s like London and York, originally
military outposts, and transformed much of the country between the Channel
and the Tweed from pathless forest into a civilized residence.

III. COMING OF THE SAXONS.--Compelled by the increasing dangers and
troubles immediately around the city of Rome to abandon their distant
dependencies, the Roman legions evacuated Britain, and left the people,
who had become enervated, spiritless, and unaccustomed to the use of arms,
a prey to their fierce neighbors, both from Scotland and from the
continent.

The Saxons had already made frequent incursions into Britain, while rival
Roman chieftains were contesting for pre-eminence, and, as early as the
third century, had become so troublesome that the Roman emperors were
obliged to appoint a general to defend the eastern coast, known as _comes
litoris Saxonici_, or count of the Saxon shore.[1]

These Saxons, who had already tested the goodliness of the land, came when
the Romans departed, under the specious guise of protectors of the Britons
against the inroads of the Picts and Scots; but in reality to possess
themselves of the country. This was a true conquest of race--Teutons
overrunning Celts. They came first in reconnoitring bands; then in large
numbers, not simply to garrison, as the Romans had done, but to occupy
permanently. From the less attractive seats of Friesland and the basin of
the Weser, they came to establish themselves in a charming country,
already reclaimed from barbarism, to enslave or destroy the inhabitants,
and to introduce their language, religion, and social institutions. They
came as a confederated people of German race--Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and
Frisians;[2] but, as far as the results of their conquest are concerned,
there was entire unity among them.

The Celts, for a brief period protected by them from their fierce northern
neighbors, were soon enslaved and oppressed: those who resisted were
driven slowly to the Welsh mountains, or into Cornwall, or across the
Channel into French Brittany. Great numbers were destroyed. They left few
traces of their institutions and their language. Thus the Saxon was
established in its strength, and has since remained the strongest element
of English ethnography.

IV. DANISH INVASIONS.--But Saxon Britain was also to suffer from
continental incursions. The Scandinavians--inhabitants of Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark--impelled by the same spirit of piratical adventure which had
actu