We are masters of little less than half the island. Severus, having undertaken to reduce the whole under his subjection, entered into Caledonia, where he had endless fatigues to sustain, forests to cut down, mountains to level, morasses to dry up, and bridges to build. He had no battle to fight, and saw no enemies in a body; instead of appearing, they exposed their flocks of sheep and oxen, with design to surprise our soldiers that should straggle from the army for the sake of plunder. The waters, too, extremely incommoded our troops, insomuch that some of our soldiers being able to march no farther, begged of their companions to kill them, that they might not fall alive into their enemies’ hands. In a word, Severus lost fifty thousand men there, and yet quitted not his enterprise. He went to the extremity of the island, where he observed very exactly the course of the sun in those parts, and the length of the days and nights both in summer and winter. He was carried all over the island in a close chair, by reason of his infirmities, and made a treaty with the inhabitants, by which he obliged them to relinquish part of their country to him. The peace thus purchased, by the cession of the northern portion of the island, was badly observed. The inhabitants having taken up arms, contrary to the faith of treaties, Severus commanded his soldiers to enter their country, and to put all they met to the sword. He is said to have signified his savage intention, by quoting, from Homer, the lines which Cowper thus translates: .... Die the race! May none escape us! neither he who flies, Nor even the infant in the mother’s womb Unconscious. [Sidenote: THE DEATH OF SEVERUS.] But in the midst of his enterprise he was taken off by a distemper, to which, it was said, Antoninus, by his undutiful conduct, had very much contributed. He died at York, Feb. 4th, A.D. 211. [Sidenote: THE RECORDS OF HIS VICTORIES.] [Illustration] The coins of Severus record his victories. One of them is represented beneath. On the obverse is the laureated head of the ferocious African—on the reverse are two winged victories, attaching a buckler to a palm tree, at the foot of which two captives mournfully sit. The legend, VICTORIAE BRITTANNICAE, declares who these captives are. Times are changed! wide as ocean rolls, the burden of Britannia’s song exultingly declares, 'Britons never will be slaves,'—and, better still, Britain has long been actively engaged in rescuing from chains the sable sons of that continent in which Severus first drew breath. Another curious record of the wars of Severus is found in the poems of Ossian. The CARACUL, son of the ‘King of the World,’ in the dramatic piece ‘Comala,’ is supposed to be Caracalla. DERSAGRENA. These are the signs of Fingal’s death. The King of shields is fallen! and CARACUL prevails.