>
+</bibl>
+            </sourceDesc>
+        </fileDesc>
+        <encodingDesc>
+        </encodingDesc>
+        <profileDesc>
+          <langUsage>
+            <language id="it" />
+            <language id="fr" />
+            <language id="en" />
+<language id="la" >Latin</language>
+          </langUsage>
+        </profileDesc>
+        <revisionDesc>
+          <change>
+            <date value="2013-10-32">October 31, 2013</date>
+            <respStmt>
+                <resp>Produced by sp1nd, Stefan Cramme, and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by
+The Internet Archive)</resp>
+            </respStmt>
+            <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item>
+          </change>
+        </revisionDesc>
+    </teiHeader>
+
+    <pgExtensions>
+      <pgStyleSheet>
+        .ill         { margin-left: 2 }
+        .italic      { font-style: italic }
+        .small       { font-size: 75% }    
+        .smaller     { font-size: 100% }            
+        .smallcaps   { font-variant: small-caps }
+        head         { text-align: center }
+        figure       { text-align: center }
+        lg           { margin-left: 2 }  
+        .w80         { }
+        .w100        { }
+        @media pdf   {
+        .w80         { width: 80%; page-float: 'htp' }
+        .w100        { width: 100%; page-float: 'htp' }
+                       }                 
+      </pgStyleSheet>
+<pgCharMap formats="txt">
+        <char id="U0x2009">
+          <charName>thinsp</charName>
+          <desc>THIN SPACE</desc>
+          <mapping></mapping>
+        </char>
+      </pgCharMap>
+    </pgExtensions>
+
+<text lang="en">
+<front>
+<div>
+<divGen type="pgheader" />
+</div>
+<div>
+<divGen type="encodingDesc" />
+</div>
+<div>
+<pb/>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Burning of the Villa.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="frontis"/><figure url="images/i_002.jpg" rend="w80"><index index="fig" level1="The Burning of the Villa"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Burning of the Villa.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Burning of the Villa</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pgIf output="html">
+<then><p><figure url="images/cover.jpg"><figDesc>Cover image</figDesc></figure></p></then></pgIf>
+</div><titlePage rend="page-break-before: always; text-align: center">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgi'/>
+<docTitle>
+  <titlePart type="main" rend="font-size: xx-large">The <hi rend='smallcaps'>Count</hi>
+<lb/>of the <hi rend='smallcaps'>Saxon Shore</hi></titlePart>
+<lb/>
+<titlePart type="sub"><hi rend='italic'>or</hi><lb/>
+<hi rend="font-size: x-large">The Villa in VECTIS</hi></titlePart>
+<lb/><lb/>
+<titlePart type="sub"><hi rend='smallcaps; italic; font-size: large'>A Tale of the Departure of the
+Romans from Britain</hi></titlePart>
+</docTitle>
+<lb/><lb/>
+<byline>BY THE<lb/>
+<docAuthor rend="font-size: large"><hi rend='smallcaps'>Rev.</hi> ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A.</docAuthor>
+<lb/><hi rend='italic'>Author of “Stories from Homer”</hi>
+<lb/><lb/>WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
+<lb/>RUTH PUTNAM<lb/>
+</byline>
+<lb/><lb/><lb/>
+<titlePart><hi rend='italic'>Fifth Thousand</hi></titlePart>
+<lb/><lb/><lb/>
+<docImprint>
+<pubPlace rend="font-size: large">London</pubPlace><lb/>
+<publisher rend="font-size: large">SEELEY, SERVICE &amp; CO. LIMITED</publisher><lb/>
+<pubPlace>38 <hi rend='smallcaps'>Great Russell Street</hi></pubPlace>
+</docImprint>
+
+</titlePage><div rend="page-break-before: always; text-align: center">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgii'/>
+
+<p rend="small">
+Entered at Stationers’ Hall<lb/>
+By SEELEY &amp; CO.
+</p>
+
+<p rend="small"><hi rend='smallcaps'>Copyright by G. P. Putnam’s Sons</hi>, 1887<lb/>
+(For the United States of America).</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgiii'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="Preface"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="Preface"/>
+<head>PREFACE.</head>
+
+<p>
+<q>Count of the Saxon Shore</q> was a title bestowed
+by Maximian (colleague of Diocletian in the
+Empire from 286 to 305 <hi rend='small'>A.D.</hi>) on the officer whose
+task it was to protect the coasts of Britain and Gaul
+from the attacks of the Saxon pirates. It appears
+to have existed down to the abandonment of Britain
+by the Romans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So little is known from history about the last years
+of the Roman occupation that the writer of fiction
+has almost a free hand. In this story a novel, but,
+it is hoped, not an improbable, view is taken of an
+important event—the withdrawal of the legions.
+This is commonly assigned to the year 410, when
+the Emperor Honorius formally withdrew the
+Imperial protection from Britain. But the usurper
+Constantine had actually removed the British army
+two years before; and, as he was busied with the
+conquest of Gaul and Spain for a considerable time
+after, it is not likely that they were ever sent back.
+</p>
+
+<signed rend="text-align: right">A. J. C.</signed>
+<dateline rend="text-align: right">R. P.</dateline>
+
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgiv'/>
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgv'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="Contents"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="Contents"/>
+<head>CONTENTS.</head>
+
+<pgIf output="pdf"><then><divGen type="toc"/></then>
+<else>
+<table rend="tblcolumns: 'r lw(38m) r'">
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="small">CHAP.</hi></cell>
+<cell></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="small">PAGE</hi></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">I.</cell>
+<cell>A BRITISH CÆSAR</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg001">1</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">II.</cell>
+<cell>AN ELECTION</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg013">13</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">III.</cell>
+<cell>A PRIZE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg021">21</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">IV.</cell>
+<cell>THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg032">32</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">V.</cell>
+<cell>CARNA</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg047">47</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">VI.</cell>
+<cell>THE SAXON</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg057">57</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">VII.</cell>
+<cell>A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg070">70</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">VIII.</cell>
+<cell>THE NEWS IN THE CAMP</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg083">83</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">IX.</cell>
+<cell>THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg094">94</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">X.</cell>
+<cell>DANGERS AHEAD</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg107">107</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XI.</cell>
+<cell>THE PRIEST’S DEMAND</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg115">115</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XII.</cell>
+<cell>LOST</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg124">124</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <pb/><anchor id='Pgvi'/><row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XIII.</cell>
+<cell>WHAT DOES IT MEAN?</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg135">135</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XIV.</cell>
+<cell>THE PURSUIT</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg144">144</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XV.</cell>
+<cell>THE PURSUIT (<hi rend='italic'>continued</hi>)</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg152">152</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XVI.</cell>
+<cell>THE GREAT TEMPLE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg164">164</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XVII.</cell>
+<cell>THE BRITISH VILLAGE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg173">173</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XVIII.</cell>
+<cell>THE PICTS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg182">182</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XIX.</cell>
+<cell>THE SIEGE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg194">194</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XX.</cell>
+<cell>CEDRIC IN TROUBLE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg207">207</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXI.</cell>
+<cell>THE ESCAPE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg216">216</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXII.</cell>
+<cell>A VISITOR</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg224">224</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXIII.</cell>
+<cell>THE STRANGER’S STORY</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg234">234</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXIV.</cell>
+<cell>NEWS FROM ITALY</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg245">245</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXV.</cell>
+<cell>CONSULTATION</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg256">256</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXVI.</cell>
+<cell>FAREWELL!</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg266">266</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXVII.</cell>
+<cell>MARTIANUS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg271">271</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXVIII.</cell>
+<cell>A RIVAL</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg281">281</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXIX.</cell>
+<cell>AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg293">293</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XXX.</cell>
+<cell>AT LAST</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg306">306</ref></cell>
+</row>
+</table>
+</else>
+</pgIf>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgvii'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="List of Illustrations"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="List of Illustrations"/>
+<head>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</head>
+
+<pgIf output="pdf"><then><divGen type="fig"/></then>
+<else>
+<table rend="tblcolumns: 'lw(45m) r'">
+  <row>
+<cell>THE BURNING OF THE VILLA</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="frontis"><hi rend='italic'>Frontispiece</hi></ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="small">PAGE</hi></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CONSTANTINE ELECTED EMPEROR</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig018">18</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>THE <hi rend='italic'>PANTHER</hi> AND THE SAXON PIRATES</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig028">28</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CEDRIC AT THE FORGE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig058">58</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>JAVELIN THROWING</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig078">78</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig104">104</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>BRITISH CONSPIRATORS </cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig112">112</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>THE CAPTURE OF CARNA</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig128">128</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>THE SACRIFICE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig166">166</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CEDRIC AND THE PICT</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig196">196</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CEDRIC’S FURY</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig212">212</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CEDRIC’S ESCAPE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig222">222</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CLAUDIAN’S TALE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig234">234</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>THE COUNT RECEIVING THE LETTER OF HONORIUS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig252">252</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CARNA AND MARTIANUS</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig276">276</ref></cell>
+</row>
+  <row>
+<cell>CARNA ON THE HILLSIDE</cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="fig304">304</ref></cell>
+</row>
+</table>
+</else>
+</pgIf>
+
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgviii'/>
+  
+</div>  
+</front>
+<body rend="page-break-before: right">
+  <pb n='1'/><anchor id='Pg001'/>
+  
+<p rend="text-align: center; font-size: xx-large; italic">THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE.</p>
+  <div type="chapter" n="1">
+    <index index="toc" level1="I. A British Cæsar"/>
+    <index index="pdf" level1="I. A British Caesar"/>
+
+<head>CHAPTER I.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">A BRITISH CÆSAR.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+  <q>Hail! Cæsar Emperor, the starving salute thee!</q><note place="foot">A reference to the well-known salutation of the gladiators
+    as they passed the Emperor in his seat at the Public Games.
+    <q>Ave Cæsar Imperator! Morituri te salutant.</q> <hi rend='italic'>Hail! Cæsar
+      Emperor, the doomed to death salute thee.</hi></note>
+and the speaker made a military salute to a silver
+coin, evidently brand-new from the mint (which did
+not seem, by the way, to turn out very good work),
+and bearing the superscription, <q>Gratianus Cæsar
+Imperator Felicissimus.</q> He was a soldier of middle
+age, whose jovial face did not show any sign of the
+fate which he professed to have so narrowly escaped,
+and formed one of a group which was lounging about
+the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Quæstorium</foreign>, or, as we may put it, the paymaster’s
+  office of the camp at the head of the Great Harbour.<note place="foot">Now known all over the world as Portsmouth Harbour.</note>
+<pb n='2'/><anchor id='Pg002'/>A very curious medley of nationalities was that group.
+There were Gauls; there were Germans from the
+Rhine bank, some of them of the pure Teuton type,
+with fair complexions, bright blue eyes, and reddish
+golden hair, and remarkably tall of stature, others
+showing an admixture of the Celtic blood of their
+Gallic neighbours in their dark hair and hazel eyes;
+there were swarthy Spaniards, fierce-looking men
+from the Eastern Adriatic, showing some signs of
+Greek parentage in their regular features and graceful
+figures; there were two or three who seemed to
+have an admixture of Asian or even African blood in
+them; it might be said, in fact, there were representatives
+of every province of the Empire, Italy only
+excepted. They had been just receiving their pay,
+long in arrear, and now considerably short of the
+proper amount, and containing not a few coins which
+the receivers seemed to think of doubtful value.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let me look at his Imperial Majesty,</q> said
+another speaker; and he scanned the features of the
+new Cæsar—features never very dignified, and certainly
+not flattered by the rude coinage—with something
+like contempt. <q>Well, he does not look
+exactly as a Cæsar should; but what does it matter?
+This will go down with Rufus at the wine-shop and
+Priscus the sausage-seller, as well as the head of the
+great Augustus himself.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> said a third speaker, picking out from
+<pb n='3'/><anchor id='Pg003'/>a handful of silver a coin which bore the head of
+Theodosius, <q>this was an Emperor worth fighting
+under. I made my first campaign with him against
+Maximus, another British Cæsar, by the way; and
+he was every inch a soldier. If his son were like
+him<note place="foot">Honorius and Arcadius, who ruled over the Western and
+  Eastern Empires respectively, were the weak sons of the
+  vigorous Theodosius.</note> things would be smoother than they are.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do you think,</q> said the second speaker, after
+first throwing a cautious glance to see whether any
+officer of rank was in hearing—<q>do you think we
+have made a change for the better from Marcus?<note place="foot">Marcus was the first of three usurpers successively saluted
+  Emperor by the legions of Britain.</note>
+He at all events used to be more liberal with his
+money than his present majesty. You remember he
+gave us ten silver pieces each. Now we don’t even
+get our proper pay.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Marcus, my dear fellow,</q> said the other speaker,
+<q>had a full military chest to draw upon, and it was
+not difficult to be generous. Gratianus has to squeeze
+every denarius out of the citizens. I heard them
+say, when the money came into the camp yesterday,
+that it was a loan from the Londinium merchants.
+I wonder what interest they will get, and when they
+will see the principal again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Hang the fat rascals!</q> said the other. <q>Why
+<pb n='4'/><anchor id='Pg004'/>should they sleep soft, and eat and drink the best of
+everything, while we poor soldiers, who keep them
+and their money-bags safe, have to go bare and
+hungry?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Come, come, comrades,</q> interrupted the first
+soldier who had spoken; <q>no more grumbling, or
+some of us will find the centurion after us with his
+vine-sticks.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The group broke up, most of them making the
+best of their way to spend some of their unaccustomed
+riches at the wine-shop, a place from which they had
+lately kept an enforced absence. Three or four of
+the number, however, who seemed, from a sign that
+passed between them, to have some secret understanding,
+remained in close conversation—a conversation
+which they carried on in undertones, and
+which they adjourned to one of the tents to finish
+without risk of being disturbed or overheard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The camp in which our story opens was a
+square enclosure, measuring some five hundred
+yards each way, and surrounded by a massive
+wall, not less than four feet in thickness, in
+the construction of which stone, brick, and tile
+had, in Roman fashion, been used together.
+The defences were completed by strong towers
+of a rounded shape, which had been erected at
+frequent intervals. The camp had, as usual, its
+four gates. That which opened upon the sea—for
+<pb n='5'/><anchor id='Pg005'/>the sea washed the southern front—was famous in
+military tradition as the gate by which the second
+legion had embarked to take part in the Jewish War
+and the famous siege of Jerusalem. Vespasian,
+who had begun in Britain the great career which
+ended in the throne, had experienced its valour
+and discipline in more than one campaign,<note place="foot">Vespasian, appointed by Claudius in <hi rend='small'>A.D.</hi> 52 to the command
+  of the second legion, had made extensive conquests in Britain
+  adding, among other places, the Isle of Wight (Vectis) to the
+  Empire.</note> and had
+paid it the high compliment of making a special
+request for its services when he was appointed to
+conduct what threatened to be a formidable war.
+This glorious recollection was proudly cherished in
+the camp, though more than three centuries had
+passed, changing as they went the aspect of the
+camp, till it looked at least as much like a town as
+a military post. The troops were housed in huts
+stoutly built of timber, which a visitor would have
+found comfortably furnished by a long succession of
+occupants. The quarters of the tribune and higher
+centurions were commodious dwellings of brick; and
+the headquarters of the legate, or commanding
+officer, with its handsome chambers, its baths, and
+tesselated pavements, might well have been a mansion
+at Rome. There was a street of regular shape, in
+which provisions, clothes, and even ornaments could
+<pb n='6'/><anchor id='Pg006'/>be bought. Roman discipline, though somewhat
+relaxed, did not indeed permit the dealers to remain
+within the fortifications at night, but the shops were
+tenanted by day, and did a thriving business, not
+only with the soldiers, but with the Britons of the
+neighbourhood, who found the camp a convenient
+resort, where they could market to advantage, besides
+gossiping to their hearts’ content. The relations
+between the soldiers and their native neighbours
+were indeed friendly in the extreme. The legion had
+had its headquarters in the camp of the Great
+Harbour for many generations, though it had occasionally
+gone on foreign service. Lately, too, the
+policy which had recruited the British legion with
+soldiers from the Continent, had been relaxed, partly
+from carelessness, partly because it was necessary to
+fill up the ranks as could best be done, and there was
+but little choice of men. Thus service became very
+much an inheritance. The soldiers married British
+women, and their children, growing up, became
+soldiers in turn. Many recruits still came from Gaul,
+Spain, and the mouth of the Rhine, and elsewhere,
+but quite as many of the troops were by this time,
+in part or in whole, British.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another change which the three centuries and a
+half since Vespasian’s time had brought about was in
+religion. The temple of Mars, which had stood near
+the headquarters, and where the legate had been
+<pb n='7'/><anchor id='Pg007'/>accustomed to take the auspices,<note place="foot">The observation of omens, or signs, supposed to indicate the
+future, was one of the duties of a commanding officer.</note> was now a Christian
+Church, duly served by a priest of British birth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About a couple of hours later in the day a shout of
+<q>The Emperor! the Emperor!</q> was raised in the
+camp, and the soldiers, flocking out from the mess-tents
+in which most of them were sitting, lined in a
+dense throng the avenue which led from the chief
+gate to headquarters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gratianus, who was followed by a few officers of
+superior rank and a small escort of cavalry, rode
+slowly between the lines of soldiers. His reception
+was not as hearty as he had expected to find. He
+had, as the soldiers had hinted, made vast exertions to
+raise a sum of money in Londinium—then, as now,
+the wealthiest municipality in the island. Himself a
+native of the place, and connected with some of its
+richest citizens, he had probably got together more
+than any one else would have done in like circumstances.
+But all his persuasions and promises, even
+his offer of twenty per cent. interest, had not been
+able to extract from the Londinium burghers the full
+sum that was required; and the soldiers, who the
+day before would have loudly proclaimed that they
+would be thankful for the smallest instalment, were
+now almost furious because they had not been paid
+in full. A few shouts of <q>Hail, Cæsar! Hail,
+<pb n='8'/><anchor id='Pg008'/>Gratianus! Hail, Britannicus!</q> greeted him on the
+road to his quarters; but these came from the front
+lines only, and chiefly from the centurions and
+deputy-centurions, while the great body of the
+soldiers maintained an ominous silence, sometimes
+broken by a sullen murmur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gratianus was not a man fitted to deal with sudden
+emergencies. He was rash and he was ambitious,
+but he wanted steadfast courage, and he was
+hampered by scruples of which an usurper must
+rid himself at once if he hopes to keep himself safe
+in his seat. He might have appealed frankly to the
+soldiers—asked them what it was they complained
+of, and taken them frankly into his confidence; or
+he might have overawed them by an example of
+severity, fixing on some single act of insubordination
+or insolence, and sending the offender to instant
+execution. He was not bold enough for either
+course, and the opportunity passed, as quickly as
+opportunities do in such times, hopelessly out of his
+reach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The temper of the soldiers grew more excited and
+dangerous as the day went on. For many weeks
+past want of money had kept them sober against
+their will, and now that the long-expected pay-day
+had come they crowded the wine-shops inside and
+outside the camp, and drank almost as wildly as an
+Australian shepherd when he comes down to the town
+<pb n='9'/><anchor id='Pg009'/>after a six months’ solitude. As anything can set
+highly combustible materials on fire, so the most
+trivial and meaningless incident will turn a tipsy
+mob into a crowd of bloodthirsty madmen. Just
+before sunset a messenger entered the camp bringing
+a despatch from one of the outlying forts. One of
+those prodigious lies which seem always ready to
+start into existence when they are wanted for mischief
+at once ran like wild-fire through the camp.
+Gratianus was bringing together troops from other
+parts of the province, and was going to disarm and
+decimate the garrison of the Great Camp. The unfortunate
+messenger was seized before he could make
+his way to headquarters, seriously injured, and
+robbed of the despatch which he was carrying. Some
+of the centurions ventured to interfere and endeavour
+to put down the tumult. Two or three who were
+popular with the men were good-humouredly disarmed;
+others, who were thought too rigorous in
+discipline, were roughly handled and thrown into
+the military prison; one, who had earned for himself
+the nick-name of <q>Old Hand me the other,</q><note place="foot">When one of the vine-sticks used in administering corporal
+punishment to the Roman soldiers was broken on the culprit’s
+back, he would at once call for another. A milder disciplinarian
+would probably consider that when the stick was broken the
+punishment might end.</note> was
+killed on the spot. The furious crowd then rushed
+to headquarters, where Gratianus was entertaining
+<pb n='10'/><anchor id='Pg010'/>a company of officers of high rank, and clamoured
+that they must see the Emperor. He came out and
+mounted the hustings, which stood near the front of
+the buildings, and from which it was usual to address
+gatherings of the soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment the men, not altogether lost to the
+sense of discipline, were hushed into silence and
+order by the sight of the Emperor as he stood on the
+platform in his Imperial purple, his figure thrown
+into bold relief by the torches which his attendants
+held behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What do you want, my children?</q> he said; but
+there was a tremble in his voice which put fresh
+courage into the failing hearts of the mutineers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Give us our pay, give us our arrears!</q> answered
+a soldier in one of the back rows, emboldened to
+speak by finding himself out of sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cry was taken up by the whole multitude.
+<q>Our pay! Our pay!</q> was shouted from thousands
+of throats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gratianus stood perplexed and irresolute, visibly
+cowering before the storm. At this moment one of
+the tribunes stepped forward and whispered in his
+ear. What he said was this: <q>Say to them, <q>Follow
+me, and I will give you all you ask and more.</q></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a happy suggestion, one of the vague promises
+that commit to nothing, and if the unlucky usurper
+could have given it with confidence, with an air that
+<pb n='11'/><anchor id='Pg011'/>gave it a meaning, he might have been saved, at least
+for a time. But his nerve, his presence of mind was
+hopelessly lost. <q>Follow me—where? Whither am
+I to lead them?</q> he asked, in a hurried, agitated
+whisper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His adviser shrugged his shoulders and was silent.
+He saw that he was not comprehended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gratianus continued to stand silent and irresolute,
+with his helpless, despairing gaze fixed upon the
+crowd. Then came a great surging movement from
+the back of the crowd, and the front ranks were
+almost forced up the steps of the platform. The
+unlucky prince turned as if to flee. The movement
+sealed his fate. A stone hurled from the back of the
+crowd struck him on the side of the face. Half
+stunned by the blow, he leaned against one of the
+attendants, and the blood could be seen pouring
+down his face, pale with terror, and looking ghastly
+in the flaming torchlight. The next moment the
+attendant flung down his torch and fled—an example
+followed by all his companions. Then all was in
+darkness; and it only wanted darkness to make a
+score of hands busy in the deed of blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Gratianus lay prostrate on the ground the first
+blow was aimed by a brother of his predecessor,
+Marcus, who had been quietly waiting for an opportunity
+of vengeance. In another minute he had
+ceased to live. His head was severed from the body
+<pb n='12'/><anchor id='Pg012'/>and fixed on the top of a pike. One of the murderers
+seized a smouldering torch, and, blowing it into
+flame, held it up while another exhibited the bleeding
+head, and cried, <q>The tyrant has his deserts!</q> But
+by this time the mad rage of the crowd had subsided.
+The horror of the deed had sobered them. Many
+began to remember little acts of kindness which the
+murdered man had done them, and the feeling of
+wrong was lost in a revulsion of pity. In a few
+moments more the crowd was scattered. Silent and
+remorseful the men went to their quarters, and
+the camp was quiet again. But another British
+Cæsar had gone the way of a long line of unlucky
+predecessors.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="2" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='13'/><anchor id='Pg013'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="II. An Election"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="II. An Election"/>
+<head>CHAPTER II.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">AN ELECTION.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The camp next day was covered with gloom. The
+soldiers moved silent and with downcast faces along
+the avenues, or discharged in a mechanical way their
+routine duties. The guards were turned out, the
+sentries relieved, and the general order of service
+maintained without any action on the part of
+the officers—at least of those who held superior
+rank. These remained in the seclusion of their
+tents; and it may be said that those who were
+conscious of being popular were almost as much
+alarmed as those who knew that they were disliked.
+If the latter dreaded the vengeance of those whom
+they had offended, the others were scarcely less
+alarmed by the possibility of being elected to the
+perilous dignity which had just proved fatal to
+Gratianus. The country people, whose presence
+generally gave an air of cheerfulness and activity
+to the camp, were too much alarmed to come. The
+<pb n='14'/><anchor id='Pg014'/>trading booths inside the gates were empty, and only
+a very few stalls were occupied in the market, which
+was held every day outside them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The funeral of the late prince was celebrated with
+some pomp. The soldiers attended it in crowds, and
+manifested their grief, and, it would seem, their
+remorse, by groans and tears. They were ready
+even to give proofs of their repentance by the summary
+execution of those who had taken an active part
+in the bloody deed. But here, one of the centurions,
+whose cheerful, genial manners made him an unfailing
+favourite with the men, had the courage
+to check them. <q>No, my men,</q> said he; <q>we
+were all mad last night, and we must all take the
+blame.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two days passed without any incident of importance.
+On the third the question of a successor began
+to be discussed. One of the other garrisons might
+be beforehand with them, and they would have either
+to accept a chief who would owe his best favours to
+others, or risk their lives in an unprofitable struggle
+with him. In the afternoon a general assembly of
+the troops was held, the officers still holding aloof,
+though some of them mixed, <foreign lang="it" rend='italic'>incognito</foreign>, so to speak, in
+the crowd.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course, the first difficulty was to find any one
+who would take the lead. At last the genial centurion,
+who has been mentioned above as a well-<pb n='15'/><anchor id='Pg015'/>established favourite with the soldiers, was pushed
+to the front. His speech was short and sensible.
+<q>Comrades,</q> he said, <q>I doubt whether what I have
+to say will please you; but I shall say it all the
+same. You know that I always speak my mind. We
+have not done very well in the new ways. Let us
+try the old. I propose that we take the oath to
+Honorius Augustus.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A deep murmur of discontent ran through the
+assembly, and showed that the speaker had presumed
+at least as far as was safe on his popularity
+with the troops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Does Decius,</q> cried a burly German from the
+crowd—Decius was the name of the centurion—<q>does
+Decius recommend that we should trust to the
+mercy of Honorius? Very good, perhaps, for himself;
+for the giver of such advice could scarcely fail
+of a reward; but for us it means decimation<note place="foot"><q>Decimation</q> was a common military punishment in cases
+of mutiny or bad behaviour on the field of battle. Every tenth
+man, taken by lot, was put to death.</note> at the
+least.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A shout of applause showed that the speaker had
+expressed the feelings of his audience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I propose that we all take the oath to Decius
+himself!</q> said a Batavian; <q>he is a brave man and
+an honest, and what do we want more?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The good Decius had heard undismayed the angry
+<pb n='16'/><anchor id='Pg016'/>disapproval which his loyal proposal had called
+forth; but the mention of his name as a possible
+candidate for the throne overwhelmed him with
+terror. His jovial face grew pale as death; the
+sweat stood in large drops upon his forehead; he
+trembled as he had never trembled in the face of an
+enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Comrades,</q> he stammered, <q>what have I done
+that you should treat me thus? If I have offended
+or injured you, kill me, but not this.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More than half possessed by a spirit of mischief,
+the assembly answered this piteous appeal by continuous
+shouts of <q>Long live the Emperor Decius!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The good man grew desperate. He drew his
+sword from the scabbard, and pointed it at his own
+heart. <q>At least,</q> he cried, <q>you can’t forbid me
+this escape.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bystanders wrested the weapon from him;
+but the joke had gone far enough, and the man was
+too genuinely popular for the soldiers to allow him to
+be tormented beyond endurance. A voice from the
+crowd shouted, <q>Long live the Centurion Decius!</q>
+to which another answered, <q>Long live Decius the
+subject!</q> and the worthy man felt that the danger
+was over.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A number of candidates, most of whom were probably
+as little desirous of the honour as Decius, were
+now proposed in succession.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='17'/><anchor id='Pg017'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>I name the Tribune Manilius,</q> said one of the
+soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The name was received with a shout of laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let him learn first to be Emperor at home!</q> cried
+a voice from the back of the assembly, a sally which
+had considerable success, as his wife was a well-known
+termagant, and his two sons the most frequent
+inmates of the military prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I name the Centurion Pisinna.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Very good, if he does not pledge the purple,</q> for
+Pisinna was notoriously impecunious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I name the Tribune Cetronius.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Very good as Emperor of the baggage-guard.</q>
+Cetronius had, to say the least, no high reputation
+for personal courage, and was supposed to prefer the
+least exposed parts on the field.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A number of other names were mentioned only to
+be dismissed with more or less contumely. Tired of
+this sport—for it really was nothing more—the crowd
+cried out for a speech from a well-known orator of
+the camp, whose fluency, not unmixed with shrewdness
+and humour, had gained him a considerable
+reputation among his comrades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Comrades,</q> he began, <q>if you have not yet found
+a candidate worthy of your suffrages, it is not because
+such do not exist among you. Can it be believed that
+Britain is less worthy to produce the Emperor than
+Gaul, or Spain, or Thrace, or even the effeminate
+<pb n='18'/><anchor id='Pg018'/>Syria? Was it not from Britain that there came forth
+the greatest of the successors of Augustus, the Second
+Romulus, Flavius Aurelius Constantinus?</q><note place="foot">It would seem that the myth which made the Empress
+Helena, the mother of Constantine, into a British princess, had
+already grown up. She was, in fact, the daughter of a tavern-keeper,
+and in no way connected with Britain.</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The orator was not permitted to proceed any
+further. The name Constantinus ran like an electric
+shock through the whole assembly, and a thousand
+voices took up the cry, <q>Long live Constantinus,
+Emperor Augustus!</q> while all eyes were turned to
+one of the back rows of the meeting, where a soldier
+who happened to bear that name was standing.
+Some of his comrades caught him by the arm, hurried
+him to the front, and from thence on to the
+hustings. He was greeted with a perfect uproar of
+applause, partly, of course, ironical, but partly the
+expression of a genuine feeling that the right man
+had been found, and found by some sort of Divine
+assistance. The soldiers were, as has been said, a
+strange medley of men, scarcely able to understand
+each other, and alike only in being savage, ignorant,
+and superstitious. They had been unlucky in choosing
+for themselves, and now it might be well to have
+the choice made for them. And at least the new man
+had a name which all of them knew and reverenced,
+as far as they reverenced anything.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Constantine elected Emperor.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig018"/><figure url="images/i_029.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Constantine elected Emperor"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Constantine elected Emperor.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Constantine elected Emperor</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n='19'/><anchor id='Pg019'/>
+<p>
+Whether he had anything but a name might have
+seemed perhaps somewhat doubtful. He had reached
+middle age, for he had two sons already grown up,
+but had never risen above the rank of a private soldier.
+It might be said, perhaps, that he had shown
+some ability in thus avoiding promotion—not always
+a desirable thing in troublous times; but there was
+the fact that he was nearly fifty years of age, and was
+not even a deputy-centurion. On the other hand, he
+was a respectable man, ignorant indeed, for, like most
+of his comrades, he could neither read nor write, but
+with a certain practical shrewdness, so good-humoured
+that he had never made an enemy, known
+to be remarkably brave, a great athlete in his youth,
+and still of a strength beyond the average.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His sudden and strange elevation did not seem to
+throw him in the least off his balance. He had been
+perfectly content to go without promotion, and now
+he seemed equally content to receive the highest promotion
+of all. He stood calmly facing the excited
+mob, as unmoved as if he had been a private soldier
+on the parade ground. A slight flush, indeed, might
+have been seen <anchor id="corr019"/><corr sic="tomount">to mount</corr> to his face when the cloak
+of imperial purple was thrown over his shoulders,
+and the peaked diadem put upon his head. He must
+have been less than man not to have felt some thrill
+either of fear or pride at the touch of what had brought
+two of his comrades to their graves within the space
+<pb n='20'/><anchor id='Pg020'/>of less than half a year; but he showed no other
+sign of emotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The officers, seeing the turn things had taken, had
+now come to the front, and the senior tribune, taking
+the new Emperor by the hand, led him to the edge of
+the hustings, and said, <q>Comrades, I present to you
+Aurelius Constantinus, chosen by the providence of
+God and the choice of the army to be Emperor of
+Britain and the West. The Blessed and Undivided
+Trinity order it for the best.</q> A ringing shout of
+approval went up in response. The tribunes then
+took the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor in
+person. These again administered it to the centurions,
+and the centurions swore in great batches of
+the soldiers. The new-made prince meanwhile stood
+unmoved, it might almost be said insensible, so
+strange was his composure in the face of his sudden
+elevation. All that he said—the result, it seemed, of
+a whisper from one of his sons—were a few words,
+which, however, had all the success of a most eloquent
+oration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Comrades, I promise you a donative<note place="foot">A <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>donative</foreign> was a distribution of money made to the soldiers
+on such occasions as the accession of an Emperor.</note> within the
+space of a month.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The assembly broke up in great good-humour, and
+the newly-made Emperor, attended by the officers,
+went to take possession of headquarters.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="3" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='21'/><anchor id='Pg021'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="III. A Prize"/><index index="pdf" level1="III. A Prize"/>
+<head>CHAPTER III.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">A PRIZE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+It was a bright morning some three weeks after the
+occurrences related in the last chapter, when a
+squadron of four Roman galleys swept round the
+point which is now known as the South Foreland.
+The leader of the four, all of which, indeed, lay so
+close together as to be within easy hailing distance,
+bore on its mainmast the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Labarum</foreign>, or Imperial
+standard, showing on a ground of purple a cross, a
+crown, and the sacred initials, all wrought in gold.
+It was the flagship, so to speak, of the great Count
+himself, one of the most important lieutenants of the
+Empire, whose task it was to guard the shores of
+Britain and Northern Gaul from the pirate swarms
+that issued from the harbours of the North Sea and
+the Baltic. The Count himself was on board, coming
+south from his villa on the eastern shore—for the
+stations of which he had the charge extended as far
+as the Wash—to his winter residence in the sunny
+island of Vectis.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='22'/><anchor id='Pg022'/>
+
+<p>
+The Count was a tall man of middle age, and wore
+over his tunic a military cloak reaching to the hips,
+and clasped at the neck with a handsome device in
+gold, representing a hunting-dog with his teeth fixed
+in a stag. His head was covered with a broad-brimmed
+hat of felt. The only weapon that he
+carried was a short sword, which, with its plain hilt
+and leather scabbard, was evidently meant for use
+rather than show. His whole appearance and bearing,
+indeed, were those of a man of action and energy.
+His eyes were bright and piercing; his nose showed,
+strongly pronounced, the curve which has always
+been associated with the ability to command; the
+contour of his chin and lips, as far as could be seen
+through a short curling beard and moustache, worn
+as a prudent defence against the climate, betokened
+firmness. Still, the expression of the face was not
+unkindly. As a great writer says of one whom
+Britain had had good reason in earlier days both to
+fear and to love, <q>one would easily believe him to
+be a good man, and willingly believe him to be great.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the time when our story opens he was standing
+in conversation with the helmsman, a weather-beaten
+old sailor, whose dark Southern complexion had been
+deepened by the sun and winds of more than fifty
+years of service into an almost African hue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The wind will hardly serve us as well as it has,</q>
+said the Count, as his practised eye, familiar with
+<pb n='23'/><anchor id='Pg023'/>every yard of the coast, perceived that they were
+well abreast of the extreme southern point of the
+coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No, my lord,</q> said the old man, <q>we shall have
+to take as long a tack as we can to the south. There
+is a deal of west in the wind—more, I think, than there
+was an hour since. Castor and Pollux—I beg your
+lordship’s pardon, the blessed Saints—defend us from
+anything like a westerly gale.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah! old croaker,</q> replied the Count, with a
+laugh, <q>I verily believe that you will be half disappointed
+if we get to our journey’s end without some
+<anchor id="corr023"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">mishap.</corr></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Good words, good words, my lord,</q> said the old
+man, hastily crossing himself, while he muttered
+something, which, if it could have been overheard,
+would have been scarcely suitable to that act of
+devotion. <q rend="post: none">Heaven bring us safe to our journey’s
+end! Of course it is your lordship’s business to give
+orders, and ours to go to the bottom, if it is to be so.
+But I must say, saving your presence, that it is
+against all rules of a sailor’s craft as I have known
+it, man and boy, for nigh upon threescore years, to
+be at sea near about a month after the autumn
+equinox.</q>
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>’Never let your keel be wet,</l>
+<l>When the Pleiades have set;</l>
+<l>Never let your keel be dry,</l>
+<l>When the Crown is in the sky.’</l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='24'/><anchor id='Pg024'/>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="pre: none">That is what my father used to say, and his fathers
+before him, for I do not know how many generations,
+for we have always followed the sea.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Very well for them, perhaps,</q> said the Count,
+<q>in the days when a man would almost as soon go
+into a lion’s den as venture out of sight of land.
+But the world is too busy to let us waste half our
+year on shore.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, yes, I know all about that,</q> answered the
+old man, who was privileged to have the last word
+even with so great a personage as the Count; <q>but
+there is a proverb, <q>Much haste, little speed,</q> and I
+have always found it quite as true by sea as by
+land.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the proper signals had been given to
+the rest of the squadron, and the whole four were
+now heading south, with a point or two to the west,
+the <name type="ship">Panther</name>—for that was the name of the flagship—still
+slightly leading the way, with her consorts in
+close company. In this order they made about twelve
+miles, the wind freshening somewhat as they drew
+further away from the British shore, and, being nearly
+aft, carrying them briskly along.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Fine sailing, fine sailing,</q> said the old helmsman,
+drawn almost in spite of himself into an exclamation
+of delight, as the <name type="ship">Panther</name>, rushing through
+the water with an almost even keel, began to widen
+the gap between herself and her nearest follower.
+<pb n='25'/><anchor id='Pg025'/>The short waves, which just broke in sparkling foam,
+the brilliant sunshine, almost bringing back summer
+with its noonday heat, and the sea with a blue which
+recalled, though but faintly, the deep tint of his
+native Mediterranean, combined to gladden the old
+man’s soul. <q>But we need not put about now,</q> he
+said to himself. <q>If this wind holds we shall fetch
+Lemanis<note place="foot">Lymne, in Kent, now some miles inward, on the edge of
+Romney Marsh.</note> without requiring to tack.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was about to give the necessary orders to trim
+the sails, when he was stopped by a shout from the
+look-out man at the bow, <q>A sail on the starboard
+side!</q> Just within the range of a keen sight, in the
+south-western horizon, the sunlight fell on what was
+evidently a sail. But the distance was too great to
+let even the keenest sight distinguish what kind of
+craft it might be, or which way it was moving. The
+Count, who had gone below for his mid-day meal,
+was of course informed of the news. He came at
+once upon deck, and lost no time in making up his
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>If she is an enemy,</q> he said to the old helmsman,
+<q>she will be eastward bound; though I never
+knew a pirate keep the sea quite so late in the year.
+If she is a friend she will probably be sailing westward,
+or even coming our way—but it does not
+matter which. If she has anything to tell us, we
+<pb n='26'/><anchor id='Pg026'/>shall be sure to hear it sooner or later. But it will
+never do to let a pirate escape if we can help it.
+Any one who is out so late as the middle of October
+must have had good reason for stopping, and can
+hardly fail to be worth catching. Quintus, put her
+right before the wind, and clap on every inch of
+canvas.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The course of the squadron was now changed to
+nearly due south-east. All eyes, of course, were
+bent on the strange craft, and before an hour had
+passed it was evident that the Count had been right
+in his guess. There were four ships; they were long
+and low in the water, of the build which was only
+too well known along the coasts of Gaul and Britain,
+where no river or creek, if it gave as much as three or
+four feet of water, was safe from their attack. In short,
+they were Saxon pirates, and were now moving eastward
+with all the speed that sails and oars could give
+them. The question that every one on board the
+<name type="ship">Panther</name> was putting to himself with intense interest
+was, <q>Shall we be able to intercept them?</q> For
+the present the Count’s ship had the advantage of
+speed, thanks to the wind abaft the beam. But a
+stern chase would be useless. On equal terms the
+pirates were at least as quick as their pursuers.
+The light, too, of the autumn day would soon fail,
+and with the light every chance of success would
+be gone.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='27'/><anchor id='Pg027'/>
+
+<p>
+For a time it seemed as if the escape of the pirate
+was certain. <q>Curse the scoundrels!</q> cried the
+Count, as he paced impatiently up and down the
+after deck. <q>If it would only come on to blow in
+real earnest we should have them. Anyhow, I
+would sooner that we should all founder together
+than that they should get off scot free.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <name type="ship">Panther</name>, which had left her consorts about a
+mile in the rear, was now near enough for her crew
+to see distinctly the outlines of the pirate ships, to
+mark the glitter of the shields that were ranged
+along the gunwales, and to catch the rhythmic rise
+and fall of the long sweeping oars. The Saxons
+were evidently straining every nerve to make good
+their escape, and it seemed scarcely possible that
+they could fail. Then came a turn of fortune—the
+very thing, in fact, that the Count had prayed for.
+For a time—only a very few moments—the wind
+freshened to something like the force of a gale. The
+masts of the <name type="ship">Panther</name> were strained to the utmost of
+their strength; they groaned and bent like whips
+under the sudden pressure on the canvas, but the
+seasoned timber stood the sudden call upon it
+bravely. How the Count blessed himself that he
+had never passed over a piece of bad workmanship
+or bad material! The good ship took a wild plunge
+forward, but nothing gave way. But the last of the
+four pirates was not so fortunate. She had one tall
+<pb n='28'/><anchor id='Pg028'/>mast, carrying a fore-and-aft sail, so large as to be
+quite out of proportion to her size. The wind
+struck her nearly sideways, and she heeled over till
+her keel could almost be seen. For a moment it
+was doubtful whether she would not capsize. Then
+the mast gave. The vessel righted at once, but only
+to lie utterly helpless on the water, with all her
+starboard oars hopelessly entangled with the canvas
+and rigging. What the Count would have done had
+his ship been entirely in hand it is difficult to say.
+No speedier or more effective way of dealing with
+the enemy than running her down could have been
+practised. The <name type="ship">Panther</name> had three or four times the
+tonnage of her adversary, whose lightness and low
+bulwarks made her easily accessible to this kind of
+attack. Nor would the pirates have a chance of
+showing the desperate valour which the Roman
+boarding-parties had learnt to respect and almost to
+fear. The only argument on the other side would
+have been that prisoners and booty would probably
+be lost. But, as a matter of fact, the Count had no
+opportunity of weighing the <hi rend='italic'>pros</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>cons</hi> in the
+matter. The <name type="ship">Panther</name>, driving as she was straight
+before the wind, was practically unmanageable. She
+struck the pirate craft with a tremendous crash
+amidships, and cut her almost literally in half. One
+blow, and one only, did the pirates strike at their
+conquerors. When escape had become manifestly
+<pb n='29'/><anchor id='Pg029'/>impossible by the fall of the mast, the Saxon warriors
+had dropped their oars, and seizing their bows had
+discharged a volley of arrows against the Roman
+ship. The hurry and confusion of the moment did
+not favour accurate aim, and most of the missiles
+flew wide of the mark; but one seemed to have been
+destined to fulfil the helmsman’s expectations of evil
+to come. It struck the old man on the left side,
+inflicting a fatal wound. In the first confusion of the
+shock the incident was not noticed, for the brave
+fellow stuck gallantly to the tiller, propping himself
+up against it while he kept the <name type="ship">Panther</name> steadily
+before the wind. In fact, loss of blood had brought
+him nearly to his end before it was even known that
+he had been wounded. Then, in a moment, the
+Count was at his side.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Panther and the Saxon Pirate.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig028"/><figure url="images/i_041.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="The Panther and the Saxon Pirate"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Panther and the Saxon Pirate.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Panther and the Saxon Pirate</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<q>Carry him to my own cabin,</q> he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old man raised his hand in a gesture that
+seemed to refuse the service which half a dozen stout
+sailors were at once ready to render him. <q>Nay,</q>
+said he, <q>it is idle; this arrow has sped me. But
+let me die here, where I can see the waves and the
+sky. I have known them, man and boy, threescore
+years—aye, and more, for my father would take me on
+his ship when I was a tiny chap of three feet high.
+Nay, no cabin for me; ’tis almost as bad as dying
+in one’s bed.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His voice grew feeble. The Count stopped, and
+<pb n='30'/><anchor id='Pg030'/>asked whether there was anything that he could do
+for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Nay,</q> said the old man, <q>nothing; I have
+neither chick nor child. ’Tis all as well as I could
+have wished. But mark, my lord, I was right about
+sailing in October. Any one that knows the sea
+would be sure that trouble must come of it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next moment he was past speaking or hearing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was his privilege, we must remember, to have
+the last word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <name type="ship">Panther</name> meanwhile had been brought to the
+wind. Her consorts, too, had come up, and a search
+was made for any survivors of the encounter that
+might be still afloat. Some had been killed outright
+by the concussion; others had been so hurt that they
+could make no effort to save themselves. They
+would not, however, have made it if they could.
+Those that had escaped uninjured evidently preferred
+drowning to a Roman prison. With grim resolution
+they straightened their arms to their sides and went
+down. Only two survivors were picked up. These,
+evidently twins from their close resemblance to each
+other, were found clinging to a fragment of timber.
+One had been grievously hurt, the other had not
+suffered any injury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wounded man, who had received an almost
+fatal blow upon the head, had lost the power to
+move, and was holding on to life more than half
+un<pb n='31'/><anchor id='Pg031'/>consciously; and his brother, moved by that passionate
+love so often found between twins, had
+sacrificed himself—that is, the honour which he
+counted dearer than life—to save him. Had he had
+only himself to think of, he would have been the first
+to go down a free man to the bottom of the sea; but
+his brother was almost helpless, and he could not
+leave him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When it was evident that all further search would
+be useless, the squadron set their sails for Lemanis,
+which, thanks to a further change in the wind to the
+northward, they were able to reach before midnight.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="4" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='32'/><anchor id='Pg032'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="IV. The Villa in the Island"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="IV. The Villa in the Island"/>
+<head>CHAPTER IV.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+Count Ælius was a man of the best Roman type,
+a man of <q>primitive virtue,</q> as the classical writers
+would have put it, though this virtue had been
+softened, refined, and purified by civilizing and instructing
+influences, of which the old Roman heroes—the
+Fabiuses, the Catos, the Scipios—had known
+nothing. In the antiquity of his lineage there was
+scarcely a man in the Empire who could pretend
+to compare with him. For the most part, the old
+houses from which had come the Consuls and Dictators
+of the Republic had died out. The old nobility
+had gone, and the new nobility had followed it.
+The great name of Fabius, saved by an accident from
+extinction, when its three hundred gallant sons,
+each of them <q>fit to command an army,</q> perished
+in one day by the craft of the Etruscan foe, had
+passed away. There was no living representative
+of the conqueror of Carthage, or of the conqueror
+<pb n='33'/><anchor id='Pg033'/>of Corinth. Even the <foreign lang="fr" rend='italic'>parvenus</foreign> of the Empire had in
+their turn disappeared. The generals and senators,
+both of the old Rome and of the new,<note place="foot">Constantinople.</note> bore
+names which would have sounded strange and
+barbarous to Cicero or even to Tacitus. An Ælius
+then, one who claimed to trace his descent to a time
+even earlier than the legendary age, to a race which
+was domiciled in Italy long before even Æneas had
+brought thither the gods of Troy, was an almost
+singular phenomenon in a generation of new men.
+And nothing less than this was the pedigree claimed
+by the Ælii. Their remotest ancestor—the Count
+never could hear an allusion to it without a smile—was
+the famous cannibal king who ruled over the
+<anchor id="corr033"/><corr sic="Lasetrygones">Laestrygones</corr>, a tribe of Western Italy,<note place="foot">His capital is said to have been near the ancient Caieta and
+modern Gaieta.</note> and from
+whose jaws the prudent Ulysses so narrowly escaped.
+The pride of ancient descent is not particular as
+to the character of a progenitor, so he be sufficiently
+remote; and one branch of the Ælii had
+always delighted to recall by their surname their
+connection with this man-eating hero. But the race
+had not lacked glories of its own in historical times.
+They had had soldiers, statesmen, and men of letters
+among them. One of them had been made immortal
+by the friendship of Horace. Another, an adopted
+<pb n='034'/><anchor id='Pg034'/>son, it was true, better known by the famous name
+of Sejanus, had nearly made himself master of the
+throne of the Cæsars. About a hundred years later
+this crowning glory of human ambition had fallen to
+it in the person of Hadrian, third in the list of the
+<q>five good Emperors</q>;<note place="foot">The <q>five</q> are, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius,
+and Marcus Aurelius, whose united reigns extended from 97 to
+180 <hi rend='small'>A.D.</hi>—a period of peace and prosperity such as Rome never
+enjoyed again.</note> though indeed there were
+purists in the matter of genealogy who stoutly denied
+that this great soldier and scholar had any of the real
+Ælian blood in him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count’s father had held civil office at Carthage,
+and the young Ælius had there, for a short time,
+been a pupil of Aurelius Augustinus, then known
+as an eloquent teacher of rhetoric, afterwards to
+become the most famous doctor of the Western
+Church. But his bent was not for the profession
+of the law, and his father, though disappointed at his
+preference for a soldier’s career, would not stand in
+his way. His first experience of warfare was gained
+on a day of terrible disaster. His father’s influence
+had secured him a position which seemed in every
+way desirable. He was attached to the staff of
+Trajanus, a general of division in the army of the
+Emperor Valens. By great exertions, travelling
+night and day, at the hottest period of the year, the
+<pb n='35'/><anchor id='Pg035'/>young Ælius contrived to report himself to his commander
+on the eve of the great battle of Adrianople.
+He had borne himself with admirable courage and
+self-possession during that terrible day, more disastrous
+to the Roman arms than even Cannæ itself.
+He had helped to carry the wounded Emperor to a
+cottage near the field of battle, and had barely
+escaped with his life, cutting his way with desperate
+resolution through the enemy, when this place of
+refuge was surrounded and burnt by the barbarians.
+After this unfortunate beginning he betook himself
+for a time to the employments of peace, obtaining an
+office under Government at Milan, where he renewed
+his acquaintance with his old teacher, Augustine.
+Then another opening, in what was still his favourite
+profession, presented itself. The young soldier’s
+gallant conduct on the disastrous day of Adrianople
+had not been forgotten by some who had witnessed
+it, and when Stilicho, then the rising general of the
+Empire, was looking about for officers to fill posts
+upon his staff, the name of Ælius was mentioned to
+him. Under Stilicho he served with much distinction,
+and it was on Stilicho’s recommendation
+that he was appointed to the post which, when our
+story opens, he had held for nearly twenty years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His position during this period had been one of
+singular difficulty. The tie between the Empire
+and Britain was very loose. More than once during
+<pb n='36'/><anchor id='Pg036'/>Ælius’ tenure of office it had seemed to be broken
+altogether. Pretender after pretender had risen
+against the central power, and had declared his
+province independent, and himself an Emperor.
+The Count of the Saxon Shore had contrived to
+keep himself neutral, so to speak, during these
+troubles. His own office, that of defending the
+eastern and southern shores of the island against the
+attacks of the Saxon pirates, he had filled with remarkable
+vigilance and skill. And the usurpers had
+been content to leave him undisturbed. His sailors
+were profoundly attached to him, and any attempt
+to interfere with him would have thrown a considerable
+weight into the opposite scale. And he and his
+work were necessary. Whether Britain was subject
+to Rome or independent of it, it was equally important
+that its coasts should not be harried by
+pirates. If Ælius would provide for this—and he
+did provide for it, with an almost unvarying success—he
+might be left alone, and not required to give in his
+allegiance to the new claimant of the throne. This
+allegiance he never did give in. He was always the
+faithful servant of those who appointed him, and,
+whoever might happen to be the temporary master
+of Britain, regularly addressed his despatches and
+reports to the central authority in Italy. On the
+other hand, he did not feel himself bound to take
+direct steps towards asserting that authority in the
+<pb n='37'/><anchor id='Pg037'/>island. He had to keep the pirates in check, and
+that was occupation quite sufficient to keep all his
+energies employed. Thus, as has been said, he
+observed a kind of neutrality, always loyal to the
+Roman Emperor, but willing to be on friendly terms
+with the rebel generals of Britain as long as they
+left him alone, let him do his work of defending the
+coast, and did not make any demands upon him
+which his conscience would not allow him to satisfy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having thus sketched the career of the Count, we
+must now say something about the house, which
+now—it was early in the afternoon of the day following
+the events described in the last chapter—was
+just coming into sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The villa was the Count’s private property, and
+had been purchased by him immediately on his
+arrival in the island, for a reason which will be given
+hereafter. It was a handsome house, and complete
+in its way, with all that was necessary for a comfortable
+residence, but not one of the largest of its kind.
+Indeed, it may be said that what may be called the
+<q>living</q> part of it was unusually small for the
+dwelling of so distinguished a person as the Count.
+It had been found large enough by its previous
+owners, men of moderate means and, it so happened,
+of small families; and the Count, feeling that his
+occupation of it might be terminated at any time,
+had not cared to add to it. Its situation was
+re<pb n='38'/><anchor id='Pg038'/>markably pleasing. Behind it was a sheltering range
+of hills,<note place="foot">The hills that run as far as Arreton and the valley of the
+Medina.</note> keeping off the force of the south-westerly
+winds, and then richly covered with wood. It was
+not too near the sea, the Romans not finding that
+the ceaseless disturbance of rising and falling tides
+was an element of pleasure, though they could not
+get too close to their own tideless Mediterranean;
+but it was within an easy distance of the Haven.<note place="foot">Brading Haven.</note>
+The convenience of this neighbourhood had indeed
+been one of the Count’s reasons for selecting this
+spot. But if the harsh, grating sound of the waves
+upon the shingle did not reach the ears of the
+dwellers in the villa, and the force of the sea winds
+was somewhat broken for them by intervening cliffs,
+they still enjoyed all the freshness and vitality of an
+air that had come across many a league of water.
+The climate, too, was genial, mild without being too
+soft, mostly free from damp, though not exempt from
+occasional mist, seldom troubled by frost or snow,
+and, on the whole, not unlike some of the more
+temperate regions of Italy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The villa, with its belongings, occupied three sides
+of a square, or rather rectangle, and was built nearly
+to the points of the compass. The eastern side of
+the square was open, thus giving a prospect
+sea<pb n='39'/><anchor id='Pg039'/>wards. The western contained the principal living
+rooms. The northern, too, was partly occupied by
+bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, for which there
+was no room in the comparatively small portion
+which had been originally intended for the residence
+of the owner and his family. Some of the workmen
+employed lived in cottages outside the villa enclosure.
+The southern was devoted to storehouses, workshops,
+and all the miscellaneous buildings which
+made a Roman villa, as far as possible, an establishment
+complete in itself. The open space was
+occupied by a pretty garden, which will be more
+particularly described hereafter.<note place="foot">The villa consisted, it will be seen, of the three parts which
+were commonly found in establishments of this kind. These
+were called respectively the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Urbana</foreign>, containing the rooms in
+which the family resided, and including also the garden
+terraces, &amp;c.; the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Rustica</foreign>, occupied by slaves and workmen
+but in this case, as will be seen, partly used for another purpose;
+and the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Fructuaria</foreign>, containing cellars for wine, &amp;c., barns,
+granaries, and storehouses of various kinds.</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eastward front of the villa was occupied for
+the greater part of its length by a colonnade or
+corridor. A low wall of about four feet in height
+separated this from the garden; above the wall it was
+open to the air; but an overhanging roof helped
+greatly to shelter it, while the view into the garden
+was unimpeded. The floor was adorned with a
+handsome tesselated pavement, the principal device
+<pb n='40'/><anchor id='Pg040'/>of which was a representation of the favourite subject
+of Orpheus attracting beasts and birds by his
+lyre. The proprietor from whom the Count had
+purchased the villa had brought it from Italy. He
+was a Christian of artistic tastes, and, like his fellow-believers,
+had delighted to trace in the old myth a
+spiritual meaning, the power of the teaching of
+Christ to subdue to the Divine obedience the savage,
+animal nature of man. He had displaced for it the
+original design, which, indeed, was nothing better
+than a commonplace representation of dancing
+figures which had satisfied the earlier owners. The
+artist had included among the listeners animals,
+some of which, as the monkey, the Thracian minstrel
+could hardly have seen, and, with a certain touch of
+humour, he had adorned the monkey’s head with a
+Phrygian cap, like that which Orpheus himself
+wore, to indicate probably that the monkey is the
+caricature of man. The inner wall was ornamented
+with a bold design of Cæsar’s first landing in
+Britain, worked in fresco. Seats and tables were
+arranged along it at intervals, and the whole corridor
+was thus made to furnish a pleasant promenade in
+winter and a charming resort when the weather was
+warm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the south end of the corridor was the Count’s
+own apartment, or study, as it would be called in a
+modern house. One window looked into the corridor,
+<pb n='41'/><anchor id='Pg041'/>into which a door also opened; another, which was
+built out into the shape of a bow, so as to catch as
+much of the sun as the aspect allowed, looked into
+the garden. Part of it was formed of lattices, which
+admitted of being completely closed when the weather
+required such protection; the rest was glazed with
+glass, which would have seemed rough to the present
+generation, but was quite as good as most people
+were content to have in their houses fifty years ago.
+The pavement was tesselated, and presented various
+designs, a Bacchante, and a pair of gladiators among
+them. These, however, were commonly covered with
+thick woollen rugs, the villa being chiefly used as a
+winter residence. The Count had not forgotten his
+early studies, and some handsome bookcases contained
+his favourite authors, among which were to
+be found the great classic poets of Rome, Tacitus,
+for whom he had a special regard, some writers on
+the military art, Cato and Columella on agriculture,
+and, not least honoured, though some, at least, of
+their contents had but little interest for him—for,
+sincere Christian as he was, he cared little for
+controversy—the numerous treatises of his friend
+and teacher, Augustine. Behind this room was a
+simple furnished bed-chamber, showing in an almost
+bare simplicity the characteristic tastes of a soldier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the other end of the corridor was a door
+leading to the principal chamber in this part of the
+<pb n='042'/><anchor id='Pg042'/>villa. This measured altogether close upon forty feet
+in length, but it was divided, or rather could be divided,
+into two by columns which stood about halfway down
+its longer sides, and between which a curtain could be
+hung. When the chamber was occupied in summer
+it might be used as a whole; in the winter the
+smaller part, which looked out into the garden, could
+be shut off from the rest by drawing the curtain, and
+so made a comfortable room, warmed from below by
+hot air from the furnace, which had been constructed
+at the western end of the northern wing of the villa.
+Much artistic skill had been expended on the pavements
+of the apartment, and the smaller chamber
+was very richly decorated in this way. In the
+middle was a large head of Medusa, and the rest
+was filled with beautifully-worked scenes illustrating
+the pleasures of a pastoral life. It was the custom
+of the Count’s family to use the larger portion of the
+whole chamber as a dining-room, the smaller as a
+ladies’ boudoir. On the rare occasion of some large
+entertainment being given, the whole was thrown
+into one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ladies of the family, of whom we shall hear
+more hereafter, had their own apartments at the
+western end of the north wing, part of which was
+shut off for their occupation and for their immediate
+attendants. A covered way connected this with the
+portion occupied by the Count.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='43'/><anchor id='Pg043'/>
+
+<p>
+It would be needless to describe the rest of the
+villa. It was like the houses of its kind, houses
+which the Romans erected wherever they went in as
+close an imitation as they could make of what they
+were accustomed to at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The garden, however, must not be wholly passed
+over. Spacious and handsome as it was, it in part
+presented a stiff and unnatural appearance, looking,
+in fact, somewhat theatrical, as contrasted with the
+pastoral sunniness of the landscape. A Roman gardener
+had been brought from Rome—one skilled in all
+the arts of his craft. It was he who had terraced the
+slope with so much regularity, had planted stiff box
+hedges—and, above all, it was his taste which led him
+to cut and train box and laburnum shrubs into fantastic
+imitations of other forms. The poor trees were
+forced to abandon their own natural shapes, and to pose
+as vases, geometrical figures, and animals of various
+kinds. There was even a ship of box surrounded
+by a broad channel of water, so that the spectator,
+making large demands on his imagination, might
+imagine that the little mock vessel was moored on a
+still sheet of water. Among the box trees were stone
+fountains badly copied from classic models. But
+these had not remained in their bare crudity. The
+loving British ivy had crept close around them, and
+added a grace which the sculptor had failed to give.
+The Roman gardener would have liked to banish
+<pb n='44'/><anchor id='Pg044'/>this intruder, or to at least train it into the positions
+prescribed by horticultural rules, but he had been
+bidden to let it run at its own sweet will; and so it
+had, and had flourished, well nursed by the soft and
+humid atmosphere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scattered at regular intervals through the green
+were flower-beds stocked with plants, which were
+either native to the island, or had been brought
+hither with great care from the capital. There were
+roses in several varieties, strange-shaped orchids,
+which had been found growing wild at lower levels
+of the island, and adopted into this civilized garden
+to ornament it with their unique beauty. Gay
+geraniums and other flowers made throughout the
+summer bright patches of colour in striking contrast
+to the dark green.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These beds were enclosed by borders. Between
+these enclosures were curiously-cut letters of growing
+box, which perpetuated—at least for the life-time of
+the shrub—the gardener’s own name or that of his
+master, or classic titles, to serve as designations for
+certain portions of the place. In the midst of the
+garden several luxuriant oaks and graceful elms had
+been allowed to retain in their native freedom the
+shapes into which they had been growing for so
+many years. They cast wide shadows, and gave a
+softened aspect to the unnatural shapes of the
+trained growths.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='45'/><anchor id='Pg045'/>
+
+<p>
+Beyond the floral division of the garden was
+another enclosure for pear and apple trees. They
+stood on a green sward, soft as velvet, and of a
+deeper hue than Italian suns permit to the grass on
+which they smile. Here, too, were foreign embellishments.
+The monotony of the uniform rows
+of fruit trees was varied by pyramids of box, and the
+whole orchard was surrounded by a belt of plane
+trees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A circle of oaks had been left at the summit of one
+of the terraces. Thick hedges were planted between
+the trees, making a dense wall, in which openings
+were cut for the view, so that the vista was visible,
+like a picture set in a dark frame. This green room,
+roofed by the sky, was paved with a mosaic of the
+bright coloured chalk from the cliffs at the western
+end of the island, and contained an oblong basin of
+water shaped like a table. The water flowed
+through so gently that the surface always seemed
+at rest, and yet never grew warm. Couches were
+placed at this fountain table, and from time to time
+repasts were served here, certain viands being placed
+in dishes shaped like swans or boats, which floated
+gracefully on the watery surface. The more solid
+meats were placed on the broad marble edges of the
+basin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This sylvan retreat seemed made for a meeting
+of naiads and nereids. In short, the spot was so
+<pb n='46'/><anchor id='Pg046'/>sheltered, the outlook over sea and land both near
+and across the strait so fair, that one could well
+believe even Pliny’s famed Tuscan garden, which
+may have suggested some features of this British
+one, was not more happily placed.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="5" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='47'/><anchor id='Pg047'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="V. Carna"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="V. Carna"/>
+<head>CHAPTER V.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">CARNA.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+When Ælius had come, some eighteen years before
+the beginning of our story, to take up his command
+on the coast of Britain, he had brought with him
+his young wife. This lady, always delicate in
+health, had not long survived her transplantation to
+a northern climate. Six months after her arrival in
+Britain she had died in giving birth to a daughter.
+The child was entrusted to the care of a British
+woman, wife of the sailing master of one of the
+Roman ships, who had reared her together with her
+own daughter. When little Ælia was but a few
+weeks old her foster-mother had become a widow,
+her husband having met with his death in a desperate
+encounter with one of the Saxon cruisers. This
+misfortune had been followed by another, the loss of
+her two elder children, who had been carried off by
+a malarious fever. The widow, thus doubly bereaved,
+had thankfully accepted the Count’s offer that she
+<pb n='48'/><anchor id='Pg048'/>should take the post of mother of the maids in his
+household. Her foster-daughter, a feeble little thing,
+whom she had the greatest difficulty in rearing, was
+as dear to her as was her own child, and the new
+arrangement ensured that she should not be separated
+from her. For ten years she was as happy
+as a woman who had lost so much could hope to be.
+She had the pleasure of seeing her delicate nursling
+pass safely through childhood, and grow into a
+handsome, vigorous girl. Then her own call came;
+and feeling that her earthly work was done, she had
+been glad to meet it. The Count, who was a frequent
+visitor to her deathbed, had no difficulty in promising
+her that the two children should never be separated.
+Indeed he could not have divided the pair even had
+he wished. Every wish of the ten-year-old Ælia
+was as a law to him, and Ælia would have simply
+broken her heart to lose her playmate and sister
+Carna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two friends were curiously unlike in person
+and disposition. Ælia was a Roman of the Romans.
+Her hair was of a shining blue-black hue, and so abundant
+that when unbound it fell almost to her knees.
+Her black eyes, soft and lustrous in repose, and
+shaded with lashes of the very longest, could give an
+almost formidable flash when anything had roused
+her to anger. Her complexion was a rich brown,
+relieved by a slight ruddy tinge; her features regular,
+<pb n='49'/><anchor id='Pg049'/>less delicately carved, indeed, than the Greek type,
+but full of expression, which was tender or fiery,
+according to her mood. Her figure was somewhat
+small, but beautifully formed. If Ælia was unmistakably
+Roman, Carna showed equally clearly one of
+the finest British types. She was tall, overtopping her
+companion by at least a head; her hair, which fell in
+curls about her shoulders, was of a glossy chestnut;
+her eyes of the very deepest blue; her complexion,
+half-way between blonde and brunette, mantled with
+a delicate colour, which deepened, when her emotions
+were touched, into an exquisite blush; her forehead
+was somewhat low, but broad, and with a rare
+promise both of artistic power and of intelligence;
+her nose would have been pronounced by a casual
+observer to be the most faulty feature in her face;
+and it is true that its outline was not perfect. But
+the same observer, after a brief acquaintance, would
+probably have retracted his censure, and owned that
+this feature suited the rest of her face, and would have
+been less charming if it had been more perfect. Ælia
+was impulsive and quick of temper, honest and affectionate,
+but not caring to go below the surface of
+things, and without a particle of imagination. Carna,
+on the other hand, seemed the gentlest of women.
+Those blue eyes of hers were ready to express affection
+and pity; but no one—not even Ælia, who could
+be exceedingly provoking at times—had ever seen a
+<pb n='50'/><anchor id='Pg050'/>flash of anger in them. But her nature had depths
+in it that none suspected to be there; it was richly
+endowed with all the best gifts of her Celtic race.
+She had a world of her own with which the gay
+Roman girl, whom she loved so dearly, and with
+whom she seemed to share all her thoughts, had
+nothing to do. Music touched her soul in a way of
+which Ælia, who could sing very charmingly, and
+play with no little expression on the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>cithara</foreign>, had no
+conception. And though she had never written, or
+even composed, a verse, and possibly would never
+write or compose one, she was a poetess. At present
+all her soul was given to religion, religion full of the
+imagination and enthusiasm which has made saints
+of so many women of her race. The good British
+priest, to whose flock she belonged, a worthy man
+who eked out his scanty income<note place="foot">The British bishops were notoriously poor, and their clergy
+were doubtless still more slenderly provided for.</note> by working a small
+farm, was perplexed by her enthusiasm. She was not
+satisfied with the duties of adorning the little church
+where he ministered, and its humble altar-cloths
+and vestments, by the skill of her nimble fingers,
+of aiding the chants with the rich tones of her beautiful
+voice, of ministering to the sick. She performed
+these, indeed, with devotion, but she demanded more,
+and the good man did not know how to satisfy her.
+In addition to her other gifts Carna had that of being
+<pb n='51'/><anchor id='Pg051'/>a born nurse. It was her first impulse to fly to the help
+of anything—whether it was man, or beast, or bird—that
+was sick or hurt, just as it was Ælia’s impulse,
+though she mastered it at any strong call of duty, to
+avoid the sight of suffering. She had now heard that
+a prisoner had been brought in desperately wounded,
+and she could not rest till she knew whether she
+could do anything for the poor creature’s soul or
+body. Ælia was as scornful as her love for her foster-sister
+allowed her to be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My dearest Carna,</q> she cried, <q>what on earth
+can make you trouble yourself in this fashion about
+this miserable creature? They are the worst plagues
+in this world, these Saxons, and it would be a blessing
+to the world if it were well quit of the whole race
+of them! A set of pagan dogs!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh, sister,</q> said Carna, her eyes brimming with
+tears, <q>that is the worst of it. A pagan, who has
+never heard of the Blessed Lord, and now, they say,
+he is dying! What shall we do for him?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But surely,</q> returned the other, <q>he is no
+worse off than his threescore companions who went
+to the bottom the other day.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>God be good to them,</q> said Carna, <q>but then
+we did not know them, and that seems to make a
+difference. And to think that this poor creature
+should be so near to the way and not find it. But I
+must go and see him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='52'/><anchor id='Pg052'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>It will only tear your poor, tender heart for no
+purpose. You had far better come and talk to
+father.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna was not to be persuaded, but hurried to the
+chamber to which the wounded man had been borne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evident at first sight that the end was not
+far off. The dying Saxon lay stretched on a rude
+pallet. He was a young man, who could scarcely
+have seen as many as twenty summers, for the down
+was hardly to be seen on his upper lip and chin.
+His face, which was curiously fair for one who had
+followed from infancy an outdoor life, was deadly
+pale, a pathetic contrast with the red-gold hair which
+fell in curly profusion about it. His eyes, in which
+the fire was almost quenched, were wide open, and
+fixed with an unchanging gaze upon a figure that
+stood motionless at the foot of the bed. This was
+his brother, who had been permitted by the humanity
+of the Count to be present. They had been exchanging
+a few sentences, but the dying man was
+now too far gone to speak, and the two could only
+look their last farewell to each other. It was a pitiful
+thing to see the twins, so like in feature and form,
+but now so different, the one, prisoner as he was, full
+of life and strength, the other on the very threshold
+of death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the side of the wounded man stood the household
+physician, a venerable-looking slave, who had
+<pb n='53'/><anchor id='Pg053'/>acquired such knowledge of medicine and surgery
+as sufficed for the treatment of the commoner
+ailments and accidents. This case was beyond his
+skill, or indeed the skill of any man. He could do
+nothing but from time to time put a few drops of
+cordial between the sufferer’s lips. Next to the
+physician stood the priest, and his skill, too, seemed to
+be at fault. A messenger, sent by Carna, had warned
+him that a dying man required his ministrations, but
+had added no further particulars, and the worthy
+man, who was busy at the time in littering down his
+cattle, had hastily changed his working dress for his
+priestly habiliments, and had come ready, as he
+thought, to administer the last consolations of the
+Church to a dying Christian. The case utterly perplexed
+him. He had tried the two languages with
+which he was familiar, and found them useless. No
+one had been able to understand a single word of the
+dialogue which had passed between the brothers.
+The dying stranger was as hopelessly separated from
+him and the means of grace that he could command
+as if he had been a thousand miles away.
+He could not even venture—for his theology was of
+the narrowest type—to commend to the mercy of God
+the passing soul of this unbaptized heathen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna understood the situation at a glance. She
+saw death in the Saxon’s face; she saw the hopeless
+perplexity in the expression of the priest.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='54'/><anchor id='Pg054'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Father,</q> she cried, <q>can you do nothing, nothing
+at all for this poor soul?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My daughter,</q> said the priest, <q>I am helpless.
+He knows nothing; he understands nothing.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Can you not baptize him?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Baptize him without a profession of repentance,
+without a confession of faith! Impossible!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Will you let him perish before your eyes without
+an effort to save him?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Child,</q> said the priest, with some impatience in
+his tone, <q>I have told you that I am helpless. It
+was not I that brought these things about.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl cast an agonized look about the room, as
+of one that appealed for help, and seized a crucifix
+that hung upon the wall. She threw herself upon
+her knees by the bedside, and after pressing the
+symbol of Redemption passionately to her lips, held
+it to the mouth of the dying man. The Saxon, on
+his first entrance into the room, had removed his
+look from his brother and fixed it steadfastly on this
+beautiful apparition. Clad in white from head to
+foot, with a golden girdle about her waist, her eyes
+shining with excitement, her whole face transfigured
+by a passion of pity, she seemed to him a vision from
+another world, one of the Walhalla maidens of
+whom his mother had talked to him in days gone by.
+His lips closed feebly on the crucifix which she held
+to them; a smile lighted up his fading eyes, and he
+<pb n='55'/><anchor id='Pg055'/>muttered with his last breath <q>Valkyria.</q> The girl
+heard the word and remembered without understanding
+it. The next moment he was dead, and one of
+the women standing by stepped forward and closed
+his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna burst into a passion of tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>He is gone,</q> she cried, amidst her sobs, <q>he
+is gone, and we could not help him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priest was silent. He had no consolation to
+offer. Indeed, but that he recognized the girl’s saintliness—a
+saintliness to which he, worthy man as he
+was, had no pretensions—he would have thought her
+grief foolish. But the old physician could not keep
+silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Pardon me, lady,</q> he said, <q>if I seem to reprove
+you. I pray you not to suffer your zeal for the salvation
+of souls to overpower your faith. Do you
+think that the All-Father does not love this poor
+stranger as well as you, nay, better than you can love
+him? that He cannot care for him as well? that
+you, forsooth, must save him out of His hands? Nay,
+my daughter—pardon an old man for the word—do
+not so distrust Him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You are right, father, as always,</q> said the girl.
+<q>I have been selfish and faithless. I was angry, I
+suppose, to find myself baffled and helpless. You
+must set me a penance, father,</q> she added, turning
+to the priest.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='56'/><anchor id='Pg056'/>
+
+<p>
+The Saxon meanwhile had contrived by his gestures
+to make his guards understand that he wished to
+take his farewell of his dead brother. They allowed
+him to approach the bed. He stooped and kissed the
+lips of the dead, and then, choking down the sobs
+which convulsed his breast, turned away, seemingly
+calm and unmoved. But as he passed Carna he contrived
+to catch with his manacled hands one of the
+flowing sleeves of her white robe, and to lift the
+hem to his lips.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="6" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='57'/><anchor id='Pg057'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VI. The Saxon"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="VI. The Saxon"/>
+<head>CHAPTER VI.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE SAXON.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+It was not easy to know what should be done with
+the survivor of the two Saxon captives. The villa
+had no proper provision for the safe custody of
+prisoners; and the problem of keeping a man under
+lock and key, without a quite disproportionate
+amount of trouble, was as difficult as it would be in
+the ordinary country house of modern times.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I shall send him to the camp at the Great
+Harbour,</q> said the Count, a few days after the scene
+described in our last chapter. <q>It is quite impossible
+to keep him unless we chain him hand and foot, or
+set half a dozen men to guard him; and even then
+he is such a giant that he might easily overpower
+them. At the camp they have got a prison, and
+stocks which would hold him as fast as death.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna’s face clouded over when she heard the
+Count’s determination, but she said nothing. The
+lively Ælia broke in—
+</p>
+
+<pb n='58'/><anchor id='Pg058'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>My dear father, you will break poor Carna’s
+heart if you do anything of the kind. She is bent
+on making a convert of the noble savage. And anyhow,
+whatever else she may induce him to worship,
+he seems ready, from what I have seen, to worship
+her. And besides, what harm can he do? He has
+no arms, and he can’t speak a word of any language
+known here. If he were to run away he would
+either be killed or be starved to death.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well, Carna,</q> said the Count, with a smile,
+<q>what do you say? Will you stand surety for this
+young pagan? Or shall I make him your slave, and
+then, if he runs away, it will be your loss?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I hope,</q> said the girl, <q>that you won’t send
+him to the camp, where, I fear, they hold the lives
+of such as he very cheap.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> replied the Count, <q>we will keep him
+here, at all events for the present, and I will give
+the bailiff orders to give him something to do in the
+safest place that he can think of.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly the young Saxon was set to work at
+the forge attached to the villa, and proved himself a
+willing and serviceable labourer. No more suitable
+choice, indeed, could have been made. That he was
+a man of some rank at home everything about him
+seemed to show—nothing more than his hands,
+which were delicate, and unusually small in proportion
+to his almost gigantic stature. But the
+<pb n='59'/><anchor id='Pg059'/>greatest chief among his people would not have
+disdained the hammer and anvil. Was not Thor a
+mighty smith? And was it not almost as much a
+great warrior’s business to make a good sword as to
+wield it well when it was made? So the young
+man, whose mighty shoulders and muscular arms
+were regarded with respect and even astonishment
+by his British fellow-workmen, laboured with a will,
+showing himself no mean craftsman in the blacksmith’s
+art. Sometimes, as he plied the hammer, he
+would chant to himself, in a low voice, what sounded
+like a war-song. Otherwise he remained absolutely
+silent, not even attempting to pick up the few
+common words which daily intercourse with his
+companions gave him the opportunity of learning.
+There was an air of dignity about him which seemed
+to forbid any of the little affronts to which a prisoner
+would naturally be exposed; his evidently enormous
+strength, too, was a thing which even the most
+stupid of his companions respected. Silent, self-contained,
+and impassive, he moved quietly about his
+daily tasks; it was only when he caught a glimpse
+of Carna that his features were lighted up for a moment
+with a smile.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Cedric at the Forge.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig058"/><figure url="images/i_073.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Cedric at the Forge"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Cedric at the Forge.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Cedric at the Forge</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The idea of opening up any communication with
+him seemed hopeless, when an unexpected, but still
+quite natural, way out of the difficulty presented
+itself. An old peddler, who was accustomed to
+<pb n='60'/><anchor id='Pg060'/>supply the inmates of the villa with silks and
+jewellery, and who sometimes had a book in his
+pack for Carna, paid in due course one of his periodical
+visits. The old man was a Gaul by birth, a
+native of one of the States on the eastern bank of
+the Rhine, and in youth he had been an adventurous
+trader, extending his journeys eastward and northward
+as far as the shores of the Baltic. The
+risk was great, for the Germans of the interior
+looked with suspicion on the visits of civilized
+strangers; but, on the other hand, the profits were
+considerable. Amber, in pieces of a size and clearness
+seldom matched on the coasts of Gaul and
+Britain, and beautiful furs, as of the seal and the
+sea-otter, could be bought at very low prices from
+these unsophisticated tribes, and sold again to the
+wealthy ladies of Lutetia<note place="foot">Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris.</note> and Lugdunum<note place="foot">Now Lyons.</note> at a very
+considerable advantage. In these wanderings
+Antrix—for that was the peddler’s name—had
+acquired a good knowledge of the language—substantially
+the same, though divided into several
+dialects—spoken by the German tribes; and, indeed,
+without such knowledge his trading adventures
+would have been neither safe nor profitable. As he
+approached old age Antrix had judged it expedient
+to transfer his business from Gaul to Britain. Gaul
+<pb n='61'/><anchor id='Pg061'/>he found to be a dangerous place for a peaceable
+trader, having lost more than once all the profits of
+a journey, and, indeed, a good deal more, by one of
+the marauding bands by whom the country was
+periodically overrun. Britain, or at least the
+southern district of Britain, was certainly safer, and
+it was this that for the last ten years he had been
+accustomed to traverse, till he had become a well-known
+and welcome visitor at every villa and settlement
+along the coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here then chance, or, as Carna preferred to think,
+Providence, had provided an interpreter; and it so
+happened that, whether by another piece of good
+fortune, or an additional interposition, his services
+were made permanently useful. The old man had
+found his journeys becoming in the winter too
+laborious for his strength, and it was not very
+difficult to persuade him to make his home in the
+villa for two or three months till the severity of the
+season should have passed. Every one was pleased
+at the arrangement. Antrix was an admirable teller
+of tales, and his had been an adventurous life, full
+of incident, with which he knew how to make the
+winter night less long. The Count saw a rare
+opportunity, such as had never come to him before,
+of learning something about the hardy freebooters
+whom it was his business to overawe; and Carna
+had the liveliest hopes of making a proselyte, if she
+<pb n='62'/><anchor id='Pg062'/>could only make herself, and the message in which
+she had so profound a faith, understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Saxon’s resolution and pride did not
+long hold out against the unexpected delight of being
+able once more to converse in his own language, and
+he soon began to talk with perfect freedom—for,
+he had no idea of having anything to conceal—about
+his home and his people. He was the son,
+they learnt from him, of the chief of one of the Saxon
+settlements near the mouth of the Albis.<note place="foot">The Elbe.</note> The people
+lived by hunting and fishing, and, more or less, by
+cultivating the soil. But life was hard. The settlements
+were crowded; game was growing scarce, and
+had to be followed further afield every year; the
+climate, too, was very uncertain, and the crops
+sometimes failed altogether. In short, they could
+not live without what they were able to pick up in
+their expeditions to richer countries and more temperate
+climates. On this point the young Saxon was
+perfectly frank. The idea that there was anything
+of which a warrior could possibly be ashamed in
+taking what he could by the strong hand had evidently
+never crossed his mind. To rob a neighbour
+or fellow-tribesman he counted shameful—so much
+could be gathered from expressions that he let drop;
+as to others, his simple morality was this—to keep
+what you had, to take what others could not keep.
+<pb n='63'/><anchor id='Pg063'/>The Count found him curiously well informed on
+what may be called the politics of Europe. He
+was well aware of the decay of the Roman power.
+Kinsmen and neighbours of his own had made their
+way south to get their share in the spoil of the
+Empire. Some, he had heard, had stopped to take
+service with the enemy; some had come back with
+marvellous tales of the wealth and luxury which
+they had seen. About Britain itself he had very
+clear views. The substance of what he said to the
+Count was this: <q>You won’t stop here very long.
+My father says that you have been weakening your
+fleet and armies here for years past, and that you
+will soon take them away altogether. Then we shall
+come and take the country. It will hardly be in his
+time, he says. Perhaps it may not be in mine. It
+is only you that hinder us; it is only you that we
+are afraid of. We shall have the island; we must
+have it. Our own country is too small and too
+barren to keep us.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of his own adventures the young Saxon had little
+to say. This was the first voyage that he and his
+brother had taken. Their father was in failing health,
+and their mother, who had but one other child, a girl
+some ten years younger, had kept them at home, till
+she had been unwillingly persuaded that they were
+losing caste by taking no part in the warlike excursions
+of their countrymen. <q>We had a fairly successful
+<pb n='64'/><anchor id='Pg064'/>time,</q> went on the young chief, with the absolute unconsciousness
+of wrong with which a hunter might
+relate his exploits; <q>took two merchantmen that had
+good cargoes on board, and had a right royal fight
+with the people of a town on the Gallic coast. We
+killed thirty of them; and only five of our warriors
+went to the Walhalla. Then we turned homeward,
+but our ship struck on a rock near some islands far
+to the west,<note place="foot">Probably the Channel Islands, always a dangerous place for
+navigation.</note> and had almost gone to the bottom.
+With great labour we dragged her ashore, and set to
+work repairing her; but our chief smith and carpenter
+had fallen in the battle, and we were a long time in
+making her fit for sea. This was the reason why
+we were going home so late, and also why we
+lagged behind our comrades when you were chasing
+us. By rights we were the best crew and had the
+swiftest ship, but she had been clumsily mended, and
+dragged terribly in the water.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count listened to all this with the greatest
+interest, and plied the speaker with questions, all of
+which he answered with perfect frankness. He found
+out how many warriors the settlement could muster,
+what were the relations with their neighbours, whether
+there had been any definite plans for a common expedition.
+On the whole, he came to the conclusion
+that though there was no danger of an overpowering
+<pb n='65'/><anchor id='Pg065'/>migration from this quarter such as Western and
+Southern Europe had suffered from in former times,
+these sea-faring tribes of the East would be an increasing
+danger to Britain as years went on. Personally
+the prospect did not concern him greatly;
+his fortunes were not bound up with the island. Still
+he loved the place and its people; it troubled him to
+see what dark days were in store for them. And
+taking a wider view—for he was a man of large sympathies—he
+was grieved to see another black cloud in
+an horizon already so dark. Would anything civilized
+be left, he thought to himself, when every part of
+Europe has been swept by these hosts of barbarians?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before long another source of interest was discovered
+in the young Saxon. The Count happened
+to overhear him chanting to himself, and though he
+could not distinguish the words, he recognized in the
+rhythm something like the camp-songs that he had
+often listened to from German warriors in Stilicho’s
+camp. Here again the peddler’s services as an interpreter
+were put in requisition, and though the old
+man’s Latin, which went little beyond his practical
+wants as a trader, fell lamentably short of what was
+wanted, enough was heard to interest the villa family,
+which had a literary turn, very much. What the
+young man had sung to himself was an early Saga,
+a curious romance<note place="foot">Perhaps something like the early Saxon poem which we
+know under the name of Beowulf.</note> of heroes fighting with monsters,
+<pb n='66'/><anchor id='Pg066'/>as unlike as can be conceived to anything to be found
+in Roman poetry—verse in its rudest shape, but still
+making itself felt as a real poet’s work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lastly, Carna, now that she had found a way of
+communicating her thoughts, threw herself with
+ardour into the work of proselytizing the stranger.
