Animated by these inspiring words, the recollection of their injuries, and the blood they had already shed, the Britons commenced the combat. The legion, with their eyes fixed upon their chief, waited the signal. It was given, and they advanced in a triangular battalion; the auxiliaries followed the impetuous movement, and the squadrons charged with their lances in rest. Nothing could resist that fearful shock. The immense multitude was put to flight, but the chariots containing their wives and children, who had followed to be spectators of their victory, barred the way. The victors spared neither women, children, nor animals. The carnage was fearful: 80,000 Britons remained dead upon the plain. Boadicea, the witness and victim of this sad defeat, kept the promise she had made, not to fall into the power of the Romans, but ended her life by poison. This victory re-established the reputation of the Roman arms; but it was not permitted to Suetonius to complete the task he had begun; he was shortly afterwards recalled to Rome, to answer charges brought against him by his enemies, and, although acquitted, he lost the favour of a prince in whose reign no man of celebrity was spared. In the reign of Vespasian, his general, Cerealis, reduced the Brigantes in the years A.D. 69 and 70, and his successor, Julius Frontinus, conquered the Silures. But it was reserved to another general to achieve the conquest of a proud and warlike nation, and to render it durable by the qualities of justice and moderation. The great man who gave this useful lesson to the world was Agricola, named governor of Britain in the year 78 of the Christian era. He had already visited the island, having served in the army as tribune under the command of Suetonius Paulinus, who esteemed and treated him as a friend. His first step was to repress the revolt of the Ordovices, whom he punished with rigour; he next renewed the attack on the island of Anglesea, which he took, owing to the courage of his German auxiliaries, who, not having vessels at their command, swam over the arm of the sea which divides it from Britain. In the following campaign he extended the limits of the Roman government to the Tay, leaving strong garrisons at all the important points. In his fourth campaign Agricola crossed the Forth to the southern frontier of Caledonia, or the Scottish Highlands, and erected, to repress the invasion of the warlike inhabitants, a line of fortifications between the Forth and the Clyde.