who fought under the same
standard, were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of
rapine, and afterwards of government. A military confederation was
gradually moulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of
marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the
alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact were
not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to
abuse the credulity of our readers, by the description of the vessels
in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German
Ocean, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their
large flat-bottomed boats were framed of light timber, but the sides and
upper works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides.
[104] In the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must
always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the
misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were
undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which they sustained
on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates
braved the perils both of the sea and of the shore: their skill was
confirmed by the habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was
alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting
a vessel, and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which
concealed their design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. [105]
After they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces
of the West, they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most
sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon
boats drew so little water that they could easily proceed fourscore or
a hundred miles up the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable,
that they were transported on wagons from one river to another; and the
pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine, or of the Rhine, might
descend, with the rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean.
Under the reign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces of Gaul were
afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence
of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who found his
strength, or his abilities, unequal to the task, implored the assistance
of Severus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded
and outnumbered, were forced to relinquish th