+Here the peddler was more at home in his task as
+interpreter. Carna used the dialect of South Britain,
+with which he was far more familiar than he was with
+Latin—it differed indeed but little from his native
+speech. The topics too were familiar, for he had
+been brought up in the Christian faith, and though he
+scarcely understood the girl’s zeal, he was quite
+willing to help her as much as he could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna found her task much more difficult than she
+had expected. She had thought in her simple faith
+that it would be enough for her to tell to the young
+heathen the story of the Crucified Christ for him to
+fall down at once and worship. He listened with
+profound attention and respect. This, perhaps, he
+would have accorded to anything that came from her
+lips; but, beyond this, the story itself profoundly
+interested him. But it must be confessed that there
+was a good deal in it which did not commend itself
+to his warrior’s ideal of what the God whom he could
+worship should be. He was a soldier, and he could
+scarcely conceive of anything great or good that
+was outside a soldier’s virtues. The gods of his own
+<pb n='67'/><anchor id='Pg067'/>heaven, Odin and Thor and Balder, were great conquerors,
+armed with armour which no mortal blow
+could pierce, wielders of sword and hammer which
+were too heavy for any mortal arm to wield. He
+could bow down to them because they were greater,
+immeasurably greater than himself, in the qualities
+and gifts which he most honoured. Now he was
+called upon to receive a quite different set of ideas, to
+set up a quite different standard of excellence. The
+story of the Gospels touched him. It roused him
+almost to fury when he heard how the good man who
+had gone about healing the sick and feeding the hungry
+had been put shamefully to death by His own
+countrymen, by those who knew best what He had
+done. If Carna had bidden him avenge the man
+who had been so ungratefully treated, he would have
+performed her bidding with pleasure. But to worship
+this Crucified One, to depose for Him Odin, Lord of
+Battles—that seemed impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still he was impressed, and impressed chiefly by
+the way in which the preacher seemed to translate
+into her own life the principles of the faith which she
+tried to set forth to him. She had told him that this
+Crucified One had died for him. He could not understand
+why He should have done so, why He should
+not have led His twelve legions of angels against the
+wicked, swept them off from the face of the earth,
+and established by force of arms a kingdom of justice.
+<pb n='68'/><anchor id='Pg068'/>Still the idea of so much having been given, so much
+endured for his sake touched him, especially when he
+saw how passionately in earnest was this wonderful
+creature, this beautiful prophetess, as, with the German
+reverence for women, he was ready to regard
+her, how eager she was to do him good, how little, as
+he could not but feel, she thought of herself in comparison
+with others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As long as Carna dwelt on these topics she made
+good way; when she wandered away from them, as
+naturally she sometimes did, she was not so successful.
+One day it unluckily occurred to her that she
+would appeal to his fears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do not refuse to listen,</q> she said to him, <q>for if
+He is infinitely good to those who love Him, He can
+also be angry with those who love Him not.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What will He do with them?</q> asked the young
+Saxon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>He will send them to suffer in everlasting fire.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> answered the youth, <q>I have heard from
+our wise men of such a place into which Odin drives
+cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false to
+their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting
+cold, and this indeed seems to me to be worse
+than fire.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> said Carna, <q>there is such a place of torment,
+and it is kept not only for the wicked, as you
+say, but for all who do not believe.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='69'/><anchor id='Pg069'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who
+do not own Him as their Master, and call themselves
+by His name?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes—and think how terrible a thing it would be
+if it should happen to you.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And that is why you are so anxious to persuade
+me?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And why you were so troubled about my brother
+when you could not make him understand before he
+died?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should
+pass away when safety was in his reach.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him
+to that place because he did not know Him?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I fear that it must be so.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Then He shall send me also. For how am I
+better because I have lived longer? No—I will be
+with my brother, whom I loved, and with my own
+people.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And neither for that day nor for many days to come
+would he speak again on this subject. Carna was
+greatly troubled; but she began to think whether
+there might not be something in what the young man
+had said.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="7" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='70'/><anchor id='Pg070'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VII. A Pretender’s Difficulties"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="VII. A Pretender's Difficulties"/>
+<head>CHAPTER VII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">A PRETENDER’S DIFFICULTIES.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+Our story must now go back a little, and take up
+the course of events at the camp, where the look
+of affairs was not promising. The donative promised
+by Constantine on the day of his election had been
+paid, but this had been done only after the greatest
+exertions in wringing money out of unlucky traders,
+farmers, and even peasants, who had been already
+squeezed almost dry. All that had any coin left
+were beginning to bury it,<note place="foot">Possibly the reason why so much buried money belonging
+to the later days of the Roman occupation of Britain has been
+found.</note> and though the collectors
+of taxes, or loans, or gifts, or whatever else the
+frequent requisition of money might be called, had
+ingenious ways of discovering or making their owners
+give up these hoards, it was quite evident that very
+little more could be got out of Britain. The military
+chest meanwhile was becoming alarmingly empty,
+<pb n='71'/><anchor id='Pg071'/>and though money was still found somehow for the
+larger camps, some of the less important garrisons had
+been left for months with almost nothing in the way of
+pay. What was to be done was a pressing question,
+which had to be answered in some way within a few
+days. If it was not so answered, it was tolerably
+plain that Constantine would meet the fate of Marcus
+and Gratianus. The Emperor himself (if we are to
+give him this title) seemed to be very little troubled
+by the prospect, and remained stolidly calm. His
+elevation indeed had made the least possible difference
+to him. He drank a better kind of wine, and
+perhaps a little more—for his cups had been limited
+by his means—but he did not run into excess. He was
+still the same simple, contented, good-natured man
+that he had always been. But his sons were of
+another temper, though curiously differing from each
+other. Constans the elder was an enthusiast, almost
+a fanatic, a man of strong religious feeling, who
+would have followed the religious life if it had been
+possible, and who now, finding himself possessed of
+power, had schemes of using it to promote his
+favourite schemes. Julian the younger had ambitions
+of a more commonplace kind. But both the brothers
+were agreed in holding on to the power that had
+been so strangely put into their father’s hands,
+hands which, as he had very little will of his own,
+were practically theirs.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='72'/><anchor id='Pg072'/>
+
+<p>
+A council was held at which Constantine, his two
+sons, and three of the officers of highest rank were
+present, and the urgent question of the day was
+anxiously debated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Julian began the discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The army,</q> he said, <q>must be employed, or it
+will find mischief to do at home which all of us will
+be sorry for.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have some one to introduce to your Majesty,</q>
+said one of the officers present, <q>who may have
+something to say which will influence your decision.
+He is from Ierne,<note place="foot">Ireland. A similar incident is mentioned by Tacitus in his
+life of Agricola. An Irish petty king, driven from his throne
+by internal troubles, came to the Roman general and promised,
+if he were restored, to bring the island under the dominion of
+Rome. This is the first notice of the country that occurs in
+history.</note> and brings me a letter from the
+commander at Uriconium. He came last night.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let him enter,</q> said Constantine, with his usual
+dull phlegmatic voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tribune went to the door of the chamber, and
+despatched a message to his quarters. In a few
+minutes the stranger was introduced into the council.
+He was a man verging upon middle age, somewhat
+short of stature, with a great bush of fiery-red hair,
+which stood up from his head with a very fierce look,
+a long, shaggy beard of the same colour, eyes of the
+deepest blue, very bright and piercing, but with a
+<pb n='73'/><anchor id='Pg073'/>wandering and unsteady look in them, and a ruddy
+complexion which deepened to an intense colour on
+his cheek bones and other prominent parts of his face.
+Around his neck he wore a heavy twisted collar of
+remarkably red gold. Massive rings of the same
+metal adorned his fingers. His dress was of undyed
+wool, and very rudely shaped, a curious contrast
+to the richness of his ornaments. He was followed
+into the room by an interpreter, a young native of
+Northern Britain, who had been carried off by Irish
+pirates from one of the ecclesiastical schools. He
+had been taught Latin before his captivity, and, while
+a captive, had made himself acquainted with the Irish
+language, which indeed did not differ very much
+from that spoken in Britain.<note place="foot">This was exactly what had happened not many years before
+to St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.</note> His task of interpreter
+was not by any means an easy one to fulfil. The
+Prince broke out into a rapid torrent of complaint,
+invective, and entreaty, which left the young man,
+who was not very expert in either of the languages
+with which he had to deal, hopelessly behind. Then
+seeing that he was not followed, he turned on his
+unlucky attendant and dealt him a blow upon the
+ear that sent him staggering across the room. Then
+he seemed to remember himself, and began to tell
+his story again at a more moderate rate of speed,
+though he still from time to time, when he came to
+<pb n='74'/><anchor id='Pg074'/>some peculiarly exciting part in the tale of his
+wrongs, broke out into a rapid eloquence that
+baffled all interpretation. The upshot of the story
+was this—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was, or rather had been, a small king in South-eastern
+Ireland,<note place="foot">Probably somewhere near Wexford.</note> the eldest of four brothers, having
+succeeded his father about ten years before. There
+had been a quarrel about the division of some
+property. The Prince was a little obscure in his
+description of the property; indeed it was a matter
+about which he was shrewd enough to say as little
+as possible. But his hearers had no difficulty in
+presuming that it consisted of spoil carried off from
+Britain. The quarrel had come to blows. All the
+nation had been divided into parties in the
+dispute. Finally he had been compelled by his ungrateful
+subjects to fly for his life. Would the
+Emperor bring him back? He was liberal, even
+extravagant, in his offers. He would bring the
+whole island under his dominion. (As a matter of
+fact, his dominions had never reached more than
+seventy miles inland, and he had contrived to make
+himself so hated during his ten years’ reign that he
+had scarcely a friend or follower left.) And what an
+island it was! There never was such a place. The
+sheep were fatter, the cows gave more milk than in
+any other place in the whole world. And there was
+<pb n='75'/><anchor id='Pg075'/>gold too, gold to be had for the picking up; and
+amber on the shores, and pearls in the rivers. In
+short, it was a treasure-house of wealth, which was
+waiting for the lucky first-comer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Are you a Christian?</q> asked Constans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exiled chief would have gladly said that he
+was, and indeed for a moment thought of the
+audacious fiction that his attachment to the new
+faith had been one of the causes of his expulsion.
+He was, in fact, a savagely bigoted pagan, and had
+dealt very roughly with one or two missionaries who
+had ventured into his neighbourhood. But he
+reflected that the falsehood would infallibly be
+detected, and would inevitably do him a great deal
+of harm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No!</q> he exclaimed; <q>would that I were. But
+there is nothing that I so much desire if only I
+could attain to that blessing. But I promise to be
+baptized myself, and to have every man, woman, and
+child within my dominions baptized within a month,
+if you will only bring me back to them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even Constans thought this zeal to be a little
+excessive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And how many men can you bring into the
+field?</q> asked the more practical Julian; <q>and what
+money can you find for the pay of the soldiers?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger was taken aback at these direct
+questions.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='76'/><anchor id='Pg076'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>All my subjects, all my treasures are yours,</q> he
+said, after a pause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I don’t believe,</q> said one of the tribunes in Latin
+to Julian, <q>that he has any subjects besides this
+wretched interpreter, or any treasure beyond what he
+wears on his neck and his fingers.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Shall he withdraw?</q> said Julian to his father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Constantine, who never spoke when he could avoid
+speaking, answered by a nod, and the Irish Prince
+withdrew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let us have nothing to do,</q> said the practical
+Julian, <q>with these Irish savages. They may cut
+their own throats, and welcome, without our helping
+them. The men, too, would rebel at the bare
+mention of Ierne. It is out of the world in their
+eyes, and I think they are about right. And as to
+the gold and pearls, I don’t believe in them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Perhaps you are right,</q> <anchor id="corr076"/><corr sic="asid">said</corr> Constans; <q>but it
+would be a great work to bring over a new nation to
+the orthodox faith.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Julian answered with a laugh. <q>My good brother,
+we are not all such zealous missionaries as you. I
+am afraid that preaching is not exactly the work
+which our friends the soldiers are looking out for.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What does your Majesty say to an expedition to
+chastise those thieving Picts? They grow more
+insolent every day.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was the suggestion of one of the tribunes.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='77'/><anchor id='Pg077'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>What is to be got?</q> was Julian’s answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Glory!</q> answered the tribune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Glory! What is that?—the men want pay and
+plunder. These bare-legged villains haven’t so much
+as a rag that you can take from them, and they have
+a shrewd way of giving at least as many hard blows
+as they take. No!—we will leave the Picts alone,
+and only too thankful if they will do the same for us!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The Count of the Shore has not yet taken the
+oath to his Majesty,</q> said an officer who had not
+spoken before. <q>We might give some employment
+to the men in bringing him to reason.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Constantine spoke for the first time since the
+council had begun its sitting—<q>The Count is a
+good man and does his business well. Leave him
+alone.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other suggestions were made and discussed without
+any sensible approach to a conclusion, and the
+council broke up, but with an understanding that it
+should meet again with as little delay as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the afternoon of that very day an incident
+occurred which convinced every one—if further conviction
+was needed—that delay would certainly be
+fatal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A party of soldiers was practising javelin throwing,
+and Constantine, who had been particularly expert
+in this exercise in his youth, stood watching the
+game. He had stepped up to examine the mark
+<pb n='78'/><anchor id='Pg078'/>made by one of the weapons on the wooden figure
+at which the men were throwing, when a javelin
+passed most perilously near his head and buried itself
+in the wood. It could not have been an accident;
+no one could have been so recklessly careless as to
+throw under the circumstances. Constantine was
+as imperturbable as usual. Without a sign of fear
+or anger, he said, <q>Comrades, you mistake; I am
+not made of wood,</q> and, signing to his attendants,
+walked quietly away. The incident, however, made
+a great impression upon him, and a still greater
+upon his sons.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Javelin throwing.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig078"/><figure url="images/i_095.jpg" rend="w80"><index index="fig" level1="Javelin throwing"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Javelin throwing.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Javelin throwing</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The consultation was renewed and prolonged far
+into the night, and, as no conclusion was reached,
+continued on the next day. About noon an unexpected
+adviser appeared upon the scene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A message was brought into the council-chamber
+that a merchant from Gaul had something of importance
+to communicate to the Emperor. The
+man was admitted, after having been first searched
+by way of precaution. His dress was sober in cut
+and colour, and he had a small pack such as the
+wandering dealers in jewellery and similar light
+articles were accustomed to carry. Otherwise he
+was little like a trader; indeed, it did not need a very
+acute or practised hand to detect in him a soldier’s
+bearing, and even that of one who was accustomed
+to command.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='79'/><anchor id='Pg079'/>
+<p>
+<q>You have something to tell us?</q> said Julian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, I have,</q> said the stranger, <q>but let me first
+show you my credentials.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He spoke in passable Latin, but with a decided
+accent, which, strongly marked as it was, was not
+recognized by any of those present. At the same time
+he produced from a silken purse, which he wore like
+a girdle round his waist, a small square of parchment.
+It was a letter written in a minute but very
+clear hand, and it had evidently been put for the
+security of the bearer, who could thus more easily
+dispose of it in case of need, into the smallest
+possible compass. This was handed to Constantine,
+who, in turn, passed it on to his elder son Constans,
+he being the only one present who could read and
+write with fluency. It ran thus:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 2; margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend='italic'>Alaric, the son of Baltha, King of the Goths,
+Emperor of the World, to Marcus, Emperor of Britain
+and the West, greeting.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A grim smile passed over Constantine’s face as he
+heard this address. He muttered to himself,
+<q><q>Marcus,</q> indeed! Those who write to the
+Emperor of Britain must have speedy <anchor id="corr079"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">letter-carriers.</corr></q>
+The letter proceeded thus:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 2; margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend='italic'>I desire friendship and alliance with the nations who
+are wearied and worn out with the oppressions and cruelties
+of Rome, and for this purpose send this present by my
+<pb n='80'/><anchor id='Pg080'/>trusty kinsman and counsellor Atualphus, to you who are,
+I understand, asserting against the common tyrant of the
+world the liberty of Britain and the West. I have not
+thought it fit to trust more to writing, but commend to
+you the bearer hereof, the aforesaid Atualphus, who is
+acquainted with the mind and purpose of myself and of
+my people, and with whom you may conveniently concert
+such plans as may best serve our common welfare. Farewell.
+Given at my camp at Æmona.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Marcus is no more,</q> said Julian. <q>He was
+unworthy of his dignity. You are in the presence of
+the most excellent Constantine, Emperor of Britain.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It matters not,</q> said the Goth, with a haughty
+smile. <q>My lord the king will treat as willingly
+with one as with another, so he be an enemy of
+Rome!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what does he propose? What would he
+have us do?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Make common cause with him against Honorius
+and Rome.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What shall we gain thereby?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Half of the Empire of the World.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>How shall that be?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The King will march into Italy and attack the
+Emperor in his own land. The Emperor will withdraw
+all the legions that he yet controls for his own
+defence. With them the King will deal. Then
+<pb n='81'/><anchor id='Pg081'/>comes your opportunity. What does it profit you to
+remain in this island, where nothing is to be won
+either of glory or of riches. Cross over into Gaul
+and Spain, which, wearied with oppression and
+desiring above all things to throw off the Roman
+yoke, will gladly welcome you. Your Cæsar shall
+reign on this side of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
+The future may bring other things, but that may
+suffice for the present.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The plan, so bold, and yet, it would seem, so
+feasible, and presenting a ready escape out of a
+situation that seemed hopeless, struck every one
+present with a delighted surprise. Even the phlegmatic
+Constantine was roused. <q>It shall be done,</q>
+he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some further conversation followed, which it is
+not necessary to relate. Ways and means were
+discussed. Questions were asked about the strength
+and temper of the forces in Gaul and Spain, about
+the feeling of the towns, and a hundred other matters,
+with all of which Atualphus showed a curiously
+intimate knowledge. When the Goth retired from
+the council, he left very little doubt or hesitation
+behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>They are heretics—these Goths,</q> grumbled
+Constans; <q>obstinate Arians every one of them, I
+told——</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You shall convert them, my brother,</q> answered
+<pb n='82'/><anchor id='Pg082'/>Julian, <q>when you are Bishop of Rome. When we
+divide the West between us, that shall be your
+portion.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It shall be done,</q> said Constantine again, as he
+rose from his chair.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="8" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='83'/><anchor id='Pg083'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VIII. The News in the Camp"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="VIII. The News in the Camp"/>
+<head>CHAPTER VIII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE NEWS IN THE CAMP.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+That afternoon a banquet, which was as handsomely
+set out as the very short notice permitted, was given
+to all the officers in the camp. When the tables
+were removed,<note place="foot">With us tables are cleared after a meal; with the Romans
+they seem to have been actually removed.</note> Constantine, who had been carefully
+primed by his sons with what he was to say, addressed
+his guests. His words were few and to the
+point. <q>Britain,</q> he said, <q>has been long enough
+ruled by others. It is now time that she should
+begin herself to rule. It was the error of those who
+went before me to be content with the limits of this
+island. But here there is not enough to content us.
+Beyond the sea, separated from us by only a few
+hours’ journey, lie wealthy provinces which wait for
+our coming. A kindlier sky, more fertile fields,
+richer and fairer cities than ours are there. We
+have only to show ourselves, in short, to be both
+<pb n='84'/><anchor id='Pg084'/>welcomed and obeyed. Half the victories which we
+have won here to no profit over poverty-stricken
+barbarians would have sufficed to give us riches even
+beyond our desires. Henceforth let us use our arms
+where they may win something for us beyond empty
+honour and wounds. Follow me, and within a year
+you shall be masters both of Gaul and Spain.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The younger guests received this oration with
+shouts of applause; visions of promotion and prize-money,
+and even of the spoil of some of the wealthy
+cities of the mainland floated before them. The older
+men did not show this enthusiasm. Many of them
+were attached to Britain by ties that they were very
+loth to break. They had little to hope, but much to
+fear, from a change. Still, they saw the necessity for
+doing something; another year such as that which
+had just passed would thoroughly demoralize the
+army of Britain. Legions that get into the habit
+of making emperors and killing them for their pastime
+must be dealt with by vigorous remedies, and the
+easiest and best of these was active service. In any
+case it would have been impolitic to show dissent.
+Many feigned, therefore, a joy which they did not
+feel, and shouted approval when the Senior Tribune
+exclaimed, <q>Comrades, drink to our chief, Constantine
+Augustus, Emperor of Britain and the West.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The revel was kept up late into the night, the young
+Goth distinguishing himself by the marvellous depth
+<pb n='85'/><anchor id='Pg085'/>of his draughts and the equally marvellous strength
+of his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Emperor retired early from the scene, and
+Constans, who had little liking for these boisterous
+scenes, followed his example, as did most of the older
+men. One of these, the cheery centurion, who has
+been mentioned more than once, we may follow to his
+home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside the camp had grown up a village of considerable
+size, though it consisted for the most part
+of humble dwellings. There were two or three
+taverns, or rather drinking-shops, where the soldiers
+could carouse on the thin, sour wine of the British
+vineyards, or, if the length of their purses permitted,
+on metheglin, a more potent drink, made from the
+fermentation of honey. A Jew, driven by the restless
+speculation of his race, had established himself in a
+shop where he sold cheap ornaments to the soldiers’
+wives, and advanced money to their husbands on the
+security of their pay. A tailor displayed tunics and
+cloaks, and a shoemaker sold boots warranted to
+resist the cold and wet of the island climate. There
+were a few cottages occupied by the grooms and
+stablemen who attended to the horses employed in
+the camp, by fishermen who plied their trade in the
+neighbouring waters, and other persons of a variety of
+miscellaneous employments in one way or other connected
+with the camp. But just outside the main
+<pb n='86'/><anchor id='Pg086'/>street, at the end nearest to the camp, stood a house
+of somewhat greater pretensions. It was indeed a
+humble imitation of the Roman villa, being built
+round three sides of an irregular square, which was
+itself occupied by a grass plot and a few flower beds.
+It was to this that the Centurion Decius bent his
+steps after the conversation related in the last chapter.
+It was evidently with the reluctant step of the
+bearer of bad news that he proceeded on his way.
+As soon as he entered the enclosure his approach
+was observed from within. Two blooming girls,
+whose ages may have been seventeen and fifteen
+respectively, ran gaily to meet him. A woman some
+twenty-five years older, but still youthful of aspect
+and handsome, followed at a more sober pace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What is the matter, father?</q> cried the elder of
+the girls, who had been quick to perceive that all was
+not right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The centurion held up his hand and made a signal
+for silence. <q>Hush,</q> he said; <q>I have something to
+tell you, but it must not be here. Let us go indoors.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Shall the children leave us alone?</q> said the
+centurion’s wife, who had now come up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No,</q> he answered, wearily, <q>let them be with us
+while they can,</q> he added in a low voice, which only
+the wife’s ears, made keenly alive by affection and
+fear, could catch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gaiety of the young people was quenched,
+<pb n='87'/><anchor id='Pg087'/>for, without having any idea of what had happened,
+they could see plainly enough that something was
+disturbing their parents; and it was with fast beating
+hearts that they waited for his explanation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Our happy days here are over, my dearest,</q> said
+the centurion, drawing his wife to him, and tenderly
+kissing her, as soon as they were within doors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You mean,</q> said she, <q>that the order has come.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> he answered, <q>we are to leave as soon
+as the transports can be collected. The resolution
+was made to-day and will be announced to the
+army to-morrow. It is no secret, I suppose, or will
+not be for <anchor id="corr087"/><corr sic="(single quote mark)">long.</corr></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And where are we to go?</q> cried the elder of the
+girls, whose face brightened as the thought of seeing
+a little more of the world, of a home in one of the
+cities of Gaul, possibly in Rome itself, flitted across
+her mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The poor centurion changed colour. The girl’s
+question brought up the difficulty which he knew had
+to be faced, but which he would gladly have put off
+as long as he could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We shall go to Gaul, certainly; where I cannot
+say,</q> he answered, after a long pause, and in a
+hesitating voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh, how delightful!</q> cried the girl; <q>exactly
+the thing that Lucia and I have been longing for.
+And Rome? Surely we shall go to Rome, father?
+<pb n='88'/><anchor id='Pg088'/>Are you not glad to hear it, mother? I am sure
+that we are all tired of this cold, foggy place.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mother said nothing. If she did not exactly
+see the whole of the situation, she had at least an
+housewife’s horror of a move. The poor father moved
+uneasily upon his chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The legion will go,</q> he said, <q>but your mother
+and you——</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh, Lucius,</q> cried the poor wife, <q>you do not,
+cannot mean that we are not to go with you!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Nothing is settled,</q> he replied, <q>it is true; but
+I am much troubled about it. <hi rend='italic'>You</hi> might go, though
+I do not like the idea of your following the camp; but
+these dear girls—and yet they cannot be separated
+from you.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The unhappy wife saw the truth only too clearly.
+If the times had been quiet, she might herself have
+possibly accompanied the legion in its march southward;
+but even then she could not have taken her
+daughters with her, her daughters whom she never
+allowed to go within the precincts of the camp,
+except on the one day, the Emperor’s birthday, when
+all the officers’ families were expected to be present
+at the ceremony of saluting the Imperial likeness.
+And this had of late been omitted when it was
+difficult to say from day to day what Emperor the
+troops acknowledged. The centurion had spoken
+only too truly; the legion might go, but they must
+<pb n='89'/><anchor id='Pg089'/>stay behind. She covered her face with her hands
+and wept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Lucia,</q> cried the elder girl to her sister, <q>we
+will enlist; we will take the oath; I should make
+just as good a soldier as many of the Briton lads
+they are filling up the cohorts with now; though you,
+I must allow, are a little too small,</q> she added, ruefully,
+as she looked at her sister’s plump little
+figure, too hopelessly feminine ever to admit the
+possibility of a disguise. <q>Cheer up, mother,</q> she
+went on, <q>we shall find a way out of the difficulty
+somehow.</q> And she threw her arms round the
+weeping woman, and kissed her repeatedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was silence for a few minutes, broken at last
+by the timid, hesitating voice of the younger girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But must you go, father?</q> she said. <q>Surely
+they don’t keep soldiers in the camp for ever. And
+have you not served long enough? You were in the
+legion, I have heard you say, before even Maria was
+born.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My child,</q> said the centurion, <q>it is true that
+my time is at least on the point of being finished.
+Yet I can’t leave the service just now. Just because
+I am the oldest officer the Legate counts on me, and
+I can’t desert him. It would be almost as bad as
+asking for one’s discharge on the eve of a battle.
+And besides, though I don’t like troubling your
+young spirits with such matters, I cannot afford it.
+<pb n='90'/><anchor id='Pg090'/>Were I to resign now I should get no pension, or
+next to none. But in a year or two’s time, when
+things are settled down, I hope to get something
+worth having—some post, perhaps, that would give
+me a chance of making a home for you.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A fifth person, who had hitherto taken no part in
+the conversation, and whose presence in the room
+had been almost forgotten by every one, now broke in,
+with a voice which startled the hearers by its unusual
+clearness and precision. Lena, mother of the centurion’s
+wife, had nearly completed her eightieth
+year. Commonly, she sat in the chimney corner,
+unheeding, to all appearances, of the life that went
+on about her, and dozing away the day. In her
+prime, and even down to old age, she had been a
+woman of remarkable activity, ruling her daughter’s
+household as despotically as in former days she had
+ruled her own. Then a sudden and severe illness
+had prostrated her, and she had seemed to shrink at
+once into feebleness and helplessness of mind and
+body. Her daughter and granddaughters tended her
+carefully and lovingly; but she seemed scarcely to
+take any notice of them. The only thing that ever
+seemed to rouse her attention was the sight of her
+son-in-law when he chanced to enter the chamber
+without disarming. The shine of the steel brought
+a fire again into her dim, sunken eyes. It was
+probably this that had now roused her; and her
+<pb n='91'/><anchor id='Pg091'/>attention, once awakened, had been kept alive by
+what she heard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And at whose bidding are you going?</q> she said,
+in a startlingly clear voice to come from one so
+feeble; <q>this Honorius, as he calls himself, a feeble
+creature who has never drawn a sword in his life!
+Now, if it had been his father! He was a man to
+obey. He did deserve to be called Emperor. I
+saw him forty years ago—just after you were born,
+daughter—when he came with his father. A splendid
+young fellow he was; and one who would have his
+own way, too! How he gave those turbulent Greeks
+at Thessalonica their deserts! Fifteen thousand of
+them!<note place="foot">Theodosius ordered a massacre at Thessalonica on account
+of some offence offered to him by the populace of that city.</note> That was an Emperor worth having!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh! mother,</q> cried her daughter, horrified to
+see the old woman’s ferocity, softened, she had
+hoped, by age and infirmity, roused again in all
+its old strength. <q>Oh! mother, don’t say such
+dreadful things. That was an awful crime in
+Theodosius, and he had to do penance for it in
+the church.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ay,</q> muttered the old woman, <q>I can fancy it
+did not please the priests. But why,</q> she went on,
+raising her voice again, <q>why does not Britain have
+an Emperor of her own?</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='92'/><anchor id='Pg092'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>So she has, mother,</q> said the centurion. <q>You
+forget our Lord Constantine.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Our Lord Constantine!</q> she repeated. <q>Who
+is Constantine? Why, I remember his mother—a
+slave girl—whom the Irish pirates carried off from
+somewhere in the North. Constantine’s father
+bought her, and married her. Why should he be
+Emperor? I could make as good a one any day out
+of a faggot stick.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Peace, dear mother,</q> said the centurion, soothingly,
+afraid that her words might have other
+listeners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Why not you,</q> went on the old woman, unheeding;
+<q>you are better born.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I, Emperor!</q> cried the centurion. <q>Speak good
+words, dearest mother.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> said the old woman, dropping her voice
+again, <q>they are poor creatures now-a-days.</q> And
+she relapsed into silence, looking again as wholly
+indifferent to the present as if the strange outburst
+of rage and impatience which her family had just
+witnessed had never taken place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The family discussed the position of affairs anxiously
+till far into the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what will happen,</q> said the wife, <q>when the
+legions are gone?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>There will be a British kingdom, I suppose;
+and, if it were united, it might stand. But it
+<pb n='93'/><anchor id='Pg093'/>will not be united. It will be every man for himself.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And how about the Saxons and the Picts? If the
+legions hardly protected us from them, how will it be
+when they are gone?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The centurion’s look grew gloomier than ever. <q>I
+know,</q> he said, <q>the prospect is a sad one. But
+I hope that for a year you will be fairly safe; and
+after that I shall hope to send for you. Or you
+might go over to Gaul. But I hope to see the Count
+of the Shore about these matters. He will give me
+the best advice. Here, of course, you can hardly
+stay, even if you cared to do it; and some place
+must be found. Meanwhile, make all the preparations
+you can for a move.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="9" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='94'/><anchor id='Pg094'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="IX. The Departure of the Legions"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="IX. The Departure of the Legions"/>
+<head>CHAPTER IX.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The resolution to leave Britain was announced at
+a general meeting of the soldiers on the following
+day, and was received by it with tremendous enthusiasm.
+To most who were present, Gaul seemed a
+land of promise. It was from Gaul that almost every
+article of luxury that they either had or wished to
+have was imported, and some of the necessities of
+life, as notably wine, were known to be both better
+and cheaper there than in Britain. Comfortable
+quarters in wealthy cities, which were ready to be
+friendly, or could easily be brought to reason if they
+were not; easy campaigns, not against naked Picts,
+but against civilized enemies who had something
+to lose; and when the time of service was over, a
+snug little farm, with corn land, pasture, and vineyard,
+and a hard-working native to till it—such were
+the dreams which floated through the soldiers’ minds;
+and they were ready to go anywhere with the man
+<pb n='95'/><anchor id='Pg095'/>who promised to make them into realities. Older
+and more prudent men who knew that there were two
+sides to the question, and the unadventurous, who
+were well content to stay where they were, could not
+resist the tide of popular feeling, and concealed, if
+they did not abandon, their doubts and scruples. As
+money was scarce, the men volunteered to forego
+their pay till it could be returned to them with large
+interest in the shape of prize-money. They even
+gave up to the melting pot the silver ornaments from
+their arms and from the trappings of their horses.
+The messengers who were sent with the tidings of the
+proposed movement to the other camps—which were
+now mainly to be found in the southern part of the
+island—found the troops everywhere well disposed,
+and within a few days every military station was alive
+with the stir and bustle of preparations for a move.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the most pressing cares of the new leaders
+of the army was the securing the means of transport.
+There was a great number of merchant ships, indeed,
+which could be pressed into the service, and which
+would perform it very well if only the passage in the
+Channel could be made without meeting opposition.
+The question to be considered was whether they
+could reckon upon this, or would the fleet, which
+was still supposed to acknowledge the authority of
+Honorius, prevent them from crossing. The chief
+person to be reckoned with in this matter was, of
+<pb n='96'/><anchor id='Pg096'/>course, the Count of the Shore, and a despatch was
+immediately sent to him. It was the production of
+Constans, and ran thus—
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 2">
+<q rend="post: none"><hi rend='italic'>Constantine, Emperor of Britain and the West, to
+Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore, greeting.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none"><hi rend='italic'>Having been called to Empire by the unanimous voice
+of the People and Army of Britain, and desiring to give
+deliverance from tyranny and protection from violence to
+other provinces besides this my Island of Britain, I purpose
+to transport such forces as it may be necessary to use
+for this purpose to the land of Gaul. I call upon you
+therefore, having full confidence in your loyalty, to give
+me such assistance as may be in your power, for the accomplishment
+of this end, and promise you, on the other hand,
+my favour and protection. Farewell.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend='italic'>Given at the Camp of the Great Harbour.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count received this communication about ten
+days after his arrival at the villa. The writer would
+scarcely have been pleased at the comments which
+he made as he read it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q><q>Constantine, Emperor.</q> How many more Emperors
+are we to have in this unlucky island? <q>Of
+Britain and the West.</q> And I doubt whether he can
+call a foot of ground his own fifty miles from the
+camp. <q>To deliver other provinces from oppression
+and violence.</q> Why not begin by trying his hand at
+home? <q>Full confidence in my loyalty.</q> Truly
+<pb n='97'/><anchor id='Pg097'/>valuable praise from so excellent a judge in the
+matter. <q>Such assistance as may be in my power.</q>
+Well, I should be glad to see the last of this crew of
+adventurers and villains; but he sha’n’t have my
+ships.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count’s position indeed was one of singular
+difficulty. He had thought it best—indeed he had
+found it necessary, if he was to do his own work—to
+keep on friendly terms with the usurpers who had
+gone before Constantine. It had been quite hopeless
+for him to attempt to coerce the legions. If they
+chose to make Emperors for themselves, he must let
+them do it, so long as they did not interfere with his
+liberty as a loyal subject. But this was a different
+matter. Crossing over into Gaul meant downright
+hostility to the authorities in Italy. How could he
+help it forward? And yet how could he prevent it?
+He had three ships available. All the others were
+laid up for the winter in harbours on the eastern and
+south-eastern shores of the island. With these he
+might do some damage to the legions in their passage;
+but the passage he could not hope to prevent. And
+if he did prevent it, what would be his own future relations
+with the army? Clearly he could not stay
+in Vectis, or indeed anywhere in Britain, for there
+was no place which he could hope to hold against a
+small detachment of the army. And to go, though
+it could easily be done, and would save him a vast
+<pb n='98'/><anchor id='Pg098'/>amount of trouble, would be to give up his whole
+work, and to leave the unhappy inhabitants of the
+coast without protection from the pirates of the East.
+After long and anxious deliberation, which he did not
+disdain to share with his daughter and Carna, he resolved
+on a middle course, by following which he would
+neither help nor hinder. The first thing was to seek
+an interview with Constantine or his representatives,
+and a messenger was accordingly despatched suggesting
+a conference to be held on shipboard, under a
+flag of truce, off the mouth of the Great Harbour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The proposition was accepted, and three days afterwards
+the conference was held, in the way that the
+Count had suggested. Each party brought a single
+ship, which was anchored for the greater convenience
+of carrying on the conversation, but was perfectly
+ready to slip its anchor in case of any threatening of
+treachery. The Count’s vessel had the Imperial
+standard at its mast-head; Constantine’s, on the other
+hand, had no distinguishing characteristic. Both he
+and his two sons were present, but the father was as
+silent as usual, and the chief spokesman was Julian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count was very brief in his greetings, and indicated,
+as plainly as he could without saying it in so
+many words, that he did not acknowledge the pretensions
+of the usurper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> he said, <q>you have asked me to help
+in the transport of your army across the Channel.
+<pb n='99'/><anchor id='Pg099'/>Briefly then I have not the means. I have but
+three ships ready for sea, and not one of these can
+I spare.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The Emperor can command their services,</q> said
+Julian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have received no instructions from my master,</q>
+returned the Count, <q>to use them except for the
+protection of the coast.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You have them now,</q> said Julian, <q>and you will
+refuse to obey them at your peril.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My commission is made out by Flavius Honorius
+Augustus, and I know no other to whom I can yield
+obedience.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A pause followed this plain speech; the party on
+board with Constantine debated the situation with
+some heat, Julian maintaining that the Count must
+be brought to reason, the others being anxious to
+keep on good terms with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>A single cohort can bring him to order,</q> cried the
+young Prince.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Can drive him out of the villa doubtless,</q> said
+the more prudent Constans, <q>but not bring us an
+inch nearer getting the ships.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We may at least count on your friendship,</q> said
+Constans, Julian retiring sulkily from the negotiations;
+<q>you will not hinder the passage.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have nothing to do with the disposition of the
+legions,</q> answered the Count, <q>and, as I said
+<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/>before, have no instructions except to defend the
+shore against the Pirates.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>His Majesty will not be ungrateful,</q> said
+Constans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I owe no duty but to Honorius, and desire no
+favour but from him,</q> was the Count’s reply, and the
+conference was at an end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result was as favourable as Constantine could
+have expected. At least no opposition would be
+offered. Preparations for the passage were accordingly
+hurried on with all possible speed. All the
+towns along the coast were put under requisition
+for all the shipping that they could furnish, and, for
+the most part, were glad enough to answer the call.
+Whatever might happen in the future, it would be
+at least something to be rid of such troublesome
+neighbours. If other legions were to come, they
+might be more orderly and well-behaved. If these
+were to be the last, perhaps this would be a change
+for the better. Every one accordingly exerted himself
+to the utmost to supply the demand for transports.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a curious medley of vessels that assembled
+in the Great Harbour in the late autumn for the
+embarkation of the army. Old ships of war that had
+lain high and dry from before the memory of man
+were hastily pitched over and launched. Merchant
+vessels of every kind were there, from the huge hulks
+<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/>that were accustomed to carry heavy cargoes of metal
+from Cornwall, to the light barks that carried on the
+trade in wine, olive oil, fruit, and such light goods
+between Armorica and Britain; even the fishing
+vessels from the villages along the coast were pressed
+into the service, and laden to the full, sometimes even
+to a dangerous depth, with military material and all
+the miscellaneous property with which an army of
+twenty thousand men would be likely to be encumbered.
+The greater part of this force had been collected
+at the Camp of the Great Harbour, which
+indeed was overflowing, and more than overflowing,
+with troops. But the garrisons that were situated to
+the eastward, as at Regnum<note place="foot">Chichester.</note> and Anderida,<note place="foot">Pevensey.</note> were
+to join the fleet as it sailed, while those from the
+inland and coast stations of South and Eastern
+Britain were to make the best of their way to the
+Portus Lemanus. This was to be the rendezvous
+for the whole force, and the point for commencing
+the passage. The longer voyage, direct from the
+Great Harbour to the mouth of the Sequana (the
+Seine) or the projecting peninsula, now known as
+Manche, was dreaded, for the Channel had even a
+worse reputation in those days than it has now. It
+was arranged, accordingly, that the flotilla should sail
+along the coast as far as the Portus Lemanus, and cross
+<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/>from thence to Bononia.<note place="foot">Boulogne.</note> The first half of November
+had passed before the preparations for departure were
+completed, and there were some who advised Constantine
+to delay his passage till the following spring.
+That he knew to be impossible; it was better to run
+any risk of storm or shipwreck than to face the winter
+with an ill-paid and discontented army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At early dawn, on the fifteenth of the month, the
+embarkation began, the munitions of war, stores, and
+other baggage having been already, as far as was
+possible, put on board of the heavier transports.
+The water-gate of the camp was thrown open, and at
+this Constantine, his sons, and his principal officers
+took their place. The priest who served the church
+within the camp offered a few prayers, and solemnly
+blessed the eagle of the Second Legion, which constituted,
+as has been said, the main part of the forces
+in the camp. When this ceremony was concluded,
+Constantine addressed the army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>By this gate in the days of our ancestors Vespasian
+led forth the Second Legion, then, as now, one
+of the chief ornaments and supports of the Empire,
+to execute the judgment of God on the rebellious
+nation of the Jews, and to receive before long as his
+reward the Empire of Rome. By this gate I lead
+you forth, worthy successors as you are of those
+<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/>who conquered with him, to a service not less
+honourable, and certain to receive no less distinguished
+a reward. Let my name, which recommended
+me to your favour, and this place, already
+famous as the starting-point of victorious armies,
+be accepted as omens of success. Comrades, follow
+me on a march which has for its end nothing less
+than the Capitol of Rome.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He then took his seat in a boat manned with a
+picked crew, and, amidst shouts of applause from the
+assembled soldiers and spectators, was rowed to the
+ship, one of the few war galleys of recent construction
+that were to be found in the fleet. Then began
+the embarkation of the troops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a singular scene. The news had spread
+with the greatest rapidity through the whole countryside,
+and the native population had crowded to
+witness the departure. Every point from which
+the sight could be seen was occupied by spectators.
+Even the slopes of Portsdown were thickly dotted by
+them. Nearer the camp the emotion and excitement
+were intense. A regiment that marches out of a town
+in which it has been in garrison for a year or two
+leaves many sad hearts behind it; even so brief a
+space is long enough for the binding of many ties.
+But the legions had been almost permanent residents
+in Britain, and they were bound to its people by
+bonds many and close. And this people was not, it
+<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/>must be remembered, the self-restrained English
+race, so chary of sighs and groans, and so much
+ashamed of tears, but a race of excitable Celts,
+always ready to express all, and even more, than
+they felt. Wives, children, kinsfolk, friends were now
+to be left behind, and probably left for ever—for who
+could believe that the legions, whose departure had
+been threatened so long, could ever come back?
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Departure of the Legions.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig104"/><figure url="images/i_123.jpg" rend="w100">
+<index index="fig" level1="The Departure of the Legions"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Departure of the Legions.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Departure of the Legions</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The embarkation went on. Some of the lighters
+could be brought close to the shore, and were
+boarded by gangways. To others of heavier
+burden the men had to be carried in boats. A
+strong guard had been posted to keep the place of
+embarkation clear. But the guard was powerless, or
+perhaps unwilling—for who could deal harshly with
+women and children so situated?—to check the rush
+of the excited crowd. Some of the women threw
+themselves on their departing husbands and lovers,
+clasped them round their necks, or hung to their
+knees. Others sat on the shore rocking themselves
+to and fro, or frozen by the extremity of their grief into
+stillness; some uttered shrill cries; others were sunk
+in a speechless despair. Nor were there wanting scenes
+of a less harrowing kind. Not a few of the departing
+soldiers were breaking other obligations besides those
+of the heart. Creditors were to be seen clinging to
+debtors whom they saw vanishing out of their sight.
+The Jew trader from the village outside the camp
+<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/>seemed to be in despair. Probably he had secured
+himself fairly well against the consequences of an
+event which he must have been shrewd enough to
+foresee; but to judge from the bitterness and frequency
+of his appeals he was hopelessly ruined. He
+swore by the patriarchs and prophets that he had
+always carried on his business at a loss, and that if
+his debts were not now settled in full he should be
+reduced to beggary. The tavern-keepers were also
+busy, running to and fro, getting, or trying to get,
+payment of scores from customers whom they had
+trusted. There were others who had something to
+sell, some provisions for the voyage, a cloak, or a
+mantle, and offered it as a bargain—not, however,
+without a margin of profit—to dear friends with
+whom they were not likely to have dealings again.
+Other noisy claimants for attention were young
+Britons who wanted to enlist. For days past these
+had been flocking into the camp, and now that their
+last chance was about to disappear, they became importunate
+in the extreme. The numbers of the legions
+could have been almost doubled from these candidates
+for service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly, as ship after ship received its complement
+of men, the turmoil on the shore lessened, and about
+sunset the embarkation was completed. The weather
+was beautifully calm, a light wind blowing from the
+land during the day, and even this falling as the
+<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/>light declined. When the moon rose—the time of
+the full had been chosen for the embarkation—the
+sea was almost calm. Then, amidst a great cry of
+<q>Farewell,</q> from the shore, the fleet slowly moved
+down the harbour. All night, making the most of
+the favourable weather, it pursued its way along the
+coast, being joined as it went by other detachments.
+At the Portus Lemanus it found the fleet which
+carried the garrisons of the eastern stations ready to
+start, and the whole made its way without hindrance
+across the Channel to Bononia, having as prosperous
+a voyage as had the legions which more than four
+hundred and fifty years before Cæsar had brought to
+the island.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="10" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="X. Dangers Ahead"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="X. Dangers Ahead"/>
+<head>CHAPTER X.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">DANGERS AHEAD.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The winter that followed the departure of the legions
+was a busy time with the Count. He was now
+almost the only representative of Roman power in
+Southern Britain, and the villa on the island became
+a place of considerable importance. A military force
+of some strength was gathered there. Constantine’s
+enterprise was not universally popular, and many
+had taken any chance that offered itself of escaping
+from it. Some had reached, or very nearly reached,
+the end of their time of service, and claimed their
+discharge; others were known to be loyal to Rome,
+and were allowed to retire. Not a few of those who
+found themselves without home or employment, and
+did not happen to have friends or kinsfolk in Britain,
+rallied to the Count. The families, too, of some that
+had gone with the legions were glad to claim such
+shelter and protection as the neighbourhood of the
+villa could give. Among these were the wife and
+<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/>daughters of the Centurion Decius; the old
+mother had steadily refused to accompany them,
+and, with an aged dependent of nearly the same age,
+continued to occupy the house near the deserted
+camp. It was an anxious matter with the Count
+what was to be done with these helpless people.
+While things were quiet they could live safely, if
+not very comfortably, in the neighbouring village;
+but if trouble were to come—and there were several
+quarters from which it might come—they would
+have to be sheltered somewhere in the villa. This
+never could be made into a really strong place; but
+it might serve well enough for a time and against
+ordinary attack. Some of the outbuildings and
+domestic offices were fortified as well as the position
+admitted; such material of war as could be got was
+accumulated, and provisions also were stored. The
+most reliable resource, however, was in the ships of
+war. These were not, as was usual, drawn up on
+the beach for the winter, but were kept at anchor,
+ready for immediate use.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor were these precautions unnecessary, for indeed,
+as we shall see, mischief of a very formidable kind
+was brewing, and indeed had been brewing ever
+since the departure of the legions, and even before
+that event. And it was mischief of a kind of which
+it may safely be affirmed that neither the Count nor
+any Roman official, had any notion. Britain, to
+<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/>all appearance, had for many generations been
+thoroughly subdued. Any Roman, if he had been
+told that there was any danger of rebellion among
+the Britons, would have laughed the suggestion to
+scorn. The legions, indeed, had often been mutinous
+and turbulent, and their generals ambitious and unscrupulous.
+The island indeed had gained so bad a
+reputation for loyalty to the Empire that it had been
+called the mother of tyrants, by <q>tyrant</q> being
+meant <q>usurper.</q> But whenever Rome had been
+defied, she had been defied by her own troops. The
+Britons had enlisted in the rebel armies, but they
+had never attempted to assert anything like British
+independence. And yet the tradition of independence
+and liberty had always been kept alive. The Celtic
+race is singularly tenacious of such ideas, and also
+singularly skilful in concealing them from those who
+are its masters for the time, and the Britons were
+Celts of the purest blood. Caradoc<note place="foot">Commonly known by his Romanized name of Caractacus.</note> and Boadicea,
+and other heroes and heroines of British independence,
+were household words in many families which
+were yet thoroughly Roman in spirit and manners.
+Just as the Christianized Jews of Spain, though to
+all appearances devout worshippers at church, still
+clung in secret to the rites of their own worship, so
+these loyal subjects of the Empire, as all the world
+<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/>believed them, cherished in their hearts the memory
+of the free Britain of the past and the hope of a free
+Britain in the future. And the time was now at
+hand when their leaders thought that this hope
+might be fulfilled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Shanklin Chine of to-day is not a little
+different from the Shanklin Chine of fifteen hundred
+years ago. It has, so to speak, been subdued and
+civilized. Now it is a very pretty and pleasant wood;
+then it was an almost impenetrable thicket, a noted
+lair of elk and wild boar. Inaccessible, however, as
+it seemed to any one who surveyed it from above,
+there was for those who were in the secret a way of
+approaching its recesses. A little path, the beginning
+of which it was almost impossible to discover without
+a guide, led up from the sea-end of the ravine to a
+hut which had been constructed about half way up
+the ascent. It consisted of a single chamber, about
+fourteen feet long, ten broad, and not more than
+seven in height, and was constructed of roughly-hewn
+logs, the interstices of which were filled with
+clay. The walls, however, were not visible, for they
+were covered with hangings of a dark blue material,
+something like serge. The floor was strewn with
+rushes. In the centre of the apartment there was a
+hearth, having over it an aperture in the roof, not,
+however, opening directly into the outer air, by which
+the smoke might escape. On this hearth two or
+<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/>three logs were smouldering with a dull heat which
+it would have been easy to fan into flame. There
+were two windows unglazed, but closed with rough
+wooden lattices.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On three settles, roughly but strongly made of
+oak, which, with a rudely-polished slab of wood that
+served for table, constituted all the furniture of the
+hut, sat three confederates, and behind each stood a
+stalwart attendant armed with a wicker shield which
+hung from his neck, and a long Gallic sword. The
+three chiefs were curiously different in appearance.
+One, as far, at least, as dress and manner were concerned,
+might have passed anywhere for a genuine
+Roman. He was taller, it is true, than the Romans
+commonly were; and his complexion, though dark
+rather than fair, had a ruddier hue than was often
+seen under the more glowing skin of Italy; still he
+might have walked down the Sacred Way or the
+Saburra<note place="foot">Streets of Rome.</note> unnoticed save as an exceptionally handsome
+man, of that fair beauty which the southern
+nations especially admire. His hair was carefully
+curled and perfumed; his face as carefully shaven,
+and showing no trace of beard, moustache, or
+whisker. His <anchor id="corr111"/><corr sic="oga">toga</corr> of brilliant white, his long-sleeved
+tunic of some dark purple stuff, his elegant
+sandals, were all such as a dandy of the Palatine
+<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/>might have worn. The one thing which would have
+been singular in a Roman street was the under-garment
+reaching to his knees, which he had
+assumed in consideration of the cold and wet of the
+insular climate. His fingers were loaded with rings,
+one of them a sapphire of unusual size, on which
+was engraved a likeness of the feeble features of the
+Emperor Honorius; on his left wrist might be seen
+a bracelet of gold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If Martianus—for that was the name of the personage
+whom we have been describing—might have
+been easily mistaken for a Roman, the chief who sat
+facing him on the opposite side of the hearth was as
+manifestly a Briton. His hair fell over his shoulders
+in long natural curls which suggested no suspicion
+of the barber’s or the perfumer’s art. His upper lip
+was covered with a moustache which drooped to his
+chin. His body was covered with a sleeveless coat
+skilfully made of otters’ skins. Both arms were
+bare, and were plentifully painted with woad. On his
+legs he wore a garment something like the <q>trews</q>
+or short trowsers which the Highland regiments sometimes
+wear in lieu of the kilt; his feet were enveloped
+in rude boots of hide which were laced round his
+ankles. His ornaments were a massive chain of
+twisted gold, which he wore round his neck, and a
+single ring, rudely wrought of British gold, in which
+was set a British pearl of immense size but indifferent
+<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/>hue. He had a Roman name, as he could on occasion
+wear Roman costume, and speak the Latin
+tongue. In the present company he was known and
+addressed by his native name of Ambiorix.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: British Conspirators.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig112"/><figure url="images/i_133.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="British Conspirators"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>British Conspirators.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>British Conspirators</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The third conspirator had the appearance of a
+middle-class provincial. He wore the tunic that
+formed part of a Roman’s ordinary dress, but not the
+toga, which was replaced by a garment somewhat
+resembling a short cloak. But under the garb of a
+well-to-do townsman was concealed a very remarkable
+career and character. Carausius—for this was
+the name by which he was generally known—was one
+of the last representatives of the ancient Druid priesthood.
+The glory and power of this remarkable caste,
+which had once held itself superior to the kings of
+Britain, were departed. Indeed, it was almost
+dangerous to hold the ancient faith, and practise the
+ancient worship. Since the publication of the edict
+by which Constantine had made Christianity the
+Imperial religion, the adherents of the old religion
+had become fewer and feebler. Some of the chiefs
+and nobles still held it in secret, or were, at least,
+ready to return to it, if it should ever again become
+powerful; but its adherents were mostly to be found
+among the poorer classes. Even these in the towns
+were, in name at least, mostly Christians; it was
+only the dwellers in the remoter and wilder parts of
+the country that remained faithful. But these
+<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/>scattered adherents revered the name of Carausius,
+who was believed to possess all the wisdom of his
+class, and was indeed credited with mysterious
+powers over nature and the gift of prophecy. From
+the Roman population all this was a secret, and the
+secret was remarkably well kept. Carausius was
+supposed to be nothing more than an ordinary
+farmer. His Roman neighbours would have been
+astonished in the last degree if they could have seen
+him presiding at one of the Druid ceremonies, in his
+white robes curiously embroidered with mystic
+figures, his chaplet of golden oak-leaves, and the
+headless spear, which was to him what the crozier
+was to a Christian bishop.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="11" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XI. The Priest’s Demand"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XI. The Priest's Demand"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XI.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE PRIEST’S DEMAND.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+<q>So the time has come at last,</q> said Ambiorix;
+<q>at last the yoke is broken from off the neck of
+Britain. Blessed be the day that saw the legions of
+the oppressor depart!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> replied Martianus, <q>but will they not
+return? They have gone before; but have they not
+come back? I take it these Romans get too much
+out of us to let us go willingly.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have no fear of their return. If Honorius can
+make terms with this Constantine and his army, he
+will never send them back here; he wants them too
+much at home. He has got King Alaric to reckon
+with, and he has been long since drawing every
+soldier that he can from the provinces into Italy.
+No, depend upon it, at last Britain is <anchor id="corr115"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">free.</corr></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Free; yes, if it has not forgotten how to move.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We haven’t all learnt to play the slave,</q> said
+Ambiorix fiercely, as he started from his seat.
+<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/><q>There are some who have not sold their birthright
+for the delights of the bath and the banquet, and who
+are too proud to ape the manners of their masters.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Peace, my son,</q> interposed the aged priest;
+<q>Martianus is not the less able to help the cause of
+our country because he seems to be the friend of
+those who oppress it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>These are but the wild words of youth, father,</q>
+said Martianus. <q>By a wise man they are forgotten
+as soon as they are heard. But let us hear what
+Ambiorix has to tell us about the force which we
+can bring into the field.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young chief entered into details which it is
+impossible to reproduce. Preparations had been
+made over nearly the whole of Britain, though the
+more northerly parts, owing to the perpetual attacks
+of their neighbours the Picts, had little to contribute
+in the way of help. Ambiorix knew how many men
+could be relied upon in every district; he was acquainted
+with the disposition of the representatives
+of the chief British families; he knew what each
+would want for himself, to whom he would be prepared
+to yield precedence, from whom he would
+claim precedence for himself. All his views and
+calculations were those of a sanguine temper; but
+he certainly could show—on paper at least, as we
+should say—a very respectable amount of strength.
+When he had finished his account of the resources
+<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/>of Britain, Martianus, who, whatever his faults, had
+at least a genuine admiration for ability, held out his
+hand—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>This is wonderful!</q> he said. <q>You have
+a true genius for rule. That you should keep the
+threads of so complicated a business all so distinct
+is simply wonderful. You certainly give me hopes
+that I never had before.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I never doubted for a moment,</q> returned the
+young man, <q>but that when this Roman incubus
+was removed all would go well. Besides, who is
+there to attack us? We have no enemies.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No enemies!</q> replied the other, in a tone of
+surprise. <q>Do you forget the Saxons by sea and the
+Picts by land.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I believe that neither will trouble us. They are
+not our enemies, but the enemies of Rome. They
+have harassed—they were quite right in harassing—the
+oppressors of the world: they will respect, I am
+sure, the liberties of a free people. When Britain
+is as independent as they are we shall be friends.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus could not help smiling sarcastically.
+<q>That is very fine. One would think that you had
+been a pupil in one of the schools of rhetoric which
+you so much despise. The most famous of our
+declaimers could not have put it better. But I am
+afraid that there will be some difficulty in explaining
+all this to them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>In any case, we can defend ourselves,</q> returned
+the young chief, <q>though I do not think that the
+need will occur.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let us hope not,</q> said Martianus, but his tone
+was not confident or cheerful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were, it may easily be supposed, not a few
+other subjects for discussion, and the conversation
+lasted for a long time, the young chief showing
+throughout such a mastery of details as greatly
+impressed his companions. When he had finished
+a brief silence followed. It was broken by the
+priest. There was a special solemnity in his tone,
+which seemed to claim an authority for his utterances,
+quite different from the position that he had taken
+up while politics or military matters were being discussed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My children,</q> he said, <q>this is a grave matter.
+The weal or woe of Britain for many generations is
+at stake. If we fail, we may well be undone for
+ever. You cannot enter on so great an enterprise
+without the favour of the gods, and the favour of the
+gods is not easily to be won. For many years they
+have lacked the sacrifice which they most prize. I
+myself, though I have completed my threescore years
+and ten, have but once only been privileged so to
+honour them. The time has come for this sacrifice
+to be offered once more. Have I your consent, my
+children? But indeed I need not ask. This is a
+<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/>matter in which I cannot be mistaken, and from
+which I cannot go back.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young chief nodded assent, but said nothing.
+He was evidently disturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What do you mean, father?</q> he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The sacrifice which the gods most prize,</q> answered
+the old man, <q>is also that which is most
+prized by men. The most perfect offering which we
+can present to them is the most perfect creature they
+themselves have made. Sheep and oxen may suffice
+for common needs; but at such a time as this, when
+Britain itself is at stake, we must appease the gods
+with the blood of <hi rend='smallcaps'>Man</hi>.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus grew pale. <q>It is not possible,</q> he
+stammered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Not only possible, but necessary,</q> calmly returned
+the priest. <q>Our fathers were commonly content
+to offer those who had offended against the
+laws; but in times of special necessity they chose
+the noblest victims. Even our kings have given up
+their sons and their daughters. So it must be now.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this was absolutely horrible to Martianus.
+He did not believe indeed in Christianity, but it
+had influenced him as it had influenced all the world.
+Whether he was at heart much the better may be
+doubted. But he was softer, more refined; he shrank
+from visible horrors, from open cruelty—though he
+could be cruelly selfish on occasion—and from blood<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/>shed, though he would not stretch out a finger to save
+a neighbour’s life. And what the priest said was as
+new and unexpected to him as it was hideous. He
+had no idea that this savage faith had survived in
+Britain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Father,</q> he said, <q>such a thing would ruin us.
+Such a deed would raise the whole country against
+us. A human sacrifice! It is monstrous!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You are right so far,</q> returned the priest, <q>the
+country must not know it. Britain is utterly corrupted
+by this new faith, a superstition fit only for
+women, and children, and slaves; and I don’t doubt
+but that it would lift up its hands in horror at this
+holy solemnity. But there is no need that it should
+know it. It must be done secretly—so much I
+concede.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And the victim?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well, the days are passed when a Druid could lay
+his command on Britain’s noblest, and be obeyed
+without a murmur. The victim must be taken by
+force, and secretly.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And have you any such victim in your thoughts?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priest hesitated for a moment; but it was
+only for a moment. He resumed in a low voice,
+which it evidently cost him an effort to keep steady—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have not forgotten the necessity of a choice;
+indeed for months past it has been without ceasing
+in my mind, and now the choice is made. The victim
+<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/>whom the gods should have is a maiden, beautiful
+and pure. She is of noble descent, though her father
+was compelled, by poverty and the oppression of the
+Roman tyrants, to follow a humble occupation.
+Thus she is worthy to be offered. And yet no true
+Briton will regret her fate, for she has deserted the
+faith of her ancestors for the base superstition of the
+Cross.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And her name, father?</q> said both of the conspirators
+together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again the priest hesitated; a close observer might
+even have seen a trace of agitation in that stern
+countenance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It is Carna,</q> he said, after a pause, which raised
+the suspense of his hearers almost to agony. <q>It is
+Carna, adopted daughter of Count Ælius.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he looked steadfastly at his companions’ faces,
+as if he would have said, <q>I dare you to challenge
+my decision.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two started simultaneously to their feet. Not
+long before, young Ambiorix, who was then not yet
+possessed by the fanatical patriotism which now
+mastered him, had admired her beauty and sweetness
+of manner, and had had day-dreams of her as
+the goddess of his own hearth. Then a stronger love
+had come in the place of the old. It was not of
+woman, but of Britain free among the nations, as
+she had been before the restless eagles of the South
+<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/>had found her, that he thought day and night.
+Still, he could not calmly hear her doomed to a
+horrible death, and for a moment he was ready to
+rebel against the sentence of the priest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The older man was terribly agitated. He had
+been for many years on the friendliest footing with
+the Count, a frequent guest at his table, almost an
+intimate of the house. And Carna was an especial
+favourite with him. Her sweetness, her simplicity,
+and a pathetic resemblance that she bore to a dead
+daughter of his own, touched him on the best side of
+his nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Priest,</q> he thundered, <q>it shall not be. I would
+sooner the whole scheme came to ruin; I would
+sooner die. A curse on your hideous worship!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priest had now crushed down the risings of
+human feelings which his training had not sufficed
+to eradicate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You have sworn by the gods,</q> he said, <q>and you
+cannot go back. If you do not hesitate to betray
+Britain, at least you will not dare to betray yourself.
+You know the power I can command. Go back from
+your promise to follow my leading, and you are a
+dead man. You are faithful?</q> he went on, turning
+to Ambiorix. <q>You do not draw back?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young chief returned a muttered assent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The older man, meanwhile, was in a miserable condition
+of indecision and terror. Unbeliever as he was,
+<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/>having long since given up the faith of his fathers,
+and never accepted the doctrine of the church but with
+the emptiest formality, he had not put from his breast
+the superstitious fear that commonly lingers when
+belief is gone. And he knew that the priest’s
+threatened vengeance on himself was no empty boast.
+The strength of Druidism had passed, but it still had
+fanatics at its command, whose daggers would find
+their way sooner or later to his heart. The cold,
+cynical look with which he had entered on the
+conference had given place to mingled looks of rage,
+remorse, and fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You must have your own way,</q> he muttered,
+sullenly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My son,</q> said the priest, in a tone which he
+made studiously cautious, <q>what is one life in comparison
+with the happiness and glory of our nation?
+You, I know, would shrink from no sacrifice, and,
+believe me,</q> he added in a lower voice, for he had to
+play off the two rivals against each other, <q>believe
+me, whatever sacrifice you make shall not miss its
+reward.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="12" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XII. Lost"/><index index="pdf" level1="XII. Lost"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">LOST.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+Carna was known all over the neighbourhood of the
+villa as the best and kindest of nurses, always ready
+to help in cases of sickness, and able to command
+the services of the household physician where
+her own medical skill was at fault. It was therefore
+with no surprise that the morning after the consultation,
+recorded in the last chapter, she was told
+that her help was wanted in a case of urgent need.
+The woman who had brought the message was a
+stranger. She was the daughter, she said, of an old
+woman living at Uricum, a small hamlet about four
+miles from the villa. She had happened to come the
+day before on a visit to her mother, and found her
+very ill; they had no medicines in the house, and
+indeed should not have known how to use them if
+they had. Would the lady come, and, if she thought
+proper, bring the physician with her? The place
+<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/>mentioned was on the limits of the district with
+which Carna was acquainted. It could only be
+approached by a path through the forest; and the
+girl had not visited it more than two or three times
+in her life. She had a vague remembrance, however,
+of the patient’s name. On sending for the
+physician, it was found that he was out, having been
+called away, Carna was told, to a case which, he had
+said before starting, would probably occupy him for
+the greater part of the day. On hearing this, she
+made up her mind to start without waiting for him.
+The illness was very probably of a simple kind,
+though it might be violent in degree. Very likely it
+was a case in which the nurse would be more wanted
+than the doctor. She provided herself with two or
+three simple remedies which she learnt to employ in
+the ordinary maladies of the country, of which
+feverish colds were the most common, and started,
+taking with her as companion and protector a stately
+Milesian dog, or mastiff, who was always delighted
+to play the part of a guard in her country walks.
+Her own pet dog, a long-haired little creature, something
+of the Spanish kind, whom she had intended
+to leave at home, contrived to free himself from
+the custody to which he had been assigned, and
+stealthily followed her, cunningly keeping out of
+sight till the party had gone too far for him to be
+conveniently sent back. He then showed himself
+<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/>with extravagant gestures of contrition, was tenderly
+reproached, pardoned, and allowed to go on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the walk the messenger was curiously
+silent, and answered all Carna’s questions about
+her mother and her affairs in the very briefest fashion.
+All that could be got from her was that she lived on
+the main land, about twenty miles inland, in a
+northerly direction, and that since her marriage, now
+twenty years ago, she had seen very little of her
+mother. When they reached the outskirts of the
+hamlet she pointed out her mother’s house, and,
+making an excuse that she had an errand for a neighbour,
+disappeared. Carna, seeing nothing but a
+certain surliness of temper, possibly only shyness,
+in her companion, went on without suspicion. She
+reached the house, and knocked at the door. There
+was no answer. She knocked again. Still all was
+silence. Looking a little more closely at the place
+she could see no signs of habitation, no smoke, for
+instance, making its way out of the thatch (for
+chimneys did not yet exist, at least, in the poorer
+dwellings). The next thing was to peep in at the
+window, a wooden lattice, which had been left
+partially open. The room into which she looked
+was perfectly bare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A suspicion rushed into her mind that she had
+been tricked, and that danger of some unknown kind
+was at hand. The strange sympathy which often
+<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/>makes the dog so quick to understand the feelings of
+man, made the big mastiff, Malcho, uneasy. With
+a low growl, showing uneasiness rather than fear or
+anger, he ranged himself at her side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As she stood considering what was next to be done,
+a party of six men, one of whom led a horse, issued
+from the wood which bordered the little garden of
+the cottage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Can you tell me where I shall find one Utta, who,
+I am told, is sick, and wishful to see me? Can it be
+that I have mistaken the house?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Utta, my lady,</q> said one of the party, <q>is not
+to be found any more. She died a week since.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But,</q> said Carna, with rising anger, <q>a woman,
+who said that she was her daughter, told me, not
+more than two hours ago, that she was sick, and
+desired to see me. Why have I been brought here
+for nothing?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Pardon me, lady,</q> returned the first speaker, in
+a tone in which respect and command were curiously
+blended, <q>but you have not been brought for nothing.
+You have a better work to do than ministering to a
+sick old woman.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he spoke he moved forwards. But he had not
+taken two steps before the great dog, who had been
+watching the speakers, we might say almost listening
+to their talk with the most eager attention, sprang
+furiously at him, and laid him prostrate on the ground.
+<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/>His companions rushed to rescue their leader from
+the dog and to seize the girl. They did not accomplish
+either of their objects with impunity. The
+gallant creature turned from one assailant to
+another with a strength and a fury which made him
+a most formidable antagonist, and he had inflicted
+some frightful wounds before he was made senseless
+by repeated blows from the weapons of the assailants.
+Nor was Carna overpowered without a struggle.
+Weapons she had none, except a little dagger, meant
+for use in needlework, which hung at her side; but
+she used this not without effect. She clenched her
+fist, and dealt two or three blows, of which her
+antagonists bore the marks upon their faces for days
+to come. Finally she wrenched herself from the
+grasp of the assailants as a last resource, and endeavoured
+to fly, but it was a hopeless effort. Before
+she had run more than a few yards she was overtaken.
+Her captors used no more violence than they could
+help. Probably had they been less unwilling to hurt
+her, she could not have resisted so long. Finding
+her so strong and so determined, they were obliged
+to bind her hands and feet; but they did this with all
+the gentleness compatible with an evident resolve to
+make her bonds secure. In the midst of her terror and
+distress Carna could not help observing with astonishment
+that the cords which they used were of silk.
+Then finding herself absolutely helpless, she said—
+</p>
+
+<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do not bind me as though I were a slave. On
+the faith of a Christian, I will not attempt to
+escape.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Lady, we trust you,</q> said the leader of the party,
+and at the same time directed one of his companions
+to unbind the ropes. <q>Be comforted,</q> he went on;
+<q>we do not intend you harm; on the contrary, high
+honour is in store for you.</q>
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Capture of Carna.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig128"/><figure url="images/i_151.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="The Capture of Carna"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Capture of Carna.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Capture of Carna</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Carna was scarcely reassured by these mysterious
+words, but she had now recovered her calmness.
+Summoning up all her courage—and it was far
+beyond even the average of a singularly fearless race—she
+intimated to her captors that she was ready to
+follow them without further delay. They mounted
+her upon the horse, which, as has been said, one of
+them was holding, and started in a northerly direction.
+Two of the party had been so severely injured by
+the hound, that they were obliged to stay behind.
+One of the others held the bridle of the horse, and
+led him forward at an ambling pace; the others
+followed behind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The way of the party lay entirely along rough
+forest-paths which seemed from their appearance,
+often grown over as they were with branches and
+creepers, to be but seldom traversed. Night had
+fallen some hours before they reached the northern
+coast of the island. Their way had lain in a north-westerly
+direction, and they emerged near to the
+<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/>arm of the sea now known as Fishbourne Creek.
+Here they found a rowing boat in waiting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna’s captors now handed over their charge to
+the boat party, which was under the command of the
+young chief whom we know by the name of Ambiorix.
+He received his prisoner with a dignified civility,
+made her as comfortable as he could with rugs and
+wraps in the stern of the boat, and then gave orders
+to start. The journey across the channel, which
+we now know as the Solent, occupied some hours,
+though the night was calm, and the ebbing tide
+mostly in the rowers’ favour, the shortest route not
+being taken, but a north-westerly direction still followed.
+The morning was just beginning to break
+when the coast was reached near the spot where
+Lymington now stands. The party hurriedly disembarked,
+put the girl on a rough litter which they
+had with them in the boat, and carried her to a dwelling
+some half-mile inland, and surrounded by the
+woods which here almost touched high-water mark.
+Carna found a tolerable chamber allotted to her,
+where she was waited upon by an elderly woman
+who seemed bent on doing everything that she could
+for her comfort. The girl was of the elastic temper
+which soon recovers itself even under the most
+depressing circumstances. She had the wisdom, too,
+to feel that, if she was to help herself, she must keep
+up her strength to the very best of her power. She
+<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/>did not refuse the simple but well-cooked meal
+which her attendant served to her, after she had
+enjoyed the refreshment of a bath. And then overpowered
+by the fatigue of a journey which had lasted
+not much less than twenty-four hours, she sank into
+a deep sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was dark when her attendant gently roused her
+and told her that in an hour she would be required
+to resume her journey, in which, as Carna heard
+with some pleasure, she was herself to be her companion.
+A start was made about three hours before
+midnight, and the journey was continued till an
+hour before dawn. This plan was followed till their
+destination was reached. The party was evidently
+careful to keep its movements secret. Their way
+lay as before, by woodland paths, leading them
+through the district now known as the New Forest.
+They travelled but slowly, more slowly indeed than
+they had done on the island, for the paths were still
+rougher, and, in fact, almost undistinguishable.
+Carna, too, was the only one of the company that
+had a horse, and her female attendant, who was
+neither young nor active, could manage but a few
+miles at a time. It was the morning of the second
+day after they had left the coast before they reached
+the edge of the great forest known as the Natanleah.
+Some five miles to the west lay Sorbiodunum, now
+Salisbury. This was a Roman town of some
+impor<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/>tance, and had of course to be avoided by the party,
+who, indeed, were anxious, as Carna could gather
+from a few scattered words that were let drop in her
+presence, as to the way in which the rest of their
+journey was to be accomplished. The country was
+open, cultivated, and comparatively populous, the
+inhabitants being, for the most part, thoroughly
+Latinized. Two Roman roads, too, had to be crossed
+before their destination was reached.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The day was spent as usual in concealment and
+repose. An hour after nightfall the party started.
+They had now managed to procure another horse for
+Carna’s attendant; and as the ground was fairly
+level, unenclosed, and, at that time of year, unencumbered
+by crops, they moved rapidly onwards.
+The moon had now risen, and Carna, for the first
+time, could at least see where they were going. She
+was still, however, at a loss to know what part of
+the country they had reached. At midnight a halt
+was called, and the leader of the party proceeded to
+blindfold the captive’s eyes. But if he wanted to
+keep her in ignorance of the locality, he was a little
+too late. The girl’s quick sight had caught a glimpse
+in the distance of the huge circle of earth walls, now
+known as Amesbury. She had never seen the place,
+but it was known to her in the chronicles of her
+people. There, as she had read with a patriotism
+which all her Roman surroundings had not been
+<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/>able to quench, her countrymen had more than once
+held at bay the legions of Rome. She knew roughly
+the situation of the famous camp of the Belgæ, and
+she was sure that these massive fortifications, just
+seen for a moment in the moonlight, could be none
+others than those of which she had read so often.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the bandage was removed, she found herself
+in a chamber larger and more comfortably
+furnished than any she had hitherto occupied on her
+journey. Part of the palace of one of the old kings
+of the Belgæ was still standing, and the travellers
+had taken up their quarters in it. The Amesbury
+camp was indeed as safe a place as they could have
+chosen. It was a spot which no Roman, much less
+a Briton living under Roman protection, would care
+to visit. The whole countryside believed that it
+was haunted by the spirits of the great chiefs and
+warriors who had been buried within its precincts,
+and of the slaves who had been killed to furnish
+them with service and attendance in the unseen
+world. The scanty remnant who still clung to the
+Druid faith found their account in encouraging these
+superstitions. More than one appearance had been
+arranged to terrify sceptical or curious persons who
+had been rash enough to visit the vast circle of
+embankments. For many years before the time of
+our story the enclosure had been untrodden except
+by the few who were in the secret of the Druid
+<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/>initiation. Here, then, the party waited securely
+with their prisoner till the time should come for the
+solemn visit to <hi rend='italic'>Choir Gawr</hi>, the Great Temple,
+known to us by the name of Stonehenge.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="13" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XIII. What Does it Mean?"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XIII. What Does it Mean?"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XIII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">WHAT DOES IT MEAN?</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+It was some time before the prolonged absence of
+Carna caused any alarm at the villa. When she
+was on one of her errands of kindness among the
+sick, it was difficult to say when she would return.
+But in the course of the afternoon the old physician
+returned, not a little wrath that he had been sent on
+a fool’s errand. He had been told that an old farmer,
+living close to the north-west of the island some
+seven or eight miles from the villa was lying dangerously
+ill, and he had found the supposed patient in
+vigorous health, and not a little angry at being
+supposed to be anything else. This seemed to make
+things look somewhat serious. It was easy to guess
+that the trick played upon the physician had something
+to do with the message brought to Carna. It
+was remembered that the stranger had asked that
+he should accompany the girl; it was at least
+possible that she knew him to be out of the way,
+<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/>and that she would not have made the request had
+she not known it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the Count, who had just returned from an
+inspection of his crews, was talking the matter over
+with his daughter and two of his officers who
+happened to be present, a new cause for suspicion
+and alarm presented itself. Carna’s pet dog had
+found its way back with a bit of broken cord round
+its neck, and refused to be comforted, tearing and
+pulling at the dresses of the attendant, and saying,
+as plainly as a dog could say it, that there was
+something wrong, that it must be attended to at
+once, and that he would show them how to do it, if
+they would only follow him. When the rope round
+his neck was examined more closely, it was found
+that it had been gnawed in two. <q>He has been
+tied up and has broken away,</q> said the Count, when
+this was pointed out to him. <q>And if I know the
+dear little thing,</q> broke in Ælia, <q>he would not
+have left his mistress as long as he could be near
+her. I am sure that some mischief has happened to
+her.</q> And this was the general impression, though,
+who could have ventured on so audacious an outrage
+it was impossible to guess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What had happened, as the reader may possibly
+guess, was this. The dog had remained with Carna,
+showing his love, not by fierce resistance like that
+made by his powerful companion, for which he had
+<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/>the sagacity to know he had not sufficient strength,
+but by keeping as close to her as he could. After
+she had been made a prisoner, and while the party
+were preparing for a start, he had been tied to a tree.
+It had been intended that he should go with his
+mistress, for whom, as has been said, her captors
+showed throughout a certain consideration, but it so
+happened that in the bustle of departure he was
+forgotten. When he saw her go and found himself
+left behind, he set himself with all his might to gnaw
+the rope which fastened him to the tree. This task
+took him a long time, for he was an old dog, and his
+teeth were not as good as they had been. Finding
+himself free he started in headlong pursuit, easily
+tracking the party by the scent, but after a while he
+halted; a happy thought—is it possible that, in the
+teeth of all accumulated evidences, any one can
+deny that dogs can think?—a happy <hi rend='italic'>thought</hi> then
+struck his mind, quickened to its utmost capacity
+of intelligence by love and grief. We may translate
+it into human language thus: <q>If I follow her and
+overtake her, what good can I do? but if I go back
+and make the people at home understand that something
+has happened to her, then I can help her to
+some purpose.</q> This was his conclusion, anyhow.
+How he arrived at it only He knows who makes all
+things great and small, and <q>divideth to all severally
+as He will.</q> He turned back, ran with breathless
+<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/>speed to the villa, and did all that could be done,
+short of speaking, to show that his dear mistress was
+in trouble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, however, much time had been lost,
+and the day was already far advanced. Anxious as
+was the Count to set out, he could not but perceive
+that haste might defeat the object of his journey.
+To start when the light was failing would probably
+be to miss important signs of what had happened,
+and, very possibly, to risk success. All preparations,
+however, were made. The men who were to form
+the pursuing party were chosen. As it may be
+supposed, there was no lack of volunteers. There
+was not a single being at the villa or its dependencies
+that would not have given a great deal and borne a
+great deal to see Carna again in safety. But it
+would be possible to take only a small number, if the
+pursuit was to be rapid and effective. Some of the
+most active of the crews of the war-ships accordingly
+were chosen, sailors having then as now a
+cheerful activity that makes them particularly valuable
+members of a land expedition. The Count added
+others from his own establishment, and he determined
+to conduct the party himself. It was arranged
+that it should start the following day, as soon as it
+should be sufficiently light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the slaves who was early astir on the
+following morning found fixed to an outside gate of
+<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/>the villa a document, rudely written and roughly
+folded, which bore the Count’s address. It was
+found, when opened, to contain the following message,
+expressed in ungrammatical Latin, mingled with
+one or two British words:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 2; margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend="italic">She whom you seek is not far off, and may be recovered
+by you if you are wise. If you attempt to regain
+her by force, she will be lost to you altogether. But if
+you wish to have her again with you safely and without
+trouble, send one whom you can trust with a hundred
+gold pieces at midnight three days after the receiving of
+this letter to the place to which she was yesterday fetched.
+Let your messenger go alone, and ask no questions then
+or afterwards.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>So she is held to ransom by a set of brigands,</q>
+cried the Count, when he had read this document.
+<q>I should not have thought that such a thing had
+been possible in Britain. But the times have been
+getting worse and worse. We have long been
+weakening our hold upon the province, and we had
+better clear out altogether, if we cannot do better
+than this. But I suppose we have no choice. We
+must not endanger the dear girl’s life. But now the
+question is about the money. I do not think that I
+have so much in gold in the house; but we can
+borrow somewhere what is <anchor id="corr139"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">wanted.</corr></q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Perhaps,</q> said the Count’s secretary, whom he
+had summoned to consult with him, <q>the peddler
+can help you. He has the reputation of being richer
+than he looks.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> replied the Count, <q>that would be a
+simple way out of the difficulty, if it can be
+managed. Meanwhile, let me see what I have got
+of my own at hand.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was found that eighty gold pieces were forthcoming,
+and the peddler was summoned and asked
+whether he could make up the balance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My Lord,</q> said the man when he was brought
+into the Count’s presence and had heard the story,
+<q>I will make no idle pretence of poverty. I have
+what you want, and it is entirely at your lordship’s
+service. But will you let me see the letter in which
+this demand for ransom is made?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count handed him the document, and he
+examined it long and carefully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> he said, <q>the more I look at this, the
+more I am confirmed in certain suspicions which
+have been growing up in my mind. I have been
+thinking of this matter, and of other matters which
+seem to me to be connected with it all the night. It
+will take long to explain, and, of course, after all I
+may be wrong; still, I think you would do well to
+hear what I have got to say.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count, who had previously had reasons for
+<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/>thinking well of the peddler’s intelligence, bade him
+proceed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>In the first place,</q> continued the man, <q>I think
+this letter is a blind. It is made to look like the
+work of some very rude and ignorant person. But
+the pretence is not well kept up. You will see, if
+you look at the handwriting a little more closely,
+that it is feigned. The writer was perfectly able to
+make it a great deal better than it is, if he had so
+chosen, and he has sometimes forgotten his part.
+Some of the letters, some even of the words, particularly
+of the small words, about which he would
+naturally be less careful, are quite well-formed.
+Now a really bad writer, I mean one who writes
+badly because he does not know how to write
+well, is always bad; every letter he forms is misshapen.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count examined the document and acknowledged
+that this comment upon it was just. And he
+began to see too what was naturally more apparent
+to him, as an educated man, than it was to the
+peddler, that the style was hardly what would have
+been expected from an ignorant scribe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What, then, is your conclusion?</q> he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>About that,</q> returned the other, <q>I am not so
+certain. That this is a blind, as I said, I am sure;
+and this talk about the ransom consequently is a
+deception. <q>Three days,</q> you see it says. That
+<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/>would be three days lost. No, my lord, it is not by
+robbers that this has been planned.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What then?</q> cried the Count, flushing a fiery
+red as a sudden thought occurred to him. <q>Carna
+is very beautiful. Do you think——</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No,</q> said the peddler, <q>I think not. A lover
+would not lay so elaborate a plot as I fancy I can
+see here. I think the Lady Carna is a hostage,
+or——</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused, and continued after a few minutes of
+silence. <q>I have much to piece together, and it
+would take long, and lose much precious time. That
+is the last thing that we should do. They have got
+too much start already. We must not let them
+improve it more than we can help. You will let me
+go with you, and I shall have leisure to put all I
+have got to say together without hindering you.
+But the sooner we are on their track the better.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this the Count readily agreed, and preparations
+for immediate departure were made. It was with
+difficulty that Ælia could be persuaded that she
+must be left behind. But when it was pointed out
+to her that her presence must inevitably make the
+progress of the party more slow, and increase their
+anxieties, she reluctantly gave way. At the last
+moment an unexpected addition was made to the
+party in the person of the Saxon prisoner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> said the peddler, to whom the young
+<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/>man had communicated his earnest desire to be
+allowed to go; <q>it may seem a strange thing for me
+to say, but you cannot have a better helper in this
+matter than this young fellow. He is as strong as
+any horse, and as keen and intelligent a youth as I
+ever saw. And in this case too his wits will be
+doubly sharp, and his arm doubly strong, for he
+worships the very ground that the Lady Carna treads
+upon.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Very well,</q> replied the Count, with a smile, <q>let
+him go. After all, it is quite as safe to take a lion
+about with one, as to leave him at home.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pet dog was, of course, a valued member of
+the expedition.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="14" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XIV. The Pursuit"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XIV. The Pursuit"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XIV.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE PURSUIT.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The task of tracing the lost girl was at first easy
+enough. She and the stranger, who, it now seemed,
+had been sent to entrap her, had been seen proceeding
+in the direction mentioned in the message. The
+neighbourhood of the villa was mostly cultivated
+ground, and there had been people at work in the
+fields who had noticed the girl’s well-known figure.
+Beyond this belt of cultivated country, which might
+have been about a mile broad, there was only one
+road which it was possible for her to have taken.
+Following this, and reaching the hamlet at the
+further end of which, as we have seen, the abduction
+had taken place, they still found themselves on the
+right track. A child had seen two people, one of
+them, she said, a pretty lady, pass by on the morning
+of the day before. The lady had smiled, and
+said a few words to her in her own language, and
+had given her a sweetmeat. Further on the traces
+of what they were looking for became still more
+<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/>evident. There were marks of struggle on the
+ground, for Carna, as we have seen, had not suffered
+herself to be taken without resistance; a button was
+found on the ground, which the peddler at once
+identified as one of his own selling. And a little off
+the path, the tree was found to which the dog had
+been tied, with the fragment of string still attached
+to it. Curiously enough, no traces of the great dog
+could be found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor did the next step in the pursuit delay them long.
+There were, it is true, three paths through the forest,
+which closed in the hamlet on every side except that
+by which the party had approached it. Carna’s pet
+dog at once decided for the searchers which of the
+three they should follow. He discovered the scent
+very quickly, ran at the top of his speed along the
+path thus distinguished from the others for about a
+hundred yards, and then, coming back, implored the
+party, so to speak, by his gestures, that they should
+come with him. It was evident that the path had
+been traversed by a party of considerable size, whose
+tracks, the marks of a horse’s hoofs among them,
+were still fresh in the ground, soft as it was with the
+winter rains. The dog was evidently satisfied that
+they were right, for he ran quietly on, now and then
+giving a very soft little whine. It wanted still an
+hour or so of sunset when the party emerged out of
+the forest upon the shore.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/>
+
+<p>
+Here it might have seemed at first all trace was
+lost. The tide had flowed and ebbed twice since the
+girl had been there, and had swept away all marks
+of footsteps. The dog too was no longer a guide.
