LANDING OF JULIUS CÆSAR.
"The cliffs themselves are bulwarks strong: the shelves
And flats refuse great ships: the coast so open
That every stormy blast may rend their cables,
Put them from anchor: suffering double war--
Their men pitched battle--their ships stormy fight;
For charges 'tis no season to dispute,
Spend something, or lose all."
THE TRUE TROJANS, 1633.
Few generals could put in a better plea for invading a country than
that advanced by Julius Cæsar, for long before he landed in this
island, he had had to contend with a covert enemy in the Britons, who
frequently threw bodies of armed men upon the opposite coasts, and by
thus strengthening the enemy's ranks, protracted the war he had so long
waged with the Gauls. To chastise the hardy islanders, overawe and
take possession of their country, were but common events to the Roman
generals, and Cæsar no doubt calculated that to conquer he had but
to show his well-disciplined troops. He was also well aware that the
language and religion of the Britons and Gauls were almost the same,
and that the island on which his eye was fixed was the great centre
and stronghold of the druids; and, not ignorant of the power of these
heathen priests, whose mysterious rites banded nation with nation, he
doubtless thought, that if he could but once overthrow their altars, he
could the more easily march over the ruins to more extended conquests.
He had almost the plea of self-defence for setting out to invade
England as he did, and such, in reality, is the reason he assigns; and
not to possess the old leaven of ambition to strengthen his purpose,
was to lack that which, in a Roman general, swelled into the glory of
fame. Renown was the pearl Julius Cæsar came in quest of; he was not
a general to lead his legions back to the imperial city, when, after
having humbled the pride of the Gauls, he still saw from the opposite
coast the island of the presumptuous Britons--barbarians, who had
dared to hurl their pointed javelins in the very face of the Roman
eagle;--not a man to return home, when, by stretching his arm over that
narrow sea, he could gather such laurels as had never yet decked a
Roman brow.
The rumour of his intended invasion had already reached the Britons,
who, well aware of the victories he had won in the opposite continent,
and probably somewhat shaken by the terror which was attached to the
name of the Roman conqueror, lost no time in sending over ambassadors
with an offer of submission, and hostages. But although Cæsar received
the messengers kindly, and sent back with them Comius, a Gaul, in
whose talent and integrity he had the greatest confidence, still his
attention was not to be diverted from the object he had in view; and
much as he commended their pacific promises, he but waited the return
of the galley he had sent out to reconnoitre, before he embarked.
Nor had he to wait long, for on the fifth day after his departure,
Volusenus returned from his expedition, with the meagre information
he had been able to glean about the coast without landing; though,
such as it was, it induced Cæsar to set sail at once, and, with twelve
thousand men and eighty transports, he started from the sea coast which
stretches between Calais and Boulogne, and steered for the pale-faced
cliffs of Albion. It was in a morning early in autumn, and before the
Britons had gathered in their corn-harvest, when the Roman general
first reached the British shore; nor can we, from the force which
accompanied him, suppose that he was at all surprised to see the white
cliffs of Dover covered with armed men ready to oppose his landing.
But he was too wary a commander to attempt this in so unfavourable a
spot, and in the face of such a force, and therefore resolved to lie
by, until past the hour of noon, and await the arrival of the remainder
of his fleet; for beside the force which we have already enumerated,
there were eighteen transports in which his cavalry were embarked,
but these were not destined to take a share in his first victory; so
finding both wind and tide in his favour, he, without their aid, sailed
six or seven miles further down the coast, until he reached the low
and open shore which stretches between Walmer Castle and Sandwich.
This manoeuvre, however, was not lost upon the Britons, for as he
measured his way over the sea, so did they keep pace with him upon the
land, and when he reached the spot which was so soon to be the scene
of slaughter, he found the island-army drawn up ready to receive him,
with their cavalry and war-chariots placed in the order of battle,
while many a half-naked and hardy soldier stood knee-deep amongst the
breakers, which beat upon the beach, with pointed javelin, and massy
club, and rough-hewn war-hatchet, eager to oppose his landing;--the
proud Roman himself confesses that they presented a bold front, and
made a brave defence. Superior military skill, and long-practised
discipline, together with the formidable war-engines which he brought
over in his galleys, and from which showers of missiles were projected
that spread death and consternation around, were too much for the
Britons, few of whom, except such as had fought in the ranks of the
Gauls on the opposite shore, had ever before looked upon such terrible
instruments of destruction; and under cover of these, after a short
contest, the Roman general managed to disembark two of his legions.
