military virtues.  Having been defended from the savages of the
north by the soldiers of Rome, the Britons were, when the legions
were recalled, unable to offer any effectual resistance to the
Saxons, who, coming under the guise of friendship, speedily became
their masters, imposing a yoke infinitely more burdensome than that
of Rome, and erasing almost every sign of the civilization that had
been engrafted upon them.  How far the British population disappeared
under the subsequent invasion and the still more oppressive yoke of
the Danes is uncertain; but as the invaders would naturally desire
to retain the people to cultivate the land for them, it is probable
that the great mass of the Britons were not exterminated.  It is
at any rate pleasant to believe that with the Saxon, Danish, and
Norman blood in our veins, there is still a large admixture of that
of the valiant warriors who fought so bravely against Caesar, and
who rose under Boadicea in a desperate effort to shake off the
oppressive rule of Rome. 

Yours truly, 

G.  A.  Henty