+The poor little creature’s distress indeed was pitiful,
+as he ran to and fro upon the shore with a plaintive
+whine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count asked his companions for their opinions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Have they taken to the wood again, do you
+think? or have they crossed the water? they may
+have gone a mile or more along the shore and then
+entered the forest. In that case it seems hopeless
+to recover the track.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It is my opinion,</q> said the peddler, <q>that they
+have crossed to the mainland; but it is only an
+opinion, and I have little or nothing to urge for it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other members of the party had different views;
+and, on the whole, opinion was adverse to the
+peddler’s view; and the Count was about to order a
+search in the direction of the wood further along the
+shore, when the attention of the party was arrested
+by a shout from the Saxon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discussion had been carried on in a language
+which he had still some difficulty in understanding,
+and he had been pacing backwards and forwards
+along the shore, seemingly lost in thought, but really
+watching everything with that keen attention to all
+outward objects which is one of the characteristics
+<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/>of uncivilized man. It was thus that something
+caught his eye. He plunged his hand into one of
+the little rock-pools upon the shore, and drew it out.
+It was a small gold trinket, which the girl had
+dropped in the forlorn hope that it might be found.
+Its weight, for it was an almost solid piece of metal,
+had kept it in the place where it fell, and as the
+night and day had been uniformly calm, there had
+been no sufficient movement of the water to disturb
+it. With a cry of delight the Saxon held it up, and
+the Count recognized it at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> said the peddler, <q>I knew the fellow would
+be of use to us. If the Lady Carna is anywhere on
+the earth he would find her. This proves, my lord,
+that they have crossed the sea. They would certainly
+have not come down so far from the shore as this.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This seemed too probable to admit of any doubt.
+Happily it had occurred to the Count that it would
+be well to have some kind of vessel at his command,
+and he had ordered a pinnace to start from the
+haven as soon as it could be got ready, and to coast
+along the shore of the island, watching for any signal
+that might be given. The land party had outstripped
+the ship, which, indeed, had not started till somewhat
+later. Still, it might be expected very soon.
+Meanwhile there was an opportunity for discussing
+the aspect which the affair now bore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After various opinions had been given, the Count
+<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/>turned to the peddler. <q>And what do you think of
+the affair?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have a notion,</q> the man replied, <q>but it may
+be only a fancy—still I seem to myself to have a
+notion of what their purpose is.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do you mean,</q> pursued the Count, as the other
+paused, and seemed almost unwilling to speak, <q>do
+you mean that they think of holding her as a kind of
+hostage against me? Do they fancy that I shall not
+be able to act against them, and shall hinder my
+colleagues from acting, as long as she is in their
+power? or will they keep her as something to make
+terms about if they fail?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The other was still silent for a few minutes, and
+seemed to be collecting his thoughts. At last he
+said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord, what I am going to tell you may seem
+as foolish as a dream. I should have gone on saying
+nothing about it, as I have said nothing about it
+hitherto, if things had not happened which makes it
+a crime for me to be silent any longer. You find it
+difficult to believe that a rebellion is possible among
+a nation which you have always looked upon as
+thoroughly subdued. But what will you say if I
+tell you that this rebellion has been preparing for
+generations, and that the Druids have been, and are,
+at the bottom of it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Druids!</q> cried the Count, <q>I did not know
+<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/>that there were any Druids. I thought that the last
+of them had disappeared years ago.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Not so,</q> replied the peddler; <q>the people who
+rule do not know what is going on about them. Now
+I have been among this people the greater part of
+my life. I have seen them, not as they show themselves
+to you, but as they are. You think that they
+are Christians—not very good Christians, perhaps,
+but still not worse than other people—and believing
+the Creeds, if they believe anything. Now I know
+for a certainty that many of them are no more
+Christians now than their fathers were three hundred
+and fifty years ago. I have seen sometimes, when
+no one knew that I saw, what they really worshipped.
+I have pieced together many little things. I have
+heard hints dropped unawares, and I know that
+there is a secret society, which has existed ever since
+the island was conquered, which has for its object
+the bringing back of the old faith. I could name—if
+things turn out as I expect they will, I will name—men
+whom you believe to be quiet, respectable
+citizens, but who are the heads of a conspiracy
+reaching all over Britain, against Rome and the
+Christian Church. You never see them except in
+the tunic and the cap, but they can wear on occasion
+the Druid’s robe and crown.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But tell me,</q> said the Count, with a certain impatience,
+<q>what has this got to do with my
+daughter?</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>This, my lord,</q> answered the other, <q>that if
+the Druids are making the great effort for which
+they have been preparing for no one knows how
+many years, they will begin it with all the solemnity
+that is possible—in a word, with the great sacrifice.
+This, I suppose, has not been practised for many
+generations, but it has not been forgotten. To speak
+plainly, I believe that the Lady Carna has been
+carried off for the victim.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count staggered back as if he had been
+struck. <q>Impossible!</q> he cried. <q>Such things
+cannot be in Britain: and why should they fix upon
+her?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>For two reasons,</q> said the peddler. <q>She is of
+royal race. You very likely do not know or care
+about such things. All Britons to you will be much
+about the same; but they do not forget it. Yes,
+though her father was nothing more than a sailor,
+she is descended from Cassibelan. And then she is a
+Christian. These are the two reasons why they
+have chosen her—this is what they honour her for,
+and this is what they hate her for.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But where,</q> cried the Count, <q>where is this
+monstrous thing to be done?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>That,</q> replied the other, <q>I think I know. It
+can hardly be done anywhere but at the Great Temple,
+the Choir Gawr, as they call it themselves.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And where is this Great Temple?</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>About forty miles inland, in a nearly northerly
+direction. I have seen the place once, and I can find
+my way to it, I believe; but, to make sure, I will find
+a guide.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And when?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>At the full moon. I should say.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And how much does it want to the full moon
+now?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It will be full moon to-morrow night.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We have to cross then to the mainland—and the
+galley is not in sight—to find a guide, and to travel
+forty miles, and all before to-morrow night. Well,
+it must be done. To think of these wretches murdering
+my dear Carna!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do not fear, my lord; we shall do it,</q> said the
+peddler; but added, in a low voice, <q>if nothing
+happens.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment the galley came in sight. <q>That
+is right,</q> cried the Count; <q>anyhow, we begin well;
+no time will be lost in getting across.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="15" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XV. The Pursuit (continued)"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XV. The Pursuit (continued)"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XV.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE PURSUIT (<hi rend='italic'>continued</hi>).</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The signal previously agreed was promptly hoisted
+by the party on shore, and as promptly observed and
+obeyed by the crew of the galley which had been for
+some time on the watch for some communication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> said the peddler, when they had embarked,
+<q>if I may suggest, we should not make a
+straight passage to the mainland from here, but steer
+for the north-west. Some eight miles beyond the
+western point of the island there is a river flowing
+into the sea, and a fishing village at the mouth. I
+know the place well, and have one or two good friends
+there. We shall get a guide there; I have in my mind
+the very man who will suit us well in that capacity.
+Indeed the river<note place="foot">This river, of course, must have been the Avon.</note> itself would be no bad guide. The
+Great Temple lies but a few miles westward from its
+upper course. The road will be easy too along the
+valley, which is mostly clear of wood.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Then,</q> said the Count, <q>the Temple cannot be
+far from Sorbiodunum. Why not make for the Great
+Harbour, and go by the Great Road to Venta<note place="foot">Winchester.</note> and
+from Venta to Sorbiodunum.<note place="foot">Salisbury.</note> The travelling would
+be much easier.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have thought of that,</q> said the other, <q>but I
+think my plan the best. The distance is far less, and,
+what is quite as important, we shall not be expected
+to come that way. Depend upon it there will be an
+ambuscade laid somewhere along the road; for they
+will feel sure that we shall try and come that way.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evident anyhow that as far as the sea voyage
+was concerned the man was right. The tide was
+ebbing slowly, and an east wind, already high and
+still rising, was blowing. To make way against wind
+and tide to the Great Harbour would be in any case
+a laborious business; and if the wind increased to a
+gale as it threatened to do, might become impossible.
+The galley had been chosen for swiftness rather than
+seaworthy qualities in rough weather, and might fail
+in the attempt to work back. On the other hand
+both wind and tide thoroughly favoured a westward
+voyage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed she moved gaily on with a strong breeze,
+that in the phraseology of to-day would be called a
+half-gale, blowing due aft, and scarcely felt the heavy
+<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/>sea, seeming to leave the waves behind, as the rowers
+bent their backs to their work. The Saxon had now
+taken his place on one of the thwarts, and his gigantic
+strength, put it was evident with a will into the
+labour, seemed of itself to drive the galley forwards.
+In an incredibly short time the river mouth was
+reached, the galley stranded, and the guide, who, by
+great good luck, had just returned from a fishing
+voyage, engaged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now an unforeseen obstacle opposed itself. A
+few specks of rain had been felt by the party as they
+went, and then as the day went on, began to change
+to snow. And now the wind almost suddenly died
+away, and at the same time the fall of snow grew
+heavier. The face of the guide fell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> he said, <q>I hear that your business is
+urgent and cannot wait. But I must tell you that
+the weather looks very bad, and that the prospects of
+our journey are almost as unfavourable as they can
+be. We shall have a very heavy fall of snow, and if
+the wind gets up again, and it begins to drift, we shall
+be blocked, and possibly unable to get either backwards
+or forwards.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We must go,</q> said the Count, in a determined
+voice, <q>though the snow were over our heads.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a very short interval allowed for refreshment,
+the party started. At first the snow was no very
+serious obstacle; but after a couple of hours
+inces<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/>sant and rapid fall, it began to make movement very
+difficult. The progress of the travellers grew slower
+and slower, and the Count began to calculate that at
+their present rate of speed they could but barely arrive
+in time. It was an immense relief when the sky
+almost suddenly cleared, and showed the moon still
+evidently somewhat short of the full. But the relief
+was only temporary. The clearer weather was the
+result of a change of wind, which had suddenly
+veered to a point westward of north and which was
+rapidly increasing in force. And now occurred the
+thing which the peddler’s knowledge of the country
+and the weather had suggested to him—the snow
+began to drift. At first the party was hardly conscious
+of the change; indeed for a time the way was
+somewhat clearer and easier than before; then as
+they came to a slight depression, the snow was felt
+to be certainly deeper. Still three or four miles were
+traversed without any particular difficulty. Then the
+leader of the party suddenly plunged into a drift considerably
+above his knees. This obstacle, however,
+was surmounted, or rather avoided by making a
+<foreign lang="fr" rend='italic'>détour</foreign>. But still the wind rose higher and higher,
+and as it rose, not only did its force hinder the party’s
+advance, but the drifts grew now formidably deep.
+Some of the party began to lag behind; the Count
+himself, who was past his prime, began to acknowledge
+to himself, with an agony of anger and fear in
+<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/>his heart, that his strength was failing. Still they
+struggled on, leaving one or two of the strugglers to
+make the best of their way back, or, it might well be,
+to perish in the snow, till about half the distance was
+traversed. They had now reached a little hamlet,<note place="foot">Now known as Downton, a small market town, about five
+miles south of Salisbury.</note>
+on the outskirts of which there happened to be a small
+villa. It was shut up, the proprietor chancing to be
+absent, but it was put at the disposal of the party by the
+person who was in charge. Fires were hastily lighted,
+and the travellers, most of whom had almost reached
+the end of their powers of endurance, were refreshed
+with warmth and food.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count held a council of war. The situation
+indeed <anchor id="corr156"/><corr sic="eemed">seemed</corr> nothing less than desperate. Two out
+of the party of twenty-five—their numbers had been
+increased by a contingent taken from the crew of
+the galley—were missing. They had fallen out on
+the march, and it was too probable that they had
+perished in the snow. Of the remainder but four or
+five seemed fit for any further exertion. By far the
+freshest and most vigorous of them was the Saxon.
+The fatigues of the night had scarcely told on his
+gigantic strength. The Italians, and even the Britons,
+natives of the southern parts of the island, and little
+accustomed to heavy falls of snow, looked at him
+<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/>with astonishment. As for him, he was full of impatience
+at the delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count was in an agony of doubt and distress.
+His own strength had failed so completely that all
+his spirit—and there was no braver man in the armies
+of Rome—could not have dragged him a hundred
+yards further. And he saw that many of his followers
+were in little better case. And yet to give up the
+pursuit! to leave Carna, the sweetest, gentlest of
+women, dear to him as a daughter of his own, to this
+hideous death! The thought was too dreadful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>When do they perform their horrible rites?</q> said
+the Count to the peddler.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>When the full moon shines through the great
+south entrance of the Temple,</q> was the answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And when will that be?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>To-night, and about an hour before midnight, as
+far as I can guess.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what must be done? What is your advice?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>There seems to me only one thing possible.
+Those who can must press on. I count a <anchor id="corr157"/><corr sic="greal">great</corr> deal
+on the Saxon. His strength and endurance are such
+as I never saw in any man, and they now seem to be
+increased manyfold. Anything that can be done by
+mortal man, he, you may be sure, will do. Our guide
+too has happily something still left in him; and there
+are three or four others who are equal to going on
+after they have had a little rest. I should say, let
+<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/>them get two or three hours’ sleep, and then push on
+to Sorbiodunum. That is not far from here, and they
+can easily reach it before noon to-day, after allowing
+a fair time for rest. Perhaps they may get some help
+there, though the place is not what it was. It is
+some years since I paid it a visit, and then I found it
+in a very declining condition, so much so that it was
+not worth my while to go there again. There were
+not more than two or three Roman traders there, and
+they made but a very poor living out of their
+business.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This seemed to be the best course practicable under
+the circumstances. The Saxon, with whom the
+peddler held a long conversation, was for pressing on
+at once, and would almost have gone alone, but for
+want of a guide. When he understood the state of
+the case he yielded to what he perceived to be a
+necessity, and throwing himself down on the hearth
+was almost immediately buried in a profound sleep,
+an example which was soon followed by the rest of
+the party, the Count and the peddler excepted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not more than two hours could be allowed for rest.
+The guide and the three sailors who had volunteered
+to go on were roused with no little difficulty; the
+young Saxon was wide awake in a moment. The
+party partook hastily of a meal of bread, meat, and
+hot wine and water, which the peddler had been busying
+himself in preparing while they slept, and, after
+<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/>stowing away some provisions for the day, started on
+their journey about two hours before noon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sorbiodunum was reached without much difficulty.
+But there a great disappointment awaited them.
+The peddler’s anticipations were more than fulfilled,
+for the town was almost deserted. Only one Roman
+remained there. He was an old man who had
+married a British wife, and who cultivated a farm
+which had descended to her from her father. When
+the guide handed to him the letter which the Count
+had addressed to the authorities of the town, begging
+for any help which they could give in saving the
+liberty and life of a person very dear to himself, he
+shook his head. When he heard the whole of the
+guide’s story, he became still more depressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Authorities!</q> he said, <q>there are no authorities.
+I am the only Roman left in the place, and I do not
+know where to look for a single man to help you.
+As for the Great Temple on the plain there is not a
+creature here who would dare to go near it. They
+think it haunted by spirits and demons. And indeed
+there <hi rend='italic'>are</hi> strange stories about it. To tell you the
+plain truth, I should not much care to go there myself.
+No; I see nothing to be done. But I will ask
+my wife. Perhaps her woman’s wit will help us.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bidding the party be seated, he left the room in
+which he had received them, and entered the kitchen,
+where his wife was busy with her domestic affairs.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/>
+
+<p>
+In about half an hour he returned. His expression
+was now a shade more cheerful than before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> he said, <q>I was right about the woman’s
+wit. She <hi rend='italic'>has</hi> thought of something. You must know
+that my wife is a very devout Christian—for myself I
+am a Christian too, but I must own that I don’t see so
+much in it as she does—and that she has brought up
+our children in that way of thinking. Now, our eldest
+son is a priest in a village some seven miles hence,
+and his people are devoted to him. If there is any
+one in this neighbourhood who can give you the help
+you want it is he. He has only got to say the word
+and his people will follow him to the end of the
+world. Here is a proof of it. Four years ago a
+strong party of Picts came this way, ravaging and
+plundering wherever they went. There were not
+more than fifty of them, but the people were as
+terrified as if they were so many demons. If you
+think this place a desert now, what would you have
+thought it then? There was not a single person
+left in it—at least a single person that could help
+himself—for the cowards had the meanness to leave
+some of the old and the sick behind them. But my
+son was not going to let the robbers have it all their
+own way—you know he has something of the Roman
+in him—and he went about talking to his people in
+such a way, that they plucked up spirit, and fell on
+the Picts one night when they were expecting nothing
+<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/>less than an attack, and gave such an account of
+them, that the country has not been troubled since
+with the like of them. Well, as I say, he is the
+man to help you. I have my younger son here
+working with me on the farm; he is just such
+another as his elder brother, and would have been a
+priest too if he had not felt it to be his duty to stay
+and help me. I will bring him in, and he shall hear
+the whole story and carry it to his brother. That is
+the best hope that I can give you, and I really think
+that it is worth something. What I can do for you
+does not go beyond hospitality, but to that you are
+heartily welcome. You have some hours before you.
+If you start an hour after sunset you will be in ample
+time. And, in fact, you had better not start before,
+because the less that is seen of your movements the
+better. I don’t know that any of the people about
+here are infected with the Druid superstition, though
+I have had one or two hints to that effect, hints
+which what you have just told me helps to explain.
+But, in any case, the more secret you are the better.
+Besides, my son’s Party cannot reach the Great
+Temple till long after dark. Meanwhile take some
+rest and refreshment, for, believe me, you have
+something before you.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This advice was so obviously right, that the guide,
+who was in command of the party, had no hesitation
+in accepting it.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/>
+
+<p>
+About six o’clock another start was made. At
+first, though the weather looked threatening, no
+serious obstacle presented itself. The snow was
+somewhat deep on the ground, but there were no
+serious drifts on their way, a way which, indeed, for
+some distance from the town lay under the leeward
+side of a wood. But they had not gone more than
+a mile and a half when a disastrous change in their
+circumstances occurred. The wind rose almost suddenly
+to the height of a gale, and brought with it a
+fall of snow, separated by the rapid movement of the
+air into a very fine powder, and working its way
+through the clothing of the traveller with a penetrating
+power which nothing could resist. Still,
+benumbed as they were, almost blinded by the icy
+particles which were whirled with all the force of the
+tempest against their faces, they struggled on for
+more than half the distance which lay between them
+and their destination. Then the three sailors cried
+out simultaneously that they must halt, and the guide
+unwillingly owned that he must follow their example.
+Only the Saxon was left to go on, and he, with a
+gesture which it was impossible to mistake, declared
+his intention of persevering. Just at that moment
+the clouds parted in the east, and the full moon
+showed the landscape with a singular clearness, its
+most conspicuous feature being the gigantic stones of
+the Great Temple, which could be seen about two
+<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/>miles to the northward. The guide pointed to them,
+and the Saxon, when they caught his eye, leapt
+forward with an energy which nothing seemed to
+have abated, and, with a gesture of farewell to his
+companions, plunged into the darkness.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="16" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XVI. The Great Temple"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XVI. The Great Temple"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XVI.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE GREAT TEMPLE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The Great Temple, or Stonehenge as it is now
+called, though its decay had already commenced,
+still preserved the form which we have now some
+difficulty in tracing. There was an outer circle consisting
+of thirty huge triliths,<note place="foot">A trilith consists of two upright stones with a third placed
+across.</note> the greater part of
+which were still standing in the position in which
+the unsparing labour of a long past generation had
+placed them. Within this there was a circle of forty
+single stones, this circle again containing two ovals.
+One of these ovals was composed of five triliths,
+even larger than those which stood in the outer
+circle; the other was made of nineteen upright
+stones. At the upper end of this stood the altar, a
+low, flat structure of blue marble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the preparations for the sacrifice were complete
+when Cedric—for we may as well henceforth
+<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/>call the Saxon by the name which he bore among his
+countrymen—reached the spot. Carna was being
+led by two of the subordinate priests to the altar,
+where Caradoc stood, robed for the rite which he was
+about to perform. The sky had now again cleared,
+and the moon, riding high in the heavens, poured
+a flood of silver light through the south entrance,
+and fell on the priest’s impassive face as he stood
+fronting the light, while it glittered on his crown
+of gold and gave a dazzling brilliancy to his white
+robe. In his hand he held a knife of flint, with
+which it was the custom to give the first blow to the
+victim, though innovation had so far prevailed even
+in the Druid worship that the sacrifice was completed
+with a weapon of steel. But this latter lay at his
+feet, and was concealed by the fall of his robe. It
+was not, indeed, supposed to be used. The attendants,
+who were also dressed in white, were rough
+and brutal creatures, selected for their office because
+they could be trusted to carry out any orders without
+remonstrance or hesitation. Yet even they seemed
+touched by the girl’s dignity and courage, as she
+walked with head erect and unfaltering gait between
+them. Had she hesitated, or hung back, or struggled,
+doubtless they would not have hesitated to drag her
+to the altar; but walking as she did with a proud
+resignation to her fate, they showed her a rude
+respect by letting their hands rest as lightly as
+pos<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/>sible, so as to give no sense of constraint, upon her
+arms. On either side of the priest stood Martianus
+and Ambiorix. The younger man had braced himself
+to what, fanatical patriot as he was, was evidently
+a hateful task. He looked steadfastly and unflinchingly
+at the scene; but his face was deadly pale,
+and the blood trickled down his chin as he bit his lip
+in the unconscious effort to maintain a stern composure.
+Martianus was overwhelmed with shame
+and horror. If there was one softer heart among
+the <q>stern, black-bearded kings</q> who of old in
+Aulis watched the daughter of Agamemnon die, he
+must have looked and felt as Martianus did in the
+Great Temple that night. Cursing again and again
+in his heart the ambition which had led him to mix
+himself up with this fanatical crew, but too much a
+craven at heart to protest, he stood trembling with
+agitation, mostly keeping his eyes shut or fixed upon
+the earth, but sometimes compelled by a fascination
+which he could not resist to lift them, and take in
+the horror of the scene. Each of the chiefs had
+an armed attendant standing behind him. Besides
+these there were no spectators of the scene, though
+guards were disposed at each of the entrances which
+led to the central shrine. Even these had been kept
+in ignorance of what was to be done, and they were
+too deeply imbued with the traditional awe felt for
+the Great Temple to think of playing the spy.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Sacrifice.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig166"/><figure url="images/i_191.jpg" rend="w80"><index index="fig" level1="The Sacrifice"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Sacrifice.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Sacrifice</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/>
+<p>
+The priest, after observing the position of the
+moon, and seeing that the shadows fell now almost
+straight towards the north, began the invocation
+which was the preliminary of the sacrifice. It was
+for this that the Saxon was waiting, as he stood in
+the shadow of one of the huge triliths. He crept
+silently out of his concealment, entirely unobserved,
+so intent were all present on the scene that was
+being enacted. His first object was the priest. This
+had been laid down for him in the instructions given
+him by the peddler before he started; and indeed his
+own instinct would have dictated the act. The priest
+put out of the way, the sacrifice would, for the time
+at least, be stopped; for so high a solemnity could not
+be performed but by one of the very highest rank.
+Time would thus be gained, and with time anything
+might happen. One firm thrust between the shoulders
+sent the Saxon’s sword right through the priest’s
+body, so that the point stood out an inch or two
+from the priest. Without a cry the man fell forward,
+deluging with his blood the stone of sacrifice. The
+ministrants who stood on either side of Carna were
+paralysed with astonishment and dismay. Before
+they could recover themselves Cedric had dragged
+his weapon out of the priest’s body, sheathed it, and
+thrown himself on them. Two blows, delivered almost
+simultaneously by fists that had almost the force
+of sledge hammers, levelled them both senseless to
+<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/>the ground. He then caught the girl up in his arms.
+A full-grown woman—and Carna had a stature
+beyond the average of her sex—is no light burden,
+but Cedric’s strength was, as has been said before,
+exceptionally great, and now it seemed doubled by
+the fierce excitement of the hour. To escape with
+her by running was, he knew, impossible. For such
+a task no fleetness of foot, no strength, would be
+sufficient. To attempt would be to expose himself to
+certain death, and Carna to as certain re-capture.
+But his quick eye had caught sight of a place where
+he might hold out, at least for a time, against a much
+superior strength of assailants. One of the triliths
+had partially fallen, the huge cross-stone having been
+so displaced that it formed an angle with one of its
+supports, and so afforded a protection to the back
+and sides of a fighter who managed to ensconce
+himself in the niche, and who would so have only his
+front to protect. Setting Carna behind him, and
+making her understand by a movement of the hand
+that she must crouch as low as she could upon the
+ground, he prepared to hold his position. The odds
+against him were not so heavy as might have been
+supposed. The two ministrants were unarmed. Of
+the four left, the two chiefs and their attendants,
+one was a middle-aged man, who had never been
+expert in arms; and who, whatever his skill and
+strength, would scarcely have cared to use them in
+<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/>such a conflict. Ambiorix, indeed, was of another
+temper. The gloomy, fanatical doggedness with
+which he had looked on at the preparations for the
+sacrifice gave way to a fierce delight when he saw an
+enemy before him with whom he could cross swords.
+In his inmost soul he had hated the thought of the
+sacrifice; but yet the man who had hindered it, and
+with it the weal of Britain, was a foe whom it
+would be pleasure to smite to the ground. But
+fierce as was his temper, it was full of chivalry.
+He would not dishonour himself by bringing odds
+against an enemy. Signing to the armed attendants
+to stand back, he advanced to challenge Cedric.
+The Saxon, in height and strength, was more than
+a match for his antagonist. But he was hampered
+by his position, especially by the presence of the girl.
+The weapon, too, with which he was armed—a short
+Roman sword—was strange to him. He thought
+with regret of his own good steel, an heirloom come
+down to him from warriors of the past, and inscribed
+with magic Runic rhymes, that was then lying at the
+bottom of the Channel. The change, however, was
+not really so much to his disadvantage as he thought.
+The stones behind him would have hindered the long
+sweeping blow which made the great Saxon swords
+especially formidable. Altogether it might have
+seemed as if Cedric must inevitably be worsted in
+the struggle. The British chief, though he hated
+<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/>the customs and even the civilization of the Roman
+conquerors, had not disdained to learn what they
+could teach him in the use of arms. They were
+acknowledged masters in that, and he accepted the
+maxim that it was right to be instructed even by
+one’s bitterest enemy. Accordingly he knew all
+that a fencing master could teach him; and all the
+Saxon’s agility, quickness of eye, and strength, could
+not counterbalance the advantage. Before many
+minutes had passed Cedric was bleeding from two
+wounds, neither of them very serious, but sufficient
+to hamper and weaken him. One had been inflicted
+on the sword-arm, and threatened to disable him
+altogether before long. He felt this himself, and
+took his resolve. <q>The curse of Thor upon this
+foolish toy!</q> he cried, in his native tongue, as he
+threw the short sword straight in the face of his
+enemy; and followed up the strange missile by leaping
+on his antagonist, both of whose arms he fastened
+down to his sides with a supreme exertion of strength.
+Gigantic strength, indeed, was the only thing which
+gave so desperate a resort the chance of success, and
+this might well have failed, if the adversary had not
+been entirely unprepared for the movement. Once
+held in this tremendous clasp, Ambiorix was as
+helpless as a kid in the hug of a bear. Cedric
+fairly lifted him off his feet, and threw him backwards.
+His head struck one of the great stones
+<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/>in his fall, and he lay senseless and helpless on the
+ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The struggle was over so quickly that the attendants
+had no time to interfere; nor when it was
+finished did they feel any great eagerness to engage
+so formidable a champion. Still they advanced, and
+Martianus, who felt himself unable to maintain any
+longer in the face of what had happened his attitude
+of inaction, advanced with them. By this time
+Carna, who had been almost stunned by the rapid
+succession of startling incidents, had recovered her
+self-possession. She lifted herself from the ground,
+and stepped between Cedric and the three antagonists
+who stood confronting him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Martianus,</q> she cried, <q>what are you doing here?
+What mixes you up with these horrible doings—you,
+my father’s friend, you, a Christian man?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Briton stood silent, cursing in his heart the
+hideous enterprise which had not even the poor merit
+of success. He was spared the necessity of speaking
+by an exclamation from one of the ministrants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>See!</q> cried the man, <q>there is a party coming.
+It is not likely that they are friends—let us be off.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And indeed the moonlight clearly showed a
+number of persons who were rapidly advancing up
+one of the great avenues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus did not hesitate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You are right,</q> he said to the man, <q>we must
+<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/>go. The priest’s body must be left. It is useless to
+cumber ourselves with the dead; we shall have as
+much as we can do to escape ourselves, but take the
+sacred things. They at least must not fall into the
+hands of the enemy. And you,</q> he went on, addressing
+himself to the two attendants, <q>take up
+your master and carry him off. We have something
+of a start, and it is possible that they may not pursue
+us.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His directions were at once obeyed. The priest’s
+body was stripped of its robes and ornaments.
+Ambiorix, who still lay unconscious on the ground,
+was carried by the united efforts of the soldiers
+and ministrants, and the whole party had started
+in the direction of Amesbury before the new-comers,
+who proved to be the priest Flavius, with a party of
+his people, reached the Temple.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="17" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XVII. The British Village"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XVII. The British Village"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XVII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE BRITISH VILLAGE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The British priest’s home was at a populous village
+on the banks of the Avon, now known by the name
+of Netton, and as this was some miles nearer than
+Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the
+party whom his opportune arrival had rescued from
+danger. Once arrived there, it would be easy to send
+a messenger to the town, and await further instructions.
+A litter was hastily constructed for Carna,
+who, though her spirits and courage were still unbroken,
+was somewhat exhausted by excitement and
+fatigue. The Saxon’s wounds were dressed and
+bound up by the priest, who united some knowledge
+of medicine and surgery to his other accomplishments,
+and was indeed scarcely less well qualified
+for the cure of bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor
+looked somewhat grave when he saw how
+deep the sword-cuts were, and how much blood had
+been lost, but Cedric made light of his injuries,
+<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/>scorned the idea of being carried, and indeed seemed
+to find no difficulty in keeping close to Carna’s litter
+on the homeward journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Netton—we are unable to give the British name of
+the village—was reached some time before dawn.
+At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himself
+with two or three hours’ sleep, was ready to perform
+his office at his little church. It was the
+first day of the week, and the building was crowded.
+It was an oblong building, with a semicircular
+eastern end, that resembled that kind of chancel
+which is known by the name of an apse. It had
+been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied
+the shape that seems to have been used in the
+earliest Christian buildings, that of the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>schola</foreign> or
+meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations.
+The body of the building was of timber. The eastern
+end, or sanctuary, had a little more pretension to
+ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung
+with somewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with
+symbolic designs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Few of the party which had accompanied the
+priest the night before were prevented by their
+fatigue from being present. The Britons were always
+a devout people, and in Netton their priest
+had gained such an influence over them, that they
+were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.
+Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but
+<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/>the priest’s wife—he had followed the usual practice
+of the British Church in marrying before ordination—had
+absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion.
+Cedric, who would otherwise have been present in
+whatever part of the building was open to an
+unbaptized person, was still buried in a profound
+slumber. The service was in Latin, a language of
+which most if not all the worshippers knew enough
+to be able to follow the prayers. Such portions
+of the Scriptures as were read were accompanied by
+the priest with occasional expositions in the British
+language; and the sermon, except the text, which was
+in Latin, and taken from the recently published
+Vulgate of St. Jerome, was wholly in that tongue.
+The preacher’s text was from the Psalms, <q>Quomodo
+dicitis animæ meæ, Transmigra in montem
+sicut passer?</q><note place="foot"><q>How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a
+bird unto the hill?</q>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Psalm</hi> xi. 1.</note> and was mostly concerned with
+the troubles of the time. He had in an uncommon
+degree the national gift of eloquence, and
+stirred the hearts of his hearers to their inmost
+depths. He warned them that troublous times were
+approaching, such as neither they nor their fathers
+had seen were approaching, and that they would
+have to resist unto blood for the faith into which
+they had been baptized.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Antichrist,</q> he cried, adapting to the day, as
+<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/>Christian preachers have done in every age, the
+language of the apostles—<q>Antichrist is at hand!
+You see him in these heathen hosts who are threatening
+you on every side; these Saxon pirates from the
+east, who are ravaging our shores; these Pictish
+ravagers from the north, who every year are penetrating
+further and further into the land. Yes,</q> he
+added, with a telling reference to the event of the
+night before, <q>and even in apostates of British
+blood, who have preserved in your midst the hideous
+superstitions from which our ancestors turned to
+worship the blessed Christ; and as it was in the days
+of the blessed Paul, so is it now: <q>He that letteth
+will let till he be taken out of the way,</q> The Roman
+power has kept these forces in check, but it will keep
+them no more. The time is short. They are gathering
+every day in greater strength, and you must gird yourselves
+to meet them.</q> Therefore, he went on, they
+must be strong and quit them like men. They must
+gird on them, and make complete in every point, their
+spiritual armour—the helmet of salvation, the sword
+of the Divine Word, the all-covering shield of faith;
+nor must they forget the temporal weapons with
+which the outward enemies who assail the body must
+be met. <q>He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment
+and buy one,</q> cried the preacher, in his final
+apostrophe to his people, <q>and he will find that as his
+day so shall his strength be, and that the Lord can
+<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/>deliver by few as by many, Gideon’s three hundred,
+as by the eight hundred thousand men that drew
+sword in Israel.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wrought by the eloquence of the orator to an
+almost incontrollable excitement, the whole congregation
+sprang to their feet, as if they were asking to
+be led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden
+change from the stirring tone of the trumpet to the
+sweet music of the flute, the preacher touched
+another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never
+quite broken with tears, he besought them to cleanse
+their hearts; he reminded them that the armies of
+the Lamb of God must be clothed in the white robe
+of righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak,
+charity to the fallen, were as needed for Christ’s
+soldiers as steadfastness and courage, till many a
+cheek was wet with tears of contrition and repentance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the course of the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger
+was despatched to Sorbiodunum. By the time
+he reached that town the Count and his party had
+arrived, excepting one who had been left behind, still
+too exhausted by his forced march to move. Some, too,
+had been sent back in the hope that they might not
+be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce
+been left behind during the journey through the snow.
+As there was now no immediate necessity of haste,
+Ælius allowed his followers to rest and refresh
+them<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/>selves for the remainder of the day at
+<anchor id="corr178"/><corr sic="Sorbiodunum">Sorbiodunum.</corr>
+The following morning he went on to Netton, where he
+found, to his great delight, that Carna had apparently
+suffered no harm from her perilous adventures. His
+gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of
+words to express. Though it somewhat hurt his
+Roman pride that a barbarian should ever have the
+strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not
+suffer his vexation to take anything from the hearty
+warmth of his thanks. Cedric received them with
+the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which both
+Britons and Italians could not help resenting in their
+hearts, while they reluctantly admired his surpassing
+strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three days were spent in Netton with much comfort
+to the party, the priest and his people showing
+them as liberal an hospitality as their means admitted,
+and refusing the recompense which the Count
+almost forced upon <anchor id="corr178a"/><corr sic="them,">them.</corr>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Take something for your poor,</q> said Ælius, when
+his arguments were exhausted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My people,</q> answered the priest, <q>must not lose
+one of the most precious privileges of their Christian
+life, the sweet compulsion of having to minister to
+the necessities of those who want their help.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your
+church,</q> the Count went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The good man hesitated for a moment. His
+<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/>church was dear to his heart, and he would gladly
+have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could
+make it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> he replied, after his brief hesitation,
+<q>in happier times, and in another place, I would not
+refuse your generous offer. But now the poorer we
+are the better. I should like to see our altar-vessels
+of gold, but it would not be well to tempt the barbarians
+to a deadly sin, and to expose Christian lives
+to worse peril than that they now stand in, by such
+treasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to
+be spread abroad. Our chalices, and flagons, and
+patens are now of lead, thinly covered for decency’s
+sake with silver, and they are of no value to any but
+those who use them. No, my lord, leave our church
+with at least such safety as poverty can give. But
+there are places in the world, I would fain believe,
+though indeed in these days I scarce know where
+they are, where Christian men worship God in security,
+and where the treasures of the church are safe
+from robbery. Let your gift be given there, when
+you find the occasion. And if you will let me know
+the place I shall be happy with imagining it, without
+the anxious care of its custody.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this answer the Count was compelled to be
+content, till at least next morning, by which time
+Carna’s ready wit had suggested that the priest
+could hardly refuse a gift of books.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> said the good man, when the Count
+renewed his offer in its fresh shape on the following
+day, <q>your determined generosity has overcome me.
+Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my
+people’s. I sometimes feel that they are starved, or
+at the best ill-fed with spiritual food. I can speak
+to them of their every-day duties, but I cannot build
+them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself,
+and where is the knowledge to come from? Of books
+I have none but my Bible and my Service-book, and
+two small books of homilies. If I had some of the
+commentaries and homilies of the two great doctors
+of our Church, Hieronymus<note place="foot">Commonly called Jerome.</note> and Augustine, I should
+be well content. I have heard of the great preacher
+of Antioch and Constantinople, John the Golden
+Mouth,<note place="foot">John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398, at Constantinople
+398-404.</note> but, alas, I cannot read Greek.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You shall have them as soon as they can be got,</q>
+said the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the course of the day the search party sent back
+from Sorbiodunum returned. They had found one of
+the stragglers still alive, and had brought him on to
+the village where the first halt had been made.
+There he was being carefully tended, but there was
+no chance of his being restored to health for many
+weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terrible
+<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/>account to give. Only a few mangled remains could
+be discovered, the poor creatures having been manifestly
+devoured by wolves. All that could be hoped
+was that they had expired before they were attacked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count had now nothing to detain him, and as
+he was for many reasons anxious to be at home, where
+a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him, he determined
+to start on the following day. His route
+was first to Sorbiodunum. There he would be on the
+main road leading to Venta Belgarum.<note place="foot">Winchester.</note> From Venta,
+by following another main road he and his party
+would make their way easily to the Camp of the
+Great Harbour.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="18" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XVIII. The Picts"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XVIII. The Picts"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XVIII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE PICTS.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The journey to Venta Belgarum was accomplished
+in safety, and, by dint of starting long before sunrise,
+in a single day. The distance was a little more than
+twenty miles, and the road, which was so straight
+that the end of the journey might almost have been
+seen from the beginning, lay almost through an open
+country. This was favourable for speed, as there was
+little or no need to reconnoitre the ground in advance.
+It was just after sunrise when the party reached the
+spot where the traces of the great camp of Constantius
+Chlorus may still be seen. It had even then ceased
+to be occupied, but the soldiers’ huts were still standing,
+and the avenues, though overgrown with grass,
+looked as if they might easily be thronged again with
+all the busy life of a camp. The Count called a halt
+for a few minutes, and pointed out the locality to
+Carna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>See,</q> said he, with a sigh, <q>there Constantius had
+<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/>his camp, the great Constantius to whom we owe so
+much.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And was Constantine himself ever there?</q> cried
+the girl, to whom the first Christian Emperor was
+the object of an admiration which we, knowing as
+we do more about him, can hardly share.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I doubt it,</q> returned the Count. <q>Constantius
+made it and held it during his campaigns with
+Allectus. But, my child, I was thinking not of its
+past, but of its future. It will never be occupied
+again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Why should it?</q> exclaimed the girl, almost
+forgetting in her excitement that she was speaking
+to a Roman. <q>Why should it? Why should not
+Britain be happy and safe and free without the
+legions? Forgive me, father,</q> she added, remembering
+herself again; <q>I am the last person in the
+world who should be ungrateful to Rome.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I don’t blame you,</q> said the Count, and as he
+looked at the maiden’s flashing eyes and remembered
+how bravely she had gone through terrors which
+would have driven most women out of their senses,
+he thought to himself—<q>Ah, if there were but a few
+thousand men who had half the spirit of this woman
+in them, the end might be different. My child,</q> he
+went on, <q>I would not discourage you, but there are
+dark days before this island. She has enemies by
+sea and land, and I doubt whether she has the
+<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/>strength to strike a sufficient blow for herself. I am
+thankful that you will be safely away before it
+comes.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna was about to speak, but checked herself. It
+was not the time she felt to speak out her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For some time after this little or nothing of interest
+occurred; but as the party approached within a
+few miles of Venta the scene underwent a remarkable
+change. The road had hitherto been almost
+entirely deserted; it was now thronged: but the face
+of every passenger was turned towards Venta, not a
+single traveller was going the other way. Every by-way
+and bridle-path and foot-path that touched the
+road contributed to swell the throng. In fact, the
+whole countryside was in motion. And the fugitives,
+for their manifest hurry and alarm proclaimed to be
+nothing less, carried all their property with them.
+Carts laden with rustic furniture, on the top of which
+women and children were perched, waggons loaded
+with the harvest of the year, droves of sheep and
+cattle helped to crowd the road till it was almost
+impassable. And still the hurrying pace, the fearful
+anxious glances cast behind showed that it was some
+terrible danger from which this timid multitude was
+flying. For some time, so stupified with fear were the
+fugitives, Ælius could get no rational answer to the
+questions which he put. <q>The Picts! The Picts!
+They are upon us!</q> at last said a man whom a
+sud<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/>den catastrophe that brought a great pile of household
+goods to the ground, had compelled to halt, and who
+was glad to get the help of the Count’s attendants to
+restore them, all help from neighbours being utterly
+out of the question when all were selfishly intent on
+saving their own lives and property. When his
+property had been set in its place again the man
+thanked the Count very heartily, and was collected
+enough to tell all he knew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>There is no doubt that the Picts are not far off.
+I have not seen anything of them myself, thank
+heaven! but I could see the fires last night all along
+the sky to the north.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Have they ever been here before?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Never quite here. You see, sir, the camp at
+Calleva<note place="foot">Calleva Attrebatium, now known as Silchester, one of the
+most perfect specimens of a Roman camp to be seen in this
+country.</note> kept them in check. A party did slip by,
+I know, some little way to the westward, and I was
+glad to hear they got rather roughly handled. But,
+generally, they did not like to come anywhere near
+the camps. But now these are deserted, and there is
+nothing to keep them back.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But why don’t you defend yourselves?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah, sir, we have not the strength, nor even the
+arms. You are a Roman, I see, and, if I may
+judge, a man in authority, and you know that I am
+<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/>speaking the truth. You have not allowed us to do
+anything for ourselves, and how can we do it now at
+a few months’ notice?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count made no answer; indeed, none was
+possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And you expect to find shelter at Venta?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I don’t say that I expect it, but it is our only
+chance. The place has at least walls.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And any one to man them?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>There should be some old soldiers, but how
+many I cannot say; anyhow, scarcely enough for a
+garrison.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Count learned the situation he felt that
+his best course would be to press on with his party
+to Venta with all the speed possible. The chief
+authority of the town was in the hands of a native,
+who had the title of Head of the City.<note place="foot">Princeps Civitatis.</note> It was
+possible that this officer might be a man of courage
+and capacity; but it was far more likely that he
+would be quite unequal to the emergency. In either
+case the Count felt that his advice and personal
+influence might be of very great use. Even the
+twenty stout soldiers whom he had with him would
+be no inconsiderable addition to the fighting force of
+the place. Accordingly he gave orders to his followers
+to quicken their pace. Fortunately the greater part
+<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/>of the fugitives was behind them; still it was no
+easy task for the party to make its way through the
+struggling masses of human beings and cattle, and it
+was past sunset when they rode up to the gates of
+Venta.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evident that the bad news had already
+arrived. The gates were closely shut, while the
+walls were crowded with spectators anxiously looking
+northwards for signs of the approaching enemy.
+The porter was at first unwilling to admit the strangers,
+peering anxiously through the wicket at them,
+and declaring that he must first consult his superior.
+One of the spectators on the wall happened, however,
+to recognize the Count, and the party was admitted
+without further question, and rode up at once to the
+quarters of the Commander of the Town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If he had hoped to find an official with whom it
+would be possible or profitable to co-operate in the
+<foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Princeps</foreign> of Venta, the Count was very much disappointed.
+He was an elderly man, who had realized
+a fair fortune by contracting for the provisioning of
+the army in Southern Britain, and had done very
+fairly as long as he had nothing to do but execute
+the orders of the military governor. Left to himself
+he was absolutely helpless. Indeed he had been
+taking refuge from his anxieties in the wine-cup, and
+the Count found him at least half intoxicated. At
+the moment of the party’s arrival the poor creature
+<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/>had reached the valorous stage of drunkenness, and
+was loud in his declarations that there was no possible
+danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>They will know better,</q> he said, <q>than to come
+near Venta. If they do, very few will go back.
+Indeed I should like nothing better than to give them
+a lesson. You shall see something worth looking at
+if you will give us the pleasure of your company in
+our little town for a day or two.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another cup, which he drained to the prosperity of
+Britain and the confusion of her enemies, changed
+his mood. He now seemed to have forgotten all
+about the invaders, insisted on recognizing a dear
+friend of past times in the Count, and invited him to
+spend the rest of the day in talking over old times.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count did not waste many minutes with the
+old man, but when he left the house the darkness
+had already closed in. After finding with some
+difficulty accommodation for Carna, he returned to
+the gate, anxious to learn for himself how things
+were going on. He found the place a scene of
+frightful confusion. The warders had abandoned
+their office as hopeless. An incessant stream of
+fugitives, men, women, and children, mingled with
+carts and waggons of every shape and size, was
+pouring into the town. Every now and then one of
+these vehicles, brought out perhaps in the sudden
+emergency from the repose of years, broke down and
+<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/>blocked the way. Then the living torrent began to
+rage at the obstacle, as a river in flood roars about a
+tree which has fallen across its current. Shortly the
+offending vehicle would be removed by main force,
+and with a very scanty regard for its contents. Then
+the uproar lulled again, though there never ceased a
+babel of voices, cursing, entreating, complaining,
+quarrelling, through all the gamut of notes, from the
+deepest base to the shrillest treble. The wall was
+crowded with the inhabitants of the town, and every
+eye was fixed intently on the northern horizon.
+There, as was only too plainly to be seen, the sky
+was reddened with a dull glow, which might have
+been described as a sunrise out of place, but that it
+was brightened now and then for a moment by a
+shoot of flame. <q>Where are they?</q> <q>How soon
+will they be here?</q> were the questions which every
+one was asking, and which no one attempted to
+answer. The Count made his way with some difficulty
+along the top of the rampart in search of some
+one from whom he might hope to get some rational
+account of the situation. At last he found among
+the spectators an old man, whose bearing struck him
+as having something soldierly about it. A nearer
+look showed him a military decoration. He lost no
+time in addressing him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Comrade,</q> he said, <q>I see that you have followed
+the eagles.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/>
+
+<p>
+The veteran recognized something of the tone of
+command in the Count’s voice, and made a military
+salute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, sir, so I have, though my sword has been
+hanging up for more than thirty years.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what do you think of the prospect?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Badly, sir, badly. This is just what I feared;
+but it has come even sooner than I looked for it.
+Things have been very bad for some time in the
+north ever since the garrisons were taken from the
+Wall,<note place="foot">The wall of Antoninus, built to defend Northern Britain
+from the Caledonians, and held by Roman forces till far on in
+the fourth century.</note> but, except for a troop of robbers now and
+then, we were fairly safe here. But now that these
+barbarians know that the legions are gone, there will
+be no stopping them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>They are the Picts, I hear. Have you ever had
+to do with them?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, sir, I have seen as much of them as ever I
+want to see. I came to this island thirty-nine years
+ago with Theodosius, grandfather, you know, of the
+Augustus;</q> and the old man, who was steadfastly
+loyal to the Emperor, bared his head as he
+spoke. <q>I am a Batavian from the island of the
+Rhine, and was then a deputy-centurion in Theodosius’
+army. We found Britain full of the savages.
+They had positively over-run the whole country as
+<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/>far as the southern sea, and only the walled towns
+had escaped them, and these were almost in despair.
+I shall never forget how the people at Londinium
+crowded about the general, kissing his hands and
+feet, when he rode into the town. But I must not tire
+you with an old soldier’s stories. You ask me about
+the Picts. They are the worst savages I ever saw,
+and I have had some experience too. They go naked
+but for some kind of a skin girdle about their loins,
+and they are hideously painted, and their hair is
+more like a beast’s than a man’s, and then they eat
+human flesh. Ah, sir, you may shake your head,
+but I know it. We used to find dead bodies with
+the fleshy parts cut off where they had been. I
+shudder to think of what I saw in those days. Well,
+we gave them a good lesson, drove them back to their
+own country, and an awful country it is, all lakes
+and mountains, with not so much as a blade of corn
+from one end to the other. But now they will be
+as bad as ever.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But you are safe here in Venta, I suppose?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Safe! I wish we were. If we had a proper
+garrison here, there is no one to command them.
+You have seen the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Princeps</foreign>?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count said nothing, but his silence was
+significant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But there is no garrison. There are not more than
+fifty men in the place who have ever carried arms.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>But surely the people will defend themselves.
+You, as an old soldier, know very well that civilians,
+who would be quite useless in the field, may do good
+service behind walls.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>True, sir, if they have two things—a spirit and a
+leader; and these people, as far as I can tell, have
+neither.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>That is a bad look out. But tell me—how soon
+do you think the enemy will be here?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Not to-night, certainly; perhaps not to-morrow.
+And indeed it is just possible that they may not come
+at all. You see that they get a great quantity of
+plunder in the country without much trouble or
+danger, and they may leave the towns alone. Barbarians
+mostly don’t care to knock their heads against
+stone walls, and of course they think us a great deal
+stronger than we are.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After making an appointment with his new acquaintance
+for a meeting on the following day, the
+Count rejoined his party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Princeps</foreign> called a meeting of the
+principal burgesses of the town, at which the Count,
+in consideration of his rank as a Roman official, was
+invited to attend. The tone of the meeting was
+better than he had expected. There were one or two
+resolute men among the local magistrates, and these
+contrived to communicate something of their spirit
+to the rest. A general levy of the inhabitants
+<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/>between the ages of sixteen and sixty was to be made.
+The town was divided into districts, and recruiting
+officers were appointed for each. By an unanimous
+vote of the meeting the Count was requested to take
+the chief command. The delay of the invaders
+gave some time for carrying out these preparations
+for defence. A force was speedily raised, sufficient,
+as far at least as numbers were concerned, to garrison
+the walls. This was divided into companies,
+each having two watches, which were to be on duty
+alternately. The whole extent of work was divided
+among them, and the town was stored with such
+missiles as could be collected or manufactured,
+while Carna busied herself among the women, organizing
+the supply of food and drink for the guards of
+the wall, and preparations for the care of the wounded.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="19" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XIX. The Siege"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XIX. The Siege"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XIX.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE SIEGE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+Day after day the burgesses of Venta awaited the
+course of events. For some time they hoped that,
+after all, the town might not be visited by the invaders.
+The lurid glow of the skies by night, and
+the clouds of smoke by day, sometimes borne by the
+wind so close to the town that the smell could be
+distinctly recognized, proved that they were still
+near. But though the effects of their work of ruin
+were visible enough, of the barbarians themselves no
+one had yet caught a glimpse. But towards the
+evening of the seventh day after the Count’s arrival
+a party was seen to emerge from a wood, distant
+about half a mile from the gates. There were
+four in all; two of them were mounted on small
+and very shaggy ponies, the others were on foot. The
+party advanced till they were about a hundred yards
+from the wall, and though the fading light prevented
+them from being seen very clearly, there could be no
+doubt that they were some of the dreaded Picts.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/>
+
+<p>
+A debate, which seemed, from the gesticulations
+of the speakers to be of a somewhat violent kind,
+was carried on for a time among the savages. Then
+one of the mounted men rode, with all the speed
+to which his diminutive horse could be urged, almost
+up to the gates of the town. He wore a deer-skin
+robe of the very simplest construction, with holes
+through which his head and arms were thrust. His
+legs were bare. Round his neck was hung a bow of
+a very rude kind. In his right hand he carried a
+short spear. With the butt of this he struck violently
+at the gate, as if demanding entrance, and
+after waiting a few seconds, as it seemed for an
+answer, turned his pony’s head and began to ride
+back to his party. He had almost reached them
+before the defenders of the wall had recovered from
+the astonishment which his audacity had caused
+them. Then one who was armed with a bow discharged
+at the retreating figure an arrow, which
+more by good luck than skill, for scarcely any aim
+had been taken, struck the Pict on the neck. He did
+not fall from his horse, but swayed heavily to one
+side, catching at the animal’s mane to steady himself.
+His three companions rushed forward to help
+him, and in another moment would have carried him
+off, but for the resolution and activity of the Saxon,
+who with the Count was standing on the rampart
+close to the gate. He lowered himself by his hands
+<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/>from the wall, a height of about fifteen feet, itself no
+small feat of activity, and ran at his full speed, a
+speed which, as has been said before, was quite
+uncommon. Hampered as they were by having to
+keep their wounded companion in the saddle, the Picts
+could move but slowly, and were soon overtaken.
+With two blows, delivered with all his gigantic
+strength, Cedric levelled two of them to the ground,
+and, seizing the wounded chief, threw him over his
+shoulder, then turning ran towards the gate. For a
+moment the third Pict stood too astonished to move.
+Cedric had thus a start of some yards, and before he
+could be overtaken, had got so close to the wall as
+to be under the protection of the archers and slingers
+who lined it. The next moment the wicket of the
+gate was opened, and the prisoner secured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evident that he was a prize of some value,
+for a rudely wrought chain of gold round his neck
+showed that he was a chief. He had ridden up to
+the gate against the advice of his followers, as it was
+guessed, under the influences of copious draughts of
+metheglin. The effect of the liquor, together with
+the pain of his wound and the shock of his capture,
+had been to make him insensible when he was
+brought into the town. While he was in this state
+his wound was dressed by a slave who had some
+surgical skill, and who declared that though serious it
+was not mortal. When he recovered consciousness
+<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/>he behaved more like a wild beast than a man. His
+first act was to tear furiously at the bandage which
+had been applied to his wound. The attendants
+mastered him with difficulty, for he fought with the
+ferocity of a wild cat, and then bound his hands and
+feet. Thus rendered helpless, he raved at the top of
+his voice till sheer exhaustion reduced him to silence,
+a silence which was soon followed by sleep.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Cedric and the Pict.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig196"/><figure url="images/i_223.jpg" rend="w80"><index index="fig" level1="Cedric and the Pict"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Cedric and the Pict.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Cedric and the Pict</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The night passed without any attack. It was
+evident that the Picts were in considerable force, for
+their watch fires were to be seen scattered over a
+wide extent of country, and there was much anxious
+talk in the town about the chances of a siege. Few
+indeed in Venta closed their eyes that night, and
+with the earliest morning the whole town was astir.
+The invaders, of course, had no notion of how a siege
+should be conducted, nor had they the necessary
+mechanical means even if they had known how to
+use them. Their arrows did but little harm, for
+their bows were ill made, and had but a small range,
+nothing like that which was commanded by the
+better weapons of the defenders. With the sling,
+however, they were singularly expert, and inflicted
+no small damage, making indeed some parts of the
+walls scarcely tenable. But as they could do nothing
+without showing themselves, they suffered more loss
+than they inflicted. In the early days of the siege
+especially, a catapult, which the garrison worked
+<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/>from the walls, did great damage among them. After
+awhile they were careful not to collect in such numbers
+as to give a fair mark for this piece of artillery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The townspeople were greatly elated at their
+success, and when, about a fortnight after the first
+appearance of the invaders before the walls, two days
+had passed without one of them being visible, concluded
+that, hopeless of making any impression upon
+the place, they had disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were soon undeceived. It was growing dusk
+on the third day after the supposed departure of the
+enemy, when a heavily laden cart was drawn up to
+the western gate of the city. The driver, apparently
+a country man, knocked for admittance. By rights,
+at such an hour, it should have been refused, but the
+vigilance of the watch had begun to slacken, most of
+the besieged believing that the danger was practically
+over. Accordingly, no difficulty was made about
+throwing open the gates. But, once thrown open,
+they were not so easily closed. Just as the cart was
+passing through the opening in the wall one of the
+wheels came off, and the vehicle broke down hopelessly.
+Commonly it would not have taken long to
+clear the obstacle out of the way. There was usually
+a throng of people about the gates and on the walls,
+and a multitude of willing hands would have been
+ready to lend their help. But just at this moment
+the gates and walls were almost deserted.
+Even-<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/>song was going on in the Church of Venta, and a
+preacher of some local fame was expected to enlarge
+on the Divine mercy shown in the deliverance of the
+town from the barbarians. The keepers of the gate
+would, therefore, have been at a loss even if they had
+seen the necessity of bestirring themselves. As it
+was, they were content to do nothing. They amused
+themselves by standing by and laughing at the rustic
+driver as he slowly unladed from his vehicle its miscellaneous
+cargo, the contents, it seemed, of one of
+the country-side cottages, from which the terror of the
+invasion had driven their inhabitants. The process
+of unloading, carried on slowly and with much
+grumbling, was scarcely half finished, when one of
+the warders, chancing to look behind him, caught
+sight of a body of men rapidly approaching through
+the darkness. A number of Picts had concealed
+themselves in the wood mentioned before as distant
+about half a mile from the wall, and when they
+saw the gate blocked by the broken-down cart—a
+part, it need hardly be said, of the stratagem—had
+made a rush to get to it before the obstacle could be
+removed. A hasty alarm was raised, and some of the
+citizens who were in hearing ran up. But it was too
+late. The rustic driver, a villain whose treacherous
+services had been bought by the enemy, had quickened
+his work when he saw his employers approaching, and
+contrived to finish the unloading of the cart at the
+<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/>very moment of their coming up. In a few moments
+some of them had clambered over the empty vehicle,
+struck down the guards, and disabled the fastenings
+of the gates. Before many minutes had passed the
+whole of the ground outside the gates seemed to
+swarm with the enemy, and though the townspeople
+had now begun to make a rally in force, it was too
+late to make any effectual effort to keep them out.
+The situation would in any case have been full of
+danger. At Venta it was hopeless. A garrison of
+veterans might have kept their heads, but there were
+not more than sixty or seventy among the defenders
+of Venta who had ever seen service in the field; and
+the citizen soldiers were fairly panic-stricken when
+they saw themselves actually facing a furious, yelling
+crowd of barbarians, cruel and savage creatures in
+reality, and commonly reported to be even worse
+than they were. Without even striking a blow they
+turned and fled. The Count, whom the alarm had
+just reached, was met, and, for a time, carried away
+by the tide of fugitives. Still he was able to rally a
+few men to his side for a last effort. Some of his own
+followers were with him, and the rest could be fetched
+in a few moments. The gallant old centurion, in
+spite of his seventy years, was prompt with the offer
+of his sword; and, as always happens, the infection
+of courage spread not less rapidly than the infection
+of cowardice. Altogether a compact body of about
+<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/>a hundred men were collected. Well armed and well
+disciplined they turned a steadfast face to the enemy,
+and were able to make their retreat to a little fort
+which stood on a hill to the south-east of the town.
+Carna, the priest of Venta and his family, and a few
+other non-combatants were with them. More, in the
+terrible confusion of the scene, it was impossible to
+rescue. All through the trying time Cedric distinguished
+himself by his coolness and courage. When
+once he had seen Carna safely bestowed in the centre
+of the party, and had also seen that the person of
+the Pictish chief was secured (having the presence
+of mind to foresee that he would be a valuable
+hostage), he took up a position in the extreme rear
+of the retreat, and performed prodigies of valour in
+keeping the pursuers at bay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The occupation of the fort could, of course, do
+nothing more than give them a breathing space.
+Though it had been for some time unoccupied, its
+defences were tolerably perfect, and it might have
+been held against a barbarian enemy as long as
+provisions held out. Unfortunately this was the
+weak part of their position. Of provisions they had
+very little. Luckily the place had latterly been used
+as a warehouse, and contained some sacks of flour.
+A few sheep were feeding in a meadow hard by, and
+were hastily driven within the defences. Happily
+there was a well within the walls.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/>
+
+<p>
+That night was a dismal experience which none of
+the party ever forgot. A confused noise came up from
+the town, where the savages were busy with plunder
+and massacre. Every now and then some piercing
+shriek was heard, curdling the blood of all the
+listeners. At other times the loud crash of some
+falling building could be distinguished. Towards
+midnight flames could be seen bursting out from
+various parts of the town, and before an hour had
+passed, every eye was fixed on a hideous spectacle,
+on which it was an agony to look, but from which it
+yet seemed impossible to turn. Venta was on fire.
+The flames could be seen to catch street after street,
+and distinctly against the lurid background of the
+burning houses could be seen, flitting here and there,
+as they busied themselves with the work of destruction,
+the dark shapes of the barbarians. When the
+morning dawned only a few detached buildings,
+among them the church, a basilica of some size,
+built by the munificence of the Empress Helena,
+were standing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The party in the fort reviewed their position
+anxiously. The civilians were for the most part in
+favour of staying where they were. They felt the
+substantial protection of the stout walls which surrounded
+them, and were indisposed to leave it. The
+military men, on the other hand, recognized facts
+more clearly and more completely. The protection
+<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/>of the fort was worth this and this only—that it gave
+them time to reflect. To stand a siege would be to
+ensure destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We must cut our way through,</q> said the Count.
+<q>If we do not try it now we shall have to try it three
+or four days hence, and try it with less courage, and
+hope, and strength, and probably fewer men than we
+have now.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Cut our way through all those thousands of
+savages!</q> said the <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Princeps</foreign>, who was one of the
+few who had escaped from the town. <q>No; we
+should be fools to leave the shelter of these walls.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Shelter!</q> cried the old centurion; <q>will they
+shelter you against famine? No; let us go while we
+have strength to walk.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But how,</q> said another of the townspeople, <q>how
+will you do all the three things at once—retreat, and
+fight, and save the women? A few of the men may
+get through, but it will be as much as they can do to
+take care of themselves.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The argument was only too clear, and the Count
+turned away with a groan of despair. The prospect
+seemed hopeless. All the comfort that he could
+find was in the thought that he and Carna should
+anyhow, not fall alive into the hands of the
+barbarians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now Cedric came again to the rescue with the
+happy thought which had made him carry off the
+<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/>Pictish chief. He said nothing to any of his companions;
+but he managed the affair with the prisoner,
+and managed it with an astonishing speed and
+success. He pointed to a party of the chief’s fellow-countrymen
+who were approaching the fort, by way,
+it appeared, of reconnoitring its defences, and
+intimated that he wished to open communications
+with them, showing at the same time, by holding up
+two of his fingers, that not more than two were to
+approach. The chief, whose intelligence was sharpened
+by a keen sense of his danger, by a shrill
+piercing whistle, twice repeated, conveyed this
+intimation to his countrymen, and two of them
+approached to within speaking distance of the walls.
+Cedric now addressed himself to the task of making
+his prisoner understand that his life and liberty
+depended upon his inducing his countrymen to
+retire. This was not very easily done. The expressive
+gestures of drawing a knife across the
+throat was readily understood; and at last by a
+pantomime of signs he was made to comprehend
+that this would be the result, if his countrymen
+were to approach the walls. Then the other alternative
+was expressed. One of the bonds with which
+he was secured was partially loosed, and this action
+was accompanied by a sweeping gesture of the hand
+towards the north, which was to indicate that that
+must be their way, if he was to be freed. A light of
+<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/>comprehension gradually dawned in the chief’s eye,
+and the Saxon had little doubt that he had made his
+meaning intelligible. Whether the man could be
+trusted to keep the engagement was what neither he
+nor any one could say. But it was clear that the
+risk had to be run, for the only possible hope of
+escape lay in this direction. A conversation followed
+between the chief and his countrymen, accompanied
+by signs which were intended to convey to the Saxon
+the purport of what he was saying. When it was
+over, they disappeared, and the chief, turning to
+Cedric, raised his hands to the sky in a gesture which
+the latter interpreted, and rightly interpreted, to
+mean that he was calling the powers above to witness
+his fidelity to the engagement which he had made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cedric then communicated the result of his negotiations
+through his interpreter the peddler to the
+Count. It was not received with unanimous approval
+by the party in the fort. The <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>Princeps</foreign>
+especially protested loudly against trusting their
+lives to the good faith of a couple of savages. <q>A
+Pict and a Saxon!</q> he cried, <q>the worst enemies that
+Britain has, and you think that they are going to
+save us!</q> He was quickly overruled by the Count,
+who let him understand quite plainly that he would
+be left to shift for himself unless he availed himself
+of this chance of escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do as you please,</q> was Ælius’s first utterance,
+<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/><q>you have authority over the fort, and if you choose
+to defend it with as many of your friends as you can
+induce to stay with you, I cannot hinder you. But
+you must take the consequences, and I haven’t the
+shadow of a doubt what these will be. Meanwhile,
+I and my party mean to go. As for the Pict, I know
+nothing of him; the Saxon I would trust with my
+life, and what is far dearer to me, the life of my
+daughter. He has proved his good faith already in
+such a way that I for one shall never doubt him
+again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Preparations for departure were hastily made.
+Indeed there was little to prepare. The party had
+simply nothing with them except their arms. Every
+one had to walk—for food they had to trust to what
+they might find on the road. But before they started
+the Count loosed with his own hand the chief’s bonds.
+The chief put his hand upon his heart, and then
+lifted it to the sky with the same gesture of appeal
+that he made before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is sufficient to say that he kept his word, for
+the party reached the coast without molestation.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="20" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XX. Cedric in Trouble"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XX. Cedric in Trouble"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XX.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">CEDRIC IN TROUBLE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+For several weeks life passed at the villa with little
+change or incident. But the Count, though he kept
+a cheerful face, and talked gaily of the future to his
+daughter and Carna, felt more acutely every day how
+full his position was of anxieties and difficulties.
+First came, as it always does come first, the question
+of money. It had never been a very easy matter to
+provide for the expenses of the fleet. Again and
+again the Count had drawn on his private means,
+which were happily very large. But these had
+lately been crippled by the troubled condition of the
+provinces in which his estates were situated, and
+even if they had been untouched the burden that now
+threatened to fall upon them would have been too
+great for them to bear. Some of the seaport towns
+would, he hoped, continue to pay their contributions.
+He was personally popular, and his influence
+would do something. Then, again, he could still
+<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/>give at least some return for the money. The sea-coast
+must be protected from the enemy, and no one
+could protect it so cheaply and so effectually as he.
+From the inland towns, which had always grumbled
+at having to pay an impost from which they saw no
+visible advantage, nothing was to be hoped. And any
+expectation of money from the authorities at home
+was quite out of the question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing was quite certain: the establishment
+must be reduced within much narrower limits. He
+must diminish the fleet, and lessen also the range of
+shore which he professed to defend. He could not
+henceforth pretend to go north of the mouth of the
+Thamesis. For the coast southward and westward
+he might be able to provide more or less effectually.
+More he could not do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the first necessities of the changed position
+in which he found himself was that he must give up
+the villa on the east coast. It would be a matter for
+after consideration whether the island of Vectis was
+not too much out of the way. But till that point
+could be settled, it would have to be his head-quarters.
+To carry out these new arrangements, and to wind
+up affairs in the region which he was preparing to relinquish,
+a voyage became necessary. On this voyage
+the Count started early in April. He arranged for
+disposing of that part of the fleet which he could
+not hope to keep in his own pay. Some of the
+<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/>oldest galleys were broken up; others were handed
+over to the authorities of the coast-towns, on the
+understanding that they were to man and pay them
+themselves. A few picked men were taken from the
+crews by the Count; the rest, excepting such as were
+re-engaged by the local authorities, were discharged.
+When this had been done, and the villa had been
+dismantled, the Count prepared to return to the
+island.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, meanwhile, there had been trouble. The
+Saxon had quietly returned to his work at the forge,
+and would have been perfectly content, as far as
+could be judged from his demeanour, if only he had
+been left alone, and permitted to pay as before his
+distant worship to Carna. But to some members of
+the villa household he was an object of dislike.
+They were jealous of the favour in which the Count
+and the Count’s family held him. They were
+naturally not at all pleased at what they could not
+but acknowledge his great superiority in strength,
+and as Christians, though not particularly zealous in
+their performance of most of their duties, they felt
+themselves to be unquestionably zealous and sincere
+in their hatred and contempt for a pagan. The
+Saxon, on the other hand, heartily despised those by
+whom he was surrounded. They were slaves, or
+little better than slaves, and he was a freeman and a
+chief, though the gods had made him a prisoner.
+<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/>He went to and fro among them with a scorn which
+was not the less evident because it was not expressed
+in words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a time this enforced silence helped to
+keep the peace; Cedric knew nothing of the British
+tongue, or of the mongrel Latin which sometimes took
+its place, and the other inhabitants of the villa
+nothing of Saxon. There were angry and contemptuous
+looks on both sides, but there was nothing
+more; or if there were words, these were harmless,
+because they were not understood. But by degrees
+this was changed. Cedric had intelligence of no
+common kind—indeed he was something of a poet
+among his own people—he had many motives for
+learning the language of those among whom he
+dwelt, his adoration for Carna being one of the most
+powerful, and he had, too, opportunities for learning.
+The peddler taught him much, and Carna, who
+never forgot her zealous desire for his conversion,
+taught him more. The end was that he picked up
+much of the British language with extraordinary
+rapidity, and, in little more than six months after his
+capture, could express himself with some ease and
+fluency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was very well in its way, but it had the
+unfortunate result that he began to understand and
+be understood. Every day the relations between him
+and the domestics and artizans employed about the
+<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/>villa became worse and worse, and it was not long
+before matters came to a crisis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cedric had repeatedly noticed that the tools which
+he used in the forge had been hidden or mischievously
+damaged. He was too proud to complain,
+and indeed his temper was curiously patient in any
+matter where he did not conceive his honour to be
+involved. He said nothing about the matter,
+searched for his missing tools, and if he could not
+find them, continued to do without them, and repaired
+the injuries as best he could. The offender,
+of course, grew bolder with impunity, and at last the
+limits of Cedric’s endurance were reached and passed.
+Coming into the forge at an unusually early hour
+one morning, he caught the doer of the mischief in
+the very commission of a more serious piece of
+mischief than he had yet ventured, namely, cutting
+a hole in the bellows. He lifted the offender by the
+skin of the neck—he was a lad of about sixteen,
+and son of the chief bailiff of the farm attached to
+the villa—shook him, as a dog shakes a rat, yet
+without forgetting that he was but a boy, dipped him
+head foremost in the bath of the forge, and then let
+him go, more dead than alive from the fear that he
+felt at finding himself in the hands of the great giant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unluckily at the very moment when the young
+rascal was being dismissed in a paroxysm of howling
+with a contemptuous kick, his father entered the
+<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/>yard. No one about the place was more prejudiced
+against the Saxon, or more jealous of the favour in
+which he stood with the Count and his family. He
+had too, in its very worst form, the ungovernable
+Celtic temper, and now, when he saw his son, a
+spoilt boy whom everybody else disliked, ill-treated
+as he thought by the prisoner, he was fairly carried
+out of himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Pagan dog!</q> he cried, <q>do you dare to touch
+with your beast’s foot a Christian boy?</q> and he
+struck at the Saxon with a long cart whip which he
+had in his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The end of the lash caught the Saxon’s cheek, on
+which it raised an ugly-looking wheal. Even in the
+height of his passion the Briton stood aghast at the
+change which came in a moment over the form and
+features of the Saxon. One or two of the bystanders
+had seen him face to face with an enemy, and had
+wondered how strangely calm he had seemed to be,
+showing no sign of excitement, except a certain
+glitter in his eyes. He had a very different look
+now. <q>The form of his visage was changed,</q> as it
+was in the Babylonian king<note place="foot">Daniel iii. 19.</note> when he found himself,
+for the first time in his life, confronted by a
+point-blank refusal to obey. A consuming anger,
+like the Berseker rage of his kinsmen of after times,
+<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/>the Vikings, seemed to possess and transform him.
+His features worked, as if caught by some strange
+malady, his eyes literally blazed with fury, his whole
+figure seemed to dilate. The luckless bailiff was
+seized round the middle, lifted from the ground as
+easily as if he had been a child in arms, and hurled
+with a crash, like a bolt from a catapult, against the
+wall. He lay there bleeding from nose and mouth,
+while the horror-stricken Britons stood helpless and
+afraid to move.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Cedric’s Fury.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig212"/><figure url="images/i_241.jpg" rend="w80"><index index="fig" level1="Cedric’s Fury"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Cedric’s Fury.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Cedric’s Fury</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<q>Dogs of slaves,</q> cried Cedric, <q>do you dare to
+growl at your master;</q> and he swept through the
+terrified crowd, laying them low on either side.
+Happily at the moment he had no weapon in his
+hand, but he seized a bar of iron from the anvil of
+the forge, and swinging it round his head, prepared,
+it seemed, to deal about him an indiscriminate
+destruction. What would have followed it is impossible
+to say. In his fury and in his absolute
+mastery over that shrinking crowd, he was like a
+tiger in the midst of a flock of sheep. But at the
+critical moment, before his hand had dealt a single
+blow, the apparition of Carna interposed between
+him and his victims. The uproar in the court had
+reached her in her chamber, and brought her ready
+to play her accustomed part of peacemaker. Now
+she stood, her figure framed like a picture, in the
+door which opened on the court from the part of the
+<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/>villa which she occupied. She wore a simple dress
+of white, fastened with a blue girdle; her long chestnut
+hair fell in loose waves to her waist, for she had
+not had time to arrange it in more orderly fashion.
+Her face was pale and troubled, her eyes wide open
+with a sad surprise. It was indeed another Cedric
+that she saw from the one whom she had known.
+Was this terrible savage, who looked more like some
+dreadful spirit from the abyss than a human creature,
+the gentle giant in whose mute homage she had felt
+such an innocent pleasure, the hopeful pupil whom
+she was teaching, as she hoped, to put away savage
+ways for the mild and peaceful behaviour of a
+Christian. As for Cedric, he seemed paralyzed at
+the vision that presented itself to him. The sight
+of the girl always moved him strangely; now
+she reminded him of the time when he had first
+seen her by the bedside of his dying brother; and
+the remembrance completed, if anything was needed
+to complete, the impression. The fury that had
+transfigured him seemed to pass away; his hand
+loosed its hold on the weapon which he held. His
+adversaries did not fail to use the opportunity.
+They had been too genuinely frightened to let it slip
+when it came. Indeed they may be excused for feeling
+that this most formidable enemy had to be secured
+against doing any more damage. The moment they
+saw him unarmed they sprang with one movement
+<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/>on him and overpowered him. Even then, if he had
+offered resistance, they might have had no small
+trouble, perhaps might have failed in securing him.
+But he stood passive, and allowed his hands to be
+bound without a struggle, and followed without
+difficulty when he was led to the room where
+offenders were commonly confined. Some of the
+meaner spirits in the household were disposed to
+visit their feelings of annoyance and humiliation on
+his head, now that he seemed to be in their power.
+But others felt a salutary dread of rousing the
+sleeping lion whose rage they had seen could be so
+terrible. Carna too did not abandon her <foreign lang="fr" rend='italic'>protegé</foreign>.
+He was chained, indeed, to a staple in the wall of
+the room which served as his prison. This seemed
+nothing more than a necessary precaution. But the
+girl let it be distinctly understood that no cruelty
+must be used to him, and she took care herself that
+his supply of food should be plentiful and good.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="21" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXI. The Escape"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXI. The Escape"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXI.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE ESCAPE.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The prisoner seemed to submit to his fate with
+patience. He thanked the attendant who brought
+him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposed
+of the food with an appetite which seemed to
+indicate a cheerful temper. A visit which the peddler
+paid him the second day of his imprisonment
+was apparently received as a welcome relief. The
+two had a long and friendly conversation, nor did
+Cedric utter a word of complaint against his treatment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In reality the young chief was keeping under his
+rage with an effort almost unbearably painful. That
+he should be chained like a dog to the wall was an
+intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of
+a long line of chiefs which boasted the blood of the
+great Odin himself! The iron did indeed enter into
+his soul, and the seeming calm of his outward
+patience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury.
+<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/>It was only the hope of freedom that kept him calm.
+It was that he might not diminish this hope, this
+almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction
+that he ate and drank with such seeming cheerfulness.
+He would want, he knew, all his strength for
+an escape. He would support it and husband it to
+the utmost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And for an escape, unknown to his keepers, he was
+steadily preparing. The chain which bound him to
+the wall was fastened round his right arm and leg,
+and the fastening would have seemed secure to any
+ordinary observer. But such an observer would not
+have made the necessary allowance for the young
+man’s ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand
+was large and muscular; far too much so, one would
+have thought, to pass through the ring which had
+been welded round the arms. But he possessed an
+unusual power of contracting it. To exercise this
+power was indeed a painful effort, causing something
+like an agonizing cramp; still it was an effort that
+could be made, and made without disabling the limb.
+It could not, however, be done twice, because the
+hand, recovering its shape from the extraordinary
+pressure to which it had been subjected, would
+infallibly swell. Cedric, accordingly, after satisfying
+himself that it could be done, postponed actually
+doing it till the moment of escape had arrived. The
+fastening of the leg was less manageable. He
+<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/>would not have scrupled to do as the Spartan prisoner
+is said to have done, and cut off the foot which impeded
+his escape, but he had positively nothing with
+which this could be done. The only alternative was
+to drag the staple from the wall, and to carry it
+and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong
+as it was, it was light. The staple at first seemed
+obstinate. It had indeed been subjected to tests
+which satisfied the villa blacksmith of its capacity
+of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all
+the enormous strength which the young giant could
+bring to bear, weakened its hold, and at last it gave.
+The prisoner was prudent enough not to complete
+the separation of the iron from the walls. It would
+have been difficult to replace it so as to escape the
+notice of the attendant. Accordingly the drag was
+relaxed as soon as the first indications of yielding
+were felt. The time for attempting the escape was
+a subject of much anxious deliberation. The obvious
+course would have been to choose some hour between
+midnight and dawn; but Cedric had heard from time
+to time the step of some one walking up and down
+before his prison, and he guessed that it might be
+guarded at night, but left during the day-time, on the
+presumption that the captive would scarcely make
+an effort to escape while it was light. It was this
+accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortly after
+sunrise the attendant paid him his customary visit,
+<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/>bringing with him the morning meal. Cedric pretended
+to be but half awake, and, returning his salutation
+in a mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on his
+side, as if to continue his slumbers. But the moment
+after the man had left the room he was at work.
+He dragged his hand through the ring, at the cost
+of a pang which taxed his endurance to the utmost;
+pulled the staple from the wall, wound the chain
+round his leg, and wrenching away one of the iron
+bars of the window, dropped through the opening
+thus made on to the ground. His calculation was
+correct. The ground was clear. Then another
+question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to
+escape as he was? He knew where a boat was commonly
+kept, and it had been his plan to take this and
+row out to sea in the hope of meeting some one of his
+countrymen’s galleys. If he once got off from the
+shore he was free, for if the worst came to the worst,
+he could at least die as a free man should. But
+should he go unarmed, and with the hampering chain
+about his leg? A moment’s consideration—no more
+was possible—decided him. He would make one
+more bold effort. The forge was close at hand, and
+he knew from having worked there that at that hour
+in the morning it was commonly empty, the workmen
+leaving it for their morning meal. There he could
+find what he wanted, a file to release himself from
+the chain, and a weapon.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/>
+
+<p>
+The forge was empty, as he had expected. The
+question was, How long would it remain so? The
+workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The fire
+had not died down to the lowest, showing that the
+bellows had been recently at work, and a piece of iron
+that had been left, half-wrought, on the anvil, was
+still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near
+it. It might be safest to take a file and escape with
+it at once. On the other hand, it would be far better
+to release himself at once from his encumbrance, in
+the event of having to run or fight for his life. He
+might count, he thought, upon half an hour, and he
+resolved to file away the chain then and there.
+With admirable coolness he sat down and applied
+all the strength and skill which he possessed to the
+work, and had finished it in little more than half the
+time which he had reckoned to have undisturbed.
+He then caught up a sword which hung on one of
+the walls. It was an old-fashioned weapon, but
+Cedric, who knew good iron when it came in his way,
+had tried its temper, and knew it to be capable of
+doing good service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So far everything had favoured him, nor did his
+good fortune desert him now. He found the boat,
+which was one commonly used for fishing by the
+inmates of the villa, ready furnished with oars and a
+small mast and sail. There were even, by good luck,
+a small jar of water, some broken food in a hamper,
+<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/>left by a party which had been using it the day before,
+with some fishing lines. These, Cedric thought to
+himself, might be useful if he failed to fall in with
+any of his countrymen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jumping on board, he plied his sculls rapidly,
+going in the direction of the sea, and keeping as
+close under the shore as possible, so as to be out
+of sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution
+was unnecessary. His absence was not
+discovered till shortly afternoon, when the attendant,
+bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond
+measure to find the room empty. But another danger
+threatened him, a danger which he had not indeed
+forgotten, but against which he had known it to be
+impossible to take any precautions. This was the
+chance of meeting with the Count’s squadron as it
+was returning to the island; and it was this that he
+actually encountered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as he had reached the mouth of the Haven
+and was turning his boat eastward, he saw within a
+hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys.
+It was not the Count’s own vessel, for this had been
+delayed by an accident to the rigging, and was
+now many miles behind, but was in charge of the
+second-in-command. The recognition was mutual.
+Cedric’s tall figure was not one that could be easily
+mistaken, nor could it be doubted that he was
+attempting an escape. Had the Count been there
+<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/>he would probably have parleyed with the fugitive.
+The officer in command was not so considerate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Shoot,</q> he cried, <q>he is trying to escape,</q> and
+as he spoke he seized a bow which lay on deck, and
+took aim at the Saxon. His order was immediately
+observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at
+the boat. They all fell short, for Cedric had by this
+time increased his distance. In a minute or two, however,
+the ship was put about, and then began to gain
+rapidly on the solitary rower.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another volley was discharged, and this time one
+of the arrows took effect, wounding the fugitive
+slightly in the left arm. The situation was desperate.
+To remain in the boat was to await certain death.
+A third volley would unquestionably be fatal. Cedric
+jumped overboard, but still clung to the side of the
+boat. It was only just in time. The third volley
+was discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of
+the boat so thick as to show plainly what the fate of
+the occupant would have been. Still, though he had
+escaped for the moment, Cedric’s fate seemed sealed.
+The boat had given him shelter for the time, but to
+go on clinging to it would be to ensure his capture.
+He left it, and after making a few vigorous strokes,
+threw up his arms from the surface of the water, and
+uttering a loud cry, disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His quick eye had discerned a great mass of sea-weed
+floating on the water about fifty yards away,
+<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/>and his ready intelligence had seen a chance, small
+indeed and almost desperate, but still a chance of
+escape. Swimming under water to the sea-weed, he
+was able to come to the surface and to take breath
+under its shelter.
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Cedric’s Escape.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig222"/><figure url="images/i_253.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Cedric’s Escape"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Cedric’s Escape.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Cedric’s Escape</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+On board the galley every one of course supposed
+him to have sunk. His action of the lifted arms
+and the loud cry had been natural enough to deceive
+the most wary observer. The boat was righted and
+secured by a rope, and the galley pursued its way to
+the villa, while Cedric was left to make the best of
+his way to the land.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="22" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXII. A Visitor"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXII. A Visitor"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">A VISITOR.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The day after Cedric’s disappearance the Count
+returned to the island. The prospect before him had
+not by any means lightened. Britain, conquered,
+oppressed, protected, for nearly four hundred years,
+governed sometimes ill and sometimes well, according
+to the varying characters of the Roman legates,
+but never allowed to do anything for herself, was not
+ready at a moment’s notice to be independent and
+stand alone. The Count was much too shrewd a
+man to hope that she would. Still, even he had not
+realized how bad things would be; and when he
+came to see them face to face he felt something like
+disappointment, and even despair. A man will often
+make up his mind to the general fact of failure, and
+yet be almost as much vexed at the details of failure,
+when it comes, as if he had expected success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact was that the Count had found little or no
+disposition in the native States to take up and carry
+<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/>on the work which he was being compelled to give
+up. They would make no sacrifices, or even efforts.
+They refused to work together. Each reckoned on
+its own chance of escaping the common danger, and
+would not contribute to the defence that might
+possibly be wanted for its neighbours, and not for
+itself. Then jealousies and enmities, hitherto kept
+in check by the strong hand of a master, began to
+break out. The cities seemed likely, not only not to
+combine against Picts and Saxons, but actually to go
+to war among themselves. The Count felt all the
+pain that comes to an honest and capable man when
+he has to face the breaking up of a bad system which
+he has inherited from predecessors less high principled
+than himself. It happens very often that revolutions
+come in the days, not of the worst offenders, but of
+the men who are making sincere endeavours to do
+their duty. And so it was with the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in a very gloomy and depressed condition
+of mind, therefore, that he returned to the villa. And
+almost every day brought news of fresh troubles and
+disasters. Some of the Roman houses scattered
+through the country had been attacked and burnt of
+late. Since the central authority had been weakened
+the Roman residents had sometimes begun to behave
+in a lawless and oppressive way to their British
+neighbours, and these were taking their revenge with
+the cruelty that is always natural to the oppressed.
+<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/>Tragical tales of villas surrounded by infuriated
+crowds of Britons, of masters and families shut up
+within the walls, and perishing in the fires that consumed
+them, were brought to the Count by the
+scared survivors who had contrived to escape from
+the general destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count’s personal difficulties were considerable.
+He had a considerable colony now settled
+near the villa, and many of its members were helpless
+and dependent people. The question of feeding
+them would soon become an urgent one. At present
+he could use the surplus stores which would no
+longer be wanted now that his squadron had been so
+reduced in strength. And there was another question
+that pressed upon his mind—that of defence.
+Already he had had to contract his operations.
+With single pirate vessels, or even small squadrons
+of two or three, he would be able to deal, but anything
+stronger would have to be left alone. With the
+few ships that were left to him it would be madness
+to run any risk. And what, he could not help thinking,
+if the Saxons were to attack the villa itself?
