The Arch-Druid : [SEPT. 



" Eternal Mars !" he exclaimed, " it is the Queen of the Silures ! It 

 is Cartismandua herself !" and he placed his hands upon his eyes to 

 shut out the horrid vision. 



" Yes, it is Cartismandua that wretch, whose life you have 

 rendered one long protracted curse. Mighty warrior ! where was your 

 sagacity, where your foresight, when you suffered her to pass so long 

 unnoticed ? Listen, while, thread by thread, I unwind the thick web 

 of wiles in which for months you have been tightly folded. Caradoc 



my husband Hah ! I see you have not yet forgotten that name. 



Too well you remember the foul, the degrading insults, to which you 

 subjected that free-born prince." 



" He was a rebel," retorted Sergius. 



" He was a patriot," interrupted Cartismandua : " but, rebel or 

 patriot, he is now amply avenged." She then proceeded as follows, in 

 a voice stern and commanding, but broken at intervals by an intense 

 spasmodic emotion, which she vainly strove to check : 



" On the evening of that day which saw my husband a slave, myself 

 an exile, I quitted your camp a lost, broken-hearted wretch. My 

 very soul seemed crushed out. I was fit only to be a slave even yours. 

 For four long months did this spell bow me to earth. For four long 

 months did I meanly sue for death, wandering a beggar through the 

 land where I had once reigned as queen. At last, one night, as I 

 lay alone on the bare crag, a vision passed before me. I stood in the 

 Roman camp, a second time a supplicant. You were there, encircled 

 as before by soldiers ; and as you spurned my prayer, you thrust me 

 with your foot from your presence, and added a term of stinging 



insult. Your praefects and centurions laughed, while I But my 



brain reels at the thought. With the torture of that moment, I awoke. 

 My blood was all fire my throat parched with ashes ! ' Shall the 

 tyrant triumph," I cried, ' while I pine here unrevenged ?' The free 

 winds repeated my words ; rock repeated it to rock ; mountain shouted 

 it aloud to mountain, from whose mysterious depths came up the solemn 

 reply REVENGE ! From that moment a change came over me. My 

 prostrate soul was uplifted ; the undying spirit of Vengeance absorbed 

 my every thought. For this alone I consented to endure existence. This was 

 the food the manna on which I throve. With the thirst for retribu- 

 tion came also the means of its accomplishment. Open violence, I knew, 

 would do nothing cunning alone could succeed. While ruminating 

 on my plans, Caradoc escaped from your clutches. We met ; but it 

 was the meeting of two joyless, dishonoured creatures, whose hearts 

 were tombs, in which all happy thoughts lay buried. From him I 

 learned the news of your recal to Rome. ' Now, then, or never,' I 

 said, ' must the blow be struck.' My plans were soon arranged. Cara- 

 doc who, disgusted with sovereignty, had assumed the rank of Arch- 

 Druid was to rouse his countrymen ; while I disguised as a patrician 

 ofNumidian descent was to insinuate myself into your presence." 



" Fool, fool !" interrupted Sergius, dashing his hand to his brow. 



Cartismandua proceeded. " You are surprised that in the youth 

 Manlius you could not recognize the Queen of the Silures. Alas ! 

 misery had done her work too well : disguise was superfluous. There 

 is no mask like that which care throws over the countenance. But 

 complete concealment alone could ensure success, and nothing was to 

 be left to chance. You will ask, why I did not at once revenge 