But for this mode of warfare, and those dreadful engines opening so
suddenly upon them, Cæsar would probably never have been able to land
his forces; for we may readily imagine that, unaccustomed as they
were to such a mode of attack, the consternation that it spread could
scarcely be exceeded by a first-class line-of-battle ship pouring in a
broadside amongst the startled savages of the South Sea Islands, whose
shores had never before echoed back the thunder of a cannon. Although
Cæsar himself states that for a time the Roman soldiers were reluctant
to leave their ships, owing to the extent of water which flowed between
them and the shore, still there is but little doubt that the fearless
front presented by the Britons, as they stood knee-deep among the
waves, in spite of the missiles which were sent forth in showers from
the Roman galleys, somewhat appalled their highly disciplined invaders.
Cæsar has left it on record that his soldiers hesitated to land, until
one of his standard-bearers, belonging to the tenth legion, sprang
from the side of the galley into the sea, and waving the ensign over
his head, exclaimed, "Follow me, my fellow-soldiers! unless you will
give up your eagle to the enemy. I, at least, will do my duty to the
republic and to our general." It was then, roused by the example of
the courageous standard-bearer, that the Roman soldiers quitted their
ships, and the combatants met hand to hand.
Although upon that ancient battle-ground have the winds and waves for
nearly two thousand years beaten, and scarcely a name is left of those
who fought, and fell, and dyed the stormy sea-beach with their blood;
still, as we gaze down the dim vista of years, the mind's eye again
catches glimpses of the unknown combatants--of the warm autumn sunshine
falling upon those white and distant cliffs--of the high-decked Roman
galleys rising above the ever-moving waves, and we seem to hear the
deep voice of the Roman general rising beyond the murmur of the ocean;
we see the gilded eagle rocking and swaying over the contending ranks,
as they are driven forward or repulsed, just as the tide of battle ebbs
and flows; and ever upon the beaten beach where the waves come and go,
they wash over some mangled and prostrate form, throwing up here a
helmet and there a shield, while figures of the mailed Roman, and the
half-naked Briton, lie dead and bleeding side by side, their deep sleep
unbroken by the shout, and tramp, and tumult of war. The javelin with
its leathern thong lies useless beside the bare brawny arm that could
hurl it to within an inch of its mark, then recover it again without
stepping from out the ranged rank; the dreaded spear lies broken, and
the sharp head trodden deep into the sand by a Roman footstep. Higher
up the beach, we hear the thunder of the scythe-wheeled war-chariots
of the Britons, and catch glimpses of the glittering and outstretched
blades, as they sparkle along in their swift career like a silvery
meteor, and all we can trace of their course is the zig-zag pathway
streaked with blood. Faint, and afar off, we hear the voices of the
bearded druids hymning their war-chaunt, somewhere beyond the tall
summits of the bald-faced cliffs. Anon, the roar of battle becomes more
indistinct--slowly and reluctantly the Britons retreat,--the Roman
soldiers pursue them not, but fall back again upon their galleys,
and we hear only a few groans, and the lapping of the waves upon the
sea-shore. And such might have been a brief summary of that combat,
interspersed here and there with the daring deeds of warriors whose
names will never be known; and then the eye of the imagination closes
upon the scene, and all again is enveloped in the deep darkness of
nearly two thousand years.
