An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

THE GAEL,ENGLISH DEPARTMENT.LEGENDARY HISTORY OPTHE SCOTS.The last paper closed witli areference to the annihilation of thePicts. This is one of the thingswhich may well be classified amongthefables of history, and yet althoughthe chroniclers give two very diffei-entaccounts of it, there have beenmany recent historians who haveI'egarded it as a historical truth.The author of De Instructione Principumstates that the occasion ofOCXOBEI?,, ISrS.thisfearful tragedy was the jealousywhich the Scots had of the everincreasingand supei'ior power of thePicts. Finding themselves unable toovercome them on the battlefieldthey offer themselves as allies, hopingto do by treacherous means whatthey could not perform by the fairmeans of war. The Picts receivethe offer, and enter into a confederacywith them. During this alliancethey made war, in conjunction withthe Picts, on the Britons, who werethe inhabitants of the Roman province.So severe were these inroadsthat the Romans Avere forced tobuild two walls across from sea tosea. This was not sufficient torepress the warlike tribes of thenorth. They broke down the walls,penetrated as far as York, where theRoman Emperor Severus was slainin battle. Thus, according to thetoo long."After the Roman legionsleft their shores Vortigern, king ofthe Britons, invited the aid of theSaxons, a foreign tribe, against thecontinued attacks of the Picts andScots. The Saxons were, however,defeated at Lingaran, or Necktan'sMere, in Forfarshire; and by thisbattle the northern tribes vvere relievedfrom the tribute imposed bySeverus when he entered Caledoniawith his hostile armies. In thenext battle, which was fought atCampus Manan, theSaxons are victorious.After this they foughtvarious battles, until finally the Scots,under Hungus, utteriy defeated theSaxons. They now receive littletrouble from the armies bej-ond thewall of Hadrian. A new enemy,however, is found in the Scandinavianpirates who infested the shores ofBritain. These sons of Lochlan committedgreat ravages on the Picts,the Scots, and the Saxons, and itrequired the united armies of thethree to drive them to their coldhomes in the north. On their expubsion from the British shores, theScots, seeing they no longer requirethe aid of the powerful Picts, haverecourse to that strategy by which itis said they destroyed the Pictishnation. They invite the Pictishprinces to a banquet at the royalresidence. As they ai-e enjoyingthemselves with the good things ofchronicles, " they withstood in all the feast, and are pretty well intoxicated,the Scots, on opportunity beingthings the power of Julius Caesar andClaudius and Vespasius, Emperors of given, withdraw the props whichRome, who would have subjected us held up the floor of the room inas ihey did the Britons, and for to which they wei'e regaling. They areto tell all the process of this it were thus suddenly thrown into confusion,