+It had been built as a pleasure residence, and though
+now fortified as far as circumstances permitted,
+could not be held against a strong force. Should he
+continue to occupy, or should he retire to the camp
+of the Great Harbour, which would at least be a
+more defensible position?
+</p>
+
+<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/>
+
+<p>
+It may easily be imagined that these anxieties,
+which had been troubling his thoughts during the
+whole time of his absence, were not relieved when
+he heard the story of what had happened during his
+absence. He owed the Saxon more than he could
+ever repay, for he shuddered to think what would
+have happened to Carna but for his strength and
+energy. And apart from this feeling of gratitude, he
+admired the man’s splendid courage and tenacity.
+He had even come to rely upon him for services of
+unusual difficulty and danger. And now, to think
+that he was lost to them by the stupid perversity
+and jealousy of a set of slaves!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The said slaves had a bad time with their master
+for some days after his return. Good-humoured and
+kind as he was, yet he was a Roman—in other
+words, he had inherited the lordly temper of a race
+which had ruled the world for five hundred years,
+and any contradiction that thwarted him in one of
+his serious convictions or purposes, broke through
+the veneer of refinement and culture that commonly
+concealed the sterner part of his nature. A Christian
+master could not crucify an offender—indeed, crucifixion
+had been long since forbidden by the law—but
+he had almost unlimited power over life and limb.
+Life, indeed, the Count was too conscientious a
+follower of his religion to touch, but he had no
+scruple about going to the very utmost verge of
+<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/>severity in the use of minor punishments. As for
+his daughter, she was only too like her father to be
+any check on his anger, and for the first time in her
+life Carna found her mediation useless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Girl,</q> he said to her on one occasion, when she
+had urged her intercession with tears, <q>you do not
+know what mischief these foolish, cowardly knaves
+have done. One thing I see plainly, that as soon as
+ever the Saxons know the weakness of the position
+we shall not be able to hold it any longer. There is
+nothing to hinder them from coming and burning the
+whole place over our heads; nothing in the way of
+fortifications, and certainly nothing in the way of
+garrison. They did not know all this before, but
+they are sure to know it soon; and we shall see the
+consequences before many months are over.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the course of the summer occurred an incident
+which diverted the Count’s attention for a time,
+though it did not lessen his perplexities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One morning a small trading vessel entered the
+haven near the villa. Her business, it was found,
+was to land a stranger, who had bargained for a
+passage to the island. The trader had come from a
+port of Western Gaul, and had then taken her passenger
+on board. Who he was the captain could
+not say, except that he had the appearance of a
+Roman gentleman. The day after they had set sail
+an illness, which had evidently been upon him when
+<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/>he came on board, had increased to such an extent
+that he had lost consciousness. Two or three days
+of delirium had been succeeded by stupor; in this
+condition the unfortunate man still lay. But while
+still conscious he had written down his destination,
+and added an appeal to the compassion of his future
+host. The Count read on the paper which the
+merchant captain handed to him a few words written
+in a trembling hand. They ran as follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top:2 ; margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend='italic'>In case I should not be able to speak for myself, I
+invoke by these words the compassionate protection of the
+Count Ælius. Let him not fear to receive me, but believe
+that I am unfortunate rather than guilty, and that there
+is between us the tie of a great common affection.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count did not recognize the stranger, though
+a dim impression of having seen him before floated
+across his mind; and there was something in his
+appearance which agreed with the trading captain’s
+conviction that he was a man of birth and position.
+In any case Ælius was not one who was inclined to
+resist such an appeal to his compassion. The
+stranger, still unconscious, was landed, together with
+a few effects which were said to belong to him, and
+at once handed over to the care of Carna. All her
+diligence and watchfulness as a nurse, and all the
+skill of the old physician, were wanted before the
+patient could be brought back to life. For fourteen
+<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/>days he lay hovering on the very verge of death,
+mostly sunk in a stupor so complete that it was
+barely possible to perceive either pulse or breath;
+sometimes muttering in delirium a few broken sentences,
+of which all that physician and nurse were
+able to distinguish was that they were certainly
+Latin, and that they seemed to be verse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the morning of the fifteenth day that
+there came a change. Carna sat by the window of
+the sick man’s room. It had a southern aspect, and
+the sunshine came with a softened brilliance through
+the thick tinted glass, and brought out the exquisite
+tints of the girl’s glossy hair, as she sat bending over
+the embroidery with which she was employing her
+nimble, never-idle fingers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>By heaven! another, fairer Proserpine!</q> said the
+sick man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl turned her head at the sound of the clearly
+pronounced words which her practised ear distinguished
+at once from the strained or blurred utterances
+of delirium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She held up her finger to her lips. <q>Do not speak,</q>
+she said; <q>you have been very ill, and must not tire
+yourself.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Lady,</q> said the sick man, with a smile, <q>you
+must at least let me ask you where I am.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, you shall hear, if you will promise to ask no
+more questions, but to be content with what you are
+<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/>told. You are with friends, in the island of Vectis,
+in the house of Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore.
+And now be quiet, and don’t spoil all our pains in
+making yourself ill again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She gave him a little broth which was being kept
+hot by the fire in readiness for the time when he
+should recover consciousness; and after this had been
+disposed of, and she had found by feeling his pulse
+that he was free from fever, a small quantity of well
+diluted wine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And now,</q> she said, <q>you must sleep</q>—a command
+which he was ready enough to obey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this his recovery was rapid. For a time,
+indeed, the cautious old physician, though he did not
+forbid conversation, prohibited any reference to business.
+<q>You will want, of course,</q> he said, <q>to tell
+your story, and to make your plans for the future;
+that will excite you, and, till you are stronger, may
+bring about a relapse. Be content for a while with
+the ladies’ company</q>—Ælia, now that no nursing had
+to be done, was often with her foster-sister—<q>the
+Count will see you when I give permission.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And much talk the ladies had with him, and greatly
+astonished they were at the variety and brilliance of
+his conversation. He seemed equally familiar with
+books and men. He had read everything—so at least
+thought the two girls, who were sufficiently well
+educated to recognize a full mind when they came
+<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/>across it—he had been everywhere, he had seen
+everybody. He never boasted of his intimacy with
+great people, and indeed very seldom mentioned a
+name, but his allusions showed that he was equally
+familiar with courts and camps. It would have
+puzzled more experienced persons than the sisters to
+guess who this man of the world, who was also a man
+of letters, could possibly be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the end of another week the physician removed
+his prohibition, and the Count, who had hitherto
+judged it better not to agitate his guest by his presence,
+now paid a visit to his room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a few kindly inquiries as to his health, the
+Count went on, <q>Understand me, sir, that I have no
+wish to force any confidence from you. My good
+fortune gave me the chance of serving you, but it has
+not given me the right of asking you questions which
+you might not care to answer. You are welcome to
+my hospitality as long as you choose to remain here,
+and you may command my help when you wish to go.
+But of course, if you care to give me your confidence,
+it may make the help a great deal more effective.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yours is a true hospitality,</q> answered the stranger,
+with a smile, <q>but it is right that you should know
+who I am, and how I came to be here; and I have
+only been waiting for the good Strabo’s leave to tell
+you. But may your daughter and her sister be
+present? I have a sad story to relate, but there is
+<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/>nothing in it which is unfit for them to hear, and
+they have been good enough to show some interest
+in an unhappy <anchor id="corr233"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">man.</corr></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>They shall come, if you wish it,</q> said the Count,
+<q>indeed they have been almost dying of curiosity.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was to this audience that the stranger told his
+story.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="23" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXIII. The Stranger’s Story"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXIII. The Stranger's Story"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXIII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">THE STRANGER’S STORY.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have found out that my name is known to these
+ladies, though they are not aware that it belongs to
+me. You, sir, have very probably not found time
+among your many cares to give any thought to the
+trifles which, if I may say so much of myself, have
+made me famous. I am Claudius Claudianus.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What! the poet!</q> cried the Count, <q>the Virgil
+of these later days?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The poet blushed with pleasure to hear the compliment,
+which, extravagant as it may seem to us, did not
+strike him as being anything out of the way. For had
+not his statue been set up in Trajan’s Forum at Rome,
+an honour which none of his predecessors had been
+thought worthy to receive?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah! sir,</q> he replied, <q>you are too good. But it
+would have been well for me if I had contented myself
+with following Virgil; unfortunately I must also
+imitate Juvenal. Praise of the fallen may be
+for<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/>given, but there is no pardon for satire against those
+that succeed. Enmity lasts longer than friendship,
+and I have made enemies whom nothing can
+appease.</q>
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Claudian’s Tale.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig234"/><figure url="images/i_267.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Claudian’s Tale"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Claudian’s Tale.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Claudian’s Tale</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<q>But what of Stilicho?</q> said the Count. <q>Surely
+he has not ceased to be your friend. Doubtless you
+owe much to him, but he owes more, I venture to say,
+to you. He may have given you wealth, but you
+have given him immortality.</q><note place="foot">It may be as well to say a few words about Stilicho. He
+was the son of a Vandal captain, and attracted by his skill and
+courage the favourable notice of the Emperor Theodosius, who
+gave him his niece Serena in marriage. His influence continued
+to increase, and in course of time Theodosius made him and
+his wife guardians of his young son Honorius, whom he shortly
+afterwards proclaimed Augustus, and Emperor of the West.
+In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was divided between
+his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius the East.
+Stilicho’s daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius, and
+his influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the
+Empire, conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates,
+and driving back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by
+the very terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was
+engaged in a struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over
+whom he won, in the year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near
+the modern Turin, and whom he defeated again in the following
+year under the walls of Verona. He is said to have conceived
+the idea of securing the Empire for his own son, and for this
+purpose to have entered into intrigues with his old enemy Alaric.
+However this may be, it is certain that he fell into disgrace.
+His end is related in this chapter. The poet Claudian employed
+himself in writing the praises of Stilicho and invectives
+against his rivals Rufinus and Eutropius.</note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah! sir,</q> said Claudian, <q>have you not then
+heard?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Heard!</q> cried the Count; <q>we hear nothing
+here. We always were cut off from the rest of the
+world; but for the last nine months we might as well
+have been living in the moon, for all that has reached
+us of what is going on elsewhere.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You did not know, then, that Stilicho was dead?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Dead! But how?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Killed by the order of the Emperor.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What! killed? by the Emperor’s orders? It is
+impossible. The man who saved the Empire, the very
+best soldier we have had since Cæsar! And you
+say that the Emperor ordered him to be killed?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count rose from his seat, and walked about in
+incontrollable emotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>So they have killed him! Fools and madmen
+that they are! There never was such a man. I
+knew him well. He was always ready, always cheerful,
+as gay in a battle as at a wedding; as brave as a
+lion, and yet never doing anything by force that he
+could contrive by stratagem. But tell me—they
+had, or pretended to have, some cause. What was
+it?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>They said he was a traitor, that he wanted the
+Empire for himself, or for his son, that he intrigued
+with the barbarians.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well, he was fond of power; and who can wonder
+<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/>that he was dissatisfied when he saw in what hands
+it was lodged? But tell me—what do you think?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I don’t say,</q> resumed Claudian, <q>that he was
+blameless, but he had an impossible task—he had
+to save the Empire without soldiers. He did it
+again and again; he played off one barbarian power
+against another with consummate skill; and filled his
+legion one day with the enemies whom he had routed
+the day before. But this could not be done without
+intrigues, without devices which, taken by themselves,
+looked like treason. But it is idle to speak
+of the past. He lies in a dishonoured grave, and the
+Empire of Augustus is tottering to its fall.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Tell me of his end,</q> said the Count. <q>You
+saw it?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> said the poet; <q>I saw it, and, I am
+ashamed to say, survived it. Well, I will tell you
+my tale. You know he might have had the Empire;
+the soldiers offered it to him; Alaric and his Goths
+would have been delighted to help him. But he
+refused. He was loyal to the last. He would not
+even fly. There are many places where he would
+have been safe——</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> interrupted the Count; <q>he would have
+been safe here, if I know anything of Britain.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well, he would go to none of them. He went
+to the one place where safety was impossible. He
+went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna every one, from
+<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/>the Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an
+enemy. He wanted to make them trust him by
+trusting them—as if one disarmed a tiger by going
+into his lair! He had two or three of his chief
+officers with him, besides myself, and as many
+slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind among
+us. Stilicho made a point of our being unarmed.
+Well, we had not an encouraging greeting when we
+entered the city. Every one, as you may suppose,
+recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose,
+in the whole Empire, who was better known.
+No one who had ever seen Stilicho could forget that
+towering form, that white head.<note place="foot"><lg><l><q rend="post: none">Stilichonis apex et cognita fulsit</q></l>
+<l><q rend="pre: none">Canities.</q></l></lg>
+
+<q>There shone Stilicho’s towering head and well-known
+locks of white</q>—a passage quoted from Claudian by
+D’Israeli, with exquisite propriety, in his eulogium on the
+Duke of Wellington, in the House of Commons, November,
+1852.</note> There were sullen
+looks as we walked through the streets, and hisses,
+and even some stone throwing. However, we got
+safe to our lodgings, and passed the night without
+disturbance. The next day, as we were standing in
+the market-place, an old Vandal soldier—one of the
+general’s countrymen, you know—put a flower in his
+hand as he walked by, without saying a word, or
+even looking at him; for it would have been as much
+<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/>as his life was worth to be seen communicating with
+us. <q>An old comrade,</q> said Stilicho, who never
+forgot a face. <q>He served with me in Greece.</q> The
+flower was a little red thing; the <q>shepherd’s hourglass</q>
+they call it, because it shuts when there is
+rain coming. It was a warning. There was danger
+close at hand. The general said, <q>We must take
+sanctuary.</q> Then he called me to him. <q>Leave me,
+Claudian,</q> he said; <q>you cannot take sanctuary with
+us, for you are not a baptized man. I do not count
+much on the Church’s protection; but still it may
+give me time to make my defence to the Emperor.
+So you must look out for your own safety. But
+surely they can’t be base enough to harm you, for
+what you have done?</q> <q>I don’t know about that, my
+Lord,</q> I answered; <q>you remember the fable of the
+trumpeter.<note place="foot">In one of Æsop’s fables, a trumpeter, taken prisoner, begs
+for his life, pleading that he has never struck a blow in battle;
+but is told that he has done much worse in encouraging others
+to fight by his martial music.</note> Anyhow, I shall follow you as far as I
+can.</q> Well, he went into the great church—what
+used to be the Basilica before Constantine’s time—and
+took sanctuary by the altar. I did not go further
+than the nave. In the course of an hour or so comes
+the bishop, with the archdeacon and two or three
+priests, and following them one of the great officers
+of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was
+<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/>now crowded from end to end; the people had
+climbed up into the pulpit, and every accessible
+spot from which they could get a view of what was
+going on. I think that there was a reaction in the
+general’s favour. No one, whose heart was not flint,
+could see the man who had saved the Empire, and
+that not once or twice, a suppliant for his life.
+Well, I could not see for myself what went on, but
+I heard the story afterwards. The bishop brought a
+safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the
+chamberlain brought it, and the bishop gave it to
+Stilicho, with his own guarantee. I can’t believe
+that a man of peace and truth, as he calls himself,
+could have been a party to so base a fraud—he must
+have been deceived himself. Well, the safe-conduct
+promised that the general should be heard in his
+own defence; and he wanted nothing more. I doubt
+whether a trial would have served him; but they
+never intended to give him even so much. As soon
+as he was out of the church I could see what was
+meant, for I followed him. The chamberlain’s body-guard
+drew their swords. Well, I was wrong to say
+that he had no friends in Ravenna. He had a friend
+even in that crew of hirelings—another of his old
+soldiers, I daresay. I told you that Stilicho had
+neither armour nor weapon. Well, in a moment, no
+one could see how, there was a long sword lying at
+his feet. He took it up; and, verily, if he had used
+<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/>it, he would at least have sold his life dearly. The
+general was a great swordsman, as good a swordsman
+as he was a general. But no; he would not
+condescend to it; after a soldier’s first impulse to
+take the weapon, he made no use of it. He pointed
+it to the ground, and stood facing his enemies. Ah!
+it was a noble sight—that grand old man looking
+steadfastly at that crew of murderers. For a few
+moments they seemed cowed. No one lifted his
+hand—then some double-dyed villain crept behind
+and stabbed him. He staggered forward, and immediately
+there were a dozen swords hacking at
+him. At least his was no lingering death. They
+cut off that grand white head and carried it to the
+Emperor; his body they threw into the pit where
+they bury the slaves. And that was the end of the
+saviour of the Empire.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And about yourself?</q> said the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> went on the poet, <q>I have since thought
+that if I had been a man I should have died with him.
+But when I knew that he was dead, I was coward
+enough to fly. You would not care to hear how I
+spent the next few days. I had a few gold pieces in
+my pocket, and I found a wretched lodging in one of
+the worst parts of the city, and I lay there in hiding.
+One day I was having my morning meal at a wine
+shop, when a shabbily dressed old man, who sat next,
+turned to me in a meaning way, and, pouring a few
+<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/>drops out of his wine cup, said, <q>To Apollo and the
+Muses.</q> That is a crime now-a-days, in some places
+at least, Ravenna among them; and he wanted, I
+suppose, to put me at my ease. <q>Will you not do
+the same,</q> he went on, <q>of all men in the world there
+is no one who has better cause.</q> Pardon me, illustrious
+Count, if I repeat his flatteries. <q>Whom do
+you take me for?</q> said I, for one gets to be a sad
+coward after a few days’ hiding, and I was unwilling
+to declare myself. He replied by repeating some of
+my verses in so meaning a way that I could not misunderstand
+him. <q>These wine-bibbers here,</q> he went
+on, <q>don’t know one verse from another, but they
+might catch up a name. Come along with me; I will
+give you a flask of something better than this sour
+stuff.</q> Well, we went to his house, which was close
+to the harbour. He was the owner, I found, of two
+or three small trading vessels. The house was a veritable
+temple of the Muses, ornamented with busts of
+the poets—my own I was flattered to see among them—and
+containing an excellent library of books.
+Manlius—that was my friend’s name—had heard me
+recite at Rome; and he recognized me partly from
+memory, partly from my resemblance to the bust.
+To make a long story short, he entertained me most
+hospitably for several days, while we discussed the
+question what was to become of me. Home I could
+not go, not, at least, till there should be a change in
+<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/>the Emperor’s surroundings. The further I got from
+Italy the more chance there would be of safety. We
+thought of North-western Gaul or Britain, or of
+getting across the Rhine. The end of it was that
+the good fellow took me across Italy, disguised as his
+servant, to Genoa, where he had correspondents.
+From Genoa I went to Marseilles, and from Marseilles
+overland to Narbonne, using now the character
+of a bookseller’s agent, one which I thought myself
+better qualified to sustain than any other. At
+Narbonne I found employment as a bookseller’s
+assistant, till I could get a letter from my wife in
+Africa with some money. That came in due course,
+and then I set off on my travels again, still working
+northwards. Then, sir, I thought of you. I had
+often heard the great man speak of you. You served
+under him against the Bastarnæ,<note place="foot">A tribe that occupied a region included in what is now
+known as Russian Poland.</note> I think, and it
+occurred to me that for Stilicho’s sake you might give
+me shelter. Not that it matters much to me. To
+Stilicho I owe so much that I can scarcely imagine
+life without him. He gave me honour, wealth, even,</q>
+added the poet, with a sad little smile, <q>even my
+wife, for it was not my courting, but the Lady
+Serena’s<note place="foot">Serena was wife to Stilicho, and, as has been said before,
+niece to the Emperor Theodosius.</note> letter that won her for me. But to go on,
+<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/>I found an honest trader, and bargained with him to
+bring me here. I had been sickening for some time,
+and I remember little or nothing from the time of my
+embarking. There, sir, you have my history carried
+up to the latest point.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We will put off the future to another day,</q> said
+the Count; <q>meanwhile you may count on me for
+anything that I can do.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Your kindness does much to reconcile me to life,</q>
+said the poet, <q>and now I will retire, for I feel a
+little tired.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah,</q> said Carna half to herself, when he had
+left the room, <q>now I understand about Proserpine.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>About Proserpine? What do you mean?</q> asked
+Ælia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Why, when he came to himself for the first time
+I was sitting in the window with a piece of embroidery
+work in my hand, and I heard him whisper something
+about Proserpine.</q> Carna suppressed the flattering
+epithet. <q>Don’t you remember that passage where
+he describes the tapestry which Proserpine was working
+for her mother, and how we admired it, and
+thought we would work something of the kind for
+ourselves, only we could not get any design?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, I remember,</q> replied the other, <q>and you
+have had a Pluto, too, to carry you off. Luckily he
+was not so successful as the god.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="24" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXIV. News from Italy"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXIV. News from Italy"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXIV.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">NEWS FROM ITALY.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The Count’s difficulties did not seem to diminish as
+the year advanced. Money grew scarcer and scarcer,
+till it was only by pledging his personal credit to the
+merchants of Londinium and other towns in Britain
+that he was able to find the pay for the crews of his
+little squadron. His credit happily was still good, a
+character of twenty years without a single suspicion
+on his integrity standing him in good stead. Then a
+disaster happened to one of the few ships that he had
+retained. After a fierce encounter with a Saxon galley,
+in which its crew had been much weakened, it had been
+caught in a storm and driven on the deadly western
+shore of the island, still dreaded under the name of
+the Needles by those who navigate the Channel.
+The ship became a complete wreck and only a small
+portion of the crew escaped with their lives, all the
+disabled men being lost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Count’s chief perplexities were within
+<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/>rather than without. For more than twenty years
+he had yielded an unquestioning obedience to the
+authorities at home. It is true that very little had
+been demanded of him. He had been given a free
+hand, and left to do his duty with very little interference,
+if with very little help. But now in the news
+of Stilicho’s death his loyalty had received a tremendous
+shock. How was he to bear himself to a ruler
+who was capable of committing so great a crime?
+True, he knew enough of the Emperor to be sure
+that he was only a tool in the hands of others, but
+this did not make the matter one whit better. Such
+tools are often more mischievous than men who are
+actively wicked. What then was he to do? Should
+he join the usurper Constantine, of whose astonishing
+success in Gaul and Spain he had heard the most
+glowing reports? His pride forbad it—an Ælius
+doing homage to a man who but twelve months
+before had been a private soldier! The thought was
+impossible. Should he retire into private life? But
+would not that be to shirk his duty, not to mention
+the fact that to retire is the one thing which in
+troubled times a man in a conspicuous position cannot
+do. One thing, indeed, was evident—that a
+decision would have to be made speedily. His position
+was rapidly becoming untenable, and he would
+have to make up his mind, without much delay,
+as to the best way of getting out of it. In the end
+<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/>it happened to him as it happens to so many of us,
+that his mind was made up for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One day, towards the end of August, he was about
+to seek in a day’s sport a little relief from his many
+cares. It was still about four hours to noon, and he
+was sitting under a cherry tree (one of his own planting)
+in the villa garden, and sharing a slight meal of
+milk and wheaten cakes with his daughter and Carna,
+both of whom he had persuaded to accompany him.
+A young Briton stood by holding in a leash a couple
+of dogs very much like the greyhounds of our own
+times; another carried a bow and a quiver; a third
+had a game bag of leather, with a netted front, slung
+across his shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sailing-master of one of the galleys approached
+and saluted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>There is a galley,</q> he said, <q>coming up the
+Haven, and I thought that you should know at once,
+since it seems to have something of importance on
+board.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What makes you think so?</q> said the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have been watching it for the last hour,</q> said
+the man. <q>At first I thought it was a little trading
+vessel; but I noticed that as soon as it entered the
+Haven it hoisted the Labarum.</q><note place="foot">The Imperial standard (see page 21).</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The Labarum!</q> exclaimed the Count; <q>I have
+<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/>not seen that flying from any mast but my own for a
+year past. Well, that ought to mean something.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the etiquette to go as far as was possible to
+meet an Imperial messenger, just as a host receives
+a very distinguished guest on his door-step, and the
+Count, after hastily exchanging his hunting-dress for
+a toga, went to the little pier at which the galley
+would land its passenger. He had not to wait many
+minutes before it arrived, and a handsome young
+man, with a short military cloak over his traveller’s
+dress, leapt lightly ashore. The Count saluted. The
+stranger, who was for a time the representative of
+the Emperor, received the greeting with the dignified
+gesture of a superior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do I address Lucius Ælius, Count of the
+Saxon Shore?</q> he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I am he,</q> the Count briefly replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I bring the commands of Augustus,</q> said the
+messenger, producing from a pocket in his tunic a
+vellum roll, bound with a broad purple cord, and
+bearing the Imperial seal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count received the missive with a profound
+inclination, and put it to his lips. At the same time
+the messenger uncovered, and changed his haughty
+demeanour for the behaviour usual to a young officer
+in the presence of his superior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>It will be more respectful and more convenient
+to read his Majesty’s gracious communication in
+<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/>private. Will you please come with me to my
+house?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He led the way to the villa, and introduced the
+visitor into the little room which he used for the
+transaction of business. He then cut with his dagger
+the purple cord which fastened the package containing
+the despatch, and, after again putting the document
+to his lips, proceeded to read it. Its contents were
+seemingly not agreeable, for his face darkened as he
+went on. He made no remark, however, beyond
+simply asking the messenger—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>May I presume that you have a general acquaintance
+with the contents of this document?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have,</q> replied the young man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Then you will know that the answer is not one
+which can be given in a moment. But,</q> and he
+went on with a rapid change of voice and manner,
+<q><foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>cras seria</foreign>.<note place="foot">Business to-morrow.</note> I was just on the point of going out
+for a few hours’ hunting when your arrival was
+announced. Will you come with me? I have
+nothing very great to show you, though we have
+some big game here too, if we had time to look for
+it, but if you will condescend to anything so small
+as hare-hunting, I can show you some sport.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Imperial messenger was an Italian of the
+north of the Peninsula, who had been fond of
+fol<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/>lowing the chase on the slopes of the Apennines
+before chance had made him a courtier. He accepted
+the invitation with pleasure, and the party made the
+best of their way to the high ground now known as
+Arreton Downs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> said the Count, as he pointed northward
+to where the great Anderida Forest<note place="foot">The Forest of Anderida occupied a great part of Hampshire
+and nearly the whole of Sussex, except a strip of land along the
+coast. It must have measured a hundred miles from east to
+west.</note> might be seen
+stretching far beyond the range of sight, <q>there is
+the place for sport; a wilder country I have never
+seen, no, nor finer game. There are wild boars of
+which I have never seen the like in Italy, no, nor in
+the Hercynian Wood<note place="foot">The Black Forest, part of which was known to the Romans.</note> itself, where I used to hunt
+years ago. Last year I killed one which measured
+six feet from snout to tail. There are wolves, too,
+and bears, and wild oxen; splendid fellows these last,
+as fierce as lions, and almost as big as elephants.
+But to-day we must be content with humbler sport.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This humbler game, however, afforded plenty of
+amusement, and they returned with a bag of eight
+fine hares—a very fair burden for the carrier of the
+game-bag—and an excellent appetite for dinner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meal, to which the Count had invited the
+captains of his galleys and the principal persons in
+<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/>the little colony which was now gathered about the
+villa, passed off very well. The young Italian was
+loud in his praises of everything. <q>Your oysters,</q>
+he said, <q>all the world knows, but some of your
+other dishes are a surprise. The turbot, for instance,
+how incomparably superior to the flabby and tasteless
+things which they bring us from our own
+coasts. The colder water of the seas is, I suppose,
+the cause. The hares, too, how fine and fleshy!
+You seem to be amazingly well off in the way of food
+in this corner of the world.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah!</q> said the Count, with a sigh, <q>we should
+do very well, if the rest of the world would only
+leave us alone. But our neighbours cannot be content
+without a share of some of our good things,
+and they have a very rough and disagreeable way of
+asking for it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The speaker went on to draw for the benefit of his
+guest a vivid picture of the trouble which the Saxons
+were giving by sea and the Picts by land, till the
+Italian exclaimed—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah! I see that you too have your disagreeables.
+I began to think that this was a land of peace and
+plenty, where one might find a pleasant refuge. But
+these barbarians, in one shape or another, are everywhere.
+We are fallen upon evil times indeed.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> said the Count, <q>evil times, and no one
+knows how to deal with them; and if God does
+<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/>send us a capable man, we treat him as if he were
+an enemy.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the tables had been cleared, the Count rose
+and proposed the toast of the Emperor’s health; but
+he did this without a single word of compliment, a
+significant omission that did not fail to attract the
+attention of all who were present. He then proceeded,
+and again without any preface, to read to the company
+the despatch which had been put into his hands
+the day before. It ran thus:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 2">
+<q rend="post: none"><hi rend="italic">Flavius Honorius Augustus to the faithful and
+valiant Lucius Ælius, Count of the Saxon Shore,
+greeting.</hi></q>
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-bottom: 2">
+<q><hi rend="italic">Our Imperial care for the dominions, which by
+Divine Providence have been committed to our trust, bids
+us combine the safety of the seat of our government with
+the welfare of the provinces. For, seeing that these are
+mutually related, as are the head and the limbs in the
+body of man, it is manifest that neither can prosper
+without the other. Our well-beloved and faithful province
+of Britain has now for many generations been protected
+by our invincible legions and fleets. But even as there
+comes a time when the most careful fathers judge it to be
+not only needless but even harmful to keep their children in
+dependence upon themselves, so do we now judge that our
+province may now with great advantage, not only to us—for
+of this we think little—but also to itself, defend itself
+<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/>with its own resources. We charge you, therefore, our
+well-beloved and faithful Ælius, as having supreme
+command of the fleets of the said province of Britain, to
+withdraw them as soon as you conveniently may, but not
+without leaving our loyal subjects the assurance of our
+fatherly love and of the unfailing protection of our
+majesty. The Ever-Blessed Trinity keep and prosper
+both you and all that are committed to your charge.
+Given at Ravenna, the twelfth day before the Kalends of
+August,<note place="foot">July 21st.</note> in the year of our Lord 408, and the fifteenth
+year of our reign.</hi></q>
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: The Count receiving the letter of Honorius.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig252"/><figure url="images/i_287.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="The Count receiving the letter of Honorius"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Count receiving the letter of Honorius.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>The Count receiving the letter of Honorius</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The reading of the despatch was followed by a
+dead silence. Every one had felt for some time that
+the present state of affairs could not last. Only a
+man of the vigorous character of the Count, and having
+long years of excellent service to fall back upon,
+could have maintained it so long, but it was impossible
+not to see that it must soon end. A solitary
+commander, without resources or support, could not
+maintain himself on the remotest borders of the
+Empire. Yet to know that the moment for the
+change had come was disturbing. The fleet, reduced
+as it had been to a petty squadron, was still, while it
+remained, the symbol of Imperial power, and seemed
+to be worth more in the way of protection than
+<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/>it really was. When this was withdrawn, Britain
+would be really left to itself; and this prospect, however
+it might be regarded elsewhere, was not
+agreeable to any one of the Count’s guests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count was the first to break the silence.
+<q>This,</q> he said, <q>is manifestly a matter that calls
+for serious thought. Let us postpone it till to-morrow,
+and for the present turn ourselves to
+matters more suitable for a festive occasion. Perhaps
+my friend Claudian will give us the recitation
+of something with which he has already charmed
+the ears of our fellow-countrymen elsewhere.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The poet, not more reluctant than his brother-countryman
+to exhibit his genius, at once signified
+his willingness to comply with this request, and gave
+a recitation from an unfinished poem which he had
+then in hand. We may give a specimen, put into
+the best English that we can command—
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">The elemental order there she drew,</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And Jove’s high dwellings; there you saw</l>
+<l>The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>To harmony and law;</l>
+</lg><lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">How Nature set in order due and rank</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Her atoms, raised the light on high,</l>
+<l>And to the middle place the weightier sank;</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>There lustrous shone the sky,</l>
+
+</lg><lg>
+
+<l><q rend="post: none">The heavens were pink with flame, the ocean rolled,</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The great world hung in mid suspense.</l>
+<l>Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>The starry fires intense,</l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/>
+
+<lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">Bade ocean flow in purple, and the shore</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>With gems upraised. Divinely wrought,</l>
+<l>The threads embossed to swelling billows bore</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Strange likeness; you had thought</l>
+
+</lg><lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">They dashed the seaweed on the rocks, or crept</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Hoarse murmuring thro’ the thirsty sands.</l>
+<l>Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>With red distinct the lands</l>
+
+</lg><lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">Leaguered with burnings; all the region showed</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Scorched into blackness, and the thread</l>
+<l>Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed;</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'><anchor id="corr255"/><corr sic="Or">On</corr> either hand were spread</l>
+
+</lg><lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">The realms of life, lapt in a milder breath</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Kindly to men; and next appear,</l>
+<l>On this extreme and that, dull lands of death:</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'>She made them dark and drear</l>
+
+</lg><lg>
+<l><q rend="post: none">With year-long frost, and saddened all the hue</q></l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 2'>With endless winter; last she showed</l>
+<l>What seats her sire’s grim brother holds; nor knew</l>
+<l rend='margin-left: 4'><q rend="pre: none">The fated dark abode.</q><note place="foot">This is the translation of a passage from the first book of an
+unfinished poem by Claudian, entitled <foreign lang="la" rend='italic'>De Raptu Proserpinæ</foreign>,
+<q>The Carrying off Proserpine.</q> It is an amplification of the
+legend that Pluto, god of the region of the dead, carried off
+Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, to be his wife and queen, while
+she was gathering flowers in the fields of Enna in Sicily. The
+passage translated occurs in the first book, and describes the
+tapestry with which Proserpine is busy, as a gift to her absent
+mother. The poem breaks off in the third book, while relating
+the search which the mother makes for her lost daughter.</note></l>
+</lg>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="25" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXV. Consultation"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXV. Consultation"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXV.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">CONSULTATION.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The next morning the Count invited the Imperial
+messenger to a private conference. His daughter
+and Carna were present, as was also Claudian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You have the latest news,</q> the Count began.
+<q>Pray let us have them. Here we know nothing.
+But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed
+that you did not hoist the standard till you were
+within the Haven. You did not, I suppose, think it
+a safe flag to sail under.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> replied the messenger, <q>I thought it
+better to have no flag at all. But, to tell the truth,
+the Labarum is not just now exactly the best passport
+in the world.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?</q> the Count
+went on. <q>How are matters there?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Constantine, with the legions he brought from
+here, and those that have joined him since, is pretty
+well master of the country, and of Spain too.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let
+these provinces go without a struggle? Spain was
+the first province that Rome ever had, and Gaul was
+the second. None, I take it, have been so steadily
+profitable, and now we are to lose them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rose from his seat, and walked up and down
+the room in an agitation which he could not conceal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And the only man who could keep the Empire together
+is gone; butchered, as if he were a criminal!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The messenger said nothing to this outburst. He
+went on, <q>I believe his Majesty proposes to admit
+Constantine to a share of the Imperial honours, to
+make him Cæsar of Gaul and Spain.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What!</q> said the Count. <q>Do not my ears
+deceive me? This fellow, whom I have seen wearing
+the collar for the neglect of duty, recognized as
+his colleague by Augustus!</q><note place="foot">This was actually done about this time, and with the result
+foreshadowed in the conversation given above.</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I do not pretend to know his Majesty’s purposes,
+I can only say what is reported at head-quarters,
+and, it would seem, on good authority. But,</q> continued
+the speaker, in a voice from which he had
+studiously banished all kind of emphasis, and looking
+as he spoke at the ceiling of the room, <q>your lordship
+is aware that the honours thus unexpectedly
+bestowed do not always turn out to the advantage
+of those who receive them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>What do you mean?</q> asked the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I mean that what is given may be taken away—and
+taken away with very handsome interest for the
+loan—when the proper time comes. Your lordship
+has not forgotten the name of Carausius.</q><note place="foot">Carausius had held, towards the end of the third century,
+the same command as that of the Count of the Saxon Shore,
+had rebelled against the Emperor, made himself master of
+Britain and all the Western Seas, and had then proclaimed himself
+Augustus. The Emperor Diocletian made several attempts to
+reduce him, but, finding that this could not be done, acknowledged
+him as a partner in the Empire. Six years later
+Carausius was murdered by one of his lieutenants, Allectus,
+who doubtless hoped thus to bring himself into favour at Rome.</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Well,</q> said the Count, <q>this is not the old way
+Rome had of dealing with her enemies. But, <q>other
+times, other manners.</q> Tell me now, if the Augustus
+has arranged or is going to arrange with Constantine,
+what about Alaric?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh! he will be quiet for a time, or should be, if
+there is any truth in a barbarian’s oath. You have
+heard how he marched on Rome?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No, indeed,</q> replied the Count. <q>I have heard
+nothing here, except, quite early in the year, a vague
+rumour that he was on the move again. But tell
+me—has Augustus given <hi rend='italic'>him</hi>, too, a share in the
+Empire?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Not exactly; but I will tell what has taken place.
+He marched on Rome.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> interjected the Count, <q>and there was no
+Stilicho to save it!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The city was almost helpless. Even the walls had
+not been kept in repair, and if they had, there was no
+proper force to man them. The only thing possible
+was to make peace on the best terms that they could.
+I happened to be in Alaric’s camp with a letter, under
+a flag of truce, the very day that the ambassadors
+came out to treat with the king, and I saw the whole
+affair. I don’t mind saying that it was not one to
+make a man feel proud of being a Roman. The barbarians,
+it seemed to me, had not only all the strength
+on their side, but the dignity also. Alaric himself
+is a splendid specimen of humanity, every inch a
+king, the tallest and handsomest man in his army,
+and that, too, an army of giants. It was a
+contrast, I can tell you, between him and the two
+miserable, pettifogging creatures that represented
+the Senate. At first they tried what a little brag
+could do. <q>Give us an honourable peace,</q> said their
+spokesman, <q>or you will repent of having driven to
+despair a nation of warriors, a nation that has conquered
+the world.</q> The king laughed; he knew what
+the Romans have come to. <q>The thicker the hay,</q> he
+said, <q>the easier to mow.</q> And then he fixed the
+ransom that he would take for retiring from before
+the walls. Brennus throwing his sword into the
+scales was moderation in comparison to him. <q>Give
+<pb n='260'/><anchor id='Pg260'/>me,</q> he said, <q>all the gold and silver, coined or uncoined,
+private property or public that you have, and
+all the other property that the envoys whom I shall
+send think worth taking; and hand over to me all
+the slaves that you have of the nations of the North,
+Goths, or Huns, or Vandals. You are pleased to call
+them barbarians, but they are more fit to be masters
+than you; and I will not suffer them to be in a bondage
+so unworthy. Your Greeks, and Africans, and
+Asiatics, and such like cattle you may keep.</q> The
+ambassadors were pale with dismay. If they had
+taken back such an answer, the Romans had at
+least enough spirit left to tear them in pieces. <q>What
+do you leave us, then?</q> they said. <q>Your lives!</q> he
+thundered out. In the end, however, he softened
+somewhat. Five thousand pounds of gold and thirty
+thousand pounds of silver, and I don’t know how
+much silk, and cloth, and spices, were what he finally
+asked. I know the city was stripped pretty bare
+before the Senate could make up the sum. I am
+told that the treasuries of the churches had to be
+emptied. Well, as I said, Alaric, if he keeps his
+bargain, ought to be quiet for a time, but you will
+see that the Emperor has need of all his friends
+round him, and all the strength which he can bring
+together. That is what I have to say by way of
+explanation of the despatch that I brought.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>May I ask you to leave us for a while?</q> said the
+Count to the young Italian.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/>
+
+<p>
+When he had left the room the Count turned to
+his daughter, and said—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And this is our country! This is Rome! The
+Emperor, forsooth, has need of all his friends. His
+friends indeed! I little thought that the day would
+come when I should feel ashamed of the title. But
+tell me, daughter; what shall we do? Shall we
+go?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What else can we do?</q> asked the girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have thought much about the matter since I
+heard the dreadful news of Stilicho’s death, and have
+had all kinds of wild schemes in my head. I have
+felt that I could not go back and touch in friendship
+the hands that murdered him. Sometimes I thought,
+while Cedric was here, that we would take him with
+us, and sail eastward. I have had many a hard fight
+with these Saxons, but at least they are men, and
+brave men, too, who are true to their friends, if they
+hate their enemies. But that is now at an end. But
+is there no other way to go? What say you, Claudian—have
+you any counsel to give us?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I would not advise you to sail eastward,</q> said the
+poet. <q>We know pretty well what lies that way; tribes
+of barbarians, of whom the less we see the better,
+with all respect to your friend Cedric, who seems to
+have been a fine fellow. But why not westward?
+You will laugh at me for believing in the Islands of
+the Blest. Well, I do not mean to say that there is
+<pb n='262'/><anchor id='Pg262'/>a country where Achilles and the rest of the heroes
+are living in immortal joy and peace. If there is, it
+is not one which any ship, built by the art of man,
+can reach. But I do believe that there is a country.
+These old tales, depend upon it, have something more
+in them than mere fancy. Why, my lord, should
+not you be the one to find it?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, let us go, dear father,</q> said Ælia, <q>and
+leave this dreadful world with all its troubles and
+quarrels behind us. Don’t you think so, Carna?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna only smiled sadly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Or,</q> continued the poet, <q>there is the land
+beyond the north, the country of the blessed Hyperboreans,
+that old Herodotus talks about. Why
+should we not go there? Or, if that sounds too
+wild, there is Africa, with regions rich and fertile
+beyond all doubt that are waiting to be explored.
+These at least are no matter of legend. We know
+where they are. Let us search for them. Whatever
+world we may find, it can hardly be worse than that
+which we are leaving behind.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>And what says Carna?</q> said the Count, turning,
+with an affectionate look, to his adopted daughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl thus appealed to flushed painfully. For
+a moment she seemed about to speak, but not a
+syllable passed her lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Speak,</q> cried the Count; <q>you always see
+clearer and farther than the rest of us.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>My father,</q> the girl went on, <q>I will speak from
+my heart, as I know you always wish me to do.
+Forgive me if I seem to teach when it is my part to
+learn and to obey. But, if you ask what I think you
+should do, I say, <q>Go home to Rome or Ravenna, or
+wherever else the Emperor bids you.</q> After all, it is
+your country, and it never needed the help of good
+and brave men more than it does now.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>By heaven! Claudian,</q> cried the Count, after
+a brief silence, <q>the girl is right, as she always is.
+These are not the times for an honest man to turn
+his back upon his country. If I could reach the
+Islands of the Blest, or the happy people who live
+beyond the north, as easily as I can walk across this
+room, I would not do it; and after all, what is the
+world without Rome to a Roman? What say you,
+Claudian?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I am but a poor singer, who has lost all that
+made him sing. I could do little in any case, and I
+doubt whether those who killed Stilicho will have
+anything but the axe for Stilicho’s friend. Still, I go
+with you. It is not for a Roman to say that Rome
+is unworthy.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>So that is settled,</q> exclaimed the Count.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Oh, Carna,</q> cried Ælia, throwing her arms round
+her sister, <q>shall we ever be as happy again as we
+have been in this dear place?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna clung to her, and sobbed as if her heart
+would break.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='264'/><anchor id='Pg264'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Does it trouble you so much to go?</q> asked the
+Count. <q>Surely the place is not so much to you.
+You can be happy, wherever you may be, with those
+you love.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl lifted up a tear-stained face to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Father,</q> she said—<q>more than father, for you
+have loved me without any tie of kindred—I cannot
+go, my home is here.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Nay, child, what are you saying? Your home
+has been with us ever since you were a babe in arms,
+and it is so still; or,</q> he added, with a smile, <q>are
+you going to leave us for a husband?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl blushed crimson as she shook her head.
+When she could recover her speech, choked, as it
+was, with sobs, she said—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You asked me just now what you should do, and
+I said <q>Go home to your country.</q> Can I do less myself?
+Rome is your country, and Britain is mine.
+And oh, if Rome wants all her sons and daughters,
+how much more does this poor Britain!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But where will you live?</q> broke in the Count’s
+daughter; <q>Where will you be safe? Think of the
+dreadful things you have gone through within the
+last few months! How can you bear to face them
+with your friends gone? And, dearest Carna,</q> she
+went on, as she clasped her still closer, <q>how can I
+live without you?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My dearest sister,</q> sobbed the girl, <q>don’t make
+<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/>it harder than it is. It breaks my heart to part from
+you, but I cannot doubt what my duty is. And I am
+not without hope. There are brave men here, and
+men who love their country, and I cannot but trust
+that they will be able to do something. Of course,
+we shall stumble, for we have not been used to go
+alone, but I do hope that we shall not fall altogether.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>But, Carna, what can you do?</q> said Ælia. <q>You
+seem to be sacrificing yourself for nothing.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Not for nothing; it is something if I can only
+sit at home and pray. But it must be at home that
+I must pray. God would not hear me if I were to
+put myself in some safe, comfortable place, and then
+pretend to care for the poor people whom I had left
+behind.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She hurried from the room when she had said
+this, as if she could not trust herself against persuasions
+that touched her heart so nearly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Carna is right,</q> said the Count, when she had
+gone, <q>but I feel as if she were going to her death.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="26" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXVI. Farewell!"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXVI. Farewell!"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXVI.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">FAREWELL!</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The resolution to return to Italy once made, the
+Count lost no time in carrying it out. His own preparations
+for departure did not cost him much trouble.
+He began by offering freedom to all the slaves in his
+household. The difficulty was in inducing them to
+accept it. So kind a master had he been—in spite
+of an occasional outburst of temper—and so uncertain
+were the prospects of a quiet life in Britain, that
+very few felt any eagerness to be independent, and
+the boon had to be forced upon them or made acceptable
+by a considerable bribe. With the free
+population that since the departure of the legions
+had gathered in increasing numbers about the villa
+it was still more difficult to deal. Many of them were
+quite helpless people whom it seemed equally difficult
+to take and to leave behind. To all that were of
+Italian birth, or that had kinsfolk or friends on the
+Continent who might be reasonably expected to give
+<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/>them a home, the Count offered a passage. For others
+employment was found in Londinium and other
+towns. But, when all that was possible had been
+done, there was a helpless remnant, about whom the
+Count felt much as the occupants of the last boat
+must feel at the sight of the poor creatures whom
+they are forced to leave behind on a sinking ship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna had quitted the villa very soon after her
+resolution to remain in Britain had been made. It
+was indeed too painful to remain there, for, though
+the Count had confessed that she was right, his
+daughter remained unconvinced, and assailed her
+with incessant entreaties and reproaches which went
+very near to breaking her heart. She made her home
+with the old priest whose wife was a distant kinswoman
+of her own, and found, as such tender hearts
+always will, a solace for her own sorrows in relieving
+the troubles of others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the middle of September all was ready for a
+start. The two serviceable ships that were left to
+the Count were loaded to their utmost capacity with
+the persons and property of the departing colony.
+Their sailing masters had indeed remonstrated as
+strongly as they dared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We <hi rend='italic'>may</hi> get safely across,</q> said the senior of
+them, <q>if all goes better than we have any right to
+expect. But if it comes on to blow we shall hardly
+be able to handle our ships; and if we meet with the
+<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/>pirates—well, a man might as well go into battle with
+his hands tied.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Count refused to listen to these protests.
+Even the suggestion that the cargo should be
+divided, and part left for a second voyage he scouted,
+<q>It will not do,</q> he said, <q>the poor people would
+fancy they were being left behind, and I am not at
+all sure that they would not be right. It is only too
+likely that if we once get to the other side we should
+<hi rend='italic'>not</hi> come back. No! we will sink or swim together.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About an hour before noon on the fifteenth of the
+month, the crews were ready to weigh anchor. The
+Count and his daughter, who had just taken their
+last view of the villa which had been their home for
+so many years, were standing on the little jetty, ready
+to step into the boat that was to convey them to the
+ship. Carna and the old priest and his wife were with
+them, and the hour of farewell had come. Ælia, if
+she had not reconciled herself to separation from her
+sister, at least saw that it was inevitable, and was
+resolved not to make the parting bitterer than it must
+needs be. She affected a cheerfulness which she did
+not feel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Good-bye, Carna,</q> she cried, throwing her arms
+round the girl’s neck. <q>Good-bye! now we are going
+like swallows in the autumn, and very likely shall
+come back like them in the spring. Meanwhile keep
+the nest as warm for us as you can.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Remember, Carna,</q> said the Count, <q>that you
+have a home as long as either I or my daughter have
+a roof over our heads. You are doing your duty in
+staying, but there is a limit even to duty. As long
+as you can be of service, stop; I would not have it
+otherwise; but don’t sacrifice yourself and those that
+love you for nothing.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna’s heart was too full to let her speak. She
+caught the Count’s hands and kissed them. Then
+she turned to Ælia, and taking her gold cross and
+chain—the only ornament that she wore—hung
+it round her sister’s neck. When she had succeeded
+in choking down her sobs, she whispered,
+<q>Take this, and, if you will give me yours, we will
+bear each other’s crosses, and, perhaps, they will be
+a little lighter. But oh, how heavy!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Kneel, my children,</q> said the old priest, and the
+little group knelt down, while the rowers in the boat
+uncovered their heads. After repeating the paternoster
+and a few simple words of prayer, he raised
+his hand and blessed them, then fell on his knees
+beside them. After two or three minutes of silent
+supplication the Count rose, and almost lifted his
+daughter into the boat, so broken down was she with
+the passion of her grief. Carna remained on her
+knees, her face buried in her hands. To have looked
+up and seen father and sister go was more than she
+dared to do. For the struggle that she fancied was
+<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/>over had begun again in her heart, and she could not
+feel sure even then that duty would prevail. The
+Count gently laid his hand upon her head and blessed
+her, then stepped into the boat. As the rowers
+dipped their oars in the water, a gleam of sunshine
+burst through the clouds, and lighted as with a glory
+the head of the kneeling girl.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="27" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXVII. Martianus"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXVII. Martianus"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXVII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">MARTIANUS.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+The little community that remained in the neighbourhood
+of the villa after the departure of the
+Count and his household had plenty to occupy their
+thoughts and hands. The Count had behaved with
+a liberality and a discretion that were both equally
+characteristic of him. All the stock of what may be
+called the home farm, all the agricultural implements,
+the cattle, sheep, and pigs, and as much of the stores
+of corn that he could spare, he had made over to the
+priest and two other principal persons in the settlement
+for the benefit of the community at large.
+This was an excellent start, and removed all immediate
+anxiety for the future. The stores of provisions
+had been increased by opportune purchases before
+the resolution to go had been taken, and enough was
+left to last, if managed with due economy, over the
+coming winter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna found plenty of employment of the kind in
+<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/>which she found her greatest pleasure. There was
+indeed a terrible gap in her life; not only had she
+lost those whom she had loved all her life as father
+and sister, but her intellectual interests had dropped
+away from her. Many of the books at the villa had
+indeed been left with her, but then there was no one
+to whom to talk about them. The old priest never
+opened a volume except it was a service book; his
+wife could not even read. But the time never hung
+heavily upon her hands, for there was plenty of work
+to do among the sick and sorry. As the autumn went
+on an epidemic, which a modern doctor would probably
+have described as measles, broke out among the
+children, and Carna spent her days and nights in
+ministering to the little sufferers. The one relief that
+she allowed herself—and there was no little sadness
+mixed with the pleasure which it gave her—was to
+spend an hour, when she could snatch one from her
+many cares, in the deserted rooms of the villa. The
+indulgence was rare, not only because her leisure was
+infrequent, but because she was conscious of feeling
+somewhat relaxed after it for the effort of her daily
+life; but when it came it was precious. Not a room,
+not a picture on the walls, not a pattern in the tesselated
+pavements, that did not call up a hundred associations,
+and make the past in which she had enjoyed
+so much happiness live again in her fancy. The
+dwelling was under the charge of an old couple, who
+<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/>gladly kept it clean in exchange for the shelter of two
+or three of the rooms, and Carna was free to wander
+about it as she would, while she felt a certain security
+in the knowledge that the place was not wholly
+deserted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The autumn and winter passed without any incident
+of importance. News from the Continent had
+never been very regular during that season of the
+year, and now it came only at the rarest intervals.
+All that the settlement heard went to show that there
+was but little chance of the return of the legions.
+Constantine, after some changes of fortune, had made
+himself master of Gaul and Spain, and had established
+a kingdom which looked so much as if it might
+last, that he had been regularly acknowledged by
+Honorius as a partner in the Empire. But it would
+be long before he could spare money or men for
+adding Britain to his dominions. From Britain itself
+the news was mostly of the most dismal kind. The
+Picts, indeed, were not as troublesome as usual.
+Happily for their neighbours on the south, their
+attention had been occupied by the tribes on the
+north, who had been driven by a season of unusual
+scarcity to forage for themselves. The robbers, in fact,
+had been obliged to defend themselves against being
+robbed, and Britain had had in consequence a quiet
+time. But the people used it to quarrel among themselves.
+There were scores of chiefs who had each
+<pb n='274'/><anchor id='Pg274'/>his pedigree, by which he traced his lineage to some
+king of the pre-Roman days, and which gave him,
+he fancied, a title to rule over his neighbours. And
+besides these personal jealousies, there was a great
+division which split the nation into two hostile factions.
+There were Britons, who held to Roman ways, and
+among them, to the religion which Rome had given,
+and there were Britons who looked back to the old
+independent days, and to the faith which their fore-fathers
+had held long before the name of Christ had
+been heard out of or in the land of His birth. The
+former party was by far the more numerous, but its
+adherents were those who had suffered most by
+Britain’s four centuries of servitude; in the latter the
+virtues of freedom had been kept alive by a carefully
+cherished tradition. They were few in number; but
+they were vigorous and enthusiastic, even fanatical.
+It was clear that this strife within would cause at least
+as much trouble as would come from enemies without.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was about seven months after the Count’s
+departure when Carna paid one of her customary
+visits to the villa. She had been unusually busy for
+three or four weeks previously, and had not found
+time to come. As she passed through the garden, on
+her way to the house, she noticed that the place
+looked somewhat neater and less neglected than
+usual. This, however, did not surprise her, as she
+had gently remonstrated with the old keeper for
+<pb n='275'/><anchor id='Pg275'/>doing so little, and, in her usual kindly way, had
+followed up her reproof with a little present.
+Accordingly she passed on without thinking more of
+the matter to the little sitting-room which she had
+once shared with Ælia, and prepared to spend an
+hour of quiet enjoyment with a book. Her books,
+indeed, she kept for these visits to the villa. Not
+only was her time elsewhere closely occupied, but
+her hostess, kindly and affectionate as she generally
+was, could not conceal her dislike of the volumes
+which Carna loved so dearly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of her reading she was startled by
+the unaccustomed sound of footsteps. She lifted
+her eyes from the page and saw a sight so unexpected
+that for a few moments she could not collect
+her thoughts or believe her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The British chief Martianus stood before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had seen him last at the Great Temple,
+and the recollections of those days and nights of
+horror, her capture, her hurried journey, and the
+interrupted sacrifice, crowded upon her, and almost
+overpowered her. Nor could she help giving one
+thought to the question—if this man’s presence
+recalls such horrors in the past, what does it not mean
+for the future? Still, the courage which had supported
+her so bravely before did not fail her now.
+She rose from her seat and calmly faced the intruder,
+while she waited for him to speak.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='276'/><anchor id='Pg276'/>
+
+<p>
+Martianus began in a tone of the deepest respect.
+<q>Lady, I am truly glad that you condescend to
+honour this poor house of mine with your presence.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>This house of yours!</q> repeated the girl, with
+astonishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Lady, doubtless you do not know that this villa
+was built by its former owner on land which belonged
+to my family, and which was taken from them by
+force. I do not speak of the Count—he was too
+honourable a man to do anything of the kind—I
+speak of the former owner, or so-called owner, from
+whom he purchased it. In the Count’s time I said
+nothing of my claim. I would not have troubled
+him for the world. But now that he has gone, and
+practically given up the place, I am justified, I think,
+in asserting my ownership.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I know nothing of these matters,</q> said Carna,
+coldly, <q>but I will take care not to intrude again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Intrusion!</q> said the chief. <q>Did I not say
+that there is no one who would be more welcome
+here? We were friends once, in the good Count’s
+time; why should we not be so again? and more,</q> he
+added in a whisper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Friends with you! Surely that is impossible.
+You cannot wish it yourself, after what has happened.
+You seem to forget.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Lady, Carna—I used to call you Carna when
+you were a child—I do try to forget that dreadful
+<pb n='277'/><anchor id='Pg277'/>night. I was overborne by those double-dyed villains,
+Carausius and Ambiorix. Believe me, it was
+against my will that I took any part in that dreadful
+business. And you will remember I never lifted a
+hand against you, no, nor against that base champion
+of yours. You will do me that justice. Carausius,
+thank Heaven! has got his deserts, and I have
+broken with Ambiorix.</q>
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Carna and Martianus.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig276"/><figure url="images/i_313.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Carna and Martianus"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Carna and Martianus.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Carna and Martianus</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Carna remained silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus resolved to try another appeal, and,
+presuming that the girl’s recollections of the scene
+might be confused by fear, did not scruple to depart
+considerably from the truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I implore you to believe that I could not have
+allowed that horrible deed to be accomplished. If
+that base fellow who had the privilege of saving
+you had not appeared, I was ready myself to interfere.
+I know that I ought to have done so before;
+it has been a ceaseless regret to me that I did
+not. But I wanted to keep on terms with those two,
+and I held back till the last moment. Forgive me
+my irresolution, Carna, but do not believe that I
+could have been one of the murderers.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl’s recollections of the scene, which were
+quite free from the confusion which Martianus had
+imagined, did not agree with this account of his
+behaviour, but she did not think it worth while to
+argue the point.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='278'/><anchor id='Pg278'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Let it be as you will,</q> she said, with a cold dignity,
+<q>but you can imagine that these recollections
+are not pleasing to me. And now I will bid you
+farewell.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stepped forward as she spoke with the intention
+of at once leaving the room, but Martianus
+barred the way. Dropping on one knee, he caught
+her hand. For a moment Carna, who had still
+something of the child in her, felt a strong impulse
+to use the hand that was still free in dealing him a
+vigorous blow. But her womanly dignity prevailed:
+she only wrenched her hand away with something
+like violence. There was something in the foppish
+appearance and insincere manner of Martianus that
+set her more decidedly against him than even the
+recollection of the plot in which he had been concerned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I will listen to what you have to say, but do not
+touch me.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You give me little encouragement,</q> Martianus
+began, <q>but still I will speak. I say nothing about
+myself, only about my country—your country and
+mine. I know how you love it. We have all heard
+what sacrifices you have made for it, how you gave
+up home and friends sooner than leave it. Make, if
+I must put it so, one sacrifice more. You are the
+heiress of the great Caradoc, the noblest king that
+Britain ever had, whom even the Romans were
+com<pb n='279'/><anchor id='Pg279'/>pelled to admire. I can reckon among my ancestors
+Cunobelin. Apart our claims might be disputed;
+together they will make a title which no one can
+dispute to the crown of Britain. Yes, Carna, it is
+nothing less than that—the crown of Britain that is
+in question.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>A crown does not tempt me,</q> said Carna, looking
+the speaker straight in the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Ah! it is not that,</q> replied the suitor; <q>you
+mistake me. I never dreamed of tempting you. I
+know only too well that it would be impossible.
+But think what a British crown really means. It
+means a united Britain, strong against the Picts,
+strong against the Saxons; and without it—think
+what that would mean. Every tribe—for we should
+split up into tribes again—for itself; every chief
+working for his own hand; the Picts plundering the
+inland, the Saxons harrying the coast. Oh, Carna!
+as you love your country—I don’t speak of myself,
+though that, too, might come in time, if a man’s
+devotion is of any avail—but if you love your
+country, do not say no.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a powerful appeal, and touched Carna’s
+heart at the point where it was most accessible.
+And she was so candid and transparent a soul that
+what she felt in her heart she soon showed in her
+face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus saw his advantage, but, happily for
+<pb n='280'/><anchor id='Pg280'/>Carna, did not press it as he might have done. The
+fact was that he was so conscious of his own insincerity
+and falsehood that his courage failed him,
+and he dared not press his suit any further. Had
+he gone on, he might have entangled the girl in a
+promise which her feeling for truth would not have
+permitted her to break, which would have made her
+even shut her eyes to the truth. As it was, he
+thought it his best policy to rest content with the
+progress that he had made. He raised Carna’s hand
+respectfully to his lips, and, with a low salutation,
+opened the door.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="28" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='281'/><anchor id='Pg281'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXVIII. A Rival"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXVIII. A Rival"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXVIII.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">A RIVAL.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+It was a fact that Martianus had taken possession
+of the villa in the island, on the strength of a claim
+which was far less definite than he had chosen to
+represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming,
+and the place was important in the minds
+of the British population as having been the dwelling
+of the last representative of Roman power. The
+new occupant might seem to have succeeded to the
+position of the one who had lately quitted it. It
+flattered the man’s vanity, too, to put himself in the
+place, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the
+Shore, while he could use the appliances of the villa,
+which were comfortable and even luxurious, to gratify
+his taste for what he called the pleasures of civilized
+life. His establishment would probably have failed
+to satisfy the fastidious taste of a Roman gentleman;
+the cooking was barbarous, and the service generally
+rude. Still there was a certain imitation, which
+im<pb n='282'/><anchor id='Pg282'/>posed at least upon the ignorant, of Roman refinement,
+and Martianus flattered himself that he was
+at least a passable successor of Count Ælius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile he pursued his suit to Carna with a
+good deal of craft. He was a diligent attendant
+at the village church, and professed to feel such an
+interest in the teaching of the old priest that the
+ministrations in church must be supplemented by
+conversations at home. To Carna he said little or
+nothing about his personal claims, but he was
+eloquent on the subject of the future of Britain.
+About this she was never tired of hearing, and in
+hearing him speak of it, which he did with a certain
+eloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality
+began to grow fainter in her mind. The maiden
+faith which <q>glorifies clown and satyr</q> began to
+make this schemer, who indeed was not without
+ability and accomplishments, look like a genuine
+patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they were
+simply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity
+of praising him to their young kinswoman.
+On the whole, his suit made some progress. It was
+only when he seemed to put forward any personal
+claim, or ventured to address to Carna any personal
+compliments, that she decidedly shrank from him.
+He was quite shrewd enough to see this, and though
+it was a very unpleasant experience for his vanity as
+well as for his love, he did not fail to guide his
+con<pb n='283'/><anchor id='Pg283'/>duct by it. As long as he talked about Britain, its
+wrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he
+was sure of a favourable hearing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus had other things to think of besides his
+suit to Carna. As he said, he had broken entirely
+with Ambiorix. He had found that the strength
+of the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated,
+and that in fact the time for its revival had gone by
+for ever. Any chance, too, of even temporary success
+that it might have had had been lost with the life
+of Carausius. The priest had held many threads of
+secret intrigue in his hands, and there was no one to
+take them up, when they dropped from his hand. And
+Ambiorix, besides being worth but little as an ally,
+had wanted too much, for he was not of a temper to
+be satisfied with the second place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still Martianus was well aware that his rival
+would have to be reckoned with sooner or later.
+If he could induce Carna to become his wife, and
+thus unite her family claim to his own, this reckoning
+might be got through with care and success. If he
+had to rely upon himself the chances would be
+decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which
+he found himself was this. On the one hand, to
+hasten his suit might be to ruin it altogether;
+Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something more
+substantial than his own assertion of his pretensions.
+On the other hand, there was the danger of being
+<pb n='284'/><anchor id='Pg284'/>attacked and crushed before he could make his
+appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a
+man of even desperate courage, and would not suffer
+himself to be effaced without a struggle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Martianus did his best to guard himself against
+this danger. He strengthened the fortifications
+which the Count had made round the villa, laid
+up a store of provisions which might be sufficient
+for a prolonged siege, and used all his resources—he
+was one of the richest men in Britain—to get
+together as large and effective a garrison as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These precautions were not taken a day too soon.
+About the beginning of June he received intelligence
+from his agents on the mainland that Ambiorix was
+preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with
+the news to the priest’s house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>You know,</q> he said, <q>that my house has always
+been at your disposal, but, much as I should have
+liked to receive you as my guests, I would not
+press the invitation upon you. But now, in the face
+of what I have just heard, your coming is a necessity.
+Ambiorix and his followers are almost on the way to
+attack us, and there is no place of safety but the
+villa.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The proposition was most distasteful to Carna,
+who shuddered at the thought of entering her old
+home in such society. At first she was disposed to
+be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus
+<pb n='285'/><anchor id='Pg285'/>was not incapable of exaggerating, and even of inventing,
+when he had an object to serve. Compelled,
+by the proofs which the chief advanced, to
+acknowledge that the danger was real, she took
+refuge in the argument that <q>it did not concern
+them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We are too insignificant to be harmed,</q> she
+said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Pardon me, Carna,</q> replied Martianus. <q>You
+surely know better than that about yourself. And
+if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on your
+own account, think of your host. There is nothing
+that Ambiorix hates with so deadly a hatred as a
+Christian priest.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old priest, a worthy man, but not of the stuff
+of which martyrs are made, was terribly alarmed
+at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled to
+acknowledge that this fear was not without reason,
+and reluctantly consented to the removal. Her mind
+once made up, she found abundance of occupation
+in making it as little grievous to others as might be.
+The villa could not hold any great number of inmates
+in addition to the garrison, and of course it
+was necessary that the number of non-combatants
+should be as small as possible. Some of the inhabitants
+of the settlement could, of course, remain
+safely in their homes. They had little or nothing
+to be robbed of, and the expected assailants had no
+<pb n='286'/><anchor id='Pg286'/>other reason for harming them. But many households
+had to be broken up, and as only very few
+could be received at the villa, there were many
+painful scenes to be gone through, and Carna was
+unceasingly busy giving all the comfort and help
+that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly
+in temper, put all his resources at her disposal, and
+his readiness to assist put him higher in her favour
+than he had ever been before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor was she sorry that she had found shelter
+within the fortifications of the villa when the next
+morning revealed the presence of the invaders.
+They had come across in the night to the number
+of several hundreds, and could be seen from the
+windows of the villa. And a very singular sight
+they were. A spectator might have imagined himself
+to have been carried back more than four centuries
+and a half, and to be looking on the hosts which had
+gathered to oppose the landing of the first Cæsar.
+These warriors who came up shouting to the palisade
+which formed the outer defence of the villa seemed
+to be absolute barbarians; no one could have believed
+that for many generations they had been subjects
+of a civilized power. They had, in fact, deliberately
+thrown off all the signs of that subjection. It was
+the dream of Ambiorix to have Britain such as she
+might have been had Rome never conquered her. It
+was a hopeless attempt, this rolling back the course
+<pb n='287'/><anchor id='Pg287'/>of time by four centuries, but in such matters as
+dress and equipment something could be done.
+Accordingly, his troops were such as the troops
+of Cassibelan might have been had they suddenly
+risen from their graves. Most of them were naked
+to the waist; what clothing they had was chiefly of
+skins, though some wore gaily-coloured trews. All
+wore their hair falling over their shoulders, and long,
+drooping moustaches, but no beard or whisker. All
+the exposed parts of their bodies were dyed a deep
+indigo-blue, by the application of woad. Ambiorix
+had been very anxious to revive the chariots of his
+ancestors, but had been compelled to give up the
+idea. In any case he could not have transported
+them to the island. He had been at great pains to
+instruct them in the genuine British war-cries, as far
+as tradition had preserved them. Here, again, the
+result had been somewhat disappointing. There
+were things which they had learnt from Rome which
+they could not put off as easily as their dress; and
+the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged
+as they surged up to the defences were a
+curious mixture of the British and Latin tongues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The battle at first went decidedly against the
+assailants. The Count had left behind him a catapult
+among other effects which he had not thought
+it worth while to remove; and Martianus, who had
+practised some of the garrison in the use of it,
+<pb n='288'/><anchor id='Pg288'/>brought it
+<anchor id="corr288"/><corr sic="inot">into</corr> play with considerable effect. The
+very first discharge killed one of the lesser chiefs,
+and a little later in the day Ambiorix himself was
+badly bruised by one of the stones propelled from it.
+Meanwhile the defenders escaped almost wholly
+without injury. There was no need for them to
+leave the shelter of the buildings. As long as they
+kept within this the bows and slings of the enemy
+failed to harm them. One or two rash young recruits
+exposed themselves unnecessarily, and were
+wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, about
+an hour before sunset, called off his men, the garrison
+found that the casualties had been very slight and
+few.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the night the besiegers were not idle.
+They constructed a mantelet<note place="foot">Mantelet: a shield of wood, metal, or rope, for the protection
+of sappers, &amp;c.</note> of wicker work
+covered with stout hides, and brought it out close to
+the palisade—an operation which the besieged, with
+a culpable carelessness, allowed them to do unmolested.
+From under cover of this they plied long
+poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for
+Ambiorix was not so obstinate a conservative as to
+go back to the axe of bronze), and hacked away at
+the palisade. The catapult produced no effect
+on this erection, and though arrows, discharged
+almost perpendicularly into the air so as to fall just
+<pb n='289'/><anchor id='Pg289'/>on the other side of it, inflicted some injury, the
+work went on without interruption. Martianus,
+seeing this, headed a sally in person, and, after a
+sharp struggle, succeeded in possessing himself of it.
+The wicker work was broken in pieces, and the hides
+carried off within the line of defences.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next three days passed without incident, and
+the inmates of the villa began to hope that the
+danger had passed over. In reality, however, the
+besiegers were collecting materials for the construction
+of another mantelet on a much larger scale.
+As much of this as was possible was put together
+out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the
+fourth day an erection of considerable size could be
+seen about fifty yards from the palisade. It soon
+became evident that the new plan of the assailants
+was to try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped
+round with tow, and, when this had been lighted,
+were discharged into the enclosure. Some mischief
+was done, not so much to the buildings, for it was
+not difficult to put out the fire if the arrows happened
+to fall on an inflammable place, but to the garrison.
+The men who had to extinguish the flames could not
+avoid exposing themselves, and those who exposed
+themselves were frequently hit by the slingers and
+archers. On the whole, however, little progress was
+made, and when, in the course of the evening, a
+heavy rain came on, and the wind, which had
+<pb n='290'/><anchor id='Pg290'/>hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died away,
+the discharge ceased.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was now necessary for Ambiorix to bring
+matters to a crisis. His followers had nearly exhausted
+the store of provisions which they had
+brought with them, and, as he was unwilling to
+alienate the inhabitants of the island by resorting to
+plunder, he did not see how he could replenish it.
+Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct
+assault, and this he did in the early dawn of the
+sixth day after his arrival. Under cover of a heavy
+mist which rolled in from the sea, and helped by the
+neglect of the sentinels, who, never very watchful,
+had relaxed their care altogether when the light
+became visible, he brought his men close up to the
+palisade at the spot where an opening had been left,
+closed with a strong gate. For a few minutes, such
+was the supineness of the garrison, the assailants
+were allowed to batter and hew at this undisturbed.
+When some of the defenders had been rallied to the
+spot, the work was more than half done. Ambiorix,
+who was now entirely recovered from the injury
+received on the first day of the siege, plied his axe
+with extraordinary energy, and his immediate followers,
+whom he had carefully selected for their
+courage and strength, followed his example. By
+the time Martianus arrived on the scene the gate
+had been broken down, and the assailants were pouring
+into the enclosure.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='291'/><anchor id='Pg291'/>
+
+<p>
+The garrison, who were outnumbered in the proportion
+of nearly three to one, were at once ordered to
+fall back into the quadrangle of the villa. They formed
+a line across the open side where they were covered
+by the archers and slingers posted on the roofs of
+the various buildings. Here a long and fierce struggle
+ensued. The defenders had some advantage in
+their position, and were better drilled and disciplined;
+the assailants, on the other hand, had the courage of
+fanaticism. When an hour had passed, and the
+combatants, by mutual consent, paused to take breath,
+both sides had lost many in killed and wounded, but
+neither had gained any considerable advantage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna meanwhile had been busy ministering to the
+needs of the wounded, and was scarcely aware of the
+true position of affairs, the room in which she was at
+work not commanding a view of the space in which
+the struggle was going on. Chancing, however, to
+leave it for a moment in search of something which
+she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken
+place. In a moment her resolution was taken.
+During the siege her thoughts had been taken up, not
+with the danger to herself and the other inmates of the
+villa, but with the terrible fact that Britons were
+fighting against Britons. Long before she would
+have attempted to put an end to their cruel strife, if
+she had seen any hope of success. She would not
+have hesitated risking her life in the attempt.
+In<pb n='292'/><anchor id='Pg292'/>deed she had proposed to Martianus that she should
+go with a party bearing a flag of truce, and seek an
+interview with the hostile commander. He had met
+her with a courteous and peremptory refusal, and
+she had been compelled to acquiesce. But now it
+seemed to her that her chance was come. Taking
+advantage of the pause in the struggle, she ran
+between the combatants, and threw herself on her
+knees with her face towards the assailants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A murmur of astonishment and admiration ran
+through both the ranks. She seemed to be a visitor
+from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and,
+at the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Britons, brothers,</q> she cried, in a sweet but
+penetrating voice, which made itself heard through
+the throng, <q>what is this? Britons, brothers, have
+you forgotten what you are? Your masters have left
+you. You carry arms which have been forbidden to
+you for more than four hundred years, and must you
+first use them against your own countrymen? Have
+you no enemies abroad that you must look for them
+at home?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A shriek of terror, followed by a wild war cry,
+which, though strange to many of the crowd, was
+only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast, gave a
+fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from
+without were there.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="29" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='293'/><anchor id='Pg293'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXIX. An Unexpected Arrival"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXIX. An Unexpected Arrival"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXIX.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+Cedric, after making good his escape from the
+villa, as has been related, had nearly died of hunger
+on the shore to which he had managed to make his
+way. When he was almost at his last gasp, a
+Saxon galley had touched at the very spot to
+supply itself with water. Fortunately for him it
+was commanded by a kinsman of his own, who
+persuaded the crew—the Saxon adventurers had
+to be dealt with by persuasion rather than by command—to
+return home with their passenger. This
+probably saved his life; his mother, a skilful leech,
+whose fame was spread abroad among the dwellers
+on the coast, nursed him back into health. Still he
+had suffered long and much; and it was not till the
+summer was far advanced that he was allowed to join
+an expedition. His noble birth, his reputation for
+strength and courage, not a little enhanced, of course,
+by his late escape, and the personal fascination that
+<pb n='294'/><anchor id='Pg294'/>he exercised on all about him, pointed him out, young
+as he was, for command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carna had been unceasingly in his thoughts since
+the day when he had last seen her. During the
+delirium of his illness her name had been continually
+on his lips, and one of the earliest confidences of his
+recovery was the story of his love for this Christian
+maiden of the west. His mother was touched
+by the story. The girl’s passionate desire for the
+welfare of the son that was dead (which she appreciated
+without comprehending its motive), and
+the very heroism which the son that was living had
+shown in defending her, combined to move her heart.
+That any living woman could resist the attraction of
+such a champion as her son, she did not believe for a
+moment, in spite of all that Cedric could say about
+the height of saintliness on which Carna stood; and
+by degrees the young chief himself found his worshipping
+devotion mingled with hopes that were very
+sweet to his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as he
+was at sea, and the destination of their voyage became
+a question, his thoughts at once turned to the
+island. Approaching it with caution, for he was too
+good a leader to risk an encounter with the superior
+force of the Roman squadron, he learnt with surprise
+that the Count had departed. Of Carna his informant,
+a fisherman who found it answer his purpose to
+<pb n='295'/><anchor id='Pg295'/>give what information he could to the Saxons, could
+tell him nothing, and Cedric naturally supposed that
+she had gone with the family into which she had been
+adopted. The news struck a strange chill into his
+heart, but at the same time it relieved him of considerable
+perplexity. His course was now clear; if
+the Romans were gone there was nothing to be
+feared. He knew the approaches to the villa, and
+how weak were its defences, and he felt sure that a
+British garrison would not be a match for his own
+vigorous Saxons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He reached the island two days after the landing
+of Ambiorix. Acting as his own spy on the strength
+of his knowledge of the country, he soon found
+out the position of affairs, and thought that he could
+not do better than wait to see how things would turn
+out. The galleys—Cedric had two under his command—lay
+in hiding at some little distance from the
+Haven, and meanwhile every detail of the struggle
+was watched, unknown to the combatants, by scouts
+who carried news of its progress to their chief. The
+gathering of the troops previous to the attack on the
+fortifications had been observed and rightly understood
+by these men. Cedric had been at once informed
+of what was in progress, had landed his
+crews, amounting in all to about two hundred, and
+marched with all the speed that was possible to the
+scene of action. As the news had reached him not
+<pb n='296'/><anchor id='Pg296'/>long after midnight he was able to reach the spot
+very soon after the attack had commenced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The battle-cry of the Saxons, terrible to those who
+knew it, scarcely less terrible, with its shrillness and
+fierceness, to those to whom it was strange, arrested
+the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the
+rear of the attacking party. There could be seen,
+running swiftly up the ascent which led to the
+palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge
+standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which
+was wrought in black the raven of Odin. Behind
+him came, in a loose order which served to conceal
+their scanty number, Cedric’s warriors, a sturdy
+race, whose tall stature was made to seem almost
+gigantic by the height to which their hair was dressed.
+They were formidable foes, but still there were brave
+men in both the British parties who would have had
+the courage to stand up against them. Unhappily one
+of the panics which defy all reason and all individual
+courage began among the inland Britons at the
+sight of these strange enemies; and, once begun, it
+could not be checked. Ambiorix, indeed, with a few
+of his immediate followers, faced the enemy, but
+was quickly swept away by the rush of their onset.
+Martianus, with some of the garrison, carrying Carna
+along with him, took refuge in the villa, and hastily
+secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country,
+or hid themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was
+<pb n='297'/><anchor id='Pg297'/>there any thought of resistance, and the Saxons won
+their victory almost without losing a drop of blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cedric’s eyes, sharpened as they were by love, had
+caught a glimpse of Carna, as she was swept in the
+throng of fugitives within the doors of the villa, and
+he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence
+of the place against assailants so determined would
+have been hopeless, even had the garrison been as
+resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and demoralized.
+A few sturdy blows from Cedric’s battle-axe brought
+the principal door to the ground, and he rushed across
+the fragments into the hall, followed by some ten of
+his attendants. The rest he had signed to remain
+without. Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all
+the tumult, was surrounded by a group of terrified
+men and women, stood facing him. The crimson
+mounted to her forehead as she met his eyes, for she
+saw, as no woman could fail to see, the love that was
+in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Spare these poor creatures,</q> she said, pointing
+to her terrified companions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Your lives are safe,</q> said Cedric in British. <q>Go
+with this <anchor id="corr297"/><corr sic="(quote mark missing)">man,</corr></q> and he pointed to one of his attendants,
+to whom at the same time he gave some brief
+directions. He turned to Carna: <q>Lady,</q> he said,
+<q>this is no time for many words; and I could not
+say them if it were, for my tongue is ill-taught in
+your language. But you cannot have failed to see
+<pb n='298'/><anchor id='Pg298'/>my heart. It is yours, and all that I have. Come
+and be a queen in my home and among my people.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl’s eyes, which she had turned to the
+ground at his first address, were now lifted to meet
+his gaze. <q>I cannot leave my people,</q> she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yet,</q> he answered, <q>the good women of whom
+you used to tell me, whose lives are written in that
+holy book of yours, left their own people to follow
+their husbands.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they
+followed was the God whom they worshipped in
+their own homes. You worship strange gods, with
+whom I can have no fellowship.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Come with me and teach the truth to my people
+and me,</q> cried the young man, feeling that there
+was nothing which he would not do to win this
+bright, brave, beautiful maiden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Listen, Cedric,</q> she answered—it was the first time
+that she had called him by his name, and he thought
+that he had never known before what a name it
+was—<q>You told me some time since that you would
+sooner go into the everlasting darkness with your
+own people than bow the knee to a God whom you
+believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a
+noble resolve; and I have honoured you for it. Will
+you give it up for the love of a woman? If you did,
+I could honour you no more, and you are too good to
+have a wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I
+<pb n='299'/><anchor id='Pg299'/>will pray for you. Perhaps God will hear me, and
+give you light, and bring us together to the blessed
+Christ, but it cannot be here.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She caught his right hand which he had reached
+out in the earnestness of his speaking, and lifted it
+to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression of her
+gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it
+of a woman’s love. But she never faltered for one
+instant in the resolve that was to separate them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind Cedric stood a burly, middle-aged warrior,
+his father’s foster-brother. He had watched the
+scene with an intense interest, and though of course
+he could not understand what was said, had a very
+shrewd notion of the turn which affairs were taking.
+Perhaps he saw, too, expressed in the girl’s tone
+something of a feeling which the young man was
+too rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was
+ill-content that his young chief should miss the
+bride on whom his heart was set, and who seemed
+so worthy of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>A noble maiden!</q> he whispered to Cedric, <q>and
+fit to be the wife and mother of kings; and I think
+that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I
+warrant that it will not be long before she forgives
+us.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Peace!</q> said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him,
+<q>Peace! Would you have me wed a slave? My
+wife must come to me freely, or come not at all.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='300'/><anchor id='Pg300'/>
+
+<p>
+He spoke to Carna again. <q>Your will is my law.
+If you say that we must part, I go. But, lady, you
+must leave this house. My people are set upon
+burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I would.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without another word, she obeyed his bidding, and
+passed into the court, followed by Cedric and his
+attendants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile some of the Saxon crews had been
+busy with their torches, and the flames were beginning
+to gain a mastery over the building. Before
+many minutes had passed the sheds and outbuildings,
+which were, to a great extent, constructed of wood,
+were in a blaze, while dense volumes of smoke rolled
+out of the windows of the villa itself. Carna stood
+spellbound by the sight, at once so terrible and so
+grand. The spectacle of a burning house exercises
+a curious fascination even on those for whom it
+means loss and disaster, and Carna, even in that
+supreme crisis of her life, could not help gazing at
+the conflagration, and even admiring unconsciously
+the splendid contrasts of light and darkness which it
+produced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed as if that day was about to sweep away
+all her past. She had torn from her heart her half-acknowledged
+love; she saw the home of her childhood
+and youth vanishing into smoke and ashes;
+and now another actor in the bygone of her life was
+to disappear for ever.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='301'/><anchor id='Pg301'/>
+
+<p>
+Martianus had observed the scene from the
+chamber in which he had taken refuge, and had
+misunderstood it. He fancied that the girl, whom,
+though no formal betrothal had bound her to him,
+he regarded as his own, was going of her own
+accord with this Saxon robber, in whom, of course,
+he recognized the champion who had saved her life
+at the Great Temple. The thought stung him to
+madness. With all his foppery and frivolity, he had
+the courage of his race. He might probably have
+escaped unnoticed from the burning building. But,
+disdaining flight, he rushed at Cedric, heedless of
+the odds which he was challenging.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief’s followers, knowing their master’s temper,
+stood aside to let the conflict be decided without
+their interference. It was fierce, but it was brief.
+Martianus was a skilled swordsman, but a life of
+indolence, if not of excess, had slackened his sinews
+and unsteadied his nerves. He parried some of his
+antagonist’s blows with sufficient adroitness, but his
+defence grew weaker and weaker, and he could not
+save himself from one or two severe wounds. Giving
+way before the fierce, unremitting attack of his
+antagonist, he came without knowing it to the edge
+of the well, stumbled over the raised parapet that
+surrounded it, and fell headlong into its depths.<note place="foot">A skeleton has been found in the well of the Brading
+Villa.</note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='302'/><anchor id='Pg302'/>
+
+<p>
+The sight of the conflict had diverted Carna’s attention
+from the burning house. She did not wait to see
+its issue, but at once quitted the precincts of the
+villa. Some of the survivors of the garrison, the old
+priest and his wife, and the rest of the non-combatants,
+followed her. Not only did they feel that it was she
+who had saved them from the swords of the Saxons,
+but they recognized in her calmness and courage the
+qualities of a true leader, and were sure that they
+could not do better than follow her guidance. Her
+own plans had been formed for some time. She saw
+that the strength of Britain was in the great cities.
+If the country, disorganized as it was, was to be
+made capable again of order and self-defence, the
+impulse must come from them, the centres of its
+civil and religious life. Londinium, where the
+Count’s name was well-known and respected, and
+where she had some connections of her own, was
+her destination. There she hoped to be able to do
+something for her people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first step was to leave the neighbourhood of
+the villa, and with the helpless companions who
+now, she saw, looked to her for guidance, to make
+her way to the north of the island, and from thence
+to the mainland. Making a short pause till the
+stragglers had come up, she addressed a few words
+of counsel and comfort to the fugitives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Dear friends,</q> she said, <q>God has delivered us
+<pb n='303'/><anchor id='Pg303'/>from the hands of the heathen, and will bring us safe
+to the haven where we would be. But this is no
+place for us. We will go to where we may serve
+Him in peace and quietness.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her clear, firm tones, which seemed inspired with
+all the confidence of an unfaltering faith, seemed to
+breathe in their turn new courage into the terrified
+crowd. They received them with a murmur of
+assent, and without an expression of fear or doubt,
+followed her as she led the way to the summit of
+the neighbouring downs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arrived at this spot, she paused and turned, as if
+to take a last look at the scenes in which her past
+life had been spent. The landscape lay calm and
+smiling about her. Every feature in it was familiar
+to her eyes; there was not one with which she had
+not some happy association. But now the sight had
+lost its power; her soul was occupied with more
+profound emotions. The home of her childhood lay
+beneath her feet, a blackened ruin; and there, upon
+the sea, could be seen flashing in the sunlight the
+oars of the Saxons’ departing galleys.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a contrast full of significance, and the girl, in
+whose pure and enthusiastic soul there seemed to be
+something of a prophetic power, caught some of its
+meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days
+of the Roman domination. It had had its uses, it had
+done its work, but it had become corrupt and feeble,
+<pb n='304'/><anchor id='Pg304'/>and it was passing away for ever. And the future
+was there, symbolized in the Saxon ships that,
+brightened by the sunshine, were speeding their
+way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous and
+hopeful life, across the waters. That was the new
+power that was to shake this worn-out civilization,
+and raise in the course of the ages a fair fabric of
+its own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the moment the present, with all its misery
+and desolation, mastered the girl’s spirit with an
+overpowering sense of loss. Thoughts of her ruined
+home, her helpless country, and her own personal
+loss, though almost unacknowledged to herself, in
+the final parting with the young hero of her life,
+came upon her with a force which broke down all
+her fortitude. She covered her face with her hands
+and wept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then her fortitude and her conscience reasserted
+themselves. <q>Courage, my friends,</q> she cried,
+<q>God hath not deserted us, nor our dear country.