As the Roman cavalry had not yet arrived, Cæsar was prevented from
following up the advantage he had gained over the Britons, and marching
to where they were encamped, a little way within the island. The
natives, however, doubtless to gain time, and better prepare themselves
for a second attack, sent messengers to the Roman general, who were
deputed to offer hostages as a guarantee of their submission to the
Roman arms. They also liberated Comius, whom he had sent over with
offers of alliance; and after a sharp rebuke, in which the Roman
invader no doubt attempted to show how wrong it was on their part
to attempt to oppose his landing and seizing upon their island, he
forgave them, on condition that they would send him a given number
of hostages, and allow him, without interference, to act as he chose
for the future. Such, in spirit, were the terms on which the haughty
conqueror dismissed the British chiefs, who probably returned with
the determination of breaking them whenever an opportunity presented
itself. A few hostages were, however, delivered, and several of the
British leaders presented themselves before Cæsar, perhaps as covert
spies, although they came with avowed offers of allegiance, smarting as
they were under their recent defeat.
The Roman general was not destined to accomplish his conquest without
meeting with some disasters. The vessels which contained his cavalry,
and were unable to accompany the first portion of his fleet, were again
doomed to be driven back by a tempest upon the coast of Gaul, even
after they had approached so near the British shore as to be within
view of Cæsar's encampment. The fatal night that saw his cavalry dashed
back upon the opposite coast, also witnessed the destruction of several
of his galleys, which were drawn up on the beach behind his encampment;
while those that were lying at anchor in the distant roadstead were
either wrecked or cast upon the shore, and so battered by the winds
and waves as to be wholly unfit for sea-service; for a high tide
seemed to have rushed over his galleys; and this, together with the
storm, scarcely left him in the possession of a vessel in which he
could put out to sea with his troops. Without either provisions to
feed his soldiers, or materials to repair his shattered ships, and
his whole camp deeply dispirited by these unforeseen calamities, the
Roman general found himself, at the close of autumn, on a stormy
and unfriendly coast, and in possession of but little more of the
island than the barren beach on which he had won his hitherto useless
victory. The Britons were not long before they discovered the full
extent of these disasters; frequent visits to the Roman encampment
had also made them better acquainted with the number of the troops;
and as they had already measured their strength against the Roman
arms, and the Roman weapons had doubtless lost much of their former
terror in their eyes, they began to make preparations for sweeping
off the whole force of the invading army, for they clearly saw that
it was without either provisions, cavalry, or ships; and though they
commenced their work cautiously, they made sure of obtaining an easy
victory, and such as they thought would intimidate the hearts of all
future invaders. Cæsar was too wary a general not to see through
their designs, for he perceived that the visits of the chiefs to his
encampment were less frequent than formerly; that they were also slow
in sending in the hostages they had promised to give up; so, Roman-like
he determined to arm himself against the worst. He ordered some of
his troops to repair such ships as were sea-worthy, out of the wreck
of those which were useless; these, when ready, he sent over to Gaul
for stores; others of his soldiers he sent out to scour the country
in search of provisions, and to gather in whatever corn they could
find, which must have been very trifling, as he states that, except
in one field, all beside in the neighbourhood had been harvested. In
this field, which stood at a short distance from one of those old
primeval forests which everywhere abounded in the island, one of his
legions were busily engaged gathering in corn, when they were suddenly
attacked by the armed islanders, who rushed out of their hiding-places
from the neighbouring thicket. Fortunately for the Roman soldiers,
this chanced to be no great distance from their encampment; and as
the ever-watchful eye of Cæsar was open while he stood looking out
from his strong fortifications, he saw a huge cloud of dust rising
in the air in the direction of the distant corn-field, and sallying
out of the encampment, at the head of two of his cohorts, he bade the
remainder of the legion follow him with the utmost speed, and rushed
off to the rescue of his soldiers. A few more minutes and he would
have arrived too late to save any of them, for he found his legion,
which had already suffered considerable loss, hemmed in on every side
by the cavalry and war-chariots of the Britons; and he had no sooner
succeeded in withdrawing his engaged forces from the corn-field,
than he hurried back to his strong entrenchments, the brave islanders
having compelled him to make a hasty retreat. Several days of heavy
rain followed, during which the Roman general confined his soldiers
to the camp. But the hardy Britons were not to be deterred by the
elements from following up the slight advantage which they had gained;
so mustering a strong force of both horse and foot, they drew up and
surrounded the Roman entrenchments. Cæsar was too brave to sit quietly
down and be bearded in his own stronghold by an army of barbarians; so
watching a favourable moment, he marshalled forth his mailed legions,
which were by this time strengthened by a small body of cavalry that
had returned with Comius from Gaul; and with these he fell upon the
Britons and dispersed them with great slaughter, also pursuing them
into the country, and setting fire to many of their huts, before he
again returned to his encampment. The Britons, as before, sued for
peace, which Cæsar readily granted, as he was anxious to return to Gaul
with his leaky ships and wearied troops; nor did he wait to receive the
offered hostages, but with the first fair wind set sail, having gained
but little more than hard blows by this his first invasion.
