people. I sigh for the polished amusements, the delightful society, and the enchanting splendors of the imperial palace. When the gallant, the renowned Carausius visited the northern provinces, and kept his court at the gay city of Cataractonium,* my father, the king of Brigantium, permitted me, for the first time, to quit this dismal prisontower, in which have I from my birth been immured, and to appear with him in the crowded halls of the imperial conqueror. O, how my heart danced with rapture as I moved in the dazzling circle of gold-clad courtiers, amid the pomp of those never-to-be forgotten scenes, where all was strange and new, and delightful as strange !"

"Ah, well!" quoth Utha, "I sigh for none of the garishness and gaudy revellings of the proud stranger; though, had I been there, I should have attracted, without doubt, no trifling notice and attention. Give me our own brave hall, on a winter's evening, when the warriors, in their wolfskins, are jocund and gamesome over their mead-cups, while the bards chant the battle-songs of the good old times, and the young chiefs dance merrily with my lord's damsels; -I hate the vagaries and vain glory of those foreigners!"

"Ah, nurse! you should have witnessed, as I did, the boundless superiority of the Roman court to ours, and you would no longer rail against that wonderful and charming nation. There the beauties of the south, elegantly attired, move, speak, and look like divinities of other worlds! Possessing such accomplishments, such fascination, such refined sentiments, and such brilliant wit, as threw me into ecstasies!-not wholly without envy, I own, Utha, for I seemed among them as rude, ignorant, and unpolished as a mountain shepherdess."

"Shame, shame, so to wrong yourself, lady! born of the richest blood in Britain. I warrant me, you shone among them like a beautiful and graceful swan in the midst of a flock of crows. You, who are most skilful on the harp, well versed in the achievements of hawking and fishing; acquainted with the Roman tongue, not that I consider the

The city of Cataractonium, (Catarick,) however now reduced, was a noble city, and necessarily had a great mint for coinage of money for the use of the troops and their provisions, and for religious purposes, which was ever the Roman view in all their actions, as desirous of putting themselves under the divine protection. To Cataractonium our emperor came, to provide against the next year's expedition, where they struck this famous trijugate coin. MED. LIFE OF CARAUSIUS.

last an accomplishment;-and have not I instructed you in all the ancient legends and tales of your country, and made you, by example and precept, the most fragrant flower of maiden virtue and princely grace in these kingdoms! Talk no more to me, sweet child, of those Romans!"

Nay, good Utha, thou shouldst have seen and heard the chieftains of the Emperor's court-O, they were all bewitching enchantment! So elegant! so flattering!-and with such a manly sweetness did they address me, that my ears drank in the honied softness of their adulation like the most melodious music! If such, then, be the court of Carausius in this island, what must be the splendor and charms of the imperial court at Rome, the city of the world! O, it must be filled with gods and goddesses-a very heaven on earth!"

"Ah, silly child!" resumed Utha, "these foreign, varnished, white-faced flatterers, are but wicked wasps; they all have terrible stings: and we are sure to be sadly wounded if we taste too deeply of their poisonous honey."

"Thou standest not in this danger, surely, gentle

nurse!"

"I, indeed!—no, no; I defy all the pale-cheeked varlets in Rome, and their flattery to boot! I never could endure, when young, lovers of such unnatural complexions. Give me the man who is not afraid to show his limbs to the sun and the storm, and whose skin, like his woollen mantle, shines with the beautiful colours of the rainbow!"

"Yet, amidst all the pomp and gaieties of Cataractonium," continued the princess, "I could never forget, kind nurse, my dear, my own Dunalbion."

"O, for the love of all the gods!" exclaimed Utha, "do not name that terrible freebooter again! Forget him-cast him off-never, never, see him more! I take shame to myself for listening to thy weedling entreaties to allow of your private meetings in the forest, unknown to my lord the king. Oh, I shudder to think of him! my blood runs cold at the very sound of his name!"

"Art thou beside thyself?" cried Dalclutha. "See him no more! O, that he would come this very day to release me from my dungeon tower, where I mourn like a poor captive bird in the snare of the fowler! Reckless am I to what far distant land we flee, so I can but escape from hence. But, alas! he is the chief of a hostile tribe, who now dwell

beyond the rampart boundaries of Gal-Sever.* The legions of the emperor guard those mighty bulwarks, and their towers are filled with armed multitudes !-Perchance, then, I may indeed behold him no more!"

"Why, princess! Lady Dalclutha ! is it possible that you, who so much admire the luxurious manners and pomp of the Romans, can any longer love the fierce chief of that wild and ferocious horde of marauders, the Attacotti ?"

