1830.] a Tale of the Ancient Britons. 287 



myself by your death. I had the strongest motives to restrain me. Had 

 I murdered you, my own destruction would have followed, and my 

 revenge been incomplete. By keeping always near your person, I was 

 sure of my victim, might perhaps mould him to my purposes, and daily 

 feast my eyes with the thoughts of a luxurious vengeance ! We 

 sailed for Rome. There I renewed my court connexions, and, 

 through the influence of Messalina, ensured the favour of Claudius. 

 By this means I was enabled to transmit intelligence to Caradoc. Now 

 came the crowning glory of my policy. Tyrant ! it was through 

 my influence with the empress that you obtained the command of 

 the Roman army ! To attain this grand point, I publicly re- 

 nounced my country, and swore allegiance to Rome, while in secret I 

 still kept up my communication with the Druids. You wonder at my 

 craft, my fiendish call it by what name you will subtlety. You 

 wonder that I could so long smile and fawn and flatter while re- 

 venge was rankling at my heart. Fool ! do you not know that the 

 deeper the passion, the softer is the voice, the smoother the counte- 

 nance ? Shallow streams brawl and sputter along their channels ; the 

 deep flood rolls on with scarce a murmur. All went on as I could have 

 desired. You were invited to attend the imperial banquet. There, 

 for the first time, our eyes met. But you, ideot that you were, had not 

 wit enough to fathom my mystery ! 



ff At length the day arrived for your departure. An augur who he 

 was I cannot even surmise pronounced your doom. It was probably 

 a random prediction, but I felt it was prophetic ; and, fearful of its 

 effects, hurried you at once on board. From that hour to the 

 present, I have been in constant communication with the Britons. Last 

 night only last night I met their chiefs by appointment in this very 

 spot, informed them of your approach, of the state and equipment of your 

 army, proposed that manoeuvre by which after being inactive through- 

 out the battle I led you to suppose that a second army was advancing 

 against you : and by my flight the time and mode of which were both 

 preconcerted achieved your downfall, and revenged my husband, 

 my country, and myself." 



As Cartismandua concluded, she drew herself up to her full height. 

 Her bosom heaved, her whole nature seemed to dilate with the exulting 

 idea of a full and bloody vengeance. But the effort was beyond her 

 strength. Suddenly her eye lost its fire, her voice its energy ; and 

 turning with a saddened glance to Sergius, she pointed towards the 

 mountains which they had both so lately passed. " There," she added, 

 and her heart seemed breaking as she spoke, " there, beyond that lofty 

 chain lies the plain of Carrick-Sawthy. There my doom was sealed in 

 this world. My husband a slave, degraded by the lash, and tortured 

 by the mockery of slaves myself an outcast, and left at liberty solely 

 from a haughty tyrant's contempt for my power was it for me thus 

 humbled, thus by one vile*blow struck down from the pedestal, to which 

 my pride as a queen, as a woman, as a Briton, as the daughter of one 

 prince, and the wife of another, had exalted itself was it for me, thus 

 trodden to earth, to presume to rise again ? Never ! Pride like mine 

 knows but one fall. It is no willow to rear its head when the blast has 

 blown over it. Wretch ! turn your eyes upon these haggard features. 

 Remember what I once was, see to what you have reduced me ! But 

 for you, I might have been a happy mother. But for you, I might 

 have given a long line of Princes to my country, have watched them 