+We have sinned much, and we shall have much to
+bear. But He has chosen this land for a great work,
+and He will make all things work together for good
+till He has accomplished it.</q> She was silent for a
+few moments. When she began to speak again,
+some mighty inspiration seemed to carry her beyond
+the present and out of herself. <q>Yes,</q> she cried,
+<q>God hath great things in store for this dear
+<pb n='305'/><anchor id='Pg305'/>country of ours. I see a great blackness of darkness.
+From many houses, great and fair, where the
+rulers of the land lived delicately, shall go up to
+heaven the smoke of a great burning, and the fields
+shall be untilled and desolate, and the rivers shall
+run red with blood. But beyond the darkness I see
+a light, and the light shines upon a land that is fair
+as the garden of the Lord; and therein I behold great
+cities thronged with men, and in the midst of them
+stately houses of God, such as have never yet been
+built by skill of human hand. And the people that
+work and worship there are not of our race, nor yet
+wholly strange. For the Lord shall make to Himself
+a people from out of them that know Him not,
+even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull
+down His Church shall build it again, and they shall
+carry His name to many lands, for the sea shall be
+covered with their ships; and they shall rule over the
+nations from the one end of heaven to the other.</q>
+</p>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: Carna on the Hillside.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><anchor id="fig304"/><figure url="images/i_343.jpg" rend="w100"><index index="fig" level1="Carna on the Hillside"/>
+<head><hi rend='smallcaps'>Carna on the Hillside.</hi></head>
+<figDesc>Carna on the Hillside</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+She sank upon her knees, and remained wrapt
+in prayer, while the crowd stood round and watched
+her with awe-stricken faces. When she rose again
+to her feet she was calm. Resolutely she set her
+face from the scene of her past life, and went her
+way to meet the future that lay before her.
+</p>
+
+</div><div type="chapter" n="30" rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='306'/><anchor id='Pg306'/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XXX. At Last"/>
+<index index="pdf" level1="XXX. At Last"/>
+<head>CHAPTER XXX.<lb/><lb/><hi rend="smaller">AT LAST.</hi></head>
+
+<p>
+It was nearly sunset on the second day of the great
+battle of Badon Hill.<note place="foot">The battle of Badon Hill, fought in 451, seems to be a
+well authenticated historical fact. King Arthur defeated the
+Saxons after a fierce conflict which lasted for two days. Badon
+Hill is near Bath.</note> The long, desperate fight
+was over, and the great British champion had turned
+back for a time the tide of Saxon invasion. The
+heathen dead lay, rank by rank, as they had fallen,
+every man in his place, in the great wedge-like
+formation which had resisted all the efforts of the
+Britons during the first day of the struggle, and had
+been with difficulty broken through on the second.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The King was sitting amidst a circle of his knights
+on the top of the hill, resting from his toils. His cross-hilted
+sword stood fixed in the ground before him. On
+one side lay his helmet, bearing for its crest a dragon
+wrought in gold; on the other, his shield, on which
+was blazoned the figure of the Virgin.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='307'/><anchor id='Pg307'/>
+
+<p>
+A priest approached, walking in front of a party of
+four who were carrying a litter, and who, at a sign
+from their leader, set it down before the King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord,</q> said the priest, <q>I was traversing the
+field to see whether I could serve any of the wounded
+with my ministrations, when word was brought to
+me that a Saxon desired to talk with me. He could
+speak the British tongue, it was told me, a thing
+almost unheard of among these barbarians. I did
+not delay to visit the man, and finding that he
+desired above all things to speak to your lordship, I
+took it upon myself to order that he should be
+brought.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wounded man raised himself with some
+difficulty, and by the help of one of the bearers, into
+a sitting posture. He was of almost gigantic proportions,
+and though his hair and beard were white
+as snow, showed little of the waste and emaciation
+of age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the King’s knights recognized him at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I noted him,</q> said he, <q>for a long time during
+the battle. He was in the front rank, and stood
+close to a young chief, whose guardian he seemed to
+be. I observed that he was content to ward off blows
+that were aimed at the young man, but never dealt
+any himself. What came to him and his charge
+afterwards I do not know, for the tide of battle
+carried me away.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='308'/><anchor id='Pg308'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>What do you want?</q> said the King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>My lord King,</q> said the old man, speaking
+British fluently, though with a foreign accent, <q>the
+knight speaks true. Neither to-day, nor yesterday,
+nor indeed through all the years during which my
+people have fought with yours, have I stained my
+hands with British blood. Indeed for forty years I
+have not set foot on this island. But this year I was
+constrained to come, for the young Prince of my
+people, Logrin by name, was with the army, and his
+father had given him into my charge, and I could
+not leave him. All day, therefore, I stood by him,
+and warded off the blows with such strength and skill
+as I had, and when his death hour came, for he fell
+on the morning of the second day, I cared no more
+for my own life. So much I say that you may listen
+to me the more willingly, though report says of you
+that you are generous, not to friends only, but also
+to foes. But I have something to say that is of more
+moment. Many years ago I was a prisoner in this
+land, having been taken by one of the ships of Count
+Ælius. Many things happened to me during my
+sojourn here of which it does not concern me to
+speak, except of this. There was in the household
+of the Count a maiden, his daughter by adoption,
+but of British birth, Carna by name. She was very
+anxious to bring me to faith in her Master, Christ;
+and I was no little moved by her words, and still
+<pb n='309'/><anchor id='Pg309'/>more by the example of her goodness. But I loved
+her, and this love seemed to hinder me, for how
+could I tell whether it were truth itself or the love
+that was persuading me? And would not he be the
+basest of men who for love of a woman should leave
+the faith of his fathers? So I remained, though it
+was half against my own mind, in my unbelief,
+and when she would not take me for her husband,
+being unbaptized, we parted, and I saw her no more.
+But her words, and the memory of her, have dwelt
+with me unceasingly, and now that God has brought
+me back to this land, I desire to have that which once
+I refused. But tell me, my lord King, have you any
+knowledge of this lady Carna?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Yes,</q> said the King, <q>I know her well, and by
+the ordering of God, as I do not doubt, she is in this
+very place this day, for she gives her whole time to
+ministering to such as are in trouble or sorrow. She
+shall be sent for forthwith, and the archbishop also,
+who will, if he thinks fit, administer to you the holy
+rite of baptism.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cedric, for as my readers will have guessed it was
+he, bowed his head in assent, and after swallowing a
+cordial which the King’s physician put to his lips,
+sank back upon the litter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In about half an hour Carna appeared. She was
+dressed in the garb of a religious house, for she had
+taken the vows, and she was followed by a small
+<pb n='310'/><anchor id='Pg310'/>company of holy women who, like her, had devoted
+their lives to the service of their poor and suffering
+brothers and sisters in Christ. Time had dealt
+gently with her, as he often does with gentle souls.
+The glossy chestnut hair of the past was changed
+indeed to a silvery white, and her face was wasted
+with fast and vigil; but her complexion was clear
+and delicate as of old, and her eyes as lustrous and
+deep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she saw and recognized the wounded man—for
+she did recognize him at once—a sweet and
+tender smile came over her face. Her gift of intuition
+seemed to tell her that her prayers were
+answered, and that the soul for which her supplications
+had gone up day by day, from youth to age,
+had been given to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Carna,</q> said the dying man, <q>God has brought
+me back to you after many years, and before it is too
+late. Your God is my God, and your country my
+country—but not here. Once I could not own it,
+fearing lest my love should be leading me into falsehood;
+but all things are now made clear. But, my
+lord King,</q> he went on, feebly turning his head to
+Arthur, <q>bid them make haste, for I would be
+baptized before I die, and my time is short.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priest had departed on another errand, and
+the King was perplexed. The physician whispered
+in his ear—
+</p>
+
+<pb n='311'/><anchor id='Pg311'/>
+
+<p>
+<q>He has not many moments to live.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Baptize him, my lord King, yourself,</q> said Carna;
+<q>it is lawful in case of need, and none can do it more
+fittingly.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I will willingly be his sponsor,</q> said the knight
+who had first spoken, <q>for there was never braver
+man wielded axe or sword.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The King dipped his hand in a golden cup that
+stood on the table by his chair, sprinkled the water
+thrice on the dying man, as he pronounced the
+solemn formula, and signed on his forehead the
+sign of the Cross. He then put the cross-shaped
+hilt of his sword to the lips of the newly baptized.
+Cedric devoutly kissed it. The next minute he was
+dead.
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 5; text-align: center">
+THE END.
+</p>
+
+<p rend="margin-top: 5; text-align: center; font-size: small">
+UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+</p>
+        </div></body>
+        <back>
+<div>
+        <pgIf output="pdf">
+        <then/>
+        <else>
+        <div id="footnotes" rend="page-break-before: right">
+        <index index="toc" level1="Footnotes"/>
+        <head>Footnotes</head>
+        <divGen type="footnotes"/>
+        </div>
+        </else>
+        </pgIf>
+        </div>
+<div rend="page-break-before:right; x-class: boxed">
+        <index index="pdf" level1="Transcriber's Note"/><index index="toc" level1="Transcriber’s Note"/>
+        <head>Transcriber’s Note</head>
+          <p>Variations in hyphenation (<q>countryside</q>, <q>country-side</q>;
+<q>headquarters</q>, <q>head-quarters</q>)
+            have not been changed.</p>
+        <p>Other changes, which have been made to the text:</p>
+        <list>
+          <item><ref target="corr019">page 19</ref>, <q>tomount</q> changed to <q>to mount</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr023">page 23</ref>, quote mark added after <q>mishap.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr033">page 33</ref>, <q>Lasetrygones</q> changed to <q>Laestrygones</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr076">page 76</ref>, <q>asid</q> changed to <q>said</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr079">page 79</ref>, quote mark added after <q>letter-carriers.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr087">page 87</ref>, single quote mark changed to double quote mark after <q>long.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr111">page 111</ref>, <q>oga</q> changed to <q>toga</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr115">page 115</ref>, quote mark added after <q>free.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr139">page 139</ref>, quote mark added after <q>wanted.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr156">page 156</ref>, <q>eemed</q> changed to <q>seemed</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr157">page 157</ref>, <q>greal</q> changed to <q>great</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr178">page 178</ref>, period added after <q>Sorbiodunum</q>,
+comma changed to period after <ref target="corr178a"><q>them</q></ref></item>
+<item><ref target="corr233">page 233</ref>, quote mark added after <q>man.</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr255">page 255</ref>, <q>Or</q> changed to <q>On</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr288">page 288</ref>, <q>inot</q> changed to <q>into</q></item>
+<item><ref target="corr297">page 297</ref>, quote mark added after <q>man,</q></item>
+
+        </list>    
+        </div>
+<div rend="page-break-before: right">
+        <divGen type="pgfooter"/>
+        </div>
+        </back>
+    </text>
+</TEI.2>
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/cover.jpg b/44083-tei/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..562f620
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_002.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a071aca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_002.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_029.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_029.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..403e1e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_029.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_041.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_041.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f10b627
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_041.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_073.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_073.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9969754
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_073.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_095.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_095.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..740036b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_095.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_123.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_123.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50fc4b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_123.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_133.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_133.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bfa27e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_133.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_151.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_151.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9754049
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_151.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_191.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_191.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a68414
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_191.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_223.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_223.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6daed6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_223.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_241.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_241.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4cd2d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_241.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_253.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_253.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0550060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_253.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_267.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_267.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef7cc5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_267.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_287.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_287.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25f9f6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_287.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_313.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_313.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70f28c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_313.jpg
diff --git a/44083-tei/images/i_343.jpg b/44083-tei/images/i_343.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7db72f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083-tei/images/i_343.jpg
diff --git a/44083.txt b/44083.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb51cfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7620 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of the Saxon Shore by Alfred John
+Church
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Count of the Saxon Shore
+
+Author: Alfred John Church
+
+Release Date: October 31, 2013 [Ebook #44083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Burning of the Villa.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               The COUNT
+                           of the SAXON SHORE
+                                  _or_
+                          The Villa in VECTIS
+
+          _A TALE OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS FROM BRITAIN_
+
+                                 BY THE
+                      REV. ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A.
+                    _Author of "Stories from Homer"_
+
+                       WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
+                               RUTH PUTNAM
+
+
+
+_Fifth Thousand_
+
+
+London
+SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
+38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+
+
+
+
+
+                       Entered at Stationers' Hall
+                             By SEELEY & CO.
+
+                 COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 1887
+                   (For the United States of America).
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE.
+
+
+"Count of the Saxon Shore" was a title bestowed by Maximian (colleague of
+Diocletian in the Empire from 286 to 305 A.D.) on the officer whose task
+it was to protect the coasts of Britain and Gaul from the attacks of the
+Saxon pirates. It appears to have existed down to the abandonment of
+Britain by the Romans.
+
+So little is known from history about the last years of the Roman
+occupation that the writer of fiction has almost a free hand. In this
+story a novel, but, it is hoped, not an improbable, view is taken of an
+important event--the withdrawal of the legions. This is commonly assigned
+to the year 410, when the Emperor Honorius formally withdrew the Imperial
+protection from Britain. But the usurper Constantine had actually removed
+the British army two years before; and, as he was busied with the conquest
+of Gaul and Spain for a considerable time after, it is not likely that
+they were ever sent back.
+
+                                                                  A. J. C.
+                                                                     R. P.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                            PAGE
+     I.   A BRITISH CAESAR                             1
+    II.   AN ELECTION                                13
+   III.   A PRIZE                                    21
+    IV.   THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND                    32
+     V.   CARNA                                      47
+    VI.   THE SAXON                                  57
+   VII.   A PRETENDER'S DIFFICULTIES                 70
+  VIII.   THE NEWS IN THE CAMP                       83
+    IX.   THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS               94
+     X.   DANGERS AHEAD                             107
+    XI.   THE PRIEST'S DEMAND                       115
+   XII.   LOST                                      124
+  XIII.   WHAT DOES IT MEAN?                        135
+   XIV.   THE PURSUIT                               144
+    XV.   THE PURSUIT (_continued_)                 152
+   XVI.   THE GREAT TEMPLE                          164
+  XVII.   THE BRITISH VILLAGE                       173
+ XVIII.   THE PICTS                                 182
+   XIX.   THE SIEGE                                 194
+    XX.   CEDRIC IN TROUBLE                         207
+   XXI.   THE ESCAPE                                216
+  XXII.   A VISITOR                                 224
+ XXIII.   THE STRANGER'S STORY                      234
+  XXIV.   NEWS FROM ITALY                           245
+   XXV.   CONSULTATION                              256
+  XXVI.   FAREWELL!                                 266
+ XXVII.   MARTIANUS                                 271
+XXVIII.   A RIVAL                                   281
+  XXIX.   AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL                     293
+   XXX.   AT LAST                                   306
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+THE BURNING OF THE VILLA                        _Frontispiece_
+                                                          PAGE
+CONSTANTINE ELECTED EMPEROR                                 18
+THE _PANTHER_ AND THE SAXON PIRATES                         28
+CEDRIC AT THE FORGE                                         58
+JAVELIN THROWING                                            78
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS                               104
+BRITISH CONSPIRATORS                                       112
+THE CAPTURE OF CARNA                                       128
+THE SACRIFICE                                              166
+CEDRIC AND THE PICT                                        196
+CEDRIC'S FURY                                              212
+CEDRIC'S ESCAPE                                            222
+CLAUDIAN'S TALE                                            234
+THE COUNT RECEIVING THE LETTER OF HONORIUS                 252
+CARNA AND MARTIANUS                                        276
+CARNA ON THE HILLSIDE                                      304
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     _THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE._
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             A BRITISH CAESAR.
+
+
+"Hail! Caesar Emperor, the starving salute thee!"(1) and the speaker made a
+military salute to a silver coin, evidently brand-new from the mint (which
+did not seem, by the way, to turn out very good work), and bearing the
+superscription, "Gratianus Caesar Imperator Felicissimus." He was a soldier
+of middle age, whose jovial face did not show any sign of the fate which
+he professed to have so narrowly escaped, and formed one of a group which
+was lounging about the _Quaestorium_, or, as we may put it, the paymaster's
+office of the camp at the head of the Great Harbour.(2) A very curious
+medley of nationalities was that group. There were Gauls; there were
+Germans from the Rhine bank, some of them of the pure Teuton type, with
+fair complexions, bright blue eyes, and reddish golden hair, and
+remarkably tall of stature, others showing an admixture of the Celtic
+blood of their Gallic neighbours in their dark hair and hazel eyes; there
+were swarthy Spaniards, fierce-looking men from the Eastern Adriatic,
+showing some signs of Greek parentage in their regular features and
+graceful figures; there were two or three who seemed to have an admixture
+of Asian or even African blood in them; it might be said, in fact, there
+were representatives of every province of the Empire, Italy only excepted.
+They had been just receiving their pay, long in arrear, and now
+considerably short of the proper amount, and containing not a few coins
+which the receivers seemed to think of doubtful value.
+
+"Let me look at his Imperial Majesty," said another speaker; and he
+scanned the features of the new Caesar--features never very dignified, and
+certainly not flattered by the rude coinage--with something like contempt.
+"Well, he does not look exactly as a Caesar should; but what does it
+matter? This will go down with Rufus at the wine-shop and Priscus the
+sausage-seller, as well as the head of the great Augustus himself."
+
+"Ah!" said a third speaker, picking out from a handful of silver a coin
+which bore the head of Theodosius, "this was an Emperor worth fighting
+under. I made my first campaign with him against Maximus, another British
+Caesar, by the way; and he was every inch a soldier. If his son were like
+him(3) things would be smoother than they are."
+
+"Do you think," said the second speaker, after first throwing a cautious
+glance to see whether any officer of rank was in hearing--"do you think we
+have made a change for the better from Marcus?(4) He at all events used to
+be more liberal with his money than his present majesty. You remember he
+gave us ten silver pieces each. Now we don't even get our proper pay."
+
+"Marcus, my dear fellow," said the other speaker, "had a full military
+chest to draw upon, and it was not difficult to be generous. Gratianus has
+to squeeze every denarius out of the citizens. I heard them say, when the
+money came into the camp yesterday, that it was a loan from the Londinium
+merchants. I wonder what interest they will get, and when they will see
+the principal again."
+
+"Hang the fat rascals!" said the other. "Why should they sleep soft, and
+eat and drink the best of everything, while we poor soldiers, who keep
+them and their money-bags safe, have to go bare and hungry?"
+
+"Come, come, comrades," interrupted the first soldier who had spoken; "no
+more grumbling, or some of us will find the centurion after us with his
+vine-sticks."
+
+The group broke up, most of them making the best of their way to spend
+some of their unaccustomed riches at the wine-shop, a place from which
+they had lately kept an enforced absence. Three or four of the number,
+however, who seemed, from a sign that passed between them, to have some
+secret understanding, remained in close conversation--a conversation which
+they carried on in undertones, and which they adjourned to one of the
+tents to finish without risk of being disturbed or overheard.
+
+The camp in which our story opens was a square enclosure, measuring some
+five hundred yards each way, and surrounded by a massive wall, not less
+than four feet in thickness, in the construction of which stone, brick,
+and tile had, in Roman fashion, been used together. The defences were
+completed by strong towers of a rounded shape, which had been erected at
+frequent intervals. The camp had, as usual, its four gates. That which
+opened upon the sea--for the sea washed the southern front--was famous in
+military tradition as the gate by which the second legion had embarked to
+take part in the Jewish War and the famous siege of Jerusalem. Vespasian,
+who had begun in Britain the great career which ended in the throne, had
+experienced its valour and discipline in more than one campaign,(5) and
+had paid it the high compliment of making a special request for its
+services when he was appointed to conduct what threatened to be a
+formidable war. This glorious recollection was proudly cherished in the
+camp, though more than three centuries had passed, changing as they went
+the aspect of the camp, till it looked at least as much like a town as a
+military post. The troops were housed in huts stoutly built of timber,
+which a visitor would have found comfortably furnished by a long
+succession of occupants. The quarters of the tribune and higher centurions
+were commodious dwellings of brick; and the headquarters of the legate, or
+commanding officer, with its handsome chambers, its baths, and tesselated
+pavements, might well have been a mansion at Rome. There was a street of
+regular shape, in which provisions, clothes, and even ornaments could be
+bought. Roman discipline, though somewhat relaxed, did not indeed permit
+the dealers to remain within the fortifications at night, but the shops
+were tenanted by day, and did a thriving business, not only with the
+soldiers, but with the Britons of the neighbourhood, who found the camp a
+convenient resort, where they could market to advantage, besides gossiping
+to their hearts' content. The relations between the soldiers and their
+native neighbours were indeed friendly in the extreme. The legion had had
+its headquarters in the camp of the Great Harbour for many generations,
+though it had occasionally gone on foreign service. Lately, too, the
+policy which had recruited the British legion with soldiers from the
+Continent, had been relaxed, partly from carelessness, partly because it
+was necessary to fill up the ranks as could best be done, and there was
+but little choice of men. Thus service became very much an inheritance.
+The soldiers married British women, and their children, growing up, became
+soldiers in turn. Many recruits still came from Gaul, Spain, and the mouth
+of the Rhine, and elsewhere, but quite as many of the troops were by this
+time, in part or in whole, British.
+
+Another change which the three centuries and a half since Vespasian's time
+had brought about was in religion. The temple of Mars, which had stood
+near the headquarters, and where the legate had been accustomed to take
+the auspices,(6) was now a Christian Church, duly served by a priest of
+British birth.
+
+About a couple of hours later in the day a shout of "The Emperor! the
+Emperor!" was raised in the camp, and the soldiers, flocking out from the
+mess-tents in which most of them were sitting, lined in a dense throng the
+avenue which led from the chief gate to headquarters.
+
+Gratianus, who was followed by a few officers of superior rank and a small
+escort of cavalry, rode slowly between the lines of soldiers. His
+reception was not as hearty as he had expected to find. He had, as the
+soldiers had hinted, made vast exertions to raise a sum of money in
+Londinium--then, as now, the wealthiest municipality in the island. Himself
+a native of the place, and connected with some of its richest citizens, he
+had probably got together more than any one else would have done in like
+circumstances. But all his persuasions and promises, even his offer of
+twenty per cent. interest, had not been able to extract from the Londinium
+burghers the full sum that was required; and the soldiers, who the day
+before would have loudly proclaimed that they would be thankful for the
+smallest instalment, were now almost furious because they had not been
+paid in full. A few shouts of "Hail, Caesar! Hail, Gratianus! Hail,
+Britannicus!" greeted him on the road to his quarters; but these came from
+the front lines only, and chiefly from the centurions and
+deputy-centurions, while the great body of the soldiers maintained an
+ominous silence, sometimes broken by a sullen murmur.
+
+Gratianus was not a man fitted to deal with sudden emergencies. He was
+rash and he was ambitious, but he wanted steadfast courage, and he was
+hampered by scruples of which an usurper must rid himself at once if he
+hopes to keep himself safe in his seat. He might have appealed frankly to
+the soldiers--asked them what it was they complained of, and taken them
+frankly into his confidence; or he might have overawed them by an example
+of severity, fixing on some single act of insubordination or insolence,
+and sending the offender to instant execution. He was not bold enough for
+either course, and the opportunity passed, as quickly as opportunities do
+in such times, hopelessly out of his reach.
+
+The temper of the soldiers grew more excited and dangerous as the day went
+on. For many weeks past want of money had kept them sober against their
+will, and now that the long-expected pay-day had come they crowded the
+wine-shops inside and outside the camp, and drank almost as wildly as an
+Australian shepherd when he comes down to the town after a six months'
+solitude. As anything can set highly combustible materials on fire, so the
+most trivial and meaningless incident will turn a tipsy mob into a crowd
+of bloodthirsty madmen. Just before sunset a messenger entered the camp
+bringing a despatch from one of the outlying forts. One of those
+prodigious lies which seem always ready to start into existence when they
+are wanted for mischief at once ran like wild-fire through the camp.
+Gratianus was bringing together troops from other parts of the province,
+and was going to disarm and decimate the garrison of the Great Camp. The
+unfortunate messenger was seized before he could make his way to
+headquarters, seriously injured, and robbed of the despatch which he was
+carrying. Some of the centurions ventured to interfere and endeavour to
+put down the tumult. Two or three who were popular with the men were
+good-humouredly disarmed; others, who were thought too rigorous in
+discipline, were roughly handled and thrown into the military prison; one,
+who had earned for himself the nick-name of "Old Hand me the other,"(7)
+was killed on the spot. The furious crowd then rushed to headquarters,
+where Gratianus was entertaining a company of officers of high rank, and
+clamoured that they must see the Emperor. He came out and mounted the
+hustings, which stood near the front of the buildings, and from which it
+was usual to address gatherings of the soldiers.
+
+For a moment the men, not altogether lost to the sense of discipline, were
+hushed into silence and order by the sight of the Emperor as he stood on
+the platform in his Imperial purple, his figure thrown into bold relief by
+the torches which his attendants held behind him.
+
+"What do you want, my children?" he said; but there was a tremble in his
+voice which put fresh courage into the failing hearts of the mutineers.
+
+"Give us our pay, give us our arrears!" answered a soldier in one of the
+back rows, emboldened to speak by finding himself out of sight.
+
+The cry was taken up by the whole multitude. "Our pay! Our pay!" was
+shouted from thousands of throats.
+
+Gratianus stood perplexed and irresolute, visibly cowering before the
+storm. At this moment one of the tribunes stepped forward and whispered in
+his ear. What he said was this: "Say to them, 'Follow me, and I will give
+you all you ask and more.'"
+
+It was a happy suggestion, one of the vague promises that commit to
+nothing, and if the unlucky usurper could have given it with confidence,
+with an air that gave it a meaning, he might have been saved, at least for
+a time. But his nerve, his presence of mind was hopelessly lost. "Follow
+me--where? Whither am I to lead them?" he asked, in a hurried, agitated
+whisper.
+
+His adviser shrugged his shoulders and was silent. He saw that he was not
+comprehended.
+
+Gratianus continued to stand silent and irresolute, with his helpless,
+despairing gaze fixed upon the crowd. Then came a great surging movement
+from the back of the crowd, and the front ranks were almost forced up the
+steps of the platform. The unlucky prince turned as if to flee. The
+movement sealed his fate. A stone hurled from the back of the crowd struck
+him on the side of the face. Half stunned by the blow, he leaned against
+one of the attendants, and the blood could be seen pouring down his face,
+pale with terror, and looking ghastly in the flaming torchlight. The next
+moment the attendant flung down his torch and fled--an example followed by
+all his companions. Then all was in darkness; and it only wanted darkness
+to make a score of hands busy in the deed of blood.
+
+As Gratianus lay prostrate on the ground the first blow was aimed by a
+brother of his predecessor, Marcus, who had been quietly waiting for an
+opportunity of vengeance. In another minute he had ceased to live. His
+head was severed from the body and fixed on the top of a pike. One of the
+murderers seized a smouldering torch, and, blowing it into flame, held it
+up while another exhibited the bleeding head, and cried, "The tyrant has
+his deserts!" But by this time the mad rage of the crowd had subsided. The
+horror of the deed had sobered them. Many began to remember little acts of
+kindness which the murdered man had done them, and the feeling of wrong
+was lost in a revulsion of pity. In a few moments more the crowd was
+scattered. Silent and remorseful the men went to their quarters, and the
+camp was quiet again. But another British Caesar had gone the way of a long
+line of unlucky predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+                               AN ELECTION.
+
+
+The camp next day was covered with gloom. The soldiers moved silent and
+with downcast faces along the avenues, or discharged in a mechanical way
+their routine duties. The guards were turned out, the sentries relieved,
+and the general order of service maintained without any action on the part
+of the officers--at least of those who held superior rank. These remained
+in the seclusion of their tents; and it may be said that those who were
+conscious of being popular were almost as much alarmed as those who knew
+that they were disliked. If the latter dreaded the vengeance of those whom
+they had offended, the others were scarcely less alarmed by the
+possibility of being elected to the perilous dignity which had just proved
+fatal to Gratianus. The country people, whose presence generally gave an
+air of cheerfulness and activity to the camp, were too much alarmed to
+come. The trading booths inside the gates were empty, and only a very few
+stalls were occupied in the market, which was held every day outside them.
+
+The funeral of the late prince was celebrated with some pomp. The soldiers
+attended it in crowds, and manifested their grief, and, it would seem,
+their remorse, by groans and tears. They were ready even to give proofs of
+their repentance by the summary execution of those who had taken an active
+part in the bloody deed. But here, one of the centurions, whose cheerful,
+genial manners made him an unfailing favourite with the men, had the
+courage to check them. "No, my men," said he; "we were all mad last night,
+and we must all take the blame."
+
+Two days passed without any incident of importance. On the third the
+question of a successor began to be discussed. One of the other garrisons
+might be beforehand with them, and they would have either to accept a
+chief who would owe his best favours to others, or risk their lives in an
+unprofitable struggle with him. In the afternoon a general assembly of the
+troops was held, the officers still holding aloof, though some of them
+mixed, _incognito_, so to speak, in the crowd.
+
+Of course, the first difficulty was to find any one who would take the
+lead. At last the genial centurion, who has been mentioned above as a
+well-established favourite with the soldiers, was pushed to the front. His
+speech was short and sensible. "Comrades," he said, "I doubt whether what
+I have to say will please you; but I shall say it all the same. You know
+that I always speak my mind. We have not done very well in the new ways.
+Let us try the old. I propose that we take the oath to Honorius Augustus."
+
+A deep murmur of discontent ran through the assembly, and showed that the
+speaker had presumed at least as far as was safe on his popularity with
+the troops.
+
+"Does Decius," cried a burly German from the crowd--Decius was the name of
+the centurion--"does Decius recommend that we should trust to the mercy of
+Honorius? Very good, perhaps, for himself; for the giver of such advice
+could scarcely fail of a reward; but for us it means decimation(8) at the
+least."
+
+A shout of applause showed that the speaker had expressed the feelings of
+his audience.
+
+"I propose that we all take the oath to Decius himself!" said a Batavian;
+"he is a brave man and an honest, and what do we want more?"
+
+The good Decius had heard undismayed the angry disapproval which his loyal
+proposal had called forth; but the mention of his name as a possible
+candidate for the throne overwhelmed him with terror. His jovial face grew
+pale as death; the sweat stood in large drops upon his forehead; he
+trembled as he had never trembled in the face of an enemy.
+
+"Comrades," he stammered, "what have I done that you should treat me thus?
+If I have offended or injured you, kill me, but not this."
+
+More than half possessed by a spirit of mischief, the assembly answered
+this piteous appeal by continuous shouts of "Long live the Emperor
+Decius!"
+
+The good man grew desperate. He drew his sword from the scabbard, and
+pointed it at his own heart. "At least," he cried, "you can't forbid me
+this escape."
+
+The bystanders wrested the weapon from him; but the joke had gone far
+enough, and the man was too genuinely popular for the soldiers to allow
+him to be tormented beyond endurance. A voice from the crowd shouted,
+"Long live the Centurion Decius!" to which another answered, "Long live
+Decius the subject!" and the worthy man felt that the danger was over.
+
+A number of candidates, most of whom were probably as little desirous of
+the honour as Decius, were now proposed in succession.
+
+"I name the Tribune Manilius," said one of the soldiers.
+
+The name was received with a shout of laughter.
+
+"Let him learn first to be Emperor at home!" cried a voice from the back
+of the assembly, a sally which had considerable success, as his wife was a
+well-known termagant, and his two sons the most frequent inmates of the
+military prison.
+
+"I name the Centurion Pisinna."
+
+"Very good, if he does not pledge the purple," for Pisinna was notoriously
+impecunious.
+
+"I name the Tribune Cetronius."
+
+"Very good as Emperor of the baggage-guard." Cetronius had, to say the
+least, no high reputation for personal courage, and was supposed to prefer
+the least exposed parts on the field.
+
+A number of other names were mentioned only to be dismissed with more or
+less contumely. Tired of this sport--for it really was nothing more--the
+crowd cried out for a speech from a well-known orator of the camp, whose
+fluency, not unmixed with shrewdness and humour, had gained him a
+considerable reputation among his comrades.
+
+"Comrades," he began, "if you have not yet found a candidate worthy of
+your suffrages, it is not because such do not exist among you. Can it be
+believed that Britain is less worthy to produce the Emperor than Gaul, or
+Spain, or Thrace, or even the effeminate Syria? Was it not from Britain
+that there came forth the greatest of the successors of Augustus, the
+Second Romulus, Flavius Aurelius Constantinus?"(9)
+
+The orator was not permitted to proceed any further. The name Constantinus
+ran like an electric shock through the whole assembly, and a thousand
+voices took up the cry, "Long live Constantinus, Emperor Augustus!" while
+all eyes were turned to one of the back rows of the meeting, where a
+soldier who happened to bear that name was standing. Some of his comrades
+caught him by the arm, hurried him to the front, and from thence on to the
+hustings. He was greeted with a perfect uproar of applause, partly, of
+course, ironical, but partly the expression of a genuine feeling that the
+right man had been found, and found by some sort of Divine assistance. The
+soldiers were, as has been said, a strange medley of men, scarcely able to
+understand each other, and alike only in being savage, ignorant, and
+superstitious. They had been unlucky in choosing for themselves, and now
+it might be well to have the choice made for them. And at least the new
+man had a name which all of them knew and reverenced, as far as they
+reverenced anything.
+
+  [Illustration: Constantine elected Emperor.]
+
+Whether he had anything but a name might have seemed perhaps somewhat
+doubtful. He had reached middle age, for he had two sons already grown up,
+but had never risen above the rank of a private soldier. It might be said,
+perhaps, that he had shown some ability in thus avoiding promotion--not
+always a desirable thing in troublous times; but there was the fact that
+he was nearly fifty years of age, and was not even a deputy-centurion. On
+the other hand, he was a respectable man, ignorant indeed, for, like most
+of his comrades, he could neither read nor write, but with a certain
+practical shrewdness, so good-humoured that he had never made an enemy,
+known to be remarkably brave, a great athlete in his youth, and still of a
+strength beyond the average.
+
+His sudden and strange elevation did not seem to throw him in the least
+off his balance. He had been perfectly content to go without promotion,
+and now he seemed equally content to receive the highest promotion of all.
+He stood calmly facing the excited mob, as unmoved as if he had been a
+private soldier on the parade ground. A slight flush, indeed, might have
+been seen to mount to his face when the cloak of imperial purple was
+thrown over his shoulders, and the peaked diadem put upon his head. He
+must have been less than man not to have felt some thrill either of fear
+or pride at the touch of what had brought two of his comrades to their
+graves within the space of less than half a year; but he showed no other
+sign of emotion.
+
+The officers, seeing the turn things had taken, had now come to the front,
+and the senior tribune, taking the new Emperor by the hand, led him to the
+edge of the hustings, and said, "Comrades, I present to you Aurelius
+Constantinus, chosen by the providence of God and the choice of the army
+to be Emperor of Britain and the West. The Blessed and Undivided Trinity
+order it for the best." A ringing shout of approval went up in response.
+The tribunes then took the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor in
+person. These again administered it to the centurions, and the centurions
+swore in great batches of the soldiers. The new-made prince meanwhile
+stood unmoved, it might almost be said insensible, so strange was his
+composure in the face of his sudden elevation. All that he said--the
+result, it seemed, of a whisper from one of his sons--were a few words,
+which, however, had all the success of a most eloquent oration.
+
+"Comrades, I promise you a donative(10) within the space of a month."
+
+The assembly broke up in great good-humour, and the newly-made Emperor,
+attended by the officers, went to take possession of headquarters.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                                 A PRIZE.
+
+
+It was a bright morning some three weeks after the occurrences related in
+the last chapter, when a squadron of four Roman galleys swept round the
+point which is now known as the South Foreland. The leader of the four,
+all of which, indeed, lay so close together as to be within easy hailing
+distance, bore on its mainmast the _Labarum_, or Imperial standard,
+showing on a ground of purple a cross, a crown, and the sacred initials,
+all wrought in gold. It was the flagship, so to speak, of the great Count
+himself, one of the most important lieutenants of the Empire, whose task
+it was to guard the shores of Britain and Northern Gaul from the pirate
+swarms that issued from the harbours of the North Sea and the Baltic. The
+Count himself was on board, coming south from his villa on the eastern
+shore--for the stations of which he had the charge extended as far as the
+Wash--to his winter residence in the sunny island of Vectis.
+
+The Count was a tall man of middle age, and wore over his tunic a military
+cloak reaching to the hips, and clasped at the neck with a handsome device
+in gold, representing a hunting-dog with his teeth fixed in a stag. His
+head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat of felt. The only weapon that he
+carried was a short sword, which, with its plain hilt and leather
+scabbard, was evidently meant for use rather than show. His whole
+appearance and bearing, indeed, were those of a man of action and energy.
+His eyes were bright and piercing; his nose showed, strongly pronounced,
+the curve which has always been associated with the ability to command;
+the contour of his chin and lips, as far as could be seen through a short
+curling beard and moustache, worn as a prudent defence against the
+climate, betokened firmness. Still, the expression of the face was not
+unkindly. As a great writer says of one whom Britain had had good reason
+in earlier days both to fear and to love, "one would easily believe him to
+be a good man, and willingly believe him to be great."
+
+At the time when our story opens he was standing in conversation with the
+helmsman, a weather-beaten old sailor, whose dark Southern complexion had
+been deepened by the sun and winds of more than fifty years of service
+into an almost African hue.
+
+"The wind will hardly serve us as well as it has," said the Count, as his
+practised eye, familiar with every yard of the coast, perceived that they
+were well abreast of the extreme southern point of the coast.
+
+"No, my lord," said the old man, "we shall have to take as long a tack as
+we can to the south. There is a deal of west in the wind--more, I think,
+than there was an hour since. Castor and Pollux--I beg your lordship's
+pardon, the blessed Saints--defend us from anything like a westerly gale."
+
+"Ah! old croaker," replied the Count, with a laugh, "I verily believe that
+you will be half disappointed if we get to our journey's end without some
+mishap."
+
+"Good words, good words, my lord," said the old man, hastily crossing
+himself, while he muttered something, which, if it could have been
+overheard, would have been scarcely suitable to that act of devotion.
+"Heaven bring us safe to our journey's end! Of course it is your
+lordship's business to give orders, and ours to go to the bottom, if it is
+to be so. But I must say, saving your presence, that it is against all
+rules of a sailor's craft as I have known it, man and boy, for nigh upon
+threescore years, to be at sea near about a month after the autumn
+equinox.
+
+  'Never let your keel be wet,
+  When the Pleiades have set;
+  Never let your keel be dry,
+  When the Crown is in the sky.'
+
+That is what my father used to say, and his fathers before him, for I do
+not know how many generations, for we have always followed the sea."
+
+"Very well for them, perhaps," said the Count, "in the days when a man
+would almost as soon go into a lion's den as venture out of sight of land.
+But the world is too busy to let us waste half our year on shore."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know all about that," answered the old man, who was
+privileged to have the last word even with so great a personage as the
+Count; "but there is a proverb, 'Much haste, little speed,' and I have
+always found it quite as true by sea as by land."
+
+Meanwhile the proper signals had been given to the rest of the squadron,
+and the whole four were now heading south, with a point or two to the
+west, the _Panther_--for that was the name of the flagship--still slightly
+leading the way, with her consorts in close company. In this order they
+made about twelve miles, the wind freshening somewhat as they drew further
+away from the British shore, and, being nearly aft, carrying them briskly
+along.
+
+"Fine sailing, fine sailing," said the old helmsman, drawn almost in spite
+of himself into an exclamation of delight, as the _Panther_, rushing
+through the water with an almost even keel, began to widen the gap between
+herself and her nearest follower. The short waves, which just broke in
+sparkling foam, the brilliant sunshine, almost bringing back summer with
+its noonday heat, and the sea with a blue which recalled, though but
+faintly, the deep tint of his native Mediterranean, combined to gladden
+the old man's soul. "But we need not put about now," he said to himself.
+"If this wind holds we shall fetch Lemanis(11) without requiring to tack."
+
+He was about to give the necessary orders to trim the sails, when he was
+stopped by a shout from the look-out man at the bow, "A sail on the
+starboard side!" Just within the range of a keen sight, in the
+south-western horizon, the sunlight fell on what was evidently a sail. But
+the distance was too great to let even the keenest sight distinguish what
+kind of craft it might be, or which way it was moving. The Count, who had
+gone below for his mid-day meal, was of course informed of the news. He
+came at once upon deck, and lost no time in making up his mind.
+
+"If she is an enemy," he said to the old helmsman, "she will be eastward
+bound; though I never knew a pirate keep the sea quite so late in the
+year. If she is a friend she will probably be sailing westward, or even
+coming our way--but it does not matter which. If she has anything to tell
+us, we shall be sure to hear it sooner or later. But it will never do to
+let a pirate escape if we can help it. Any one who is out so late as the
+middle of October must have had good reason for stopping, and can hardly
+fail to be worth catching. Quintus, put her right before the wind, and
+clap on every inch of canvas."
+
+The course of the squadron was now changed to nearly due south-east. All
+eyes, of course, were bent on the strange craft, and before an hour had
+passed it was evident that the Count had been right in his guess. There
+were four ships; they were long and low in the water, of the build which
+was only too well known along the coasts of Gaul and Britain, where no
+river or creek, if it gave as much as three or four feet of water, was
+safe from their attack. In short, they were Saxon pirates, and were now
+moving eastward with all the speed that sails and oars could give them.
+The question that every one on board the _Panther_ was putting to himself
+with intense interest was, "Shall we be able to intercept them?" For the
+present the Count's ship had the advantage of speed, thanks to the wind
+abaft the beam. But a stern chase would be useless. On equal terms the
+pirates were at least as quick as their pursuers. The light, too, of the
+autumn day would soon fail, and with the light every chance of success
+would be gone.
+
+For a time it seemed as if the escape of the pirate was certain. "Curse
+the scoundrels!" cried the Count, as he paced impatiently up and down the
+after deck. "If it would only come on to blow in real earnest we should
+have them. Anyhow, I would sooner that we should all founder together than
+that they should get off scot free."
+
+The _Panther_, which had left her consorts about a mile in the rear, was
+now near enough for her crew to see distinctly the outlines of the pirate
+ships, to mark the glitter of the shields that were ranged along the
+gunwales, and to catch the rhythmic rise and fall of the long sweeping
+oars. The Saxons were evidently straining every nerve to make good their
+escape, and it seemed scarcely possible that they could fail. Then came a
+turn of fortune--the very thing, in fact, that the Count had prayed for.
+For a time--only a very few moments--the wind freshened to something like
+the force of a gale. The masts of the _Panther_ were strained to the
+utmost of their strength; they groaned and bent like whips under the
+sudden pressure on the canvas, but the seasoned timber stood the sudden
+call upon it bravely. How the Count blessed himself that he had never
+passed over a piece of bad workmanship or bad material! The good ship took
+a wild plunge forward, but nothing gave way. But the last of the four
+pirates was not so fortunate. She had one tall mast, carrying a
+fore-and-aft sail, so large as to be quite out of proportion to her size.
+The wind struck her nearly sideways, and she heeled over till her keel
+could almost be seen. For a moment it was doubtful whether she would not
+capsize. Then the mast gave. The vessel righted at once, but only to lie
+utterly helpless on the water, with all her starboard oars hopelessly
+entangled with the canvas and rigging. What the Count would have done had
+his ship been entirely in hand it is difficult to say. No speedier or more
+effective way of dealing with the enemy than running her down could have
+been practised. The _Panther_ had three or four times the tonnage of her
+adversary, whose lightness and low bulwarks made her easily accessible to
+this kind of attack. Nor would the pirates have a chance of showing the
+desperate valour which the Roman boarding-parties had learnt to respect
+and almost to fear. The only argument on the other side would have been
+that prisoners and booty would probably be lost. But, as a matter of fact,
+the Count had no opportunity of weighing the _pros_ and _cons_ in the
+matter. The _Panther_, driving as she was straight before the wind, was
+practically unmanageable. She struck the pirate craft with a tremendous
+crash amidships, and cut her almost literally in half. One blow, and one
+only, did the pirates strike at their conquerors. When escape had become
+manifestly impossible by the fall of the mast, the Saxon warriors had
+dropped their oars, and seizing their bows had discharged a volley of
+arrows against the Roman ship. The hurry and confusion of the moment did
+not favour accurate aim, and most of the missiles flew wide of the mark;
+but one seemed to have been destined to fulfil the helmsman's expectations
+of evil to come. It struck the old man on the left side, inflicting a
+fatal wound. In the first confusion of the shock the incident was not
+noticed, for the brave fellow stuck gallantly to the tiller, propping
+himself up against it while he kept the _Panther_ steadily before the
+wind. In fact, loss of blood had brought him nearly to his end before it
+was even known that he had been wounded. Then, in a moment, the Count was
+at his side.
+
+  [Illustration: The Panther and the Saxon Pirate.]
+
+"Carry him to my own cabin," he said.
+
+The old man raised his hand in a gesture that seemed to refuse the service
+which half a dozen stout sailors were at once ready to render him. "Nay,"
+said he, "it is idle; this arrow has sped me. But let me die here, where I
+can see the waves and the sky. I have known them, man and boy, threescore
+years--aye, and more, for my father would take me on his ship when I was a
+tiny chap of three feet high. Nay, no cabin for me; 'tis almost as bad as
+dying in one's bed."
+
+His voice grew feeble. The Count stopped, and asked whether there was
+anything that he could do for him.
+
+"Nay," said the old man, "nothing; I have neither chick nor child. 'Tis
+all as well as I could have wished. But mark, my lord, I was right about
+sailing in October. Any one that knows the sea would be sure that trouble
+must come of it."
+
+The next moment he was past speaking or hearing.
+
+It was his privilege, we must remember, to have the last word.
+
+The _Panther_ meanwhile had been brought to the wind. Her consorts, too,
+had come up, and a search was made for any survivors of the encounter that
+might be still afloat. Some had been killed outright by the concussion;
+others had been so hurt that they could make no effort to save themselves.
+They would not, however, have made it if they could. Those that had
+escaped uninjured evidently preferred drowning to a Roman prison. With
+grim resolution they straightened their arms to their sides and went down.
+Only two survivors were picked up. These, evidently twins from their close
+resemblance to each other, were found clinging to a fragment of timber.
+One had been grievously hurt, the other had not suffered any injury.
+
+The wounded man, who had received an almost fatal blow upon the head, had
+lost the power to move, and was holding on to life more than half
+unconsciously; and his brother, moved by that passionate love so often
+found between twins, had sacrificed himself--that is, the honour which he
+counted dearer than life--to save him. Had he had only himself to think of,
+he would have been the first to go down a free man to the bottom of the
+sea; but his brother was almost helpless, and he could not leave him.
+
+When it was evident that all further search would be useless, the squadron
+set their sails for Lemanis, which, thanks to a further change in the wind
+to the northward, they were able to reach before midnight.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+                         THE VILLA IN THE ISLAND.
+
+
+Count AElius was a man of the best Roman type, a man of "primitive virtue,"
+as the classical writers would have put it, though this virtue had been
+softened, refined, and purified by civilizing and instructing influences,
+of which the old Roman heroes--the Fabiuses, the Catos, the Scipios--had
+known nothing. In the antiquity of his lineage there was scarcely a man in
+the Empire who could pretend to compare with him. For the most part, the
+old houses from which had come the Consuls and Dictators of the Republic
+had died out. The old nobility had gone, and the new nobility had followed
+it. The great name of Fabius, saved by an accident from extinction, when
+its three hundred gallant sons, each of them "fit to command an army,"
+perished in one day by the craft of the Etruscan foe, had passed away.
+There was no living representative of the conqueror of Carthage, or of the
+conqueror of Corinth. Even the _parvenus_ of the Empire had in their turn
+disappeared. The generals and senators, both of the old Rome and of the
+new,(12) bore names which would have sounded strange and barbarous to
+Cicero or even to Tacitus. An AElius then, one who claimed to trace his
+descent to a time even earlier than the legendary age, to a race which was
+domiciled in Italy long before even AEneas had brought thither the gods of
+Troy, was an almost singular phenomenon in a generation of new men. And
+nothing less than this was the pedigree claimed by the AElii. Their
+remotest ancestor--the Count never could hear an allusion to it without a
+smile--was the famous cannibal king who ruled over the Laestrygones, a
+tribe of Western Italy,(13) and from whose jaws the prudent Ulysses so
+narrowly escaped. The pride of ancient descent is not particular as to the
+character of a progenitor, so he be sufficiently remote; and one branch of
+the AElii had always delighted to recall by their surname their connection
+with this man-eating hero. But the race had not lacked glories of its own
+in historical times. They had had soldiers, statesmen, and men of letters
+among them. One of them had been made immortal by the friendship of
+Horace. Another, an adopted son, it was true, better known by the famous
+name of Sejanus, had nearly made himself master of the throne of the
+Caesars. About a hundred years later this crowning glory of human ambition
+had fallen to it in the person of Hadrian, third in the list of the "five
+good Emperors";(14) though indeed there were purists in the matter of
+genealogy who stoutly denied that this great soldier and scholar had any
+of the real AElian blood in him.
+
+The Count's father had held civil office at Carthage, and the young AElius
+had there, for a short time, been a pupil of Aurelius Augustinus, then
+known as an eloquent teacher of rhetoric, afterwards to become the most
+famous doctor of the Western Church. But his bent was not for the
+profession of the law, and his father, though disappointed at his
+preference for a soldier's career, would not stand in his way. His first
+experience of warfare was gained on a day of terrible disaster. His
+father's influence had secured him a position which seemed in every way
+desirable. He was attached to the staff of Trajanus, a general of division
+in the army of the Emperor Valens. By great exertions, travelling night
+and day, at the hottest period of the year, the young AElius contrived to
+report himself to his commander on the eve of the great battle of
+Adrianople. He had borne himself with admirable courage and
+self-possession during that terrible day, more disastrous to the Roman
+arms than even Cannae itself. He had helped to carry the wounded Emperor to
+a cottage near the field of battle, and had barely escaped with his life,
+cutting his way with desperate resolution through the enemy, when this
+place of refuge was surrounded and burnt by the barbarians. After this
+unfortunate beginning he betook himself for a time to the employments of
+peace, obtaining an office under Government at Milan, where he renewed his
+acquaintance with his old teacher, Augustine. Then another opening, in
+what was still his favourite profession, presented itself. The young
+soldier's gallant conduct on the disastrous day of Adrianople had not been
+forgotten by some who had witnessed it, and when Stilicho, then the rising
+general of the Empire, was looking about for officers to fill posts upon
+his staff, the name of AElius was mentioned to him. Under Stilicho he
+served with much distinction, and it was on Stilicho's recommendation that
+he was appointed to the post which, when our story opens, he had held for
+nearly twenty years.
+
+His position during this period had been one of singular difficulty. The
+tie between the Empire and Britain was very loose. More than once during
+AElius' tenure of office it had seemed to be broken altogether. Pretender
+after pretender had risen against the central power, and had declared his
+province independent, and himself an Emperor. The Count of the Saxon Shore
+had contrived to keep himself neutral, so to speak, during these troubles.
+His own office, that of defending the eastern and southern shores of the
+island against the attacks of the Saxon pirates, he had filled with
+remarkable vigilance and skill. And the usurpers had been content to leave
+him undisturbed. His sailors were profoundly attached to him, and any
+attempt to interfere with him would have thrown a considerable weight into
+the opposite scale. And he and his work were necessary. Whether Britain
+was subject to Rome or independent of it, it was equally important that
+its coasts should not be harried by pirates. If AElius would provide for
+this--and he did provide for it, with an almost unvarying success--he might
+be left alone, and not required to give in his allegiance to the new
+claimant of the throne. This allegiance he never did give in. He was
+always the faithful servant of those who appointed him, and, whoever might
+happen to be the temporary master of Britain, regularly addressed his
+despatches and reports to the central authority in Italy. On the other
+hand, he did not feel himself bound to take direct steps towards asserting
+that authority in the island. He had to keep the pirates in check, and
+that was occupation quite sufficient to keep all his energies employed.
+Thus, as has been said, he observed a kind of neutrality, always loyal to
+the Roman Emperor, but willing to be on friendly terms with the rebel
+generals of Britain as long as they left him alone, let him do his work of
+defending the coast, and did not make any demands upon him which his
+conscience would not allow him to satisfy.
+
+Having thus sketched the career of the Count, we must now say something
+about the house, which now--it was early in the afternoon of the day
+following the events described in the last chapter--was just coming into
+sight.
+
+The villa was the Count's private property, and had been purchased by him
+immediately on his arrival in the island, for a reason which will be given
+hereafter. It was a handsome house, and complete in its way, with all that
+was necessary for a comfortable residence, but not one of the largest of
+its kind. Indeed, it may be said that what may be called the "living" part
+of it was unusually small for the dwelling of so distinguished a person as
+the Count. It had been found large enough by its previous owners, men of
+moderate means and, it so happened, of small families; and the Count,
+feeling that his occupation of it might be terminated at any time, had not
+cared to add to it. Its situation was remarkably pleasing. Behind it was a
+sheltering range of hills,(15) keeping off the force of the south-westerly
+winds, and then richly covered with wood. It was not too near the sea, the
+Romans not finding that the ceaseless disturbance of rising and falling
+tides was an element of pleasure, though they could not get too close to
+their own tideless Mediterranean; but it was within an easy distance of
+the Haven.(16) The convenience of this neighbourhood had indeed been one
+of the Count's reasons for selecting this spot. But if the harsh, grating
+sound of the waves upon the shingle did not reach the ears of the dwellers
+in the villa, and the force of the sea winds was somewhat broken for them
+by intervening cliffs, they still enjoyed all the freshness and vitality
+of an air that had come across many a league of water. The climate, too,
+was genial, mild without being too soft, mostly free from damp, though not
+exempt from occasional mist, seldom troubled by frost or snow, and, on the
+whole, not unlike some of the more temperate regions of Italy.
+
+The villa, with its belongings, occupied three sides of a square, or
+rather rectangle, and was built nearly to the points of the compass. The
+eastern side of the square was open, thus giving a prospect seawards. The
+western contained the principal living rooms. The northern, too, was
+partly occupied by bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, for which there was no
+room in the comparatively small portion which had been originally intended
+for the residence of the owner and his family. Some of the workmen
+employed lived in cottages outside the villa enclosure. The southern was
+devoted to storehouses, workshops, and all the miscellaneous buildings
+which made a Roman villa, as far as possible, an establishment complete in
+itself. The open space was occupied by a pretty garden, which will be more
+particularly described hereafter.(17)
+
+The eastward front of the villa was occupied for the greater part of its
+length by a colonnade or corridor. A low wall of about four feet in height
+separated this from the garden; above the wall it was open to the air; but
+an overhanging roof helped greatly to shelter it, while the view into the
+garden was unimpeded. The floor was adorned with a handsome tesselated
+pavement, the principal device of which was a representation of the
+favourite subject of Orpheus attracting beasts and birds by his lyre. The
+proprietor from whom the Count had purchased the villa had brought it from
+Italy. He was a Christian of artistic tastes, and, like his
+fellow-believers, had delighted to trace in the old myth a spiritual
+meaning, the power of the teaching of Christ to subdue to the Divine
+obedience the savage, animal nature of man. He had displaced for it the
+original design, which, indeed, was nothing better than a commonplace
+representation of dancing figures which had satisfied the earlier owners.
+The artist had included among the listeners animals, some of which, as the
+monkey, the Thracian minstrel could hardly have seen, and, with a certain
+touch of humour, he had adorned the monkey's head with a Phrygian cap,
+like that which Orpheus himself wore, to indicate probably that the monkey
+is the caricature of man. The inner wall was ornamented with a bold design
+of Caesar's first landing in Britain, worked in fresco. Seats and tables
+were arranged along it at intervals, and the whole corridor was thus made
+to furnish a pleasant promenade in winter and a charming resort when the
+weather was warm.
+
+At the south end of the corridor was the Count's own apartment, or study,
+as it would be called in a modern house. One window looked into the
+corridor, into which a door also opened; another, which was built out into
+the shape of a bow, so as to catch as much of the sun as the aspect
+allowed, looked into the garden. Part of it was formed of lattices, which
+admitted of being completely closed when the weather required such
+protection; the rest was glazed with glass, which would have seemed rough
+to the present generation, but was quite as good as most people were
+content to have in their houses fifty years ago. The pavement was
+tesselated, and presented various designs, a Bacchante, and a pair of
+gladiators among them. These, however, were commonly covered with thick
+woollen rugs, the villa being chiefly used as a winter residence. The
+Count had not forgotten his early studies, and some handsome bookcases
+contained his favourite authors, among which were to be found the great
+classic poets of Rome, Tacitus, for whom he had a special regard, some
+writers on the military art, Cato and Columella on agriculture, and, not
+least honoured, though some, at least, of their contents had but little
+interest for him--for, sincere Christian as he was, he cared little for
+controversy--the numerous treatises of his friend and teacher, Augustine.
+Behind this room was a simple furnished bed-chamber, showing in an almost
+bare simplicity the characteristic tastes of a soldier.
+
+At the other end of the corridor was a door leading to the principal
+chamber in this part of the villa. This measured altogether close upon
+forty feet in length, but it was divided, or rather could be divided, into
+two by columns which stood about halfway down its longer sides, and
+between which a curtain could be hung. When the chamber was occupied in
+summer it might be used as a whole; in the winter the smaller part, which
+looked out into the garden, could be shut off from the rest by drawing the
+curtain, and so made a comfortable room, warmed from below by hot air from
+the furnace, which had been constructed at the western end of the northern
+wing of the villa. Much artistic skill had been expended on the pavements
+of the apartment, and the smaller chamber was very richly decorated in
+this way. In the middle was a large head of Medusa, and the rest was
+filled with beautifully-worked scenes illustrating the pleasures of a
+pastoral life. It was the custom of the Count's family to use the larger
+portion of the whole chamber as a dining-room, the smaller as a ladies'
+boudoir. On the rare occasion of some large entertainment being given, the
+whole was thrown into one.
+
+The ladies of the family, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, had their
+own apartments at the western end of the north wing, part of which was
+shut off for their occupation and for their immediate attendants. A
+covered way connected this with the portion occupied by the Count.
+
+It would be needless to describe the rest of the villa. It was like the
+houses of its kind, houses which the Romans erected wherever they went in
+as close an imitation as they could make of what they were accustomed to
+at home.
+
+The garden, however, must not be wholly passed over. Spacious and handsome
+as it was, it in part presented a stiff and unnatural appearance, looking,
+in fact, somewhat theatrical, as contrasted with the pastoral sunniness of
+the landscape. A Roman gardener had been brought from Rome--one skilled in
+all the arts of his craft. It was he who had terraced the slope with so
+much regularity, had planted stiff box hedges--and, above all, it was his
+taste which led him to cut and train box and laburnum shrubs into
+fantastic imitations of other forms. The poor trees were forced to abandon
+their own natural shapes, and to pose as vases, geometrical figures, and
+animals of various kinds. There was even a ship of box surrounded by a
+broad channel of water, so that the spectator, making large demands on his
+imagination, might imagine that the little mock vessel was moored on a
+still sheet of water. Among the box trees were stone fountains badly
+copied from classic models. But these had not remained in their bare
+crudity. The loving British ivy had crept close around them, and added a
+grace which the sculptor had failed to give. The Roman gardener would have
+liked to banish this intruder, or to at least train it into the positions
+prescribed by horticultural rules, but he had been bidden to let it run at
+its own sweet will; and so it had, and had flourished, well nursed by the
+soft and humid atmosphere.
+
+Scattered at regular intervals through the green were flower-beds stocked
+with plants, which were either native to the island, or had been brought
+hither with great care from the capital. There were roses in several
+varieties, strange-shaped orchids, which had been found growing wild at
+lower levels of the island, and adopted into this civilized garden to
+ornament it with their unique beauty. Gay geraniums and other flowers made
+throughout the summer bright patches of colour in striking contrast to the
+dark green.
+
+These beds were enclosed by borders. Between these enclosures were
+curiously-cut letters of growing box, which perpetuated--at least for the
+life-time of the shrub--the gardener's own name or that of his master, or
+classic titles, to serve as designations for certain portions of the
+place. In the midst of the garden several luxuriant oaks and graceful elms
+had been allowed to retain in their native freedom the shapes into which
+they had been growing for so many years. They cast wide shadows, and gave
+a softened aspect to the unnatural shapes of the trained growths.
+
+Beyond the floral division of the garden was another enclosure for pear
+and apple trees. They stood on a green sward, soft as velvet, and of a
+deeper hue than Italian suns permit to the grass on which they smile.
+Here, too, were foreign embellishments. The monotony of the uniform rows
+of fruit trees was varied by pyramids of box, and the whole orchard was
+surrounded by a belt of plane trees.
+
+A circle of oaks had been left at the summit of one of the terraces. Thick
+hedges were planted between the trees, making a dense wall, in which
+openings were cut for the view, so that the vista was visible, like a
+picture set in a dark frame. This green room, roofed by the sky, was paved
+with a mosaic of the bright coloured chalk from the cliffs at the western
+end of the island, and contained an oblong basin of water shaped like a
+table. The water flowed through so gently that the surface always seemed
+at rest, and yet never grew warm. Couches were placed at this fountain
+table, and from time to time repasts were served here, certain viands
+being placed in dishes shaped like swans or boats, which floated
+gracefully on the watery surface. The more solid meats were placed on the
+broad marble edges of the basin.
+
+This sylvan retreat seemed made for a meeting of naiads and nereids. In
+short, the spot was so sheltered, the outlook over sea and land both near
+and across the strait so fair, that one could well believe even Pliny's
+famed Tuscan garden, which may have suggested some features of this
+British one, was not more happily placed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                                  CARNA.
+
+
+When AElius had come, some eighteen years before the beginning of our
+story, to take up his command on the coast of Britain, he had brought with
+him his young wife. This lady, always delicate in health, had not long
+survived her transplantation to a northern climate. Six months after her
+arrival in Britain she had died in giving birth to a daughter. The child
+was entrusted to the care of a British woman, wife of the sailing master
+of one of the Roman ships, who had reared her together with her own
+daughter. When little AElia was but a few weeks old her foster-mother had
+become a widow, her husband having met with his death in a desperate
+encounter with one of the Saxon cruisers. This misfortune had been
+followed by another, the loss of her two elder children, who had been
+carried off by a malarious fever. The widow, thus doubly bereaved, had
+thankfully accepted the Count's offer that she should take the post of
+mother of the maids in his household. Her foster-daughter, a feeble little
+thing, whom she had the greatest difficulty in rearing, was as dear to her
+as was her own child, and the new arrangement ensured that she should not
+be separated from her. For ten years she was as happy as a woman who had
+lost so much could hope to be. She had the pleasure of seeing her delicate
+nursling pass safely through childhood, and grow into a handsome, vigorous
+girl. Then her own call came; and feeling that her earthly work was done,
+she had been glad to meet it. The Count, who was a frequent visitor to her
+deathbed, had no difficulty in promising her that the two children should
+never be separated. Indeed he could not have divided the pair even had he
+wished. Every wish of the ten-year-old AElia was as a law to him, and AElia
+would have simply broken her heart to lose her playmate and sister Carna.
+
+The two friends were curiously unlike in person and disposition. AElia was
+a Roman of the Romans. Her hair was of a shining blue-black hue, and so
+abundant that when unbound it fell almost to her knees. Her black eyes,
+soft and lustrous in repose, and shaded with lashes of the very longest,
+could give an almost formidable flash when anything had roused her to
+anger. Her complexion was a rich brown, relieved by a slight ruddy tinge;
+her features regular, less delicately carved, indeed, than the Greek type,
+but full of expression, which was tender or fiery, according to her mood.
+Her figure was somewhat small, but beautifully formed. If AElia was
+unmistakably Roman, Carna showed equally clearly one of the finest British
+types. She was tall, overtopping her companion by at least a head; her
+hair, which fell in curls about her shoulders, was of a glossy chestnut;
+her eyes of the very deepest blue; her complexion, half-way between blonde
+and brunette, mantled with a delicate colour, which deepened, when her
+emotions were touched, into an exquisite blush; her forehead was somewhat
+low, but broad, and with a rare promise both of artistic power and of
+intelligence; her nose would have been pronounced by a casual observer to
+be the most faulty feature in her face; and it is true that its outline
+was not perfect. But the same observer, after a brief acquaintance, would
+probably have retracted his censure, and owned that this feature suited
+the rest of her face, and would have been less charming if it had been
+more perfect. AElia was impulsive and quick of temper, honest and
+affectionate, but not caring to go below the surface of things, and
+without a particle of imagination. Carna, on the other hand, seemed the
+gentlest of women. Those blue eyes of hers were ready to express affection
+and pity; but no one--not even AElia, who could be exceedingly provoking at
+times--had ever seen a flash of anger in them. But her nature had depths in
+it that none suspected to be there; it was richly endowed with all the
+best gifts of her Celtic race. She had a world of her own with which the
+gay Roman girl, whom she loved so dearly, and with whom she seemed to
+share all her thoughts, had nothing to do. Music touched her soul in a way
+of which AElia, who could sing very charmingly, and play with no little
+expression on the _cithara_, had no conception. And though she had never
+written, or even composed, a verse, and possibly would never write or
+compose one, she was a poetess. At present all her soul was given to
+religion, religion full of the imagination and enthusiasm which has made
+saints of so many women of her race. The good British priest, to whose
+flock she belonged, a worthy man who eked out his scanty income(18) by
+working a small farm, was perplexed by her enthusiasm. She was not
+satisfied with the duties of adorning the little church where he
+ministered, and its humble altar-cloths and vestments, by the skill of her
+nimble fingers, of aiding the chants with the rich tones of her beautiful
+voice, of ministering to the sick. She performed these, indeed, with
+devotion, but she demanded more, and the good man did not know how to
+satisfy her. In addition to her other gifts Carna had that of being a born
+nurse. It was her first impulse to fly to the help of anything--whether it
+was man, or beast, or bird--that was sick or hurt, just as it was AElia's
+impulse, though she mastered it at any strong call of duty, to avoid the
+sight of suffering. She had now heard that a prisoner had been brought in
+desperately wounded, and she could not rest till she knew whether she
+could do anything for the poor creature's soul or body. AElia was as
+scornful as her love for her foster-sister allowed her to be.
+
+"My dearest Carna," she cried, "what on earth can make you trouble
+yourself in this fashion about this miserable creature? They are the worst
+plagues in this world, these Saxons, and it would be a blessing to the
+world if it were well quit of the whole race of them! A set of pagan
+dogs!"
+
+"Oh, sister," said Carna, her eyes brimming with tears, "that is the worst
+of it. A pagan, who has never heard of the Blessed Lord, and now, they
+say, he is dying! What shall we do for him?"
+
+"But surely," returned the other, "he is no worse off than his threescore
+companions who went to the bottom the other day."
+
+"God be good to them," said Carna, "but then we did not know them, and
+that seems to make a difference. And to think that this poor creature
+should be so near to the way and not find it. But I must go and see him."
+
+"It will only tear your poor, tender heart for no purpose. You had far
+better come and talk to father."
+
+Carna was not to be persuaded, but hurried to the chamber to which the
+wounded man had been borne.
+
+It was evident at first sight that the end was not far off. The dying
+Saxon lay stretched on a rude pallet. He was a young man, who could
+scarcely have seen as many as twenty summers, for the down was hardly to
+be seen on his upper lip and chin. His face, which was curiously fair for
+one who had followed from infancy an outdoor life, was deadly pale, a
+pathetic contrast with the red-gold hair which fell in curly profusion
+about it. His eyes, in which the fire was almost quenched, were wide open,
+and fixed with an unchanging gaze upon a figure that stood motionless at
+the foot of the bed. This was his brother, who had been permitted by the
+humanity of the Count to be present. They had been exchanging a few
+sentences, but the dying man was now too far gone to speak, and the two
+could only look their last farewell to each other. It was a pitiful thing
+to see the twins, so like in feature and form, but now so different, the
+one, prisoner as he was, full of life and strength, the other on the very
+threshold of death.
+
+By the side of the wounded man stood the household physician, a
+venerable-looking slave, who had acquired such knowledge of medicine and
+surgery as sufficed for the treatment of the commoner ailments and
+accidents. This case was beyond his skill, or indeed the skill of any man.
+He could do nothing but from time to time put a few drops of cordial
+between the sufferer's lips. Next to the physician stood the priest, and
+his skill, too, seemed to be at fault. A messenger, sent by Carna, had
+warned him that a dying man required his ministrations, but had added no
+further particulars, and the worthy man, who was busy at the time in
+littering down his cattle, had hastily changed his working dress for his
+priestly habiliments, and had come ready, as he thought, to administer the
+last consolations of the Church to a dying Christian. The case utterly
+perplexed him. He had tried the two languages with which he was familiar,
+and found them useless. No one had been able to understand a single word
+of the dialogue which had passed between the brothers. The dying stranger
+was as hopelessly separated from him and the means of grace that he could
+command as if he had been a thousand miles away. He could not even
+venture--for his theology was of the narrowest type--to commend to the mercy
+of God the passing soul of this unbaptized heathen.
+
+Carna understood the situation at a glance. She saw death in the Saxon's
+face; she saw the hopeless perplexity in the expression of the priest.
+
+"Father," she cried, "can you do nothing, nothing at all for this poor
+soul?"
+
+"My daughter," said the priest, "I am helpless. He knows nothing; he
+understands nothing."
+
+"Can you not baptize him?"
+
+"Baptize him without a profession of repentance, without a confession of
+faith! Impossible!"
+
+"Will you let him perish before your eyes without an effort to save him?"
+
+"Child," said the priest, with some impatience in his tone, "I have told
+you that I am helpless. It was not I that brought these things about."
+
+The girl cast an agonized look about the room, as of one that appealed for
+help, and seized a crucifix that hung upon the wall. She threw herself
+upon her knees by the bedside, and after pressing the symbol of Redemption
+passionately to her lips, held it to the mouth of the dying man. The
+Saxon, on his first entrance into the room, had removed his look from his
+brother and fixed it steadfastly on this beautiful apparition. Clad in
+white from head to foot, with a golden girdle about her waist, her eyes
+shining with excitement, her whole face transfigured by a passion of pity,
+she seemed to him a vision from another world, one of the Walhalla maidens
+of whom his mother had talked to him in days gone by. His lips closed
+feebly on the crucifix which she held to them; a smile lighted up his
+fading eyes, and he muttered with his last breath "Valkyria." The girl
+heard the word and remembered without understanding it. The next moment he
+was dead, and one of the women standing by stepped forward and closed his
+eyes.
+
+Carna burst into a passion of tears.
+
+"He is gone," she cried, amidst her sobs, "he is gone, and we could not
+help him."
+
+The priest was silent. He had no consolation to offer. Indeed, but that he
+recognized the girl's saintliness--a saintliness to which he, worthy man as
+he was, had no pretensions--he would have thought her grief foolish. But
+the old physician could not keep silence.
+
+"Pardon me, lady," he said, "if I seem to reprove you. I pray you not to
+suffer your zeal for the salvation of souls to overpower your faith. Do
+you think that the All-Father does not love this poor stranger as well as
+you, nay, better than you can love him? that He cannot care for him as
+well? that you, forsooth, must save him out of His hands? Nay, my
+daughter--pardon an old man for the word--do not so distrust Him."
+
+"You are right, father, as always," said the girl. "I have been selfish
+and faithless. I was angry, I suppose, to find myself baffled and
+helpless. You must set me a penance, father," she added, turning to the
+priest.
+
+The Saxon meanwhile had contrived by his gestures to make his guards
+understand that he wished to take his farewell of his dead brother. They
+allowed him to approach the bed. He stooped and kissed the lips of the
+dead, and then, choking down the sobs which convulsed his breast, turned
+away, seemingly calm and unmoved. But as he passed Carna he contrived to
+catch with his manacled hands one of the flowing sleeves of her white
+robe, and to lift the hem to his lips.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+                                THE SAXON.
+
+
+It was not easy to know what should be done with the survivor of the two
+Saxon captives. The villa had no proper provision for the safe custody of
+prisoners; and the problem of keeping a man under lock and key, without a
+quite disproportionate amount of trouble, was as difficult as it would be
+in the ordinary country house of modern times.
+
+"I shall send him to the camp at the Great Harbour," said the Count, a few
+days after the scene described in our last chapter. "It is quite
+impossible to keep him unless we chain him hand and foot, or set half a
+dozen men to guard him; and even then he is such a giant that he might
+easily overpower them. At the camp they have got a prison, and stocks
+which would hold him as fast as death."
+
+Carna's face clouded over when she heard the Count's determination, but
+she said nothing. The lively AElia broke in--
+
+"My dear father, you will break poor Carna's heart if you do anything of
+the kind. She is bent on making a convert of the noble savage. And anyhow,
+whatever else she may induce him to worship, he seems ready, from what I
+have seen, to worship her. And besides, what harm can he do? He has no
+arms, and he can't speak a word of any language known here. If he were to
+run away he would either be killed or be starved to death."
+
+"Well, Carna," said the Count, with a smile, "what do you say? Will you
+stand surety for this young pagan? Or shall I make him your slave, and
+then, if he runs away, it will be your loss?"
+
+"I hope," said the girl, "that you won't send him to the camp, where, I
+fear, they hold the lives of such as he very cheap."
+
+"Well," replied the Count, "we will keep him here, at all events for the
+present, and I will give the bailiff orders to give him something to do in
+the safest place that he can think of."
+
+Accordingly the young Saxon was set to work at the forge attached to the
+villa, and proved himself a willing and serviceable labourer. No more
+suitable choice, indeed, could have been made. That he was a man of some
+rank at home everything about him seemed to show--nothing more than his
+hands, which were delicate, and unusually small in proportion to his
+almost gigantic stature. But the greatest chief among his people would not
+have disdained the hammer and anvil. Was not Thor a mighty smith? And was
+it not almost as much a great warrior's business to make a good sword as
+to wield it well when it was made? So the young man, whose mighty
+shoulders and muscular arms were regarded with respect and even
+astonishment by his British fellow-workmen, laboured with a will, showing
+himself no mean craftsman in the blacksmith's art. Sometimes, as he plied
+the hammer, he would chant to himself, in a low voice, what sounded like a
+war-song. Otherwise he remained absolutely silent, not even attempting to
+pick up the few common words which daily intercourse with his companions
+gave him the opportunity of learning. There was an air of dignity about
+him which seemed to forbid any of the little affronts to which a prisoner
+would naturally be exposed; his evidently enormous strength, too, was a
+thing which even the most stupid of his companions respected. Silent,
+self-contained, and impassive, he moved quietly about his daily tasks; it
+was only when he caught a glimpse of Carna that his features were lighted
+up for a moment with a smile.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric at the Forge.]
+
+The idea of opening up any communication with him seemed hopeless, when an
+unexpected, but still quite natural, way out of the difficulty presented
+itself. An old peddler, who was accustomed to supply the inmates of the
+villa with silks and jewellery, and who sometimes had a book in his pack
+for Carna, paid in due course one of his periodical visits. The old man
+was a Gaul by birth, a native of one of the States on the eastern bank of
+the Rhine, and in youth he had been an adventurous trader, extending his
+journeys eastward and northward as far as the shores of the Baltic. The
+risk was great, for the Germans of the interior looked with suspicion on
+the visits of civilized strangers; but, on the other hand, the profits
+were considerable. Amber, in pieces of a size and clearness seldom matched
+on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, and beautiful furs, as of the seal and
+the sea-otter, could be bought at very low prices from these
+unsophisticated tribes, and sold again to the wealthy ladies of
+Lutetia(19) and Lugdunum(20) at a very considerable advantage. In these
+wanderings Antrix--for that was the peddler's name--had acquired a good
+knowledge of the language--substantially the same, though divided into
+several dialects--spoken by the German tribes; and, indeed, without such
+knowledge his trading adventures would have been neither safe nor
+profitable. As he approached old age Antrix had judged it expedient to
+transfer his business from Gaul to Britain. Gaul he found to be a
+dangerous place for a peaceable trader, having lost more than once all the
+profits of a journey, and, indeed, a good deal more, by one of the
+marauding bands by whom the country was periodically overrun. Britain, or
+at least the southern district of Britain, was certainly safer, and it was
+this that for the last ten years he had been accustomed to traverse, till
+he had become a well-known and welcome visitor at every villa and
+settlement along the coast.
+
+Here then chance, or, as Carna preferred to think, Providence, had
+provided an interpreter; and it so happened that, whether by another piece
+of good fortune, or an additional interposition, his services were made
+permanently useful. The old man had found his journeys becoming in the
+winter too laborious for his strength, and it was not very difficult to
+persuade him to make his home in the villa for two or three months till
+the severity of the season should have passed. Every one was pleased at
+the arrangement. Antrix was an admirable teller of tales, and his had been
+an adventurous life, full of incident, with which he knew how to make the
+winter night less long. The Count saw a rare opportunity, such as had
+never come to him before, of learning something about the hardy
+freebooters whom it was his business to overawe; and Carna had the
+liveliest hopes of making a proselyte, if she could only make herself, and
+the message in which she had so profound a faith, understood.
+
+The young Saxon's resolution and pride did not long hold out against the
+unexpected delight of being able once more to converse in his own
+language, and he soon began to talk with perfect freedom--for, he had no
+idea of having anything to conceal--about his home and his people. He was
+the son, they learnt from him, of the chief of one of the Saxon
+settlements near the mouth of the Albis.(21) The people lived by hunting
+and fishing, and, more or less, by cultivating the soil. But life was
+hard. The settlements were crowded; game was growing scarce, and had to be
+followed further afield every year; the climate, too, was very uncertain,
+and the crops sometimes failed altogether. In short, they could not live
+without what they were able to pick up in their expeditions to richer
+countries and more temperate climates. On this point the young Saxon was
+perfectly frank. The idea that there was anything of which a warrior could
+possibly be ashamed in taking what he could by the strong hand had
+evidently never crossed his mind. To rob a neighbour or fellow-tribesman
+he counted shameful--so much could be gathered from expressions that he let
+drop; as to others, his simple morality was this--to keep what you had, to
+take what others could not keep. The Count found him curiously well
+informed on what may be called the politics of Europe. He was well aware
+of the decay of the Roman power. Kinsmen and neighbours of his own had
+made their way south to get their share in the spoil of the Empire. Some,
+he had heard, had stopped to take service with the enemy; some had come
+back with marvellous tales of the wealth and luxury which they had seen.
+About Britain itself he had very clear views. The substance of what he
+said to the Count was this: "You won't stop here very long. My father says
+that you have been weakening your fleet and armies here for years past,
+and that you will soon take them away altogether. Then we shall come and
+take the country. It will hardly be in his time, he says. Perhaps it may
+not be in mine. It is only you that hinder us; it is only you that we are
+afraid of. We shall have the island; we must have it. Our own country is
+too small and too barren to keep us."
+
+Of his own adventures the young Saxon had little to say. This was the
+first voyage that he and his brother had taken. Their father was in
+failing health, and their mother, who had but one other child, a girl some
+ten years younger, had kept them at home, till she had been unwillingly
+persuaded that they were losing caste by taking no part in the warlike
+excursions of their countrymen. "We had a fairly successful time," went on
+the young chief, with the absolute unconsciousness of wrong with which a
+hunter might relate his exploits; "took two merchantmen that had good
+cargoes on board, and had a right royal fight with the people of a town on
+the Gallic coast. We killed thirty of them; and only five of our warriors
+went to the Walhalla. Then we turned homeward, but our ship struck on a
+rock near some islands far to the west,(22) and had almost gone to the
+bottom. With great labour we dragged her ashore, and set to work repairing
+her; but our chief smith and carpenter had fallen in the battle, and we
+were a long time in making her fit for sea. This was the reason why we
+were going home so late, and also why we lagged behind our comrades when
+you were chasing us. By rights we were the best crew and had the swiftest
+ship, but she had been clumsily mended, and dragged terribly in the
+water."
+
+The Count listened to all this with the greatest interest, and plied the
+speaker with questions, all of which he answered with perfect frankness.
+He found out how many warriors the settlement could muster, what were the
+relations with their neighbours, whether there had been any definite plans
+for a common expedition. On the whole, he came to the conclusion that
+though there was no danger of an overpowering migration from this quarter
+such as Western and Southern Europe had suffered from in former times,
+these sea-faring tribes of the East would be an increasing danger to
+Britain as years went on. Personally the prospect did not concern him
+greatly; his fortunes were not bound up with the island. Still he loved
+the place and its people; it troubled him to see what dark days were in
+store for them. And taking a wider view--for he was a man of large
+sympathies--he was grieved to see another black cloud in an horizon already
+so dark. Would anything civilized be left, he thought to himself, when
+every part of Europe has been swept by these hosts of barbarians?
+
+Before long another source of interest was discovered in the young Saxon.
+The Count happened to overhear him chanting to himself, and though he
+could not distinguish the words, he recognized in the rhythm something
+like the camp-songs that he had often listened to from German warriors in
+Stilicho's camp. Here again the peddler's services as an interpreter were
+put in requisition, and though the old man's Latin, which went little
+beyond his practical wants as a trader, fell lamentably short of what was
+wanted, enough was heard to interest the villa family, which had a
+literary turn, very much. What the young man had sung to himself was an
+early Saga, a curious romance(23) of heroes fighting with monsters, as
+unlike as can be conceived to anything to be found in Roman poetry--verse
+in its rudest shape, but still making itself felt as a real poet's work.
+
+Lastly, Carna, now that she had found a way of communicating her thoughts,
+threw herself with ardour into the work of proselytizing the stranger.
+Here the peddler was more at home in his task as interpreter. Carna used
+the dialect of South Britain, with which he was far more familiar than he
+was with Latin--it differed indeed but little from his native speech. The
+topics too were familiar, for he had been brought up in the Christian
+faith, and though he scarcely understood the girl's zeal, he was quite
+willing to help her as much as he could.
+
+Carna found her task much more difficult than she had expected. She had
+thought in her simple faith that it would be enough for her to tell to the
+young heathen the story of the Crucified Christ for him to fall down at
+once and worship. He listened with profound attention and respect. This,
+perhaps, he would have accorded to anything that came from her lips; but,
+beyond this, the story itself profoundly interested him. But it must be
+confessed that there was a good deal in it which did not commend itself to
+his warrior's ideal of what the God whom he could worship should be. He
+was a soldier, and he could scarcely conceive of anything great or good
+that was outside a soldier's virtues. The gods of his own heaven, Odin and
+Thor and Balder, were great conquerors, armed with armour which no mortal
+blow could pierce, wielders of sword and hammer which were too heavy for
+any mortal arm to wield. He could bow down to them because they were
+greater, immeasurably greater than himself, in the qualities and gifts
+which he most honoured. Now he was called upon to receive a quite
+different set of ideas, to set up a quite different standard of
+excellence. The story of the Gospels touched him. It roused him almost to
+fury when he heard how the good man who had gone about healing the sick
+and feeding the hungry had been put shamefully to death by His own
+countrymen, by those who knew best what He had done. If Carna had bidden
+him avenge the man who had been so ungratefully treated, he would have
+performed her bidding with pleasure. But to worship this Crucified One, to
+depose for Him Odin, Lord of Battles--that seemed impossible.
+
+Still he was impressed, and impressed chiefly by the way in which the
+preacher seemed to translate into her own life the principles of the faith
+which she tried to set forth to him. She had told him that this Crucified
+One had died for him. He could not understand why He should have done so,
+why He should not have led His twelve legions of angels against the
+wicked, swept them off from the face of the earth, and established by
+force of arms a kingdom of justice. Still the idea of so much having been
+given, so much endured for his sake touched him, especially when he saw
+how passionately in earnest was this wonderful creature, this beautiful
+prophetess, as, with the German reverence for women, he was ready to
+regard her, how eager she was to do him good, how little, as he could not
+but feel, she thought of herself in comparison with others.
+
+As long as Carna dwelt on these topics she made good way; when she
+wandered away from them, as naturally she sometimes did, she was not so
+successful. One day it unluckily occurred to her that she would appeal to
+his fears.
+
+"Do not refuse to listen," she said to him, "for if He is infinitely good
+to those who love Him, He can also be angry with those who love Him not."
+
+"What will He do with them?" asked the young Saxon.
+
+"He will send them to suffer in everlasting fire."
+
+"Ah!" answered the youth, "I have heard from our wise men of such a place
+into which Odin drives cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false
+to their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting cold, and this
+indeed seems to me to be worse than fire."
+
+"Yes," said Carna, "there is such a place of torment, and it is kept not
+only for the wicked, as you say, but for all who do not believe."
+
+"Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who do not own Him as their
+Master, and call themselves by His name?"
+
+"Yes--and think how terrible a thing it would be if it should happen to
+you."
