THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE"
Br placing the scene of his tale in Britain, the author of The Count of the Saxon Shore has given novelty to a familiar subject. The last days of the Western Empire have often furnished sub- jects to writers of historical fiction, and quite recently they have received learned and brilliant treatment in Felix Dahn's novels of The Wanderings of the Peoples. But Dahn, and all his pre- decessors, place the scene of their tales in Southern Germany, in Gaul, or in Italy, and we are apt to forget that the Romanised Britons plumed through the same experiences as the other pro- vincials of the Empire, when they were abandoned by the Roman legions to the mercy of Saxon pirates and Pictish robbers. Professor Church has endeavoured to reproduce the British scene in the great drama at Portsmouth, on the Solent, and in the Isle of Wight. There is a good description of the departure of the Roman legions under the usurper Constantine, and of the despair of the deserted Celts, who, sorely against their will, had to make an experiment in Home-rule. A Roman officer who remained behind says to one of them,—" Why don't you defend yourselves ?" The Briton replies,—" You have not allowed us to do anything for ourselves, and how can we do it now at a few months' notice ?" This officer is the hero of the story,—Count Elias, a Roman of primitive virtue who resided in a villa on the Isle of Wight, and whose office was to defend that portion of the English coast known as Saxonicus limes against the attacks of Saxon pirates. Elias is devoted to the Emperor at Ravenna, and takes no part in the revolt of the legionaries. When Constantine leaves Britain to establish a short-lived dominion in Gaul and Spain, Elias remains behind to protect the scared population. His gallant struggle against panic and disorder is fully described ; and we are permitted to see the gradual dawning on his mind of the hopelessness of the task he had undertaken. The poet Claudian arrives in Britain, and Elias learns from him that his friend Stilicho, the defender of the Empire, had been murdered by the order of the Emperor. This deed of fatuous treachery gives a severe shock to the loyalty of the old soldier. He speaks of joining the Saxons, and listens to Claudian, who urges him to sail westward to the country of the blessed Hyperborean. In the end, Roman loyalty prevailed ; and he determined to obey the summons of Romaine, and to return to Italy.
Although Elias is the nominal hero, the most heroic personage in the story is not the Count, but a British maiden named Carna. In assigning the heroic rile to a weak girl, the author has shown a true insight into the spirit of the time. It was a time in which the courage of the strong failed ; but many of the weak, women and priests especially, displayed unexpected resources. Faith and imagination work miracles in seasons of despair ; and Carna possessed both. She was a British maiden of noble birth whom Elias had adopted ; and she plays a leading part throughout the story. Kidnapped by a Druid priest who hoped to propitiate the old gods by a human sacrifice, she is saved at the last moment by a Saxon captive, Cedric, who loves her, as she stands on the sacrificial stone in the circle of Stonehenge. When Elias determines to leave Britain, he takes it for granted that Came. will accompany him and his daughter to Italy ; but the maiden
• The Count of the Boon Shore ; or, the Pectin a Tale of the Departure of the Romans from Britain. By the Rev. Alfred J. Church, 51.6.; with the Collaboration of Beth Putman. Louden tools! and Co. 1%7. elects to remain in Britain, to minister to her suffering fellow- countrymen. We get a farewell glimpse of her in her old age, during the reign of King Arthur, when she is the leader of a company of holy women devoted to the service of the Church. Carna is, indeed, a character of unusual attractiveness. We have rarely met in fiction with a better example of that true feminine courage, inspired by faith and love, which lives on in times when courage and hope have died out in the hearts of strong men.
The Count of the Saxon Shore will be read by multitudes of young readers for the sake of the story, which abounds in moving adventures ; older readers will value it for its accurate pictures of the last days of Roman Britain. Very little is directly known of the closing scenes of Roman domination in Britain ; but Professor Church's wide and varied learning has enabled him to draw upon the history of analogous and contemporary events. The picture is as nearly historical as is possible in the circumstances. The incidents and surroundings always belong to the fifth century, but the sentiment appears to us to be some- times too modern. For example, Carna attempts to convert her lover Cedric to the Christian faith, and he replies that as God has sent his dead brother to hell because he never heard the Gospel, he prefers to go thither also. Carna thinks there is something in Cedric's objection ; and says to him sub- sequently :—" You told me some time since that you would sooner go into everlasting darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom you believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve ; and I have honoured you for it." We confess to a doubt whether the liberal theology would have found such an open-minded disciple in a devout British maiden of the fifth century. It is, however, more difficult for the historical novelist to avoid anachronisms of senti- ment than anachronisms of fact ; for the simple reason that the sentiment of former times is often unintelligible, and sometimes intolerable, to our own. We should hate the characters of a novelist who ventured to make them talk with unvarnished plainness the sentiments of our remote ancestors. A similar objection might be made to the prophecy of Carna, were it not that here the author is obviously using the privilege of the poet, and the passage itself is one that disarms criticism. While she utters it, Cams is looking down on the home of her youth, the villa in the Isle of Wight to which the Saxon pirates have set fire:— "It was a contrast fell of significance, and the girl, in whose pure and enthusiastic soul there seemed to be something of a prophetic power, caught some of its meaning. That ruined house was the past, the days of the Roman domination. It had had its uses, it had done its work, bat it had become corrupt and feeble, and it was passing away for ever. And the future was there, symbolised in the Saxon ships that, brightened by the sunshine, were speeding their way, instinct, as it seemed, with a vigorous and hopeful life, across the waters. That was the new power that wee to shake this worn-oat civilisation, and raise in the course of ages a fair fabric of its own. Courage, my friends,' she cried ; God bath not deserted us, nor our dear country. We have sinned much, and we shall have much to bear. But He has chosen this land for a great work, and He will make all things work together for good till He has accomplished it.' She was silent for a few moments. When she began to speak again, some mighty inspiration seemed to carry her beyond the present and out of herself. ' Yes,' she cried; ' God hath great things in store for this dear country of once. I see a great blackness of darkness. From many houses, great and fair, where the rulers of the land lived delicately, shall go up to heaven the smoke of a great burning, and the fields shall be untillod and desolate, and the rivers shall run red with blood. But beyond the darkness I see a light, and the light shines upon a land that is fair as the garden of the Lord ; and therein I behold great cities thronged with men, and in the midst of them stately houses of God, such as have never yet been built by skill of human hand. And the people that work and worship there are not of our race, nor yet wholly strange. For the Lord shall make to Himself a people from out of them that know Him not, even from the rovers of the sea; they that pull down His church shall build it again, and they shall carry His name to many lands, for the sea shall be covered with their ships ; and they shall nil° over the nations from the one end of heaven to the other.' "
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