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on their hands and knees, and with difficulty ascending some of the huge masses which jutted forth in all directions: the grassy area, was therefore, a welcome rest, and they lay extended on the ground, listening to the rushing sound of a tumultuous torrent, and refreshed by the pleasant breeze of summer, when Codrius suddenly started up, exclaiming-" Methinks I hear the sound of voices, faint, yet audible: listen!" The soldiers held their breath, and inclined their heads towards the ground; they heard it likewise, and each one seizing his hatchet, proceeded to climb upwards with renewed vigour. The ascent became steeper, and more difficult, and was rendered perilous by the nature of the soil, which had changed its character,

and presented a surface of loose stones and slippery sand. At this point an immense mass jutted forth, and seemed to render the further progress of the men impracticable, till a daring youth, having caught hold of a projecting root, swung himself round by its aid, and discovered a flight of rough steps, which led apparently to the summit of the precipice. The utmost caution was required, yet the men boldly ventured, and holding firmly by the interlaced roots, gained the landing, and went silently up, one after the other, till they emerged on an open space.

That space was the retreat of the family of Caractacus. Unconscious of the danger that awaited them, they were sitting at the entrance of the cave which served as a temporary home, when suddenly an unwonted sound was heard, and Claudia on looking round, discovered that a company of armed men had effected an ascent. "Fear not," said the Roman general, our orders are peremptory; no discourtesy shall be offered to the family of the British chief: we come as friends, to lead you from this wild spot to the father and the husband, who expects his wife and daughter. Caractacus is unharmed; he has fought bravely, but

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in the camp of the Roman general Ostorius."

It was piteous to see an aged man and two defenceless women, with a few attendants, thus suddenly made prisioners; their hopes as suddenly dispelled, for they expected much from the military talent of Caractacus, and fondly trusted to await his coming back, in the spot to which he had conducted them.

fortune did not favour him, and he is now | spectator, hard must have been the heart of him who could look on them unmoved. An aged man was there, bent with years and the workings of his anxious mind; a matron, whose noble bearing, neither sorrow nor privation had impaired; a damsel, than whom a lovelier not Rome, with its patrician and haughty dames, might ever witness-whose every thought was directed to those who regarded her as their only earthly solace. It was strange to see the flashing of arms amid those good green woods, when a wandering sunbeam shone on shield and helmet, or when, emerging from their coverts, such polished panoply reflected the full beams of a noon-day sun. At length the company emerged on an open plain, and a messenger speedily summoned the soldiers, who awaited the return of their commander. These men brought with them the horses which Codrius had provided for his expected prisoners; and the mental view, glancing through a vista of long ages, sees the company pursuing their toilsome way through woods, and over stony wastes, where neither sights nor sounds of life enlivened the boundless solitude.

Claudia was silent for a moment, and then addressing the Roman general, besought from him permission to remain. "We have neither wealth," she said, "nor costly arms with which to propitiate your general, but we have grateful hearts; and clemency extended to his family will not pass unacknowledged by Caractacus. I plead not for myself," she added; "to share the fortunes of my father, whether as an exile or a prisoner, would be my highest wish, but I tremble for those aged and feeble ones, to whom the perils of a long and hazardous expedition may prove fatal. Permit us, therefore, to remain in this retreat, and to await the return of him whom we have long expected."

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"There is another," she said mournfully, for many remembrances of early childhood were associated with its wild strawberries, and clustering roses; and taking the arm of her aged grandfather, she assisted her mother to descend the rugged path, that wound, by a circuitous route, to the vale country. That path was one of surpassing beauty clear streams came dancing from among ferns and flowers, and formed small cascades, overarched by the mingled branches of sweet briers and honeysuckles; at one time high trees and rocky banks arose on either side; at another, a sudden opening disclosed magnificent views of hill, and rock, and wood, with a broad and ample river, that swept onward to the ocean. Down that declivity went the company of which we speak; and had the boundless solitudes afforded even a single

Day and night succeeded one the other, yet still went on that company, till having traversed the banks of a considerable river, they came unexpectedly upon a glen, surrounded with woods, in the centre of which appeared a native village. It was cheering, again to look upon human habitations; and Claudia, who was riding somewhat in advance, urged on her steed, hopeful to see, perchar.ce, some familiar face; for deputies from all parts of Britain had visited her father's court by turns. But terrible was the scene that would have met her gaze; instead of cheerful voices, and the bark of watchful dogs, a deep and melancholy silence reigned around; the village was deserted, and where but a short time before, flocks and herds had depastured on the plain, the whole was a vast and dreary solitude-nay more, the grass appeared as if trampled on, and a few paces further gave indications that unfriendly steps had visited that deserted glen. Codrius humanely prevented the onward progress of his prisoners; he well knew the place, and remembered, that when the light armed cohorts had orders to invest the woodsthe thickets being too close for the horses

to enter the men dismounted in search of passes, and having found an opening at the farthest extremity of the glen, the rest of the cavalry rushed in, and surprised the village. He remembered, too, the fierce conflict that ensued; the flourish of native trumpets, and the pouring in of a large body of armed men, who had been concealed in the deep recesses of the forest; that further, a complete victory having been gained, many remained unburied where they fell. Codrius, therefore, struck into a narrow path which led through woods, in an opposite direction, and, at the end of two hours' riding, came within sight of the Roman camp.

moderated either by religion or the observances of society: it was otherwise with our forefathers. Ilaff and Segetes, for such were their names, hurried impetuously in all directions; they rushed among the trees, they swam through raging torrents, they shouted till the mountains rang again: they came back to the deserted cave, and then set forth anew on their fruitless search. They listened, and fancied that sounds of human voices were on the gale; they returned in their eagerness and looked over the edge of the terrific precipice, that formed one side of the mountainous retreat.