+
+"And that is why you are so anxious to persuade me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And why you were so troubled about my brother when you could not make him
+understand before he died?"
+
+"Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should pass away when safety was in
+his reach."
+
+"And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him to that place because he
+did not know Him?"
+
+"I fear that it must be so."
+
+"Then He shall send me also. For how am I better because I have lived
+longer? No--I will be with my brother, whom I loved, and with my own
+people."
+
+And neither for that day nor for many days to come would he speak again on
+this subject. Carna was greatly troubled; but she began to think whether
+there might not be something in what the young man had said.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                       A PRETENDER'S DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+Our story must now go back a little, and take up the course of events at
+the camp, where the look of affairs was not promising. The donative
+promised by Constantine on the day of his election had been paid, but this
+had been done only after the greatest exertions in wringing money out of
+unlucky traders, farmers, and even peasants, who had been already squeezed
+almost dry. All that had any coin left were beginning to bury it,(24) and
+though the collectors of taxes, or loans, or gifts, or whatever else the
+frequent requisition of money might be called, had ingenious ways of
+discovering or making their owners give up these hoards, it was quite
+evident that very little more could be got out of Britain. The military
+chest meanwhile was becoming alarmingly empty, and though money was still
+found somehow for the larger camps, some of the less important garrisons
+had been left for months with almost nothing in the way of pay. What was
+to be done was a pressing question, which had to be answered in some way
+within a few days. If it was not so answered, it was tolerably plain that
+Constantine would meet the fate of Marcus and Gratianus. The Emperor
+himself (if we are to give him this title) seemed to be very little
+troubled by the prospect, and remained stolidly calm. His elevation indeed
+had made the least possible difference to him. He drank a better kind of
+wine, and perhaps a little more--for his cups had been limited by his
+means--but he did not run into excess. He was still the same simple,
+contented, good-natured man that he had always been. But his sons were of
+another temper, though curiously differing from each other. Constans the
+elder was an enthusiast, almost a fanatic, a man of strong religious
+feeling, who would have followed the religious life if it had been
+possible, and who now, finding himself possessed of power, had schemes of
+using it to promote his favourite schemes. Julian the younger had
+ambitions of a more commonplace kind. But both the brothers were agreed in
+holding on to the power that had been so strangely put into their father's
+hands, hands which, as he had very little will of his own, were
+practically theirs.
+
+A council was held at which Constantine, his two sons, and three of the
+officers of highest rank were present, and the urgent question of the day
+was anxiously debated.
+
+Julian began the discussion.
+
+"The army," he said, "must be employed, or it will find mischief to do at
+home which all of us will be sorry for."
+
+"I have some one to introduce to your Majesty," said one of the officers
+present, "who may have something to say which will influence your
+decision. He is from Ierne,(25) and brings me a letter from the commander
+at Uriconium. He came last night."
+
+"Let him enter," said Constantine, with his usual dull phlegmatic voice.
+
+The tribune went to the door of the chamber, and despatched a message to
+his quarters. In a few minutes the stranger was introduced into the
+council. He was a man verging upon middle age, somewhat short of stature,
+with a great bush of fiery-red hair, which stood up from his head with a
+very fierce look, a long, shaggy beard of the same colour, eyes of the
+deepest blue, very bright and piercing, but with a wandering and unsteady
+look in them, and a ruddy complexion which deepened to an intense colour
+on his cheek bones and other prominent parts of his face. Around his neck
+he wore a heavy twisted collar of remarkably red gold. Massive rings of
+the same metal adorned his fingers. His dress was of undyed wool, and very
+rudely shaped, a curious contrast to the richness of his ornaments. He was
+followed into the room by an interpreter, a young native of Northern
+Britain, who had been carried off by Irish pirates from one of the
+ecclesiastical schools. He had been taught Latin before his captivity,
+and, while a captive, had made himself acquainted with the Irish language,
+which indeed did not differ very much from that spoken in Britain.(26) His
+task of interpreter was not by any means an easy one to fulfil. The Prince
+broke out into a rapid torrent of complaint, invective, and entreaty,
+which left the young man, who was not very expert in either of the
+languages with which he had to deal, hopelessly behind. Then seeing that
+he was not followed, he turned on his unlucky attendant and dealt him a
+blow upon the ear that sent him staggering across the room. Then he seemed
+to remember himself, and began to tell his story again at a more moderate
+rate of speed, though he still from time to time, when he came to some
+peculiarly exciting part in the tale of his wrongs, broke out into a rapid
+eloquence that baffled all interpretation. The upshot of the story was
+this--
+
+He was, or rather had been, a small king in South-eastern Ireland,(27) the
+eldest of four brothers, having succeeded his father about ten years
+before. There had been a quarrel about the division of some property. The
+Prince was a little obscure in his description of the property; indeed it
+was a matter about which he was shrewd enough to say as little as
+possible. But his hearers had no difficulty in presuming that it consisted
+of spoil carried off from Britain. The quarrel had come to blows. All the
+nation had been divided into parties in the dispute. Finally he had been
+compelled by his ungrateful subjects to fly for his life. Would the
+Emperor bring him back? He was liberal, even extravagant, in his offers.
+He would bring the whole island under his dominion. (As a matter of fact,
+his dominions had never reached more than seventy miles inland, and he had
+contrived to make himself so hated during his ten years' reign that he had
+scarcely a friend or follower left.) And what an island it was! There
+never was such a place. The sheep were fatter, the cows gave more milk
+than in any other place in the whole world. And there was gold too, gold
+to be had for the picking up; and amber on the shores, and pearls in the
+rivers. In short, it was a treasure-house of wealth, which was waiting for
+the lucky first-comer.
+
+"Are you a Christian?" asked Constans.
+
+The exiled chief would have gladly said that he was, and indeed for a
+moment thought of the audacious fiction that his attachment to the new
+faith had been one of the causes of his expulsion. He was, in fact, a
+savagely bigoted pagan, and had dealt very roughly with one or two
+missionaries who had ventured into his neighbourhood. But he reflected
+that the falsehood would infallibly be detected, and would inevitably do
+him a great deal of harm.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed; "would that I were. But there is nothing that I so
+much desire if only I could attain to that blessing. But I promise to be
+baptized myself, and to have every man, woman, and child within my
+dominions baptized within a month, if you will only bring me back to
+them."
+
+Even Constans thought this zeal to be a little excessive.
+
+"And how many men can you bring into the field?" asked the more practical
+Julian; "and what money can you find for the pay of the soldiers?"
+
+The stranger was taken aback at these direct questions.
+
+"All my subjects, all my treasures are yours," he said, after a pause.
+
+"I don't believe," said one of the tribunes in Latin to Julian, "that he
+has any subjects besides this wretched interpreter, or any treasure beyond
+what he wears on his neck and his fingers."
+
+"Shall he withdraw?" said Julian to his father.
+
+Constantine, who never spoke when he could avoid speaking, answered by a
+nod, and the Irish Prince withdrew.
+
+"Let us have nothing to do," said the practical Julian, "with these Irish
+savages. They may cut their own throats, and welcome, without our helping
+them. The men, too, would rebel at the bare mention of Ierne. It is out of
+the world in their eyes, and I think they are about right. And as to the
+gold and pearls, I don't believe in them."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said Constans; "but it would be a great work to
+bring over a new nation to the orthodox faith."
+
+Julian answered with a laugh. "My good brother, we are not all such
+zealous missionaries as you. I am afraid that preaching is not exactly the
+work which our friends the soldiers are looking out for."
+
+"What does your Majesty say to an expedition to chastise those thieving
+Picts? They grow more insolent every day."
+
+This was the suggestion of one of the tribunes.
+
+"What is to be got?" was Julian's answer.
+
+"Glory!" answered the tribune.
+
+"Glory! What is that?--the men want pay and plunder. These bare-legged
+villains haven't so much as a rag that you can take from them, and they
+have a shrewd way of giving at least as many hard blows as they take.
+No!--we will leave the Picts alone, and only too thankful if they will do
+the same for us!"
+
+"The Count of the Shore has not yet taken the oath to his Majesty," said
+an officer who had not spoken before. "We might give some employment to
+the men in bringing him to reason."
+
+Constantine spoke for the first time since the council had begun its
+sitting--"The Count is a good man and does his business well. Leave him
+alone."
+
+Other suggestions were made and discussed without any sensible approach to
+a conclusion, and the council broke up, but with an understanding that it
+should meet again with as little delay as possible.
+
+On the afternoon of that very day an incident occurred which convinced
+every one--if further conviction was needed--that delay would certainly be
+fatal.
+
+A party of soldiers was practising javelin throwing, and Constantine, who
+had been particularly expert in this exercise in his youth, stood watching
+the game. He had stepped up to examine the mark made by one of the weapons
+on the wooden figure at which the men were throwing, when a javelin passed
+most perilously near his head and buried itself in the wood. It could not
+have been an accident; no one could have been so recklessly careless as to
+throw under the circumstances. Constantine was as imperturbable as usual.
+Without a sign of fear or anger, he said, "Comrades, you mistake; I am not
+made of wood," and, signing to his attendants, walked quietly away. The
+incident, however, made a great impression upon him, and a still greater
+upon his sons.
+
+  [Illustration: Javelin throwing.]
+
+The consultation was renewed and prolonged far into the night, and, as no
+conclusion was reached, continued on the next day. About noon an
+unexpected adviser appeared upon the scene.
+
+A message was brought into the council-chamber that a merchant from Gaul
+had something of importance to communicate to the Emperor. The man was
+admitted, after having been first searched by way of precaution. His dress
+was sober in cut and colour, and he had a small pack such as the wandering
+dealers in jewellery and similar light articles were accustomed to carry.
+Otherwise he was little like a trader; indeed, it did not need a very
+acute or practised hand to detect in him a soldier's bearing, and even
+that of one who was accustomed to command.
+
+"You have something to tell us?" said Julian.
+
+"Yes, I have," said the stranger, "but let me first show you my
+credentials."
+
+He spoke in passable Latin, but with a decided accent, which, strongly
+marked as it was, was not recognized by any of those present. At the same
+time he produced from a silken purse, which he wore like a girdle round
+his waist, a small square of parchment. It was a letter written in a
+minute but very clear hand, and it had evidently been put for the security
+of the bearer, who could thus more easily dispose of it in case of need,
+into the smallest possible compass. This was handed to Constantine, who,
+in turn, passed it on to his elder son Constans, he being the only one
+present who could read and write with fluency. It ran thus:
+
+
+"_Alaric, the son of Baltha, King of the Goths, Emperor of the World, to
+Marcus, Emperor of Britain and the West, greeting._"
+
+
+A grim smile passed over Constantine's face as he heard this address. He
+muttered to himself, "'Marcus,' indeed! Those who write to the Emperor of
+Britain must have speedy letter-carriers." The letter proceeded thus:
+
+
+"_I desire friendship and alliance with the nations who are wearied and
+worn out with the oppressions and cruelties of Rome, and for this purpose
+send this present by my __trusty kinsman and counsellor Atualphus, to you
+who are, I understand, asserting against the common tyrant of the world
+the liberty of Britain and the West. I have not thought it fit to trust
+more to writing, but commend to you the bearer hereof, the aforesaid
+Atualphus, who is acquainted with the mind and purpose of myself and of my
+people, and with whom you may conveniently concert such plans as may best
+serve our common welfare. Farewell. Given at my camp at AEmona._"
+
+
+"Marcus is no more," said Julian. "He was unworthy of his dignity. You are
+in the presence of the most excellent Constantine, Emperor of Britain."
+
+"It matters not," said the Goth, with a haughty smile. "My lord the king
+will treat as willingly with one as with another, so he be an enemy of
+Rome!"
+
+"And what does he propose? What would he have us do?"
+
+"Make common cause with him against Honorius and Rome."
+
+"What shall we gain thereby?"
+
+"Half of the Empire of the World."
+
+"How shall that be?"
+
+"The King will march into Italy and attack the Emperor in his own land.
+The Emperor will withdraw all the legions that he yet controls for his own
+defence. With them the King will deal. Then comes your opportunity. What
+does it profit you to remain in this island, where nothing is to be won
+either of glory or of riches. Cross over into Gaul and Spain, which,
+wearied with oppression and desiring above all things to throw off the
+Roman yoke, will gladly welcome you. Your Caesar shall reign on this side
+of the Alps and the Pyrenees. The future may bring other things, but that
+may suffice for the present."
+
+The plan, so bold, and yet, it would seem, so feasible, and presenting a
+ready escape out of a situation that seemed hopeless, struck every one
+present with a delighted surprise. Even the phlegmatic Constantine was
+roused. "It shall be done," he said.
+
+Some further conversation followed, which it is not necessary to relate.
+Ways and means were discussed. Questions were asked about the strength and
+temper of the forces in Gaul and Spain, about the feeling of the towns,
+and a hundred other matters, with all of which Atualphus showed a
+curiously intimate knowledge. When the Goth retired from the council, he
+left very little doubt or hesitation behind him.
+
+"They are heretics--these Goths," grumbled Constans; "obstinate Arians
+every one of them, I told----"
+
+"You shall convert them, my brother," answered Julian, "when you are
+Bishop of Rome. When we divide the West between us, that shall be your
+portion."
+
+"It shall be done," said Constantine again, as he rose from his chair.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE NEWS IN THE CAMP.
+
+
+That afternoon a banquet, which was as handsomely set out as the very
+short notice permitted, was given to all the officers in the camp. When
+the tables were removed,(28) Constantine, who had been carefully primed by
+his sons with what he was to say, addressed his guests. His words were few
+and to the point. "Britain," he said, "has been long enough ruled by
+others. It is now time that she should begin herself to rule. It was the
+error of those who went before me to be content with the limits of this
+island. But here there is not enough to content us. Beyond the sea,
+separated from us by only a few hours' journey, lie wealthy provinces
+which wait for our coming. A kindlier sky, more fertile fields, richer and
+fairer cities than ours are there. We have only to show ourselves, in
+short, to be both welcomed and obeyed. Half the victories which we have
+won here to no profit over poverty-stricken barbarians would have sufficed
+to give us riches even beyond our desires. Henceforth let us use our arms
+where they may win something for us beyond empty honour and wounds. Follow
+me, and within a year you shall be masters both of Gaul and Spain."
+
+The younger guests received this oration with shouts of applause; visions
+of promotion and prize-money, and even of the spoil of some of the wealthy
+cities of the mainland floated before them. The older men did not show
+this enthusiasm. Many of them were attached to Britain by ties that they
+were very loth to break. They had little to hope, but much to fear, from a
+change. Still, they saw the necessity for doing something; another year
+such as that which had just passed would thoroughly demoralize the army of
+Britain. Legions that get into the habit of making emperors and killing
+them for their pastime must be dealt with by vigorous remedies, and the
+easiest and best of these was active service. In any case it would have
+been impolitic to show dissent. Many feigned, therefore, a joy which they
+did not feel, and shouted approval when the Senior Tribune exclaimed,
+"Comrades, drink to our chief, Constantine Augustus, Emperor of Britain
+and the West."
+
+The revel was kept up late into the night, the young Goth distinguishing
+himself by the marvellous depth of his draughts and the equally marvellous
+strength of his head.
+
+The Emperor retired early from the scene, and Constans, who had little
+liking for these boisterous scenes, followed his example, as did most of
+the older men. One of these, the cheery centurion, who has been mentioned
+more than once, we may follow to his home.
+
+Outside the camp had grown up a village of considerable size, though it
+consisted for the most part of humble dwellings. There were two or three
+taverns, or rather drinking-shops, where the soldiers could carouse on the
+thin, sour wine of the British vineyards, or, if the length of their
+purses permitted, on metheglin, a more potent drink, made from the
+fermentation of honey. A Jew, driven by the restless speculation of his
+race, had established himself in a shop where he sold cheap ornaments to
+the soldiers' wives, and advanced money to their husbands on the security
+of their pay. A tailor displayed tunics and cloaks, and a shoemaker sold
+boots warranted to resist the cold and wet of the island climate. There
+were a few cottages occupied by the grooms and stablemen who attended to
+the horses employed in the camp, by fishermen who plied their trade in the
+neighbouring waters, and other persons of a variety of miscellaneous
+employments in one way or other connected with the camp. But just outside
+the main street, at the end nearest to the camp, stood a house of somewhat
+greater pretensions. It was indeed a humble imitation of the Roman villa,
+being built round three sides of an irregular square, which was itself
+occupied by a grass plot and a few flower beds. It was to this that the
+Centurion Decius bent his steps after the conversation related in the last
+chapter. It was evidently with the reluctant step of the bearer of bad
+news that he proceeded on his way. As soon as he entered the enclosure his
+approach was observed from within. Two blooming girls, whose ages may have
+been seventeen and fifteen respectively, ran gaily to meet him. A woman
+some twenty-five years older, but still youthful of aspect and handsome,
+followed at a more sober pace.
+
+"What is the matter, father?" cried the elder of the girls, who had been
+quick to perceive that all was not right.
+
+The centurion held up his hand and made a signal for silence. "Hush," he
+said; "I have something to tell you, but it must not be here. Let us go
+indoors."
+
+"Shall the children leave us alone?" said the centurion's wife, who had
+now come up.
+
+"No," he answered, wearily, "let them be with us while they can," he added
+in a low voice, which only the wife's ears, made keenly alive by affection
+and fear, could catch.
+
+The gaiety of the young people was quenched, for, without having any idea
+of what had happened, they could see plainly enough that something was
+disturbing their parents; and it was with fast beating hearts that they
+waited for his explanation.
+
+"Our happy days here are over, my dearest," said the centurion, drawing
+his wife to him, and tenderly kissing her, as soon as they were within
+doors.
+
+"You mean," said she, "that the order has come."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "we are to leave as soon as the transports can be
+collected. The resolution was made to-day and will be announced to the
+army to-morrow. It is no secret, I suppose, or will not be for long."
+
+"And where are we to go?" cried the elder of the girls, whose face
+brightened as the thought of seeing a little more of the world, of a home
+in one of the cities of Gaul, possibly in Rome itself, flitted across her
+mind.
+
+The poor centurion changed colour. The girl's question brought up the
+difficulty which he knew had to be faced, but which he would gladly have
+put off as long as he could.
+
+"We shall go to Gaul, certainly; where I cannot say," he answered, after a
+long pause, and in a hesitating voice.
+
+"Oh, how delightful!" cried the girl; "exactly the thing that Lucia and I
+have been longing for. And Rome? Surely we shall go to Rome, father? Are
+you not glad to hear it, mother? I am sure that we are all tired of this
+cold, foggy place."
+
+The mother said nothing. If she did not exactly see the whole of the
+situation, she had at least an housewife's horror of a move. The poor
+father moved uneasily upon his chair.
+
+"The legion will go," he said, "but your mother and you----"
+
+"Oh, Lucius," cried the poor wife, "you do not, cannot mean that we are
+not to go with you!"
+
+"Nothing is settled," he replied, "it is true; but I am much troubled
+about it. _You_ might go, though I do not like the idea of your following
+the camp; but these dear girls--and yet they cannot be separated from you."
+
+The unhappy wife saw the truth only too clearly. If the times had been
+quiet, she might herself have possibly accompanied the legion in its march
+southward; but even then she could not have taken her daughters with her,
+her daughters whom she never allowed to go within the precincts of the
+camp, except on the one day, the Emperor's birthday, when all the
+officers' families were expected to be present at the ceremony of saluting
+the Imperial likeness. And this had of late been omitted when it was
+difficult to say from day to day what Emperor the troops acknowledged. The
+centurion had spoken only too truly; the legion might go, but they must
+stay behind. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+"Lucia," cried the elder girl to her sister, "we will enlist; we will take
+the oath; I should make just as good a soldier as many of the Briton lads
+they are filling up the cohorts with now; though you, I must allow, are a
+little too small," she added, ruefully, as she looked at her sister's
+plump little figure, too hopelessly feminine ever to admit the possibility
+of a disguise. "Cheer up, mother," she went on, "we shall find a way out
+of the difficulty somehow." And she threw her arms round the weeping
+woman, and kissed her repeatedly.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes, broken at last by the timid,
+hesitating voice of the younger girl.
+
+"But must you go, father?" she said. "Surely they don't keep soldiers in
+the camp for ever. And have you not served long enough? You were in the
+legion, I have heard you say, before even Maria was born."
+
+"My child," said the centurion, "it is true that my time is at least on
+the point of being finished. Yet I can't leave the service just now. Just
+because I am the oldest officer the Legate counts on me, and I can't
+desert him. It would be almost as bad as asking for one's discharge on the
+eve of a battle. And besides, though I don't like troubling your young
+spirits with such matters, I cannot afford it. Were I to resign now I
+should get no pension, or next to none. But in a year or two's time, when
+things are settled down, I hope to get something worth having--some post,
+perhaps, that would give me a chance of making a home for you."
+
+A fifth person, who had hitherto taken no part in the conversation, and
+whose presence in the room had been almost forgotten by every one, now
+broke in, with a voice which startled the hearers by its unusual clearness
+and precision. Lena, mother of the centurion's wife, had nearly completed
+her eightieth year. Commonly, she sat in the chimney corner, unheeding, to
+all appearances, of the life that went on about her, and dozing away the
+day. In her prime, and even down to old age, she had been a woman of
+remarkable activity, ruling her daughter's household as despotically as in
+former days she had ruled her own. Then a sudden and severe illness had
+prostrated her, and she had seemed to shrink at once into feebleness and
+helplessness of mind and body. Her daughter and granddaughters tended her
+carefully and lovingly; but she seemed scarcely to take any notice of
+them. The only thing that ever seemed to rouse her attention was the sight
+of her son-in-law when he chanced to enter the chamber without disarming.
+The shine of the steel brought a fire again into her dim, sunken eyes. It
+was probably this that had now roused her; and her attention, once
+awakened, had been kept alive by what she heard.
+
+"And at whose bidding are you going?" she said, in a startlingly clear
+voice to come from one so feeble; "this Honorius, as he calls himself, a
+feeble creature who has never drawn a sword in his life! Now, if it had
+been his father! He was a man to obey. He did deserve to be called
+Emperor. I saw him forty years ago--just after you were born, daughter--when
+he came with his father. A splendid young fellow he was; and one who would
+have his own way, too! How he gave those turbulent Greeks at Thessalonica
+their deserts! Fifteen thousand of them!(29) That was an Emperor worth
+having!"
+
+"Oh! mother," cried her daughter, horrified to see the old woman's
+ferocity, softened, she had hoped, by age and infirmity, roused again in
+all its old strength. "Oh! mother, don't say such dreadful things. That
+was an awful crime in Theodosius, and he had to do penance for it in the
+church."
+
+"Ay," muttered the old woman, "I can fancy it did not please the priests.
+But why," she went on, raising her voice again, "why does not Britain have
+an Emperor of her own?"
+
+"So she has, mother," said the centurion. "You forget our Lord
+Constantine."
+
+"Our Lord Constantine!" she repeated. "Who is Constantine? Why, I remember
+his mother--a slave girl--whom the Irish pirates carried off from somewhere
+in the North. Constantine's father bought her, and married her. Why should
+he be Emperor? I could make as good a one any day out of a faggot stick."
+
+"Peace, dear mother," said the centurion, soothingly, afraid that her
+words might have other listeners.
+
+"Why not you," went on the old woman, unheeding; "you are better born."
+
+"I, Emperor!" cried the centurion. "Speak good words, dearest mother."
+
+"Well," said the old woman, dropping her voice again, "they are poor
+creatures now-a-days." And she relapsed into silence, looking again as
+wholly indifferent to the present as if the strange outburst of rage and
+impatience which her family had just witnessed had never taken place.
+
+The family discussed the position of affairs anxiously till far into the
+night.
+
+"And what will happen," said the wife, "when the legions are gone?"
+
+"There will be a British kingdom, I suppose; and, if it were united, it
+might stand. But it will not be united. It will be every man for himself."
+
+"And how about the Saxons and the Picts? If the legions hardly protected
+us from them, how will it be when they are gone?"
+
+The centurion's look grew gloomier than ever. "I know," he said, "the
+prospect is a sad one. But I hope that for a year you will be fairly safe;
+and after that I shall hope to send for you. Or you might go over to Gaul.
+But I hope to see the Count of the Shore about these matters. He will give
+me the best advice. Here, of course, you can hardly stay, even if you
+cared to do it; and some place must be found. Meanwhile, make all the
+preparations you can for a move."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+                      THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS.
+
+
+The resolution to leave Britain was announced at a general meeting of the
+soldiers on the following day, and was received by it with tremendous
+enthusiasm. To most who were present, Gaul seemed a land of promise. It
+was from Gaul that almost every article of luxury that they either had or
+wished to have was imported, and some of the necessities of life, as
+notably wine, were known to be both better and cheaper there than in
+Britain. Comfortable quarters in wealthy cities, which were ready to be
+friendly, or could easily be brought to reason if they were not; easy
+campaigns, not against naked Picts, but against civilized enemies who had
+something to lose; and when the time of service was over, a snug little
+farm, with corn land, pasture, and vineyard, and a hard-working native to
+till it--such were the dreams which floated through the soldiers' minds;
+and they were ready to go anywhere with the man who promised to make them
+into realities. Older and more prudent men who knew that there were two
+sides to the question, and the unadventurous, who were well content to
+stay where they were, could not resist the tide of popular feeling, and
+concealed, if they did not abandon, their doubts and scruples. As money
+was scarce, the men volunteered to forego their pay till it could be
+returned to them with large interest in the shape of prize-money. They
+even gave up to the melting pot the silver ornaments from their arms and
+from the trappings of their horses. The messengers who were sent with the
+tidings of the proposed movement to the other camps--which were now mainly
+to be found in the southern part of the island--found the troops everywhere
+well disposed, and within a few days every military station was alive with
+the stir and bustle of preparations for a move.
+
+One of the most pressing cares of the new leaders of the army was the
+securing the means of transport. There was a great number of merchant
+ships, indeed, which could be pressed into the service, and which would
+perform it very well if only the passage in the Channel could be made
+without meeting opposition. The question to be considered was whether they
+could reckon upon this, or would the fleet, which was still supposed to
+acknowledge the authority of Honorius, prevent them from crossing. The
+chief person to be reckoned with in this matter was, of course, the Count
+of the Shore, and a despatch was immediately sent to him. It was the
+production of Constans, and ran thus--
+
+
+"_Constantine, Emperor of Britain and the West, to Lucius AElius, Count of
+the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+"_Having been called to Empire by the unanimous voice of the People and
+Army of Britain, and desiring to give deliverance from tyranny and
+protection from violence to other provinces besides this my Island of
+Britain, I purpose to transport such forces as it may be necessary to use
+for this purpose to the land of Gaul. I call upon you therefore, having
+full confidence in your loyalty, to give me such assistance as may be in
+your power, for the accomplishment of this end, and promise you, on the
+other hand, my favour and protection. Farewell._
+
+"_Given at the Camp of the Great Harbour._"
+
+
+The Count received this communication about ten days after his arrival at
+the villa. The writer would scarcely have been pleased at the comments
+which he made as he read it.
+
+"'Constantine, Emperor.' How many more Emperors are we to have in this
+unlucky island? 'Of Britain and the West.' And I doubt whether he can call
+a foot of ground his own fifty miles from the camp. 'To deliver other
+provinces from oppression and violence.' Why not begin by trying his hand
+at home? 'Full confidence in my loyalty.' Truly valuable praise from so
+excellent a judge in the matter. 'Such assistance as may be in my power.'
+Well, I should be glad to see the last of this crew of adventurers and
+villains; but he sha'n't have my ships."
+
+The Count's position indeed was one of singular difficulty. He had thought
+it best--indeed he had found it necessary, if he was to do his own work--to
+keep on friendly terms with the usurpers who had gone before Constantine.
+It had been quite hopeless for him to attempt to coerce the legions. If
+they chose to make Emperors for themselves, he must let them do it, so
+long as they did not interfere with his liberty as a loyal subject. But
+this was a different matter. Crossing over into Gaul meant downright
+hostility to the authorities in Italy. How could he help it forward? And
+yet how could he prevent it? He had three ships available. All the others
+were laid up for the winter in harbours on the eastern and south-eastern
+shores of the island. With these he might do some damage to the legions in
+their passage; but the passage he could not hope to prevent. And if he did
+prevent it, what would be his own future relations with the army? Clearly
+he could not stay in Vectis, or indeed anywhere in Britain, for there was
+no place which he could hope to hold against a small detachment of the
+army. And to go, though it could easily be done, and would save him a vast
+amount of trouble, would be to give up his whole work, and to leave the
+unhappy inhabitants of the coast without protection from the pirates of
+the East. After long and anxious deliberation, which he did not disdain to
+share with his daughter and Carna, he resolved on a middle course, by
+following which he would neither help nor hinder. The first thing was to
+seek an interview with Constantine or his representatives, and a messenger
+was accordingly despatched suggesting a conference to be held on
+shipboard, under a flag of truce, off the mouth of the Great Harbour.
+
+The proposition was accepted, and three days afterwards the conference was
+held, in the way that the Count had suggested. Each party brought a single
+ship, which was anchored for the greater convenience of carrying on the
+conversation, but was perfectly ready to slip its anchor in case of any
+threatening of treachery. The Count's vessel had the Imperial standard at
+its mast-head; Constantine's, on the other hand, had no distinguishing
+characteristic. Both he and his two sons were present, but the father was
+as silent as usual, and the chief spokesman was Julian.
+
+The Count was very brief in his greetings, and indicated, as plainly as he
+could without saying it in so many words, that he did not acknowledge the
+pretensions of the usurper.
+
+"My lord," he said, "you have asked me to help in the transport of your
+army across the Channel. Briefly then I have not the means. I have but
+three ships ready for sea, and not one of these can I spare."
+
+"The Emperor can command their services," said Julian.
+
+"I have received no instructions from my master," returned the Count, "to
+use them except for the protection of the coast."
+
+"You have them now," said Julian, "and you will refuse to obey them at
+your peril."
+
+"My commission is made out by Flavius Honorius Augustus, and I know no
+other to whom I can yield obedience."
+
+A pause followed this plain speech; the party on board with Constantine
+debated the situation with some heat, Julian maintaining that the Count
+must be brought to reason, the others being anxious to keep on good terms
+with him.
+
+"A single cohort can bring him to order," cried the young Prince.
+
+"Can drive him out of the villa doubtless," said the more prudent
+Constans, "but not bring us an inch nearer getting the ships."
+
+"We may at least count on your friendship," said Constans, Julian retiring
+sulkily from the negotiations; "you will not hinder the passage."
+
+"I have nothing to do with the disposition of the legions," answered the
+Count, "and, as I said before, have no instructions except to defend the
+shore against the Pirates."
+
+"His Majesty will not be ungrateful," said Constans.
+
+"I owe no duty but to Honorius, and desire no favour but from him," was
+the Count's reply, and the conference was at an end.
+
+The result was as favourable as Constantine could have expected. At least
+no opposition would be offered. Preparations for the passage were
+accordingly hurried on with all possible speed. All the towns along the
+coast were put under requisition for all the shipping that they could
+furnish, and, for the most part, were glad enough to answer the call.
+Whatever might happen in the future, it would be at least something to be
+rid of such troublesome neighbours. If other legions were to come, they
+might be more orderly and well-behaved. If these were to be the last,
+perhaps this would be a change for the better. Every one accordingly
+exerted himself to the utmost to supply the demand for transports.
+
+It was a curious medley of vessels that assembled in the Great Harbour in
+the late autumn for the embarkation of the army. Old ships of war that had
+lain high and dry from before the memory of man were hastily pitched over
+and launched. Merchant vessels of every kind were there, from the huge
+hulks that were accustomed to carry heavy cargoes of metal from Cornwall,
+to the light barks that carried on the trade in wine, olive oil, fruit,
+and such light goods between Armorica and Britain; even the fishing
+vessels from the villages along the coast were pressed into the service,
+and laden to the full, sometimes even to a dangerous depth, with military
+material and all the miscellaneous property with which an army of twenty
+thousand men would be likely to be encumbered. The greater part of this
+force had been collected at the Camp of the Great Harbour, which indeed
+was overflowing, and more than overflowing, with troops. But the garrisons
+that were situated to the eastward, as at Regnum(30) and Anderida,(31)
+were to join the fleet as it sailed, while those from the inland and coast
+stations of South and Eastern Britain were to make the best of their way
+to the Portus Lemanus. This was to be the rendezvous for the whole force,
+and the point for commencing the passage. The longer voyage, direct from
+the Great Harbour to the mouth of the Sequana (the Seine) or the
+projecting peninsula, now known as Manche, was dreaded, for the Channel
+had even a worse reputation in those days than it has now. It was
+arranged, accordingly, that the flotilla should sail along the coast as
+far as the Portus Lemanus, and cross from thence to Bononia.(32) The first
+half of November had passed before the preparations for departure were
+completed, and there were some who advised Constantine to delay his
+passage till the following spring. That he knew to be impossible; it was
+better to run any risk of storm or shipwreck than to face the winter with
+an ill-paid and discontented army.
+
+At early dawn, on the fifteenth of the month, the embarkation began, the
+munitions of war, stores, and other baggage having been already, as far as
+was possible, put on board of the heavier transports. The water-gate of
+the camp was thrown open, and at this Constantine, his sons, and his
+principal officers took their place. The priest who served the church
+within the camp offered a few prayers, and solemnly blessed the eagle of
+the Second Legion, which constituted, as has been said, the main part of
+the forces in the camp. When this ceremony was concluded, Constantine
+addressed the army.
+
+"By this gate in the days of our ancestors Vespasian led forth the Second
+Legion, then, as now, one of the chief ornaments and supports of the
+Empire, to execute the judgment of God on the rebellious nation of the
+Jews, and to receive before long as his reward the Empire of Rome. By this
+gate I lead you forth, worthy successors as you are of those who conquered
+with him, to a service not less honourable, and certain to receive no less
+distinguished a reward. Let my name, which recommended me to your favour,
+and this place, already famous as the starting-point of victorious armies,
+be accepted as omens of success. Comrades, follow me on a march which has
+for its end nothing less than the Capitol of Rome."
+
+He then took his seat in a boat manned with a picked crew, and, amidst
+shouts of applause from the assembled soldiers and spectators, was rowed
+to the ship, one of the few war galleys of recent construction that were
+to be found in the fleet. Then began the embarkation of the troops.
+
+It was a singular scene. The news had spread with the greatest rapidity
+through the whole countryside, and the native population had crowded to
+witness the departure. Every point from which the sight could be seen was
+occupied by spectators. Even the slopes of Portsdown were thickly dotted
+by them. Nearer the camp the emotion and excitement were intense. A
+regiment that marches out of a town in which it has been in garrison for a
+year or two leaves many sad hearts behind it; even so brief a space is
+long enough for the binding of many ties. But the legions had been almost
+permanent residents in Britain, and they were bound to its people by bonds
+many and close. And this people was not, it must be remembered, the
+self-restrained English race, so chary of sighs and groans, and so much
+ashamed of tears, but a race of excitable Celts, always ready to express
+all, and even more, than they felt. Wives, children, kinsfolk, friends
+were now to be left behind, and probably left for ever--for who could
+believe that the legions, whose departure had been threatened so long,
+could ever come back?
+
+  [Illustration: The Departure of the Legions.]
+
+The embarkation went on. Some of the lighters could be brought close to
+the shore, and were boarded by gangways. To others of heavier burden the
+men had to be carried in boats. A strong guard had been posted to keep the
+place of embarkation clear. But the guard was powerless, or perhaps
+unwilling--for who could deal harshly with women and children so
+situated?--to check the rush of the excited crowd. Some of the women threw
+themselves on their departing husbands and lovers, clasped them round
+their necks, or hung to their knees. Others sat on the shore rocking
+themselves to and fro, or frozen by the extremity of their grief into
+stillness; some uttered shrill cries; others were sunk in a speechless
+despair. Nor were there wanting scenes of a less harrowing kind. Not a few
+of the departing soldiers were breaking other obligations besides those of
+the heart. Creditors were to be seen clinging to debtors whom they saw
+vanishing out of their sight. The Jew trader from the village outside the
+camp seemed to be in despair. Probably he had secured himself fairly well
+against the consequences of an event which he must have been shrewd enough
+to foresee; but to judge from the bitterness and frequency of his appeals
+he was hopelessly ruined. He swore by the patriarchs and prophets that he
+had always carried on his business at a loss, and that if his debts were
+not now settled in full he should be reduced to beggary. The
+tavern-keepers were also busy, running to and fro, getting, or trying to
+get, payment of scores from customers whom they had trusted. There were
+others who had something to sell, some provisions for the voyage, a cloak,
+or a mantle, and offered it as a bargain--not, however, without a margin of
+profit--to dear friends with whom they were not likely to have dealings
+again. Other noisy claimants for attention were young Britons who wanted
+to enlist. For days past these had been flocking into the camp, and now
+that their last chance was about to disappear, they became importunate in
+the extreme. The numbers of the legions could have been almost doubled
+from these candidates for service.
+
+Slowly, as ship after ship received its complement of men, the turmoil on
+the shore lessened, and about sunset the embarkation was completed. The
+weather was beautifully calm, a light wind blowing from the land during
+the day, and even this falling as the light declined. When the moon
+rose--the time of the full had been chosen for the embarkation--the sea was
+almost calm. Then, amidst a great cry of "Farewell," from the shore, the
+fleet slowly moved down the harbour. All night, making the most of the
+favourable weather, it pursued its way along the coast, being joined as it
+went by other detachments. At the Portus Lemanus it found the fleet which
+carried the garrisons of the eastern stations ready to start, and the
+whole made its way without hindrance across the Channel to Bononia, having
+as prosperous a voyage as had the legions which more than four hundred and
+fifty years before Caesar had brought to the island.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                              DANGERS AHEAD.
+
+
+The winter that followed the departure of the legions was a busy time with
+the Count. He was now almost the only representative of Roman power in
+Southern Britain, and the villa on the island became a place of
+considerable importance. A military force of some strength was gathered
+there. Constantine's enterprise was not universally popular, and many had
+taken any chance that offered itself of escaping from it. Some had
+reached, or very nearly reached, the end of their time of service, and
+claimed their discharge; others were known to be loyal to Rome, and were
+allowed to retire. Not a few of those who found themselves without home or
+employment, and did not happen to have friends or kinsfolk in Britain,
+rallied to the Count. The families, too, of some that had gone with the
+legions were glad to claim such shelter and protection as the
+neighbourhood of the villa could give. Among these were the wife and
+daughters of the Centurion Decius; the old mother had steadily refused to
+accompany them, and, with an aged dependent of nearly the same age,
+continued to occupy the house near the deserted camp. It was an anxious
+matter with the Count what was to be done with these helpless people.
+While things were quiet they could live safely, if not very comfortably,
+in the neighbouring village; but if trouble were to come--and there were
+several quarters from which it might come--they would have to be sheltered
+somewhere in the villa. This never could be made into a really strong
+place; but it might serve well enough for a time and against ordinary
+attack. Some of the outbuildings and domestic offices were fortified as
+well as the position admitted; such material of war as could be got was
+accumulated, and provisions also were stored. The most reliable resource,
+however, was in the ships of war. These were not, as was usual, drawn up
+on the beach for the winter, but were kept at anchor, ready for immediate
+use.
+
+Nor were these precautions unnecessary, for indeed, as we shall see,
+mischief of a very formidable kind was brewing, and indeed had been
+brewing ever since the departure of the legions, and even before that
+event. And it was mischief of a kind of which it may safely be affirmed
+that neither the Count nor any Roman official, had any notion. Britain, to
+all appearance, had for many generations been thoroughly subdued. Any
+Roman, if he had been told that there was any danger of rebellion among
+the Britons, would have laughed the suggestion to scorn. The legions,
+indeed, had often been mutinous and turbulent, and their generals
+ambitious and unscrupulous. The island indeed had gained so bad a
+reputation for loyalty to the Empire that it had been called the mother of
+tyrants, by "tyrant" being meant "usurper." But whenever Rome had been
+defied, she had been defied by her own troops. The Britons had enlisted in
+the rebel armies, but they had never attempted to assert anything like
+British independence. And yet the tradition of independence and liberty
+had always been kept alive. The Celtic race is singularly tenacious of
+such ideas, and also singularly skilful in concealing them from those who
+are its masters for the time, and the Britons were Celts of the purest
+blood. Caradoc(33) and Boadicea, and other heroes and heroines of British
+independence, were household words in many families which were yet
+thoroughly Roman in spirit and manners. Just as the Christianized Jews of
+Spain, though to all appearances devout worshippers at church, still clung
+in secret to the rites of their own worship, so these loyal subjects of
+the Empire, as all the world believed them, cherished in their hearts the
+memory of the free Britain of the past and the hope of a free Britain in
+the future. And the time was now at hand when their leaders thought that
+this hope might be fulfilled.
+
+The Shanklin Chine of to-day is not a little different from the Shanklin
+Chine of fifteen hundred years ago. It has, so to speak, been subdued and
+civilized. Now it is a very pretty and pleasant wood; then it was an
+almost impenetrable thicket, a noted lair of elk and wild boar.
+Inaccessible, however, as it seemed to any one who surveyed it from above,
+there was for those who were in the secret a way of approaching its
+recesses. A little path, the beginning of which it was almost impossible
+to discover without a guide, led up from the sea-end of the ravine to a
+hut which had been constructed about half way up the ascent. It consisted
+of a single chamber, about fourteen feet long, ten broad, and not more
+than seven in height, and was constructed of roughly-hewn logs, the
+interstices of which were filled with clay. The walls, however, were not
+visible, for they were covered with hangings of a dark blue material,
+something like serge. The floor was strewn with rushes. In the centre of
+the apartment there was a hearth, having over it an aperture in the roof,
+not, however, opening directly into the outer air, by which the smoke
+might escape. On this hearth two or three logs were smouldering with a
+dull heat which it would have been easy to fan into flame. There were two
+windows unglazed, but closed with rough wooden lattices.
+
+On three settles, roughly but strongly made of oak, which, with a
+rudely-polished slab of wood that served for table, constituted all the
+furniture of the hut, sat three confederates, and behind each stood a
+stalwart attendant armed with a wicker shield which hung from his neck,
+and a long Gallic sword. The three chiefs were curiously different in
+appearance. One, as far, at least, as dress and manner were concerned,
+might have passed anywhere for a genuine Roman. He was taller, it is true,
+than the Romans commonly were; and his complexion, though dark rather than
+fair, had a ruddier hue than was often seen under the more glowing skin of
+Italy; still he might have walked down the Sacred Way or the Saburra(34)
+unnoticed save as an exceptionally handsome man, of that fair beauty which
+the southern nations especially admire. His hair was carefully curled and
+perfumed; his face as carefully shaven, and showing no trace of beard,
+moustache, or whisker. His toga of brilliant white, his long-sleeved tunic
+of some dark purple stuff, his elegant sandals, were all such as a dandy
+of the Palatine might have worn. The one thing which would have been
+singular in a Roman street was the under-garment reaching to his knees,
+which he had assumed in consideration of the cold and wet of the insular
+climate. His fingers were loaded with rings, one of them a sapphire of
+unusual size, on which was engraved a likeness of the feeble features of
+the Emperor Honorius; on his left wrist might be seen a bracelet of gold.
+
+If Martianus--for that was the name of the personage whom we have been
+describing--might have been easily mistaken for a Roman, the chief who sat
+facing him on the opposite side of the hearth was as manifestly a Briton.
+His hair fell over his shoulders in long natural curls which suggested no
+suspicion of the barber's or the perfumer's art. His upper lip was covered
+with a moustache which drooped to his chin. His body was covered with a
+sleeveless coat skilfully made of otters' skins. Both arms were bare, and
+were plentifully painted with woad. On his legs he wore a garment
+something like the "trews" or short trowsers which the Highland regiments
+sometimes wear in lieu of the kilt; his feet were enveloped in rude boots
+of hide which were laced round his ankles. His ornaments were a massive
+chain of twisted gold, which he wore round his neck, and a single ring,
+rudely wrought of British gold, in which was set a British pearl of
+immense size but indifferent hue. He had a Roman name, as he could on
+occasion wear Roman costume, and speak the Latin tongue. In the present
+company he was known and addressed by his native name of Ambiorix.
+
+  [Illustration: British Conspirators.]
+
+The third conspirator had the appearance of a middle-class provincial. He
+wore the tunic that formed part of a Roman's ordinary dress, but not the
+toga, which was replaced by a garment somewhat resembling a short cloak.
+But under the garb of a well-to-do townsman was concealed a very
+remarkable career and character. Carausius--for this was the name by which
+he was generally known--was one of the last representatives of the ancient
+Druid priesthood. The glory and power of this remarkable caste, which had
+once held itself superior to the kings of Britain, were departed. Indeed,
+it was almost dangerous to hold the ancient faith, and practise the
+ancient worship. Since the publication of the edict by which Constantine
+had made Christianity the Imperial religion, the adherents of the old
+religion had become fewer and feebler. Some of the chiefs and nobles still
+held it in secret, or were, at least, ready to return to it, if it should
+ever again become powerful; but its adherents were mostly to be found
+among the poorer classes. Even these in the towns were, in name at least,
+mostly Christians; it was only the dwellers in the remoter and wilder
+parts of the country that remained faithful. But these scattered adherents
+revered the name of Carausius, who was believed to possess all the wisdom
+of his class, and was indeed credited with mysterious powers over nature
+and the gift of prophecy. From the Roman population all this was a secret,
+and the secret was remarkably well kept. Carausius was supposed to be
+nothing more than an ordinary farmer. His Roman neighbours would have been
+astonished in the last degree if they could have seen him presiding at one
+of the Druid ceremonies, in his white robes curiously embroidered with
+mystic figures, his chaplet of golden oak-leaves, and the headless spear,
+which was to him what the crozier was to a Christian bishop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+                           THE PRIEST'S DEMAND.
+
+
+"So the time has come at last," said Ambiorix; "at last the yoke is broken
+from off the neck of Britain. Blessed be the day that saw the legions of
+the oppressor depart!"
+
+"Yes," replied Martianus, "but will they not return? They have gone
+before; but have they not come back? I take it these Romans get too much
+out of us to let us go willingly."
+
+"I have no fear of their return. If Honorius can make terms with this
+Constantine and his army, he will never send them back here; he wants them
+too much at home. He has got King Alaric to reckon with, and he has been
+long since drawing every soldier that he can from the provinces into
+Italy. No, depend upon it, at last Britain is free."
+
+"Free; yes, if it has not forgotten how to move."
+
+"We haven't all learnt to play the slave," said Ambiorix fiercely, as he
+started from his seat. "There are some who have not sold their birthright
+for the delights of the bath and the banquet, and who are too proud to ape
+the manners of their masters."
+
+"Peace, my son," interposed the aged priest; "Martianus is not the less
+able to help the cause of our country because he seems to be the friend of
+those who oppress it."
+
+"These are but the wild words of youth, father," said Martianus. "By a
+wise man they are forgotten as soon as they are heard. But let us hear
+what Ambiorix has to tell us about the force which we can bring into the
+field."
+
+The young chief entered into details which it is impossible to reproduce.
+Preparations had been made over nearly the whole of Britain, though the
+more northerly parts, owing to the perpetual attacks of their neighbours
+the Picts, had little to contribute in the way of help. Ambiorix knew how
+many men could be relied upon in every district; he was acquainted with
+the disposition of the representatives of the chief British families; he
+knew what each would want for himself, to whom he would be prepared to
+yield precedence, from whom he would claim precedence for himself. All his
+views and calculations were those of a sanguine temper; but he certainly
+could show--on paper at least, as we should say--a very respectable amount
+of strength. When he had finished his account of the resources of Britain,
+Martianus, who, whatever his faults, had at least a genuine admiration for
+ability, held out his hand--
+
+"This is wonderful!" he said. "You have a true genius for rule. That you
+should keep the threads of so complicated a business all so distinct is
+simply wonderful. You certainly give me hopes that I never had before."
+
+"I never doubted for a moment," returned the young man, "but that when
+this Roman incubus was removed all would go well. Besides, who is there to
+attack us? We have no enemies."
+
+"No enemies!" replied the other, in a tone of surprise. "Do you forget the
+Saxons by sea and the Picts by land."
+
+"I believe that neither will trouble us. They are not our enemies, but the
+enemies of Rome. They have harassed--they were quite right in harassing--the
+oppressors of the world: they will respect, I am sure, the liberties of a
+free people. When Britain is as independent as they are we shall be
+friends."
+
+Martianus could not help smiling sarcastically. "That is very fine. One
+would think that you had been a pupil in one of the schools of rhetoric
+which you so much despise. The most famous of our declaimers could not
+have put it better. But I am afraid that there will be some difficulty in
+explaining all this to them."
+
+"In any case, we can defend ourselves," returned the young chief, "though
+I do not think that the need will occur."
+
+"Let us hope not," said Martianus, but his tone was not confident or
+cheerful.
+
+There were, it may easily be supposed, not a few other subjects for
+discussion, and the conversation lasted for a long time, the young chief
+showing throughout such a mastery of details as greatly impressed his
+companions. When he had finished a brief silence followed. It was broken
+by the priest. There was a special solemnity in his tone, which seemed to
+claim an authority for his utterances, quite different from the position
+that he had taken up while politics or military matters were being
+discussed.
+
+"My children," he said, "this is a grave matter. The weal or woe of
+Britain for many generations is at stake. If we fail, we may well be
+undone for ever. You cannot enter on so great an enterprise without the
+favour of the gods, and the favour of the gods is not easily to be won.
+For many years they have lacked the sacrifice which they most prize. I
+myself, though I have completed my threescore years and ten, have but once
+only been privileged so to honour them. The time has come for this
+sacrifice to be offered once more. Have I your consent, my children? But
+indeed I need not ask. This is a matter in which I cannot be mistaken, and
+from which I cannot go back."
+
+The young chief nodded assent, but said nothing. He was evidently
+disturbed.
+
+"What do you mean, father?" he said.
+
+"The sacrifice which the gods most prize," answered the old man, "is also
+that which is most prized by men. The most perfect offering which we can
+present to them is the most perfect creature they themselves have made.
+Sheep and oxen may suffice for common needs; but at such a time as this,
+when Britain itself is at stake, we must appease the gods with the blood
+of MAN."
+
+Martianus grew pale. "It is not possible," he stammered.
+
+"Not only possible, but necessary," calmly returned the priest. "Our
+fathers were commonly content to offer those who had offended against the
+laws; but in times of special necessity they chose the noblest victims.
+Even our kings have given up their sons and their daughters. So it must be
+now."
+
+All this was absolutely horrible to Martianus. He did not believe indeed
+in Christianity, but it had influenced him as it had influenced all the
+world. Whether he was at heart much the better may be doubted. But he was
+softer, more refined; he shrank from visible horrors, from open
+cruelty--though he could be cruelly selfish on occasion--and from bloodshed,
+though he would not stretch out a finger to save a neighbour's life. And
+what the priest said was as new and unexpected to him as it was hideous.
+He had no idea that this savage faith had survived in Britain.
+
+"Father," he said, "such a thing would ruin us. Such a deed would raise
+the whole country against us. A human sacrifice! It is monstrous!"
+
+"You are right so far," returned the priest, "the country must not know
+it. Britain is utterly corrupted by this new faith, a superstition fit
+only for women, and children, and slaves; and I don't doubt but that it
+would lift up its hands in horror at this holy solemnity. But there is no
+need that it should know it. It must be done secretly--so much I concede."
+
+"And the victim?"
+
+"Well, the days are passed when a Druid could lay his command on Britain's
+noblest, and be obeyed without a murmur. The victim must be taken by
+force, and secretly."
+
+"And have you any such victim in your thoughts?"
+
+The priest hesitated for a moment; but it was only for a moment. He
+resumed in a low voice, which it evidently cost him an effort to keep
+steady--
+
+"I have not forgotten the necessity of a choice; indeed for months past it
+has been without ceasing in my mind, and now the choice is made. The
+victim whom the gods should have is a maiden, beautiful and pure. She is
+of noble descent, though her father was compelled, by poverty and the
+oppression of the Roman tyrants, to follow a humble occupation. Thus she
+is worthy to be offered. And yet no true Briton will regret her fate, for
+she has deserted the faith of her ancestors for the base superstition of
+the Cross."
+
+"And her name, father?" said both of the conspirators together.
+
+Again the priest hesitated; a close observer might even have seen a trace
+of agitation in that stern countenance.
+
+"It is Carna," he said, after a pause, which raised the suspense of his
+hearers almost to agony. "It is Carna, adopted daughter of Count AElius."
+
+And he looked steadfastly at his companions' faces, as if he would have
+said, "I dare you to challenge my decision."
+
+The two started simultaneously to their feet. Not long before, young
+Ambiorix, who was then not yet possessed by the fanatical patriotism which
+now mastered him, had admired her beauty and sweetness of manner, and had
+had day-dreams of her as the goddess of his own hearth. Then a stronger
+love had come in the place of the old. It was not of woman, but of Britain
+free among the nations, as she had been before the restless eagles of the
+South had found her, that he thought day and night. Still, he could not
+calmly hear her doomed to a horrible death, and for a moment he was ready
+to rebel against the sentence of the priest.
+
+The older man was terribly agitated. He had been for many years on the
+friendliest footing with the Count, a frequent guest at his table, almost
+an intimate of the house. And Carna was an especial favourite with him.
+Her sweetness, her simplicity, and a pathetic resemblance that she bore to
+a dead daughter of his own, touched him on the best side of his nature.
+
+"Priest," he thundered, "it shall not be. I would sooner the whole scheme
+came to ruin; I would sooner die. A curse on your hideous worship!"
+
+The priest had now crushed down the risings of human feelings which his
+training had not sufficed to eradicate.
+
+"You have sworn by the gods," he said, "and you cannot go back. If you do
+not hesitate to betray Britain, at least you will not dare to betray
+yourself. You know the power I can command. Go back from your promise to
+follow my leading, and you are a dead man. You are faithful?" he went on,
+turning to Ambiorix. "You do not draw back?"
+
+The young chief returned a muttered assent.
+
+The older man, meanwhile, was in a miserable condition of indecision and
+terror. Unbeliever as he was, having long since given up the faith of his
+fathers, and never accepted the doctrine of the church but with the
+emptiest formality, he had not put from his breast the superstitious fear
+that commonly lingers when belief is gone. And he knew that the priest's
+threatened vengeance on himself was no empty boast. The strength of
+Druidism had passed, but it still had fanatics at its command, whose
+daggers would find their way sooner or later to his heart. The cold,
+cynical look with which he had entered on the conference had given place
+to mingled looks of rage, remorse, and fear.
+
+"You must have your own way," he muttered, sullenly.
+
+"My son," said the priest, in a tone which he made studiously cautious,
+"what is one life in comparison with the happiness and glory of our
+nation? You, I know, would shrink from no sacrifice, and, believe me," he
+added in a lower voice, for he had to play off the two rivals against each
+other, "believe me, whatever sacrifice you make shall not miss its
+reward."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                                  LOST.
+
+
+Carna was known all over the neighbourhood of the villa as the best and
+kindest of nurses, always ready to help in cases of sickness, and able to
+command the services of the household physician where her own medical
+skill was at fault. It was therefore with no surprise that the morning
+after the consultation, recorded in the last chapter, she was told that
+her help was wanted in a case of urgent need. The woman who had brought
+the message was a stranger. She was the daughter, she said, of an old
+woman living at Uricum, a small hamlet about four miles from the villa.
+She had happened to come the day before on a visit to her mother, and
+found her very ill; they had no medicines in the house, and indeed should
+not have known how to use them if they had. Would the lady come, and, if
+she thought proper, bring the physician with her? The place mentioned was
+on the limits of the district with which Carna was acquainted. It could
+only be approached by a path through the forest; and the girl had not
+visited it more than two or three times in her life. She had a vague
+remembrance, however, of the patient's name. On sending for the physician,
+it was found that he was out, having been called away, Carna was told, to
+a case which, he had said before starting, would probably occupy him for
+the greater part of the day. On hearing this, she made up her mind to
+start without waiting for him. The illness was very probably of a simple
+kind, though it might be violent in degree. Very likely it was a case in
+which the nurse would be more wanted than the doctor. She provided herself
+with two or three simple remedies which she learnt to employ in the
+ordinary maladies of the country, of which feverish colds were the most
+common, and started, taking with her as companion and protector a stately
+Milesian dog, or mastiff, who was always delighted to play the part of a
+guard in her country walks. Her own pet dog, a long-haired little
+creature, something of the Spanish kind, whom she had intended to leave at
+home, contrived to free himself from the custody to which he had been
+assigned, and stealthily followed her, cunningly keeping out of sight till
+the party had gone too far for him to be conveniently sent back. He then
+showed himself with extravagant gestures of contrition, was tenderly
+reproached, pardoned, and allowed to go on.
+
+During the walk the messenger was curiously silent, and answered all
+Carna's questions about her mother and her affairs in the very briefest
+fashion. All that could be got from her was that she lived on the main
+land, about twenty miles inland, in a northerly direction, and that since
+her marriage, now twenty years ago, she had seen very little of her
+mother. When they reached the outskirts of the hamlet she pointed out her
+mother's house, and, making an excuse that she had an errand for a
+neighbour, disappeared. Carna, seeing nothing but a certain surliness of
+temper, possibly only shyness, in her companion, went on without
+suspicion. She reached the house, and knocked at the door. There was no
+answer. She knocked again. Still all was silence. Looking a little more
+closely at the place she could see no signs of habitation, no smoke, for
+instance, making its way out of the thatch (for chimneys did not yet
+exist, at least, in the poorer dwellings). The next thing was to peep in
+at the window, a wooden lattice, which had been left partially open. The
+room into which she looked was perfectly bare.
+
+A suspicion rushed into her mind that she had been tricked, and that
+danger of some unknown kind was at hand. The strange sympathy which often
+makes the dog so quick to understand the feelings of man, made the big
+mastiff, Malcho, uneasy. With a low growl, showing uneasiness rather than
+fear or anger, he ranged himself at her side.
+
+As she stood considering what was next to be done, a party of six men, one
+of whom led a horse, issued from the wood which bordered the little garden
+of the cottage.
+
+"Can you tell me where I shall find one Utta, who, I am told, is sick, and
+wishful to see me? Can it be that I have mistaken the house?"
+
+"Utta, my lady," said one of the party, "is not to be found any more. She
+died a week since."
+
+"But," said Carna, with rising anger, "a woman, who said that she was her
+daughter, told me, not more than two hours ago, that she was sick, and
+desired to see me. Why have I been brought here for nothing?"
+
+"Pardon me, lady," returned the first speaker, in a tone in which respect
+and command were curiously blended, "but you have not been brought for
+nothing. You have a better work to do than ministering to a sick old
+woman."
+
+As he spoke he moved forwards. But he had not taken two steps before the
+great dog, who had been watching the speakers, we might say almost
+listening to their talk with the most eager attention, sprang furiously at
+him, and laid him prostrate on the ground. His companions rushed to rescue
+their leader from the dog and to seize the girl. They did not accomplish
+either of their objects with impunity. The gallant creature turned from
+one assailant to another with a strength and a fury which made him a most
+formidable antagonist, and he had inflicted some frightful wounds before
+he was made senseless by repeated blows from the weapons of the
+assailants. Nor was Carna overpowered without a struggle. Weapons she had
+none, except a little dagger, meant for use in needlework, which hung at
+her side; but she used this not without effect. She clenched her fist, and
+dealt two or three blows, of which her antagonists bore the marks upon
+their faces for days to come. Finally she wrenched herself from the grasp
+of the assailants as a last resource, and endeavoured to fly, but it was a
+hopeless effort. Before she had run more than a few yards she was
+overtaken. Her captors used no more violence than they could help.
+Probably had they been less unwilling to hurt her, she could not have
+resisted so long. Finding her so strong and so determined, they were
+obliged to bind her hands and feet; but they did this with all the
+gentleness compatible with an evident resolve to make her bonds secure. In
+the midst of her terror and distress Carna could not help observing with
+astonishment that the cords which they used were of silk. Then finding
+herself absolutely helpless, she said--
+
+"Do not bind me as though I were a slave. On the faith of a Christian, I
+will not attempt to escape."
+
+"Lady, we trust you," said the leader of the party, and at the same time
+directed one of his companions to unbind the ropes. "Be comforted," he
+went on; "we do not intend you harm; on the contrary, high honour is in
+store for you."
+
+  [Illustration: The Capture of Carna.]
+
+Carna was scarcely reassured by these mysterious words, but she had now
+recovered her calmness. Summoning up all her courage--and it was far beyond
+even the average of a singularly fearless race--she intimated to her
+captors that she was ready to follow them without further delay. They
+mounted her upon the horse, which, as has been said, one of them was
+holding, and started in a northerly direction. Two of the party had been
+so severely injured by the hound, that they were obliged to stay behind.
+One of the others held the bridle of the horse, and led him forward at an
+ambling pace; the others followed behind.
+
+The way of the party lay entirely along rough forest-paths which seemed
+from their appearance, often grown over as they were with branches and
+creepers, to be but seldom traversed. Night had fallen some hours before
+they reached the northern coast of the island. Their way had lain in a
+north-westerly direction, and they emerged near to the arm of the sea now
+known as Fishbourne Creek. Here they found a rowing boat in waiting.
+
+Carna's captors now handed over their charge to the boat party, which was
+under the command of the young chief whom we know by the name of Ambiorix.
+He received his prisoner with a dignified civility, made her as
+comfortable as he could with rugs and wraps in the stern of the boat, and
+then gave orders to start. The journey across the channel, which we now
+know as the Solent, occupied some hours, though the night was calm, and
+the ebbing tide mostly in the rowers' favour, the shortest route not being
+taken, but a north-westerly direction still followed. The morning was just
+beginning to break when the coast was reached near the spot where
+Lymington now stands. The party hurriedly disembarked, put the girl on a
+rough litter which they had with them in the boat, and carried her to a
+dwelling some half-mile inland, and surrounded by the woods which here
+almost touched high-water mark. Carna found a tolerable chamber allotted
+to her, where she was waited upon by an elderly woman who seemed bent on
+doing everything that she could for her comfort. The girl was of the
+elastic temper which soon recovers itself even under the most depressing
+circumstances. She had the wisdom, too, to feel that, if she was to help
+herself, she must keep up her strength to the very best of her power. She
+did not refuse the simple but well-cooked meal which her attendant served
+to her, after she had enjoyed the refreshment of a bath. And then
+overpowered by the fatigue of a journey which had lasted not much less
+than twenty-four hours, she sank into a deep sleep.
+
+It was dark when her attendant gently roused her and told her that in an
+hour she would be required to resume her journey, in which, as Carna heard
+with some pleasure, she was herself to be her companion. A start was made
+about three hours before midnight, and the journey was continued till an
+hour before dawn. This plan was followed till their destination was
+reached. The party was evidently careful to keep its movements secret.
+Their way lay as before, by woodland paths, leading them through the
+district now known as the New Forest. They travelled but slowly, more
+slowly indeed than they had done on the island, for the paths were still
+rougher, and, in fact, almost undistinguishable. Carna, too, was the only
+one of the company that had a horse, and her female attendant, who was
+neither young nor active, could manage but a few miles at a time. It was
+the morning of the second day after they had left the coast before they
+reached the edge of the great forest known as the Natanleah. Some five
+miles to the west lay Sorbiodunum, now Salisbury. This was a Roman town of
+some importance, and had of course to be avoided by the party, who,
+indeed, were anxious, as Carna could gather from a few scattered words
+that were let drop in her presence, as to the way in which the rest of
+their journey was to be accomplished. The country was open, cultivated,
+and comparatively populous, the inhabitants being, for the most part,
+thoroughly Latinized. Two Roman roads, too, had to be crossed before their
+destination was reached.
+
+The day was spent as usual in concealment and repose. An hour after
+nightfall the party started. They had now managed to procure another horse
+for Carna's attendant; and as the ground was fairly level, unenclosed,
+and, at that time of year, unencumbered by crops, they moved rapidly
+onwards. The moon had now risen, and Carna, for the first time, could at
+least see where they were going. She was still, however, at a loss to know
+what part of the country they had reached. At midnight a halt was called,
+and the leader of the party proceeded to blindfold the captive's eyes. But
+if he wanted to keep her in ignorance of the locality, he was a little too
+late. The girl's quick sight had caught a glimpse in the distance of the
+huge circle of earth walls, now known as Amesbury. She had never seen the
+place, but it was known to her in the chronicles of her people. There, as
+she had read with a patriotism which all her Roman surroundings had not
+been able to quench, her countrymen had more than once held at bay the
+legions of Rome. She knew roughly the situation of the famous camp of the
+Belgae, and she was sure that these massive fortifications, just seen for a
+moment in the moonlight, could be none others than those of which she had
+read so often.
+
+When the bandage was removed, she found herself in a chamber larger and
+more comfortably furnished than any she had hitherto occupied on her
+journey. Part of the palace of one of the old kings of the Belgae was still
+standing, and the travellers had taken up their quarters in it. The
+Amesbury camp was indeed as safe a place as they could have chosen. It was
+a spot which no Roman, much less a Briton living under Roman protection,
+would care to visit. The whole countryside believed that it was haunted by
+the spirits of the great chiefs and warriors who had been buried within
+its precincts, and of the slaves who had been killed to furnish them with
+service and attendance in the unseen world. The scanty remnant who still
+clung to the Druid faith found their account in encouraging these
+superstitions. More than one appearance had been arranged to terrify
+sceptical or curious persons who had been rash enough to visit the vast
+circle of embankments. For many years before the time of our story the
+enclosure had been untrodden except by the few who were in the secret of
+the Druid initiation. Here, then, the party waited securely with their
+prisoner till the time should come for the solemn visit to _Choir Gawr_,
+the Great Temple, known to us by the name of Stonehenge.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                            WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
+
+
+It was some time before the prolonged absence of Carna caused any alarm at
+the villa. When she was on one of her errands of kindness among the sick,
+it was difficult to say when she would return. But in the course of the
+afternoon the old physician returned, not a little wrath that he had been
+sent on a fool's errand. He had been told that an old farmer, living close
+to the north-west of the island some seven or eight miles from the villa
+was lying dangerously ill, and he had found the supposed patient in
+vigorous health, and not a little angry at being supposed to be anything
+else. This seemed to make things look somewhat serious. It was easy to
+guess that the trick played upon the physician had something to do with
+the message brought to Carna. It was remembered that the stranger had
+asked that he should accompany the girl; it was at least possible that she
+knew him to be out of the way, and that she would not have made the
+request had she not known it.
+
+While the Count, who had just returned from an inspection of his crews,
+was talking the matter over with his daughter and two of his officers who
+happened to be present, a new cause for suspicion and alarm presented
+itself. Carna's pet dog had found its way back with a bit of broken cord
+round its neck, and refused to be comforted, tearing and pulling at the
+dresses of the attendant, and saying, as plainly as a dog could say it,
+that there was something wrong, that it must be attended to at once, and
+that he would show them how to do it, if they would only follow him. When
+the rope round his neck was examined more closely, it was found that it
+had been gnawed in two. "He has been tied up and has broken away," said
+the Count, when this was pointed out to him. "And if I know the dear
+little thing," broke in AElia, "he would not have left his mistress as long
+as he could be near her. I am sure that some mischief has happened to
+her." And this was the general impression, though, who could have ventured
+on so audacious an outrage it was impossible to guess.
+
+What had happened, as the reader may possibly guess, was this. The dog had
+remained with Carna, showing his love, not by fierce resistance like that
+made by his powerful companion, for which he had the sagacity to know he
+had not sufficient strength, but by keeping as close to her as he could.
+After she had been made a prisoner, and while the party were preparing for
+a start, he had been tied to a tree. It had been intended that he should
+go with his mistress, for whom, as has been said, her captors showed
+throughout a certain consideration, but it so happened that in the bustle
+of departure he was forgotten. When he saw her go and found himself left
+behind, he set himself with all his might to gnaw the rope which fastened
+him to the tree. This task took him a long time, for he was an old dog,
+and his teeth were not as good as they had been. Finding himself free he
+started in headlong pursuit, easily tracking the party by the scent, but
+after a while he halted; a happy thought--is it possible that, in the teeth
+of all accumulated evidences, any one can deny that dogs can think?--a
+happy _thought_ then struck his mind, quickened to its utmost capacity of
+intelligence by love and grief. We may translate it into human language
+thus: "If I follow her and overtake her, what good can I do? but if I go
+back and make the people at home understand that something has happened to
+her, then I can help her to some purpose." This was his conclusion,
+anyhow. How he arrived at it only He knows who makes all things great and
+small, and "divideth to all severally as He will." He turned back, ran
+with breathless speed to the villa, and did all that could be done, short
+of speaking, to show that his dear mistress was in trouble.
+
+Meanwhile, however, much time had been lost, and the day was already far
+advanced. Anxious as was the Count to set out, he could not but perceive
+that haste might defeat the object of his journey. To start when the light
+was failing would probably be to miss important signs of what had
+happened, and, very possibly, to risk success. All preparations, however,
+were made. The men who were to form the pursuing party were chosen. As it
+may be supposed, there was no lack of volunteers. There was not a single
+being at the villa or its dependencies that would not have given a great
+deal and borne a great deal to see Carna again in safety. But it would be
+possible to take only a small number, if the pursuit was to be rapid and
+effective. Some of the most active of the crews of the war-ships
+accordingly were chosen, sailors having then as now a cheerful activity
+that makes them particularly valuable members of a land expedition. The
+Count added others from his own establishment, and he determined to
+conduct the party himself. It was arranged that it should start the
+following day, as soon as it should be sufficiently light.
+
+One of the slaves who was early astir on the following morning found fixed
+to an outside gate of the villa a document, rudely written and roughly
+folded, which bore the Count's address. It was found, when opened, to
+contain the following message, expressed in ungrammatical Latin, mingled
+with one or two British words:
+
+
+"_She whom you seek is not far off, and may be recovered by you if you are
+wise. If you attempt to regain her by force, she will be lost to you
+altogether. But if you wish to have her again with you safely and without
+trouble, send one whom you can trust with a hundred gold pieces at
+midnight three days after the receiving of this letter to the place to
+which she was yesterday fetched. Let your messenger go alone, and ask no
+questions then or afterwards._"
+
+
+"So she is held to ransom by a set of brigands," cried the Count, when he
+had read this document. "I should not have thought that such a thing had
+been possible in Britain. But the times have been getting worse and worse.
+We have long been weakening our hold upon the province, and we had better
+clear out altogether, if we cannot do better than this. But I suppose we
+have no choice. We must not endanger the dear girl's life. But now the
+question is about the money. I do not think that I have so much in gold in
+the house; but we can borrow somewhere what is wanted."
+
+"Perhaps," said the Count's secretary, whom he had summoned to consult
+with him, "the peddler can help you. He has the reputation of being richer
+than he looks."
+
+"Well," replied the Count, "that would be a simple way out of the
+difficulty, if it can be managed. Meanwhile, let me see what I have got of
+my own at hand."
+
+It was found that eighty gold pieces were forthcoming, and the peddler was
+summoned and asked whether he could make up the balance.
+
+"My Lord," said the man when he was brought into the Count's presence and
+had heard the story, "I will make no idle pretence of poverty. I have what
+you want, and it is entirely at your lordship's service. But will you let
+me see the letter in which this demand for ransom is made?"
+
+The Count handed him the document, and he examined it long and carefully.
+
+"My lord," he said, "the more I look at this, the more I am confirmed in
+certain suspicions which have been growing up in my mind. I have been
+thinking of this matter, and of other matters which seem to me to be
+connected with it all the night. It will take long to explain, and, of
+course, after all I may be wrong; still, I think you would do well to hear
+what I have got to say."
+
+The Count, who had previously had reasons for thinking well of the
+peddler's intelligence, bade him proceed.
+
+"In the first place," continued the man, "I think this letter is a blind.
+It is made to look like the work of some very rude and ignorant person.
+But the pretence is not well kept up. You will see, if you look at the
+handwriting a little more closely, that it is feigned. The writer was
+perfectly able to make it a great deal better than it is, if he had so
+chosen, and he has sometimes forgotten his part. Some of the letters, some
+even of the words, particularly of the small words, about which he would
+naturally be less careful, are quite well-formed. Now a really bad writer,
+I mean one who writes badly because he does not know how to write well, is
+always bad; every letter he forms is misshapen."
+
+The Count examined the document and acknowledged that this comment upon it
+was just. And he began to see too what was naturally more apparent to him,
+as an educated man, than it was to the peddler, that the style was hardly
+what would have been expected from an ignorant scribe.
+
+"What, then, is your conclusion?" he asked.
+
+"About that," returned the other, "I am not so certain. That this is a
+blind, as I said, I am sure; and this talk about the ransom consequently
+is a deception. 'Three days,' you see it says. That would be three days
+lost. No, my lord, it is not by robbers that this has been planned."
+
+"What then?" cried the Count, flushing a fiery red as a sudden thought
+occurred to him. "Carna is very beautiful. Do you think----"
+
+"No," said the peddler, "I think not. A lover would not lay so elaborate a
+plot as I fancy I can see here. I think the Lady Carna is a hostage, or----"
+
+He paused, and continued after a few minutes of silence. "I have much to
+piece together, and it would take long, and lose much precious time. That
+is the last thing that we should do. They have got too much start already.
+We must not let them improve it more than we can help. You will let me go
+with you, and I shall have leisure to put all I have got to say together
+without hindering you. But the sooner we are on their track the better."
+
+To this the Count readily agreed, and preparations for immediate departure
+were made. It was with difficulty that AElia could be persuaded that she
+must be left behind. But when it was pointed out to her that her presence
+must inevitably make the progress of the party more slow, and increase
+their anxieties, she reluctantly gave way. At the last moment an
+unexpected addition was made to the party in the person of the Saxon
+prisoner.
+
+"My lord," said the peddler, to whom the young man had communicated his
+earnest desire to be allowed to go; "it may seem a strange thing for me to
+say, but you cannot have a better helper in this matter than this young
+fellow. He is as strong as any horse, and as keen and intelligent a youth
+as I ever saw. And in this case too his wits will be doubly sharp, and his
+arm doubly strong, for he worships the very ground that the Lady Carna
+treads upon."
+
+"Very well," replied the Count, with a smile, "let him go. After all, it
+is quite as safe to take a lion about with one, as to leave him at home."
+
+The pet dog was, of course, a valued member of the expedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                               THE PURSUIT.
+
+
+The task of tracing the lost girl was at first easy enough. She and the
+stranger, who, it now seemed, had been sent to entrap her, had been seen
+proceeding in the direction mentioned in the message. The neighbourhood of
+the villa was mostly cultivated ground, and there had been people at work
+in the fields who had noticed the girl's well-known figure. Beyond this
+belt of cultivated country, which might have been about a mile broad,
+there was only one road which it was possible for her to have taken.
+Following this, and reaching the hamlet at the further end of which, as we
+have seen, the abduction had taken place, they still found themselves on
+the right track. A child had seen two people, one of them, she said, a
+pretty lady, pass by on the morning of the day before. The lady had
+smiled, and said a few words to her in her own language, and had given her
+a sweetmeat. Further on the traces of what they were looking for became
+still more evident. There were marks of struggle on the ground, for Carna,
+as we have seen, had not suffered herself to be taken without resistance;
+a button was found on the ground, which the peddler at once identified as
+one of his own selling. And a little off the path, the tree was found to
+which the dog had been tied, with the fragment of string still attached to
+it. Curiously enough, no traces of the great dog could be found.
+
+Nor did the next step in the pursuit delay them long. There were, it is
+true, three paths through the forest, which closed in the hamlet on every
+side except that by which the party had approached it. Carna's pet dog at
+once decided for the searchers which of the three they should follow. He
+discovered the scent very quickly, ran at the top of his speed along the
+path thus distinguished from the others for about a hundred yards, and
+then, coming back, implored the party, so to speak, by his gestures, that
+they should come with him. It was evident that the path had been traversed
+by a party of considerable size, whose tracks, the marks of a horse's
+hoofs among them, were still fresh in the ground, soft as it was with the
+winter rains. The dog was evidently satisfied that they were right, for he
+ran quietly on, now and then giving a very soft little whine. It wanted
+still an hour or so of sunset when the party emerged out of the forest
+upon the shore.
+
+Here it might have seemed at first all trace was lost. The tide had flowed
+and ebbed twice since the girl had been there, and had swept away all
+marks of footsteps. The dog too was no longer a guide. The poor little
+creature's distress indeed was pitiful, as he ran to and fro upon the
+shore with a plaintive whine.
+
+The Count asked his companions for their opinions.
+
+"Have they taken to the wood again, do you think? or have they crossed the
+water? they may have gone a mile or more along the shore and then entered
+the forest. In that case it seems hopeless to recover the track."
+
+"It is my opinion," said the peddler, "that they have crossed to the
+mainland; but it is only an opinion, and I have little or nothing to urge
+for it."
+
+Other members of the party had different views; and, on the whole, opinion
+was adverse to the peddler's view; and the Count was about to order a
+search in the direction of the wood further along the shore, when the
+attention of the party was arrested by a shout from the Saxon.
+
+The discussion had been carried on in a language which he had still some
+difficulty in understanding, and he had been pacing backwards and forwards
+along the shore, seemingly lost in thought, but really watching everything
+with that keen attention to all outward objects which is one of the
+characteristics of uncivilized man. It was thus that something caught his
+eye. He plunged his hand into one of the little rock-pools upon the shore,
+and drew it out. It was a small gold trinket, which the girl had dropped
+in the forlorn hope that it might be found. Its weight, for it was an
+almost solid piece of metal, had kept it in the place where it fell, and
+as the night and day had been uniformly calm, there had been no sufficient
+movement of the water to disturb it. With a cry of delight the Saxon held
+it up, and the Count recognized it at once.
+
+"Ah!" said the peddler, "I knew the fellow would be of use to us. If the
+Lady Carna is anywhere on the earth he would find her. This proves, my
+lord, that they have crossed the sea. They would certainly have not come
+down so far from the shore as this."
+
+This seemed too probable to admit of any doubt. Happily it had occurred to
+the Count that it would be well to have some kind of vessel at his
+command, and he had ordered a pinnace to start from the haven as soon as
+it could be got ready, and to coast along the shore of the island,
+watching for any signal that might be given. The land party had
+outstripped the ship, which, indeed, had not started till somewhat later.
+Still, it might be expected very soon. Meanwhile there was an opportunity
+for discussing the aspect which the affair now bore.
+
+After various opinions had been given, the Count turned to the peddler.
+"And what do you think of the affair?"
+
+"I have a notion," the man replied, "but it may be only a fancy--still I
+seem to myself to have a notion of what their purpose is."
+
+"Do you mean," pursued the Count, as the other paused, and seemed almost
+unwilling to speak, "do you mean that they think of holding her as a kind
+of hostage against me? Do they fancy that I shall not be able to act
+against them, and shall hinder my colleagues from acting, as long as she
+is in their power? or will they keep her as something to make terms about
+if they fail?"
+
+The other was still silent for a few minutes, and seemed to be collecting
+his thoughts. At last he said:
+
+"My lord, what I am going to tell you may seem as foolish as a dream. I
+should have gone on saying nothing about it, as I have said nothing about
+it hitherto, if things had not happened which makes it a crime for me to
+be silent any longer. You find it difficult to believe that a rebellion is
+possible among a nation which you have always looked upon as thoroughly
+subdued. But what will you say if I tell you that this rebellion has been
+preparing for generations, and that the Druids have been, and are, at the
+bottom of it."
+
+"Druids!" cried the Count, "I did not know that there were any Druids. I
+thought that the last of them had disappeared years ago."
+
+"Not so," replied the peddler; "the people who rule do not know what is
+going on about them. Now I have been among this people the greater part of
+my life. I have seen them, not as they show themselves to you, but as they
+are. You think that they are Christians--not very good Christians, perhaps,
+but still not worse than other people--and believing the Creeds, if they
+believe anything. Now I know for a certainty that many of them are no more
+Christians now than their fathers were three hundred and fifty years ago.
+I have seen sometimes, when no one knew that I saw, what they really
+worshipped. I have pieced together many little things. I have heard hints
+dropped unawares, and I know that there is a secret society, which has
+existed ever since the island was conquered, which has for its object the
+bringing back of the old faith. I could name--if things turn out as I
+expect they will, I will name--men whom you believe to be quiet,
+respectable citizens, but who are the heads of a conspiracy reaching all
+over Britain, against Rome and the Christian Church. You never see them
+except in the tunic and the cap, but they can wear on occasion the Druid's
+robe and crown."
+
+"But tell me," said the Count, with a certain impatience, "what has this
+got to do with my daughter?"
+
+"This, my lord," answered the other, "that if the Druids are making the
+great effort for which they have been preparing for no one knows how many
+years, they will begin it with all the solemnity that is possible--in a
+word, with the great sacrifice. This, I suppose, has not been practised
+for many generations, but it has not been forgotten. To speak plainly, I
+believe that the Lady Carna has been carried off for the victim."
+
+The Count staggered back as if he had been struck. "Impossible!" he cried.
+"Such things cannot be in Britain: and why should they fix upon her?"
+
+"For two reasons," said the peddler. "She is of royal race. You very
+likely do not know or care about such things. All Britons to you will be
+much about the same; but they do not forget it. Yes, though her father was
+nothing more than a sailor, she is descended from Cassibelan. And then she
+is a Christian. These are the two reasons why they have chosen her--this is
+what they honour her for, and this is what they hate her for."
+
+"But where," cried the Count, "where is this monstrous thing to be done?"
+
+"That," replied the other, "I think I know. It can hardly be done anywhere
+but at the Great Temple, the Choir Gawr, as they call it themselves."
+
+"And where is this Great Temple?"
+
+"About forty miles inland, in a nearly northerly direction. I have seen
+the place once, and I can find my way to it, I believe; but, to make sure,
+I will find a guide."
+
+"And when?"
+
+"At the full moon. I should say."
+
+"And how much does it want to the full moon now?"
+
+"It will be full moon to-morrow night."
+
+"We have to cross then to the mainland--and the galley is not in sight--to
+find a guide, and to travel forty miles, and all before to-morrow night.
+Well, it must be done. To think of these wretches murdering my dear
+Carna!"
+
+"Do not fear, my lord; we shall do it," said the peddler; but added, in a
+low voice, "if nothing happens."
+
+At that moment the galley came in sight. "That is right," cried the Count;
+"anyhow, we begin well; no time will be lost in getting across."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+                        THE PURSUIT (_CONTINUED_).
+
+
+The signal previously agreed was promptly hoisted by the party on shore,
+and as promptly observed and obeyed by the crew of the galley which had
+been for some time on the watch for some communication.
+
+"My lord," said the peddler, when they had embarked, "if I may suggest, we
+should not make a straight passage to the mainland from here, but steer
+for the north-west. Some eight miles beyond the western point of the
+island there is a river flowing into the sea, and a fishing village at the
+mouth. I know the place well, and have one or two good friends there. We
+shall get a guide there; I have in my mind the very man who will suit us
+well in that capacity. Indeed the river(35) itself would be no bad guide.
+The Great Temple lies but a few miles westward from its upper course. The
+road will be easy too along the valley, which is mostly clear of wood."
+
+"Then," said the Count, "the Temple cannot be far from Sorbiodunum. Why
+not make for the Great Harbour, and go by the Great Road to Venta(36) and
+from Venta to Sorbiodunum.(37) The travelling would be much easier."
+
+"I have thought of that," said the other, "but I think my plan the best.
+The distance is far less, and, what is quite as important, we shall not be
+expected to come that way. Depend upon it there will be an ambuscade laid
+somewhere along the road; for they will feel sure that we shall try and
+come that way."
+
+It was evident anyhow that as far as the sea voyage was concerned the man
+was right. The tide was ebbing slowly, and an east wind, already high and
+still rising, was blowing. To make way against wind and tide to the Great
+Harbour would be in any case a laborious business; and if the wind
+increased to a gale as it threatened to do, might become impossible. The
+galley had been chosen for swiftness rather than seaworthy qualities in
+rough weather, and might fail in the attempt to work back. On the other
+hand both wind and tide thoroughly favoured a westward voyage.
+
+Indeed she moved gaily on with a strong breeze, that in the phraseology of
+to-day would be called a half-gale, blowing due aft, and scarcely felt the
+heavy sea, seeming to leave the waves behind, as the rowers bent their
+backs to their work. The Saxon had now taken his place on one of the
+thwarts, and his gigantic strength, put it was evident with a will into
+the labour, seemed of itself to drive the galley forwards. In an
+incredibly short time the river mouth was reached, the galley stranded,
+and the guide, who, by great good luck, had just returned from a fishing
+voyage, engaged.
+
+But now an unforeseen obstacle opposed itself. A few specks of rain had
+been felt by the party as they went, and then as the day went on, began to
+change to snow. And now the wind almost suddenly died away, and at the
+same time the fall of snow grew heavier. The face of the guide fell.
+
+"My lord," he said, "I hear that your business is urgent and cannot wait.
+But I must tell you that the weather looks very bad, and that the
+prospects of our journey are almost as unfavourable as they can be. We
+shall have a very heavy fall of snow, and if the wind gets up again, and
+it begins to drift, we shall be blocked, and possibly unable to get either
+backwards or forwards."
+
+"We must go," said the Count, in a determined voice, "though the snow were
+over our heads."
