se the splendor of your victory. Had I
surrendered myself in the beginning of the contest, neither my disgrace
nor your glory would have attracted the attention of the world, and my
fate would have been buried in general oblivion. I am now at your mercy;
but if my life be spared, I shall remain an eternal monument of your
clemency and moderation." The Emperor was affected with the British
hero's misfortunes and won by his address. He ordered him to be
unchained upon the spot, with the rest of the captives, and the first
use they made of their liberty was to go and prostrate themselves before
the empress Agrippina, who as some suppose had been an intercessor for
their freedom.

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued, and
this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which
military honor might still be acquired. The Britons made one expiring
effort to recover their liberty in the time of Nero, taking advantage of
the absence of Paulinus, the Roman general, who was employed in subduing
the isle of Anglesey. That small island, separated from Britain by a
narrow channel, still continued the chief seat of the Druidical
superstition, and constantly afforded a retreat to their defeated
forces. It was thought necessary therefore to subdue that place, in
order to extirpate a religion that disdained submission to foreign laws
or leaders; and Paulinus, the greatest general of his age, undertook the
task.

The Britons endeavored to obstruct his landing on that last retreat of
their superstitions and liberties, both by the force of their arms and
the terrors of their religion. The priests and islanders were drawn up
in order of battle upon the shore, to oppose his landing. The women,
dressed like Furies, with dishevelled hair, and torches in their hands,
poured forth the most terrible execrations. Such a sight at first
confounded the Romans and fixed them motionless on the spot; so that
they received the first assault without opposition. But Paulinus,
exhorting his troops to despise the menaces of an absurd superstition,
impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the
Druids in the same fires they had prepared for their captive enemies,
and destroyed all their consecrated groves and altars.

In the mean time the Britons, taking advantage of his absence, resolved,
by a general insurrection, to free themselves from that state of abject
servitude to which they were re