must know that it looked like a large goutte of blood dropped on lead; so crimson, and yet so dull did it appear); well, as I was saying, I saw at once that we should have a fearful tempest. I knew what the consequence of a tempest would be to the Roman ships, namely, that they would all be wrecked; and I guessed what would be the effect of this mischance to Suetonius, when the Emperor should hear of it, through your general's old enemy, the Procurator. I, therefore, naturally enough predicted his recal. Part of what I foresaw has been realized, for the wrecks of thy ships have indeed strewed our coast; and thou mayest depend upon it, as I before stated, that messengers have ere now been dispatched from Rome who will realize the remainder."

Pudens was much struck with the sagacity upon which this vaticination was based, and said,

"I wonder not, father, that your native land is filled with your fame; but I envy less your fame than your knowledge of futurity."

66

"Envy neither," replied the Arch Druid, "but least of all the latter, my son; for rash and foolish were that man, who would, even if he could, draw aside the veil which hides futurity.

Oh! if all the steeps and precipices of life; the wearisome deserts, and the dangerous mountains which we have to pass, were to burst on our view at once, how few would attempt the pilgrimage; or having attempted, would not gladly lay down their staff on the first opportunity! But, happily, our horizon is bounded. It recedes, indeed, as we advance, as though to urge us onward; but it hides all from our sight which it is not necessary for us to behold."

While they were thus conversing, two or three little twigs came fluttering down the tube, or funnel, before alluded to. The Arch Druid gathered them up, and putting them into a frame to decipher them, told Pudens that he had just had a summons to go and inspect the sacred bull which was to be sacrificed in the evening, and asked Pudens to accompany him; adding, with a smile:

"You see another use of this funnel, which is, that it enables me to receive communications of what is stirring abroad, in a manner which appears to the uninitiated almost superhuman. If, for instance, I am consulted respecting the distant operations of an enemy, I secretly dispatch my messenger to the top of the hill which overroofs this cave, and which

commands a very extensive prospect. Here is a small enclosure, in the centre of which is the termination of this tube, From this eminence my messenger reconnoitres the enemy, and makes me acquainted with the number and disposition of their forces, by throwing down this tube a symbolical leaf or twig,* such as that which I now hold in my hand, and the interpretation of which I have given thee. But, however, I must not neglect my summons, and perhaps thou wouldst like to accompany me."

So saying, he reached down a scroll from the shelf, and putting it in his bosom, led the way through two or three winding passages, and as many dark caverns, until they arrived at a landing place, which communicated by five or six steps with the entrance of the cave. This was an aperture of about four feet and a half square, with large stones on each side, and a rude arch on the top; and was so well con

* Reference seems to be made to this symbolical mode of conveying information by the bard Taliesin, who says

I am Taliesin,

Chief of the Bards of the West;
I am acquainted with every sprig
In the cave of the Arch Diviner.

Celtic Researches, p. 248.

cealed, that Pudens was utterly unable to find it on his return, though within a few yards of it.*

* Borlase, speaking of one of these caves, says, "This cave, or underground passage was so well concealed, that though I had been in it in the year 1738, yet, when I came again to examine it in the year 1752, I was a long while before I could find it.

CHAPTER VI.

Sometimes within my shades, in many an ancient wood,
Whose often twined tops great Phoebus' fires withstood,
The fearless British priest, under an aged oak,
Taking a milk-white bull, unstained with the yoke,
And with an axe of gold from that Jove's sacred tree
The mistletoe cut down; then with a bended knee
On th' unhewn altar laid, put to the hallowed fires,
And whilst in the sharp flame the trembling flesh expires,
As their strong fury moved (when all the rest adore)
Pronouncing their desires the sacrifice before,
Up to th' eternal Heavens their bloodied hands did rear,
And whilst the murmuring woods e'en shuddered as with fear,
Preach'd to the beardless youth the soul's immortal state,
To other bodies still how it should emigrate (D).

DRAYTON'S POLYOLBION, 9TH SONG.

As the Arch Druid and Pudens walked through the mazes of the sacred grove, which surrounded, and indeed covered the Arch Druid's cave, and the relics of which still retain the name of Grovely Wood, the old man told his son that the ceremony of gathering the mistletoe would take place in the evening, and that he would then have a fair opportunity of being