Ilaff, youngest of the chiefs, even swung himself round the jutting rocks, by aid of the same projecting root by which the soldiers had ascended. Alas! the trodden condition of the herbage confirmed his worst suspicions.

Ostorius, with characteristic humanity, had prepared Caractacus for a probable interview with his family. "I have sent a trusty messenger," he said, "with tidings of your safety, an officer of undoubted honour; one "The merciless Romans," shouted he who respects misfortune, and whose compas- to his companions, "have been here; they sion to his prisoners after many a hard-earned have carried away the family of Caracvictory, has long been proved." Carac-tacus ;" and thus saying, he swung himself tacus remembered the almost inaccessible back, and sprang up the old stone steps. retreat to which he had conducted them, "Vengeance, vengeance!" he exclaimed, and consoled himself with thinking, that "not a moment must be lost; we have yet the rocks and woods of his native land a few brave men, who will risk their lives would prove sufficient bulwarks. He had to save them." Away then went the learned much from prisoners belonging chiefs, whose feet scarcely seemed to touch to different British states, concerning the the ground, while speeding down a narrow success of the Roman arms; and when pathway that led to their village. "Be up comparing the martial prowess of the and doing," shouted both the chiefs, troops by whom he was surrounded, with rouse yourselves like men, the family of the undisciplined, though desperate valour Caractacus are carried off!" There was of his countrymen, he desired rather to snatching of huge clubs, hardened by fire, obtain honourable terms for himself and and the throwing on of war-cloaks, the them, than to carry on a ruinous and ex-gathering up of spears, and the grasping of terminating warfare.

Such were his thoughts when, looking toward the woods, he observed several persons emerging from the trees, not bound together, as was usually the case with prisoners, but well mounted, and escorted by a company of soldiers. "Can it be !" he suddenly exclaimed; and the heart of the brave man beat tumultuously. A few moments more, and Caractacus embraced his family.

The annals of British history, though replete with mournful or tragic incidents, perchance reveals no scene more affecting than that of the brother chiefs to whom Caractacus confided the protection of his family, when they discovered their loss. Sudden emotions, among civilized men, are

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strongly-wattled shields! for Claudia had grown up among them. They remembered the fair child who used to run prattling beside her grandfather, and who, when she had attained to womanhood, taught the use of the distaff to their wives and children.

With that aptitude for discovering the faintest trace of either men or animals, which belongs to men in a state of nature, the chiefs, attended by some armed natives, went swiftly on, till halting for a few moments on the top of a considerable hill, they saw two weary men, slowly coming up the circuitous path that led to its summit. "What," said one of the chiefs, who well knew the men to whom he spoke,-"what news of our chief?" "A prisoner in the

Roman camp," answered Dinas. "His able terms with Rome, and to think no wife and family made captives; seven more of drawing upon themselves the British kingdoms subdued by arms or terrors of her vengeance.' gold. Already are preparations making for sending our countrymen to Rome, and not them only, for numerous captives taken in battle await the same fate. This shall not be," answered Ilaff, his eyes flashing with indignation. "Sooner than Caractacus and his family shall be thus ignominously treated, the last drop of blood in our veins shall be freely shed.”

The name of exile had hitherto been unknown in Britain-that miserable word, associated with bitter memories and hopeless anticipations. Caractacus bore that name, yet not alone; his family shared it with him, as also prisoners of different ranks and ages. One by one they mounted the deck of the Roman galley that was destined to convey them from their country. The day thus rendered memorable in after years was one of resplendent beauty : homeloving birds made vocal the woods and fields; tufts of rose-coloured thrifts preserved the aspect of vegetation among herbless sands; and the sea-lark soared and warbled high in air; not a breeze ruffled the mirror-like surface of the deep; the waves rolled in fine undulations towards the shore, and then subsided in gentle murmurs on the pebbly beach. During a few days the sails flapped indolently; but at length a favourable wind arose, and bore the vessel swiftly on her way. Caractacus and his daughter remained on deck, they could not withdraw their gaze from the beloved shores that were rapidly receding: the mother covered her eyes and wept in silence: aged Bran knelt, with folded hands, as if imploring the aid of some invisible being. Many of the prisoners uttered lamentations, at once unavailing and displeasing to those who guarded them, and blows would have enforced silence, had not Codrius commanded forbearance on the part of the guards. None, however, had any just reason for displeasure. The captives, undone and hopeless, were like men deprived of reason. The scene was new and strange, the motion of the ship bewildering, the green hills and woods, among which they had hitherto dwelt in peace, rose vividly before them, and had they not been restrained by the soldiers, several might, perhaps, have leapt overboard.

