196 THE BRIGANTES. 



earned the dangerous protection of Rome, by acts of perfidy 

 which preceded the betrayal of Caractacus. That generous 

 prince, so long the glory of his nation and the terror of the 

 legionaries, had fought his last fight; his wife and daughter 

 and brothers were captives to Ostorius. He had watched with 

 firmness till the last chance for courage was gone, but even then 

 he yielded not to despair. Retiring from the rugged camps on 

 the Malvern or the Breiddyn hills*, to ford or perhaps to swim 

 the Severn, in darkness, we follow in imagination the gallant 

 chief through the Cannock Forest and across the old Via De- 

 vana, to the foot of the Penine Hills, the southern frontier of 

 the Brigantes. Here, amidst the rough miners as yet untaxed 

 by Rome, or surrounded by warriors in the mysterious circle of 

 Arbelow, he may have found strong hands and resolute hearts 

 to strike again for liberty. 



The Druid haunts of Britain may have given him favourable 

 oracles ; he may have passed in exultation the four great stones 

 which marked the approach to Isu Brigantum, and have suppli- 

 cated the sovereign of the most powerful British nation for aid 

 against his country's foe (A.D. 51). This sovereign Cartismandua 

 was his own relation ; yet she delivered him bound to swell 

 the triumph of his victorious enemy, and gratify the respectful 

 admiration of Italy and Rome. The further history of this 

 false queen and infamous woman is twice and strongly pictured 

 in the pages of Tacitus. She was driven away by the insurgent 

 Britons, headed by the husband whom she had deserted. She 

 escaped by the aid of the soldiers of Didius; but Venutius, 

 skilled in war the worthy representative of Caractacus suc- 

 cessfully defended the state against the disordered power of 

 the empire (A.D. 51-57). 



From the statement of Tacitus we may gather that the Romans 

 had stationed a few cohorts in the territory of the Brigantes, as 



* In his work entitled ' Salopia Antiqua,' Mr. Hartshorne has investi- 

 gated in detail the retiring lines of defence adopted by the Silurian chief, 

 and supposes the final hattle to have been on the Breiddyn. 