"Utha, no earthly power can quench this heart's immortal flame. Although the chief of a fierce tribe of rovers, my Dunalbion is of princely lineage, and possessed of all the noble heroism and refined acquirements of the proudest Roman. He once served in the imperial armies; but, injured by his haughty general, he returned to his brave though wandering nation, who received him with open arms, and proclaimed him their prince and leader. I know that he has vowed eternal hatred to the Romans, and those who fovour their dominion. His revenge has been terrible to his enemies; but the victorious arms of Carausius have, since his arrival in this island, driven all the northern tribes beyond the ancient bulwarks of the Romanized Britons. Thou knowest he suffered me to return ransomless and uninjured to my father, when I fell into the hands of some of his plundering bands, as I wandered at eventide on the banks of the Dune; but not till, by repeated declarations of the most devoted passion, he had won my heart to equal love. Nor art thou ignorant how I have ofttimes met him in the forest, where he dwelt alone, and companioned the wild beasts of the chase, to enjoy the happiness of our transient and blissful meeting. War called him from the forest, to join his tribe, and finding it vain to contend with the legions of Carausius, he retired with his followers beyond the towers of Severus. Why comes he not, with all his host, from the hills of the north, like the blast of the whirlwind, dashing down, with the strength of gathered multitudes, those embattled lines which divide us from each other's arms? The king, my father, is absent, and will not return from the south yet many days-why, Dunalbion! Dunalbion! linger so long thy chariot wheels to bear me hence? Why comes not their brazen clamour

The celebrated Roman south wall, built by Agricola, repaired with stone by Adrian, then by Severus, and also, according to Dr. Stukeley, by Carausius.

on the winds? Why hear I not the thunder of thy warshout around those hated walls?"

"Surely, lady," cried Utha, "you do not mean to fly with this terrific robber! you, whom I have taught by my example and precept to excel in all maidenly prudence, and formed after my own manners, as a pattern to all the king's daughters in the Roman empire! Why, your father, when he returns, in the first transports of his fury, would hack us all piecemeal! I quiver with terror at the thought!" "Should Dunalbion arrive, thou shalt accompany us in our flight. Once passed Gal-Sever's ramparts, we are

secure.

"I accompany you! I become a roamer with those dreadful bloody-minded savages!" cried Utha.

"Why, thou art a lover of our ancient manners, and delightest to behold the savage warrior dyed in rainbow tints. But fondly do I cherish the proud idea of softening and refining their barbarian customs, and, with the aid of my Dunalbion, making them as noble and polite a nation as the Romans themselves."

"O dearest princess," exclaimed the nurse, "on my knees I entreat, I implore you to entertain no such idle dreams, to think no more of that horrible chief! O, I have lately heard such dreadful things of the whole tribe! my soul quakes, and the hair of my head stands upright at the bare recollection!"

"Peace, slanderous tongue! My Dunalbion is in war fierce as the eagle, and dauntless as the lion; but in manners gentle as the fawn that licks the hand of those it loves. In form and mind he is like a goat, and his eye is brighter than the star that flashes through the evening clouds of the west. More stern is he than the mountain elk to his foes, but to his friends mild as the forest dove, when the soft toned music of her silver voice murmurs through the twilight bowers of summer. He is the chief of a brave tribe, who scorn all submission to a foreign yoke. He dwells beyond the Roman pale, and all within it are his enemies; his inroads on the Britons have on him drawn the hatred of those who have felt his vengeance, and dread his power, they have blackened his name with disgrace."

"Ah! mistaken princess! it is but too true which I have heard; he is"-"What? answer, I command!" interrupted Dalclutha,

4

"Oh, horrible! I dare not, cannot speak it!"

"I charge thee, tell me," said the princess. "Were he some dark and evil spirit, roaming o'er the earth to curse mankind, were his breath the purple plague to blast me, yet should I love him still,-and though his kiss were death, fly with joy to receive it from his lips! Speak, then, or thou wilt drive me mad!"

"Why he is—Oh, dear! sweet princess you will, in deed, go mad with horror, when I tell you-he is—Oh, mighty Tanarus, have mercy on me! I hear his horn! Í hear his fearful shout! his voice of thunder! He is here! he is here! what will become of us? I shall die at the very sight of him."

At that moment, clashing of swords, shouts and yells, rung through the chambers of the tower, and the tramp of armed men was heard ascending the mural stairs which led to the apartment of the princess.

*

*

*

*

*

In another moment Dunalbion was at the feet of the beautiful Dalclutha * The chief of the wandering brigands of the north, having sailed up the mighty Albus, with his ships, and landed his followers, took by surprise, in the absence of king Ardoc, the palace of Caer Conan; and having burnt the interior of the regal tower, and its hall of shields, retreated with the princess Dalclutha, her nurse, and a rich booty of many slaves as the dowry of his bride, to his ships, and embarking, put to sea with a prosperous gale. The emperor Carausius had no fleet at this time in the northern seas, all his galleys, being drawn to the shores of the south, and the port of Boloign, waiting to meet and encounter the expected navy of Constantius Chlorus, who was preparing to invade Britain, and wrest the sceptre of the west from the hand of Carausius, so that Dunalbion was in no danger of being captured by the galleys of his powerful enemy.

Proudly did the warrior's bark tilt aside the blue rolling waters, while its broad sails held friendly dalliance with the freshly-breathing winds, and proudly did that chieftain cast his dark-flashing eye, that beamed with passionate feeling, on his destined bride of beauty, as she stood on the galleydeck, delighted as a bird escaped from his wiry prison, when he flutters his wings in joy and liberty on the boughs of his native forest. As the vessel glided round the promontory of Ocelum, the sun was verging towards the horizon;