[Illustration: _Combat between the Romans and Britons._]
The warm spring days which brought back the swallow from over the sea,
saw the Roman galleys again riding on the sunny waves that broke upon
our rock-girt coast. From the surrounding heights and smooth slopes
which dipped gently down into the sea, the assembled Britons beheld
eight hundred vessels of various sizes hastening shoreward from the
opening ocean. Amid waving crests and glittering coats of mail, and
Roman eagles blazing like gold in the distance, and long javelins whose
points shone like silver in the sunlight, as they rose high above the
decks of the galleys, they came rolling along like a moving forest of
spears, swayed aside for a moment as some restive war-steed, impatient
to plant his sharp hoof upon the earth, jerked his haughty neck, and
shook out his long dark mane upon the refreshing breeze, while his
shrill neigh came ringing upon the beach above the hoarse murmur of the
breakers, which rolled at the feet of the terrified Britons. On those
decks were above thirty thousand Roman soldiers assembled, headed again
by Julius Cæsar, and now strengthened by two thousand cavalry. It is
said that the excuse offered by the Roman general for this his second
invasion, was, that hostages had not been sent in according to treaty,
though the truth beyond doubt is, that his ambition was dissatisfied
with the hasty retreat he was compelled to make; his pride mortified at
the bold front the islanders had presented, for he must have felt, in
his hurried departure to Gaul, that he bore back but little to entitle
him to the much-coveted name of Conqueror, a name which his wars with
the Britons never won him, for even Tacitus deigned to honour him
with little more than the title of Discoverer, after all his exploits
in our island had terminated. Unlike his former reception, he this
time landed without having to strike a blow, for the sight of such an
armed host struck terror into the hearts of the natives, and they fled
in the direction of the Stour, or near to that neighbourhood where
Canterbury now stands. A proof how earnestly Cæsar commenced his second
campaign in the island, and how resolved he was to bring the war to
a speedy end, is found, in his setting out at midnight to pursue the
Britons, scarcely leaving a sixth part of his army behind, to protect
his shipping and encampment. Perchance, the haughty Roman had boasted
how soon he would bring over a few of the barbaric chiefs for his
friends, and add to their stock of foreign curiosities a few dozens
of war-chariots, and had laughed amongst his officers at the joke of
their being picked up by some island warrior, and carried off in his
scythe-armed car by a couple of swift-footed steeds. He frequently
wrote to Rome, and perhaps occasionally boasted in his epistles, what
speedy work he would make of the conquest of Britain. Be this as it
may, there is proof in the strength of the force which he this time
landed, that he already began to appreciate aright the brave blood that
flowed through those ancient British veins.
In the still depth of midnight did the measured tramp of Roman infantry
ring upon the silence, as they strode inland towards the heart of Kent,
and beside those old forests and reedy morasses was the heavy tread of
Cæsar's cavalry heard; the rattle of their mail, and the jingling of
their harness, broken by the short answers of the scouts as they rode
hastily in and out, announcing a clear course, or with low obeisance
receiving the commands of the general. We may picture some poor peasant
startled from his sleep by that armed throng, dragged out of his
wattled hut by the side of the wild forest, and rudely handled by the
Roman soldiers, because he either refused to tell, or was ignorant of
the position his countrymen had taken up. We may picture the herdsman
hurrying his flocks into the forest fastnesses as he heard that solemn
and distant tramp coming like subdued thunder upon the night-breeze, so
unlike the wild shoutings and mingled rolling of his own war-chariots,
amid which the voices of women and children were ever mingled; so
solemn, deep, and orderly would march along those well-disciplined
Roman troops, contrasted with the irregular movements of the Britons.