Dinas was a man advanced in years; and by long experience convinced as well of the clemency of the Romans, as of the terror of their name, he sought to subdue the impetuosity of his countrymen, by representing to them that any attempt to rescue would be attended with certain destruction. "You may attempt to batter a breach in the Roman palisades," said he, "with massy stones and clubs hardened by fire, or the trunks of trees serving as battering engines; you may throw hurdles and faggots prepared for the occasion-even the dead bodies of your comrades into the trenches, but the enemy will assuredly drive you back. I had a secret interview with Caractacus," continued Dinas, "or rather, as I suspect, the interview and subsequent escape was connived at by Codrius, from motives of policy. In that brief interview I was charged with a message to his countrymen. Tell them,' he said, that resistance is unavailing. I am covered with honourable scars, earned in hard-fought battles while young in years; and of late, no man has striven with more desperate valour to drive back the common enemy; but of this be certain: Britain is destined to become the vassal of Rome: internal discord, that worst of enemies, is among her chiefs, and many a traitor to his country has become such by Roman gold. True it is, that there are still brave men who ardently desire to save their native land; despair may give them courage; the lamentations of their wives and mothers may rouse them to deeds of valour, but what will At length the galley neared the coast of be the consequence? they must either die Gaul, and cast anchor, most probably off on the field of battle, or drag on a pre- Taruana, a town in the department of the carious existence among woods and moun- Straits of Calais, known by the modern tains. Leave, therefore, the Roman camp name of Terrouen. Travelling was not then, under cover of the night; one may escape as it is now, agreeable and expeditious, alone, when several cannot be equally long and weary was the distance that interfortunate. Charge them to make honour-vened between the port of Taruana and the

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Rhine; and though Tacitus has briefly mentioned the departure of the captives, and their arrival in the inperial city, it is evident that a branch of the three-streamed river required to be crossed, and a mountain pass to be entered and ascended, amid dark forests, and rushing torrents, and overarching rocks, whose summits were lost in the clouds. Modern travellers speak concerning the overpowering grandeur of alpine scenery-of narrow winding paths beside precipices of terrifying depth-of toil and danger even where experienced guides are conversant with the perils of the way what then must have been the anxiety and weariness of those concerning whom we speak-the wife and daughter of Caractacus especially, a queen and princess! and though in far-off days thoughts of ancestral palaces and wealth, of ease, and all that the refinements of modern arts supply, rested not on the name of queen and princess, as with us, homage to no small extent was theirs-exemption from toil and privations.

Italy soon spread like a beautiful panoramic view before them; her rivers glittering in the sun; her groves of olive, her vineyards loaded with ripe fruit, presented a bright.contrast to the gloom and terrors of the alpine range of mountains. And yet when they emerged from out those depths, and entered the thickly inhabited portions of the country, Claudia would have gladly shrank back to scenes which she had beheld with terror. The name of her illustrious father, as we previously remarked, had not been confined to his native land; men were eager to behold the chieftain who for such a length of time had made head against a great and powerful empire; and scarcely might the Roman soldiers, directed by Codrius, keep back the thronging crowds from greatly harassing their prisoners.

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tion with others. Sulphur, on the contrary, occurs abundantly, both in the free or native state, and in combination with various metals, forming compounds called Sulphides or Sulphurets. Native sulphur is sometimes found pure and isolated, and in the form of large, well defined, octohedral crystals; in this state it occurs in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. More frequently, however, it is mixed more or less intimately with earthy matters, as bituminous clay, limestone, and gypsum. Deposits of this nature are found in Sicily, Spain, Poland, and other countries; the Sicilian beds, however, are by far the richest, and yield nearly all the sulphur of commerce.

The separation of sulphur from the earthy matters with which it is mixed, is effected by very simple processes. When the proportion of sulphur is considerable, the mineral, broken into lumps, is heated in a large iron vessel till the sulphur melts. The earthy matters then sink to the bottom, and the liquid sulphur is scooped out with ladles, and poured into moulds of sheetiron, from which it is easily detached on cooling. The product thus obtained is called crude sulphur.

a

The poorer materials, together with the earthy residues of the operation just decribed, are subjected to a kind of distillation in earthen pots of the shape represented in Fig. 22. The materials are heated in the vessel a, so as to vaporize the sulphur, which then passes by the tube c into the vessel b, where it condenses in the liquid form, and is run off from time to time by the tube d, into a bucket filled with cold water. A great number of these pots are heated together in a long furnace, their mouths being closed with clay stoppers during the operation. The sulphur yielded by this process still contains from 10 to 15 per cent. of earthy matter, and is therefore classed as crude sulphur.

Fig. 22.

The processes just described are performed in the countries where the sulphur is found, and the crude sulphur which they yield is the article exported. To purify this product, it is strongly heated in a cast

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