g masters of the more
considerable part of it during the course of near four centuries.
[FN [p] See note [A] at the end of the volume. [q] Gildas. Bede,
lib. 1. cap. 12. Paul. Diacon. [r] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 12 [s] Ibid.]

[MN The Britons.]
The abject Britons. regarded this present of liberty as fatal to
them; and were in no condition to put in practice the prudent counsel
given them by the Romans to arm in their own defence. Unaccustomed
both to the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they
found themselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for
resisting the incursions of the barbarians. Gratian also and
Constantine, two Romans who had a little before assumed the purple in
Britain, had carried over to the continent the flower of the British
youth; and having perished in their unsuccessful attempts on the
imperial throne, had despoiled the island of those who, in this
desperate extremity, were best able to defend it. The Picts and
Scots, finding that the Romans had finally relinquished Britain, now
regarded the whole as their prey, and attacked the northern wall with
redoubled forces. The Britons already subdued by their own fears,
found the ramparts but a weak defence for them; and deserting their
station, left the country entirely open to the inroads of the
barbarous enemy. The invaders carried devastation and ruin along with
them; and exerted to the utmost their native ferocity, which was not
mitigated by the helpless condition and submissive behaviour of the
inhabitants [t]. The unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to
Rome, which had declared its resolution for ever to abandon them.
Aetius, the patrician, sustained at that time, by his valour and
magnanimity, the tottering ruins of the empire, and revived for a
moment, among the degenerate Romans, the spirit as well as discipline
of their ancestors. The British ambassador carried to him the letter
of their countrymen, which was inscribed, THE GROANS OF THE BRITONS.
The tenor of the epistle was suitable to its superscription. THE
BARBARIANS, say they, ON THE ONE HAND, CHASE US INTO THE SEA; THE SEA,
ON THE OTHER, THROWS US BACK UPON THE BARBARIANS; AND WE HAVE ONLY THE
HARD CHOICE LEFT US, OF PERISHING BY THE SWORD OR BY THE WAVES [u].
But Aetius, pressed by the arms of Attila, the most terrible enemy
that ever assailed the empire, had no leisure to attend to the
complaints of allies, whom generosity alone could induce h