Cæsar reached the reedy margin of a river in the cold grey dawn of a
spring morning; and as the misty vapour cleared up from the face of
the water, he beheld the hardy islanders drawn up on the rising ground
beyond the opposite bank, ready to dispute the passage if he ventured
across. The charge was sounded, and at the first blast of the Roman
trumpets the cavalry dashed into the river, and the well-tempered steel
blades of the invaders soon began to hew a path through the opposing
ranks, for almost at the first stroke the swords of the Britons, which
were made of tin and copper, bent, and became useless, while those
wielded by their assailants were double-edged, and left a gash every
time they descended. The horses broke through the British infantry,
as if they had been but a reed fence; and as their cavalry was the
heaviest, they met in full career the rush of the island war-chariots,
plunged their long javelins into the chests of the horses, and received
the shock of the British cavalry on the points of their highly-tempered
and strong-shafted spears. The whole affray seemed more like a skirmish
than a regular engagement, as if the war-chariots and cavalry of the
Britons were only employed to check the advance of the Roman columns,
while the remainder of their force retreated to a strong fortification,
which stood at some distance in the woods, and which was barricaded by
felled trees, fastened together and piled one above another; thither
the remainder of the army also fled, leaving the Romans to follow
after they had regained the order of march, and sent back to their
camp those who were wounded in the skirmish on the river bank. These
marches through wild, uncultivated forests were very harassing to
the heavy-armed Roman legions, who made but slow progress compared
to the light-footed troops of the Britons, for they were inured to
this woodland warfare, and as familiar with the forest passes as the
antlered deer.
Pursuit was again the order of the day; the stronghold in the forest
was carried by the Romans, and amongst the legions which distinguished
themselves in the contest, was the one who, but for the timely
arrival of Cæsar, would probably have left their bones to whiten
in the harvest-field, from which they had had so narrow an escape
in the preceding autumn. Another evening darkened over the forest,
under cover of which the Britons again retreated further inland,
without being pursued; for the Roman general seemed to have a dread
of those gloomy old woods, through which the paths, even in the open
noon-day, were rugged, uncertain, and difficult, and were as likely
to lead towards some bog, lake, or dangerous morass, as to any of the
British fortifications; the Roman soldiers were therefore employed in
throwing up intrenchments, and strengthening their position in case
of a surprise. It came, but not until morning, and instead of the
Britons, was brought by a party of Roman horsemen from the camp; the
galleys were again driven upon the shore by the waves, and many of them
wrecked; the angry ocean had once more risen up against the fortunes
of Cæsar. These unwelcome tidings arrived just as he had given the
order to advance; a few minutes more, and he would have been off in
full pursuit after the Britons; the unexplored forest stretched before
him; his eagles glittered in the morning sunshine; the trumpets had
sounded the march, when the order was given to halt, and above twenty
thousand armed Romans were compelled to return at the bidding of the
waves. The mound they had thrown up was deserted; the river, which
had but a few hours before been reddened by the blood of many a brave
warrior, was repassed without opposition; and both cavalry and infantry
now commenced a rapid retreat in the direction of the Roman encampment.
When Cæsar reached the sea-shore, he beheld a sight discouraging enough
to blanch even a Roman cheek; many of his finest galleys had become
total wrecks; others it seemed almost impossible to repair; the few
that were saved he despatched at once to Gaul for assistance, set
every hand that could use a saw, axe, or mallet, immediately to work,
and instead of sitting down and bemoaning his ill-fortune, he, like
a brave-hearted Roman as he was, began to make up for his loss, and
gave orders for building several new ships. Added to this, he had the
remainder drawn on shore, and ran up a barrier to protect them from the
ravages of the ocean, thus including a dry-dock within his fortified
encampment. All these preparations necessarily consumed some time,
during which the islanders remained undisturbed.