+
+After a very short interval allowed for refreshment, the party started. At
+first the snow was no very serious obstacle; but after a couple of hours
+incessant and rapid fall, it began to make movement very difficult. The
+progress of the travellers grew slower and slower, and the Count began to
+calculate that at their present rate of speed they could but barely arrive
+in time. It was an immense relief when the sky almost suddenly cleared,
+and showed the moon still evidently somewhat short of the full. But the
+relief was only temporary. The clearer weather was the result of a change
+of wind, which had suddenly veered to a point westward of north and which
+was rapidly increasing in force. And now occurred the thing which the
+peddler's knowledge of the country and the weather had suggested to
+him--the snow began to drift. At first the party was hardly conscious of
+the change; indeed for a time the way was somewhat clearer and easier than
+before; then as they came to a slight depression, the snow was felt to be
+certainly deeper. Still three or four miles were traversed without any
+particular difficulty. Then the leader of the party suddenly plunged into
+a drift considerably above his knees. This obstacle, however, was
+surmounted, or rather avoided by making a _detour_. But still the wind
+rose higher and higher, and as it rose, not only did its force hinder the
+party's advance, but the drifts grew now formidably deep. Some of the
+party began to lag behind; the Count himself, who was past his prime,
+began to acknowledge to himself, with an agony of anger and fear in his
+heart, that his strength was failing. Still they struggled on, leaving one
+or two of the strugglers to make the best of their way back, or, it might
+well be, to perish in the snow, till about half the distance was
+traversed. They had now reached a little hamlet,(38) on the outskirts of
+which there happened to be a small villa. It was shut up, the proprietor
+chancing to be absent, but it was put at the disposal of the party by the
+person who was in charge. Fires were hastily lighted, and the travellers,
+most of whom had almost reached the end of their powers of endurance, were
+refreshed with warmth and food.
+
+The Count held a council of war. The situation indeed seemed nothing less
+than desperate. Two out of the party of twenty-five--their numbers had been
+increased by a contingent taken from the crew of the galley--were missing.
+They had fallen out on the march, and it was too probable that they had
+perished in the snow. Of the remainder but four or five seemed fit for any
+further exertion. By far the freshest and most vigorous of them was the
+Saxon. The fatigues of the night had scarcely told on his gigantic
+strength. The Italians, and even the Britons, natives of the southern
+parts of the island, and little accustomed to heavy falls of snow, looked
+at him with astonishment. As for him, he was full of impatience at the
+delay.
+
+The Count was in an agony of doubt and distress. His own strength had
+failed so completely that all his spirit--and there was no braver man in
+the armies of Rome--could not have dragged him a hundred yards further. And
+he saw that many of his followers were in little better case. And yet to
+give up the pursuit! to leave Carna, the sweetest, gentlest of women, dear
+to him as a daughter of his own, to this hideous death! The thought was
+too dreadful.
+
+"When do they perform their horrible rites?" said the Count to the
+peddler.
+
+"When the full moon shines through the great south entrance of the
+Temple," was the answer.
+
+"And when will that be?"
+
+"To-night, and about an hour before midnight, as far as I can guess."
+
+"And what must be done? What is your advice?"
+
+"There seems to me only one thing possible. Those who can must press on. I
+count a great deal on the Saxon. His strength and endurance are such as I
+never saw in any man, and they now seem to be increased manyfold. Anything
+that can be done by mortal man, he, you may be sure, will do. Our guide
+too has happily something still left in him; and there are three or four
+others who are equal to going on after they have had a little rest. I
+should say, let them get two or three hours' sleep, and then push on to
+Sorbiodunum. That is not far from here, and they can easily reach it
+before noon to-day, after allowing a fair time for rest. Perhaps they may
+get some help there, though the place is not what it was. It is some years
+since I paid it a visit, and then I found it in a very declining
+condition, so much so that it was not worth my while to go there again.
+There were not more than two or three Roman traders there, and they made
+but a very poor living out of their business."
+
+This seemed to be the best course practicable under the circumstances. The
+Saxon, with whom the peddler held a long conversation, was for pressing on
+at once, and would almost have gone alone, but for want of a guide. When
+he understood the state of the case he yielded to what he perceived to be
+a necessity, and throwing himself down on the hearth was almost
+immediately buried in a profound sleep, an example which was soon followed
+by the rest of the party, the Count and the peddler excepted.
+
+Not more than two hours could be allowed for rest. The guide and the three
+sailors who had volunteered to go on were roused with no little
+difficulty; the young Saxon was wide awake in a moment. The party partook
+hastily of a meal of bread, meat, and hot wine and water, which the
+peddler had been busying himself in preparing while they slept, and, after
+stowing away some provisions for the day, started on their journey about
+two hours before noon.
+
+Sorbiodunum was reached without much difficulty. But there a great
+disappointment awaited them. The peddler's anticipations were more than
+fulfilled, for the town was almost deserted. Only one Roman remained
+there. He was an old man who had married a British wife, and who
+cultivated a farm which had descended to her from her father. When the
+guide handed to him the letter which the Count had addressed to the
+authorities of the town, begging for any help which they could give in
+saving the liberty and life of a person very dear to himself, he shook his
+head. When he heard the whole of the guide's story, he became still more
+depressed.
+
+"Authorities!" he said, "there are no authorities. I am the only Roman
+left in the place, and I do not know where to look for a single man to
+help you. As for the Great Temple on the plain there is not a creature
+here who would dare to go near it. They think it haunted by spirits and
+demons. And indeed there _are_ strange stories about it. To tell you the
+plain truth, I should not much care to go there myself. No; I see nothing
+to be done. But I will ask my wife. Perhaps her woman's wit will help us."
+
+Bidding the party be seated, he left the room in which he had received
+them, and entered the kitchen, where his wife was busy with her domestic
+affairs.
+
+In about half an hour he returned. His expression was now a shade more
+cheerful than before.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "I was right about the woman's wit. She _has_ thought of
+something. You must know that my wife is a very devout Christian--for
+myself I am a Christian too, but I must own that I don't see so much in it
+as she does--and that she has brought up our children in that way of
+thinking. Now, our eldest son is a priest in a village some seven miles
+hence, and his people are devoted to him. If there is any one in this
+neighbourhood who can give you the help you want it is he. He has only got
+to say the word and his people will follow him to the end of the world.
+Here is a proof of it. Four years ago a strong party of Picts came this
+way, ravaging and plundering wherever they went. There were not more than
+fifty of them, but the people were as terrified as if they were so many
+demons. If you think this place a desert now, what would you have thought
+it then? There was not a single person left in it--at least a single person
+that could help himself--for the cowards had the meanness to leave some of
+the old and the sick behind them. But my son was not going to let the
+robbers have it all their own way--you know he has something of the Roman
+in him--and he went about talking to his people in such a way, that they
+plucked up spirit, and fell on the Picts one night when they were
+expecting nothing less than an attack, and gave such an account of them,
+that the country has not been troubled since with the like of them. Well,
+as I say, he is the man to help you. I have my younger son here working
+with me on the farm; he is just such another as his elder brother, and
+would have been a priest too if he had not felt it to be his duty to stay
+and help me. I will bring him in, and he shall hear the whole story and
+carry it to his brother. That is the best hope that I can give you, and I
+really think that it is worth something. What I can do for you does not go
+beyond hospitality, but to that you are heartily welcome. You have some
+hours before you. If you start an hour after sunset you will be in ample
+time. And, in fact, you had better not start before, because the less that
+is seen of your movements the better. I don't know that any of the people
+about here are infected with the Druid superstition, though I have had one
+or two hints to that effect, hints which what you have just told me helps
+to explain. But, in any case, the more secret you are the better. Besides,
+my son's Party cannot reach the Great Temple till long after dark.
+Meanwhile take some rest and refreshment, for, believe me, you have
+something before you."
+
+This advice was so obviously right, that the guide, who was in command of
+the party, had no hesitation in accepting it.
+
+About six o'clock another start was made. At first, though the weather
+looked threatening, no serious obstacle presented itself. The snow was
+somewhat deep on the ground, but there were no serious drifts on their
+way, a way which, indeed, for some distance from the town lay under the
+leeward side of a wood. But they had not gone more than a mile and a half
+when a disastrous change in their circumstances occurred. The wind rose
+almost suddenly to the height of a gale, and brought with it a fall of
+snow, separated by the rapid movement of the air into a very fine powder,
+and working its way through the clothing of the traveller with a
+penetrating power which nothing could resist. Still, benumbed as they
+were, almost blinded by the icy particles which were whirled with all the
+force of the tempest against their faces, they struggled on for more than
+half the distance which lay between them and their destination. Then the
+three sailors cried out simultaneously that they must halt, and the guide
+unwillingly owned that he must follow their example. Only the Saxon was
+left to go on, and he, with a gesture which it was impossible to mistake,
+declared his intention of persevering. Just at that moment the clouds
+parted in the east, and the full moon showed the landscape with a singular
+clearness, its most conspicuous feature being the gigantic stones of the
+Great Temple, which could be seen about two miles to the northward. The
+guide pointed to them, and the Saxon, when they caught his eye, leapt
+forward with an energy which nothing seemed to have abated, and, with a
+gesture of farewell to his companions, plunged into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                            THE GREAT TEMPLE.
+
+
+The Great Temple, or Stonehenge as it is now called, though its decay had
+already commenced, still preserved the form which we have now some
+difficulty in tracing. There was an outer circle consisting of thirty huge
+triliths,(39) the greater part of which were still standing in the
+position in which the unsparing labour of a long past generation had
+placed them. Within this there was a circle of forty single stones, this
+circle again containing two ovals. One of these ovals was composed of five
+triliths, even larger than those which stood in the outer circle; the
+other was made of nineteen upright stones. At the upper end of this stood
+the altar, a low, flat structure of blue marble.
+
+All the preparations for the sacrifice were complete when Cedric--for we
+may as well henceforth call the Saxon by the name which he bore among his
+countrymen--reached the spot. Carna was being led by two of the subordinate
+priests to the altar, where Caradoc stood, robed for the rite which he was
+about to perform. The sky had now again cleared, and the moon, riding high
+in the heavens, poured a flood of silver light through the south entrance,
+and fell on the priest's impassive face as he stood fronting the light,
+while it glittered on his crown of gold and gave a dazzling brilliancy to
+his white robe. In his hand he held a knife of flint, with which it was
+the custom to give the first blow to the victim, though innovation had so
+far prevailed even in the Druid worship that the sacrifice was completed
+with a weapon of steel. But this latter lay at his feet, and was concealed
+by the fall of his robe. It was not, indeed, supposed to be used. The
+attendants, who were also dressed in white, were rough and brutal
+creatures, selected for their office because they could be trusted to
+carry out any orders without remonstrance or hesitation. Yet even they
+seemed touched by the girl's dignity and courage, as she walked with head
+erect and unfaltering gait between them. Had she hesitated, or hung back,
+or struggled, doubtless they would not have hesitated to drag her to the
+altar; but walking as she did with a proud resignation to her fate, they
+showed her a rude respect by letting their hands rest as lightly as
+possible, so as to give no sense of constraint, upon her arms. On either
+side of the priest stood Martianus and Ambiorix. The younger man had
+braced himself to what, fanatical patriot as he was, was evidently a
+hateful task. He looked steadfastly and unflinchingly at the scene; but
+his face was deadly pale, and the blood trickled down his chin as he bit
+his lip in the unconscious effort to maintain a stern composure. Martianus
+was overwhelmed with shame and horror. If there was one softer heart among
+the "stern, black-bearded kings" who of old in Aulis watched the daughter
+of Agamemnon die, he must have looked and felt as Martianus did in the
+Great Temple that night. Cursing again and again in his heart the ambition
+which had led him to mix himself up with this fanatical crew, but too much
+a craven at heart to protest, he stood trembling with agitation, mostly
+keeping his eyes shut or fixed upon the earth, but sometimes compelled by
+a fascination which he could not resist to lift them, and take in the
+horror of the scene. Each of the chiefs had an armed attendant standing
+behind him. Besides these there were no spectators of the scene, though
+guards were disposed at each of the entrances which led to the central
+shrine. Even these had been kept in ignorance of what was to be done, and
+they were too deeply imbued with the traditional awe felt for the Great
+Temple to think of playing the spy.
+
+  [Illustration: The Sacrifice.]
+
+The priest, after observing the position of the moon, and seeing that the
+shadows fell now almost straight towards the north, began the invocation
+which was the preliminary of the sacrifice. It was for this that the Saxon
+was waiting, as he stood in the shadow of one of the huge triliths. He
+crept silently out of his concealment, entirely unobserved, so intent were
+all present on the scene that was being enacted. His first object was the
+priest. This had been laid down for him in the instructions given him by
+the peddler before he started; and indeed his own instinct would have
+dictated the act. The priest put out of the way, the sacrifice would, for
+the time at least, be stopped; for so high a solemnity could not be
+performed but by one of the very highest rank. Time would thus be gained,
+and with time anything might happen. One firm thrust between the shoulders
+sent the Saxon's sword right through the priest's body, so that the point
+stood out an inch or two from the priest. Without a cry the man fell
+forward, deluging with his blood the stone of sacrifice. The ministrants
+who stood on either side of Carna were paralysed with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could recover themselves Cedric had dragged his weapon
+out of the priest's body, sheathed it, and thrown himself on them. Two
+blows, delivered almost simultaneously by fists that had almost the force
+of sledge hammers, levelled them both senseless to the ground. He then
+caught the girl up in his arms. A full-grown woman--and Carna had a stature
+beyond the average of her sex--is no light burden, but Cedric's strength
+was, as has been said before, exceptionally great, and now it seemed
+doubled by the fierce excitement of the hour. To escape with her by
+running was, he knew, impossible. For such a task no fleetness of foot, no
+strength, would be sufficient. To attempt would be to expose himself to
+certain death, and Carna to as certain re-capture. But his quick eye had
+caught sight of a place where he might hold out, at least for a time,
+against a much superior strength of assailants. One of the triliths had
+partially fallen, the huge cross-stone having been so displaced that it
+formed an angle with one of its supports, and so afforded a protection to
+the back and sides of a fighter who managed to ensconce himself in the
+niche, and who would so have only his front to protect. Setting Carna
+behind him, and making her understand by a movement of the hand that she
+must crouch as low as she could upon the ground, he prepared to hold his
+position. The odds against him were not so heavy as might have been
+supposed. The two ministrants were unarmed. Of the four left, the two
+chiefs and their attendants, one was a middle-aged man, who had never been
+expert in arms; and who, whatever his skill and strength, would scarcely
+have cared to use them in such a conflict. Ambiorix, indeed, was of
+another temper. The gloomy, fanatical doggedness with which he had looked
+on at the preparations for the sacrifice gave way to a fierce delight when
+he saw an enemy before him with whom he could cross swords. In his inmost
+soul he had hated the thought of the sacrifice; but yet the man who had
+hindered it, and with it the weal of Britain, was a foe whom it would be
+pleasure to smite to the ground. But fierce as was his temper, it was full
+of chivalry. He would not dishonour himself by bringing odds against an
+enemy. Signing to the armed attendants to stand back, he advanced to
+challenge Cedric. The Saxon, in height and strength, was more than a match
+for his antagonist. But he was hampered by his position, especially by the
+presence of the girl. The weapon, too, with which he was armed--a short
+Roman sword--was strange to him. He thought with regret of his own good
+steel, an heirloom come down to him from warriors of the past, and
+inscribed with magic Runic rhymes, that was then lying at the bottom of
+the Channel. The change, however, was not really so much to his
+disadvantage as he thought. The stones behind him would have hindered the
+long sweeping blow which made the great Saxon swords especially
+formidable. Altogether it might have seemed as if Cedric must inevitably
+be worsted in the struggle. The British chief, though he hated the customs
+and even the civilization of the Roman conquerors, had not disdained to
+learn what they could teach him in the use of arms. They were acknowledged
+masters in that, and he accepted the maxim that it was right to be
+instructed even by one's bitterest enemy. Accordingly he knew all that a
+fencing master could teach him; and all the Saxon's agility, quickness of
+eye, and strength, could not counterbalance the advantage. Before many
+minutes had passed Cedric was bleeding from two wounds, neither of them
+very serious, but sufficient to hamper and weaken him. One had been
+inflicted on the sword-arm, and threatened to disable him altogether
+before long. He felt this himself, and took his resolve. "The curse of
+Thor upon this foolish toy!" he cried, in his native tongue, as he threw
+the short sword straight in the face of his enemy; and followed up the
+strange missile by leaping on his antagonist, both of whose arms he
+fastened down to his sides with a supreme exertion of strength. Gigantic
+strength, indeed, was the only thing which gave so desperate a resort the
+chance of success, and this might well have failed, if the adversary had
+not been entirely unprepared for the movement. Once held in this
+tremendous clasp, Ambiorix was as helpless as a kid in the hug of a bear.
+Cedric fairly lifted him off his feet, and threw him backwards. His head
+struck one of the great stones in his fall, and he lay senseless and
+helpless on the ground.
+
+The struggle was over so quickly that the attendants had no time to
+interfere; nor when it was finished did they feel any great eagerness to
+engage so formidable a champion. Still they advanced, and Martianus, who
+felt himself unable to maintain any longer in the face of what had
+happened his attitude of inaction, advanced with them. By this time Carna,
+who had been almost stunned by the rapid succession of startling
+incidents, had recovered her self-possession. She lifted herself from the
+ground, and stepped between Cedric and the three antagonists who stood
+confronting him.
+
+"Martianus," she cried, "what are you doing here? What mixes you up with
+these horrible doings--you, my father's friend, you, a Christian man?"
+
+The Briton stood silent, cursing in his heart the hideous enterprise which
+had not even the poor merit of success. He was spared the necessity of
+speaking by an exclamation from one of the ministrants.
+
+"See!" cried the man, "there is a party coming. It is not likely that they
+are friends--let us be off."
+
+And indeed the moonlight clearly showed a number of persons who were
+rapidly advancing up one of the great avenues.
+
+Martianus did not hesitate.
+
+"You are right," he said to the man, "we must go. The priest's body must
+be left. It is useless to cumber ourselves with the dead; we shall have as
+much as we can do to escape ourselves, but take the sacred things. They at
+least must not fall into the hands of the enemy. And you," he went on,
+addressing himself to the two attendants, "take up your master and carry
+him off. We have something of a start, and it is possible that they may
+not pursue us."
+
+His directions were at once obeyed. The priest's body was stripped of its
+robes and ornaments. Ambiorix, who still lay unconscious on the ground,
+was carried by the united efforts of the soldiers and ministrants, and the
+whole party had started in the direction of Amesbury before the
+new-comers, who proved to be the priest Flavius, with a party of his
+people, reached the Temple.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                           THE BRITISH VILLAGE.
+
+
+The British priest's home was at a populous village on the banks of the
+Avon, now known by the name of Netton, and as this was some miles nearer
+than Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the party whom his
+opportune arrival had rescued from danger. Once arrived there, it would be
+easy to send a messenger to the town, and await further instructions. A
+litter was hastily constructed for Carna, who, though her spirits and
+courage were still unbroken, was somewhat exhausted by excitement and
+fatigue. The Saxon's wounds were dressed and bound up by the priest, who
+united some knowledge of medicine and surgery to his other
+accomplishments, and was indeed scarcely less well qualified for the cure
+of bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor looked somewhat grave when he
+saw how deep the sword-cuts were, and how much blood had been lost, but
+Cedric made light of his injuries, scorned the idea of being carried, and
+indeed seemed to find no difficulty in keeping close to Carna's litter on
+the homeward journey.
+
+Netton--we are unable to give the British name of the village--was reached
+some time before dawn. At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himself
+with two or three hours' sleep, was ready to perform his office at his
+little church. It was the first day of the week, and the building was
+crowded. It was an oblong building, with a semicircular eastern end, that
+resembled that kind of chancel which is known by the name of an apse. It
+had been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied the shape that
+seems to have been used in the earliest Christian buildings, that of the
+_schola_ or meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations. The body of
+the building was of timber. The eastern end, or sanctuary, had a little
+more pretension to ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung with
+somewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with symbolic designs.
+
+Few of the party which had accompanied the priest the night before were
+prevented by their fatigue from being present. The Britons were always a
+devout people, and in Netton their priest had gained such an influence
+over them, that they were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.
+Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but the priest's wife--he had
+followed the usual practice of the British Church in marrying before
+ordination--had absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion. Cedric,
+who would otherwise have been present in whatever part of the building was
+open to an unbaptized person, was still buried in a profound slumber. The
+service was in Latin, a language of which most if not all the worshippers
+knew enough to be able to follow the prayers. Such portions of the
+Scriptures as were read were accompanied by the priest with occasional
+expositions in the British language; and the sermon, except the text,
+which was in Latin, and taken from the recently published Vulgate of St.
+Jerome, was wholly in that tongue. The preacher's text was from the
+Psalms, "Quomodo dicitis animae meae, Transmigra in montem sicut
+passer?"(40) and was mostly concerned with the troubles of the time. He
+had in an uncommon degree the national gift of eloquence, and stirred the
+hearts of his hearers to their inmost depths. He warned them that
+troublous times were approaching, such as neither they nor their fathers
+had seen were approaching, and that they would have to resist unto blood
+for the faith into which they had been baptized.
+
+"Antichrist," he cried, adapting to the day, as Christian preachers have
+done in every age, the language of the apostles--"Antichrist is at hand!
+You see him in these heathen hosts who are threatening you on every side;
+these Saxon pirates from the east, who are ravaging our shores; these
+Pictish ravagers from the north, who every year are penetrating further
+and further into the land. Yes," he added, with a telling reference to the
+event of the night before, "and even in apostates of British blood, who
+have preserved in your midst the hideous superstitions from which our
+ancestors turned to worship the blessed Christ; and as it was in the days
+of the blessed Paul, so is it now: 'He that letteth will let till he be
+taken out of the way,' The Roman power has kept these forces in check, but
+it will keep them no more. The time is short. They are gathering every day
+in greater strength, and you must gird yourselves to meet them."
+Therefore, he went on, they must be strong and quit them like men. They
+must gird on them, and make complete in every point, their spiritual
+armour--the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Divine Word, the
+all-covering shield of faith; nor must they forget the temporal weapons
+with which the outward enemies who assail the body must be met. "He that
+hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one," cried the preacher,
+in his final apostrophe to his people, "and he will find that as his day
+so shall his strength be, and that the Lord can deliver by few as by many,
+Gideon's three hundred, as by the eight hundred thousand men that drew
+sword in Israel."
+
+Wrought by the eloquence of the orator to an almost incontrollable
+excitement, the whole congregation sprang to their feet, as if they were
+asking to be led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden change from
+the stirring tone of the trumpet to the sweet music of the flute, the
+preacher touched another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never quite
+broken with tears, he besought them to cleanse their hearts; he reminded
+them that the armies of the Lamb of God must be clothed in the white robe
+of righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak, charity to the
+fallen, were as needed for Christ's soldiers as steadfastness and courage,
+till many a cheek was wet with tears of contrition and repentance.
+
+In the course of the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger was despatched to
+Sorbiodunum. By the time he reached that town the Count and his party had
+arrived, excepting one who had been left behind, still too exhausted by
+his forced march to move. Some, too, had been sent back in the hope that
+they might not be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce been
+left behind during the journey through the snow. As there was now no
+immediate necessity of haste, AElius allowed his followers to rest and
+refresh themselves for the remainder of the day at Sorbiodunum. The
+following morning he went on to Netton, where he found, to his great
+delight, that Carna had apparently suffered no harm from her perilous
+adventures. His gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of words to
+express. Though it somewhat hurt his Roman pride that a barbarian should
+ever have the strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not suffer
+his vexation to take anything from the hearty warmth of his thanks. Cedric
+received them with the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which both Britons
+and Italians could not help resenting in their hearts, while they
+reluctantly admired his surpassing strength.
+
+Three days were spent in Netton with much comfort to the party, the priest
+and his people showing them as liberal an hospitality as their means
+admitted, and refusing the recompense which the Count almost forced upon
+them.
+
+"Take something for your poor," said AElius, when his arguments were
+exhausted.
+
+"My people," answered the priest, "must not lose one of the most precious
+privileges of their Christian life, the sweet compulsion of having to
+minister to the necessities of those who want their help."
+
+"Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your church," the Count went on.
+
+The good man hesitated for a moment. His church was dear to his heart, and
+he would gladly have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could make it.
+
+"My lord," he replied, after his brief hesitation, "in happier times, and
+in another place, I would not refuse your generous offer. But now the
+poorer we are the better. I should like to see our altar-vessels of gold,
+but it would not be well to tempt the barbarians to a deadly sin, and to
+expose Christian lives to worse peril than that they now stand in, by such
+treasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to be spread abroad.
+Our chalices, and flagons, and patens are now of lead, thinly covered for
+decency's sake with silver, and they are of no value to any but those who
+use them. No, my lord, leave our church with at least such safety as
+poverty can give. But there are places in the world, I would fain believe,
+though indeed in these days I scarce know where they are, where Christian
+men worship God in security, and where the treasures of the church are
+safe from robbery. Let your gift be given there, when you find the
+occasion. And if you will let me know the place I shall be happy with
+imagining it, without the anxious care of its custody."
+
+With this answer the Count was compelled to be content, till at least next
+morning, by which time Carna's ready wit had suggested that the priest
+could hardly refuse a gift of books.
+
+"My lord," said the good man, when the Count renewed his offer in its
+fresh shape on the following day, "your determined generosity has overcome
+me. Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my people's. I
+sometimes feel that they are starved, or at the best ill-fed with
+spiritual food. I can speak to them of their every-day duties, but I
+cannot build them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself, and
+where is the knowledge to come from? Of books I have none but my Bible and
+my Service-book, and two small books of homilies. If I had some of the
+commentaries and homilies of the two great doctors of our Church,
+Hieronymus(41) and Augustine, I should be well content. I have heard of
+the great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, John the Golden
+Mouth,(42) but, alas, I cannot read Greek."
+
+"You shall have them as soon as they can be got," said the Count.
+
+In the course of the day the search party sent back from Sorbiodunum
+returned. They had found one of the stragglers still alive, and had
+brought him on to the village where the first halt had been made. There he
+was being carefully tended, but there was no chance of his being restored
+to health for many weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terrible
+account to give. Only a few mangled remains could be discovered, the poor
+creatures having been manifestly devoured by wolves. All that could be
+hoped was that they had expired before they were attacked.
+
+The Count had now nothing to detain him, and as he was for many reasons
+anxious to be at home, where a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him,
+he determined to start on the following day. His route was first to
+Sorbiodunum. There he would be on the main road leading to Venta
+Belgarum.(43) From Venta, by following another main road he and his party
+would make their way easily to the Camp of the Great Harbour.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                                THE PICTS.
+
+
+The journey to Venta Belgarum was accomplished in safety, and, by dint of
+starting long before sunrise, in a single day. The distance was a little
+more than twenty miles, and the road, which was so straight that the end
+of the journey might almost have been seen from the beginning, lay almost
+through an open country. This was favourable for speed, as there was
+little or no need to reconnoitre the ground in advance. It was just after
+sunrise when the party reached the spot where the traces of the great camp
+of Constantius Chlorus may still be seen. It had even then ceased to be
+occupied, but the soldiers' huts were still standing, and the avenues,
+though overgrown with grass, looked as if they might easily be thronged
+again with all the busy life of a camp. The Count called a halt for a few
+minutes, and pointed out the locality to Carna.
+
+"See," said he, with a sigh, "there Constantius had his camp, the great
+Constantius to whom we owe so much."
+
+"And was Constantine himself ever there?" cried the girl, to whom the
+first Christian Emperor was the object of an admiration which we, knowing
+as we do more about him, can hardly share.
+
+"I doubt it," returned the Count. "Constantius made it and held it during
+his campaigns with Allectus. But, my child, I was thinking not of its
+past, but of its future. It will never be occupied again."
+
+"Why should it?" exclaimed the girl, almost forgetting in her excitement
+that she was speaking to a Roman. "Why should it? Why should not Britain
+be happy and safe and free without the legions? Forgive me, father," she
+added, remembering herself again; "I am the last person in the world who
+should be ungrateful to Rome."
+
+"I don't blame you," said the Count, and as he looked at the maiden's
+flashing eyes and remembered how bravely she had gone through terrors
+which would have driven most women out of their senses, he thought to
+himself--"Ah, if there were but a few thousand men who had half the spirit
+of this woman in them, the end might be different. My child," he went on,
+"I would not discourage you, but there are dark days before this island.
+She has enemies by sea and land, and I doubt whether she has the strength
+to strike a sufficient blow for herself. I am thankful that you will be
+safely away before it comes."
+
+Carna was about to speak, but checked herself. It was not the time she
+felt to speak out her heart.
+
+For some time after this little or nothing of interest occurred; but as
+the party approached within a few miles of Venta the scene underwent a
+remarkable change. The road had hitherto been almost entirely deserted; it
+was now thronged: but the face of every passenger was turned towards
+Venta, not a single traveller was going the other way. Every by-way and
+bridle-path and foot-path that touched the road contributed to swell the
+throng. In fact, the whole countryside was in motion. And the fugitives,
+for their manifest hurry and alarm proclaimed to be nothing less, carried
+all their property with them. Carts laden with rustic furniture, on the
+top of which women and children were perched, waggons loaded with the
+harvest of the year, droves of sheep and cattle helped to crowd the road
+till it was almost impassable. And still the hurrying pace, the fearful
+anxious glances cast behind showed that it was some terrible danger from
+which this timid multitude was flying. For some time, so stupified with
+fear were the fugitives, AElius could get no rational answer to the
+questions which he put. "The Picts! The Picts! They are upon us!" at last
+said a man whom a sudden catastrophe that brought a great pile of
+household goods to the ground, had compelled to halt, and who was glad to
+get the help of the Count's attendants to restore them, all help from
+neighbours being utterly out of the question when all were selfishly
+intent on saving their own lives and property. When his property had been
+set in its place again the man thanked the Count very heartily, and was
+collected enough to tell all he knew.
+
+"There is no doubt that the Picts are not far off. I have not seen
+anything of them myself, thank heaven! but I could see the fires last
+night all along the sky to the north."
+
+"Have they ever been here before?"
+
+"Never quite here. You see, sir, the camp at Calleva(44) kept them in
+check. A party did slip by, I know, some little way to the westward, and I
+was glad to hear they got rather roughly handled. But, generally, they did
+not like to come anywhere near the camps. But now these are deserted, and
+there is nothing to keep them back."
+
+"But why don't you defend yourselves?"
+
+"Ah, sir, we have not the strength, nor even the arms. You are a Roman, I
+see, and, if I may judge, a man in authority, and you know that I am
+speaking the truth. You have not allowed us to do anything for ourselves,
+and how can we do it now at a few months' notice?"
+
+The Count made no answer; indeed, none was possible.
+
+"And you expect to find shelter at Venta?"
+
+"I don't say that I expect it, but it is our only chance. The place has at
+least walls."
+
+"And any one to man them?"
+
+"There should be some old soldiers, but how many I cannot say; anyhow,
+scarcely enough for a garrison."
+
+When the Count learned the situation he felt that his best course would be
+to press on with his party to Venta with all the speed possible. The chief
+authority of the town was in the hands of a native, who had the title of
+Head of the City.(45) It was possible that this officer might be a man of
+courage and capacity; but it was far more likely that he would be quite
+unequal to the emergency. In either case the Count felt that his advice
+and personal influence might be of very great use. Even the twenty stout
+soldiers whom he had with him would be no inconsiderable addition to the
+fighting force of the place. Accordingly he gave orders to his followers
+to quicken their pace. Fortunately the greater part of the fugitives was
+behind them; still it was no easy task for the party to make its way
+through the struggling masses of human beings and cattle, and it was past
+sunset when they rode up to the gates of Venta.
+
+It was evident that the bad news had already arrived. The gates were
+closely shut, while the walls were crowded with spectators anxiously
+looking northwards for signs of the approaching enemy. The porter was at
+first unwilling to admit the strangers, peering anxiously through the
+wicket at them, and declaring that he must first consult his superior. One
+of the spectators on the wall happened, however, to recognize the Count,
+and the party was admitted without further question, and rode up at once
+to the quarters of the Commander of the Town.
+
+If he had hoped to find an official with whom it would be possible or
+profitable to co-operate in the _Princeps_ of Venta, the Count was very
+much disappointed. He was an elderly man, who had realized a fair fortune
+by contracting for the provisioning of the army in Southern Britain, and
+had done very fairly as long as he had nothing to do but execute the
+orders of the military governor. Left to himself he was absolutely
+helpless. Indeed he had been taking refuge from his anxieties in the
+wine-cup, and the Count found him at least half intoxicated. At the moment
+of the party's arrival the poor creature had reached the valorous stage of
+drunkenness, and was loud in his declarations that there was no possible
+danger.
+
+"They will know better," he said, "than to come near Venta. If they do,
+very few will go back. Indeed I should like nothing better than to give
+them a lesson. You shall see something worth looking at if you will give
+us the pleasure of your company in our little town for a day or two."
+
+Another cup, which he drained to the prosperity of Britain and the
+confusion of her enemies, changed his mood. He now seemed to have
+forgotten all about the invaders, insisted on recognizing a dear friend of
+past times in the Count, and invited him to spend the rest of the day in
+talking over old times.
+
+The Count did not waste many minutes with the old man, but when he left
+the house the darkness had already closed in. After finding with some
+difficulty accommodation for Carna, he returned to the gate, anxious to
+learn for himself how things were going on. He found the place a scene of
+frightful confusion. The warders had abandoned their office as hopeless.
+An incessant stream of fugitives, men, women, and children, mingled with
+carts and waggons of every shape and size, was pouring into the town.
+Every now and then one of these vehicles, brought out perhaps in the
+sudden emergency from the repose of years, broke down and blocked the way.
+Then the living torrent began to rage at the obstacle, as a river in flood
+roars about a tree which has fallen across its current. Shortly the
+offending vehicle would be removed by main force, and with a very scanty
+regard for its contents. Then the uproar lulled again, though there never
+ceased a babel of voices, cursing, entreating, complaining, quarrelling,
+through all the gamut of notes, from the deepest base to the shrillest
+treble. The wall was crowded with the inhabitants of the town, and every
+eye was fixed intently on the northern horizon. There, as was only too
+plainly to be seen, the sky was reddened with a dull glow, which might
+have been described as a sunrise out of place, but that it was brightened
+now and then for a moment by a shoot of flame. "Where are they?" "How soon
+will they be here?" were the questions which every one was asking, and
+which no one attempted to answer. The Count made his way with some
+difficulty along the top of the rampart in search of some one from whom he
+might hope to get some rational account of the situation. At last he found
+among the spectators an old man, whose bearing struck him as having
+something soldierly about it. A nearer look showed him a military
+decoration. He lost no time in addressing him.
+
+"Comrade," he said, "I see that you have followed the eagles."
+
+The veteran recognized something of the tone of command in the Count's
+voice, and made a military salute.
+
+"Yes, sir, so I have, though my sword has been hanging up for more than
+thirty years."
+
+"And what do you think of the prospect?"
+
+"Badly, sir, badly. This is just what I feared; but it has come even
+sooner than I looked for it. Things have been very bad for some time in
+the north ever since the garrisons were taken from the Wall,(46) but,
+except for a troop of robbers now and then, we were fairly safe here. But
+now that these barbarians know that the legions are gone, there will be no
+stopping them."
+
+"They are the Picts, I hear. Have you ever had to do with them?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have seen as much of them as ever I want to see. I came to
+this island thirty-nine years ago with Theodosius, grandfather, you know,
+of the Augustus;" and the old man, who was steadfastly loyal to the
+Emperor, bared his head as he spoke. "I am a Batavian from the island of
+the Rhine, and was then a deputy-centurion in Theodosius' army. We found
+Britain full of the savages. They had positively over-run the whole
+country as far as the southern sea, and only the walled towns had escaped
+them, and these were almost in despair. I shall never forget how the
+people at Londinium crowded about the general, kissing his hands and feet,
+when he rode into the town. But I must not tire you with an old soldier's
+stories. You ask me about the Picts. They are the worst savages I ever
+saw, and I have had some experience too. They go naked but for some kind
+of a skin girdle about their loins, and they are hideously painted, and
+their hair is more like a beast's than a man's, and then they eat human
+flesh. Ah, sir, you may shake your head, but I know it. We used to find
+dead bodies with the fleshy parts cut off where they had been. I shudder
+to think of what I saw in those days. Well, we gave them a good lesson,
+drove them back to their own country, and an awful country it is, all
+lakes and mountains, with not so much as a blade of corn from one end to
+the other. But now they will be as bad as ever."
+
+"But you are safe here in Venta, I suppose?"
+
+"Safe! I wish we were. If we had a proper garrison here, there is no one
+to command them. You have seen the _Princeps_?"
+
+The Count said nothing, but his silence was significant.
+
+"But there is no garrison. There are not more than fifty men in the place
+who have ever carried arms."
+
+"But surely the people will defend themselves. You, as an old soldier,
+know very well that civilians, who would be quite useless in the field,
+may do good service behind walls."
+
+"True, sir, if they have two things--a spirit and a leader; and these
+people, as far as I can tell, have neither."
+
+"That is a bad look out. But tell me--how soon do you think the enemy will
+be here?"
+
+"Not to-night, certainly; perhaps not to-morrow. And indeed it is just
+possible that they may not come at all. You see that they get a great
+quantity of plunder in the country without much trouble or danger, and
+they may leave the towns alone. Barbarians mostly don't care to knock
+their heads against stone walls, and of course they think us a great deal
+stronger than we are."
+
+After making an appointment with his new acquaintance for a meeting on the
+following day, the Count rejoined his party.
+
+The next day the _Princeps_ called a meeting of the principal burgesses of
+the town, at which the Count, in consideration of his rank as a Roman
+official, was invited to attend. The tone of the meeting was better than
+he had expected. There were one or two resolute men among the local
+magistrates, and these contrived to communicate something of their spirit
+to the rest. A general levy of the inhabitants between the ages of sixteen
+and sixty was to be made. The town was divided into districts, and
+recruiting officers were appointed for each. By an unanimous vote of the
+meeting the Count was requested to take the chief command. The delay of
+the invaders gave some time for carrying out these preparations for
+defence. A force was speedily raised, sufficient, as far at least as
+numbers were concerned, to garrison the walls. This was divided into
+companies, each having two watches, which were to be on duty alternately.
+The whole extent of work was divided among them, and the town was stored
+with such missiles as could be collected or manufactured, while Carna
+busied herself among the women, organizing the supply of food and drink
+for the guards of the wall, and preparations for the care of the wounded.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                                THE SIEGE.
+
+
+Day after day the burgesses of Venta awaited the course of events. For
+some time they hoped that, after all, the town might not be visited by the
+invaders. The lurid glow of the skies by night, and the clouds of smoke by
+day, sometimes borne by the wind so close to the town that the smell could
+be distinctly recognized, proved that they were still near. But though the
+effects of their work of ruin were visible enough, of the barbarians
+themselves no one had yet caught a glimpse. But towards the evening of the
+seventh day after the Count's arrival a party was seen to emerge from a
+wood, distant about half a mile from the gates. There were four in all;
+two of them were mounted on small and very shaggy ponies, the others were
+on foot. The party advanced till they were about a hundred yards from the
+wall, and though the fading light prevented them from being seen very
+clearly, there could be no doubt that they were some of the dreaded Picts.
+
+A debate, which seemed, from the gesticulations of the speakers to be of a
+somewhat violent kind, was carried on for a time among the savages. Then
+one of the mounted men rode, with all the speed to which his diminutive
+horse could be urged, almost up to the gates of the town. He wore a
+deer-skin robe of the very simplest construction, with holes through which
+his head and arms were thrust. His legs were bare. Round his neck was hung
+a bow of a very rude kind. In his right hand he carried a short spear.
+With the butt of this he struck violently at the gate, as if demanding
+entrance, and after waiting a few seconds, as it seemed for an answer,
+turned his pony's head and began to ride back to his party. He had almost
+reached them before the defenders of the wall had recovered from the
+astonishment which his audacity had caused them. Then one who was armed
+with a bow discharged at the retreating figure an arrow, which more by
+good luck than skill, for scarcely any aim had been taken, struck the Pict
+on the neck. He did not fall from his horse, but swayed heavily to one
+side, catching at the animal's mane to steady himself. His three
+companions rushed forward to help him, and in another moment would have
+carried him off, but for the resolution and activity of the Saxon, who
+with the Count was standing on the rampart close to the gate. He lowered
+himself by his hands from the wall, a height of about fifteen feet, itself
+no small feat of activity, and ran at his full speed, a speed which, as
+has been said before, was quite uncommon. Hampered as they were by having
+to keep their wounded companion in the saddle, the Picts could move but
+slowly, and were soon overtaken. With two blows, delivered with all his
+gigantic strength, Cedric levelled two of them to the ground, and, seizing
+the wounded chief, threw him over his shoulder, then turning ran towards
+the gate. For a moment the third Pict stood too astonished to move. Cedric
+had thus a start of some yards, and before he could be overtaken, had got
+so close to the wall as to be under the protection of the archers and
+slingers who lined it. The next moment the wicket of the gate was opened,
+and the prisoner secured.
+
+It was evident that he was a prize of some value, for a rudely wrought
+chain of gold round his neck showed that he was a chief. He had ridden up
+to the gate against the advice of his followers, as it was guessed, under
+the influences of copious draughts of metheglin. The effect of the liquor,
+together with the pain of his wound and the shock of his capture, had been
+to make him insensible when he was brought into the town. While he was in
+this state his wound was dressed by a slave who had some surgical skill,
+and who declared that though serious it was not mortal. When he recovered
+consciousness he behaved more like a wild beast than a man. His first act
+was to tear furiously at the bandage which had been applied to his wound.
+The attendants mastered him with difficulty, for he fought with the
+ferocity of a wild cat, and then bound his hands and feet. Thus rendered
+helpless, he raved at the top of his voice till sheer exhaustion reduced
+him to silence, a silence which was soon followed by sleep.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric and the Pict.]
+
+The night passed without any attack. It was evident that the Picts were in
+considerable force, for their watch fires were to be seen scattered over a
+wide extent of country, and there was much anxious talk in the town about
+the chances of a siege. Few indeed in Venta closed their eyes that night,
+and with the earliest morning the whole town was astir. The invaders, of
+course, had no notion of how a siege should be conducted, nor had they the
+necessary mechanical means even if they had known how to use them. Their
+arrows did but little harm, for their bows were ill made, and had but a
+small range, nothing like that which was commanded by the better weapons
+of the defenders. With the sling, however, they were singularly expert,
+and inflicted no small damage, making indeed some parts of the walls
+scarcely tenable. But as they could do nothing without showing themselves,
+they suffered more loss than they inflicted. In the early days of the
+siege especially, a catapult, which the garrison worked from the walls,
+did great damage among them. After awhile they were careful not to collect
+in such numbers as to give a fair mark for this piece of artillery.
+
+The townspeople were greatly elated at their success, and when, about a
+fortnight after the first appearance of the invaders before the walls, two
+days had passed without one of them being visible, concluded that,
+hopeless of making any impression upon the place, they had disappeared.
+
+They were soon undeceived. It was growing dusk on the third day after the
+supposed departure of the enemy, when a heavily laden cart was drawn up to
+the western gate of the city. The driver, apparently a country man,
+knocked for admittance. By rights, at such an hour, it should have been
+refused, but the vigilance of the watch had begun to slacken, most of the
+besieged believing that the danger was practically over. Accordingly, no
+difficulty was made about throwing open the gates. But, once thrown open,
+they were not so easily closed. Just as the cart was passing through the
+opening in the wall one of the wheels came off, and the vehicle broke down
+hopelessly. Commonly it would not have taken long to clear the obstacle
+out of the way. There was usually a throng of people about the gates and
+on the walls, and a multitude of willing hands would have been ready to
+lend their help. But just at this moment the gates and walls were almost
+deserted. Even-song was going on in the Church of Venta, and a preacher of
+some local fame was expected to enlarge on the Divine mercy shown in the
+deliverance of the town from the barbarians. The keepers of the gate
+would, therefore, have been at a loss even if they had seen the necessity
+of bestirring themselves. As it was, they were content to do nothing. They
+amused themselves by standing by and laughing at the rustic driver as he
+slowly unladed from his vehicle its miscellaneous cargo, the contents, it
+seemed, of one of the country-side cottages, from which the terror of the
+invasion had driven their inhabitants. The process of unloading, carried
+on slowly and with much grumbling, was scarcely half finished, when one of
+the warders, chancing to look behind him, caught sight of a body of men
+rapidly approaching through the darkness. A number of Picts had concealed
+themselves in the wood mentioned before as distant about half a mile from
+the wall, and when they saw the gate blocked by the broken-down cart--a
+part, it need hardly be said, of the stratagem--had made a rush to get to
+it before the obstacle could be removed. A hasty alarm was raised, and
+some of the citizens who were in hearing ran up. But it was too late. The
+rustic driver, a villain whose treacherous services had been bought by the
+enemy, had quickened his work when he saw his employers approaching, and
+contrived to finish the unloading of the cart at the very moment of their
+coming up. In a few moments some of them had clambered over the empty
+vehicle, struck down the guards, and disabled the fastenings of the gates.
+Before many minutes had passed the whole of the ground outside the gates
+seemed to swarm with the enemy, and though the townspeople had now begun
+to make a rally in force, it was too late to make any effectual effort to
+keep them out. The situation would in any case have been full of danger.
+At Venta it was hopeless. A garrison of veterans might have kept their
+heads, but there were not more than sixty or seventy among the defenders
+of Venta who had ever seen service in the field; and the citizen soldiers
+were fairly panic-stricken when they saw themselves actually facing a
+furious, yelling crowd of barbarians, cruel and savage creatures in
+reality, and commonly reported to be even worse than they were. Without
+even striking a blow they turned and fled. The Count, whom the alarm had
+just reached, was met, and, for a time, carried away by the tide of
+fugitives. Still he was able to rally a few men to his side for a last
+effort. Some of his own followers were with him, and the rest could be
+fetched in a few moments. The gallant old centurion, in spite of his
+seventy years, was prompt with the offer of his sword; and, as always
+happens, the infection of courage spread not less rapidly than the
+infection of cowardice. Altogether a compact body of about a hundred men
+were collected. Well armed and well disciplined they turned a steadfast
+face to the enemy, and were able to make their retreat to a little fort
+which stood on a hill to the south-east of the town. Carna, the priest of
+Venta and his family, and a few other non-combatants were with them. More,
+in the terrible confusion of the scene, it was impossible to rescue. All
+through the trying time Cedric distinguished himself by his coolness and
+courage. When once he had seen Carna safely bestowed in the centre of the
+party, and had also seen that the person of the Pictish chief was secured
+(having the presence of mind to foresee that he would be a valuable
+hostage), he took up a position in the extreme rear of the retreat, and
+performed prodigies of valour in keeping the pursuers at bay.
+
+The occupation of the fort could, of course, do nothing more than give
+them a breathing space. Though it had been for some time unoccupied, its
+defences were tolerably perfect, and it might have been held against a
+barbarian enemy as long as provisions held out. Unfortunately this was the
+weak part of their position. Of provisions they had very little. Luckily
+the place had latterly been used as a warehouse, and contained some sacks
+of flour. A few sheep were feeding in a meadow hard by, and were hastily
+driven within the defences. Happily there was a well within the walls.
+
+That night was a dismal experience which none of the party ever forgot. A
+confused noise came up from the town, where the savages were busy with
+plunder and massacre. Every now and then some piercing shriek was heard,
+curdling the blood of all the listeners. At other times the loud crash of
+some falling building could be distinguished. Towards midnight flames
+could be seen bursting out from various parts of the town, and before an
+hour had passed, every eye was fixed on a hideous spectacle, on which it
+was an agony to look, but from which it yet seemed impossible to turn.
+Venta was on fire. The flames could be seen to catch street after street,
+and distinctly against the lurid background of the burning houses could be
+seen, flitting here and there, as they busied themselves with the work of
+destruction, the dark shapes of the barbarians. When the morning dawned
+only a few detached buildings, among them the church, a basilica of some
+size, built by the munificence of the Empress Helena, were standing.
+
+The party in the fort reviewed their position anxiously. The civilians
+were for the most part in favour of staying where they were. They felt the
+substantial protection of the stout walls which surrounded them, and were
+indisposed to leave it. The military men, on the other hand, recognized
+facts more clearly and more completely. The protection of the fort was
+worth this and this only--that it gave them time to reflect. To stand a
+siege would be to ensure destruction.
+
+"We must cut our way through," said the Count. "If we do not try it now we
+shall have to try it three or four days hence, and try it with less
+courage, and hope, and strength, and probably fewer men than we have now."
+
+"Cut our way through all those thousands of savages!" said the _Princeps_,
+who was one of the few who had escaped from the town. "No; we should be
+fools to leave the shelter of these walls."
+
+"Shelter!" cried the old centurion; "will they shelter you against famine?
+No; let us go while we have strength to walk."
+
+"But how," said another of the townspeople, "how will you do all the three
+things at once--retreat, and fight, and save the women? A few of the men
+may get through, but it will be as much as they can do to take care of
+themselves."
+
+The argument was only too clear, and the Count turned away with a groan of
+despair. The prospect seemed hopeless. All the comfort that he could find
+was in the thought that he and Carna should anyhow, not fall alive into
+the hands of the barbarians.
+
+But now Cedric came again to the rescue with the happy thought which had
+made him carry off the Pictish chief. He said nothing to any of his
+companions; but he managed the affair with the prisoner, and managed it
+with an astonishing speed and success. He pointed to a party of the
+chief's fellow-countrymen who were approaching the fort, by way, it
+appeared, of reconnoitring its defences, and intimated that he wished to
+open communications with them, showing at the same time, by holding up two
+of his fingers, that not more than two were to approach. The chief, whose
+intelligence was sharpened by a keen sense of his danger, by a shrill
+piercing whistle, twice repeated, conveyed this intimation to his
+countrymen, and two of them approached to within speaking distance of the
+walls. Cedric now addressed himself to the task of making his prisoner
+understand that his life and liberty depended upon his inducing his
+countrymen to retire. This was not very easily done. The expressive
+gestures of drawing a knife across the throat was readily understood; and
+at last by a pantomime of signs he was made to comprehend that this would
+be the result, if his countrymen were to approach the walls. Then the
+other alternative was expressed. One of the bonds with which he was
+secured was partially loosed, and this action was accompanied by a
+sweeping gesture of the hand towards the north, which was to indicate that
+that must be their way, if he was to be freed. A light of comprehension
+gradually dawned in the chief's eye, and the Saxon had little doubt that
+he had made his meaning intelligible. Whether the man could be trusted to
+keep the engagement was what neither he nor any one could say. But it was
+clear that the risk had to be run, for the only possible hope of escape
+lay in this direction. A conversation followed between the chief and his
+countrymen, accompanied by signs which were intended to convey to the
+Saxon the purport of what he was saying. When it was over, they
+disappeared, and the chief, turning to Cedric, raised his hands to the sky
+in a gesture which the latter interpreted, and rightly interpreted, to
+mean that he was calling the powers above to witness his fidelity to the
+engagement which he had made.
+
+Cedric then communicated the result of his negotiations through his
+interpreter the peddler to the Count. It was not received with unanimous
+approval by the party in the fort. The _Princeps_ especially protested
+loudly against trusting their lives to the good faith of a couple of
+savages. "A Pict and a Saxon!" he cried, "the worst enemies that Britain
+has, and you think that they are going to save us!" He was quickly
+overruled by the Count, who let him understand quite plainly that he would
+be left to shift for himself unless he availed himself of this chance of
+escape.
+
+"Do as you please," was AElius's first utterance, "you have authority over
+the fort, and if you choose to defend it with as many of your friends as
+you can induce to stay with you, I cannot hinder you. But you must take
+the consequences, and I haven't the shadow of a doubt what these will be.
+Meanwhile, I and my party mean to go. As for the Pict, I know nothing of
+him; the Saxon I would trust with my life, and what is far dearer to me,
+the life of my daughter. He has proved his good faith already in such a
+way that I for one shall never doubt him again."
+
+Preparations for departure were hastily made. Indeed there was little to
+prepare. The party had simply nothing with them except their arms. Every
+one had to walk--for food they had to trust to what they might find on the
+road. But before they started the Count loosed with his own hand the
+chief's bonds. The chief put his hand upon his heart, and then lifted it
+to the sky with the same gesture of appeal that he made before.
+
+It is sufficient to say that he kept his word, for the party reached the
+coast without molestation.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX.
+
+                            CEDRIC IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+For several weeks life passed at the villa with little change or incident.
+But the Count, though he kept a cheerful face, and talked gaily of the
+future to his daughter and Carna, felt more acutely every day how full his
+position was of anxieties and difficulties. First came, as it always does
+come first, the question of money. It had never been a very easy matter to
+provide for the expenses of the fleet. Again and again the Count had drawn
+on his private means, which were happily very large. But these had lately
+been crippled by the troubled condition of the provinces in which his
+estates were situated, and even if they had been untouched the burden that
+now threatened to fall upon them would have been too great for them to
+bear. Some of the seaport towns would, he hoped, continue to pay their
+contributions. He was personally popular, and his influence would do
+something. Then, again, he could still give at least some return for the
+money. The sea-coast must be protected from the enemy, and no one could
+protect it so cheaply and so effectually as he. From the inland towns,
+which had always grumbled at having to pay an impost from which they saw
+no visible advantage, nothing was to be hoped. And any expectation of
+money from the authorities at home was quite out of the question.
+
+One thing was quite certain: the establishment must be reduced within much
+narrower limits. He must diminish the fleet, and lessen also the range of
+shore which he professed to defend. He could not henceforth pretend to go
+north of the mouth of the Thamesis. For the coast southward and westward
+he might be able to provide more or less effectually. More he could not
+do.
+
+One of the first necessities of the changed position in which he found
+himself was that he must give up the villa on the east coast. It would be
+a matter for after consideration whether the island of Vectis was not too
+much out of the way. But till that point could be settled, it would have
+to be his head-quarters. To carry out these new arrangements, and to wind
+up affairs in the region which he was preparing to relinquish, a voyage
+became necessary. On this voyage the Count started early in April. He
+arranged for disposing of that part of the fleet which he could not hope
+to keep in his own pay. Some of the oldest galleys were broken up; others
+were handed over to the authorities of the coast-towns, on the
+understanding that they were to man and pay them themselves. A few picked
+men were taken from the crews by the Count; the rest, excepting such as
+were re-engaged by the local authorities, were discharged. When this had
+been done, and the villa had been dismantled, the Count prepared to return
+to the island.
+
+Here, meanwhile, there had been trouble. The Saxon had quietly returned to
+his work at the forge, and would have been perfectly content, as far as
+could be judged from his demeanour, if only he had been left alone, and
+permitted to pay as before his distant worship to Carna. But to some
+members of the villa household he was an object of dislike. They were
+jealous of the favour in which the Count and the Count's family held him.
+They were naturally not at all pleased at what they could not but
+acknowledge his great superiority in strength, and as Christians, though
+not particularly zealous in their performance of most of their duties,
+they felt themselves to be unquestionably zealous and sincere in their
+hatred and contempt for a pagan. The Saxon, on the other hand, heartily
+despised those by whom he was surrounded. They were slaves, or little
+better than slaves, and he was a freeman and a chief, though the gods had
+made him a prisoner. He went to and fro among them with a scorn which was
+not the less evident because it was not expressed in words.
+
+For a time this enforced silence helped to keep the peace; Cedric knew
+nothing of the British tongue, or of the mongrel Latin which sometimes
+took its place, and the other inhabitants of the villa nothing of Saxon.
+There were angry and contemptuous looks on both sides, but there was
+nothing more; or if there were words, these were harmless, because they
+were not understood. But by degrees this was changed. Cedric had
+intelligence of no common kind--indeed he was something of a poet among his
+own people--he had many motives for learning the language of those among
+whom he dwelt, his adoration for Carna being one of the most powerful, and
+he had, too, opportunities for learning. The peddler taught him much, and
+Carna, who never forgot her zealous desire for his conversion, taught him
+more. The end was that he picked up much of the British language with
+extraordinary rapidity, and, in little more than six months after his
+capture, could express himself with some ease and fluency.
+
+This was very well in its way, but it had the unfortunate result that he
+began to understand and be understood. Every day the relations between him
+and the domestics and artizans employed about the villa became worse and
+worse, and it was not long before matters came to a crisis.
+
+Cedric had repeatedly noticed that the tools which he used in the forge
+had been hidden or mischievously damaged. He was too proud to complain,
+and indeed his temper was curiously patient in any matter where he did not
+conceive his honour to be involved. He said nothing about the matter,
+searched for his missing tools, and if he could not find them, continued
+to do without them, and repaired the injuries as best he could. The
+offender, of course, grew bolder with impunity, and at last the limits of
+Cedric's endurance were reached and passed. Coming into the forge at an
+unusually early hour one morning, he caught the doer of the mischief in
+the very commission of a more serious piece of mischief than he had yet
+ventured, namely, cutting a hole in the bellows. He lifted the offender by
+the skin of the neck--he was a lad of about sixteen, and son of the chief
+bailiff of the farm attached to the villa--shook him, as a dog shakes a
+rat, yet without forgetting that he was but a boy, dipped him head
+foremost in the bath of the forge, and then let him go, more dead than
+alive from the fear that he felt at finding himself in the hands of the
+great giant.
+
+Unluckily at the very moment when the young rascal was being dismissed in
+a paroxysm of howling with a contemptuous kick, his father entered the
+yard. No one about the place was more prejudiced against the Saxon, or
+more jealous of the favour in which he stood with the Count and his
+family. He had too, in its very worst form, the ungovernable Celtic
+temper, and now, when he saw his son, a spoilt boy whom everybody else
+disliked, ill-treated as he thought by the prisoner, he was fairly carried
+out of himself.
+
+"Pagan dog!" he cried, "do you dare to touch with your beast's foot a
+Christian boy?" and he struck at the Saxon with a long cart whip which he
+had in his hand.
+
+The end of the lash caught the Saxon's cheek, on which it raised an
+ugly-looking wheal. Even in the height of his passion the Briton stood
+aghast at the change which came in a moment over the form and features of
+the Saxon. One or two of the bystanders had seen him face to face with an
+enemy, and had wondered how strangely calm he had seemed to be, showing no
+sign of excitement, except a certain glitter in his eyes. He had a very
+different look now. "The form of his visage was changed," as it was in the
+Babylonian king(47) when he found himself, for the first time in his life,
+confronted by a point-blank refusal to obey. A consuming anger, like the
+Berseker rage of his kinsmen of after times, the Vikings, seemed to
+possess and transform him. His features worked, as if caught by some
+strange malady, his eyes literally blazed with fury, his whole figure
+seemed to dilate. The luckless bailiff was seized round the middle, lifted
+from the ground as easily as if he had been a child in arms, and hurled
+with a crash, like a bolt from a catapult, against the wall. He lay there
+bleeding from nose and mouth, while the horror-stricken Britons stood
+helpless and afraid to move.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric's Fury.]
+
+"Dogs of slaves," cried Cedric, "do you dare to growl at your master;" and
+he swept through the terrified crowd, laying them low on either side.
+Happily at the moment he had no weapon in his hand, but he seized a bar of
+iron from the anvil of the forge, and swinging it round his head,
+prepared, it seemed, to deal about him an indiscriminate destruction. What
+would have followed it is impossible to say. In his fury and in his
+absolute mastery over that shrinking crowd, he was like a tiger in the
+midst of a flock of sheep. But at the critical moment, before his hand had
+dealt a single blow, the apparition of Carna interposed between him and
+his victims. The uproar in the court had reached her in her chamber, and
+brought her ready to play her accustomed part of peacemaker. Now she
+stood, her figure framed like a picture, in the door which opened on the
+court from the part of the villa which she occupied. She wore a simple
+dress of white, fastened with a blue girdle; her long chestnut hair fell
+in loose waves to her waist, for she had not had time to arrange it in
+more orderly fashion. Her face was pale and troubled, her eyes wide open
+with a sad surprise. It was indeed another Cedric that she saw from the
+one whom she had known. Was this terrible savage, who looked more like
+some dreadful spirit from the abyss than a human creature, the gentle
+giant in whose mute homage she had felt such an innocent pleasure, the
+hopeful pupil whom she was teaching, as she hoped, to put away savage ways
+for the mild and peaceful behaviour of a Christian. As for Cedric, he
+seemed paralyzed at the vision that presented itself to him. The sight of
+the girl always moved him strangely; now she reminded him of the time when
+he had first seen her by the bedside of his dying brother; and the
+remembrance completed, if anything was needed to complete, the impression.
+The fury that had transfigured him seemed to pass away; his hand loosed
+its hold on the weapon which he held. His adversaries did not fail to use
+the opportunity. They had been too genuinely frightened to let it slip
+when it came. Indeed they may be excused for feeling that this most
+formidable enemy had to be secured against doing any more damage. The
+moment they saw him unarmed they sprang with one movement on him and
+overpowered him. Even then, if he had offered resistance, they might have
+had no small trouble, perhaps might have failed in securing him. But he
+stood passive, and allowed his hands to be bound without a struggle, and
+followed without difficulty when he was led to the room where offenders
+were commonly confined. Some of the meaner spirits in the household were
+disposed to visit their feelings of annoyance and humiliation on his head,
+now that he seemed to be in their power. But others felt a salutary dread
+of rousing the sleeping lion whose rage they had seen could be so
+terrible. Carna too did not abandon her _protege_. He was chained, indeed,
+to a staple in the wall of the room which served as his prison. This
+seemed nothing more than a necessary precaution. But the girl let it be
+distinctly understood that no cruelty must be used to him, and she took
+care herself that his supply of food should be plentiful and good.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                               THE ESCAPE.
+
+
+The prisoner seemed to submit to his fate with patience. He thanked the
+attendant who brought him his rations with a nod and smile, and disposed
+of the food with an appetite which seemed to indicate a cheerful temper. A
+visit which the peddler paid him the second day of his imprisonment was
+apparently received as a welcome relief. The two had a long and friendly
+conversation, nor did Cedric utter a word of complaint against his
+treatment.
+
+In reality the young chief was keeping under his rage with an effort
+almost unbearably painful. That he should be chained like a dog to the
+wall was an intolerable grievance; he, a free man, and the son of a long
+line of chiefs which boasted the blood of the great Odin himself! The iron
+did indeed enter into his soul, and the seeming calm of his outward
+patience concealed a whole volcano of inward fury. It was only the hope of
+freedom that kept him calm. It was that he might not diminish this hope,
+this almost desperate chance, by the very smallest fraction that he ate
+and drank with such seeming cheerfulness. He would want, he knew, all his
+strength for an escape. He would support it and husband it to the utmost.
+
+And for an escape, unknown to his keepers, he was steadily preparing. The
+chain which bound him to the wall was fastened round his right arm and
+leg, and the fastening would have seemed secure to any ordinary observer.
+But such an observer would not have made the necessary allowance for the
+young man's ordinary vigour and endurance. His hand was large and
+muscular; far too much so, one would have thought, to pass through the
+ring which had been welded round the arms. But he possessed an unusual
+power of contracting it. To exercise this power was indeed a painful
+effort, causing something like an agonizing cramp; still it was an effort
+that could be made, and made without disabling the limb. It could not,
+however, be done twice, because the hand, recovering its shape from the
+extraordinary pressure to which it had been subjected, would infallibly
+swell. Cedric, accordingly, after satisfying himself that it could be
+done, postponed actually doing it till the moment of escape had arrived.
+The fastening of the leg was less manageable. He would not have scrupled
+to do as the Spartan prisoner is said to have done, and cut off the foot
+which impeded his escape, but he had positively nothing with which this
+could be done. The only alternative was to drag the staple from the wall,
+and to carry it and the chain along with him. Fortunately, strong as it
+was, it was light. The staple at first seemed obstinate. It had indeed
+been subjected to tests which satisfied the villa blacksmith of its
+capacity of resistance. But repeated efforts, made with all the enormous
+strength which the young giant could bring to bear, weakened its hold, and
+at last it gave. The prisoner was prudent enough not to complete the
+separation of the iron from the walls. It would have been difficult to
+replace it so as to escape the notice of the attendant. Accordingly the
+drag was relaxed as soon as the first indications of yielding were felt.
+The time for attempting the escape was a subject of much anxious
+deliberation. The obvious course would have been to choose some hour
+between midnight and dawn; but Cedric had heard from time to time the step
+of some one walking up and down before his prison, and he guessed that it
+might be guarded at night, but left during the day-time, on the
+presumption that the captive would scarcely make an effort to escape while
+it was light. It was this accordingly that he resolved to do. Shortly
+after sunrise the attendant paid him his customary visit, bringing with
+him the morning meal. Cedric pretended to be but half awake, and,
+returning his salutation in a mumbling, sleepy tone, turned again on his
+side, as if to continue his slumbers. But the moment after the man had
+left the room he was at work. He dragged his hand through the ring, at the
+cost of a pang which taxed his endurance to the utmost; pulled the staple
+from the wall, wound the chain round his leg, and wrenching away one of
+the iron bars of the window, dropped through the opening thus made on to
+the ground. His calculation was correct. The ground was clear. Then
+another question presented itself to him. Should he attempt to escape as
+he was? He knew where a boat was commonly kept, and it had been his plan
+to take this and row out to sea in the hope of meeting some one of his
+countrymen's galleys. If he once got off from the shore he was free, for
+if the worst came to the worst, he could at least die as a free man
+should. But should he go unarmed, and with the hampering chain about his
+leg? A moment's consideration--no more was possible--decided him. He would
+make one more bold effort. The forge was close at hand, and he knew from
+having worked there that at that hour in the morning it was commonly
+empty, the workmen leaving it for their morning meal. There he could find
+what he wanted, a file to release himself from the chain, and a weapon.
+
+The forge was empty, as he had expected. The question was, How long would
+it remain so? The workmen, he could see, had but just left it. The fire
+had not died down to the lowest, showing that the bellows had been
+recently at work, and a piece of iron that had been left, half-wrought, on
+the anvil, was still hot, as he could feel from putting his hand near it.
+It might be safest to take a file and escape with it at once. On the other
+hand, it would be far better to release himself at once from his
+encumbrance, in the event of having to run or fight for his life. He might
+count, he thought, upon half an hour, and he resolved to file away the
+chain then and there. With admirable coolness he sat down and applied all
+the strength and skill which he possessed to the work, and had finished it
+in little more than half the time which he had reckoned to have
+undisturbed. He then caught up a sword which hung on one of the walls. It
+was an old-fashioned weapon, but Cedric, who knew good iron when it came
+in his way, had tried its temper, and knew it to be capable of doing good
+service.
+
+So far everything had favoured him, nor did his good fortune desert him
+now. He found the boat, which was one commonly used for fishing by the
+inmates of the villa, ready furnished with oars and a small mast and sail.
+There were even, by good luck, a small jar of water, some broken food in a
+hamper, left by a party which had been using it the day before, with some
+fishing lines. These, Cedric thought to himself, might be useful if he
+failed to fall in with any of his countrymen.
+
+Jumping on board, he plied his sculls rapidly, going in the direction of
+the sea, and keeping as close under the shore as possible, so as to be out
+of sight of the villa. As it happened, this precaution was unnecessary.
+His absence was not discovered till shortly afternoon, when the attendant,
+bringing the midday meal, was astonished beyond measure to find the room
+empty. But another danger threatened him, a danger which he had not indeed
+forgotten, but against which he had known it to be impossible to take any
+precautions. This was the chance of meeting with the Count's squadron as
+it was returning to the island; and it was this that he actually
+encountered.
+
+Just as he had reached the mouth of the Haven and was turning his boat
+eastward, he saw within a hundred yards of him one of the Roman galleys.
+It was not the Count's own vessel, for this had been delayed by an
+accident to the rigging, and was now many miles behind, but was in charge
+of the second-in-command. The recognition was mutual. Cedric's tall figure
+was not one that could be easily mistaken, nor could it be doubted that he
+was attempting an escape. Had the Count been there he would probably have
+parleyed with the fugitive. The officer in command was not so considerate.
+
+"Shoot," he cried, "he is trying to escape," and as he spoke he seized a
+bow which lay on deck, and took aim at the Saxon. His order was
+immediately observed, and a shower of missiles was directed at the boat.
+They all fell short, for Cedric had by this time increased his distance.
+In a minute or two, however, the ship was put about, and then began to
+gain rapidly on the solitary rower.
+
+Another volley was discharged, and this time one of the arrows took
+effect, wounding the fugitive slightly in the left arm. The situation was
+desperate. To remain in the boat was to await certain death. A third
+volley would unquestionably be fatal. Cedric jumped overboard, but still
+clung to the side of the boat. It was only just in time. The third volley
+was discharged, and rattled on the upturned keel of the boat so thick as
+to show plainly what the fate of the occupant would have been. Still,
+though he had escaped for the moment, Cedric's fate seemed sealed. The
+boat had given him shelter for the time, but to go on clinging to it would
+be to ensure his capture. He left it, and after making a few vigorous
+strokes, threw up his arms from the surface of the water, and uttering a
+loud cry, disappeared.
+
+His quick eye had discerned a great mass of sea-weed floating on the water
+about fifty yards away, and his ready intelligence had seen a chance,
+small indeed and almost desperate, but still a chance of escape. Swimming
+under water to the sea-weed, he was able to come to the surface and to
+take breath under its shelter.
+
+  [Illustration: Cedric's Escape.]
+
+On board the galley every one of course supposed him to have sunk. His
+action of the lifted arms and the loud cry had been natural enough to
+deceive the most wary observer. The boat was righted and secured by a
+rope, and the galley pursued its way to the villa, while Cedric was left
+to make the best of his way to the land.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                                A VISITOR.
+
+
+The day after Cedric's disappearance the Count returned to the island. The
+prospect before him had not by any means lightened. Britain, conquered,
+oppressed, protected, for nearly four hundred years, governed sometimes
+ill and sometimes well, according to the varying characters of the Roman
+legates, but never allowed to do anything for herself, was not ready at a
+moment's notice to be independent and stand alone. The Count was much too
+shrewd a man to hope that she would. Still, even he had not realized how
+bad things would be; and when he came to see them face to face he felt
+something like disappointment, and even despair. A man will often make up
+his mind to the general fact of failure, and yet be almost as much vexed
+at the details of failure, when it comes, as if he had expected success.
+
+The fact was that the Count had found little or no disposition in the
+native States to take up and carry on the work which he was being
+compelled to give up. They would make no sacrifices, or even efforts. They
+refused to work together. Each reckoned on its own chance of escaping the
+common danger, and would not contribute to the defence that might possibly
+be wanted for its neighbours, and not for itself. Then jealousies and
+enmities, hitherto kept in check by the strong hand of a master, began to
+break out. The cities seemed likely, not only not to combine against Picts
+and Saxons, but actually to go to war among themselves. The Count felt all
+the pain that comes to an honest and capable man when he has to face the
+breaking up of a bad system which he has inherited from predecessors less
+high principled than himself. It happens very often that revolutions come
+in the days, not of the worst offenders, but of the men who are making
+sincere endeavours to do their duty. And so it was with the Count.
+
+It was in a very gloomy and depressed condition of mind, therefore, that
+he returned to the villa. And almost every day brought news of fresh
+troubles and disasters. Some of the Roman houses scattered through the
+country had been attacked and burnt of late. Since the central authority
+had been weakened the Roman residents had sometimes begun to behave in a
+lawless and oppressive way to their British neighbours, and these were
+taking their revenge with the cruelty that is always natural to the
+oppressed. Tragical tales of villas surrounded by infuriated crowds of
+Britons, of masters and families shut up within the walls, and perishing
+in the fires that consumed them, were brought to the Count by the scared
+survivors who had contrived to escape from the general destruction.
+
+The Count's personal difficulties were considerable. He had a considerable
+colony now settled near the villa, and many of its members were helpless
+and dependent people. The question of feeding them would soon become an
+urgent one. At present he could use the surplus stores which would no
+longer be wanted now that his squadron had been so reduced in strength.
+And there was another question that pressed upon his mind--that of defence.
+Already he had had to contract his operations. With single pirate vessels,
+or even small squadrons of two or three, he would be able to deal, but
+anything stronger would have to be left alone. With the few ships that
+were left to him it would be madness to run any risk. And what, he could
+not help thinking, if the Saxons were to attack the villa itself? It had
+been built as a pleasure residence, and though now fortified as far as
+circumstances permitted, could not be held against a strong force. Should
+he continue to occupy, or should he retire to the camp of the Great
+Harbour, which would at least be a more defensible position?
+
+It may easily be imagined that these anxieties, which had been troubling
+his thoughts during the whole time of his absence, were not relieved when
+he heard the story of what had happened during his absence. He owed the
+Saxon more than he could ever repay, for he shuddered to think what would
+have happened to Carna but for his strength and energy. And apart from
+this feeling of gratitude, he admired the man's splendid courage and
+tenacity. He had even come to rely upon him for services of unusual
+difficulty and danger. And now, to think that he was lost to them by the
+stupid perversity and jealousy of a set of slaves!
+
+The said slaves had a bad time with their master for some days after his
+return. Good-humoured and kind as he was, yet he was a Roman--in other
+words, he had inherited the lordly temper of a race which had ruled the
+world for five hundred years, and any contradiction that thwarted him in
+one of his serious convictions or purposes, broke through the veneer of
+refinement and culture that commonly concealed the sterner part of his
+nature. A Christian master could not crucify an offender--indeed,
+crucifixion had been long since forbidden by the law--but he had almost
+unlimited power over life and limb. Life, indeed, the Count was too
+conscientious a follower of his religion to touch, but he had no scruple
+about going to the very utmost verge of severity in the use of minor
+punishments. As for his daughter, she was only too like her father to be
+any check on his anger, and for the first time in her life Carna found her
+mediation useless.
+
+"Girl," he said to her on one occasion, when she had urged her
+intercession with tears, "you do not know what mischief these foolish,
+cowardly knaves have done. One thing I see plainly, that as soon as ever
+the Saxons know the weakness of the position we shall not be able to hold
+it any longer. There is nothing to hinder them from coming and burning the
+whole place over our heads; nothing in the way of fortifications, and
+certainly nothing in the way of garrison. They did not know all this
+before, but they are sure to know it soon; and we shall see the
+consequences before many months are over."
+
+In the course of the summer occurred an incident which diverted the
+Count's attention for a time, though it did not lessen his perplexities.
+
+One morning a small trading vessel entered the haven near the villa. Her
+business, it was found, was to land a stranger, who had bargained for a
+passage to the island. The trader had come from a port of Western Gaul,
+and had then taken her passenger on board. Who he was the captain could
+not say, except that he had the appearance of a Roman gentleman. The day
+after they had set sail an illness, which had evidently been upon him when
+he came on board, had increased to such an extent that he had lost
+consciousness. Two or three days of delirium had been succeeded by stupor;
+in this condition the unfortunate man still lay. But while still conscious
+he had written down his destination, and added an appeal to the compassion
+of his future host. The Count read on the paper which the merchant captain
+handed to him a few words written in a trembling hand. They ran as
+follows:--
+
+
+"_In case I should not be able to speak for myself, I invoke by these
+words the compassionate protection of the Count AElius. Let him not fear to
+receive me, but believe that I am unfortunate rather than guilty, and that
+there is between us the tie of a great common affection._"
+
+
+The Count did not recognize the stranger, though a dim impression of
+having seen him before floated across his mind; and there was something in
+his appearance which agreed with the trading captain's conviction that he
+was a man of birth and position. In any case AElius was not one who was
+inclined to resist such an appeal to his compassion. The stranger, still
+unconscious, was landed, together with a few effects which were said to
+belong to him, and at once handed over to the care of Carna. All her
+diligence and watchfulness as a nurse, and all the skill of the old
+physician, were wanted before the patient could be brought back to life.
+For fourteen days he lay hovering on the very verge of death, mostly sunk
+in a stupor so complete that it was barely possible to perceive either
+pulse or breath; sometimes muttering in delirium a few broken sentences,
+of which all that physician and nurse were able to distinguish was that
+they were certainly Latin, and that they seemed to be verse.
+
+It was on the morning of the fifteenth day that there came a change. Carna
+sat by the window of the sick man's room. It had a southern aspect, and
+the sunshine came with a softened brilliance through the thick tinted
+glass, and brought out the exquisite tints of the girl's glossy hair, as
+she sat bending over the embroidery with which she was employing her
+nimble, never-idle fingers.
+
+"By heaven! another, fairer Proserpine!" said the sick man.
+
+The girl turned her head at the sound of the clearly pronounced words
+which her practised ear distinguished at once from the strained or blurred
+utterances of delirium.
+
+She held up her finger to her lips. "Do not speak," she said; "you have
+been very ill, and must not tire yourself."
+
+"Lady," said the sick man, with a smile, "you must at least let me ask you
+where I am."
+
+"Yes, you shall hear, if you will promise to ask no more questions, but to
+be content with what you are told. You are with friends, in the island of
+Vectis, in the house of AElius, Count of the Saxon Shore. And now be quiet,
+and don't spoil all our pains in making yourself ill again."
+
+She gave him a little broth which was being kept hot by the fire in
+readiness for the time when he should recover consciousness; and after
+this had been disposed of, and she had found by feeling his pulse that he
+was free from fever, a small quantity of well diluted wine.
+
+"And now," she said, "you must sleep"--a command which he was ready enough
+to obey.
+
+After this his recovery was rapid. For a time, indeed, the cautious old
+physician, though he did not forbid conversation, prohibited any reference
+to business. "You will want, of course," he said, "to tell your story, and
+to make your plans for the future; that will excite you, and, till you are
+stronger, may bring about a relapse. Be content for a while with the
+ladies' company"--AElia, now that no nursing had to be done, was often with
+her foster-sister--"the Count will see you when I give permission."
+
+And much talk the ladies had with him, and greatly astonished they were at
+the variety and brilliance of his conversation. He seemed equally familiar
+with books and men. He had read everything--so at least thought the two
+girls, who were sufficiently well educated to recognize a full mind when
+they came across it--he had been everywhere, he had seen everybody. He
+never boasted of his intimacy with great people, and indeed very seldom
+mentioned a name, but his allusions showed that he was equally familiar
+with courts and camps. It would have puzzled more experienced persons than
+the sisters to guess who this man of the world, who was also a man of
+letters, could possibly be.
+
+At the end of another week the physician removed his prohibition, and the
+Count, who had hitherto judged it better not to agitate his guest by his
+presence, now paid a visit to his room.
+
+After a few kindly inquiries as to his health, the Count went on,
+"Understand me, sir, that I have no wish to force any confidence from you.
+My good fortune gave me the chance of serving you, but it has not given me
+the right of asking you questions which you might not care to answer. You
+are welcome to my hospitality as long as you choose to remain here, and
+you may command my help when you wish to go. But of course, if you care to
+give me your confidence, it may make the help a great deal more
+effective."
+
+"Yours is a true hospitality," answered the stranger, with a smile, "but
+it is right that you should know who I am, and how I came to be here; and
+I have only been waiting for the good Strabo's leave to tell you. But may
+your daughter and her sister be present? I have a sad story to relate, but
+there is nothing in it which is unfit for them to hear, and they have been
+good enough to show some interest in an unhappy man."
+
+"They shall come, if you wish it," said the Count, "indeed they have been
+almost dying of curiosity."
+
+It was to this audience that the stranger told his story.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                          THE STRANGER'S STORY.
+
+
+"I have found out that my name is known to these ladies, though they are
+not aware that it belongs to me. You, sir, have very probably not found
+time among your many cares to give any thought to the trifles which, if I
+may say so much of myself, have made me famous. I am Claudius Claudianus."
+
+"What! the poet!" cried the Count, "the Virgil of these later days?"
+
+The poet blushed with pleasure to hear the compliment, which, extravagant
+as it may seem to us, did not strike him as being anything out of the way.
+For had not his statue been set up in Trajan's Forum at Rome, an honour
+which none of his predecessors had been thought worthy to receive?
+
+"Ah! sir," he replied, "you are too good. But it would have been well for
+me if I had contented myself with following Virgil; unfortunately I must
+also imitate Juvenal. Praise of the fallen may be forgiven, but there is
+no pardon for satire against those that succeed. Enmity lasts longer than
+friendship, and I have made enemies whom nothing can appease."
+
+  [Illustration: Claudian's Tale.]
+
+"But what of Stilicho?" said the Count. "Surely he has not ceased to be
+your friend. Doubtless you owe much to him, but he owes more, I venture to
+say, to you. He may have given you wealth, but you have given him
+immortality."(48)
+
+"Ah! sir," said Claudian, "have you not then heard?"
+
+"Heard!" cried the Count; "we hear nothing here. We always were cut off
+from the rest of the world; but for the last nine months we might as well
+have been living in the moon, for all that has reached us of what is going
+on elsewhere."
+
+"You did not know, then, that Stilicho was dead?"
+
+"Dead! But how?"
+
+"Killed by the order of the Emperor."
+
+"What! killed? by the Emperor's orders? It is impossible. The man who
+saved the Empire, the very best soldier we have had since Caesar! And you
+say that the Emperor ordered him to be killed?"
+
+The Count rose from his seat, and walked about in incontrollable emotion.
+
+"So they have killed him! Fools and madmen that they are! There never was
+such a man. I knew him well. He was always ready, always cheerful, as gay
+in a battle as at a wedding; as brave as a lion, and yet never doing
+anything by force that he could contrive by stratagem. But tell me--they
+had, or pretended to have, some cause. What was it?"
+
+"They said he was a traitor, that he wanted the Empire for himself, or for
+his son, that he intrigued with the barbarians."
+
+"Well, he was fond of power; and who can wonder that he was dissatisfied
+when he saw in what hands it was lodged? But tell me--what do you think?"
+
+"I don't say," resumed Claudian, "that he was blameless, but he had an
+impossible task--he had to save the Empire without soldiers. He did it
+again and again; he played off one barbarian power against another with
+consummate skill; and filled his legion one day with the enemies whom he
+had routed the day before. But this could not be done without intrigues,
+without devices which, taken by themselves, looked like treason. But it is
+idle to speak of the past. He lies in a dishonoured grave, and the Empire
+of Augustus is tottering to its fall."
+
+"Tell me of his end," said the Count. "You saw it?"
+
+"Yes," said the poet; "I saw it, and, I am ashamed to say, survived it.
+Well, I will tell you my tale. You know he might have had the Empire; the
+soldiers offered it to him; Alaric and his Goths would have been delighted
+to help him. But he refused. He was loyal to the last. He would not even
+fly. There are many places where he would have been safe----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted the Count; "he would have been safe here, if I know
+anything of Britain."
+
+"Well, he would go to none of them. He went to the one place where safety
+was impossible. He went to Ravenna; and at Ravenna every one, from the
+Emperor down to the meanest slave, was an enemy. He wanted to make them
+trust him by trusting them--as if one disarmed a tiger by going into his
+lair! He had two or three of his chief officers with him, besides myself,
+and as many slaves. We had not a weapon of any kind among us. Stilicho
+made a point of our being unarmed. Well, we had not an encouraging
+greeting when we entered the city. Every one, as you may suppose,
+recognized him. Indeed, there was no man, I suppose, in the whole Empire,
+who was better known. No one who had ever seen Stilicho could forget that
+towering form, that white head.(49) There were sullen looks as we walked
+through the streets, and hisses, and even some stone throwing. However, we
+got safe to our lodgings, and passed the night without disturbance. The
+next day, as we were standing in the market-place, an old Vandal
+soldier--one of the general's countrymen, you know--put a flower in his hand
+as he walked by, without saying a word, or even looking at him; for it
+would have been as much as his life was worth to be seen communicating
+with us. 'An old comrade,' said Stilicho, who never forgot a face. 'He
+served with me in Greece.' The flower was a little red thing; the
+'shepherd's hourglass' they call it, because it shuts when there is rain
+coming. It was a warning. There was danger close at hand. The general
+said, 'We must take sanctuary.' Then he called me to him. 'Leave me,
+Claudian,' he said; 'you cannot take sanctuary with us, for you are not a
+baptized man. I do not count much on the Church's protection; but still it
+may give me time to make my defence to the Emperor. So you must look out
+for your own safety. But surely they can't be base enough to harm you, for
+what you have done?' 'I don't know about that, my Lord,' I answered; 'you
+remember the fable of the trumpeter.(50) Anyhow, I shall follow you as far
+as I can.' Well, he went into the great church--what used to be the
+Basilica before Constantine's time--and took sanctuary by the altar. I did
+not go further than the nave. In the course of an hour or so comes the
+bishop, with the archdeacon and two or three priests, and following them
+one of the great officers of the Court, with a body-guard. The church was
+now crowded from end to end; the people had climbed up into the pulpit,
+and every accessible spot from which they could get a view of what was
+going on. I think that there was a reaction in the general's favour. No
+one, whose heart was not flint, could see the man who had saved the
+Empire, and that not once or twice, a suppliant for his life. Well, I
+could not see for myself what went on, but I heard the story afterwards.
+The bishop brought a safe-conduct from the Emperor; or rather the
+chamberlain brought it, and the bishop gave it to Stilicho, with his own
+guarantee. I can't believe that a man of peace and truth, as he calls
+himself, could have been a party to so base a fraud--he must have been
+deceived himself. Well, the safe-conduct promised that the general should
+be heard in his own defence; and he wanted nothing more. I doubt whether a
+trial would have served him; but they never intended to give him even so
+much. As soon as he was out of the church I could see what was meant, for
+I followed him. The chamberlain's body-guard drew their swords. Well, I
+was wrong to say that he had no friends in Ravenna. He had a friend even
+in that crew of hirelings--another of his old soldiers, I daresay. I told
+you that Stilicho had neither armour nor weapon. Well, in a moment, no one
+could see how, there was a long sword lying at his feet. He took it up;
+and, verily, if he had used it, he would at least have sold his life
+dearly. The general was a great swordsman, as good a swordsman as he was a
+general. But no; he would not condescend to it; after a soldier's first
+impulse to take the weapon, he made no use of it. He pointed it to the
+ground, and stood facing his enemies. Ah! it was a noble sight--that grand
+old man looking steadfastly at that crew of murderers. For a few moments
+they seemed cowed. No one lifted his hand--then some double-dyed villain
+crept behind and stabbed him. He staggered forward, and immediately there
+were a dozen swords hacking at him. At least his was no lingering death.
