wn as "gorban." Subsequent researches have shown that acorns
and hazel-nuts, teeth of horses and hogs, also pottery and instruments
of the same character as those found in the cromlechs, exist among the
Vazon peat deposits. There is therefore abundant evidence that the
legends relating to the former inhabitants of the forest are based on
traditions resting on an historical foundation.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.--TRADITION

CHAPTER II.--SUPERSTITION

CHAPTER III.--DEVOTION

CHAPTER IV.--REVELATION

CHAPTER V.--AFFLICTION

CHAPTER VI.--CONSOLATION

CHAPTER VII.--ANNIHILATION

CHAPTER I.

TRADITION.

"What can he tell that treads thy shore?
No legend of thine olden time,
No theme on which the mind might soar
High as thine own in days of yore."

_The Giaour_.--BYRON

In the beginning of the eighth century Guernsey was a favoured spot.
Around, over the Continent and the British Isles, had swept successive
conquests with their grim train of sufferings for the conquered; but
these storm-clouds had not burst over the island. The shocks which
preceded the fall of the Roman Empire had not been felt, nor had the
throes which inaugurated the birth of Frankish rule in Gaul and Saxon
supremacy in Britain, disturbed the prevailing tranquillity. Occasional
descents of pirates, Northmen from Scandinavian homes or Southmen from
the Iberian peninsula, had hitherto had a beneficial effect by keeping
alive the martial spirit and the vigilance necessary for self-defence.
In the third century three Roman ships had been driven on shore and
lost; the legionaries who escaped had established themselves in the
island, having indeed for the moment no alternative. When their
commander succeeded in communicating with Gaul he suggested a permanent
occupation, being secretly influenced by tales of mineral wealth to
which he had lent an ear. Disillusioned and recalled, he was followed by
a sybarite, whose palate was tickled by banquets of fish of which he
wrote in raptures to his friends at Capri and Brindisi. This excellent
man, dying of apoplexy in his bath, was replaced by a rough soldier, who
lost no time in procuring the evacuation of a post where he saw with a
glance that troops were uselessly locked up. From this time nothing had
been heard of the Romans; their occupation had lasted forty years, and
in another forty the only physical traces of it remaining were