Returning to the Britons, who had not been idle during this brief
interval, we find their army greatly increased, and a renowned prince,
named Cassivellaunus, placed as commander at the head of the states,
they wisely judging that one who had so signalized himself in his
wars with the neighbouring tribes, was best fitted to lead them on,
now that they were banded together for mutual protection against the
Romans. Nobly did the barbaric chief acquit himself; he waited not to
be attacked; but having selected his own battle-ground, charged upon
the Roman cavalry at once, with his horsemen and war-chariots. Although
Cæsar did at last gain a slight victory, and, as he himself says,
drove the Britons into the woods, and lost several of his soldiers
through venturing too far, still it does not appear that he obtained
the day, for the Britons already began to find the advantages they
obtained through occasional retreats, which enabled them to draw the
enemy either nearer to, or into the woods--a stratagem which in this
skirmish they availed themselves of; for while the Romans were busy, as
was their custom, in protecting their camp for the night, by throwing
up ramparts and digging trenches around it, the Britons sallied out
from another opening in the wood, and slaughtered the outer guard. The
Roman general ordered two cohorts to advance to the rescue; they were
also repulsed, and a tribune was slain; fresh troops were summoned into
action, and the Britons betook themselves to their old leafy coverts
with but very little loss. On this occasion, the Roman general was
compelled to acknowledge, that his heavy-armed soldiers were no match
for an enemy who only retreated one moment to advance with greater
force the next, and would, whenever an opportunity presented itself,
dismount from their horses, or leap out of their chariots, and renew
the battle on foot, and that, too, on the very edge of some dangerous
bog, where an armed horseman was sure to founder if he but made a leap
beyond the boundary line with which they were so familiar. Another
day, a disastrous one for the Britons, and the battle was renewed,
and they, as before, commenced the attack, waiting, however, until
the Roman general had sent out a great portion of his cavalry and
infantry to forage--a body amounting to more than half his army, no
mean acknowledgment of the estimation in which the island force was
held, while it required from ten to fifteen thousand men to collect
the supplies he needed for one day; a tolerable proof that he had
not forgotten the all but fatal skirmish in the corn-field when he
first landed. Emboldened by their success on the previous day, the
Britons this time charged up to the solid body of the Roman legions,
rushing fearlessly against the wall which their well-disciplined ranks
presented, a firm phalanx, that had withstood the shock of the bravest
armies in Europe without being broken--an array strengthened every
moment by the return of the foragers. One solid, impenetrable mass now
bore down, like a mighty avalanche, upon the congregated Britons; a
vast sea of spears, and shields, and swords, all heaving onward without
resistance, Cæsar heralding the way, like the God of the storm, the
armed cavalry thundering onward like the foremost wave, until the
whole mass struck upon the iron stems of the gnarled oaks, which stood
at the edge of the forest, then rolled back again into the plain,
leaving a ridgy line of wounded and dead to mark their destructive
course. It was the first open shore on which the full tide of the Roman
arms had flowed on the islanders. The waves had many a time before
gathered together and broken, but here the full surge of battle swept
uninterrupted upon the beach. Although the sun still sets over that
great grave-yard of the dead, not a monument remains to tell of its
"whereabout," or point out the spot where many a brave soldier looked
round and took his rest.