+They cut off that grand white head and carried it to the Emperor; his body
+they threw into the pit where they bury the slaves. And that was the end
+of the saviour of the Empire."
+
+"And about yourself?" said the Count.
+
+"Well," went on the poet, "I have since thought that if I had been a man I
+should have died with him. But when I knew that he was dead, I was coward
+enough to fly. You would not care to hear how I spent the next few days. I
+had a few gold pieces in my pocket, and I found a wretched lodging in one
+of the worst parts of the city, and I lay there in hiding. One day I was
+having my morning meal at a wine shop, when a shabbily dressed old man,
+who sat next, turned to me in a meaning way, and, pouring a few drops out
+of his wine cup, said, 'To Apollo and the Muses.' That is a crime
+now-a-days, in some places at least, Ravenna among them; and he wanted, I
+suppose, to put me at my ease. 'Will you not do the same,' he went on, 'of
+all men in the world there is no one who has better cause.' Pardon me,
+illustrious Count, if I repeat his flatteries. 'Whom do you take me for?'
+said I, for one gets to be a sad coward after a few days' hiding, and I
+was unwilling to declare myself. He replied by repeating some of my verses
+in so meaning a way that I could not misunderstand him. 'These
+wine-bibbers here,' he went on, 'don't know one verse from another, but
+they might catch up a name. Come along with me; I will give you a flask of
+something better than this sour stuff.' Well, we went to his house, which
+was close to the harbour. He was the owner, I found, of two or three small
+trading vessels. The house was a veritable temple of the Muses, ornamented
+with busts of the poets--my own I was flattered to see among them--and
+containing an excellent library of books. Manlius--that was my friend's
+name--had heard me recite at Rome; and he recognized me partly from memory,
+partly from my resemblance to the bust. To make a long story short, he
+entertained me most hospitably for several days, while we discussed the
+question what was to become of me. Home I could not go, not, at least,
+till there should be a change in the Emperor's surroundings. The further I
+got from Italy the more chance there would be of safety. We thought of
+North-western Gaul or Britain, or of getting across the Rhine. The end of
+it was that the good fellow took me across Italy, disguised as his
+servant, to Genoa, where he had correspondents. From Genoa I went to
+Marseilles, and from Marseilles overland to Narbonne, using now the
+character of a bookseller's agent, one which I thought myself better
+qualified to sustain than any other. At Narbonne I found employment as a
+bookseller's assistant, till I could get a letter from my wife in Africa
+with some money. That came in due course, and then I set off on my travels
+again, still working northwards. Then, sir, I thought of you. I had often
+heard the great man speak of you. You served under him against the
+Bastarnae,(51) I think, and it occurred to me that for Stilicho's sake you
+might give me shelter. Not that it matters much to me. To Stilicho I owe
+so much that I can scarcely imagine life without him. He gave me honour,
+wealth, even," added the poet, with a sad little smile, "even my wife, for
+it was not my courting, but the Lady Serena's(52) letter that won her for
+me. But to go on, I found an honest trader, and bargained with him to
+bring me here. I had been sickening for some time, and I remember little
+or nothing from the time of my embarking. There, sir, you have my history
+carried up to the latest point."
+
+"We will put off the future to another day," said the Count; "meanwhile
+you may count on me for anything that I can do."
+
+"Your kindness does much to reconcile me to life," said the poet, "and now
+I will retire, for I feel a little tired."
+
+"Ah," said Carna half to herself, when he had left the room, "now I
+understand about Proserpine."
+
+"About Proserpine? What do you mean?" asked AElia.
+
+"Why, when he came to himself for the first time I was sitting in the
+window with a piece of embroidery work in my hand, and I heard him whisper
+something about Proserpine." Carna suppressed the flattering epithet.
+"Don't you remember that passage where he describes the tapestry which
+Proserpine was working for her mother, and how we admired it, and thought
+we would work something of the kind for ourselves, only we could not get
+any design?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," replied the other, "and you have had a Pluto, too, to
+carry you off. Luckily he was not so successful as the god."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                             NEWS FROM ITALY.
+
+
+The Count's difficulties did not seem to diminish as the year advanced.
+Money grew scarcer and scarcer, till it was only by pledging his personal
+credit to the merchants of Londinium and other towns in Britain that he
+was able to find the pay for the crews of his little squadron. His credit
+happily was still good, a character of twenty years without a single
+suspicion on his integrity standing him in good stead. Then a disaster
+happened to one of the few ships that he had retained. After a fierce
+encounter with a Saxon galley, in which its crew had been much weakened,
+it had been caught in a storm and driven on the deadly western shore of
+the island, still dreaded under the name of the Needles by those who
+navigate the Channel. The ship became a complete wreck and only a small
+portion of the crew escaped with their lives, all the disabled men being
+lost.
+
+But the Count's chief perplexities were within rather than without. For
+more than twenty years he had yielded an unquestioning obedience to the
+authorities at home. It is true that very little had been demanded of him.
+He had been given a free hand, and left to do his duty with very little
+interference, if with very little help. But now in the news of Stilicho's
+death his loyalty had received a tremendous shock. How was he to bear
+himself to a ruler who was capable of committing so great a crime? True,
+he knew enough of the Emperor to be sure that he was only a tool in the
+hands of others, but this did not make the matter one whit better. Such
+tools are often more mischievous than men who are actively wicked. What
+then was he to do? Should he join the usurper Constantine, of whose
+astonishing success in Gaul and Spain he had heard the most glowing
+reports? His pride forbad it--an AElius doing homage to a man who but twelve
+months before had been a private soldier! The thought was impossible.
+Should he retire into private life? But would not that be to shirk his
+duty, not to mention the fact that to retire is the one thing which in
+troubled times a man in a conspicuous position cannot do. One thing,
+indeed, was evident--that a decision would have to be made speedily. His
+position was rapidly becoming untenable, and he would have to make up his
+mind, without much delay, as to the best way of getting out of it. In the
+end it happened to him as it happens to so many of us, that his mind was
+made up for him.
+
+One day, towards the end of August, he was about to seek in a day's sport
+a little relief from his many cares. It was still about four hours to
+noon, and he was sitting under a cherry tree (one of his own planting) in
+the villa garden, and sharing a slight meal of milk and wheaten cakes with
+his daughter and Carna, both of whom he had persuaded to accompany him. A
+young Briton stood by holding in a leash a couple of dogs very much like
+the greyhounds of our own times; another carried a bow and a quiver; a
+third had a game bag of leather, with a netted front, slung across his
+shoulders.
+
+The sailing-master of one of the galleys approached and saluted.
+
+"There is a galley," he said, "coming up the Haven, and I thought that you
+should know at once, since it seems to have something of importance on
+board."
+
+"What makes you think so?" said the Count.
+
+"I have been watching it for the last hour," said the man. "At first I
+thought it was a little trading vessel; but I noticed that as soon as it
+entered the Haven it hoisted the Labarum."(53)
+
+"The Labarum!" exclaimed the Count; "I have not seen that flying from any
+mast but my own for a year past. Well, that ought to mean something."
+
+It was the etiquette to go as far as was possible to meet an Imperial
+messenger, just as a host receives a very distinguished guest on his
+door-step, and the Count, after hastily exchanging his hunting-dress for a
+toga, went to the little pier at which the galley would land its
+passenger. He had not to wait many minutes before it arrived, and a
+handsome young man, with a short military cloak over his traveller's
+dress, leapt lightly ashore. The Count saluted. The stranger, who was for
+a time the representative of the Emperor, received the greeting with the
+dignified gesture of a superior.
+
+"Do I address Lucius AElius, Count of the Saxon Shore?" he asked.
+
+"I am he," the Count briefly replied.
+
+"I bring the commands of Augustus," said the messenger, producing from a
+pocket in his tunic a vellum roll, bound with a broad purple cord, and
+bearing the Imperial seal.
+
+The Count received the missive with a profound inclination, and put it to
+his lips. At the same time the messenger uncovered, and changed his
+haughty demeanour for the behaviour usual to a young officer in the
+presence of his superior.
+
+"It will be more respectful and more convenient to read his Majesty's
+gracious communication in private. Will you please come with me to my
+house?"
+
+He led the way to the villa, and introduced the visitor into the little
+room which he used for the transaction of business. He then cut with his
+dagger the purple cord which fastened the package containing the despatch,
+and, after again putting the document to his lips, proceeded to read it.
+Its contents were seemingly not agreeable, for his face darkened as he
+went on. He made no remark, however, beyond simply asking the messenger--
+
+"May I presume that you have a general acquaintance with the contents of
+this document?"
+
+"I have," replied the young man.
+
+"Then you will know that the answer is not one which can be given in a
+moment. But," and he went on with a rapid change of voice and manner,
+"_cras seria_.(54) I was just on the point of going out for a few hours'
+hunting when your arrival was announced. Will you come with me? I have
+nothing very great to show you, though we have some big game here too, if
+we had time to look for it, but if you will condescend to anything so
+small as hare-hunting, I can show you some sport."
+
+The Imperial messenger was an Italian of the north of the Peninsula, who
+had been fond of following the chase on the slopes of the Apennines before
+chance had made him a courtier. He accepted the invitation with pleasure,
+and the party made the best of their way to the high ground now known as
+Arreton Downs.
+
+"Ah!" said the Count, as he pointed northward to where the great Anderida
+Forest(55) might be seen stretching far beyond the range of sight, "there
+is the place for sport; a wilder country I have never seen, no, nor finer
+game. There are wild boars of which I have never seen the like in Italy,
+no, nor in the Hercynian Wood(56) itself, where I used to hunt years ago.
+Last year I killed one which measured six feet from snout to tail. There
+are wolves, too, and bears, and wild oxen; splendid fellows these last, as
+fierce as lions, and almost as big as elephants. But to-day we must be
+content with humbler sport."
+
+This humbler game, however, afforded plenty of amusement, and they
+returned with a bag of eight fine hares--a very fair burden for the carrier
+of the game-bag--and an excellent appetite for dinner.
+
+The meal, to which the Count had invited the captains of his galleys and
+the principal persons in the little colony which was now gathered about
+the villa, passed off very well. The young Italian was loud in his praises
+of everything. "Your oysters," he said, "all the world knows, but some of
+your other dishes are a surprise. The turbot, for instance, how
+incomparably superior to the flabby and tasteless things which they bring
+us from our own coasts. The colder water of the seas is, I suppose, the
+cause. The hares, too, how fine and fleshy! You seem to be amazingly well
+off in the way of food in this corner of the world."
+
+"Ah!" said the Count, with a sigh, "we should do very well, if the rest of
+the world would only leave us alone. But our neighbours cannot be content
+without a share of some of our good things, and they have a very rough and
+disagreeable way of asking for it."
+
+The speaker went on to draw for the benefit of his guest a vivid picture
+of the trouble which the Saxons were giving by sea and the Picts by land,
+till the Italian exclaimed--
+
+"Ah! I see that you too have your disagreeables. I began to think that
+this was a land of peace and plenty, where one might find a pleasant
+refuge. But these barbarians, in one shape or another, are everywhere. We
+are fallen upon evil times indeed."
+
+"Yes," said the Count, "evil times, and no one knows how to deal with
+them; and if God does send us a capable man, we treat him as if he were an
+enemy."
+
+When the tables had been cleared, the Count rose and proposed the toast of
+the Emperor's health; but he did this without a single word of compliment,
+a significant omission that did not fail to attract the attention of all
+who were present. He then proceeded, and again without any preface, to
+read to the company the despatch which had been put into his hands the day
+before. It ran thus:
+
+
+"_Flavius Honorius Augustus to the faithful and valiant Lucius AElius,
+Count of the Saxon Shore, greeting._
+
+"_Our Imperial care for the dominions, which by Divine Providence have
+been committed to our trust, bids us combine the safety of the seat of our
+government with the welfare of the provinces. For, seeing that these are
+mutually related, as are the head and the limbs in the body of man, it is
+manifest that neither can prosper without the other. Our well-beloved and
+faithful province of Britain has now for many generations been protected
+by our invincible legions and fleets. But even as there comes a time when
+the most careful fathers judge it to be not only needless but even harmful
+to keep their children in dependence upon themselves, so do we now judge
+that our province may now with great advantage, not only to us--for of this
+we think little--but also to itself, defend itself __with its own
+resources. We charge you, therefore, our well-beloved and faithful AElius,
+as having supreme command of the fleets of the said province of Britain,
+to withdraw them as soon as you conveniently may, but not without leaving
+our loyal subjects the assurance of our fatherly love and of the unfailing
+protection of our majesty. The Ever-Blessed Trinity keep and prosper both
+you and all that are committed to your charge. Given at Ravenna, the
+twelfth day before the Kalends of August,_(_57_)_ in the year of our Lord
+408, and the fifteenth year of our reign._"
+
+
+  [Illustration: The Count receiving the letter of Honorius.]
+
+The reading of the despatch was followed by a dead silence. Every one had
+felt for some time that the present state of affairs could not last. Only
+a man of the vigorous character of the Count, and having long years of
+excellent service to fall back upon, could have maintained it so long, but
+it was impossible not to see that it must soon end. A solitary commander,
+without resources or support, could not maintain himself on the remotest
+borders of the Empire. Yet to know that the moment for the change had come
+was disturbing. The fleet, reduced as it had been to a petty squadron, was
+still, while it remained, the symbol of Imperial power, and seemed to be
+worth more in the way of protection than it really was. When this was
+withdrawn, Britain would be really left to itself; and this prospect,
+however it might be regarded elsewhere, was not agreeable to any one of
+the Count's guests.
+
+The Count was the first to break the silence. "This," he said, "is
+manifestly a matter that calls for serious thought. Let us postpone it
+till to-morrow, and for the present turn ourselves to matters more
+suitable for a festive occasion. Perhaps my friend Claudian will give us
+the recitation of something with which he has already charmed the ears of
+our fellow-countrymen elsewhere."
+
+The poet, not more reluctant than his brother-countryman to exhibit his
+genius, at once signified his willingness to comply with this request, and
+gave a recitation from an unfinished poem which he had then in hand. We
+may give a specimen, put into the best English that we can command--
+
+  "The elemental order there she drew,
+    And Jove's high dwellings; there you saw
+  The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew
+      To harmony and law;
+
+  "How Nature set in order due and rank
+    Her atoms, raised the light on high,
+  And to the middle place the weightier sank;
+      There lustrous shone the sky,
+
+  "The heavens were pink with flame, the ocean rolled,
+    The great world hung in mid suspense.
+  Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold
+      The starry fires intense,
+
+  "Bade ocean flow in purple, and the shore
+    With gems upraised. Divinely wrought,
+  The threads embossed to swelling billows bore
+      Strange likeness; you had thought
+
+  "They dashed the seaweed on the rocks, or crept
+    Hoarse murmuring thro' the thirsty sands.
+  Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept
+      With red distinct the lands
+
+  "Leaguered with burnings; all the region showed
+    Scorched into blackness, and the thread
+  Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed;
+      On either hand were spread
+
+  "The realms of life, lapt in a milder breath
+    Kindly to men; and next appear,
+  On this extreme and that, dull lands of death:
+      She made them dark and drear
+
+  "With year-long frost, and saddened all the hue
+    With endless winter; last she showed
+  What seats her sire's grim brother holds; nor knew
+      The fated dark abode."(58)
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                              CONSULTATION.
+
+
+The next morning the Count invited the Imperial messenger to a private
+conference. His daughter and Carna were present, as was also Claudian.
+
+"You have the latest news," the Count began. "Pray let us have them. Here
+we know nothing. But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed that
+you did not hoist the standard till you were within the Haven. You did
+not, I suppose, think it a safe flag to sail under."
+
+"Well," replied the messenger, "I thought it better to have no flag at
+all. But, to tell the truth, the Labarum is not just now exactly the best
+passport in the world."
+
+"You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?" the Count went on. "How are matters
+there?"
+
+"Constantine, with the legions he brought from here, and those that have
+joined him since, is pretty well master of the country, and of Spain too."
+
+"And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let these provinces go without a
+struggle? Spain was the first province that Rome ever had, and Gaul was
+the second. None, I take it, have been so steadily profitable, and now we
+are to lose them."
+
+He rose from his seat, and walked up and down the room in an agitation
+which he could not conceal.
+
+"And the only man who could keep the Empire together is gone; butchered,
+as if he were a criminal!"
+
+The messenger said nothing to this outburst. He went on, "I believe his
+Majesty proposes to admit Constantine to a share of the Imperial honours,
+to make him Caesar of Gaul and Spain."
+
+"What!" said the Count. "Do not my ears deceive me? This fellow, whom I
+have seen wearing the collar for the neglect of duty, recognized as his
+colleague by Augustus!"(59)
+
+"I do not pretend to know his Majesty's purposes, I can only say what is
+reported at head-quarters, and, it would seem, on good authority. But,"
+continued the speaker, in a voice from which he had studiously banished
+all kind of emphasis, and looking as he spoke at the ceiling of the room,
+"your lordship is aware that the honours thus unexpectedly bestowed do not
+always turn out to the advantage of those who receive them."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the Count.
+
+"I mean that what is given may be taken away--and taken away with very
+handsome interest for the loan--when the proper time comes. Your lordship
+has not forgotten the name of Carausius."(60)
+
+"Well," said the Count, "this is not the old way Rome had of dealing with
+her enemies. But, 'other times, other manners.' Tell me now, if the
+Augustus has arranged or is going to arrange with Constantine, what about
+Alaric?"
+
+"Oh! he will be quiet for a time, or should be, if there is any truth in a
+barbarian's oath. You have heard how he marched on Rome?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied the Count. "I have heard nothing here, except, quite
+early in the year, a vague rumour that he was on the move again. But tell
+me--has Augustus given _him_, too, a share in the Empire?"
+
+"Not exactly; but I will tell what has taken place. He marched on Rome."
+
+"Yes," interjected the Count, "and there was no Stilicho to save it!"
+
+"The city was almost helpless. Even the walls had not been kept in repair,
+and if they had, there was no proper force to man them. The only thing
+possible was to make peace on the best terms that they could. I happened
+to be in Alaric's camp with a letter, under a flag of truce, the very day
+that the ambassadors came out to treat with the king, and I saw the whole
+affair. I don't mind saying that it was not one to make a man feel proud
+of being a Roman. The barbarians, it seemed to me, had not only all the
+strength on their side, but the dignity also. Alaric himself is a splendid
+specimen of humanity, every inch a king, the tallest and handsomest man in
+his army, and that, too, an army of giants. It was a contrast, I can tell
+you, between him and the two miserable, pettifogging creatures that
+represented the Senate. At first they tried what a little brag could do.
+'Give us an honourable peace,' said their spokesman, 'or you will repent
+of having driven to despair a nation of warriors, a nation that has
+conquered the world.' The king laughed; he knew what the Romans have come
+to. 'The thicker the hay,' he said, 'the easier to mow.' And then he fixed
+the ransom that he would take for retiring from before the walls. Brennus
+throwing his sword into the scales was moderation in comparison to him.
+'Give me,' he said, 'all the gold and silver, coined or uncoined, private
+property or public that you have, and all the other property that the
+envoys whom I shall send think worth taking; and hand over to me all the
+slaves that you have of the nations of the North, Goths, or Huns, or
+Vandals. You are pleased to call them barbarians, but they are more fit to
+be masters than you; and I will not suffer them to be in a bondage so
+unworthy. Your Greeks, and Africans, and Asiatics, and such like cattle
+you may keep.' The ambassadors were pale with dismay. If they had taken
+back such an answer, the Romans had at least enough spirit left to tear
+them in pieces. 'What do you leave us, then?' they said. 'Your lives!' he
+thundered out. In the end, however, he softened somewhat. Five thousand
+pounds of gold and thirty thousand pounds of silver, and I don't know how
+much silk, and cloth, and spices, were what he finally asked. I know the
+city was stripped pretty bare before the Senate could make up the sum. I
+am told that the treasuries of the churches had to be emptied. Well, as I
+said, Alaric, if he keeps his bargain, ought to be quiet for a time, but
+you will see that the Emperor has need of all his friends round him, and
+all the strength which he can bring together. That is what I have to say
+by way of explanation of the despatch that I brought."
+
+"May I ask you to leave us for a while?" said the Count to the young
+Italian.
+
+When he had left the room the Count turned to his daughter, and said--
+
+"And this is our country! This is Rome! The Emperor, forsooth, has need of
+all his friends. His friends indeed! I little thought that the day would
+come when I should feel ashamed of the title. But tell me, daughter; what
+shall we do? Shall we go?"
+
+"What else can we do?" asked the girl.
+
+"I have thought much about the matter since I heard the dreadful news of
+Stilicho's death, and have had all kinds of wild schemes in my head. I
+have felt that I could not go back and touch in friendship the hands that
+murdered him. Sometimes I thought, while Cedric was here, that we would
+take him with us, and sail eastward. I have had many a hard fight with
+these Saxons, but at least they are men, and brave men, too, who are true
+to their friends, if they hate their enemies. But that is now at an end.
+But is there no other way to go? What say you, Claudian--have you any
+counsel to give us?"
+
+"I would not advise you to sail eastward," said the poet. "We know pretty
+well what lies that way; tribes of barbarians, of whom the less we see the
+better, with all respect to your friend Cedric, who seems to have been a
+fine fellow. But why not westward? You will laugh at me for believing in
+the Islands of the Blest. Well, I do not mean to say that there is a
+country where Achilles and the rest of the heroes are living in immortal
+joy and peace. If there is, it is not one which any ship, built by the art
+of man, can reach. But I do believe that there is a country. These old
+tales, depend upon it, have something more in them than mere fancy. Why,
+my lord, should not you be the one to find it?"
+
+"Yes, let us go, dear father," said AElia, "and leave this dreadful world
+with all its troubles and quarrels behind us. Don't you think so, Carna?"
+
+Carna only smiled sadly.
+
+"Or," continued the poet, "there is the land beyond the north, the country
+of the blessed Hyperboreans, that old Herodotus talks about. Why should we
+not go there? Or, if that sounds too wild, there is Africa, with regions
+rich and fertile beyond all doubt that are waiting to be explored. These
+at least are no matter of legend. We know where they are. Let us search
+for them. Whatever world we may find, it can hardly be worse than that
+which we are leaving behind."
+
+"And what says Carna?" said the Count, turning, with an affectionate look,
+to his adopted daughter.
+
+The girl thus appealed to flushed painfully. For a moment she seemed about
+to speak, but not a syllable passed her lips.
+
+"Speak," cried the Count; "you always see clearer and farther than the
+rest of us."
+
+"My father," the girl went on, "I will speak from my heart, as I know you
+always wish me to do. Forgive me if I seem to teach when it is my part to
+learn and to obey. But, if you ask what I think you should do, I say, 'Go
+home to Rome or Ravenna, or wherever else the Emperor bids you.' After
+all, it is your country, and it never needed the help of good and brave
+men more than it does now."
+
+"By heaven! Claudian," cried the Count, after a brief silence, "the girl
+is right, as she always is. These are not the times for an honest man to
+turn his back upon his country. If I could reach the Islands of the Blest,
+or the happy people who live beyond the north, as easily as I can walk
+across this room, I would not do it; and after all, what is the world
+without Rome to a Roman? What say you, Claudian?"
+
+"I am but a poor singer, who has lost all that made him sing. I could do
+little in any case, and I doubt whether those who killed Stilicho will
+have anything but the axe for Stilicho's friend. Still, I go with you. It
+is not for a Roman to say that Rome is unworthy."
+
+"So that is settled," exclaimed the Count.
+
+"Oh, Carna," cried AElia, throwing her arms round her sister, "shall we
+ever be as happy again as we have been in this dear place?"
+
+Carna clung to her, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+"Does it trouble you so much to go?" asked the Count. "Surely the place is
+not so much to you. You can be happy, wherever you may be, with those you
+love."
+
+The girl lifted up a tear-stained face to him.
+
+"Father," she said--"more than father, for you have loved me without any
+tie of kindred--I cannot go, my home is here."
+
+"Nay, child, what are you saying? Your home has been with us ever since
+you were a babe in arms, and it is so still; or," he added, with a smile,
+"are you going to leave us for a husband?"
+
+The girl blushed crimson as she shook her head. When she could recover her
+speech, choked, as it was, with sobs, she said--
+
+"You asked me just now what you should do, and I said 'Go home to your
+country.' Can I do less myself? Rome is your country, and Britain is mine.
+And oh, if Rome wants all her sons and daughters, how much more does this
+poor Britain!"
+
+"But where will you live?" broke in the Count's daughter; "Where will you
+be safe? Think of the dreadful things you have gone through within the
+last few months! How can you bear to face them with your friends gone?
+And, dearest Carna," she went on, as she clasped her still closer, "how
+can I live without you?"
+
+"My dearest sister," sobbed the girl, "don't make it harder than it is. It
+breaks my heart to part from you, but I cannot doubt what my duty is. And
+I am not without hope. There are brave men here, and men who love their
+country, and I cannot but trust that they will be able to do something. Of
+course, we shall stumble, for we have not been used to go alone, but I do
+hope that we shall not fall altogether."
+
+"But, Carna, what can you do?" said AElia. "You seem to be sacrificing
+yourself for nothing."
+
+"Not for nothing; it is something if I can only sit at home and pray. But
+it must be at home that I must pray. God would not hear me if I were to
+put myself in some safe, comfortable place, and then pretend to care for
+the poor people whom I had left behind."
+
+She hurried from the room when she had said this, as if she could not
+trust herself against persuasions that touched her heart so nearly.
+
+"Carna is right," said the Count, when she had gone, "but I feel as if she
+were going to her death."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                                FAREWELL!
+
+
+The resolution to return to Italy once made, the Count lost no time in
+carrying it out. His own preparations for departure did not cost him much
+trouble. He began by offering freedom to all the slaves in his household.
+The difficulty was in inducing them to accept it. So kind a master had he
+been--in spite of an occasional outburst of temper--and so uncertain were
+the prospects of a quiet life in Britain, that very few felt any eagerness
+to be independent, and the boon had to be forced upon them or made
+acceptable by a considerable bribe. With the free population that since
+the departure of the legions had gathered in increasing numbers about the
+villa it was still more difficult to deal. Many of them were quite
+helpless people whom it seemed equally difficult to take and to leave
+behind. To all that were of Italian birth, or that had kinsfolk or friends
+on the Continent who might be reasonably expected to give them a home, the
+Count offered a passage. For others employment was found in Londinium and
+other towns. But, when all that was possible had been done, there was a
+helpless remnant, about whom the Count felt much as the occupants of the
+last boat must feel at the sight of the poor creatures whom they are
+forced to leave behind on a sinking ship.
+
+Carna had quitted the villa very soon after her resolution to remain in
+Britain had been made. It was indeed too painful to remain there, for,
+though the Count had confessed that she was right, his daughter remained
+unconvinced, and assailed her with incessant entreaties and reproaches
+which went very near to breaking her heart. She made her home with the old
+priest whose wife was a distant kinswoman of her own, and found, as such
+tender hearts always will, a solace for her own sorrows in relieving the
+troubles of others.
+
+About the middle of September all was ready for a start. The two
+serviceable ships that were left to the Count were loaded to their utmost
+capacity with the persons and property of the departing colony. Their
+sailing masters had indeed remonstrated as strongly as they dared.
+
+"We _may_ get safely across," said the senior of them, "if all goes better
+than we have any right to expect. But if it comes on to blow we shall
+hardly be able to handle our ships; and if we meet with the pirates--well,
+a man might as well go into battle with his hands tied."
+
+The Count refused to listen to these protests. Even the suggestion that
+the cargo should be divided, and part left for a second voyage he scouted,
+"It will not do," he said, "the poor people would fancy they were being
+left behind, and I am not at all sure that they would not be right. It is
+only too likely that if we once get to the other side we should _not_ come
+back. No! we will sink or swim together."
+
+About an hour before noon on the fifteenth of the month, the crews were
+ready to weigh anchor. The Count and his daughter, who had just taken
+their last view of the villa which had been their home for so many years,
+were standing on the little jetty, ready to step into the boat that was to
+convey them to the ship. Carna and the old priest and his wife were with
+them, and the hour of farewell had come. AElia, if she had not reconciled
+herself to separation from her sister, at least saw that it was
+inevitable, and was resolved not to make the parting bitterer than it must
+needs be. She affected a cheerfulness which she did not feel.
+
+"Good-bye, Carna," she cried, throwing her arms round the girl's neck.
+"Good-bye! now we are going like swallows in the autumn, and very likely
+shall come back like them in the spring. Meanwhile keep the nest as warm
+for us as you can."
+
+"Remember, Carna," said the Count, "that you have a home as long as either
+I or my daughter have a roof over our heads. You are doing your duty in
+staying, but there is a limit even to duty. As long as you can be of
+service, stop; I would not have it otherwise; but don't sacrifice yourself
+and those that love you for nothing."
+
+Carna's heart was too full to let her speak. She caught the Count's hands
+and kissed them. Then she turned to AElia, and taking her gold cross and
+chain--the only ornament that she wore--hung it round her sister's neck.
+When she had succeeded in choking down her sobs, she whispered, "Take
+this, and, if you will give me yours, we will bear each other's crosses,
+and, perhaps, they will be a little lighter. But oh, how heavy!"
+
+"Kneel, my children," said the old priest, and the little group knelt
+down, while the rowers in the boat uncovered their heads. After repeating
+the paternoster and a few simple words of prayer, he raised his hand and
+blessed them, then fell on his knees beside them. After two or three
+minutes of silent supplication the Count rose, and almost lifted his
+daughter into the boat, so broken down was she with the passion of her
+grief. Carna remained on her knees, her face buried in her hands. To have
+looked up and seen father and sister go was more than she dared to do. For
+the struggle that she fancied was over had begun again in her heart, and
+she could not feel sure even then that duty would prevail. The Count
+gently laid his hand upon her head and blessed her, then stepped into the
+boat. As the rowers dipped their oars in the water, a gleam of sunshine
+burst through the clouds, and lighted as with a glory the head of the
+kneeling girl.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                                MARTIANUS.
+
+
+The little community that remained in the neighbourhood of the villa after
+the departure of the Count and his household had plenty to occupy their
+thoughts and hands. The Count had behaved with a liberality and a
+discretion that were both equally characteristic of him. All the stock of
+what may be called the home farm, all the agricultural implements, the
+cattle, sheep, and pigs, and as much of the stores of corn that he could
+spare, he had made over to the priest and two other principal persons in
+the settlement for the benefit of the community at large. This was an
+excellent start, and removed all immediate anxiety for the future. The
+stores of provisions had been increased by opportune purchases before the
+resolution to go had been taken, and enough was left to last, if managed
+with due economy, over the coming winter.
+
+Carna found plenty of employment of the kind in which she found her
+greatest pleasure. There was indeed a terrible gap in her life; not only
+had she lost those whom she had loved all her life as father and sister,
+but her intellectual interests had dropped away from her. Many of the
+books at the villa had indeed been left with her, but then there was no
+one to whom to talk about them. The old priest never opened a volume
+except it was a service book; his wife could not even read. But the time
+never hung heavily upon her hands, for there was plenty of work to do
+among the sick and sorry. As the autumn went on an epidemic, which a
+modern doctor would probably have described as measles, broke out among
+the children, and Carna spent her days and nights in ministering to the
+little sufferers. The one relief that she allowed herself--and there was no
+little sadness mixed with the pleasure which it gave her--was to spend an
+hour, when she could snatch one from her many cares, in the deserted rooms
+of the villa. The indulgence was rare, not only because her leisure was
+infrequent, but because she was conscious of feeling somewhat relaxed
+after it for the effort of her daily life; but when it came it was
+precious. Not a room, not a picture on the walls, not a pattern in the
+tesselated pavements, that did not call up a hundred associations, and
+make the past in which she had enjoyed so much happiness live again in her
+fancy. The dwelling was under the charge of an old couple, who gladly kept
+it clean in exchange for the shelter of two or three of the rooms, and
+Carna was free to wander about it as she would, while she felt a certain
+security in the knowledge that the place was not wholly deserted.
+
+The autumn and winter passed without any incident of importance. News from
+the Continent had never been very regular during that season of the year,
+and now it came only at the rarest intervals. All that the settlement
+heard went to show that there was but little chance of the return of the
+legions. Constantine, after some changes of fortune, had made himself
+master of Gaul and Spain, and had established a kingdom which looked so
+much as if it might last, that he had been regularly acknowledged by
+Honorius as a partner in the Empire. But it would be long before he could
+spare money or men for adding Britain to his dominions. From Britain
+itself the news was mostly of the most dismal kind. The Picts, indeed,
+were not as troublesome as usual. Happily for their neighbours on the
+south, their attention had been occupied by the tribes on the north, who
+had been driven by a season of unusual scarcity to forage for themselves.
+The robbers, in fact, had been obliged to defend themselves against being
+robbed, and Britain had had in consequence a quiet time. But the people
+used it to quarrel among themselves. There were scores of chiefs who had
+each his pedigree, by which he traced his lineage to some king of the
+pre-Roman days, and which gave him, he fancied, a title to rule over his
+neighbours. And besides these personal jealousies, there was a great
+division which split the nation into two hostile factions. There were
+Britons, who held to Roman ways, and among them, to the religion which
+Rome had given, and there were Britons who looked back to the old
+independent days, and to the faith which their fore-fathers had held long
+before the name of Christ had been heard out of or in the land of His
+birth. The former party was by far the more numerous, but its adherents
+were those who had suffered most by Britain's four centuries of servitude;
+in the latter the virtues of freedom had been kept alive by a carefully
+cherished tradition. They were few in number; but they were vigorous and
+enthusiastic, even fanatical. It was clear that this strife within would
+cause at least as much trouble as would come from enemies without.
+
+It was about seven months after the Count's departure when Carna paid one
+of her customary visits to the villa. She had been unusually busy for
+three or four weeks previously, and had not found time to come. As she
+passed through the garden, on her way to the house, she noticed that the
+place looked somewhat neater and less neglected than usual. This, however,
+did not surprise her, as she had gently remonstrated with the old keeper
+for doing so little, and, in her usual kindly way, had followed up her
+reproof with a little present. Accordingly she passed on without thinking
+more of the matter to the little sitting-room which she had once shared
+with AElia, and prepared to spend an hour of quiet enjoyment with a book.
+Her books, indeed, she kept for these visits to the villa. Not only was
+her time elsewhere closely occupied, but her hostess, kindly and
+affectionate as she generally was, could not conceal her dislike of the
+volumes which Carna loved so dearly.
+
+In the midst of her reading she was startled by the unaccustomed sound of
+footsteps. She lifted her eyes from the page and saw a sight so unexpected
+that for a few moments she could not collect her thoughts or believe her
+eyes.
+
+The British chief Martianus stood before her.
+
+She had seen him last at the Great Temple, and the recollections of those
+days and nights of horror, her capture, her hurried journey, and the
+interrupted sacrifice, crowded upon her, and almost overpowered her. Nor
+could she help giving one thought to the question--if this man's presence
+recalls such horrors in the past, what does it not mean for the future?
+Still, the courage which had supported her so bravely before did not fail
+her now. She rose from her seat and calmly faced the intruder, while she
+waited for him to speak.
+
+Martianus began in a tone of the deepest respect. "Lady, I am truly glad
+that you condescend to honour this poor house of mine with your presence."
+
+"This house of yours!" repeated the girl, with astonishment.
+
+"Lady, doubtless you do not know that this villa was built by its former
+owner on land which belonged to my family, and which was taken from them
+by force. I do not speak of the Count--he was too honourable a man to do
+anything of the kind--I speak of the former owner, or so-called owner, from
+whom he purchased it. In the Count's time I said nothing of my claim. I
+would not have troubled him for the world. But now that he has gone, and
+practically given up the place, I am justified, I think, in asserting my
+ownership."
+
+"I know nothing of these matters," said Carna, coldly, "but I will take
+care not to intrude again."
+
+"Intrusion!" said the chief. "Did I not say that there is no one who would
+be more welcome here? We were friends once, in the good Count's time; why
+should we not be so again? and more," he added in a whisper.
+
+"Friends with you! Surely that is impossible. You cannot wish it yourself,
+after what has happened. You seem to forget."
+
+"Lady, Carna--I used to call you Carna when you were a child--I do try to
+forget that dreadful night. I was overborne by those double-dyed villains,
+Carausius and Ambiorix. Believe me, it was against my will that I took any
+part in that dreadful business. And you will remember I never lifted a
+hand against you, no, nor against that base champion of yours. You will do
+me that justice. Carausius, thank Heaven! has got his deserts, and I have
+broken with Ambiorix."
+
+  [Illustration: Carna and Martianus.]
+
+Carna remained silent.
+
+Martianus resolved to try another appeal, and, presuming that the girl's
+recollections of the scene might be confused by fear, did not scruple to
+depart considerably from the truth.
+
+"I implore you to believe that I could not have allowed that horrible deed
+to be accomplished. If that base fellow who had the privilege of saving
+you had not appeared, I was ready myself to interfere. I know that I ought
+to have done so before; it has been a ceaseless regret to me that I did
+not. But I wanted to keep on terms with those two, and I held back till
+the last moment. Forgive me my irresolution, Carna, but do not believe
+that I could have been one of the murderers."
+
+The girl's recollections of the scene, which were quite free from the
+confusion which Martianus had imagined, did not agree with this account of
+his behaviour, but she did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+
+"Let it be as you will," she said, with a cold dignity, "but you can
+imagine that these recollections are not pleasing to me. And now I will
+bid you farewell."
+
+She stepped forward as she spoke with the intention of at once leaving the
+room, but Martianus barred the way. Dropping on one knee, he caught her
+hand. For a moment Carna, who had still something of the child in her,
+felt a strong impulse to use the hand that was still free in dealing him a
+vigorous blow. But her womanly dignity prevailed: she only wrenched her
+hand away with something like violence. There was something in the foppish
+appearance and insincere manner of Martianus that set her more decidedly
+against him than even the recollection of the plot in which he had been
+concerned.
+
+"I will listen to what you have to say, but do not touch me."
+
+"You give me little encouragement," Martianus began, "but still I will
+speak. I say nothing about myself, only about my country--your country and
+mine. I know how you love it. We have all heard what sacrifices you have
+made for it, how you gave up home and friends sooner than leave it. Make,
+if I must put it so, one sacrifice more. You are the heiress of the great
+Caradoc, the noblest king that Britain ever had, whom even the Romans were
+compelled to admire. I can reckon among my ancestors Cunobelin. Apart our
+claims might be disputed; together they will make a title which no one can
+dispute to the crown of Britain. Yes, Carna, it is nothing less than
+that--the crown of Britain that is in question."
+
+"A crown does not tempt me," said Carna, looking the speaker straight in
+the face.
+
+"Ah! it is not that," replied the suitor; "you mistake me. I never dreamed
+of tempting you. I know only too well that it would be impossible. But
+think what a British crown really means. It means a united Britain, strong
+against the Picts, strong against the Saxons; and without it--think what
+that would mean. Every tribe--for we should split up into tribes again--for
+itself; every chief working for his own hand; the Picts plundering the
+inland, the Saxons harrying the coast. Oh, Carna! as you love your
+country--I don't speak of myself, though that, too, might come in time, if
+a man's devotion is of any avail--but if you love your country, do not say
+no."
+
+It was a powerful appeal, and touched Carna's heart at the point where it
+was most accessible. And she was so candid and transparent a soul that
+what she felt in her heart she soon showed in her face.
+
+Martianus saw his advantage, but, happily for Carna, did not press it as
+he might have done. The fact was that he was so conscious of his own
+insincerity and falsehood that his courage failed him, and he dared not
+press his suit any further. Had he gone on, he might have entangled the
+girl in a promise which her feeling for truth would not have permitted her
+to break, which would have made her even shut her eyes to the truth. As it
+was, he thought it his best policy to rest content with the progress that
+he had made. He raised Carna's hand respectfully to his lips, and, with a
+low salutation, opened the door.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                                 A RIVAL.
+
+
+It was a fact that Martianus had taken possession of the villa in the
+island, on the strength of a claim which was far less definite than he had
+chosen to represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming, and the
+place was important in the minds of the British population as having been
+the dwelling of the last representative of Roman power. The new occupant
+might seem to have succeeded to the position of the one who had lately
+quitted it. It flattered the man's vanity, too, to put himself in the
+place, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the Shore, while he could use
+the appliances of the villa, which were comfortable and even luxurious, to
+gratify his taste for what he called the pleasures of civilized life. His
+establishment would probably have failed to satisfy the fastidious taste
+of a Roman gentleman; the cooking was barbarous, and the service generally
+rude. Still there was a certain imitation, which imposed at least upon the
+ignorant, of Roman refinement, and Martianus flattered himself that he was
+at least a passable successor of Count AElius.
+
+Meanwhile he pursued his suit to Carna with a good deal of craft. He was a
+diligent attendant at the village church, and professed to feel such an
+interest in the teaching of the old priest that the ministrations in
+church must be supplemented by conversations at home. To Carna he said
+little or nothing about his personal claims, but he was eloquent on the
+subject of the future of Britain. About this she was never tired of
+hearing, and in hearing him speak of it, which he did with a certain
+eloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality began to grow fainter
+in her mind. The maiden faith which "glorifies clown and satyr" began to
+make this schemer, who indeed was not without ability and accomplishments,
+look like a genuine patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they were
+simply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity of praising him to
+their young kinswoman. On the whole, his suit made some progress. It was
+only when he seemed to put forward any personal claim, or ventured to
+address to Carna any personal compliments, that she decidedly shrank from
+him. He was quite shrewd enough to see this, and though it was a very
+unpleasant experience for his vanity as well as for his love, he did not
+fail to guide his conduct by it. As long as he talked about Britain, its
+wrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he was sure of a
+favourable hearing.
+
+Martianus had other things to think of besides his suit to Carna. As he
+said, he had broken entirely with Ambiorix. He had found that the strength
+of the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated, and that in fact the
+time for its revival had gone by for ever. Any chance, too, of even
+temporary success that it might have had had been lost with the life of
+Carausius. The priest had held many threads of secret intrigue in his
+hands, and there was no one to take them up, when they dropped from his
+hand. And Ambiorix, besides being worth but little as an ally, had wanted
+too much, for he was not of a temper to be satisfied with the second
+place.
+
+Still Martianus was well aware that his rival would have to be reckoned
+with sooner or later. If he could induce Carna to become his wife, and
+thus unite her family claim to his own, this reckoning might be got
+through with care and success. If he had to rely upon himself the chances
+would be decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which he found himself
+was this. On the one hand, to hasten his suit might be to ruin it
+altogether; Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something more
+substantial than his own assertion of his pretensions. On the other hand,
+there was the danger of being attacked and crushed before he could make
+his appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a man of even desperate
+courage, and would not suffer himself to be effaced without a struggle.
+
+Martianus did his best to guard himself against this danger. He
+strengthened the fortifications which the Count had made round the villa,
+laid up a store of provisions which might be sufficient for a prolonged
+siege, and used all his resources--he was one of the richest men in
+Britain--to get together as large and effective a garrison as possible.
+
+These precautions were not taken a day too soon. About the beginning of
+June he received intelligence from his agents on the mainland that
+Ambiorix was preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with the news to
+the priest's house.
+
+"You know," he said, "that my house has always been at your disposal, but,
+much as I should have liked to receive you as my guests, I would not press
+the invitation upon you. But now, in the face of what I have just heard,
+your coming is a necessity. Ambiorix and his followers are almost on the
+way to attack us, and there is no place of safety but the villa."
+
+The proposition was most distasteful to Carna, who shuddered at the
+thought of entering her old home in such society. At first she was
+disposed to be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus was not
+incapable of exaggerating, and even of inventing, when he had an object to
+serve. Compelled, by the proofs which the chief advanced, to acknowledge
+that the danger was real, she took refuge in the argument that "it did not
+concern them."
+
+"We are too insignificant to be harmed," she said.
+
+"Pardon me, Carna," replied Martianus. "You surely know better than that
+about yourself. And if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on your
+own account, think of your host. There is nothing that Ambiorix hates with
+so deadly a hatred as a Christian priest."
+
+The old priest, a worthy man, but not of the stuff of which martyrs are
+made, was terribly alarmed at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled to
+acknowledge that this fear was not without reason, and reluctantly
+consented to the removal. Her mind once made up, she found abundance of
+occupation in making it as little grievous to others as might be. The
+villa could not hold any great number of inmates in addition to the
+garrison, and of course it was necessary that the number of non-combatants
+should be as small as possible. Some of the inhabitants of the settlement
+could, of course, remain safely in their homes. They had little or nothing
+to be robbed of, and the expected assailants had no other reason for
+harming them. But many households had to be broken up, and as only very
+few could be received at the villa, there were many painful scenes to be
+gone through, and Carna was unceasingly busy giving all the comfort and
+help that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly in temper, put all
+his resources at her disposal, and his readiness to assist put him higher
+in her favour than he had ever been before.
+
+Nor was she sorry that she had found shelter within the fortifications of
+the villa when the next morning revealed the presence of the invaders.
+They had come across in the night to the number of several hundreds, and
+could be seen from the windows of the villa. And a very singular sight
+they were. A spectator might have imagined himself to have been carried
+back more than four centuries and a half, and to be looking on the hosts
+which had gathered to oppose the landing of the first Caesar. These
+warriors who came up shouting to the palisade which formed the outer
+defence of the villa seemed to be absolute barbarians; no one could have
+believed that for many generations they had been subjects of a civilized
+power. They had, in fact, deliberately thrown off all the signs of that
+subjection. It was the dream of Ambiorix to have Britain such as she might
+have been had Rome never conquered her. It was a hopeless attempt, this
+rolling back the course of time by four centuries, but in such matters as
+dress and equipment something could be done. Accordingly, his troops were
+such as the troops of Cassibelan might have been had they suddenly risen
+from their graves. Most of them were naked to the waist; what clothing
+they had was chiefly of skins, though some wore gaily-coloured trews. All
+wore their hair falling over their shoulders, and long, drooping
+moustaches, but no beard or whisker. All the exposed parts of their bodies
+were dyed a deep indigo-blue, by the application of woad. Ambiorix had
+been very anxious to revive the chariots of his ancestors, but had been
+compelled to give up the idea. In any case he could not have transported
+them to the island. He had been at great pains to instruct them in the
+genuine British war-cries, as far as tradition had preserved them. Here,
+again, the result had been somewhat disappointing. There were things which
+they had learnt from Rome which they could not put off as easily as their
+dress; and the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged as they
+surged up to the defences were a curious mixture of the British and Latin
+tongues.
+
+The battle at first went decidedly against the assailants. The Count had
+left behind him a catapult among other effects which he had not thought it
+worth while to remove; and Martianus, who had practised some of the
+garrison in the use of it, brought it into play with considerable effect.
+The very first discharge killed one of the lesser chiefs, and a little
+later in the day Ambiorix himself was badly bruised by one of the stones
+propelled from it. Meanwhile the defenders escaped almost wholly without
+injury. There was no need for them to leave the shelter of the buildings.
+As long as they kept within this the bows and slings of the enemy failed
+to harm them. One or two rash young recruits exposed themselves
+unnecessarily, and were wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, about
+an hour before sunset, called off his men, the garrison found that the
+casualties had been very slight and few.
+
+During the night the besiegers were not idle. They constructed a
+mantelet(61) of wicker work covered with stout hides, and brought it out
+close to the palisade--an operation which the besieged, with a culpable
+carelessness, allowed them to do unmolested. From under cover of this they
+plied long poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for Ambiorix was
+not so obstinate a conservative as to go back to the axe of bronze), and
+hacked away at the palisade. The catapult produced no effect on this
+erection, and though arrows, discharged almost perpendicularly into the
+air so as to fall just on the other side of it, inflicted some injury, the
+work went on without interruption. Martianus, seeing this, headed a sally
+in person, and, after a sharp struggle, succeeded in possessing himself of
+it. The wicker work was broken in pieces, and the hides carried off within
+the line of defences.
+
+The next three days passed without incident, and the inmates of the villa
+began to hope that the danger had passed over. In reality, however, the
+besiegers were collecting materials for the construction of another
+mantelet on a much larger scale. As much of this as was possible was put
+together out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the fourth day
+an erection of considerable size could be seen about fifty yards from the
+palisade. It soon became evident that the new plan of the assailants was
+to try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped round with tow, and, when
+this had been lighted, were discharged into the enclosure. Some mischief
+was done, not so much to the buildings, for it was not difficult to put
+out the fire if the arrows happened to fall on an inflammable place, but
+to the garrison. The men who had to extinguish the flames could not avoid
+exposing themselves, and those who exposed themselves were frequently hit
+by the slingers and archers. On the whole, however, little progress was
+made, and when, in the course of the evening, a heavy rain came on, and
+the wind, which had hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died away,
+the discharge ceased.
+
+It was now necessary for Ambiorix to bring matters to a crisis. His
+followers had nearly exhausted the store of provisions which they had
+brought with them, and, as he was unwilling to alienate the inhabitants of
+the island by resorting to plunder, he did not see how he could replenish
+it. Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct assault, and this he
+did in the early dawn of the sixth day after his arrival. Under cover of a
+heavy mist which rolled in from the sea, and helped by the neglect of the
+sentinels, who, never very watchful, had relaxed their care altogether
+when the light became visible, he brought his men close up to the palisade
+at the spot where an opening had been left, closed with a strong gate. For
+a few minutes, such was the supineness of the garrison, the assailants
+were allowed to batter and hew at this undisturbed. When some of the
+defenders had been rallied to the spot, the work was more than half done.
+Ambiorix, who was now entirely recovered from the injury received on the
+first day of the siege, plied his axe with extraordinary energy, and his
+immediate followers, whom he had carefully selected for their courage and
+strength, followed his example. By the time Martianus arrived on the scene
+the gate had been broken down, and the assailants were pouring into the
+enclosure.
+
+The garrison, who were outnumbered in the proportion of nearly three to
+one, were at once ordered to fall back into the quadrangle of the villa.
+They formed a line across the open side where they were covered by the
+archers and slingers posted on the roofs of the various buildings. Here a
+long and fierce struggle ensued. The defenders had some advantage in their
+position, and were better drilled and disciplined; the assailants, on the
+other hand, had the courage of fanaticism. When an hour had passed, and
+the combatants, by mutual consent, paused to take breath, both sides had
+lost many in killed and wounded, but neither had gained any considerable
+advantage.
+
+Carna meanwhile had been busy ministering to the needs of the wounded, and
+was scarcely aware of the true position of affairs, the room in which she
+was at work not commanding a view of the space in which the struggle was
+going on. Chancing, however, to leave it for a moment in search of
+something which she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken place. In
+a moment her resolution was taken. During the siege her thoughts had been
+taken up, not with the danger to herself and the other inmates of the
+villa, but with the terrible fact that Britons were fighting against
+Britons. Long before she would have attempted to put an end to their cruel
+strife, if she had seen any hope of success. She would not have hesitated
+risking her life in the attempt. Indeed she had proposed to Martianus that
+she should go with a party bearing a flag of truce, and seek an interview
+with the hostile commander. He had met her with a courteous and peremptory
+refusal, and she had been compelled to acquiesce. But now it seemed to her
+that her chance was come. Taking advantage of the pause in the struggle,
+she ran between the combatants, and threw herself on her knees with her
+face towards the assailants.
+
+A murmur of astonishment and admiration ran through both the ranks. She
+seemed to be a visitor from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and,
+at the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.
+
+"Britons, brothers," she cried, in a sweet but penetrating voice, which
+made itself heard through the throng, "what is this? Britons, brothers,
+have you forgotten what you are? Your masters have left you. You carry
+arms which have been forbidden to you for more than four hundred years,
+and must you first use them against your own countrymen? Have you no
+enemies abroad that you must look for them at home?"
+
+A shriek of terror, followed by a wild war cry, which, though strange to
+many of the crowd, was only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast,
+gave a fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from without were there.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                          AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL.
+
+
+Cedric, after making good his escape from the villa, as has been related,
+had nearly died of hunger on the shore to which he had managed to make his
+way. When he was almost at his last gasp, a Saxon galley had touched at
+the very spot to supply itself with water. Fortunately for him it was
+commanded by a kinsman of his own, who persuaded the crew--the Saxon
+adventurers had to be dealt with by persuasion rather than by command--to
+return home with their passenger. This probably saved his life; his
+mother, a skilful leech, whose fame was spread abroad among the dwellers
+on the coast, nursed him back into health. Still he had suffered long and
+much; and it was not till the summer was far advanced that he was allowed
+to join an expedition. His noble birth, his reputation for strength and
+courage, not a little enhanced, of course, by his late escape, and the
+personal fascination that he exercised on all about him, pointed him out,
+young as he was, for command.
+
+Carna had been unceasingly in his thoughts since the day when he had last
+seen her. During the delirium of his illness her name had been continually
+on his lips, and one of the earliest confidences of his recovery was the
+story of his love for this Christian maiden of the west. His mother was
+touched by the story. The girl's passionate desire for the welfare of the
+son that was dead (which she appreciated without comprehending its
+motive), and the very heroism which the son that was living had shown in
+defending her, combined to move her heart. That any living woman could
+resist the attraction of such a champion as her son, she did not believe
+for a moment, in spite of all that Cedric could say about the height of
+saintliness on which Carna stood; and by degrees the young chief himself
+found his worshipping devotion mingled with hopes that were very sweet to
+his heart.
+
+It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as he was at sea, and the
+destination of their voyage became a question, his thoughts at once turned
+to the island. Approaching it with caution, for he was too good a leader
+to risk an encounter with the superior force of the Roman squadron, he
+learnt with surprise that the Count had departed. Of Carna his informant,
+a fisherman who found it answer his purpose to give what information he
+could to the Saxons, could tell him nothing, and Cedric naturally supposed
+that she had gone with the family into which she had been adopted. The
+news struck a strange chill into his heart, but at the same time it
+relieved him of considerable perplexity. His course was now clear; if the
+Romans were gone there was nothing to be feared. He knew the approaches to
+the villa, and how weak were its defences, and he felt sure that a British
+garrison would not be a match for his own vigorous Saxons.
+
+He reached the island two days after the landing of Ambiorix. Acting as
+his own spy on the strength of his knowledge of the country, he soon found
+out the position of affairs, and thought that he could not do better than
+wait to see how things would turn out. The galleys--Cedric had two under
+his command--lay in hiding at some little distance from the Haven, and
+meanwhile every detail of the struggle was watched, unknown to the
+combatants, by scouts who carried news of its progress to their chief. The
+gathering of the troops previous to the attack on the fortifications had
+been observed and rightly understood by these men. Cedric had been at once
+informed of what was in progress, had landed his crews, amounting in all
+to about two hundred, and marched with all the speed that was possible to
+the scene of action. As the news had reached him not long after midnight
+he was able to reach the spot very soon after the attack had commenced.
+
+The battle-cry of the Saxons, terrible to those who knew it, scarcely less
+terrible, with its shrillness and fierceness, to those to whom it was
+strange, arrested the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the
+rear of the attacking party. There could be seen, running swiftly up the
+ascent which led to the palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge
+standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which was wrought in black
+the raven of Odin. Behind him came, in a loose order which served to
+conceal their scanty number, Cedric's warriors, a sturdy race, whose tall
+stature was made to seem almost gigantic by the height to which their hair
+was dressed. They were formidable foes, but still there were brave men in
+both the British parties who would have had the courage to stand up
+against them. Unhappily one of the panics which defy all reason and all
+individual courage began among the inland Britons at the sight of these
+strange enemies; and, once begun, it could not be checked. Ambiorix,
+indeed, with a few of his immediate followers, faced the enemy, but was
+quickly swept away by the rush of their onset. Martianus, with some of the
+garrison, carrying Carna along with him, took refuge in the villa, and
+hastily secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country, or hid
+themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was there any thought of
+resistance, and the Saxons won their victory almost without losing a drop
+of blood.
+
+Cedric's eyes, sharpened as they were by love, had caught a glimpse of
+Carna, as she was swept in the throng of fugitives within the doors of the
+villa, and he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence of the place
+against assailants so determined would have been hopeless, even had the
+garrison been as resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and demoralized. A
+few sturdy blows from Cedric's battle-axe brought the principal door to
+the ground, and he rushed across the fragments into the hall, followed by
+some ten of his attendants. The rest he had signed to remain without.
+Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all the tumult, was surrounded by a
+group of terrified men and women, stood facing him. The crimson mounted to
+her forehead as she met his eyes, for she saw, as no woman could fail to
+see, the love that was in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.
+
+"Spare these poor creatures," she said, pointing to her terrified
+companions.
+
+"Your lives are safe," said Cedric in British. "Go with this man," and he
+pointed to one of his attendants, to whom at the same time he gave some
+brief directions. He turned to Carna: "Lady," he said, "this is no time
+for many words; and I could not say them if it were, for my tongue is
+ill-taught in your language. But you cannot have failed to see my heart.
+It is yours, and all that I have. Come and be a queen in my home and among
+my people."
+
+The girl's eyes, which she had turned to the ground at his first address,
+were now lifted to meet his gaze. "I cannot leave my people," she said.
+
+"Yet," he answered, "the good women of whom you used to tell me, whose
+lives are written in that holy book of yours, left their own people to
+follow their husbands."
+
+"Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they followed was the God whom they
+worshipped in their own homes. You worship strange gods, with whom I can
+have no fellowship."
+
+"Come with me and teach the truth to my people and me," cried the young
+man, feeling that there was nothing which he would not do to win this
+bright, brave, beautiful maiden.
+
+"Listen, Cedric," she answered--it was the first time that she had called
+him by his name, and he thought that he had never known before what a name
+it was--"You told me some time since that you would sooner go into the
+everlasting darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom
+you believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve; and
+I have honoured you for it. Will you give it up for the love of a woman?
+If you did, I could honour you no more, and you are too good to have a
+wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I will pray for you. Perhaps God
+will hear me, and give you light, and bring us together to the blessed
+Christ, but it cannot be here."
+
+She caught his right hand which he had reached out in the earnestness of
+his speaking, and lifted it to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression
+of her gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it of a woman's love.
+But she never faltered for one instant in the resolve that was to separate
+them.
+
+Behind Cedric stood a burly, middle-aged warrior, his father's
+foster-brother. He had watched the scene with an intense interest, and
+though of course he could not understand what was said, had a very shrewd
+notion of the turn which affairs were taking. Perhaps he saw, too,
+expressed in the girl's tone something of a feeling which the young man
+was too rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was ill-content that
+his young chief should miss the bride on whom his heart was set, and who
+seemed so worthy of him.
+
+"A noble maiden!" he whispered to Cedric, "and fit to be the wife and
+mother of kings; and I think that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I
+warrant that it will not be long before she forgives us."
+
+"Peace!" said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him, "Peace! Would you have me
+wed a slave? My wife must come to me freely, or come not at all."
+
+He spoke to Carna again. "Your will is my law. If you say that we must
+part, I go. But, lady, you must leave this house. My people are set upon
+burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I would."
+
+Without another word, she obeyed his bidding, and passed into the court,
+followed by Cedric and his attendants.
+
+Meanwhile some of the Saxon crews had been busy with their torches, and
+the flames were beginning to gain a mastery over the building. Before many
+minutes had passed the sheds and outbuildings, which were, to a great
+extent, constructed of wood, were in a blaze, while dense volumes of smoke
+rolled out of the windows of the villa itself. Carna stood spellbound by
+the sight, at once so terrible and so grand. The spectacle of a burning
+house exercises a curious fascination even on those for whom it means loss
+and disaster, and Carna, even in that supreme crisis of her life, could
+not help gazing at the conflagration, and even admiring unconsciously the
+splendid contrasts of light and darkness which it produced.
+
+It seemed as if that day was about to sweep away all her past. She had
+torn from her heart her half-acknowledged love; she saw the home of her
+childhood and youth vanishing into smoke and ashes; and now another actor
+in the bygone of her life was to disappear for ever.
+
+Martianus had observed the scene from the chamber in which he had taken
+refuge, and had misunderstood it. He fancied that the girl, whom, though
+no formal betrothal had bound her to him, he regarded as his own, was
+going of her own accord with this Saxon robber, in whom, of course, he
+recognized the champion who had saved her life at the Great Temple. The
+thought stung him to madness. With all his foppery and frivolity, he had
+the courage of his race. He might probably have escaped unnoticed from the
+burning building. But, disdaining flight, he rushed at Cedric, heedless of
+the odds which he was challenging.
+
+The chief's followers, knowing their master's temper, stood aside to let
+the conflict be decided without their interference. It was fierce, but it
+was brief. Martianus was a skilled swordsman, but a life of indolence, if
+not of excess, had slackened his sinews and unsteadied his nerves. He
+parried some of his antagonist's blows with sufficient adroitness, but his
+defence grew weaker and weaker, and he could not save himself from one or
+two severe wounds. Giving way before the fierce, unremitting attack of his
+antagonist, he came without knowing it to the edge of the well, stumbled
+over the raised parapet that surrounded it, and fell headlong into its
+depths.(62)
+
+The sight of the conflict had diverted Carna's attention from the burning
+house. She did not wait to see its issue, but at once quitted the
+precincts of the villa. Some of the survivors of the garrison, the old
+priest and his wife, and the rest of the non-combatants, followed her. Not
+only did they feel that it was she who had saved them from the swords of
+the Saxons, but they recognized in her calmness and courage the qualities
+of a true leader, and were sure that they could not do better than follow
+her guidance. Her own plans had been formed for some time. She saw that
+the strength of Britain was in the great cities. If the country,
+disorganized as it was, was to be made capable again of order and
+self-defence, the impulse must come from them, the centres of its civil
+and religious life. Londinium, where the Count's name was well-known and
+respected, and where she had some connections of her own, was her
+destination. There she hoped to be able to do something for her people.
+
+The first step was to leave the neighbourhood of the villa, and with the
+helpless companions who now, she saw, looked to her for guidance, to make
+her way to the north of the island, and from thence to the mainland.
+Making a short pause till the stragglers had come up, she addressed a few
+words of counsel and comfort to the fugitives.
+
+"Dear friends," she said, "God has delivered us from the hands of the
+heathen, and will bring us safe to the haven where we would be. But this
+is no place for us. We will go to where we may serve Him in peace and
+quietness."
+
+Her clear, firm tones, which seemed inspired with all the confidence of an
+unfaltering faith, seemed to breathe in their turn new courage into the
+terrified crowd. They received them with a murmur of assent, and without
+an expression of fear or doubt, followed her as she led the way to the
+summit of the neighbouring downs.
+
+Arrived at this spot, she paused and turned, as if to take a last look at
+the scenes in which her past life had been spent. The landscape lay calm
+and smiling about her. Every feature in it was familiar to her eyes; there
+was not one with which she had not some happy association. But now the
+sight had lost its power; her soul was occupied with more profound
+emotions. The home of her childhood lay beneath her feet, a blackened
+ruin; and there, upon the sea, could be seen flashing in the sunlight the
+oars of the Saxons' departing galleys.
+
+It was a contrast full of significance, and the girl, in whose pure and
+enthusiastic soul there seemed to be something of a prophetic power,
+caught some of its meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days of
+the Roman domination. It had had its uses, it had done its work, but it
+had become corrupt and feeble, and it was passing away for ever. And the
+future was there, symbolized in the Saxon ships that, brightened by the
+sunshine, were speeding their way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous
+and hopeful life, across the waters. That was the new power that was to
+shake this worn-out civilization, and raise in the course of the ages a
+fair fabric of its own.
+
+For the moment the present, with all its misery and desolation, mastered
+the girl's spirit with an overpowering sense of loss. Thoughts of her
+ruined home, her helpless country, and her own personal loss, though
+almost unacknowledged to herself, in the final parting with the young hero
+of her life, came upon her with a force which broke down all her
+fortitude. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
+
+Then her fortitude and her conscience reasserted themselves. "Courage, my
+friends," she cried, "God hath not deserted us, nor our dear country. We
+have sinned much, and we shall have much to bear. But He has chosen this
+land for a great work, and He will make all things work together for good
+till He has accomplished it." She was silent for a few moments. When she
+began to speak again, some mighty inspiration seemed to carry her beyond
+the present and out of herself. "Yes," she cried, "God hath great things
+in store for this dear country of ours. I see a great blackness of
+darkness. From many houses, great and fair, where the rulers of the land
+lived delicately, shall go up to heaven the smoke of a great burning, and
+the fields shall be untilled and desolate, and the rivers shall run red
+with blood. But beyond the darkness I see a light, and the light shines
+upon a land that is fair as the garden of the Lord; and therein I behold
+great cities thronged with men, and in the midst of them stately houses of
+God, such as have never yet been built by skill of human hand. And the
+people that work and worship there are not of our race, nor yet wholly
+strange. For the Lord shall make to Himself a people from out of them that
+know Him not, even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull down His
+Church shall build it again, and they shall carry His name to many lands,
+for the sea shall be covered with their ships; and they shall rule over
+the nations from the one end of heaven to the other."
+
+  [Illustration: Carna on the Hillside.]
+
+She sank upon her knees, and remained wrapt in prayer, while the crowd
+stood round and watched her with awe-stricken faces. When she rose again
+to her feet she was calm. Resolutely she set her face from the scene of
+her past life, and went her way to meet the future that lay before her.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                                 AT LAST.
+
+
+It was nearly sunset on the second day of the great battle of Badon
+Hill.(63) The long, desperate fight was over, and the great British
+champion had turned back for a time the tide of Saxon invasion. The
+heathen dead lay, rank by rank, as they had fallen, every man in his
+place, in the great wedge-like formation which had resisted all the
+efforts of the Britons during the first day of the struggle, and had been
+with difficulty broken through on the second.
+
+The King was sitting amidst a circle of his knights on the top of the
+hill, resting from his toils. His cross-hilted sword stood fixed in the
+ground before him. On one side lay his helmet, bearing for its crest a
+dragon wrought in gold; on the other, his shield, on which was blazoned
+the figure of the Virgin.
+
+A priest approached, walking in front of a party of four who were carrying
+a litter, and who, at a sign from their leader, set it down before the
+King.
+
+"My lord," said the priest, "I was traversing the field to see whether I
+could serve any of the wounded with my ministrations, when word was
+brought to me that a Saxon desired to talk with me. He could speak the
+British tongue, it was told me, a thing almost unheard of among these
+barbarians. I did not delay to visit the man, and finding that he desired
+above all things to speak to your lordship, I took it upon myself to order
+that he should be brought."
+
+The wounded man raised himself with some difficulty, and by the help of
+one of the bearers, into a sitting posture. He was of almost gigantic
+proportions, and though his hair and beard were white as snow, showed
+little of the waste and emaciation of age.
+
+One of the King's knights recognized him at once.
+
+"I noted him," said he, "for a long time during the battle. He was in the
+front rank, and stood close to a young chief, whose guardian he seemed to
+be. I observed that he was content to ward off blows that were aimed at
+the young man, but never dealt any himself. What came to him and his
+charge afterwards I do not know, for the tide of battle carried me away."
+
+"What do you want?" said the King.
+
+"My lord King," said the old man, speaking British fluently, though with a
+foreign accent, "the knight speaks true. Neither to-day, nor yesterday,
+nor indeed through all the years during which my people have fought with
+yours, have I stained my hands with British blood. Indeed for forty years
+I have not set foot on this island. But this year I was constrained to
+come, for the young Prince of my people, Logrin by name, was with the
+army, and his father had given him into my charge, and I could not leave
+him. All day, therefore, I stood by him, and warded off the blows with
+such strength and skill as I had, and when his death hour came, for he
+fell on the morning of the second day, I cared no more for my own life. So
+much I say that you may listen to me the more willingly, though report
+says of you that you are generous, not to friends only, but also to foes.
+But I have something to say that is of more moment. Many years ago I was a
+prisoner in this land, having been taken by one of the ships of Count
+AElius. Many things happened to me during my sojourn here of which it does
+not concern me to speak, except of this. There was in the household of the
+Count a maiden, his daughter by adoption, but of British birth, Carna by
+name. She was very anxious to bring me to faith in her Master, Christ; and
+I was no little moved by her words, and still more by the example of her
+goodness. But I loved her, and this love seemed to hinder me, for how
+could I tell whether it were truth itself or the love that was persuading
+me? And would not he be the basest of men who for love of a woman should
+leave the faith of his fathers? So I remained, though it was half against
+my own mind, in my unbelief, and when she would not take me for her
+husband, being unbaptized, we parted, and I saw her no more. But her
+words, and the memory of her, have dwelt with me unceasingly, and now that
+God has brought me back to this land, I desire to have that which once I
+refused. But tell me, my lord King, have you any knowledge of this lady
+Carna?"
+
+"Yes," said the King, "I know her well, and by the ordering of God, as I
+do not doubt, she is in this very place this day, for she gives her whole
+time to ministering to such as are in trouble or sorrow. She shall be sent
+for forthwith, and the archbishop also, who will, if he thinks fit,
+administer to you the holy rite of baptism."
+
+Cedric, for as my readers will have guessed it was he, bowed his head in
+assent, and after swallowing a cordial which the King's physician put to
+his lips, sank back upon the litter.
+
+In about half an hour Carna appeared. She was dressed in the garb of a
+religious house, for she had taken the vows, and she was followed by a
+small company of holy women who, like her, had devoted their lives to the
+service of their poor and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Time
+had dealt gently with her, as he often does with gentle souls. The glossy
+chestnut hair of the past was changed indeed to a silvery white, and her
+face was wasted with fast and vigil; but her complexion was clear and
+delicate as of old, and her eyes as lustrous and deep.
+
+When she saw and recognized the wounded man--for she did recognize him at
+once--a sweet and tender smile came over her face. Her gift of intuition
+seemed to tell her that her prayers were answered, and that the soul for
+which her supplications had gone up day by day, from youth to age, had
+been given to her.
+
+"Carna," said the dying man, "God has brought me back to you after many
+years, and before it is too late. Your God is my God, and your country my
+country--but not here. Once I could not own it, fearing lest my love should
+be leading me into falsehood; but all things are now made clear. But, my
+lord King," he went on, feebly turning his head to Arthur, "bid them make
+haste, for I would be baptized before I die, and my time is short."
+
+The priest had departed on another errand, and the King was perplexed. The
+physician whispered in his ear--
+
+"He has not many moments to live."
+
+"Baptize him, my lord King, yourself," said Carna; "it is lawful in case
+of need, and none can do it more fittingly."
+
+"I will willingly be his sponsor," said the knight who had first spoken,
+"for there was never braver man wielded axe or sword."
+
+The King dipped his hand in a golden cup that stood on the table by his
+chair, sprinkled the water thrice on the dying man, as he pronounced the
+solemn formula, and signed on his forehead the sign of the Cross. He then
+put the cross-shaped hilt of his sword to the lips of the newly baptized.
+Cedric devoutly kissed it. The next minute he was dead.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+          UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 A reference to the well-known salutation of the gladiators as they
+      passed the Emperor in his seat at the Public Games. "Ave Caesar
+      Imperator! Morituri te salutant." _Hail! Caesar Emperor, the doomed
+      to death salute thee._
+
+    2 Now known all over the world as Portsmouth Harbour.
+
+    3 Honorius and Arcadius, who ruled over the Western and Eastern
+      Empires respectively, were the weak sons of the vigorous Theodosius.
+
+    4 Marcus was the first of three usurpers successively saluted Emperor
+      by the legions of Britain.
+
+    5 Vespasian, appointed by Claudius in A.D. 52 to the command of the
+      second legion, had made extensive conquests in Britain adding, among
+      other places, the Isle of Wight (Vectis) to the Empire.
+
+    6 The observation of omens, or signs, supposed to indicate the future,
+      was one of the duties of a commanding officer.
+
+    7 When one of the vine-sticks used in administering corporal
+      punishment to the Roman soldiers was broken on the culprit's back,
+      he would at once call for another. A milder disciplinarian would
+      probably consider that when the stick was broken the punishment
+      might end.
+
+    8 "Decimation" was a common military punishment in cases of mutiny or
+      bad behaviour on the field of battle. Every tenth man, taken by lot,
+      was put to death.
+
+    9 It would seem that the myth which made the Empress Helena, the
+      mother of Constantine, into a British princess, had already grown
+      up. She was, in fact, the daughter of a tavern-keeper, and in no way
+      connected with Britain.
+
+   10 A _donative_ was a distribution of money made to the soldiers on
+      such occasions as the accession of an Emperor.
+
+   11 Lymne, in Kent, now some miles inward, on the edge of Romney Marsh.
+
+   12 Constantinople.
+
+   13 His capital is said to have been near the ancient Caieta and modern
+      Gaieta.
+
+   14 The "five" are, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
+      Aurelius, whose united reigns extended from 97 to 180 A.D.--a period
+      of peace and prosperity such as Rome never enjoyed again.
+
+   15 The hills that run as far as Arreton and the valley of the Medina.
+
+   16 Brading Haven.
+
+   17 The villa consisted, it will be seen, of the three parts which were
+      commonly found in establishments of this kind. These were called
+      respectively the _Urbana_, containing the rooms in which the family
+      resided, and including also the garden terraces, &c.; the _Rustica_,
+      occupied by slaves and workmen but in this case, as will be seen,
+      partly used for another purpose; and the _Fructuaria_, containing
+      cellars for wine, &c., barns, granaries, and storehouses of various
+      kinds.
+
+   18 The British bishops were notoriously poor, and their clergy were
+      doubtless still more slenderly provided for.
+
+   19 Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris.
+
+   20 Now Lyons.
+
+   21 The Elbe.
+
+   22 Probably the Channel Islands, always a dangerous place for
+      navigation.
+
+   23 Perhaps something like the early Saxon poem which we know under the
+      name of Beowulf.
+
+   24 Possibly the reason why so much buried money belonging to the later
+      days of the Roman occupation of Britain has been found.
+
+   25 Ireland. A similar incident is mentioned by Tacitus in his life of
+      Agricola. An Irish petty king, driven from his throne by internal
+      troubles, came to the Roman general and promised, if he were
+      restored, to bring the island under the dominion of Rome. This is
+      the first notice of the country that occurs in history.
+
+   26 This was exactly what had happened not many years before to St.
+      Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
+
+   27 Probably somewhere near Wexford.
+
+   28 With us tables are cleared after a meal; with the Romans they seem
+      to have been actually removed.
+
+   29 Theodosius ordered a massacre at Thessalonica on account of some
+      offence offered to him by the populace of that city.
+
+   30 Chichester.
+
+   31 Pevensey.
+
+   32 Boulogne.
+
+   33 Commonly known by his Romanized name of Caractacus.
+
+   34 Streets of Rome.
+
+   35 This river, of course, must have been the Avon.
+
+   36 Winchester.
+
+   37 Salisbury.
+
+   38 Now known as Downton, a small market town, about five miles south of
+      Salisbury.
+
+   39 A trilith consists of two upright stones with a third placed across.
+
+   40 "How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the
+      hill?"--PSALM xi. 1.
+
+   41 Commonly called Jerome.
+
+   42 John Chrysostom, at Antioch 386-398, at Constantinople 398-404.
+
+   43 Winchester.
+
+   44 Calleva Attrebatium, now known as Silchester, one of the most
+      perfect specimens of a Roman camp to be seen in this country.
+
+   45 Princeps Civitatis.
+
+   46 The wall of Antoninus, built to defend Northern Britain from the
+      Caledonians, and held by Roman forces till far on in the fourth
+      century.
+
+   47 Daniel iii. 19.
+
+   48 It may be as well to say a few words about Stilicho. He was the son
+      of a Vandal captain, and attracted by his skill and courage the
+      favourable notice of the Emperor Theodosius, who gave him his niece
+      Serena in marriage. His influence continued to increase, and in
+      course of time Theodosius made him and his wife guardians of his
+      young son Honorius, whom he shortly afterwards proclaimed Augustus,
+      and Emperor of the West. In 394 Theodosius died, and the Empire was
+      divided between his two sons, Honorius taking the West and Arcadius
+      the East. Stilicho's daughter Maria was now betrothed to Honorius,
+      and his influence continued to increase. He restored peace to the
+      Empire, conquering the Franks, chastising the Saxon pirates, and
+      driving back, it is said, the Picts and Scots from Britain by the
+      very terror of his name. For six years (398-404) he was engaged in a
+      struggle with Alaric, King of the Goths, over whom he won, in the
+      year 403, a great victory at Pollentia, near the modern Turin, and
+      whom he defeated again in the following year under the walls of
+      Verona. He is said to have conceived the idea of securing the Empire
+      for his own son, and for this purpose to have entered into intrigues
+      with his old enemy Alaric. However this may be, it is certain that
+      he fell into disgrace. His end is related in this chapter. The poet
+      Claudian employed himself in writing the praises of Stilicho and
+      invectives against his rivals Rufinus and Eutropius.
+
+           49 "Stilichonis apex et cognita fulsit
+        Canities."
+
+      "There shone Stilicho's towering head and well-known locks of
+      white"--a passage quoted from Claudian by D'Israeli, with exquisite
+      propriety, in his eulogium on the Duke of Wellington, in the House
+      of Commons, November, 1852.
+
+   50 In one of AEsop's fables, a trumpeter, taken prisoner, begs for his
+      life, pleading that he has never struck a blow in battle; but is
+      told that he has done much worse in encouraging others to fight by
+      his martial music.
+
+   51 A tribe that occupied a region included in what is now known as
+      Russian Poland.
+
+   52 Serena was wife to Stilicho, and, as has been said before, niece to
+      the Emperor Theodosius.
+
+   53 The Imperial standard (see page 21).
+
+   54 Business to-morrow.
+
+   55 The Forest of Anderida occupied a great part of Hampshire and nearly
+      the whole of Sussex, except a strip of land along the coast. It must
+      have measured a hundred miles from east to west.
+
+   56 The Black Forest, part of which was known to the Romans.
+
+   57 July 21st.
+
+   58 This is the translation of a passage from the first book of an
+      unfinished poem by Claudian, entitled _De Raptu Proserpinae_, "The
+      Carrying off Proserpine." It is an amplification of the legend that
+      Pluto, god of the region of the dead, carried off Proserpine,
+      daughter of Ceres, to be his wife and queen, while she was gathering
+      flowers in the fields of Enna in Sicily. The passage translated
+      occurs in the first book, and describes the tapestry with which
+      Proserpine is busy, as a gift to her absent mother. The poem breaks
+      off in the third book, while relating the search which the mother
+      makes for her lost daughter.
+
+   59 This was actually done about this time, and with the result
+      foreshadowed in the conversation given above.
+
+   60 Carausius had held, towards the end of the third century, the same
+      command as that of the Count of the Saxon Shore, had rebelled
+      against the Emperor, made himself master of Britain and all the
+      Western Seas, and had then proclaimed himself Augustus. The Emperor
+      Diocletian made several attempts to reduce him, but, finding that
+      this could not be done, acknowledged him as a partner in the Empire.
+      Six years later Carausius was murdered by one of his lieutenants,
+      Allectus, who doubtless hoped thus to bring himself into favour at
+      Rome.
+
+   61 Mantelet: a shield of wood, metal, or rope, for the protection of
+      sappers, &c.
+
+   62 A skeleton has been found in the well of the Brading Villa.
+
+   63 The battle of Badon Hill, fought in 451, seems to be a well
+      authenticated historical fact. King Arthur defeated the Saxons after
+      a fierce conflict which lasted for two days. Badon Hill is near
+      Bath.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation ("countryside", "country-side"; "headquarters",
+"head-quarters") have not been changed.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page 19, "tomount" changed to "to mount"
+      page 23, quote mark added after "mishap."
+      page 33, "Lasetrygones" changed to "Laestrygones"
+      page 76, "asid" changed to "said"
+      page 79, quote mark added after "letter-carriers."
+      page 87, single quote mark changed to double quote mark after
+      "long."
+      page 111, "oga" changed to "toga"
+      page 115, quote mark added after "free."
+      page 139, quote mark added after "wanted."
+      page 156, "eemed" changed to "seemed"
+      page 157, "greal" changed to "great"
+      page 178, period added after "Sorbiodunum", comma changed to period
+      after "them"
+      page 233, quote mark added after "man."
+      page 255, "Or" changed to "On"
+      page 288, "inot" changed to "into"
+      page 297, quote mark added after "man,"
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE***
+
+
+
+                                 CREDITS
+
+
+October 31, 2013
+
+            Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1
+            Produced by sp1nd, Stefan Cramme, and the Online Distributed
+            Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+            produced from images generously made available by The Internet
+            Archive)
+
+
+
+                      A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG
+
+
+This file should be named 44083.txt or 44083.zip.
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/0/8/44083/
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one -- the old editions will be
+renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
+owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
+and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
+General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
+distributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works to protect the Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
+trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
+receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
+this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given away
+-- you may do practically _anything_ with public domain eBooks.
+Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+                    THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+
+
+_Please read this before you distribute or use this work._
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
+any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Gutenberg"),
+you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+                                Section 1.
+
+
+General Terms of Use & Redistributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works
+
+
+                                   1.A.
+
+
+By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work,
+you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the
+terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright)
+agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this
+agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee
+for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work
+and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may
+obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set
+forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+
+                                   1.B.
+
+
+"Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used on or
+associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be
+bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that you can
+do with most Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works even without complying
+with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are
+a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works if you
+follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+
+                                   1.C.
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" or
+PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an individual
+work is in the public domain in the United States and you are located in
+the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying,
+distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on
+the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
+course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} mission of
+promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for
+keeping the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} name associated with the work. You can
+easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License when you
+share it without charge with others.
+
+
+                                   1.D.
+
+
+The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you
+can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant
+state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the laws of
+your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before
+downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating
+derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work.
+The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of
+any work in any country outside the United States.
+
+
+                                   1.E.
+
+
+Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+
+                                  1.E.1.
+
+
+The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access
+to, the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License must appear prominently whenever
+any copy of a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work (any work on which the phrase
+"Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Gutenberg"
+is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or
+distributed:
+
+
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
+    or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
+    included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+                                  1.E.2.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work is derived from the
+public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with
+permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and
+distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or
+charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you
+must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7
+or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.3.
+
+
+If an individual Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic work is posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply
+with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed
+by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project
+Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License for all works posted with the permission of the
+copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+
+                                  1.E.4.
+
+
+Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License
+terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any
+other work associated with Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}.
+
+
+                                  1.E.5.
+
+
+Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic
+work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying
+the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with active links or immediate
+access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License.
+
+
+                                  1.E.6.
+
+
+You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed,
+marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word
+processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version posted
+on the official Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} web site (http://www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other form.
+Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License as
+specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+
+                                  1.E.7.
+
+
+Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing,
+copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works unless you comply
+with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+
+                                  1.E.8.
+
+
+You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or
+distributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works provided that
+
+    - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+      the use of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works calculated using the method you
+      already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to
+      the owner of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} trademark, but he has agreed to
+      donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60
+      days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally
+      required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments
+      should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg
+      Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4,
+      "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+      Archive Foundation."
+
+    - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+      you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+      does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} License.
+      You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the
+      works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and
+      all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works.
+
+    - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+      any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+      electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+      receipt of the work.
+
+    - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+      distribution of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} works.
+
+
+                                  1.E.9.
+
+
+If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic
+work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this
+agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the owner of the
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in
+Section 3 below.
+
+
+                                   1.F.
+
+
+                                  1.F.1.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to
+identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works in creating the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} collection. Despite these
+efforts, Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works, and the medium on which they
+may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to,
+incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright
+or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk
+or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot
+be read by your equipment.
+
+
+                                  1.F.2.
+
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES -- Except for the "Right of
+Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for
+damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE
+NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH
+OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE
+FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT
+WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
+PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY
+OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.3.
+
+
+LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND -- If you discover a defect in this
+electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund
+of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to
+the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a
+physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation.
+The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect
+to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the
+work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose
+to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in
+lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a
+refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+
+                                  1.F.4.
+
+
+Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
+paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+
+                                  1.F.5.
+
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the
+exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or
+limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state
+applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make
+the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state
+law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement
+shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+
+                                  1.F.6.
+
+
+INDEMNITY -- You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark
+owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and
+any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution
+of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs
+and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from
+any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of
+this or any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} work, and (c) any Defect
+you cause.
+
+
+                               Section  2.
+
+
+           Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic
+works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including
+obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the
+efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks
+of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance
+they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}'s goals and ensuring
+that the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} collection will remain freely available for
+generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} and future generations. To learn more about the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations
+can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation web page at
+http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+                                Section 3.
+
+
+   Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state of
+Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service.
+The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is 64-6221541.
+Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. Contributions to the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full
+extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr.
+S. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 North
+1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact information
+can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page at
+http://www.pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+                                Section 4.
+
+
+  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+                                Foundation
+
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the
+number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment
+including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are
+particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States.
+Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable
+effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these
+requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not
+received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or
+determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have
+not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition against
+accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who approach us
+with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any
+statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside the
+United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation methods
+and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways including
+checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, please
+visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+                                Section 5.
+
+
+      General Information About Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works.
+
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with
+anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}
+eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} eBooks are often created from several printed editions,
+all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless a copyright
+notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance
+with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's eBook
+number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, compressed
+(zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected _editions_ of our eBooks replace the old file and take over the
+old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed.
+_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+
+    http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~}, including how
+to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation,
+how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email
+newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+***FINIS***
+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/44083.zip b/44083.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8952ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44083.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49ea7d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #44083 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44083)