tted these outrages
are not Goths nor Vandals, nor yet Saxons in revolt, but Romans, men of
our own blood, who should be of our religion. They it was who destroyed,
and incited the barbarians to greater excesses. Now I am come to you to
plead for help. We stand on the brink of great danger, and we are in no
position to help ourselves. It is to others that we must look. Where are
our troops? We have none, or next to none. Daily these barbarians
encroach upon us; our seas swarm with pirates, and we cannot resist."

Marcus Pomponius, the Count of the Saxon Shore, raised his head and
looked at him.

"You are right, but you have not told all,--not so much as the half of
it," he said. His voice was low and deep, and resonant as a trumpet.
"You, living here in the South, in Britannia Prima, can have no idea of
how things are in Maxima Caesariensis, in Flavia Caesariensis, or on the
Eastern Shore. One month ago, Constantine, my son, came from Deva. He
says that these provinces are no longer Roman, but Saxon, and that for
the most part without force or bloodshed. As for me and those who were
before me, year by year we have seen our power weakening, our troops
drawn off, cohort by cohort, until our ward of the Eastern Marches is
but an empty mockery. It is simply that, as we have retreated, Saxons
have advanced, inch by inch, until now they have gained a foothold from
which I believe no power that we may bring can dislodge them. They have
settled in our towns, mingled with us, married our women, obeyed our
laws--but they are here; and they are not of us, but alien, and they
will stay. I hold that this, the beginning of the end, began
twenty-seven years ago, when Fabian Procinus, the consul, abandoned
Eboracum and moved to the southern provinces with his forces. We can all
remember that day, I think. What happened? Saxons entered that deserted
city and established themselves there. When they became crowded, they
moved, not back to their northern fastnesses, but down to other cities
and towns of ours. And they are there still. The towns which we
destroyed, hoping thus to stay them, they rebuilt. It is true that for
the most part they have been peaceable and orderly; but it is also true
that when fresh bands have come upon us, these settled ones have sided
with them against us. This is where blood is spilled. They may be trying
to find peace for themselves, and a land to rest in, but slowly and
surely they are either absorbing us o