Through Kent, and along the valley which stretches at the foot of
the Surrey hills, did Cæsar pursue the shattered army of the British
prince, his march probably extending over that level line of beautiful
meadow-land on which the old palace of Eltham still stands, along the
wooded neighbourhood of Penge and Sydenham, and out at the foot of the
Norwood hills, to where, far beyond, the Thames still glitters like a
belt of silver as it goes winding round near Chertsey. Here the British
leader had rallied; on the opposite bank stood his forces, and in the
bed of the river he had caused pointed stakes to be planted, to prevent
his pursuers from crossing the ford. These were but slight obstacles
in the path of Cæsar; he ordered his cavalry to advance, commanded the
infantry to follow at their heels, or at their sides, as they best
could; and so they passed, some grasping the manes of the war-horses
with one hand to steady their steps in the current, while with the
other they held the double-edged sword, ready to hew or thrust, the
moment they came within arm's length of the enemy. Cassivellaunus
was once more compelled to retreat, though never so far but that he
was always in readiness to fall upon any detached cohorts, and with
his five thousand war-chariots to hang upon and harass any party of
foragers: Cæsar was at last compelled to send out his legions to
protect the horsemen while they gathered in provisions. Even then the
island prince drove and carried off all the cattle and corn which was
pastured or garnered in the neighbourhood of the Roman encampment. The
invaders were never safe except when within their own entrenchments;
for they had now to deal with an enemy who had grown too wary to trust
himself again in the open field, but contented himself by harassing and
hanging upon the detached masses which he could waylay. He was well
acquainted with all the secret passes and intricate roads, and kept
the Roman guards in a continual state of alarm; and when it was not
safe to attack them, the Britons would at times suddenly assemble at
the outskirts of the woods, and shaking their javelins, to the foot of
which a hollow ball of copper, containing lumps of metal or pebbles,
was affixed, commence such a sudden thundering and shouting as startled
the horses, and caused them to run affrighted in every direction; they
then seized upon the forage, and ere the heavy legions could overtake
them, they were off at full speed far away in the forest passes, along
paths known only to themselves. Such a system of warfare was new
even to Cæsar, and as yet he had only gained the ground he encamped
upon--that which contained his army, for the time, was all he could
call his own.
But the Britons could not long remain true to themselves; petty
jealousies and long-stifled murmurs began at last to find vent; one
tribe after another came to the Roman camp; to all he made fair
promises, took their corn and their hostages, sowing no doubt the
seeds of dissension deeper amongst them at the same time, and getting
them also to inform him where the capital of their warlike chief was
situated, which secret they were base enough to betray; for many of
the petty princes envied the renown which Cassivellaunus had won by
his valour. Even Cæsar's narrative at this turn of events enlists our
sympathies on the side of the British general, and the handful of
brave followers who still remained true to their country's cause. His
capital, which is supposed to have stood on the site of St. Albans, and
which in those days was surrounded by deep woods and broad marshes, was
attacked; many were slain, some prisoners taken, and numbers of cattle
driven away; for the forest town of this courageous chief appears to
have been nothing more than a cluster of woodland huts surrounded by
a ditch, and strengthened by a rampart of mud and trees, a work which
the Roman legions would level to the earth in a brief space of time.
Though beaten and forced from his capital, the British prince retreated
upon another fortress further into the wood; from this he was also
driven. Still his great heart buoyed him up; and although defeated, he
determined to have another struggle for the liberty of his unworthy
country, and despatched messengers into Kent, bidding the Britons to
fall at once upon the Roman camp and fleet. Had the prince himself been
present, it is not improbable that this daring deed would have been
executed, for he was unequalled in falling upon the enemy, and carrying
his point by surprise: but he was not; and although the attack did
honour to the valour of the brave men of Kent, it failed. Many were
slain, and the Romans returned victorious to their camp. It wanted
but the genius who meditated so bold a stroke to have carried it into
effect; had he been there, Cæsar's eagles would never more have spread
out their golden wings beneath the triumphal arches of haughty Rome.
Fain would we here drop the curtain over the name of this ancient
British warrior, and leave him to sleep in the heart of his high-piled
barrow undisturbed. Alas! he was compelled to sue to the Roman general
for peace, who no doubt offered it him willingly, conscious that, had
he succeeded in his bold attempt upon the camp and fleet, the Roman
would have had to kneel for the same grant at the foot of the Briton.
Cæsar demanded hostages, got them, and hurried off to his ships, and
without leaving a Roman troop behind, hastened with all his force to
the coast of Gaul, and never again did he set foot upon our island
shore. Over the future career of Cassivellaunus the deep midnight of
oblivion has settled down; the waves of time have washed no further
record upon that vast shore which is strewn over with the wrecks of so
many mighty deeds; the assembled druids who chaunted his requiem, and
the Cymric or Celtic bard who in rude rhymes broke the forest echoes as
he recounted his exploits in battle, have all passed away; and but for
the pen of his Roman opponent we should never have known the bravery
of that British heart, which, nearly two thousand years ago, beat with
hopes and fears like our own.